The lead up to Christmas time always brings in more clients and with that more money – which is great! However this often means long, busy and stressful days for salon managers and owners, as well as staff. Make sure you’re getting the best out of all your salon software has to offer to reduce this stress.
Packed full of features to help ensure you’re maximising your profits and time (plus minimising your stress!) throughout the busy season, an all-inclusive salon and spa software such as Kitomba can take the admin out of tasks, and help run your salon more effectively, giving you time to devote to managing your hair and beauty business.
Here we cover the top salon and spa software features you should be using in your salon to help make life that bit easier through the busy season.
1. Manage appointments with a waitlist
The best way to handle the influx of clients is with a waitlist! This allows you to store a list of clients who would like a booking, and as you find gaps or appointment times become available, you can add them to your appointment book.
This is especially helpful in extremely busy periods such as the lead up to Christmas, when your appointment book is completely full and you have clients waiting for an opportunity to get a booking. It’s also a great way to lessen the blow of cancelled or postponed appointments if you have a pre-made list of clients waiting in the wings.
Using your salon and spa software to run your waitlist makes it easier to add clients to the list, quickly see waiting clients, and drop them into your appointment book when an appointment becomes available.
Learn more about how Kitomba Waitlist can easily help you fill those last minute appointments and maximise your revenue this Christmas: Fill last-minute cancellations with Kitomba Waitlist
2. Benefit from online booking
Having the ability to book appointments online is becoming more and more of an expectation these days. The convenience for clients to be able to book their own appointment at a time that suits, without having to pick up the phone is a powerful tool for both yourself and your clients.
Not only does it add to the overall client experience, it will also save you and your staff time by not having to constantly monitor the phone, worry about missing calls, or keep an eye on emails or social media messages.
It’s important when setting up your online booking to take the time to ensure your services are clearly described, so accurately name them, include detailed descriptions and time slots, and make sure your staff capabilities are set correctly. This will prevent any confusion and ensure your clients are booking the correct service with the right staff.
If your software has this functionality, connect your online booking with your social media accounts by adding Book Now buttons to your Facebook and Instagram. This way your existing and new clients can book an appointment without leaving their favourite social platform.
Did you know that with Kitomba Online Booking you can also take deposits or payments for appointments, easily manage your loyalty programme, and collect client information? Find out more about Kitomba Online Booking.
3. Increase your profits with vouchers
Vouchers are the perfect gift and it’s even better when they can easily be purchased online. Get your online vouchers set up early and start reminding clients about them well before Christmas – you want your vouchers to be the first thing they think of when they start thinking about gifts.
Selling vouchers is a really easy way to generate additional revenue, without adding much to your already hefty workload. It’s also a great way to grow your client base if your current clients are buying for friends and family!
Remember to tell your clients how easy it is to order a voucher online, and that they can organise the voucher to be emailed directly to the recipient with a personalised message through your salon and spa software.
Learn how to set up online vouchers in Kitomba.
4. Inform your clients with a marketing campaign
Don’t let your clients leave everything to the last minute! Try to manage the influx of Christmas clients by sending out an email or text campaign early in the season, reminding them to book as soon as possible to avoid missing out.
If you’re using a waitlist feature make sure to communicate this, so they know if an appointment is not available online they can call up to be added to your waitlist.
Make sure to include information about your Christmas hours, gift ideas, latest products and services, as well as the pre-Christmas appointment reminder.
Keeping your clients in the loop is all part of providing an excellent client experience, and getting this communication in early will hopefully help manage the rush.
Find out how to set up one-off marketing campaigns with Kitomba software.
5. Increase sales by adjusting targets
Traditionally we see a large spike in client spend in quarter four each year – clients getting ready for the Christmas or summer holidays, attending events and more.
Take advantage of this trend by increasing your team’s targets so they’re motivated to achieve their goals. Now is the time to be leveraging an increase in retail sales, rebooking rates, and more.
If your software has a targets feature, be sure to set that up and provide your staff with access so it’s easy for them to track their progress on any device – you could even think about using staff incentives to help create that extra motivation for your team!
See more about how introducing Kitomba Targets to your team can help your business grow: How to introduce targets to your salon team.
