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Have you ever wished there were more hours in the day to get everything done?  

For many salons, spas, and beauty and wellness businesses, the holiday season is the busiest time of the year as guests are looking to you to help them look their festive best. This increased demand is the perfect opportunity to capture extra profits to round out your year. But how can you make sure that you stay top of mind for your guests in their hour of need while still having time for every other aspect of running a business?  

It may sound cliché, but the best offense is a good defense. With strong preparation and cloud-based software that’s specifically designed to make your life easier, you can avoid a season of chaos and make it a resounding success!  

Did you know that 85% of business leaders believe that automating some of the workload will give them and their employees more time to focus on the goals that truly matter to the company?  

Keep reading for advice on how to work smarter, not harder this holiday season.

1. Create an Accurate Employee Schedule

Scheduling staff is often listed as the #1 headache for most business owners and managers today. Forecasting the number of employees needed to meet appointment demand without overstaffing and eating into profits can be hard. Especially during the holidays. Be mindful that you might need to put more team members than usual on the schedule to cover the extra demand. Plus, you’ll need to work around staff holiday requests while ensuring you still meet guest needs.

You can achieve this by automating the scheduling process! It not only frees up your time but also takes away the guesswork and gives you an optimum schedule that’s based on accurate demand. How? By analyzing bookings, historic patterns, scheduling trends, vacation, season, staff availability (and more) to recommend a data-driven schedule that maximizes your profits and keeps your guests and employees happy.  

2. Give Yourself the Gift of Good Marketing

pink gift box with yellow ribbon

Everyone needs a little TLC sometimes. And what better excuse than the holidays?  

Bundled packages at your salon or spa might just tempt your regulars to upgrade their usual treatment. Vouchers for salon and spa experiences make fantastic gifts for friends and family while boosting your profits! Find creative ways to remind guests about your holiday bundles, such as adding an automated note into their booking reminders or on purchase receipts.  

Tip: empower guests to self-check-in on their mobile devices when they arrive for their appointment. This frees up your front desk staff to help guests wrap up their holiday shopping.

Time-saving marketing hacks are a necessity during the holiday season. An automated texting solution is a great way to follow up with your regular guests and remind them to book their holiday appointment or notify them of a last-minute opening without your staff needing to make time-consuming phone calls. These little touches allow you to go above and beyond for your guests, while keeping your appointment book full and making every minute profitable.  

Discover 6 ways to connect with more guests this holiday season.

3. Deliver an Integrated Payments Experience

Today’s guests expect the instant convenience that digital solutions deliver. Especially when it comes to payments. Exceed their expectations and make doing business with you a merry experience they’ll want to repeat long after the holiday season ends, by automating and integrating your point of sale (POS) system and empowering guests to pay on their mobile devices.  

This has numerous benefits for your business! It not only speeds up the checkout process and takes the pressure off your busy staff but integrating your payments with all your other systems, such as your back office, accounting systems, appointment book, guest profiles, and inventory system, provides a better understanding of where revenue is coming from. It also increases your upselling and cross-selling opportunities by enabling you to promote items related to what the guest is buying. And you can personalize their purchase experience while giving them gifting inspiration when they might be struggling to tick a loved one off their list!

4. Ensure Your Team Feel Supported

Hair Stylists having fun

The holidays are an unpredictable time. Your team needs to be ready for anything including guests trying to squeeze in a last-minute appointment before their holiday party. This could mean opening a couple of extra hours on the weekends prior to major vacation dates or getting text notifications to guests on the waitlist when you have a last-minute cancellation. Just remember to expect the unexpected during this busy time of year, and make sure to prioritize excellent service (with a smile along the way)!  

Burnout can be all too real during the holidays. With so much going on, it can be easy for your team to get overwhelmed. Combat holiday fatigue by finding ways to make life easier for employees with automation tools that alleviate the daily admin and free them up to focus on guests. It also doesn’t hurt to make your salon or spa festive and fun. Pull out the holiday playlist (don’t forget the Mariah Carey), organize a team gift exchange, and deck the halls with tasteful décor to keep your team’s morale high so you can all get through the holidays together.

Keep your team motivated and engaged with these 7 tips.

5. Simplify Inventory Management

As a beauty and wellness business owner, you want to ensure that when a guest comes in you always have their preferred professional products to use during the appointment and their favorite retail items available to pick up on their way out. But inventory management can be a difficult, time-consuming task - especially when you’re operating multiple centers. Add in the complexity of forecasting how many products to have available for gift purchases and the stress can start to mount.  

This is where automating your inventory management can make a huge difference to your daily workload and your profit margins. It helps you simplify business operations and maximize sales by ordering the right products in the right quantities - meaning you never have to cancel another appointment due to a product shortage! You also save time to spend elsewhere, minimize inventory costs, and protect your bottom line.

Spread Holiday Cheer and Make This Your Most Successful Holiday Season Ever

Zenoti is the gift that keeps on giving. Stay on top of bookings during the busy season, keep tabs on staff schedules, and view at-a-glance business metrics. Plus, you can create fun, eye-catching emails to send to targeted segments, automate guest appointment reminders, and let your guests know about last minute openings to ensure that they show up to their holiday festivities looking and feeling their best.

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Emily Martin
Zenoti Copywriter
A self-confessed bookworm with a passion for languages and weaving together words. Happiest when immersed in nature, either on horseback or skis, or curled up with a good thriller. Emily's writing focuses on sharing trends and insights impacting the beauty and wellness industry.
Emily Martin
Zenoti Copywriter
A self-confessed bookworm with a passion for languages and weaving together words. Happiest when immersed in nature, either on horseback or skis, or curled up with a good thriller. Emily's writing focuses on sharing trends and insights impacting the beauty and wellness industry.

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Cullie Poseria
Senior Product Marketing Manager, Fitness
Coming from a healthcare family, growing up as a competitive athlete, and being trained as a filmmaker, and MBA, Cullie brings diverse experience to her storytelling and digital business-to-business product marketing. Her writing focuses on sharing trends and insights from her experience in software, entertainment, wellness, and fitness.

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