Controlling Bookings

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geeg

Judge Gigi-Honorary Geek
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One of the trickiest things to do is to make your appointment book work for YOU whilst making your clients think it is working for THEM!! ;)

Do you know this senario?? It's the start of the week ... week looks pretty fully booked GREAT ... phone starts ringing as clients start to re-arrange their appointments ... and suddenly the beginning of the week is DEAD whilst the end of the week (just when you want to HAVE the time for Full sets to book in for the weekend) is 'chock a block', you are working 'flat out' and back to back and you know you will be turning business away!!! SO frustrating. :cus: This senario is so commonplace that some ideas of how to handle it would be appreciated -- here's what we did and it worked!

We offered a slightly more advantageous price ( in our case £2.50 -$4.00 less) to clients who booked their appointments on a Monday and Tuesday between the hours of 9am and 3pm. We did not call it a 'discount' (a word I loath and NEVER use in the salon) we thought of it as a 'perk' to those clients who were willing to come when we wanted them to. And boy did they come - they were fighting to get in at the beginning of the week and we had a bit of room at the end for new clients, or weekend emergencies without having to stay late.

Of course the other method of controlling your book is to ...lie!! :oops: Tell them that you are booked when THEY want to come in and make them take your 'only available appointment' which is when YOU want them to come in. It does work very well. :p :p
 
hi geeg
i just love the perk idea i hadn't thought of that one hope you don't mind if i use it

:D ;)
 
Hi Just wanted to say, hope you don't mind me pinching your idea of £2.50 off clients who book their appointments early in the week. I will be suggesting it to my salon owner.
 
Of course I don't mind if any of you have a go at trying any ideas that come from me. Claim them as your own please ;)
Sharing info is fun and any ideas that make your life as a nail technician easier and more financially rewarding will make me very happy.
I sat behind that desk for many years and loved every minute of it!
Now I'm enjoying my life more than ever here on the Costa Blanca - I wish the same for all of you.
:sunny:
 
Another idea that I've heard is when the client rebooks at the time of her appointment and she KEEPS this appointment, she gets $... off her next visit.
If she cancels, changes blah blah...she doesn't get the $... amount off.

Apperently it's amazing how people started keeping their appointments with this "system"
It also saves your precious time...answering phone calls...calling them back 50 times because they are out of the office and so on....

I guess what you can do is to write their appointment on the card with your signature...and when they bring this card back..they get this "perk" ;)
Or you can make a little sign next to their name when they are pre-booking at the time of their appointnent........when they call in...or change...there woul be no sign next to their name.....

...Just an idea....what do you think?
 
I love the "Perks" ideas. Sometimes I also get so disgusted with all the last minute changes, empty day slots(appointments), but yet the customers all fight for the late or weekend appointments. Mostly I end up working 2-11pmT-FRi. and 8:45 6:30pm on Saturday. Then when I decide to stay home & catch up on laundry on just ONE of those days that everything before 3 is open, it never fails that one of these ladies will call with a ONE NAIL BREAKAGE EMERGENCY so that I must stop everything & run right back to the shop & fix her. Of course then it's not worth going back home. It's work those "perks" price loss just to stretch out my days & get to see me 3 & 5 year old boys more that at breakfast & Sunday.
 
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