Client Booking Is Changing in 2026 | What Every Salon Owner Must Know

clients today expect instant anytime booking no phone calls no wait 71 of clients have skipped booking because the process is too hard any kind of friction that is created in the process is going to make it more difficult before we jump into today's episode i want to share an important lesson that became clear to me running my own business growth isn't just about skill it's about having the right system i know exactly how hard it is to juggle clients staff and strategy all at at once, which is why I love GlossGenius. It's the all-in-one platform every salon owner needs to scale. It doesn't just help you manage your day-to-day like other options. GlossGenius actually does the work for you that you need to grow. Whether it's rebooking that brings clients back or automating marketing campaigns that fill empty chairs, this platform never stops looking out for you. An added bonus is that it actually is easy to use. So no where do I click moments for you and your team, clients don't have complicated logins just to book an appointment. It's smooth, it's a smart design, and it works. If you've been looking for a way to do all of that, go to the link in my show notes and use the code successful to get 50% off your first two months of their gold or platinum plan to see for yourself. Gloss Genius is all about growth and less busy work. All right, let's get into the episode. Welcome back to the SSA podcast, my friend. I'm your host, Ambrosia Carey, and this is where stylists come to transform from overwhelmed and overbooked into profitable, confident business owners behind the chair. Today's episode is inspired by you, our community inside of Successful Stylists. And the question actually is all about 2026 client booking experience and what clients are actually expecting. We did a deep dive in this and of course we did use our dear friend chat GPT to help us with doing the research on this one because we wanted to make sure that we really understood the stats and we really understood how client behavior is working today and in today's models as you can imagine like everyone else we are relying more and more on digital ways in order to just cut through the noise a little bit and also make things more seamless for our clients and after these stats hopefully it gives you not just insight but actually helps to encourage you to lean more heavily on these tools that are already available for us and I know that even though I talked about gloss genius several times it is something that has marginally helped me with making things more streamlined for my clients and that's important that I give that message to you because I'm hoping that it also helps you in the future as well and I know some of us have more tendency to avoid I suppose or just not want to address some of the things that might seem more complicated. For instance, if you're not a tech heavy person, it can feel a little intimidating. And I realize that. And I feel like these days, unless we really understand how to connect everything and how to have it communicate, it can feel overwhelming that way. And even for someone like me, who I would consider myself to be comfortable with a lot of tech products, that even I can find my time being eaten up quite a bit by trying to make sure that everything's communicating properly and that there's a smooth, effortless flow or funnel happening. So I just want to reassure you that with having a booking link like Lost Genius, it does all of it for you. Like it literally, I mean, yes, you have to set up some stuff on your end, but a lot of the work that happens, it just gets automated once you set it up. So once a client actually books their information through that link then they get an automatic text they get an automatic reminder they get an automatic you know follow-up so you can change what's inside of the the messaging of course and that's completely up to you but just be reassured that a lot of this stuff can actually be done for you and that you don't have to figure this stuff out this is not something that you're on your own so i have 10 tips that's going to help you with actually booking more clients understanding what clients are expecting today and hopefully help you in the future with just making more of a seamless process between the chair and the client's experience. Starting out with number one, clients today are expecting a 24-7 online booking system. So they're already looking for that. They're already going through and seeing who's already offering that because clients today expect instant any time booking no phone calls no wait on a callback system they want the ability to see availability time and secure appointments on their own schedule even late at night and I think sometimes it's really easy for us to think of hours as our hours behind the chair and that's the typical business working hours but a lot of our clients these days they're working all kinds of hours, especially if they're working from home. A lot of times they're spending time for personal things at nighttime or super early in the morning or when they're on a break from something. So we just need to get ahead of that. And by being available for our clients when they want us, that is something that is going to be just, it's going to be something that helps us stand out. It's going to be something that puts us in the forefront. Just keeping in mind that not all salons are doing this so by you doing this it already puts you in the top percentile people who are doing this number two clients want immediate feedback when they book so they're looking for confirmations and reminders like i was