What are booking systems and what are they for and above all how do you choose the right one for your business
"Managing the booking processes of your services for a considerable number of customers has never been easy"
TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR BUSINESS!
Managing the booking processes of your services for a considerable number of clients has never been an easy thing, especially in businesses that by their nature are very dynamic and changing. It is not unusual to see your customers pass several times in front of your salon, studio or center to check the line of customers that has been created to avoid waiting too long to be served or if it is necessary to enter to book a new appointment. in other cases they may act by regularly blocking your telephone lines to make a reservation, taking away time and concentration from your work.
With my experience in the sector, today I would like to analyze the booking problems in the business sectors where booking an appointment one to one is crucial for the business itself; services that are single and / or group, and performed with the help of staff and / or services without the help of personnel, for example: hairdressers, barbershops, wellness centers and spas, beauty centers, multi-specialist studios, medical specialists, dance schools, music schools, fitness gyms, counseling centers and many others.
Paper or electronic agendas and calendars never allow an overview and they are not always the best solution: the problem underlying these solutions is that of not interfacing in two-way mode and in real time with your customers, so if the current booking processes weigh down, confuse or collapse your business management , or they are no longer in line with your current and future performance and expectations! It isimportant at this point to become aware that the problem is very serious.
If you belong to such corporate categories, it will be your booking processes that will determine the efficiency, effectiveness, quality and speed of the service that your company offers.
Let's imagine that your company is a car in a rally race with other drivers (the competition), and you are driving it. If you only ever engage first gear, you will surely arrive at the finish line ... but in what time? To complete the automotive example, the system that manages your booking processes could be compared to your navigator, who manages all the data in the study and recognition phase of the route, to promptly communicate the results to the driver during the course of the race; this information is essential to anticipate the driver about the subsequent difficulties or pitfalls of the route and to guide him to the finish line with the best driving directions, guaranteeing the team victory.
Interfacing in two-way mode and in real time with your customers
A good booking system, in addition to automating, optimizing and managing the booking processes, creates a significant database of structured data on a daily basis, (for example best customers, best services, best collaborators, best periods, etc ...) which, if properly analyzed, will be able to they will certainly help you monitor company performance, they will give you the opportunity to formulate forecasts for the future, providing you with all the corrective tools not only for marketing, organization, on the work of personnel and on the optimal use of time: this will allow you to always be ready to to be able to develop a winning strategy.
At this point I hope you have become fully aware of the problem by taking a big step forward! The second step is to start looking for a good navigator to get to the finish line first for this and the next races.
Searching on the internet for a single booking center (cup) for your business, you will find that the market today offers many solutions but for many reasons not all of them will suit you: quality and conditions of service, costs, functionality or future scalability that respect your needs and expectations.
By doing a market analysis you will come to the conclusion that most of the solutions almost always have some negative characteristic, for example: unacceptable conditions for providing the service, too high a cost or, even worse, a lack of one or more functions that are fundamental for the your business. Probably among these 25 points listed below, you will find one or more reasons that made your choice hesitate, let's see them together:
It is always best to check these points
1. They ask for a commission on every booking made from their platform;
2. They present your business during the booking phase together with the direct competition;
3. They do not allow for multi-site management;
4. Many do not allow you to directly add targeted additional products or services at the time of booking to increase sales (up-sell);
5. They do not have a system of direct notification to the members of the staff involved in the reservations;
6. They do not send daily reports to every member of the staff of appointments scheduled for the next day;
7. They do not have a personalized management of the work calendar and holidays both of the place of business and of each member of the staff;
8. They do not allow you to make or set automatic and personalized offers and / or coupons on products and services;
9. They do not have suitable tools to manage a correct and optimal operational use of the staff;
10. They don't have an integrated system to manage email marketing campaigns;
11. They don't have an integrated e-commerce;
12. They do not allow to ask the customer for a deposit or the payment of the service already during the booking phase for one, some, or all the services;
13. They do not allow the system to create tasks or appointments without selecting a date and time (when you assign a date and time, a new appointment will be added to your calendar);
14. They only work via the website and do not have a branded, personalized and exclusive app for your customers;
15. They do not have a system that allows you to accept or re-send appointments in real time, automatically informing the customer and staff of the change in booking or cancellation;
16. They do not manage waiting lists with notification and automatic management;
17. They do not make group bookings;
18. They do not have a private chat system to assist customers directly through either the website or the app;
19. They do not allow you to add custom information fields to the customer card;
20. They do not allow you to manage groups or groups of customers with particular treatments;
21. They do not allow you to ask questions or ask questions during the booking phase;
22. They do not allow you to request uploads of documentation during the booking phase;
23. They are not systems already aligned with the new GDPR regulations;
24. Many sites or apps in the sector require mandatory registration even before making an appointment booking, they do not leave the choice to the owner (many customers hate registering on sites or apps);
25. They do not allow to insert ICS files in e-mail notifications to allow the customer to store the reservation on his personal calendar.
Last but not least the difference between all those solutions that you could find and evaluate on the internet, is to choose whether your solution should work for you and your customers only on the web platform or on the App, Android and iOS, or why not on both platforms.
PRENOTA is the solution
right for your SPA
The great advantage of booking solutions for their customers is to balance the burden of booking or canceling the appointment towards the customer, so as to free the structure from about 80% to 90% if not more, of the processes traditional booking. This is not only a business advantage, but also benefits the user who is offered a new booking experience that is much more intimate, quiet and comfortable, with the possibility of making a reservation for your services and / or services at any time. and on any day, without unnecessary waiting.
DO THE PROBLEMS NEED TO BE SOLVED?
Cross Selling for your SPA
it must be done with style
The absence of the psychological pressure of a telephone interlocutor or the long waits on the phone during periods of greatest demand, eliminate the possibility of making the user uncomfortable or discouraged. Any Cross-Sellingintentions proposed by the solution during the booking phase will also appear to the user as an opportunity to be seized and evaluated calmly and therefore no longer as an insistent increase in purchase.
Another crucial point to consider in the booking processes is that of managing possible cancellations or non-presentation of customers. With the new solution, there should be no need for the customer to call or even worse not to show up (it is statistically proven that around 85% of customers are embarrassed to cancel an appointment).
Moreover, many customers will be inclined to feel so uncomfortable when they have to come back to you again, that in most cases they may not return immediately, perhaps reluctantly going to the competition, or giving up and postponing an appointment that is important to them and profitable for you. ; isn't all this a pity? The solution to avoid these situations is to give the customer a tool that acts as an interface that manages public relations with you, safe and informal that will manage everything automatically with the approval of the parties, this is one of the features that certainly could serve you!
A waiting list for your SPA
will make the difference
A good single booking center (c.u.p.), in addition to the usual appointment booking functions, must be able to manage the "waiting lists", that mechanism in which reservations are accepted above the actual capacity of the service. This is not the classic overbooking (which many transport companies use and which in any case has different characteristics, management problems and purposes), as the inclusion in the waiting list places the condition in which the customer who books in the waiting to be informed of the situation, and agree to be placed in the waiting queue for seats that may become available for booking cancellations, changes made directly by the structure, or directly by other customers already booked, who cancel the appointment. This technique, or functionality, however, serves to improve the retention coefficient of the working time slots already acquired by the structure, helping to minimize the loss of earnings due to the renunciation or non-presentation of one or more customers.
The fashion of the moment would direct you towards a solution that foresees a beautiful and performing App, branded for both Android and iOS, personalized and exclusive for your company and for all your customers, and I, frankly, would fully support you in this choice, but there are other factors that we need to take into account, which we will see in the next article.
