How to optimise your booking system to fit more clients in
Running a salon can be challenging. Between managing a team, perfecting your craft and keeping clients happy, there are so many things to think about when you’re in charge.
However, optimising your schedule and eliminating unbookable gaps shouldn’t be one of those challenges.
Leyla Canyurt and her team at BrowBabe, a London-based brow and lash salon, were experiencing that challenge first-hand.
“It was difficult to fit in longer treatments like ombré brows, which take up to two and a half hours, when we had shape and tints booked with 45-minute intervals,” she explains.
“It meant that our receptionist was constantly calling clients which would take up most of her time when should be focused on other tasks.
“A lot of our clients were getting turned away because we couldn’t fit them within those gaps.”
Luckily, Canyurt uses Fresha to manage BrowBabe, and she was an early adopter of the software’s latest feature.
The new calendar optimisation tool from Fresha helps salons reduce gaps and maximise every day’s value.
If you’re already using Fresha, switch on online booking optimisation in your settings to get rid of those calendar gaps.
You can select “Reduce calendar gaps” which shows availability based on how long a service will take but prevents booking at awkward times.
Or you can select “Eliminate calendar gaps” and clients will only see slots before and after existing appointments and blocked time.
Both options will lead to back-to-back appointments, and you can switch between them any time.
You can even turn off your booking optimisation when you want clients to see as many slots as possible.
That’s great for off-peak seasons, or if you’ve just opened a venue and want to attract as many bookings as possible.
“As soon as we saw the email about the new feature, we turned it on,” Canyurt says.
“We were constantly calling clients to move them and make our diary run smoother, so this has saved us another job, and it’s made our admin life easier.
“We can’t wait to see new features in the future.”
For Canyurt, and every other Fresha partner, this is just the latest improvement to the management software that helps salon owners and staff shift focus to the things that matter most, like client care.
Sign up to Fresha now to learn more about optimising your calendar and join the 100,000 other businesses around the world making the most of the all-in-one platform.