Thinking about making the switch to online booking, but not sure if you’re ready to take the leap? Watch the recap of our Facebook Live earlier this week where Zenoti SVP of Marketing, Guy Weismantel, and Customer Success Manager, Kaliane Oung, walk you through the huge benefits and easy steps to grow your salon’s revenue and increase your guest satisfaction.

Don’t have time to watch the video? Take a look at the transcript below!

‍Guy: Hi everybody, thanks so much for joining us! I’m Guy, the Senior Vice President of Marketing here at Zenoti and I’m joined by Kaliane Oung, one of the awesome Customer Success Managers here. We are talking today about the benefits of online booking. We’ve seen this tool become increasingly important in a day and age where ¾ of us in the United States shop online. It’s probably closer to 100% of us right now as we are in the holiday season. Whether you are in the spa or salon business, it’s an expectation now that they don’t need to wait to call in to set up appointments - they want to be able to do that when it’s most convenient for them, which is often outside of business hours. I’ve invited Kaliane to talk about online booking today because she has a unique perspective from being in the industry and also working every day with our customers. Tell us a little about yourself, Kaliane.

‍Kaliane: Like you said, I am one of the Customer Success Managers here at Zenoti, and prior to this was the director of Gene Juarez salons. Here at Zenoti I have the privilege of working with many of our customers and helping them grow their business by utilizing all of the great tools they have at their disposal, including online booking.

‍Guy: So let’s talk about the importance of online booking, which is something I know the Gene Juarez team does very well. You were mentioning to me earlier what a game changer that was.

‍Kaliane: It was - we saw drastically-improved appointment books and our last minute bookings increased. I know for our Zenoti customers on average, 38% of bookings are same-day appointments. We noticed men were our biggest group of clients booking their appointments online at Gene Juarez. For Zenoti customers as a whole, they see 22% of their customers using mostly online booking.

‍Guy: I’m sure once you started giving guests an online booking option, you couldn't imagine going back. But I know for some, setting up online booking can feel intimidating or overwhelming. What do you think is the main reason salon owners might be hesitant to offer online booking?

‍Kaliane: I think people are nervous about the possibilities of misbooking. There’s a lot of complexity around the types of appointments people are wanting to book with different providers and timing of services. That can be a scary thought to think of your client having a poor experience when you’re not with them to remedy it.

‍Guy: But it doesn’t have to be that way, right? Some of my favorite features of Zenoti’s online booking make for a seamless customer experience. Can you talk a little about what makes the experience stand out?

‍Kaliane: Sure - I love that clients are able to search by feature. Booking a specific stylist can be done in 3 clicks. If they need a specific service but have no preferred provider, you can customize the booking feature to follow priorities that you determine. You can show members their member prices or differentiate pricing per stylist. With Zenoti, you can even accommodate group bookings online.

‍Guy: And something else we’ve seen is that guests who book online come back more frequently—an extra visit, on average. They also have a higher rate of showing up for their appointments as well. And not only that, they’re buying products online too.

‍Kaliane: It’s really a great revenue driver all around. It’s providing salon owners with the benefit of knowing what services have been offered, how their staff is being utilized, and where they have openings to accommodate walk-ins and other new clients.

‍Guy: We’ve seen that it even lessens the strain on a team to rely on walk-ins and to find new customers, since the appointment book has fewer gaps in it. That frees up a lot of time for staff to be focused on clients.

‍Kaliane: And it’s also giving time back to the front desk staff since they are not having to spend as much time helping customers book their next appointment at check out. They can book their next visit right from their chair in their current visit. In turn, that’s freeing up wait times for customers waiting to check out as well.

‍Guy: So once you researched and pulled the trigger on implementing an online booking tool, can you ever imagine going back?

‍Kaliane: No, not at all!

‍Guy: Well thanks so much for taking the time to join us today. If you have questions about anything we talked about here today, we would love to answer them for you. See you next time!

Interested in learning more about online booking or have questions for us? You can reach us here any time.