How does your salon or spa currently accept guest payments? What options do you provide, and what operational steps must you follow after a payment?

You don’t have time to manage billing and payments across multiple software programs – or manually. Instead, an integrated payments solution connects to and works with the other systems you need to run your business, such as your scheduling or booking functions. An integrated payment solution helps you give guests an elevated, Uber-like digital experience and ensures everything you need to process and complete a transaction is synced with the other aspects of your business — at every location. Zenoti data reveals that our beauty and wellness customers with integrated payments increased their average ticket value 11 - 34 percent in 2021. With these benefits in mind, here are the top three reasons to integrate an integrated payments solution into your beauty and wellness business.

Meet evolving consumer expectations

Half of consumers will not choose a brand if it doesn’t offer contactless payments and 44.5 percent of online shoppers pay using a digital wallet – ahead of credit cards, and then debit cards.

The restrictions and safeguards brought on by the COVID pandemic have resulted in a change to guest behavior and an increasing desire for touchless payments. Across the Zenoti platform, we have seen a significant reduction in cash payments by guests, with 87 percent of all spa transactions paid by credit card.

With the ability to pay for just about anything digitally – and convenient mobile solutions like automated payments – consumers have no need to carry a wallet anymore and more people are leaving home without it. According to Visa, tap-to-pay usage increased 150 percent in March 2020 over the same time in 2019, and 45 percent of Americans use mobile payments.

This is a trend that’s only expanding with time. Ensure your beauty and wellness business meets guest expectations for convenient, flexible, invisible payments and you’ll also be ensuring that guests choose to stay loyal to your brand.

Grow your revenue (with science)

An integrated payments solution affects more than just how your guests pay you. It can also affect how much they pay you. As a beauty and wellness business owner, helping your guests feel good is no doubt your number one priority and providing digital payments plays a role in delivering a comfortable experience. Research into the psychology behind paying for services shows that cashless payments dull the “pain” or stress of paying, and can lead to guests spending more because the process is so simple.

Consider the frictionless, digital payment action of tapping a “20% tip” button on an app or clicking on a recommended product at online checkout. These payments are easier – physically and psychologically – than parting with cash. As a result, guests are more likely to take these actions, which in turn leads to a higher average ticket and more revenue for your brand.  

Salon success

With Zenoti Payments, U.S.-based Gene Juarez Salons & Spas has gone cashless at all 10 of their locations. This has improved their guest experience, cut down on checkout time, and saved the brand an average of $285 a month on administration costs.

‍About 30 percent of guests are paying through the auto-pay system. Not only does this help minimize congestion at the front desk, but it frees up the receptionists to attend to other questions.”
- Katie Trent, COO, Gene Juarez Salons & Spas.

‍Learn how the Zenoti Customer Mobile App can take your payments to the next level.‍

Create a Better Brand Experience

According to “the law of least mental effort”, the easier something is, the greater likelihood we will do it. The core idea of asking for and accepting digital payments is to remove that mental effort – especially to ensure that payments don’t get in the way of guest relationships your providers have worked hard to build.

With an integrated payments solution, guests can make a payment in seconds without having to log into a different system or app, or enter extra information. They'll leave the chair feeling fabulous and free to enjoy the rest of the day without needing to wait around and check out at the front desk. This shows you value their time and are actively invested in elevating their experience.

‍Discover how business management software can elevate your guest experience.

‍Although the three reasons given above focus on guest expectations and behavior, integrated payment solutions also reduce your administrative work. Integrated payments should ideally combine with your entire operations in one cloud solution that gives staff fast access to everything they need. This increases back-end efficiency and saves your team time that’s better spent ensuring a high-quality experience for every guest.

As technology continues to develop and guests’ needs evolve, staying on top of payment trends is key to delivering the best experience and driving sales for your beauty and wellness business. With Benchmarks by Zenoti you can see the performance of thousands of businesses, along with the effect of digital payments, online booking, membership programs, and much more.