7 ways to spot and take advantage of opportunities using Fresha reports

Can you remember that feeling when you first decided you wanted to be your own hair and beauty boss? Wasn’t it exciting thinking about the values that would make you stand out from your competitors; visualising your branding and décor; and picturing that constant stream of clients - not to mention the dream of getting to live your passion each and every day?

You probably weren’t thinking about the quiet days when you wonder how you’re going to fill those gaps in your appointment diary; or the team members who don’t seem to be pulling their weight; or that lovely regular client who you can’t remember seeing for quite a while. 

The reality of being a salon owner, or running your own freelance hair and beauty business, is that there are going to be day-to-day challenges. Successful hair, beauty, and wellness businesses are the ones that learn from what’s really happening in their business – good and bad. They respond to challenges, address any issues, and maximise growth areas, as well as keep an eye on trends and opportunities from what clients ask for, and the world of celebrities, influencers, the media, and fashion, and beauty.

Fresha's appointment scheduling software gives partners a whole lot more than simply managing appointments. Based on partner feedback, we’ve developed 35 eye-opening reports that give you a complete picture of your hair, beauty, or wellness business which means you can quickly and easily see what’s happening in the moment, or over periods of time to maximise your success. 

Here are just 7 ways you can take advantage of opportunities using Fresha reports. 

Sales by hour

What made you choose your opening hours? Gut feeling? What your competitors were doing? You can find out if you’d benefit from another late night, or early morning viewing when people are booking your services. If your first thing and last thing appointments are always full, maybe it’s time for an extended day. Are you always quiet until mid-morning? You could consider starting later – or blocking in time to work on your business in the morning. 

That said, some salon businesses spot a mid-afternoon lull around school pick-up time. So why not introduce a time-specific promotion or service and promote it to groups of clients that are not so dependent on visiting the salon or spa during peak service times? 

Sales by service

Too many salons and beauty businesses invest energy trying to make a success of the things that aren’t going so well. So, buck the trend. Review your sales by service to find out what your most popular treatments or services are. Launching campaigns using Fresha’s marketing tools enable you to maximise the potential of your most popular services. And if a particular service is not yielding much, you could start to think about updating your service menu with new treatments and services that clients would love; or that there’s a demand for.

Spotting service opportunities that you don’t offer is a great way to attract new clients and get your existing ones to try something new! Social media, magazines, online articles, and trade media are great sources of information on what’s hot! And what better way to build a reputation as the expert of a best-selling niche service?

Sales by team member

There are so many reasons why a team member might be exceeding, or not hitting their numbers, but how will you know unless you review their reports and see what they are doing? Sales by team member reports can help you to identify their strengths and weaknesses, to shape both your marketing plan and their reviews. 

Using Fresha reports you may discover a training need or spot an unexpected strength, which you can use to create highly personalised KPIs. You’ll be able to see what staff members are performing and work with them to identify and address any reasons for that. Underperformance could be linked to external problems or mental health issues, so it’s valuable information that helps you become a great employer, as well as making sure your team is all contributing to your business.

Equally, reports can help you to reward your team for their efforts, and assist in identifying those with the potential to work up the ranks and even become a manager.  

Client list

Sometimes the best thing you can do is celebrate your biggest fans. After all, they are the people who are most likely to tell their friends, leave positive reviews, comment on your socials and read your marketing blasts!  

So if you want to run a VIP event for clients and their friends, try something new or canvas opinion about a treatment or service you’re considering your biggest spenders and most loyal clients are the people to target. 

Client retention

We could, and most likely will write another blog or two about all the ways you can use client retention stats to inform your marketing decisions and increase income. One of the most effective is to follow up with any clients you haven’t seen for 6 months or more. 

Use Fresha auto campaigns to regularly reach out to welcome new clients and win back lapsed ones. These are very effective if you just let clients know you’re thinking about them, and you can offer an incentive to encourage them back too. As part of your marketing, use Fresha Blast marketing campaigns to invite clients to take advantage of a new product, treatment or service, or the latest offer. 

Gift card sales

Do you run gift card promotions for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Black Friday and Christmas? Monitoring the number and type of gift cards being sold will help you to know which are the most popular?

You should also review your gift card redemption stats so you can calculate the real cost of each promotion. 

Sales by month

Had a quiet month? It’s really easy to spiral into panic mode – until you look at your sales by month stats and realise it’s a pattern you go through each year. When you know when your quiet times are, you can plan additional marketing activities, such as seasonal promotions, or work on your re-bookings to generate more income when you need it most.

With so much information at your fingertips, Fresha partners using reports daily, weekly and monthly are among those taking advantage of up-to-the-minute business intelligence to become even more successful. And the best bit, Fresha Reports are FREE and easy to use. 

Click here to learn more about running your business with Fresha and Fresha reports, and if you’re not already a Fresha partner, click here to join the world’s No.1 free appointment scheduling software