Your 15 Point Salon Strategy that Drives Revenue in 2026

Good morning. Good morning, everybody. Thank you all for being here on this Monday morning. I know there was some winter weather that ran through the U.S. and some people are struggling this morning, so if you are here and you need it, thank you. We're going to give just another minute for more people to join in and then we're going to get started. Okay, while we're getting started here, We do have a reference. So if you look down below, you should see something that says resources. And in that resources is going to be your 15 point checklist. And you should be able to download that. And that's going to be the 15 points that we're going to be talking about today. So you're going to be able to take that with you and make it your own following along today and then being able to go back into the salon and implement these 15 strategies. Also, we do have a Q&A box down there or a chat box, whichever one you prefer. So as we're going through the session today, if you have any questions, if you have any of these things that you're already implementing that we're talking about today and you want to share how you're using them or some of the best practices that you have that we can also share, that would be lovely. we would love to hear how these things are working for you. And if you have questions and you want to direct those in there, then we'll go ahead and answer those at the end of the session, just to make sure we get through everything. And this session is being recorded, so after we're done here today, you will get an email with a copy of this recording. You'll see it in our February newsletter as well and on our education page, so you'll be able to reference back at any time. All right, let's get started. So my name is Lori and I'm the Director of Client and Partner Relations with Aura Salonware and I have Fabiola with me today. Morning, Fabiola. Good morning everyone. I see we have many attendees joining now. My name is Fabiola. I am replacing Jean for this morning because she got some snow over the weekend and is out of power, but very excited to be here, Lori. Thank you for joining. Yes, so you all are not the only ones that were impacted by weather. We also had some team members impacted by weather as well. So happy to have Fabiola on here and going through these 15 points. I'm going to stop sharing that now. um so the 15 points that we're talking about we've really been able to take these 15 points and we kind of broke them up into three different categories so we really put them in uh before your clients even come into your business then while they're there so the day of the service and then after the service and we're looking at how we've been able to discover that a lot of salons have realize about 29 or percent or more revenue growth by implementing these 15 points into their business um and we want to be able to help you simplify uh all of these different steps helping you dedicate your business to these strategies you're going to be able to streamline all of your operations implement a lot of automation see some increased profitability we want to see you have a higher loyalty rate and retention rate from your clientele. And so really just wanted to lay these 15 points out for you in a really straightforward checklist that you are able to follow along with and implement right into your business as soon as you leave here today. Yeah, Lori, I think it's very important because sometimes salon owners get a salon management software and they're very overwhelmed because there's a lot of things that the software can do. So these are the ones we have identified as being like, you need to focus on this. There are so many others, but I think these are the ones that will drive more revenue and dollars in your salon. Yeah, really, really good point. These are things that maybe you have seen these in Aura, but not quite implemented them yet, or maybe you're sort of using them, but want to get a little bit deeper into them. So let's get through these. So starting before the client even comes in for a service, right? They're sort of in like that discovering phase, especially if it's a new client, they're in that discovering phase. They have a lot of options, a lot of salons in the area. You're really presenting our business to why should they even come in to see you? And one of those things that checkpoint number one that we're looking at is online booking. And I know we can definitely talk about this one. I'm curious on other people's thoughts if you want to drop it into the comments. But I know that there's a lot of fear around online booking in general, a lot from the service providers, because they're just fearful that their clients are going to book the wrong service or that they're going to mess up their schedule or that they're going to mess something up. So online booking, the way that we have this and why we really encourage this is one, clients like to feel in control of their own appointments, their own schedule. I know I personally do. I think about other businesses that you go to, restaurants, things like that, where you're able to manage your reservations or things online. And I don't think it's any different really for in the salon. They want to have control over that. So with the online booking, the things that they get that control over, we want to let them be able to schedule either by their service or by their provider. And they can schedule for themselves. They can also schedule family members. So that way, when they're searching for an appointment, if they already come in and they know who they see, they're going to select that service provider right away. and then they'll be able to see only the services that that provider offers or maybe they're brand new and they're really just looking for a type of service but they don't really know with who or don't really care with you then they can search by service okay we have a couple of comments in the chat Lori we see Rhonda she started doing it a couple of months ago and it's a game changer I wish I would have done it sooner love to hear that Rhonda we have some salons that up to 60% of their bookings come through online booking. So if you're not doing it, it's definitely an opportunity. We have Rebecca that says one online booking problem we have is that there are odd gaps in the books. We prefer to book appointments back to back and sometimes online booking leaves odd gaps. I think there are solutions to your problem, Rebecca. For example, if you're using Aura, you can you know you you in some softwares now offer this back-to-back only option to this now is that yeah so let me get into that point so if you are using aura for example and you have recurring clients or say for example you do a haircut and a blow dry with someone with not a lot of hair and then you realize you know what maybe i didn't need to take the full hour so you can go as far as adjusting that specific client timing. So the next time that client books the appointment, it's going to take whatever you decided that it's going to take. Yep. Awesome. So that's a way to solve that. You know, I just want to call out to Fabiola, as we're going through these 15 points, if you're currently using Aura already, and we're shouting out some things that maybe you're not, you don't know how to implement them all the way, 100% encourage you to reach out to our support team or if you have a dedicated account manager, chat with them because they can help you implement these things into your account and making sure that you're using them in the most efficient way possible. Right? So we want to just kind of shine some light on the capabilities