8 Ways to Maximize Productivity and Profits with Online Salon Scheduling Software
It's to imagine running a salon today without the help of salon management software. By automating time-consuming tasks and procedures, salon software frees up salon owners, staff management, and employees to focus on providing excellent services and building client relationships.
If you're thinking about investing in salon scheduling software, or have recently adopted a system, we're going to highlight eight features that will help you make the most of its capabilities to improve your daily salon business operations. From the basics of online booking to the convenience of integrated marketing tools, inventory management, built in payment processing and more, we'll show you how to maximize your beauty salon's productivity and profits with powerful booking software.
1. Optimize Your Online Booking System
The first, and easiest, way to maximize productivity at your salon business is to optimize your online bookings and client appointments. Moving your booking system online greatly reduces the amount of time that your front desk staff is tied up answering phones, scheduling (and rescheduling) appointments, and processing payments. Instead, they can focus on welcoming clients, assisting with retail product inquiries and sales, and supporting salon owners and stylists as needed.
To optimize your online booking system, make sure to have appointment wait lists and automated reminders set up to help your clients keep track of their appointments, reduce no shows, and fill canceled slots. This will have an immediate, positive impact on both productivity and profit at your salon business.
Use your salon scheduling software to manage appointments and make them more efficient. Build in time for clustered services or double bookings during processing times. Review these regularly during the first few months with your new software. Adjust appointment slots and lengths until you find the sweet spot where services are being performed efficiently but not hurriedly.
2. Use Customer-Facing Mobile Apps
The best salon scheduling software will come with customer-facing mobile apps that include features to put your customers in control of their appointment bookings and even their check-in procedures. Using the mobile app, your customers can schedule appointments on their phone at any time of day, no matter where they are. And people are always more likely to book appointments if the process is convenient for them.
Streamline salon operations for better productivity among salon staff by having customers sign forms, input payment information, and even do their own appointment check-in with their mobile app! The in-app messaging features make it easy to send the customer updated information regarding their appointment bookings (like a waitlist slot that they requested opening up), and stylists can receive notification when the client has checked-in for their appointment via the app.
3. Make The Most Of Your Salon Software POS System
Moving a step beyond optimizing your salon scheduling and appointment management, take a look at how you can make the most of your salon software POS system to improve productivity and profit for your salon.
Setting up a customer rewards program and offering discounts on select services is a great, low-effort way to increase appointment bookings during seasonal down-times. Customers can also be awarded points for referrals, a great way to bring in new clients. Selling e-gift cards is another way to bring in new clients and more money. Your POS system makes it easy to manage gift card balances electronically, so clients don't have to worry about remembering to bring their gift card along to use it. Your staff won't have to keep up with messy paper records and human error is avoided, making sure no profits are lost.
When you create an online store with your salon software, optimize your store for suggestive selling. This is an efficient and effortless way to boost sales and bring in money. Suggest products to go along with certain services, such as color-protective shampoos and conditioners to go along with dual process color services, or add-on services, such as blow-outs, bang trims, and color lock or strengthening treatments.
The inventory management features will automatically keep you updated with to-the-minute status of your retail stock, so your staff can focus on more important tasks than counting stock and updating spreadsheets. Use this feature to manage your salon supplies as well. It's a much more efficient way to keep your salon stocked with all of the supplies your stylists need and makes reordering a breeze.
4. Have Customers Manage Their Information For You
Managing and updating client information is a tedious and time-consuming task for your staff. You can easily put the customer in control of their own information and recover that time for you and your staff to devote to more critical operations and salon services.
Using your salon software's client management features will save you tons of time and improve appointment procedures. When new customers make an appointment at your salon, have them enter their important client information for you electronically. This might include their contact information, how they would like to receive their automated appointment reminders, their preferred services and products, allergies, birthday, and more. They can sign any required waivers at this time as well, to be stored electronically for easy recall if needed.
Ask to keep a credit card or other payment method on file at this time. Having a card on file discourages no shows if you also have a policy to charge the card if they don't come to their appointment – protecting you from lost income. It also speeds up the check-out process, with your front desk staff able to quickly complete service payments and retail transactions with the click of a button, keeping things moving smoothly and efficiently at your welcome desk.