saying before earlier and even dynamic updates if something changes on their end so they just want to make sure that what they booked is in fact what's expected and they want to make sure that if they don't get that in their system if they don't put it on their calendar they really are relying on that and i will say firsthand like for me i have booked massages in the past and i've gone through the online booking system and i will admit that it was not as natural for me which is funny because i love technology but i would prefer if there's a receptionist i prefer making the appointment in person it's a lot easier for me me to look down at my calendar while she's looking at it with me. But if she's busy, I will just book it online. And I do rely on it because even though I put it in my calendar, sometimes I'm not in the habit of checking my calendar every single morning or in the afternoons. So if I get that text reminder, it's really helpful for me. So yes, I know I should be in charge of my calendar. We all should. But the reality is there's so much noise. There's so many notifications. There's so much that we have to stay on top of that relying on a booking system or an automated system to help us, we should lean into that. Next on the list, automated SMS or email reminders. Those dramatically reduce no-shows and cancellations because it keeps the appointment top of mind and it eliminates the awkward follow-ups, right? So like you don't have to worry about doing the follow-up. You don't have to worry about wondering if they're going to make the appointment. Let's say they booked it eight weeks ago, you won't have to worry about sending out a reminder or doing that call reminder, which can be, you know, that can really add up. Not to say that you shouldn't have a front desk. I mean, if you have a team, a front desk is really going to help support in that. But do you want the front desk time being eaten up by doing reminder phone calls? This would be something where a client might have an option where if they want to have a text reminder or they preferred email reminder that's something that you can toggle on or off if they prefer a phone call then that could be also something that would be in there but definitely more is more like having options is really nice to have especially for our clients who live a busy life and it's easy to let them slip between the cracks right even for me like a email reminder might not be enough for me because I get a lot of emails funneled into me every single day and it's really easy to miss them. So just for me personally, I know I like texting. I know some people prefer phone calls and having that as an option is really nice. I have an example, by the way. So I'm going to pull up the script really quick. And this example is just something that's super quick and easy. And once you dial those scripts in, it's really easy to do a plug and play. But I would say for somebody who's still establishing themselves behind the chair, or if booking systems are new for you like having automation using gloss genius if it's new for you then this is something that you can do on your own initially and then you can start setting it up through gloss genius but this is a nice transitional period for you if you're not used to doing it this is my recommendation so the script goes like this hi jenny i'm opening my books for may and i wanted to check in with you first since i know you have certain days that work best for your schedule would you like me to save you a spot so a couple things with that script first of all personalized you're using their name secondly you are letting them know that you're opening your books for may now that could be you know further down the line for you but what's important about that is you're just giving them a soft reminder that you're opening books up that doesn't mean i mean you might have already had the books open that's the funny part about it but you're letting them know that you are booking into that month the third thing about it is that you're actually addressing something that works with their schedule i have certain days that work best for your schedule so that is something really important because you want to make it about the experience for the client you want to make it about their schedule you don't want to make it about your convenience and then the last part is would you like me to save you a spot like it's actually saying like i thought of you i want to carve this out i want to make sure i'm fitting something into the schedule that fits your needs and would you like me to save a spot so that makes it it takes the pressure away it's not actually saying like what would you like me to book or do you want me to send you a follow-up you're leaving this as an open question and this gives the opportunity for the client to say yes what do you have available on tuesday or no that's not going to work right now and then that's when you can do a follow-up saying no problem at all I'll send you a follow-up text in a week from now how does that sound something along those lines just keep that line of communication open just keep in mind that it is a human on the other side and we are a human facing business and sometimes being away for six eight ten weeks away from a client we just want to remind and this is where it can be so powerful for our industry the fact that clients have AI or have automated systems constantly bombarding their you know I mean these days I don't even get a normal regular phone call anymore I just get spam calls right so if I'm getting a text from somebody and it's personalized even if I send something back and I'm not really quite sure like is this AI or am