How can online booking benefit your salon?

Why is online booking important?

70% of hotel and restaurant bookings are now made online.

If you are wondering which restaurant to go to this weekend or where your next holiday destination might be, where do you look? Let me guess, online?

Online booking for industries such as travel and hospitality has become fundamental to delivering an outstanding customer experience.

Yet, only 10% of hair appointments are made online. The same client that books a restaurant table online from their iphone at 10pm, has to wait till the morning to phone the salon for her blowdry.

Clients have come to expect this level of service. They want to book when it suits them. They want to book last minute and squeeze in a blowdry. Amazon, Just Eat, Tesco have all made it the norm to order and book online

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What are the benefits of online booking?

1 in 2 clients are looking to make an appointment when they search for a salon online*

The benefits for the salon are huge. Clients can book online in a few simple steps, filing those last minute empty chairs, while you spend time doing what you love.

Still not sure if you really need online booking for your business, take a look at some  statistics from salons using  online booking:

• 55% of online bookings are made outside of salon opening hours
• 40% of online bookings are for appointments within 48 hours
• 10% of salon bookings are coming from new online customers

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Will you lose control of your diary?

So, why do so many salons not offer online booking? 8/10 salons surveyed said it was due to one word: control. They want to only offer certain services. They want to ensure the junior doesn’t get booked for a full head of foils. How do I make sure a blow-dry is booked with a colour?

The right system will give you this control.

Slick online booking has been designed by salons to allow salons to:

1. Only offer services they want. If you don’t want Colour bookings, turn Colour services off.
2. All Colour services booked are forced to book a second service.
3. We only show live slots. No double booking here.
4. You get a notification and a SMS when someone books online

Slick's online booking tool will increase your client base without you wasting time or money and the best part... it uses smart logic that prevents gaps being left in the salon schedule so you still have space for walk in or phone clients.

Top tip: start by offering cuts and blow-drys and go from there!

*Ipsos 2017 study: impact of complete profile