Salon software can help you make more money from your salon

You could increase your Hair and beauty salon profit margin by 9 times

They use Salon Software to Solve 4 Key Salon Problems

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1. How do I retain my existing Salon clients
2. How do I attract new clients to my Salon
3. How do I reduce my Salon’s costs
4. How do I increase my Salon’s sales?

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Salon businesses that adopt the best practices will make 9 times more profit margin than those that don’t. In the article by The Salon Business, “is owning a hair Salon profitable”  John Hallberg states that the difference in Salon profit margin from the best to the worse performing Salons is 15%+. This is an extra €14k in profit for a typical small salon turning over €90k* per year (see Statista).  

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Many things need to come together to ensure you have a successful and profitable Salon but one thing that the best salon businesses have in common is the use of 3 key technologies to help them implement the best practices. 

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Your Salon Website is a crucial gateway

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If your Salon business does not have a website, then it does not exist at all! Your Salon website design is an important extension of your Salon business and therefore your brand. It articulates what your salon stands for, defines the experience your clients can expect and is the start of their emotional journey.

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It is also an important gateway to lead new clients to your business via search engines and is at the heart of all your Salon marketing efforts. Besides all this, it provides the access point to your client to critical tools that you need to support your business such as an online salon app, Salon website, Salon booking app, and online shop.

Your Salon Booking Software is an important sales and management tool.

An industry standard Salon booking software, well configured, will provide the foundation on which to run your Salon business. Besides providing a self-service booking option for your clients they also come packed with management tools and features that are crucial if you are going to implement the best practices listed below.

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Read our guide on why successful salons use booking software

Your Salon online shop is a revenue generator

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Your Salon has a finite amount of time slots you can sell. An online shop does not have this restriction. It's open for business all day and all night for as many people who want to use it. It does not really need much in the way of human intervention. Therefore having a successful online salon shop is essentially a marketing challenge. This does require time and effort, but once you crack the code, It is the most profitable way to add an additional revenue stream to your business for a minimal investment.  The margins are higher and the costs far lower. Developing a customer base for your shop is the fastest way to grow your business. 

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Other Helpful Blogs

The Top Ways to make more money from your Salon Online Shop

10 reasons why your salon needs an online shop‍

Getting an online shop for your salon added to your website can be a long and costly process that often leads to disappointing results read our blog on "The best online shops for salons"

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These are the three core technologies every salon should deploy regardless of size. They will help you scale your business and at the same time will also keep service standards high and your workload low.

Below we have listed how these technologies can support your Salon's Best Practices to drive profitability and growth.

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1. Installing online booking software will enable your clients to book a service, with the staff member of their choice, at a date and time that suits them. As well as offering a better service to your clients you will significantly reduce the Salon workload by automating client scheduling, staff timetables, client confirmations, cancellations, reschedules & reminders. This can easily Save 20% of your Salon’s time which can be used to increase the hours available to deliver more chargeable services and improve revenue. Read our comprehensive blog “Why successful Salons Use a Booking Software”  
2. Optimise your retail sales with a Salon online shop and market products and promotions through social media, email and SMS. This can Increase revenue by 10%. Margins can be 50% on retail products so for each 10k you sell you will make 5k. You need to fill 250 service hours to make the same amount. Read “Boost turnover by 70% how to put a rocket to your retail sales”
3.  Optimise your Salon retail sales by incentivising staff with commissions on sales, setting individual targets and goals and tracking performance using the bookings system reporting. Increase revenue by another 10% on top of your shop’s revenue. Read “Salon Staff Product Training and Incentisvation” and  “How Salon Retail Sales Can maximise productivity and Revenue”
4. Identify and fill Salon off-peak and low-demand time slots using the reports contained in your booking system. Use its marketing capability to offer promotions and discounts to loyal clients. Move low-margin services to off-peak times and/or bundle them with other complimentary high-margin services or offer discounted “introductory” high-margin services to new customers that don’t ordinarily buy these from you.  Improve turnover by 20% to 40% Read “How a Booking System Can Fill Your Empty Time Slots”
5. Use your booking system to charge a deposit to clients when they book and impose cancellation charges to reduce or remove “no-shows”. Read “Plug Salon Profit Leaks” Increase Turnover by 15%
6. Use your online shops and bookings system reporting capabilities to Identify slow-moving retail products in your Salon and online shop and only keep a core of popular fast-moving products. Read “How a booking Software Can Manage Your Inventory”
7. Identify low-value treatments and discontinue them or upscale or bundle them into more profitable treatments. 
8. Use Gift Cards to attract new clients, particularly the family members of existing clients, to purchase both products and to visit your salon for treatments. These can be sold via your online shop and booking system and marketed via Social media. Surveys show that people on average spend 20% more than the original face value of the gift card. Improve Turnover Read “How to Develop Your Customer Base Using Gift Vouchers”
9. You should boost your online sales by using Social media and direct marketing to campaigns to promotional discount codes that offer reductions or free shipping for large orders, or on specific product ranges particularly new or slow-moving products. Use this capability to create Special occasion discounts which you can market to existing clients to recognise loyalty, special occasions like birthdays or as a thank you for referrals. Read this detailed article written by NHBF on how to apply discounts  
10. Retain existing clients by Introducing a loyalty scheme. Recognise clients who visit regularly and reward clients that recommend your services to others. Acknowledge special yearly events in your client years such as Birthdays and Wedding anniversaries. Most booking systems can record authorised clients' personal information such as date of birth and other key data. Read more with this Article from Zolmi about the benefits of a VIP program https://zolmi.com/salon-vip-program
11. Always re-book clients when they leave. A simple, yet effective strategy to make sure your clients come back to you and not a competitor.
12. Offer an incentive to new clients (discount voucher towards their next treatment or against products in your online shop) to ensure they return. Experience suggests that if you can get a new client to book a second visit they are over 80% likely to become a client forever! 
13. Increase the number of client visits and yearly spending by offering subscriptions.  Many Salons are starting to look at using a subscription model which has the benefit of making the salon’s revenue more predictable while offering the client a discount. Most good booking systems will allow you to configure subscription services which can be tailored for specific needs and priced accordingly. For example, an “of-peak” subscription would enable you to fill low-demand time slots and in exchange, the client would receive either a discounted or enhanced service. Other subscription packages could focus on high-value treatments and enable the client to spread the cost of these over a longer time period. Take a look at this article “Subscription Packages to increase salon visits and sales”. and  “5 ways to increase Profits with memberships”

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Conclusion

Each of the three tools we discussed at the start of this article satisfies one or more of the following key requirements that you need to achieve if your business is to thrive and be a top earner for you. 

1. They support the delivery of a high-quality experience and brand identity for your existing clients ensuring that they will return again and again to buy your services and products.
2. They help to attract new clients to your Salon.
3. They help to reduce your costs by removing or automating low-value activities, and then use that time to provide more services to paying clients. 

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These tools are relatively cheap to instal and maintain and will recover your investment many times over. What are you waiting for, how much are you going to leave on the table?

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