If your spa or salon doesn’t offer guests the option to book appointments online, you’re missing out on revenue and losing valuable hours.
Looking at data from thousands of top spas worldwide, Book4Time’s research team found that a quarter (23%) of combined salon, hotel spa, and day spa bookings are made online. And these bookings also account for a quarter (23.3%) of salon, hotel spa, and day spa revenue.
Want to learn more? Here are six ways that a good online booking system works for you, saving you hours and dollars.
1. No more phone calls
On average it takes approximately 10 minutes for the front desk to book an appointment. Manually booking 5000 appointments a year, evenly across 365 days, means your offline booking process requires approximately 2 1/2 hours a day – or 833.3 hours a year - in employee labour alone.
This time could be put to better use on other tasks, like guest services and upselling.
Online booking eliminates the need for phone calls.
2. You only have to ask for information once
Guests can create and maintain their profiles online, giving you instant access to their information. Info taken manually runs the risk of getting lost, been taken down incorrectly or being mixed up with someone else’s details, you may end up having to collect it again. Also, if you have multiple locations, that central database means the information is there even when a client visits another location.
3. Automatic reminders and confirmations
Manually sending reminders or calling for confirmations burns through staff time that could be better spent on other things. With online bookings you can program your system to send the reminders for you.
Also, if you call for a confirmation, many people won’t answer their phones for fear of telemarketers, and many never check their voicemail. A 2013 study by j2 Global/eVoice found that only 33% of voicemail from business contacts get listened to, and only 18% of voicemail from unknown numbers are listened to. That’s a lot of potential for missed appointments – and missed revenue.
4. Guests can book appointments outside business hours
Meanwhile, online booking allows you to literally make money while you sleep, as nearly 10% of bookings are made when the spa is closed e.g. 10% of 14 appointments a day at $150 each means you could make $54,600 a year.
This is revenue you’re not going to recoup. If someone wants to book an appointment at 10 pm and you’re not answering the phone, they’re going to find someone who offers online booking. Can you afford to lose 10% of your revenue?
5. You won’t miss out on the millennial market
Millennials make up more than a quarter of the global population and represent about a third of retail sales. And they don’t use phones to make actual calls. Research has shown that
75% of millennials would rather lose the ability to talk versus text on their phones, and that 76% prefer texts over calls from companies. Fifty-three percent prefer to text vs call in general, and 19% never check voicemail.
As this younger generation matures and becomes more affluent, this market will grow and become an even larger share of your customer base.
6. You’re safer from a security breach
Cloud-based software has increased security protocols and requirements, decreasing your chances of loosing data or experiencing a security breach. The costs associated to a data loss or breach can be enormous.
As you can see, good online booking system isn’t just for making appointments, it’s a virtual assistant, a bookkeeper, a security guard, and more, all in one. Keeping up with innovation is key to a successful business in the current spa and salon market. Remember that technology is advancing and your client needs are evolving. You need to evolve along with them. You can’t afford to be left behind.