Professionals working in global hair industry lose billions every year as as a result of customers not showing up to appointments; in the UK alone, the craft loses an estimated £1.2bn annually of its potential revenue.
If you roll out this figure across the whole world, the figures become staggering. New research by Powered by Flossie, retail software that helps enterprise hair and beauty businesses reduce booking abandonment and increase revenue by streamlining the user experience, has found that around a third of women in London admit to not showing up to a hair appointment, leaving salons to swallow up the costs. Millennials were found to be the worst offenders, with more than 44% of respondents aged 18-29 admitting to skipping a hair appointment at least once. As younger customers are more likely than average to book beauty services online (34 per cent of 18-29 year olds vs 27 per cent average), technological solutions to this issue are increasingly important.
The younger generation of consumers is also becoming used to having flexible payment options, including buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services. By incorporating these payment methods into online booking, salons can attract lucrative clients, while minimising the risk of no-shows.
Software services like the one offered by Powered by Flossie enable salons to do that easily, the software accesses calendar data displayed on the salon’s website (like services, times and employees) and processes the information, resulting in appointments that are merchandised similar to how you would buy fashion and apparel online, allowing customers to pay upfront.
The software works alongside most calendar software systems as a plug and play solution that extends the capabilities of the existing technology with modern tools that increase online booking rates and supports various pay-in-advance solutions providing guaranteed revenue.
“Salons in the UK face a number of challenges, but one of the most widespread is no-show clients. Traditional booking methods have only served to broaden this problem, leaving many salons with no choice but to accept no-shows as the cost of doing business.” commented Jenene Crossan, CEO and Founder of Powered by Flossie. “Having spent more than 20 years in the technology industry, I’ve seen first-hand how it can be used to change entrenched business practices. Powered by Flossie provides enterprise salons with software that enables them to offer their clients the best booking solutions; incorporating innovative payment options, easy to use interfaces and a way to end the no-show status-quo.”
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