Fresha’s top tips for preparing your business for the hectic holiday season

For many beauty and wellness professionals across the globe, the last few months of the calendar year can be the busiest of them all. Whether your clients like to keep it low-key with their usual self-care services or go all out to make sure their hair, beard, and everything in between is on point for those all-important party snaps, you can be the driving force behind helping them look and feel their best over the holiday season. 

Since global curfews and social distancing measures meant a very different December 2020 to what we’re used to, your clients are likely to be spending more time than ever with the people they care about this year. And that could mean big business for anyone working in the industry.

To help your business prepare for the upcoming influx of bookings, we've put together a list of tools that Partners can take advantage of to see the holiday season out smoothly. 

Get to know the latest features

With features launching every month, it’s a good idea to spend time getting better acquainted with what’s new from Fresha.

In the past couple of months, they have introduced a number of new features and tools that will help you prepare for the hectic weeks ahead, including automatic upselling at checkout, real-time updates in client feeds, and custom links to your services that your clients can use to book in an instant. Tools like these are especially useful when free time is in short supply, so it’s worth getting to grips with them before the busy season really kicks in.

Set up online bookings (and add them to your socials)

In an age where a growing number of clients expect to be able to book services in an instant, traditional pen and paper just don’t cut it anymore.

Since 60% of online bookings are made outside of regular working hours, it makes sense to choose an online booking system that allows you to keep your business open 24/7 and your clients the freedom to book at their own convenience. With Fresha’s online booking system, your calendar takes care of itself, with appointments automatically added to your calendar, client payment details captured at the time of booking, and changes reflected in an instant with real-time updates for cancelled and rescheduled appointments. Take the stress out of managing your calendar and let your clients take control of their booking so you don’t have to.

Upsell, upsell, upsell

Whether offline or online, upselling your services at checkout is common practice in the beauty and wellness industry. Upselling has been proven to increase revenue and rebooking rates by encouraging clients to rebook your services at a discounted rate.

With Fresha’s brand new upselling feature, you can start offering clients the option to buy services in bulk when booking a service that’s already included in your available courses or memberships. Your clients get a better deal on the services they like to book, and you can increase your revenue and rebooking rate by upselling your services in bulk. Start upselling your courses, memberships, and services at checkout and see how much extra revenue you could be generating.

Activate no-show protection

One of the biggest challenges in the beauty industry involves finding ways to eliminate no-shows and reduce cancellations without losing clients or revenue.

When clients fail to arrive at their appointments or cancel at the last minute, it wastes valuable time and money. And that’s especially true during the busy season. With Fresha’s no-show protection policy, you can make sure your business is protected by confirming your client’s card details before their appointment and charging a fee if they cancel late or don’t show up. Although this may seem like a small step, it can help to eliminate cancellations and reduce no-shows by as much as 90%, saving you time and money by ensuring your appointment slots don’t go to waste. 

Using marketing tools

Equipping yourself with the right tools to promote your business is more important than ever during the competitive holiday season! When there’s more demand for your services, a well-thought-out marketing strategy can help you secure quick and easy sales from clients past and present.

Seasonal deals are your best friend, and promoting these through fully automated email and text message notifications delivered directly to your client’s inbox is a surefire way of securing those all-important bookings. Clients are more likely to book appointments if there’s a deal running for a short period of time, so why not offer them a quick incentive to act fast and book an appointment on the spot. With the right deals and marketing campaigns in place, you can be sure your clients know exactly what kind of deal they’ll be getting when they book with you. Keep your calendar full by keeping your clients in the know.

Track your income with real-time reporting

Fresha’s catalog of reporting tools provides you with an instant snapshot of how well you, your team, and your overall business is performing in real-time.

Covering everything from team commission, gift card sales, and sales by payment type, Fresha’s built-in reports give you a clear breakdown of how well your business has performed during a specific time period. With unlimited information at your fingertips, you can start using this data to make important business decisions about your expenses, opening hours, prices, marketing decisions, and more, before the busy season hits.

Grow your business, sell your services, and retain clients with Fresha’s market-leading booking technology.