I talking to the actual person or not but for them to respond back to me and I realize it's that human it immediately brings back that relationship again it immediately feels personalized and it's like that's a point of connection of contact that's what people are looking for right now especially for our clients who don't have a lot of human to human interaction i'm thinking of our clients that are in tech or our clients that are working from home on their computer all day long so those are the people that i have on the forefront of my mind and i And I think it's really important to have personalized messages like that. Okay, moving on to number four. Clients today want the booking process to feel like it knows them. So a thing about GlossGenius, I'm just going to use that as an example since that's what I use. GlossGenius actually has this feature where if a client goes to book an appointment, it can pull up their previous history. So that way it eliminates some of the question and a client doesn't really have to wonder like, what should I be booking? Now to be fully transparent, I run a tight ship and I'm also very busy. My clients run a tight ship and they're also busy because those are the kind of people I attract behind my chair. So my clients prefer to book out their appointments. As a matter of fact, most of my clients have to book two to three appointments out at a time. So we're way out there in the future, meaning that I have less openings last minute. So if a client wants a book with me last minute on the booking link, it is always there for them. I have it available. Those things do happen every now and then somebody will put a request in even if it's a month out. And those are always lovely to have. But I think it's really important that you want to create as much of a seamless but also personalized experience as you possibly can. Again, because you want this feature to work for your client and you want it to represent you in the best way possible and there's nothing worse than feeling like you have to do more work for me if I'm booking an appointment and I have to go through all of the different you know people first and then I have to go through the services next and then I have to go through the schedule that's a lot of work that's and for me like if it's going to take too long and let's say I'm trying to do it in the middle of making dinner. Like, I mean, that's not real. But if I were doing that, or if I was in the middle of trying to do something, if there's any point of contention, or if it just takes too long, then I might be like, I'll worry about it later. I'll revisit it again. Another week goes by or another week, month goes by. And then that just tends to compound in time. Also creating more of a gap between your clients. And that also means that you need more clients to fill your chair. It's less frequent visits. It also means that your client could come back in with more grow out. That also can be more taxing on your time. That also means more products that you're going to have to use on that client. So it is a trickle down effect. So efficiently and efficiency makes a very big difference in your client experience, both what you do behind the chair, what you do in the follow-up and the booking system that you use, which is why I'm really drilling this home for you. This actually is a really good segue into the next point that I have, which is minimal booking friction. I have a stat for you because I love stats. Stats just tell us a lot about how behaviors work and where we are in our landscape and how things are changing and how things are diversifying. 71% of clients have skipped booking because the process is too hard. So just like what I was just sharing with you, that if I'm in the middle of doing something and I run into friction or I'm like, oh shoot, I don't remember who I booked with. I'll worry about it later. Do you see what I mean? Like the process of it should not be hard. So calls, slow replies, limited hours, those all are points of friction. Any kind of friction that is created in the process is going to make it more difficult. So friction kills revenue. Just always think about that. and for that matter, not to be harsh about it, but loyalty as well. I was actually just doing a one-on-one private session with a stylist who is an independent stylist behind the chair. And right now she is main goal is to book at least 50% of her schedule. So she really wants to get her retention up to 50%. My goal for her is to get her closer to 75%. So that way she creates more freedom within her schedule and then she's able to diversify what she's offering to her clients and then she can really focus on the services that she really wants to offer not the services that are most asked for and bringing her revenue and the whole thing about it is if you're not taking care of your books if you're not making sure that you're rescheduling your clients then you're kind of left up to what people want that are left right so like if a client is booking with you last minute you don't know anything about them until they come in to see you maybe you do a dm consultation or you do a quick online consultation or maybe they come in person for a consultation but regardless you have to go through the whole courting process of getting to know that client and a lot of times with that new client too if that's the expectation the likelihood that they may do that again is slightly increased just because they haven't really you haven't retained them yet as a client they haven't gotten to know you yet they're still in the dating process they're trying to decide like do I want to go on another date with this person right