With the lockdown being imposed in many countries due to the Coronavirus pandemic, one of the problems that common people are facing is not being able to get a haircut. This might not seem a bigger concern than getting groceries and medicines, but people are having a tough time maintaining long hairs.
Some have turned into Jon Snow while some have made themselves Vin Diesel by shaving head on their own, as currently, the salon shops are closed and people are left with no other option.
If you are having a salon outlet, you probably are facing the same set of challenges that almost every other business is facing currently, i.e. “No Customers, No Sales”
This is when you can think of taking your salon business online and provide customers with the required solution. People cannot come at your outlet but how about a home-visit haircut from your end? Seems a pretty good option right where people can book a salon service online and the concerned person visits the customer’s home and gives him a haircut?
Well, our Online booking system module helps you exactly that way. If you are a salon outlet owner yourself and thinking to provide home services or if you want to create a salon chain where you could register salon outlets and act as a medium between customers and the outlets, the Online booking system module will cover all your requirements.
How to Manage your Salon Bookings through Online Booking System?
Before we delve into the online booking system module, we would like to let you know that the module is available only for the PrestaShop and OpenCart platform.
So, in order to set up your online booking system and start providing booking services, first, you need to purchase a domain name for your business, a hosting plan and choose the desired eCommerce platform, be it PrestaShop or OpenCart.
As per the selected platform, you can choose the respective module, install it and integrate on your website. The configurations are almost the same for both the modules.
Once you have successfully installed the module, here’s how you can start providing online salon services. (I am taking the example of PrestaShop here)
Step-1: Open the Admin Demo
Step-2: Head over to “Products”
The Products section will consist of some default booking services which you can customize or delete and add new ones.
Step-3: To list your salon, click on “Add New Booking Product”
Once you click on it, you will be presented with four options: Appointment, Hotel Booking, Daily Rental, and Hourly Rental.
To be more specific about this module, it not only provides you with an appointment booking facility but also with Hotel booking and Vehicle Rental booking. So if you are involved in those kinds of businesses, you can manage such bookings with the help of this module. But since we are particular about the salon bookings in this module, only the first option (Appointment) matters to us.
Step-4: Click on Appointment
You will now be presented with five columns that are: General Information, Booking Information, Location, Image, and Date/Time.
Under General Information, as the name suggests, you can give a brief about the salon service that you want to add. You can specify the name, reference, short description, long description, and give it a category.
Under Booking Confirmation, you can specify the service type; Branch and Home Service. The former means that a user can confirm a booking to visit your outlet and claim the service, the latter is what this entire write-up is focused on, i.e. home service with the help of which the customers can get the service at their home.
So, in the current scenario, you need to choose home service.
Moving further, choose date and time from the “period type” option so that the customers can book the desired time slot to receive the service.
The next option we have is Quantity where you can specify the maximum number of bookings that can be made in a single day.
Then you can set an upfront booking price that will be visible to the visitors at the time of booking. Depending on the region or country, you can select the tax rule.
Under location, you can set up your store address so that customers can know where the service person would be coming from.
Coming to next column- Images, you can add images about that particular service and display it on the product page. The more appealing pictures you use, the higher would be the chances of a customer booking your service.
Under Date/Time, you get to specify the days for which the customers can create a booking. You can choose the days on which you don’t provide services and hence customers would not be able to make bookings on those days.
Then you can specify the date and time slot and set your price accordingly. You can define different periods for bookings, mention the timings within which the bookings can be made and fix the booking price for it.
To run offers on a particular day or for a specific period, head over to “Booking Price Rule” and make the required changes.
To view your booking orders, you can click on “orders” and track your bookings.
That’s it. This way you can add as many salon services as you want and solve customers’ haircut related concerns easily. Isn’t this amazing? Get the module by visiting the links below:
For PrestaShop- PrestaShop Booking and Rental System Addon
For OpenCart- OpenCart Booking and Rental System Extension
If you want to provide your customers with the facility of booking a haircut through a mobile app, you can try out the PrestaShop Booking and Rental Mobile App
Benefits of Providing the Home-based Salon Services
For providing home services, especially during this time when cleanliness and social distancing is highly required, ensure your customers that everything will be completely sanitized. You need to win your customer’s trust so that they do not hesitate to get a home service.
The salon persons should wear proper masks and gloves and should maintain distancing from customer other family members.
If all these things are settled, you will not face a hard time getting online bookings.
Coming to the benefits-
1. Customers do not need to go outside. They can get the facility at their home and avoid social gathering outside.
2. Customers can book a service as per their convenience.
3. For peak hours, you can charge customers accordingly.
4. You can disable booking for specific days.
5. 24×7 online booking option for customers.
Things to consider before opening an Online Salon Services booking website (plus marketing ideas)
1. Create a roadmap for your salon business-
No business starts without planning. Identify how you are going to market your business, tackle the problems and be ahead of your competitors.
2. Be specific about the Regions-
When starting out, it would be challenging to target all the regions (if you are a salon chain) but if you have your own outlet, you should be targeting only the region your outlet is located in so that you can reach out to the customers conveniently.
3. Create your social media accounts-
f you want to highlight your brand in front of a huge audience, social media is the best place. For a salon services booking website, Facebook and Instagram are the best. Aware your audience about your salon business and services.
4. Do SEO for your website-
Contact SEO experts who can help you rank your website when people search for an online salon services booking website in your region. This will give you a huge organic boost.
Final Thoughts
Imagine waking up in the morning and seeing you have got bookings for the entire week and made a whopping $1000. All this can be possible if you give serious thought to move your salon business online. And this is the best time to open an online salon business.
Try out our Online booking system module and make the online booking experience of your customers convenient.
If you need any kind of help in setting up your website, you can raise a quote by clicking here or submit your query at support@knowband.com