that aura has, and then make sure that you know what they are so that you can dig in and get them a little bit further. So, okay, so the next thing is we've got about six bullets here on just online booking. So one is make sure that you're scheduling by provider or by the service. Number two, they can book multiple appointments at one time or multiple services. Like Fabiola, you just said, maybe they want their color, their blow dry, and their manicure done, right? They can book multiple services. They can add themselves to the wait list. And I think that this one is critical because if you are a highly efficient service provider or somebody who books out multiple services, let them add themselves to the wait list. It's sort of your insurance plan, right? If somebody cancels last minute, they're going to get a message right away to see if they want to take that spot. And it helps to fill that gap if you happen to have a cancellation last minute. The next one is that they're able to purchase memberships, packages, classes and gift cards and series if you sell those things. So if you have those things enabled in your business, memberships, which are becoming huge again in the industry, you want to make sure that those things are people can buy those. right? Not just while they're in their salon, but if they come to your website, they want to buy a gift card for somebody, they're able to do it immediately without having to call, without having to come in, all those things. We have service descriptions. And this I think is important for stylists to know because where that fear, where they think like the client is booking incorrectly, make sure your service descriptions match what you want your clients to know and see. So use the help of AI, you know, whatever you need to do, but make sure that your service descriptions are really on point, that it's very clear messaging. Your clients have a very clear understanding of what this service is. So when they book, they have that really good picture. And then lastly, we, or also has an abandoned booking, which is probably one of my favorites. And I talk about this all the time, but this is when clients log into book a service and they start going through the process and then they walk away for whatever variety of reasons, right? The doorbell rang and they walked away from their screen and put their phone down. They did something. So after that happens, if they did not complete it, they're going to get a text message from the salon and encourage them to, hey, a gentle reminder, like, hey, it looks like you didn't complete this. Do you want to go out and complete this service? And it encourages them to get that appointment booked um okay anything else febula on online booking specifically online booking i think you did a great job covering that i see we have a lot of questions you have a lot of questions if you want we can you keep writing it down we can leave those on the air at the end if not we will get to a specific yep yes that's good all right so that was checkpoint number one i know your 15 points. Number two is to automate your tasks. We hear this all the time. Fabula, I, our support, our sales team, everybody, everybody wants things that are automated or what also people are considering it as more of an AI feature, but these are automations. And this is, we're talking specifically enabling these for your client communications, like your reminders and those client notifications. This saves you as the salon owner or your manager or front desk so much time. I I've been in the salon industry for 21 years and I still see people, you know, picking up the phone and calling for confirmations, but you know what? People don't answer the phone anymore. Even if they know who it is, like they're busy, they're at work, they want a text message, they want an email, whatever it is, but they're not answering so much. So when you're able to put these things on autopilot and you set them up to just trigger off to those clients saves you so much time throughout the day. And it also helps you to know when your clients confirm when it's notated on your schedule you can see that they have confirmed and it gives you that sense of safety of like your schedule right um oh the automatic appointment confirmations the reminders the check-ins uh the other thing is it helps prevent the risk of no-shows right so when you do put these things if you have a receptionist that's calling or reaching out directly and they don't hear anything back a lot of times they don't go back later in the day and try to call again or they're not calling the next day so by putting these on auto auto you know automatic they're going to see it whether they look at that text message immediately or if they look at it a few hours from now but it prevents the no-shows in the last minute cancellations because it's like that oh my gosh i didn't i didn't know or i forgot or i didn't put it on my calendar kind of thing right so we want to make sure that we're putting those things um automated for you and your business. So if you don't have those yet enabled, you want to definitely check those out, what that message looks like, how it sounds, and see how it impacts your business from using them to not using them. Yeah, I agree, Lori. I think this is definitely one of the most important points probably that we're going to discuss this morning because as small business owners as salon owners that are maybe working behind the chair this the ability to automate the tasks and take something off your plate will definitely make a huge change in revenue you could be using that time actually generating revenue for your salon being behind the chair or doing something that maybe you know cannot be automated yeah i need as a client i need the reminder i need it and I need it more than one time you know before I before I get into my appointment because people are busy and they have a lot going on these days and they need that gentle reminder okay so number three on your checklist which kind of goes hand in hand with the last one we just talked about but it's implementing a cancellation policy I still see a lot of businesses that don't have one or it's very gray area it's very kind of loose and this one is up for discussion too, I think, because I've heard both sides or multiple different perspectives on this where they don't want to, they don't want to make their clients feel a certain way by like enforcing this really rigid, strict policy. But the other side of that is you're really protecting your business and you're protecting the revenue of your business, right? When you, when you have one in place, you can still kind of use some judgments or let your team use judgments on who they enforce this with necessarily, but I definitely, and we, or we encourage you to have it, right? We encourage you to write it out what you would like it to look like, because by having this clear policy in your salon and in your business sets the expectations for those clients, especially first time or new clients, because you want them to know that this is, this is a business, right? And so you're protecting your revenue. You're protecting your time of your service providers from having last minute cancellations or no-shows if you don't have something like that in place. Yeah. And a way of doing that without having to, you know, even like deal with it in person necessarily is like you can request clients to store their credit card and file. You can have them sign a waiver or accept that the cancellation policy, you know, And that protects your business, not only protects your time, but protects your business from the person coming like, hey, I missed