Men or women, today, beauty and grooming sessions are equally enjoyed by both genders which are the reason why the salon industry is grooming itself nowadays. But, to survive in this competitive market, having a plush salon is not enough, a beauty salon mobile app solution and how you are serving your customers via that app counts.
Every other shop in a street is running a beauty and salon business today and the crowd that floods the shop is more due to the online app market than the offline one. Why? Because half of the life of an individual is almost run by apps in this digital era and the ease and comfort of salon appointment booking through an app is making customers fall in love with apps even more.
Remember, it is the repeat bookings that make the majority of the salon business. Salon services like manicure, pedicure, facials, haircuts, etc, people need them once or twice in a month. At such scenarios, calling your salon each time for appointments can be daunting for customers while with a mobile app solution, few clicks and done.
It is true that a mobile app solution can enhance your salon business but guess what, in the greed to get more business, creating a meaningless app will be of no use. Only an eligible and efficiently made app can doll-up your salon business. Wondering what do we mean by eligible and efficient and how to make your app such? Read on to unlock answers.
Highlight and Market Your USP
There are salons and their apps everywhere, offering the same old salon services. But, do you have something unique to surprise your customers like a fire haircut or a special treatment along with services like a glass of wine or some goodies? Shout out loud. Let your customers know what they are missing by skipping your salon appointments.
Mobile Reservation and Appointment Booking
One of the major headaches for customers is getting an appointment in a salon. If you as the owner of a salon, make it easy and comfortable for them, your customers are going to sing songs of praises for your salon. Mark these two features the must-have while developing your beauty salon mobile app solution. Incorporate a built-in calendar, provide flexible dates and time slots, free cancellation etc., you will then see how your sales are going to dazzle up.
Loyalty Programs & Referrals
People love free stuff, discounts, offers, gifts, and cashback. If you want your customers to stay loyal to your salon and keep coming back to you or bring along more customers with them for you, you got to give them something in return. That’s what loyalty and reward programs are for. You can either offer good discounts for your regular customers for referring a new customer or coupons to get a discount or cashback on their bookings or give some freebies like a manicure free for 10 regular facials. This will keep them hooked to your salon app as well as your services.
Marketing is Mandatory
What’s the point of running a salon if people have no idea about it? Make it known to the public that there is a salon offering so and so near to them. For which marketing and advertising is necessary.
Use all possible mediums to spread the word of your salon, your services and your salon app to as many people as you can. You can either advertise them on print, make use of kiosks, distribute pamphlets, run a marketing campaign, try cross-promotion by approaching businesses that have synergy with your target customers like fitness studios, hair salons, cosmetic sellers etc, to lead them to your salon, try paid ads, use search-engine marketing to make your salon more visible to the audience by appearing on the top in any of the search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo or last but not least – use social media. Make use of each social platform to lure customers like, share your customer’s pics on Instagram, offer your schedule, location and specials on Facebook, share industry trends and news on the Twitter, show videos or some DIY tutorials on YouTube and so on.
Display the Style Library
“I want glowing skin like Penélope Cruz or a hairstyle like Deepika Padukone” You might be habituated to listen to such requests from customers on a daily basis. The styles and trends of beauty industry keep changing every second and a majority of people want to look like their favourite celebrities. Offering them a library of the trends and styles will help them point to what they exactly want and even make things easier for you. Add a photo gallery describing the styles and ease your customers’ confusion in picking one.
Push Notifications
Keep your customers updated and stay in touch with them by enabling push notification in your salon appointment booking app software solution. Target your specific app customers & locations by implementing geofencing technologies into it. Send salon updates, important notices or reminders, new offers etc. to your regular customers to make them realised that they are valuable to you.
Keep Your Salon Visible to Them Always
As said before, there are numerous other salons offering the same thing as yours. In order to make yours stand out from the crowd, you must increase the visibility of your salon and your app and maintain it. Ask your beauty salon software builder to include the necessary features and make your app an easy medium for your customers to reach out to you.