6. Prepare your sale ahead of time
Save time by prepping your clients’ invoices as you go. If you update their invoice with any changes in services, or additional retail products, it’ll save you time at checkout, make sure you don’t miss anything and reduce congestion at the front desk.
To help you manage your invoices more efficiently, we’ve added the ability to edit and delete invoices in Kitomba 1 for selected users, and we’ve made it easier to invoice packages.
If you’re a Diamond or Platinum customer with admin-level user permissions, when selecting an invoice through the Sales tab or Appointment Book in Kitomba 1 you will have the additional options to edit or delete the invoice.
To help keep your business safe and secure, we’ve also created four user permissions so you can tailor access to suit your individual team member’s roles and requirements.
Learn more about Kitomba 1 invoicing here.
See more about making a sale through Kitomba below.
7. Go paperless with digital forms
Creating digital forms that can be filled in by your clients on any device reduces your time spent on paperwork. They make consultations faster and help you keep a reliable record of the clients details and preferences.
You won’t have to manually add client details from paper onto your computer, and your client can easily fill in the form themselves!
Find out more about Kitomba’s digital forms.
8. Prepare holiday packages
Set up some Christmas or summer packages to encourage clients to try something new! It will mean your clients are spending more, and they might even be tempted to try the new service or product again, a great way to prompt them into rebooking for the start of next year.
Creating these packages is also an opportunity to get creative with marketing. Selling them as the essential “get summer-ready” package will remind clients that summer is just around the corner.
Set them up well in advance so you have the opportunity to sell to your clients early on, and make sure your staff know about them so they can upsell whilst they’re with their clients.
Creating packages with Kitomba is easy – simply choose the package name, add in the products and services you would like to include, and also a description of the package. You can choose whether to have this available through your Online Booking site, and also whether you would like to include a concession!
See more about setting up packages with Kitomba.
9. Set up staff timetables and Business Leave
The Staff Timetables and Business Leave features in Kitomba 1 make it easy to manage staff rosters, planned and unplanned leave, and any last-minute changes to your staff timetables from anywhere.
With any adjustments made to your staff timetables, as well as, all Business leave (for example Christmas Day) automatically updating the Appointment Book, you can ensure you and and your staff stay on top of this busy season.
Note: These features are available to all Gold, Platinum and Diamond customers.
Learn more about how to set up Staff Timetables and Business Leave.
10. Integrate with Reach.ai
Time is money in our industry and with the busy season upon us, there is no better time than to try to save time where you can!
Kitomba has exclusively partnered with REACH.ai to help automate your client communications and fill your appointment book by sending personalised text and email messages automatically.
REACH.ai will help to give you and your staff an average of 14 hours back per week* by automatically and intelligently managing communication with your clients to help keep your appointment book full, including rebooking/pre-book messages, last-minute appointment availability, nurture campaigns for retention, and review requests.
How does it work?
- REACH.ai continuously scans your appointment book to look for any openings and last-minute cancellations for your bookable staff members.
- When a gap is identified, REACH.ai will look at your client database to see who is the best fit based on their history.
- Once clients are identified (and they don’t already have a future booking), REACH.ai will send them an email or SMS informing them about the available appointment with a link to your online booking site.
- Once the client books through your Kitomba Online Booking site it will show in your appointment book as usual, and you can accept or make changes to the appointment.
- You’ll be able to see all the messages that have been sent to your clients at any time using your REACH.ai dashboard.
Then you can use Reach.ai’s Reputation AI feature to help you maintain a great reputation online by getting more Google reviews – improving your SEO and attracting new clients, all while meeting Google’s terms of service. It works by sending automated emails to your return clients immediately after their appointments, inviting them to rate your business out of 5 stars and leave feedback.
Learn more about REACH.ai here.
Use your salon software to get Christmas ready
Every year, Christmas rolls around faster than we expect. We all know how precious time can be when running a salon, especially during the peak season! And when every dollar counts, it’s definitely worth leaning on your salon and spa software to do more, with less effort.
All it takes is a little planning and set up, but when done correctly and with plenty of time, it will help ease pressure, and get you into the flow of things once you’re in the midst of the busy season.
For more information, or assistance with setting up any of these features in Kitomba, contact our friendly support team, or view our online support guides here.
Not a Kitomba customer? Book your free demo to find out what Kitomba Salon and Spa Software can do for your business.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published on 25 Nov 2020 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
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