my appointment and you still charge me whatever percent, depending on whatever cancellation policy you decide on. What's other ways that you think that as a lawn lorry can implement a cancellation policy? I think it's best practice to put your policy in every visible place that you can imagine doing. So I would reserve a space on your website for a cancellation policy, implement it into your online booking somewhere that clients will see that policy as well. Put it posted up in the salon somewhere. So when clients are there, they just know maybe they're not historically a canceler of a client, but you want them to just at least be aware of it. So I would recommend just making it as visible as possible. So if you're somebody that maybe feels uncomfortable having to like tell somebody or enforce it when it's when it is time it's easier to say you know we share it in multiple ways we're very transparent about it we're very open about it you know if you've accepted it in these different places um and it makes it takes it a little bit off of you and you don't have to be so defensive over it it's just part of your business yeah and internally you make a really good point like maybe you don't want to apply it to your vip clients you know maybe it's just that one time that they you know they didn't show or they showed up late so I think creating like internal guidelines for your team like okay you can say no to this type of clients and you can make those um make those changes actually in the software as well so that your team can see it so also some people might have different type of judgments so I think also creating internal guidelines for your team I see that Rebecca is asking, she wants to know a bit more how it looks like with the check button. We'll share that with you. and andrew has a really good practice that i wanted to share so andrew said that he has his policy hung up on his wall and they have new clients fill out their information with that policy and they also put it in their aura policies so then also when people get a text message for their appointment there's a link that leads to that policy and i love that andrew nice job on that um it's a very clear way it's a very part of your process and it's just you know it's part automated right what we just kind of talked about so it's done for you yeah and i see rebecca's comments yes you can see it they can sign it and you can see it and you can show it to them a i'll connect with your account manager so she can exactly show you how to implement it but yeah you can totally have a that record on file not that all right perfect so number three is implementing a cancellation policy number four is pre-consultations or what we call our virtual consultations and this is one that is also sort of like up in the air some people love it some people don't maybe you need it maybe you don't and we put this one on there because we wanted you to know how effective this can be um but optimizing your salon schedule with pre-consultations or virtual consultations this is an online service and allows for clients to send pictures or visualizations and for you to discuss with them what their needs are and their preferences before they even come in for their service. Number one, right out the gate, this really shows this client, whether it's a new client or an existing client, that you are tuned into them, right? You identify that they have an appointment scheduled, they're sending in these pictures, you're talking with them, you are making them feel comfortable. And especially as a new client, when they do have all sorts of options, The emotion from a new client is sort of like, I don't know what to expect. I don't know what to do when I get there. I'm a little unsure. And by having this as a, as in place gives them a little sense of safety and a little feeling of being taken care of. Right. Do you have to use this with every single client or every single, single service that. Booked not necessarily. Right. I think maybe we would recommend, uh, color transformations, um, big projects that you might be working on right fabulous any other suggestions that you can think of i think it's like that like in very specific cases a new client you know just for reassurance like also to set expectations you know what if like i want to go you know platinum blonde like it can be done but maybe like over a period of time you know also to set expectations and then you leave with happy clients yeah extension clients maybe it could be a really good one you're right and i think about when you're booking online or anywhere i'm thinking about prices also where clients kind of want to know people don't generally buy things without knowing what they're paying right 99 of the time this can also be a way to help ease them into an estimate of cost of service so if you if if somebody books a full highlight, but maybe they have hair, you know, down to their waist or something, or it's super thick, and it's going to cost a little bit more than what your starting price is listed on your website. This by seeing this or going through a virtual consultation could help you get some estimate of time. So it reduces like a sticker shock on the day of service. Okay, so the next ones that we have, we have three that kind of tie together. And this is around your client communications. Again, client communication is huge if you're picking up on sort of this theme and it's staying in touch with them. This is all before they even came in for the day of service. These are all things that you can do to sort of safety guard that appointment and be in touch with them, make them feel like they are seen and heard before they even come in. So these next three are two-way text messaging, email marketing, and text message marketing, right? So we've got three different things on here. They are all separate and different ways. So let's just start with two-way texting. And I've got a stat on here to share. With text messages, they have a 98% open rate in general. This is an overall text market. 98% open rate, while email marketing is only at about 20% open rate, which is a huge gap. That's a really big different. And that doesn't mean that email marketing is inefficient. It just means people are 98% of the time opening their text messages where email hit or miss, right? And you couldn't have a higher open rate in your business. Maybe it's even lower. And maybe those things come with fine tuning your messaging, your subject lines, things like that. But it's pretty interesting, 98% open rate on text messages. Then also while we were just talking about client communications and notifications and things like that, 55% of consumers prefer to have a text message for appointment reminders, where only 35% of those consumers prefer to have an email notification. So just think about what you have in place in your business already today. Are you only sending out email for notifications? Or just calling? Yeah, or are you just calling? Or are you implementing text message marketing. And we're not really saying, hey, you should only do one or the other, or you have to do all of them. But what we are saying is be aware of client preferences and in their profiles, how you can notate, do they want, what type of communications that they want, but identify that because not everybody is the same. And think about your clients' age ranges and the demographics of your clients. Are they people who prefer a text? Are Are they people that prefer an email? Text marketing has become pretty much a vital communication for almost everybody. And the two way texting specifically, you know, think about how you can use that with your clients. It can be, hey, there's