It hurts if you get to the salon and the booked customers fail to show up after clearing your other booking appointment. This no-show can, with time, affect your business productivity and discourage your members of staff. As you arrive at your beauty salon in the morning, everyone is looking forward to keeping all the booked appointments for the day. You have even asked them to tidy up the place in preparation for your customers. But to your surprise, none of the booked clients showed up. No one wants to be in that shoe, trust me.
However, you may genuinely not plan for it to happen but wishing and hoping don’t solve appointment failures. First of all, the will to come or not to come lies in the customers. So, how can you make them want to come? Secondly, you can only persuade them, so how can you be sure they will eventually show up? This article addresses these issues to establish that you can productively influence the decision of your customers who book an appointment and be almost sure they will show up. Let’s roll.
How can a Hairdresser make Customers Keep Appointments?
1. Have a clearly stated policy
You may not like this first step, especially if you are a small business. But it is the first step to take if you want customers to take you seriously. Besides, it is also a way to show your professionalism when you ensure your policies are spelled out. So, create a clear-cut procedure that indicates what happened when a customer doesn’t show up. You may either charge them 50% of their booking or appointment fee.
Let it be clear that there is always a loss on the business part when they fail to keep their appointment. Not only will the business be unproductive in that hour, but it would also have missed an opportunity to replace such a customer with another willing customer. State this clearly in writing during agreement with terms and conditions. At first, customers may react, especially if it is a new addition, but in the end, the best ones will respect your time and guard it jealously. visit https://asic.gov.au/for-business/small-business/starting-a-small-business/ to learn about starting a small business.
2. Simplify the Booking Process
Remove every additional stress to the booking process with a client, and they will have enough energy to show up. A flexible booking appointment plan allows the customer to decide the most convenient time for the work. So that, if anything changes, the customer should be entirely responsible for not showing up. Another way to ease this process is to use an online booking system, which does not require the customer to first walk into the salon to book an appointment.
Instead, the customer can make a booking appointment from the comfort of their sofa, thin through on the available times, and pick the most suitable one. A rushed decision can subject the customer to pressure that won’t allow the best rational decision. Also, you have decreased the possibility of a no-show in that way.
3. Confirm Appointment bookings
Perhaps this point is the most important one for you to note. Once a client completes a booking appointment either physically at the salon or via an online platform, let them confirm the details. This step ensures that there are no mix-ups on the appointment’s specifics, such as date and time. When using an online tool, you can implement a confirmation email that states the customer’s choice.
Conversely, if the customer believes that the information is incorrect, they can contact your salon for corrections. This confirmation can also serve as a reminder that customers can refer not to miss their appointment. A more professional feature in the online tool is automated confirmations with a professional outlook that can help registered clients recheck their options.
4. Send out Reminders
When a customer books an appointment, it is not wise for you to rest on your oars just yet. The customer may have a thousand and one other things they do, but this business is yours. Therefore, take it up as a task to send regular reminders until the day of the appointment to confirm the booking. Reminders are still valid and open for change until 48 hours before the appointment time. After that, a client can no longer cancel or will face the penalty.
Statistics also show that sending out reminders 48 hours before the eventually appointed time can save 80% of no-show occurrences. Interestingly, this step can be automated using the online booking appointment tool, which sends out reminders in emails or text messages. Remember to make the appointment open to clients who wished to change the terms before the appointment date and time.
5. Build a relationship with your Clients
The final one to mention in this article is the need to nurture a professional relationship with your clients. We cannot overemphasize these points because your clients are not dummies or robots, neither are you. So, fundamentally, humans should relate and influence each other’s lives, no matter how small. Without such a relationship, it is easy for clients to forget both your brand and the appointment altogether. click here to learn more about Client Relationship
However, when you nurture a relationship, you not only give room for brand retention, you also pitch your business for high recommendations. As a hairdresser in Paddington, you will discover that it is crucial to know your clients well enough as individuals. Learn about what they like and what they don’t. Have an idea of their profession, status, circle of influence, and friendships. Social media platforms like Facebook can even give you access to their dates of birth.
No-shows can cause a loss of up to $12,000 per annum. And suppose customers keep canceling appointments or don’t show. In that case, it is another indication that something else might be wrong with the business operation itself. So, it is not enough to wish it away. One should rather pay close attention to it and take the proper steps that can change the results. This article already discussed some five critical steps you can take to ensure that clients who book appointments with you live up to their promises.