so for you to be less friction to create less friction in the booking process it really only is about your business being more fruitful like if you want a business that's thriving and you want to create wealth in your future the best way of creating wealth is doing things systematically over a period of time and things start to compound it's almost like investing like we want to invest time in our clients and then our clients invest time back in us and they also create a relationship making it more frictionless clients are more willing to put up with things if we've gained a relationship with us like if they have one thing that's off that you have to make an adjustment on their bangs or a color they're more willing to come back in to do that if they don't know you and they haven't created that relationship with you, it's a lot harder. It's definitely something that clients are going to have a little bit more pushback and the likelihood of them coming back to you after having a bad experience is much higher. So going back to the point of friction with this one-on-one stylist that I was talking about, the independent stylist, she was sharing with me that when a client books an appointment, they're typically going from social media or they're going directly onto the website, but they're going on a Google search. they go on to the salon website and then they go through the roster of different stylists and then they select her and then they go through the booking link and then they look at her schedule and they see if there's anything in the near future that lines up and then if there's nothing she may lose out on that client that is way too many steps to expect a client to go through for the first time I asked her well what do you do for repeat clients and she says well I kind of do the same thing because I'm not rebooking all my clients. So they have to go through the exact same thing. That's a lot. That's a lot to ask of somebody. And so that point of friction is exactly what is going to get in the way of generating more clients just faster, better, easier. So we want to make sure that we're creating a little bit more flow in the schedule, if you will. All right, moving on to number six, communicate on their terms. Remember what I was saying earlier that you can you know email or call or text I have a preference of texting some people may want a phone call some people prefer email because that's their general mode of communication we want to give options and clients they want choices asking them up front or giving them the option when you're booking is really important and if there's ever a time that a client may let's a client emails you and you don't see the email right away and then you end up getting a dm from a client i am a huge deterrent of dms and for me a dm it just can get lost really easily too because i've got dms coming from various people it's not just from clients emails for me i have an email specifically designed for the salon so if i'm looking at emails there i can funnel everyone into that and things just don't get lost there like they would in the dms texting that can also be a dangerous space because if a client is texting through the booking link it's texting to my phone because that's the number i have attached to it and if i have a busy day i can i may accidentally click on the message and start to read it and just be like i'll get back to her later and then that message can get lost so it's really important to make sure that you streamline your own process and make sure that your mode of communication is fitting the needs and the terms of your client and just giving them those options because if you don't I guarantee that your competitor is and these days those are clients expectations so like I was saying with quick social media responses they just don't want to wait days they don't want to wait I mean some people don't even want to wait a full day for the reply it can get really frustrating for them so just making sure that you're staying on top of whatever that is designed to do and that is exactly the reason why I want to do it through my booking link because it's just a lot easier number seven technology that feels human so AI with warmth if you will clients are now comfortable with AI receptionists and automated tools as long as the experience feels friendly and accurate So I did a little bit of research and I looked up like the top three most highly rated ones. So I'm gonna go through these. Now, just to be transparent, I don't use this, but I also don't have a front desk anymore. I used to have a front desk at my old salon. Now business is set up very differently. So I don't have a front desk. So everything is being handled through either the booking system or me personally. But I thought this was interesting. So the first one, I'm gonna go from the most, affordable to the one that has a higher offering so that would be more expensive okay so there's like low mid and high tier low tier is called dial zara i think is what it's called i could be pronouncing it completely incorrectly that one is 29 a month and that obviously fits somebody who might be on a tighter budget this only makes sense by the way if you have a salon with multiple stylists in there and you want to have a receptionist. If you don't need a receptionist to handle things and you have everything done through your own booking system and you want to do it on your own and you want to limit phone calls, totally understandable. But if you want something that is going to cut down the noise and also will help vet out clients for you and just gets the process started. So an example of this might be, let's say I'm 50% booked as an