You’ve been seeing a steady increase in your salon clients, which is great for business. But unfortunately, your current booking system can’t keep up. It’s time for a change.
Finding the perfect booking app for your business is downright difficult. You’re not sure what features and functions a high-quality salon booking app should provide. Some serious help is needed.
Don’t let this problem stop you – we’re here to help.
In this article, we’ll break down the main features you’ll need to think about when choosing a booking app for your salon.
What a Booking App Can Do For Your Salon
It’s simple: using a booking app will save you time. You’ll no longer have to write names and times into a physical calendar or diary. An app will execute these time-consuming tasks for you. Using an app will free up more time for you to focus on your craft and your clients.
Switching your booking operations to an app will do more than save you time. Here are two benefits a booking app will bring to your salon:
Benefit 1: Automatic Scheduling
Using a booking app will make answering the phone and scheduling appointments with pen and paper a thing of the past. Instead of dialing your number, your clients can simply open your app, find the appointment page, and reserve a time that suits them with the push of a button.
Your clients will love the ease of booking online. When you use an app, your entire schedule stays online. This means you’ll be able to access your schedule on your computer or mobile device from any place that has an internet connection – just think of the convenience this will bring!
Benefit 2: Enhanced Interaction with Messaging
Most salon booking apps come with an online messaging system, meaning you’ll be able to talk with your clients quickly, and you won’t need to scroll through your personal connections to find them. A messaging system will save you time and separate your professional contacts from your personal ones. It’s important to keep these contacts separate.
Clients will also appreciate your messaging feature. They won’t need to fumble through their contacts to find you – they’ll only need to access your app. A messaging system that’s part of your salon’s app will make your app more professional. This will help show your clients that you’re serious about quick communication and alerts.
Millennials and Generation Z will particularly enjoy using your salon’s app. People from these generations prefer using messenger features or sending text messages over talking on the phone.
It’s important to appeal to these groups because they now have significant buying power, which will only increase in the future. So grab their attention while you still can!
A messaging app will also help you reduce no-shows by letting you send notifications to clients 24 hours before their appointments. Fewer no-shows mean less wasted time, more revenue, and more wins for you and your team.
Key Features to Look For in a Booking App
Salon booking apps come packed with more features than just messaging and booking. While booking and messaging are required for any booking app, there are more features that every solid booking should have.
These features will help ease your operations and free up even more time. Who doesn’t love more time? We’ve decided on three key features that your salon’s booking app must have:
Key Feature 1: Payment Integrations
Allow your clients to pay right from your app. So, select an app that’s integrated with popular payment platforms like Stripe, Square, or PayPal. These will make payments a breeze, and you won’t need to spend any time punching buttons on a cash register or credit card scanners, saving even more time.
*Protip: To really organize your finances, select a booking app that has an integration with your bookkeeping software or Google Sheets. Using an app like this will simplify organizing your finances.
Key Feature 2: Marketing Tools
Did you just start using a state-of-the-art curling machine, an automated shampoo station, or a cutting-edge UV lamp that extends the life of your acrylic nails by 75%?
Ensure that all your clients know about each new gadget or product with marketing tools like newsletters and push notifications. Doing this will supercharge your ability to promote new products and services.
Email integrations will allow you to create and send eye-catching newsletters that will help communicate the value new products and services can bring to clients.
Clients will appreciate being the first to know about your newest offerings. You might even get some referrals if you’re the only salon in town sporting the latest facial trend.
Push notifications are useful marketing tools you can use to offer discounts or kick off promotional periods. If you want to offer discounts on a new product or feature special services, send clients push notifications. They’ll have the chance to purchase featured products and services fast.
Key Feature 3: Customer Reviews
Letting your customers review your salon’s services is crucial. Current clients can use reviews to vouch for your skills. Positive reviews can lead to new customers.
Your salon booking app needs to have a place for your clients to leave reviews so potential clients can get a better idea of your services. Potential clients are more likely to choose a salon that allows them to give and receive feedback.
While the thought of a bad review might make you nervous, rest assured that you can address negative reviews. Do this by reaching out to the client that gave you the negative feedback. Get to the root of the issue, and do what you need to do to resolve it.
After you fix the problem, you can gently ask the client to leave a follow-up review that describes how you overcame the issue. Not only will you most likely retain a once-disgruntled client, but you’ll also prove that you care about your clients. Potential clients and regular clients will appreciate your willingness to work through problems.
Our Top Three Salon Booking Apps
Now that you know salon booking apps can do more than just book appointments, you’re probably itching to get started. But a simple Google search will reveal a mind-boggling list of salon booking apps to choose from.
Luckily for you, we’ve reviewed most of them. Guided by the above key features, we found the top three booking apps you can use to enhance your salon:
- Adalo if you want an app-building platform that gives you full control of how your app looks, feels and works.