5. Improve Your Payroll Processing With Salon Industry Software
Payroll processing is probably not the most exciting part of running your salon business. Maybe you even avoid it until the last possible minute, and you inevitably end up putting in long hours and late nights to get it done on time. If you have a salon where stylists have different tiers of rates, or work on a commission basis, your payroll can be really complex and prevent you from spending the time you need (or want) to spend on other aspects of running your business.
You can improve your payroll processing, making it significantly easier and more efficient, by choosing a salon management software that has built-in payroll tools. Given the complex pay structures of hair salons, having a payroll tool that is specifically designed to work with commissions and pay tiers is a boon for busy salon owners. It will save you an incredible amount of time, cut down on your stress, and help you keep impeccable payroll records so that tax time isn't the looming monster that it used to be.
6. Leverage Integrated Marketing Tools
The built-in marketing tools that come with your salon scheduling software are going to give you some of the best opportunities to maximize your productivity and your profits. Along with the suggestive selling opportunities discussed above, the email marketing features in your salon software can help generate passive income with very little effort on your part.
With the email marketing tools available to you, create targeted campaigns to boost retail sales, drive appointment bookings during slow times, bring in new customers, and more. The great thing about email campaigns is that you can design them at your convenience and set them to deploy at any time down the road. Here are some ideas for quick and easy email campaigns:
Holiday season emails to advertise specials on select services or open appointment times for customers to come in and get glammed up for a big event or party.
Client referral codes that offer a discount on future services for each new customer that a client brings in.
Circling back to that new client information that you gathered, have your marketing tools set up to send an annual happy birthday email to your clients that includes a discount coupon for a salon visit within two weeks of their birthday.
The possibilities here are really endless. Get creative with your marketing tools, but don't send spam – make sure that what you send has value or you'll quickly lose the client's attention and interest.
7. Learn As Much As You Can About Your Business Reporting Tools
Most salon software programs come with accounting and business reporting tools to help you manage and grow your business. Accounting tools can help you keep track of money going out and money coming in, make sure the bills and employees get paid, and help you prepare for tax season. But the business reporting tools are the key features that will help you grow your business. The more advanced and customizable these tools are, the more nuanced feedback and results you can achieve with them.
Use your reporting tools to leverage data and analytics about various aspects of your business – compensation, transactional, client-related information, etc. – to help you make informed decisions. Identify the areas where your business is thriving, and use that information to create business goals moving forward. Also identify the areas where you might be wasting efforts, and redirect your efforts into the areas where there is strong growth potential.
Learning as much as you can about the nuances of your scheduling software's reporting tools is time and effort well-spent. This is a direct path toward maximizing your business's profit while ensuring efficient and productive endeavors.
8. Choose An All-In-One Salon Management Software
If you're still shopping for salon software, consider choosing an all-in-one software system that is specifically created for the beauty and wellness industry. Using an industry-specific software program will offer you the best tools to run your business with ease. It will be designed with salon owners like you in mind – with careful thought given to every aspect of your business – to support all of your daily tasks as well as overall operations and business development.
An all-in-one solution is the best choice to streamline your salon business management and operations to help you achieve the higher levels of productivity that you're looking for. And with greater productivity, it's all the easier to boost profits. Small business owners often attempt piecemeal solutions when they're first starting out, and they run into issues with interconnectivity. These challenges can end up causing frustration when the systems aren't working together and even costing business owners more precious time, essentially decreasing productivity at their salon. If your salon scheduling software isn't saving you time, it's costing you money.
Salon Software Improves Staff And Customer Satisfaction
By following these guidelines for using your salon software to its fullest potential, you'll be able to easily increase both productivity and profit for your salon. Better productivity is not only great for your profits, it also improves staff morale and the overall environment at your place of business. Your employees will appreciate the convenience and automation that salon software brings to the table, allowing them to focus more on clients and services. And with operations running smoothly, the vibe in your salon will be happy and relaxed for both employees and customers – which is always great for business!
STX Scheduling Software For Salons
STX Software for salons can help you reach the levels of productivity and profit that you've been dreaming of! Growing your salon business is easier than ever with the right tools; with STX you've got everything you need at your fingertips to bring ease to everyday operations and develop goals to drive your business to new heights.
You can give us a call at (800) 766-4778 or visit our website to book a live demo with our team. Contact us today to learn more about STX!