independent stylist and I really want a way of gaining more clients, but I want to be available and I can't afford a receptionist. I can't afford somebody at the front desk. So I want something that can just immediately answer calls, immediately answer some questions, look into some options of what they need for their call time or for their calendar. And then it will automatically send the booking link saying you can go ahead and create your own profile and book that here we will actually have somebody follow up with you in 24 hours and then it actually makes notes on it now not all of them are created this way by the way and i don't know if dalzara offers that i don't think they do i think it's more basic calling basic call handling and calendar bookings okay so it does book onto like your apple or your google calendar for instance but it's not going to do it through the booking software. So that would be the downside of it. The next one, which is a mid-tier, that one is anywhere between $79 to $99 a month. That one's called My AI Front Desk. That one actually had really high reviews. This is best for small salons, of course, that need a front desk to handle small stuff, but you don't really need somebody there for a full day and you don't want to pay the hourly wage to somebody or you can't afford to. So this is 24-7 answering and scheduling. Again, the scheduling is not done through the booking software. It cannot connect to any of the booking softwares, but it can do it through a Google Calendar link. So in this situation, it's not really going to help you in scheduling it so much, but it can help with answering questions, getting client information down, and then sending your booking link directly to them and then doing a follow-up. Quick pause and reminder because Successful Stylist Academy isn't just about marketing strategies. It's all about scaling your business and reaching your full potential. And GlossGenius was literally built for that. It was founded by two sisters to help entrepreneurs grow their business the way big businesses do, but without the complexity of giving up the parts you love. And you can feel their passion in every feature. Here's how that happens. GlossGenius helps you get more clients. Their system has things like login-free booking and AI marketing assistance that does the heavy lifting for you. And it's no more logins, no app downloads turning clients away gloss genius helps you get more per appointment with things like deposits that protect your time buy now late pay later features for higher ticket services and they even have flat transparent payment processing and so much more no more hidden fees just more revenue on every paycheck and gloss genius has everything you need to keep clients coming back i especially love the automated booking reminders memberships and packages it's a difference between managing your business and actually growing it if you're ready to see this in action go to the link in our show notes and use code successful to get 50 off your first two months of their gold or platinum plan to see for yourself gloss genius more growth less busy work all right back to the show the last one that i have on my list is called smith ai that one's 95 a month so that one is definitely a higher price point but this one is more for like teams that are growing like if you have maybe you have one front desk person but you can't really afford to have more than one person maybe you can only afford to have somebody for like six hours in the you know the highest hour time frame that you might need during the day and then you need an AI integration for the rest of it this one has a little bit more integration in it so it does a lot of the handling for you but it also has something called CRM logging CRM stands for customer relationship management so basically in a nutshell we'll take all the notes for you and it will track it for you so that way you can see the conversation and it tells you exactly all information will tell you the person's first and last name their booking preference the day the time all that stuff that they want so it almost acts as if it's going to book the appointment for them it gets everything narrowed down for you and then it's up to you to do the next step so those are all you know options for you if that is the place that you are in your business or if it's something that you're thinking about doing i saw some recent conversation in facebook that people were asking for that as well and it's good to know but i will say there's a lot of these different types of systems and based on what i'm seeing since i haven't personally used them it does seem as though maybe they're not as built out as they could be and i think right now if you have a hard time with just getting new clients in your chair that would be only the really major reason why you might want to do it because it does help out with filling that slot in like if somebody were to go onto your website for the first time and let's say they want to call the salon to ask a question if they are a client that doesn't like to use technology it's just fitting the needs of that client because it could be an amazing client fit for you but we can't assume that all clients are going to want to go on and book as a matter of fact I have a client who is an old neighbor of mine and she was asking if she could book through me but she couldn't figure out the booking system so you know instead of me walking her through it I just asked her the main questions I needed and I went ahead and booked it for her which was no problem for me but you know if you're busy behind the chair and then you go home and you've got kids and dinner you