- Vagaro if you’re looking for a booking app that also markets your salon to a social network.
- Mindbody if you need an app to help you manage the complex needs of a large-scale salon.
Adalo
Adalo is an app builder that gives you all the design freedom you need to create your very own salon booking app. You don’t need any programming, coding, or technical skills to build your booking app with Adalo. Instead, just use Adalo’s simple drag-and-drop interface and build your app to match your vision.
Get started by choosing a template that matches your idea from Adalo’s template library. Easily add features that fit your salon’s brand. You can make simple changes and updates even after you’ve published your app.
Adalo’s Features
- Adalo has over 5,500 different integrations. For instance, you can plug your booking app into Quickbooks, Google Sheets, or other accounting software for seamless financial management. You’ll also be able to send out a monthly newsletter at the drop of a hat using Adalo’s MailChimp integration.
If you make your salon booking app using Adalo, you’ll have access to an almost endless list of features. - Publish your Adalo-made app on the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and your salon’s website.
Putting your app in front of huge audiences on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store will help market your salon. You might even pick up a few new clients by marketing on these app stores. - Adalo is battle-tested, with over 1 million apps made and counting. If you can’t put your finger on how you want certain pages to appear, check out Adalo’s #MadeinAdalo page to see some professional apps created by people just like you. You’ll definitely leave the page feeling inspired.
Pricing
Start using Adalo at $36/month.
Vagaro
Vagaro is not just a salon booking app – it’s a social media marketplace that gets your salon in front of clients in your area. When you sign up to Vagaro, you’ll create a profile similar to a social media account.
Using Vaago as a booking app can promote your salon and help grow your client base. Currently, over 20 million people use Vagaro to find salon services worldwide.
While Vagaro offers an excellent booking system, it also lets you manage your employees with its staff-scheduling feature. Being able to schedule your employees’ workloads and take bookings in one place will ease up your administrative tasks and help you avoid confusion.
Vagaro’s Features
- Promote your new products and unique services using Vagaro’s Daily Deals feature. When you use this feature, the product or service you’re promoting will be made available to Vagaro users in your area. This feature can help you sell more products, book more appointments, and expose your salon to new clients. This is a great way to get some extra publicity.
- Use Vagaro’s customer tracking feature to monitor and document your clients’ purchasing history. You can use these insights to create rewards for your most loyal clients. They’ll love the appreciation you show them, and they’ll most likely continue using your salon.
- Get paid instantly, but let your clients pay in installments with Vagaro’s pay later feature. If your customers want an expensive service but don’t have the money upfront to pay in full, they can still get it.
Vagaro gives customers the option to pay for services in up to four installments, interest-free. This customer-friendly option will make your services more affordable – and everyone loves affordable services!
Pricing
Start using Vagaro yourself for $25/month. For each additional team member, you’ll need to pay another $10/month. If you have a large or growing team, Vagaro could get expensive, quite quickly.
Mindbody
If you’re a big salon, Mindbody is a great choice. Mindbody offers a comprehensive suite of services to manage your appointments, market your salon and review employee performances. Mindbody gives you one place to manage the majority of your operations.
While running a large-scale salon is challenging, Mindbody can help you tackle issues and problems with ease. You’ll be able to pinpoint areas for improvement all across your organization with Mindbody's extensive data analysis tools.
Mindbody’s Features
- Define, track, and measure your teams’ key performance indicators (KPIs). This feature will provide insights into how many clients each team member has, their average review score, average hours, what types of services they’re excelling at, and much more.
Use this to provide constructive feedback to your team, which can help them improve at their job. Team members will enjoy seeing feedback that will help them get to the next step!
- Get detailed analytics reports about your salon’s operations. You’ll be able to discover what products and services are the best sellers. Leveraging analytics reports will help you make informed decisions about promotional periods or products to discontinue, saving you time, space, and money.
- Mindbody has an arsenal of marketing tools and integrations you can use to promote your salon on social media, email, and with search engine optimization (SEO).
Create a social media campaign, send out promotional emails, and optimize your site’s blog, all from your Mindbody account. You’ll love the ease that comes with promoting your salon from one platform.
Pricing
Mindbody’s basic salon plans start at $129/month. To get more features like comprehensive analytics reports, automated messaging, and more, you’ll have to contact Mindbody directly.
Conclusion
Are you now even more excited about getting a booking app, but you can’t decide which one to use? Perfect, because each app on our list offers either a free trial or a free demo.
Set aside some time and delve in, jot down the pros, cons, and the overall vibe each app gives you. Doing this will help you organize your thoughts and make an informed decision.
Using a booking app for your salon will simplify your operations, and your customers will love booking their appointments with ease. Your app will save you considerable time, open up more time slots, and improve your bottom line.
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