some construction in front of the salon today. Please pull around the back. It could be, hey, I noticed you sent a review. Thank you so much. Just wanted to acknowledge that. These are quick, but they're one to one text communications. So you and that client or your receptionist or your manager and that client direct one-to-one conversations. Yeah. I'd love to hear from everyone that joined today. How are you guys using it? One, are you using this type of features and how are you using it? We've heard some really cool cases, how salons get very creative on how to use them. We've had salons that offer services that their most loyal clients don't even know that they offer. And they send a quick text saying like, hey, I noticed like you're coming for your haircut today. Did you know we also offer this? Do you want to add it to your service today? you know a very cool ways that clients are using it or to feel a new new stylist's uh books and andrew shared how his is implemented today so let me share this so they have he has all three implemented two-way email marketing and text marketing and they're getting an email for their appointment when it's scheduled so their itinerary confirmation then they get a reminder text three days prior so 72 hours ahead of their appointment they're getting a reminder text um if it's not confirmed two days before then they call them to avoid a cancellation policy if they have to reschedule i think that's a really great practice may show andrew on that one yeah so that way you're you're communicating in multiple different ways in multiple different types of time so they get their their confirmation or their itinerary sent to them immediately after booking than a text reminder. If it wasn't confirmed, then you're also making a phone call. Great attempts. The next one that we'll talk about is the email marketing. Email marketing can be great for so many different things and fine tuning this and getting the tone of your business right and the tone that your clients are hearing and the things that you're sending. Because just think about your own inboxes. I can think about my own inboxes and how they sort of break into like your spam, your promotions folder, your standard inbox folder. Maybe you didn't see it at all, but is what you're sending catching their attention? What, you know, what are you sending to them? And some things that I think we would recommend that email marketing can be beneficial for are things like a newsletter. Are you staying in touch with your clients? Remember they have choices, they have options. And this again, just remember, these are all things before they even come in for their service that you can be sending out to them. It's the way to stay in touch with them before they even come in. But a newsletter, letting them know what are some of the things going on in your business. You could send them, maybe you have new services for maybe do seasonality services or specials, and you want to send those out. You have new service providers, something changed. Maybe you're implementing a new policy. Maybe you're doing a little price increase. Things that you want to send out to every single client for awareness and notification can be really great examples for email marketing. Yeah. I think also like things that maybe do not need like a immediate response are also like good for like, for example, maybe, you know, confirmation email, like, you know, we see how Andrew is doing it, that he sent an email, but a few days before the appointment via email. So maybe he doesn't need that immediate confirmation that point, but then he sends a text message so i think it's maybe when you don't need to get an immediate response i see andrew also saying that he sends it for traffic alerts if there's construction or for promoting facial services um also like if you are new and don't implement a online booking yet but you want to do it you can explain how it works if you think it's necessary in an email yeah okay and And then the next one is our feature is called sent, which is text marketing. So similar to email marketing, which you're going to send it out in a text message. So when we talk about the difference in Fabiola for anybody that doesn't know is a part of our marketing team. And so she sees and does a lot of these things also for clients. But when we're talking about text marketing, we're essentially saying, okay, here's our email marketing that we sent out. How do we summarize it? Right? because you're not sending out that same message that you sent out in an email, in a text message, that's just way too long. And then those messages add up, right? So Fabiola, do you have any best practice or suggestions or ideas for like how to simplify or what would be most effective in a text marketing? Best practices for text marketing is it doesn't have to be a plain text. use images use emojis use gifs if you want we have some salon owners that get great results when they send an image and a text so it can be like super visual even if you have to write a lot of words and use a lot of characters you can have some in the image some in the text it's more appealing to the customer. So I think that's where we see the best results when you use a mix of images and text. Also keep in mind, just because you're using these tools, just because you're using email, just because you're using text marketing and you're not actually like on the phone with a client, still send it like how you would talk to them in person. Still use that tone, that friendly like still send it like that they know they know it's automatic they know it's automatic but like still send it like how you're talking to them yeah i think that's a really good point if your message is really professional and it's very like a totally different tone and then they come in and then you talk in a completely different way it feels like a different business that they were interacting with right so the tone that you use in your business should be the tone that you use when you're marketing with your business also, right? Because that is who they're, you attract the people that are like your business. And so if you're talking to them in a completely different tone than when they're going to receive, when they walk in, it's going to throw them off a little bit. So your language is very important. Okay. So the last point, number eight that we have, um, before the client even comes in is promotions. And this is also one that maybe you're not running these all the time, but we're early in the year right now where you should be sitting down and you should be identifying what points in the year you're going to be offering promotions, what those look like and how you want to do it because you don't want to put everything on sale. That's not, we're not in the business of putting everything on sale and discounting all of our services. We don't want that, but we do want to highlight some very strategic points in your year that this could be really beneficial and promotions can help you drive in new clients. They can also help you retain existing clients and also help those existing clients maybe try services that they've never considered or they've never gotten done in the past um some different things that you could consider are personalized time limited district up discount so like this period that this period maybe is one week at a time maybe it's only on mondays for this length of time uh you want to bundle your offers so maybe it's a salon with a spa service maybe it's a nail service with a scalp service whatever that looks like um implementing your loyalty program for these promotions and then seasonal promotion so right now we're still