How important is your salons or barbers location?
Exactly how important is it now to be located on the high street? Can salons and barbers located away from the high street be successful?
How many customers check out your shop front before deciding to come and see you? Clients will want to check you out before deciding, but rather than walk or drive down to see your salon, they now look online. What do they see if they google you? What about your web page? Are you posting regularly on Facebook or Instagram?
How Google is your salon?
There are so many ways to keep your salon relevant and appealing to customers that if your salon isn’t on the high street. You can still attract new clients looking for a salon to visit. Your shop front is now more about how you appear online. Do you remember the Yellow Pages? They now no longer offer a printed directory. Google is now the go-to-place when searching for a hairdressers. Have you made sure your google my business page is up to date. Do you even have one?
Social Media Presence
What are you posting on Facebook or Instagram? New clients want to see examples of your work. Get your team involved and get them to upload pictures of what they have been doing in the salon. Post regularly and keep it relevant.
Website Content
Is your website appealing and telling your visitors why you stand out over your competitors? Once someone visits your page you have a short-time to capture their interest. Make sure they get to see what USPs (unique selling-points) your salon has straight away. Award winners? Colour experts? Been in business for a long time? Think about what makes you stand out from the crowd.
Online Booking
When they like what they see, make it easy for them to book. People live busy lifestyles now. This is one of the main reasons there are many benefits of laser hair removal methods including saving time. With Shortcuts; clients can book directly from your website, social-media channels, guest-app or directly from Google! Let client’s book on their terms; not yours. People have become used to booking their own reservations online at hotels and restaurants and now they want to do the same with their hair and beauty appointments.
Out of Hours
You may be receiving messages and emails out of hours from clients making enquiries and looking to book. It takes time out of your evening to reply and maybe even wait till your back in the salon to see what appointments you have available making the client wait. You may even forget to reply. Trust me – it happens. I was recently chatting to a salon owner who had missed out on appointments from enquiries he was receiving through Facebook as he wasn’t able to get back to them quick enough. ‘Why don’t they just phone the salon?’ he said. I asked him if he had booked a hotel recently, which he had and guess where? Online of course.
Clients want to be able to book appointments quick and easy. If you’re not making it easy for them – someone else will.
