In this comprehensive Salon Booking System review, we’ll be taking a look at a WordPress plugin that promises to answer the prayers of many a service-based business owner by taking the hassle and hard work out of filling up your appointment calendar.
Whether you’re new to running your salon or you’ve been operating at a small level for a while and can’t seem to find the time and resources to grow your business, you’ll know what a challenge it can be.
Every time you have to stop to answer the phone or respond to a message from a potential new client looking to book in with you, it takes time away from providing the best possible service to those clients who are already in your salon, waiting for you to work your magic on them.
Sure, you could ignore those phone calls and messages, but to do so means missing out on new clients. Alternatively, you could step away from working with a client who has already paid for your service, leaving them feeling less of a valued and appreciated customer than they would if they had your full, undivided attention.
Let’s be honest:
Neither approach is very helpful if you plan on growing your business.
Salon Booking System aims to solve that problem by putting your entire appointment-booking process on autopilot so that you can focus on doing what you do best:
Delivering amazing services to your existing customers and taking your salon business to new heights.
Still, Salon Booking System isn’t the only appointment-scheduling tool available for WordPress, so what makes this one so special?
More importantly, with several other top WordPress appointment booking plugins to choose from, why should you make this one an integral part of your business?
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We’ll answer both of these questions, and more, in the following Salon Booking System review.
Salon Booking System for WordPress: Who is it For?
As you’ll have deduced by its name, Salon Booking System pitches itself as the ideal tool for those in the health and beauty industry. Whether you’re running a beauty salon, a massage studio, or any similar business, the automated booking system gives clients the freedom to schedule their own appointments while still giving you all the control you need to confirm, cancel, or otherwise contact those new bookings.
Still, that doesn’t mean that beauty-based businesses are the only ones who can benefit from this powerful and versatile plugin.
Gyms, health centers, medical practices, rental services, repair shops, and more can all benefit from the plugin’s three biggest benefits:
1. Ease of Use
The more complex a booking system is, the more time and effort it takes to configure and use it, and thus the less time and effort you have to invest in your clients.
Fortunately, that’s not a problem with Salon Booking System.
Once installed and activated, this user-friendly plugin takes less than five minutes to configure.
Once up and running, you’ll find a sleek, modern interface with all the tools you need easily accessible.
As you’ll see below when we get hands-on with Salon Booking System, this smart, intuitive design ensures that you’ll have no problem managing every aspect of your system, even if you’re a tech novice.
2. Custom Booking Rules for Each Member of Your Team
Some WordPress booking systems only allow one user. This is great if you’re a freelancer or one-person operation, but if you have multiple team members, it’s simply unsuitable.
Not only does it mean that you have to spend more time delegating client bookings to your team, but it also means that clients have no way to book with their preferred person.
Again, this is another problem that Salon Booking System solves really well.
Custom scheduling rules can be for each staff member so that clients can see when their favorite is available and book in.
Behind the scenes, each member of your team can manage their own bookings through a smart app.
3. Flexibility and Customization
Every business is unique, which is why a one-size-fits-all booking system rarely works.
One of the great things about Salon Booking System is that it offers an extensive array of customizable options.
From the scheduling rules you set to show your weekly availability to payment options, reports, and more, you have the power to fine-tune this flexible WordPress plugin to best suit your needs.
Salon Booking System Key Features
Another big plus point for this salon booking system is that despite being very beginner-friendly, it still packs in all of the features you need to streamline and simplify your appointment bookings.
Among the vast feature list, some of the highlights include:
- Set flexible schedules for your whole business and/or individual team members
- Holiday rules to mark team members as unavailable
- Email and SMS notifications for new bookings, appointment reminders, follow-up, and feedback messages
- Mobile app
- Customer feedback forms
- Collect customer feedback via Facebook reviews and Google My Business
- Coupon codes
- Apply automatic discounts
- Customer database
- Accept online payments via PayPal or Stripe
- Reservations calendar
- Personal account pages for customers
- Customizable booking form
- Reports
- Front-end shortcodes
- Integrations with multiple third-party services.
Salon Booking System User Experience
So far, we’ve talked about how easy it is for salon owners to use this booking system, but what about your clients?
Let’s take a look at what your customers will see when you install Salon Booking System on your WordPress website.
Booking Form
Using a simple, visual editor, you can create a fully customizable form, collecting all of the data you need in a secure way that complies with global data protection laws.
On the front end, your customers will see a well-laid-out form that is a breeze to navigate.
After selecting the service type they want, your client can then select the individual treatment they require before moving on to select which specialist they want to book with.
From there, the calendar will show the chosen team member’s availability. All the customer has to do then is to choose the time and date they prefer, and create an account (or log in using an existing account).
This brings up a summary of the booking along with the cost and the option to apply any discounts.
Below that, you can also invite customers to leave a tip or a message with any special requirements for the person they’ll be seeing.
Finally, customers can pay a deposit for their service via PayPal or Stripe, or choose to pay later at the salon.
Customer Account Pages
When customers make a booking, an account is automatically created for them. This allows them to easily view and manage their existing bookings as well as booking new appointments.
There’s also a handy reservations history that lists all of the customers’ past appointments. If a customer wants to work with the same stylist as their last appointment but they can’t remember their name, having this useful history log will certainly prove useful.
Calendar
For us, one of the real highlights of the Salon Booking System is the beautifully designed calendar which gives you and/or your clients an at-a-glance overview of each assistant’s schedule.
Behind the scenes, this can be used to give salon managers a detailed look at their staff schedule along with which clients are booked in.
On the frontend of your website, you can use shortcodes to hide clients’ names for the sake of confidentiality while still showing when assistants are available.
Book by Service or Assistant
Finally, you can also set up eCommerce-like pages on your WordPress site which is great for regular clients who know who and what they want to book.
Navigating straight to the service or assistant page gives customers the ability to pick individual services or providers or even book a selection of different services and pay for them all at once.
Salon Booking System Pricing
For such a comprehensive WordPress booking system, we’re surprised to see how affordable this one is.
Plans start at just $69 per year for the basic package which allows for one installation and online payment acceptance via PayPal and Stripe.
The $89 per year business package includes all of the above, along with the ability to use add-on extensions for other payment options.
Finally, the $149 per year Full Support package offers the same as the Business plan, albeit with all of the installation and setup of the plugin taken care of for you.
Salon Booking System Pros and Cons
Pros
- Each team member can have their own mobile app to manage their schedule
- Coupon and discount codes can be generated to help boost customer loyalty
- Customers can view, manage, and make bookings via their own account page.
Cons
- In-built payment options are limited to PayPal and Stripe. You’ll need to use an add-on for other payment services (or using the Woocommerce add-on to use its checkout features).
Salon Booking System – The Easier Way to Run Your Business
As we said earlier, you don’t need to be running a health and beauty business to benefit from Salon Booking System.
Regardless of the service you offer, you’ll find this powerful, user-friendly plugin adds tremendous value by helping you to put your appointment booking on autopilot so that you can concentrate on delivering the best possible service to your customers in a way that helps you grow your business from strength to strength.
Try Salon Booking System Today
Keep reading the article at Learn WordPress with WPLift. The article was originally written by Team WPLift on 2022-09-22 10:27:42.
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