in new year dry winter months we're going to come up into spring graduations you know bright and fresh and nice people are going to start seeing you know want some seasonal transitions um summer time and then we're going to go back into fall right transition again back into fall so think about those times and use your reports go back and look at what services did the best during the seasonal trends identify what those trends look like and then help to curate your promotions around those times yeah i see joe is sharing you know a great example of how he's actually using both email text with promotions and so he shared we use the combo of sent an email to announce our seven hour one day 25 of holiday sale on saturday November 22nd and we did over $23,000 in retail sales. We always use a visual in both communications and they want to know when sales occur. Great job, Joe. I think this is a great example of how you use different features together to achieve results and those are great. Imagine $23,000 in retail in seven seven hours yeah hey joe and karen thanks for joining us and thank you for sharing that too that is amazing and i love to share your guys's retail successes all the time um because there are people that are probably listening right now if you didn't hear her say this correctly twenty three thousand dollars in retail sales um in seven hours seven hours in seven hours, not even a full working day, $23,000 in retail sales. I know salon businesses that don't do $23,000 in a full year in retail business. So you guys have done a really great job of putting that promotion out there. It's a limited time. It's a big deal. You share it through sent an email announcement and you killed it. So nice job. Um, okay. So those were all the things prior to a client ever even coming into your business first. A lot about communication, right? You hooked them in, you got them in to see the business, you got them booked, and then you led up with communication before the day up. So enabling your online booking, using your automations for clear communication, client reminders before they come in, implementing a clear cancellation policy. You could be loose with however you're holding them to it, but make sure it's there and it's consistent. I enabling and using virtual consultations specific clients, you might need that two way texting for that one to one client communication email and text marketing and then. Considering some promotions throughout the year and how that can help enable and boost your business. Alright, so the next category is the day of the service, so you got them in they didn't cancel but in no show whatever they are here so we've got four bullets for when they are in your in your salon for that day of. And it's gift cards, a loyalty program, memberships, and referrals. So let's get started with gift cards and how you can implement gift cards. So using gift cards can help you boost your sales in the salon. Of course, they can buy gift cards online. If you're enabling your online booking, they can buy gift cards online. They can also buy it in the salon. Salon to have an effective gift card program have seen as much as 8% of their overall revenue coming from gift card sales. Also, gift cards are one of the not one of it is the most highly requested gift for any type of occasion. You think birthdays, graduations, anniversaries, teacher gifts, holiday gifts, right? gift, right? I can go on and on for like different reasons people want a gift card, but that's like the number one request, I guess, from people is they want a gift card. We have some fun features coming for gift cards in a couple of days. I'm not going to tease anything, but very cool features specifically for you know valentine's days and holidays coming up so stay tuned you'll get an email with the news on gift cards yeah uh we have an example too on gift cards and similar to like what joe was saying how he uses um his promotions we have a salon that does something similar with promotions for a gift card sale where if they they do a promotion and the promotion is if you buy a $150 gift card you receive a $50 personal bonus card so you buy w i bought you a $150 gift card i get $50 back for myself this is a very timely offer um they promote it through social media as well as text marketing and email marketing um and the salon that runs this promotion they did $55,000 in just virtual gift card sales in nine hours. So very similar to what Joe was sharing. This is a nine hour gift card promotion of buy $150 gift card, get $50 for yourself. They could also give away that 52, right? Like you don't have to keep yourself. But this business earned $55,000 in nine hours in gift card sales. Huge. And I know they just keep beating their records, lori they do just keep eating it which is because they're building that you know people will come back for it it's something that it's been consistent for them similar to what joey and karen are doing it's been consistent and people look for it and they buy it and then they start buying more right um we don't have this stat but i we we do have it i just don't have it here to share but i know that there's also a statistic around people who buy gift cards in the amount that people don't redeem so sometimes that money people will buy the 150 gift card and sometimes it goes unredeemed and when that happens of course you want the people to come in your business right of course you want them in for a service because then it's your opportunity to get them back but if they don't that's still just revenue for the business that you're earning that they're not coming in um one that we do have is in general people spend 35 more than the amount that's on their gift card and that's huge so if you get a hundred dollar or 150 gift card in general people are spending an additional 35 on whether it's product more services whatever it is they're spending more money when they receive those that's very cool it also it's like a way to bring new clients if it's some if they give the gift card to someone that doesn't know your salon well now they're a little bit forced to go to your salon they end up spending more and you have a new client mm-hmm yep okay so the next one is referrals and i've been here i've been behind the chair i'm a licensed stylist i've been in the salon asking for referrals can feel weird sometimes right like it can just say like you know can you send me your friends kind of thing um it can feel uncomfortable until you do it enough times and you have your message correct and you feel comfortable with your client to say fabula i love you know seeing you on my chair so much i would love to see some of your friends if you have anybody that you think would love to come in and have their service done with me you know here's my referral program right but learning that language but there is nothing better than word of mouth your marketing can work great your google ads can work great all over the things but there's nothing better than saying hey fabula you would love my hairstylist you should go and see her you would just love it so much right like that's the best compliment that we get is a word of mouth referral why is it so hard for us to ask for them and what can we do around that well one one of the ways that we can get referral programs which is a way that benefits not just you as the stylist or the salon owner but as the client is reward the client you know uh ask them for a referral say hey if you refer me some people then you'll get a reward the next time you come in and this is something that can be done on aura as well um so it's a win-win situation you know the client wins and the salon wins it could be a