We’re talking about Online Booking – a rave-worthy tool that is an essential in any salon, spa or barber business that want to work smarter, not harder. If you haven’t quite heard, Online Booking gives your clients, or potential clients, the ability to go online and book an appointment according to the availability of your staff and what suits your business best. Super simple, right?
While Online Booking is nothing new to Shortcuts, it is one punchy little sucker for your business. There are so many pros to it that we’re just busting to tell you, so here goes:
Secure payments, upfront!
We recently launched a little something called upfront payments – yay! With Shortcuts, you can use upfront payments to secure a partial or full payment from a client when they book their service. Upfront payments is powered by Stripe, is an online payment platform used by the likes of Uber and Airbnb. In essence, upfront payments empowers you to collect secure financial commitment from clients before their appointment. Nifty, hey?
This not-so-little feature packs a big ka-pow. It helps you reduce those dreaded no-shows since the client has already spent money on the appointment, and it secures your revenue at the same time. If the client still has the nerve to ghost you, you have the ability to charge a cancellation fee. It’s up to you! You’ve got the power.
Be where they always are
Picture this: it’s late on a Sunday night. Your client is on the couch with a glass of Pinot, sitting in their jammies. Fuzzy slippers included. They’re scrolling through Instagram and see some of your stellar work in their feed. Social media is all about creating engagement with your audience, but it’s also a great tool to encourage people to take action. Don’t just remind them how fab you are, invite them to book their next appointment.
By adding Online Booking links to your Instagram and Facebook profiles, you give your clients something they crave: convenience. The ease of simply tapping on a button or link and booking an appointment. After they’ve booked, they will land right back at your Instagram page and can check out all your #gorgeous content.
Keep your Appointment Book open
By offering Online Booking to your clients, you can keep your Appointment Book open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We know you work like an absolute gun but even you need sleep! This way, you can have Online Booking working in the background so you can catch some Zzz’s. (Check out this blog about the nifty features that help you make money while you sleep!)
Oh, and don’t worry – your clients can’t actually see your Appointment Book, and there is no risk of double bookings or overlaps. They can only choose from the times you have available, and any appointment they make will appear in the yellow ‘needs review’ colour in your Appointment Book. From here you can accept it, or give the client a buzz to rearrange the time if you need to.
Free up your reception desk
With Online Booking in the works and an epic rebooking strategy in place, you should be able to dramatically decrease the amount of phone calls your reception receives for appointment bookings. This gives your receptionist more time to breathe and help the clients in your salon, spa or barbershop.
They will have more time to check out and rebook the clients in your business – and maybe even upsell them on a few products while they’re at it.
