Before the 20th century, beauty was something that women took into their own hands. For many women of unnoble status, that meant—gasp—cutting their own hair. If we’ve learned anything from the unfortunate coiffes of Covid, it’s this: just because you can doesn’t mean you should. The same is true of your workflows, processes, and programs.
That means knowing which tasks you and your team can and should handle, and what can be achieved with technology. Keep reading to learn how spa and salon businesses are using technology to build sustainable growth into every workflow, interaction, and transaction.
Elevate Guest Experience
86% of customers are willing to pay more for a better experience, and 89% of people stopped going to a salon because they had a bad experience.
Elevating the guest experience is key to a solid salon business strategy. But without the right technology, simple client communication can be as painful as that first look in the mirror after you ask your spouse to “just trim a bit off the sides.”
Recommended reading: Elevating the Guest Experience eBook
Take appointment booking, for instance. Without technology, it goes something like this:
60% of people said they would rather schedule their hair appointments by text. Another 64% said an appointment reminder was the most valuable text they received from a business last year.
Alternatively, your front desk staff could be busy with other guests and not answer the phone in time. With switching brands as simple as swiping left or right on our phones, it’s the rule not the exception to just move on and book elsewhere. So, how can you bridge the gap between customer expectations and the reality of your operations?
Technology helps salon businesses save time and grow!
Watch the video below to see how technology can help you elevate customer experience, grow your business, and save money.
Take Back Your Time
The beauty industry is full of hard-working people who can handle whatever comes their way. Turn a mullet fringe into curtain bangs, no problem. Manage schedules, done. Wade through mountains of data to prepare weekly reports, check. Attract new customers, done. Keep staff busy and productive, check. That sounds exhausting, doesn’t it? Technology helps you grow while working smarter, not harder.
Spa and salon software helps you quantify everything and automate time-consuming processes, so you can get back to your passion: helping your customers look and feel their best.
When you use salon technology to automate time-consuming tasks (client communication, booking, reporting) you can spend more time focusing on your salon strategy.
For example, technology enabled one of our partners, the CEO of a 50-location salon & barbershop brand, to take back his time and consolidate 40 databases into one single system. Plus, with all-in-one dashboards, he could keep his eyes on key metrics and make smart decisions across all locations. Now instead of working with 40 different databases—and working weekends—he can access the right data in one click.
Reporting is another tedious task that salon businesses dread. When you and your staff compile reports by hand, you lose a lot of time. And you could miss the vital information you need to make good business decisions. Technology gives you access to the right information at the right time, for a smart salon business strategy.
Digital reporting allows you to quickly make decisions about every facet of your business, from inventory to sales, service, and staff.
Boost Brand Awareness
If your sales and marketing processes run 100% on human effort, then sooner or later, your growth will hit a ceiling.
Great marketing depends on relevance, timing, and creativity. But most beauty and wellness business owners are so mired in daily processes that they don’t have a second for themselves, let alone days or weeks to design and deploy a brilliant marketing program.
Gone are the days of cards, flyers, and coupons. Not only are they wasteful, but your staff may forget to hand them out. Smart salon and spa technology ensures you never miss a marketing or sales opportunity again.
Discover 5 must-have marketing strategies for salons and spas.
You used to have to pull customer lists, think about timing, write a catchy message, and then measure, rinse, and repeat. With marketing technology, it’s all done automatically. So, rather than investing all your time into the process, you can enjoy the results.
Beauty and wellness businesses don’t need more time, more staff, or more salespeople to grow—they need technology.
The right technology can help you scale your sales, without hiring expensive agencies or salespeople. For example, you can run personalized email and text campaigns that use microtargeting to increase conversions. With predefined, responsive templates, you can hit send (and fill up your chairs) faster. Technology solutions can also power referral marketing, helping you leverage the trust you’ve already built with loyal customers.
83% of people trust the recommendations of friends and family, and referral leads convert 30% better than leads from other channels.
So, instead of trying to win over people who aren’t familiar with your brand, you pick the “low hanging fruit” in your business. Choose a solution that allows happy customers to rate, review, refer, and rebook with just a few taps from their phone—right when they’re most likely to do so.
In Short
With technology, you make it easy for customers to do business with you and refer their friends. Your staff will spend less time on tedious tasks and more on what matters: serving customers. By accessing the right data at the right time, you can make smart business decisions with less effort. Technology handles all the hairy details of client communication, operations, and sales and marketing—helping beauty and wellness businesses grow without the growing pains.
Learn how Zenoti can help you grow the smart way. Book a demo to see how.