discount on the next service it could be an add-on service or a gift with your next purchase yeah they win something too of course if they love you and they love the service, they're a little bit more happy to share your name with somebody, but who doesn't love to be incented for something also, right? Okay. The next one is the loyalty program and creating a loyalty program is something that just makes people feel a little more inclusive to your business. And they feel sort of like they're part of the club with you. And by implementing the loyalty program, it's really a point system where clients can earn points per dollar spent, right? Pete, you probably have two or three businesses that you frequent that have something like this. Why not implement it into your business also? Yeah. I would love to know if anyone is doing, you know, if asking for referrals, doing a loyalty program. We got another comment actually. I just shared it to everybody so you can see it. Tracy, thank you for saying this. You can't see everybody's comments. So I did copy and paste this into everybody. But the best referral method that they do is they give clients some cards. They write their names on it and then the client passes them out. If someone comes in with a card, both the referred client and the one who referred them get a discount on their service. Hey, guerrilla marketing, right? There's nothing better than saying, here's one card for you. So you have my contact and three for your friends and give one to your best friend, your coworker, your neighbor, whatever. And that's working for you. So nice job, Andrew. And you know what's cool about that asking for referrals is you'll get more clients like the ones you have, you know? Yeah. You know, like if, Lori, you send me your friends, your friends are probably going to be like you. And that's the type of client that I want, right? Exactly. Exactly. Okay. So the next one that we have, and this is the last one on the day of service. is memberships and this is one that i remember this was really hot a few years ago everybody was doing membership membership businesses were opening um and then it sort of simmered down a little bit and it wasn't quite so much and now i'm seeing this trend coming back again a lot of businesses are really getting back into this membership program again and i think it's a really great thing to do and it doesn't necessarily mean every single one of your services need to that also be offered as a membership, you can be very selective. If you are using memberships today in some form or capacity, drop that into the chat, because we want to see and hear about how you guys are using these also. But it's a really great way to predict your revenue in the future, because somebody buys a membership, maybe they buy a blowout membership and they get four services a month, maybe it's two a month, whatever it is, and it recurs every single month. You know that they're coming in. You've got their card on file. You're automatically billing for that membership. It's guaranteeing them because most of the time, if I'm paying for it, I'm coming in for it. There's times that they might not come in for it. And that's okay, too, if they chose not to. But you're collecting the revenue for that every single month. And it's a really great way to identify if you see clients that maybe I'm just booking my weekly blowout, but I don't have a membership. That's a really great conversation to have. It's like, hey, Lori, looks like you're coming in and you're paying this. And we could save you a little bit of money. and we could book you out for, you know, the next six months, every week or whatever that looks like, which you're really securing. Yeah. What's cool about memberships too, Laurie, is that you can set it up in a way that, that you're covered, right? Like you're maybe won't accept a membership walking on a Friday or a Saturday, right? But you can choose your slow days or you can choose the stylists who may not be as booked as you know that your most senior stylist or your most popular stylist so there's a a lot you can play around with with memberships maybe you don't offer like your most popular services but you offer you know say you do a blowout okay but maybe you know you also do the haircut you offer to do the haircut at that same time or you offer a treatment um So there's a lot to play with with memberships. I'd love to know if anyone is doing memberships and what are you doing? You made such a really good point, though, around this is maybe you don't want to offer these membership services during your busiest days of the week. Maybe Thursdays and Saturdays still tend to be the busiest days. Maybe they're not applicable on those days. So maybe you do a blowout service, but it's only available the first half of the week. maybe it's only available for new service providers who are looking to build their clientele. So it's very customizable. This is one that you definitely should be looking into and be playing around with if you need some help with it. We definitely have some help center articles in Aura. Account managers and our support teams can help you navigate this one, but there's a lot of flexibility in the way that you can offer it and who you're offering it to and with what providers. So this is definitely one that I would encourage you guys to look into. Okay, so that wraps up day of service. If there's other things that you guys are doing day of service that we didn't call out, we'd love to hear those too. So we talked about gift cards, implementing a loyalty program, so rewarding your clients for coming in and making those purchases, and memberships. and we talked oh you know we didn't we missed we missed uh referrals we're talking about referrals and asking for um and i think that kind of goes hand in hand with their asking for um oh no we did we talked we did talk about we did talk about referrals yeah i see a comment from randy saying that he's been fortunate enough that to referral he's now able to screen prior to accepting an appointment i'm not sure if i understand that one but if you can share more randy what you're doing we'd love to share with the rest of the salon owners on the call yeah he's saying he can like screen who the referrals are yeah elaborate a little more for us randy but good morning and thank you for being here i love that okay um ronda is saying she pre-books sorry she pre-books the next two appointments and they have a chance to win a gift card love that that's a great practice randa let me share that one so everybody can see that that's a really good one love to know how much is the gift card that you're offering oh Oh, sorry. Sorry. Sorry. I just read something that made me super excited. So Randy's saying that he is fortunate enough that he gets so many referrals. He screens them now. So he's busy enough that he can choose who he services. Yeah. That's a great problem to have Randy. Yeah. Okay. So Rhonda, who I shared their pre-booked their next two appointments and and enter to win a gift card the gift card is anywhere between 150 and 250 dollars so that's significant love that thank you for sharing okay so data gift card loyalty program memberships and asking for those referrals uh let's get to after the appointment because after they leave for their service that relationship is not over that communication has not ended you want to make sure that they're they're still thinking of you even if they did book their next service which which we hope that they did. You still want to keep that dialogue open with them. You still want to make sure that the communication, the lines of communication are open and channels are there because