Every salon owner has dreams of more hair salon bookings with less effort. You might be doing excellent work, yet you find it challenging to attract customers. While the demand for hair salon services remains constant, attracting and retaining customers requires some additional effort. So, it’s important to come up with effective strategies like using a hair salon booking app, getting a popular influencer to promote your salon on social media, and more. These steps will help you get & keep customers, leading to long-term success and growth.
In this blog, we have put together a list of 10+ powerful ways that will fill up your appointment book and also help you build a loyal clientele base.
How Hair Salons Improve Their Appointment Bookings?
Increasing your hair salon bookings involves a combination of marketing strategies and providing a great customer salon experience. Here are 10+ ways to boost your hair salon bookings:
#1. Offer Online Appointment Booking
Hair salons spend hours manually managing appointments, but most people prefer booking online. If you’re caught in the cycle of manual booking, consider investing in a good hair salon booking app to simplify the appointment management process. This scheduling software also helps you track appointments, automate reminders, share promotions, and monetize spaces for product advertising. It will make your salon accessible on any device, anytime. Ensure your website includes links to redirect customers to your app.
Additionally, consider enabling direct bookings on your website and storing them in your database. Therefore, prioritizing a barber app is essential for hair salons to drive success and growth.
#2. Boost Your Salon’s Social Media Presence
Everyone is using social media to increase the benefits. So, you must work on your social media strategy to increase your followers. Having an active presence on YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, or Facebook enhances your SEO. Also, it attracts new customers online booking with social media.
The following are tips for social media success:
- Regular posting is key, as platform algorithms favor active profiles.
- Share high-quality photos that showcase the quality of your services.
- Consider starting with Instagram and going live.
- Utilize geo-tools by tagging your location or using it in a hashtag.
- Additionally, add your social media profile links on your website and salon app to kickstart effective social media marketing for hair salons.
#3. Hire a Salon Influencer
Using influencers to promote and advertise your hair salon services is an excellent strategy for enhancing digital marketing for salons. With a large following, they may reach thousands of people with just one post or video clip. Furthermore, having influencers support your services can make your brand more trustworthy in the eyes of customers. It is advisable to collaborate with micro-influencers who have a strong local following, as this is where your target customer base is situated.
#4. Build customer Loyalty and Encourage Referrals
Provide extra perks to your loyal customers to build a trustworthy relationship with them. You may start a referral program, where customers bring in new customers in return for discounts. Word of mouth is a very good marketing tool, so make use of it whenever you want. Also, you can offer your loyal customers a membership card. This helps them get special offers on special days, which makes them feel valued and makes them prefer to go only to that particular hair salon to avail of the services.
#5. Ensure you have a Google Business Profile
Not all your customers may use Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn, but many will likely use Google Search to find their local hairdresser. That’s why we encourage you to create a Google My Business listing. It lets you list your business with accurate information, and positive reviews to boost visibility in local searches. This will ensure that you’re the business people find when they’re looking for your service.
#6. Flexible Payment Options
Today, payment schemes have become standard for most large businesses. Hair salons may offer customers flexibility, especially if they haven’t been paid or if they’re making a substantial payment for a service. If feasible, why not establish your own financing options for higher-value services? We have observed salon professionals doing this for treatments like hair transplants and chemical treatments. This method may appeal to customers who are hesitant due to financial concerns. Also, it allows your customers to pay using various payment gateways, such as mobile wallets, credit or debit cards, cash, & more. This gives a greater sense of convenience to customers, and they are more likely to book appointments without even a thought.
#7. Have a Separate Waitlist
Another useful strategy to enhance bookings and ensure the hair salon is always fully booked is by maintaining a separate waitlist. If a customer cancels or reschedules their appointment, another customer on the waitlist gets the chance to avail of the service. The challenge is how the hair salon or the new customer will be notified if a booked appointment is canceled. In this situation, hair salon management software comes in handy for waitlist management. It sends a notification to the salon owner when a customer cancels their appointment, allowing another customer on the waitlist to fill the open slot. Thus, in this way, you can increase your bookings and make the overall customer experience better.
#8. Train Staff for Rebooking
Your most valuable hair salon customers are the ones you already have. It’s observed that the chances of making a sale to an existing customer are higher compared to new ones. Therefore, when aiming to boost hair salon bookings, focusing on increasing rebookings is a good starting point. The most appropriate time to secure a rebooking is either during or at the end of an ongoing appointment. Your stylist should be trained to discuss various factors that encourage rebooking, such as the timing of maintenance treatments.
For example, hair color typically requires refreshing every 5 weeks. A stylist can suggest booking the next appointment for 5 weeks from today to ensure proper maintenance. In some cases, the stylist may even be able to schedule appointments every 5 weeks for the entire upcoming year if the customer intends to maintain the hair color for that duration.
#9. Run Seasonal Promotions
Seasonal promotions are a great way to attract salon customers. You may offer special discounts on occasional events, but try to be smart about it. For example, giving a 40% discount on the second appointment can motivate customers to come back for more hair care services. This way, business owners can attract more customers who are looking for special services at certain times of the year.
#10. Host Interactive Workshops
Salon owners can host workshops or classes related to haircare or styling. In these workshops, customers gain knowledge of how they can care for their hair or style their smooth, silky hair. This not only adds value but also introduces your hair salon to potential customers.
#11. Mobile App
Another best method to encourage customers to schedule an appointment is to offer a salon mobile app, providing instant access to special offers, and their loyalty balance. Also, they may conveniently manage their booked appointments and make changes at any time and from anywhere! This app helps send reminder notifications via WhatsApp, text, or email to reduce the chances of no-shows and late appointment cancellations. The presence of a mobile app builds a stronger connection between the customer and your salon, ultimately encouraging repeat visits.
The Winding Up
To sum up, filling up your schedule with hair salon bookings is an important part of running a business. There are many ways to encourage people to make appointments. We hope these suggestions will help you keep a full schedule. If you need more effective tools for increasing bookings and sales, consider Salonist. Our platform offers online booking and other features to attract and retain customers.