as they go, they go six weeks or 10 weeks between their services. They're walking past a lot of different options that they could be visiting and we want to make sure that they're still choosing you. One of those things is to continue using your email, text message marketing. Make sure that you captured their email and their phone number and their client profiles and include them in all of those communications. So making sure if you're sending out a newsletter, updates on your business, new services, promotions, gift card promotions, that those are hitting those clients. even if they are coming back for another service. It gives them the opportunity to either add on to that existing service that they booked or to try a new service or just to see any of the news and the announcements that you have going on. Okay, so three things that we're going to talk about after the service that still impact your business and can help drive revenue are one, reviews, crucial to everybody's business. Two that are a little in there, but we're going to talk about inventory management and then your dashboards which also will consider your reporting right um but let's talk about reviews and again if you're asking for reviews we'd love to hear how you're asking for reviews um but within aura specifically reviews are a very personal thing it's kind of like asking for a referral right that feeling from the service providers kind of like hey can you leave me a review oh if you loved your hair can you tell your you know can you write me a a Google review or put it on my Facebook, it can be a little uncomfortable again, sometimes, right? To ask somebody to share if they loved their service from you. Within Aura, we have that capability. So after their service, they're automatically going to get a message from you or the business that says, you know, whatever that message is, that's going to ask them to leave you the review. And then that review can automatically get shared to your website or get shared to social. You can automatically send them a Google link to your Google review so that they can leave a review on Google. You can still ask them to leave you a review. You sort of get that intuition, that feeling like, did they love the service? Are they super happy? Did they walk out smiling? And did they take their own selfie in the parking lot? Like you kind of get that idea where you might want to ask them. If you still are a little uncomfortable and not really sure about saying, hey, could you, you know, scan the code and leave us a review? just know that within our automation and aura they're going to get that they can they can choose whether they get it or not because yeah i mean to be honest maybe we don't want everyone to leave a review right but you can you can make that choice as well um i see i see some great comments about reviews we have where we have some salon owners here that say that they offer a discount if they leave a review and screenshot it. And they also have a QR code on the checkout desk that sends them straight to the Google reviews page. We have another one that says, let them know they get to be a part of the salon community as they leave a review. A review is an indirect referral. It's an indirect referral that can reach even more people. And the worst thing you can get, it's like maybe they don't leave it, right? But it doesn't hurt to ask. Yeah. The impact on a business. Let's talk about that really quickly. So asking somebody to leave a review, you know, you kind of get over that hump of like the insecurity of asking or you set it up in Aura and it's automatically sent out. But the impact that that can leave on your business when you have, because now we're at the end of somebody's cycle, but it's starting all the way over again because you have new clients that are looking for a new salon and they happen to be looking at Google salons near me. And then they happen to see your Google reviews. Bam. That's where that's where that impact is, right? Because if you have clients that love your services and they left you the review and they're on Google, they're on your website, they're on your social media, because those are the places that new clients specifically are going to look. but they're going to see those reviews and people with positive reviews are more than likely to get those new businesses. Yeah. So another thing I've seen salons do with reviews sometimes is they have a QR code right on the station, right? And I think the best way to implement something like reviews, it's like, get your team used to it. Just how stylist won't leave someone you know with their won't let leave someone with their wet hair like make sure that they also don't forget to ask for a review like make it part of the routine perfect okay so the next one we're gonna switch kind of gears here but we're gonna talk about inventory and getting a handle on that inventory and making sure that it's efficient for your business and if you're thinking like well what what does this have to do with you know driving revenue well think about and i have a memory that has never left my brain the time that i literally was talking up a product so much oh my god it's the best one you have to have it like amazing and then finish the service go to get them at the front desk grab the product and by the way it's out of stock right so now you're like oh well here's the second best product here's my second favorite right well now that impact just you know didn't it's not as valuable anymore as like well I'll wait until you get the first one in and now you lost your retail sale entirely. Or they're like, okay, I'll settle for your second best. That's where it really comes in. It's like you're setting the experience for your client and then also it's directly tied to your revenue. When you have your inventory implemented and you have inventory process and protocol that you're following, you make sure that you not only have all your retail products that you need, but you make sure you have all your back bar products that you need for all of your services also and it's also cost efficiency right so like how much money are you spending on retail products how much money are you spending on your back bar products what percentage of that should it be of your total sales revenue right so you want to make sure that you're monitoring those things you want to make sure that you have the products in stock that your clients are looking to buy or that your service providers are recommending so that they're not recommending second best products like i did one time um and making sure that you have all the right things on hand yeah i think that's more common than you think i've also had that same experience lori as a as a customer at the salon uh uh the stylist was like you have to get this this will fix your hair and not have it not on stock yeah and then guess what they do amazon.com and they started looking yeah or they went to a big box you know somewhere else that has all the salon products and they probably bought it from there because they didn't actually come back you know a week later when your inventory came in they went and got something else or they just didn't get anything at all um the other thing that we have related to inventory is being able to order your products to your distributor right from your aura account so that just makes things a lot easier if you're still using pen and paper writing anything down and handing notes or texting your sales distributor rep like they don't want that either right get it nice get it clean put it in order have it sent automatically to your distributor and have that inventory um when it arrives you automatically update and receive that through your aura account also just makes your reporting so much easier and cleaner um okay the last one number 15 is reporting this is just as crucial as anything else because you did steps 1 through 14 to try to get a new business, retain your existing clients, drive your revenue, all of those things. But if you don't know where you're starting, you don't know where you're going and you can't monitor those things, right? So you want to make sure that you know how many appointments you got in. What is the revenue for that? How much revenue did you bring in for like our examples for gift card sales or for your promotions that you did? You want to be able to see the impact that you're having on all of the efforts that you're doing every single day. You're doing your payroll. making sure that that's accurate and correct. Your standard KPIs, your client retention, your retail to service dollars, what services are the most popular? What retail items are the most popular? What retail items are not moving? What have you not sold in the last 90 days that maybe you need to get off your shelf? Maybe you need to replace something. So dashboards and your reporting are critical. Also for coaching, do you really want to talk about how to use it for coaching or yeah also I want to make mention before we get into coaching is how easy the reports in Aura are they just give you the information that you need you know you can download them or you can look at the dashboard which is very visual but very easy very straightforward you don't need to be jumping around to to get to conclusions specifically Typically for coaching, inside Aura you have a dashboard that is personalizable to each team member. You can let them know what they, depending on what you're measuring, are you measuring retail sales or are you measuring services? You might be measuring different things for different people in your team. So you can use it for coaching. for example, I know some salon owners have recurring meetings with their stylists to hold accountability. Like, you need to do this much in service, you need to do this much, and they can look at it on their phone. So I think it's a great tool for that, for coaching and for your own data. What about also for, and we kind of talked about this on some other points too, but seasonality, right? Because trends change all the time. People, your clients might be changing. And as you get new clients, maybe the demand is different. Demographically, wherever you're located, your services might differ from what other people are doing. And I think that's important too, to understand what the trends are in your business. And you can find those things out through monitoring your reporting and seeing your dashboard. It also varies from like, maybe you're looking at retention and your salon retention in general is 70% for existing clients, but maybe that 70% is from like two of your top performers and the other service providers are lower. That's something that you want to know too. Seasonality, are you selling more hydrating, you know, products? are you what you know what are you selling this season versus last season um and being able to look back year over year to see what those trends look like also oh this is a good one andrew this he's talking about using his dashboard and reports with coaching making sure this but he holds a quarter or holds a meeting at the beginning of each quarter then we have a one-on-one meeting with each service provider um going over individual reports and what they're doing well and what they can improve on. So performance reviews, which I love seeing that. And also, because Andrew, you kind of said this makes me think, but service provider accountability and ownership, you're really letting them be aware as we start seeing and not start, but as we've been seeing more service providers go independent and want some autonomy and they want to own their own, you know, their own business within your business. Having some of these dashboards and reporting available for your service providers to be able to see whenever they want, they are taking that ownership of their own business and they know how they're performing. And then they tend to auto-correct or do whatever they need to do to improve on it or coach to it. So that's a really great one too. Yeah. I know we're right on time. But if you guys have any questions, Andrew saying he's the receptionist, he's not the owner. Well, you guys are doing great things at the salon, Andrew. Okay. So just to recap the 15 points. And again, if you didn't grab it yet, it is in the resources. So if you look down below on your screen, you should see a box that says resources and you should be able to grab the 15 point checklist from there. But we talked about the things that are going to impact your revenue by 30% or more, 29% or more, online booking, automations enabling a cancellation policy virtual consultations two-way text messages in communication with your clients email and text marketing setting up promotions strategically throughout the year right so plan those for seasonality um implementing gift card program a loyalty program start considering to offer memberships how to ask for referrals and then implementing a way to ask for the reviews, collect reviews for your website, your social media, Google, and then knowing and understanding your dashboard and your reporting. So set aside some time every week, every day, every month, every quarter, throughout the year to be able to look at your dashboard and understand where your business is at today. Helps you be able to pivot in moment to moment as you start seeing some different trends happening. All right, Fabiola, anything that we missed or that we should talk about? I think you covered everything, Lori. I don't know if there's any last-minute questions anyone wants to drop in the chat. Also, if you are a current Aura user and you have more questions on how to implement any of these things, things, feel free to reach out to your account managers. If you don't know who your success coach is, feel free to write to hello at orasalonware.com and we'll direct them to you. We also have a free salon software checklist. So this is basically whenever you're looking at software just to make sure that your booking system is actually helping you grow and not holding you back. Can I set up a free demo, Amy? Yes. You can set up a free demo on oracelonware.com. We'll send you an email or have someone reach out to you for a demo. I think we don't have any more questions left, Lori, at this point. Okay, cool. I have the QR code up for the checklist also. So if you did grab it off of the resources, feel free to scan right here and we can take it from this. Fabiola, thanks for joining in this morning and taking us through this checklist together. And everybody else, thank you for being here through the weather and showing up this morning for us and for your business. And we hope that these things are impactful for you. And we can't wait to see how you implement them. And if once you do, you have some really great success stories, send them on over to us or let's talk about it because we love to share success stories all the time and seeing the way that you're growing your business and the ways that you're getting creative and using all of these tools and features so thank you guys so much everybody have a wonderful day and dory we will be sending the recording you guys we also have a page or a salonware.com slash education where you can find a more education video a checklist downloadable resources so feel free to take a look as well all right thanks everybody have a good day thank you Thank you.