just are juggling a million things it's really easy to have that slip between the cracks so I just think having something like this integrated is not a bad idea okay getting back to our list at number eight so this one is all about personalizing follow-ups and rebooking prompts this is an interesting stat actually personalized outreach is cited by 48 so almost 50 of sales and retention leaders as a driving improvement of customer retention so by personally sending 50 or less booked so that's pretty amazing that by personally sending a message to somebody how that can actually help with rebooking your client if they didn't do it in person. Obviously you know I already shared with you I like to rebook most of my clients in person but there are some times where clients just don't know their schedule or they do prefer to book online because they have a rotating schedule and so with that I just want to make sure that I'm able to get back to them. What's cool is that Gloss Genius actually has a feature inside of it that if I choose to not rebook them, something pops up on my screen and it says, would you like me to send you a reminder? And I can say yes. And then when I do that, it sends me a reminder. So that way all I have to do is push a button and it immediately sends them a message. So it's really a nice feature and I'm a fan of it. So next on the list is transparency and clarity in pricing. And I know that that is not like a new thing and I'm kind of surprised that this is one of the big things that clients are asking for for 2026 but I think it just kind of goes back to the fact that we have a lot of prices on our menus that can just say starting at and clients don't really know what that means so during a consultation we just want to make sure we talk about that whether it is on a you know online consultation or in person but the other thing is some stylists just don't even put the prices on there at all there's just a menu and they don't really know what that means and that can also be a point of friction too so just make sure that you are transparent and you are super clear with your pricing and how your pricing works with different things because not all clients understand that as a matter of fact most clients don't and it's not their job to know it either clients are more likely to commit when pricing is clear before they book because they don't want surprises think about yourself when you are getting service somewhere like you don't want surprises as a matter of fact this actually reminds me of a facial technician that I went to for a while. I really enjoyed her service. Like she was really good at what she did, but there were two things that she did that was really a bummer. Number one, there wasn't pricing transparency. So she didn't really tell me what anything costs. And she also would do lots of add-on services with my facial. So I just never knew how much I would be spending with her. I kind of had like a ballpark in my mind about what things would cost, but oftentimes I just didn't really know. I had no idea what she charged for different types of facials. I had no idea like what different scrubs were. I hadn't, it's like every time she did something, I just was unsure. So it got to a point where while I'm laying there in the facial, I'm not really fully relaxing. I'm thinking to myself, okay, is that, is she going to, is that an add on? Is she going to charge more for that? And I know what's on me. I could have totally asked her, Hey, if anything costs extra, can you just let me know how to time? So I kind of know what to expect. Yes, I could have totally done that, but it's not really my job as a client, is it? I don't think clients should have to do that. That doesn't feel right to me. The second reason why I had a point of contention, and this is speaking to the point earlier about the rebooking, she never offered to rebook me. She just didn't think to offer that as a service to me. And honestly, I thought about it in the beginning when I first walk in, like, I got to make sure I get my next one on the books because I can't just keep calling last minute. it's just really hard to figure out a time but both of our schedules but she didn't offer to rebook me so it was just one of those things that every time I tried to book an appointment with her it was like a good three weeks before I could get into her and I want to look forward to something but I also wanted something ahead on my schedule so I knew what to book around it with the rest of my schedule if that makes sense so those are all just like driving to the point that we are also being serviced by people whether we go to a restaurant or like my example getting a facial just think about the things that make it seamless for you and make it feel like a hell yes like I can't wait to go back we want to we want to supply that to our clients as well okay last but not least number 10 coming in hot is beyond easy booking like I cannot emphasize this enough I know that I've already kind of said this in a roundabout way but clients now actively research stylists and salons before booking they are looking at reviews they're looking at service descriptions they're looking at your level professionalism who you are as a person your social media and they are building basically trust before the appointment starts so it's so so important that you want to make things not just easy for booking but you want to make sure that there is an extension of you in all categories, which is the reason why, for me personally, marketing is such an important aspect of our business. Marketing is not just being on social media. Marketing is not just posting. Marketing is not just being on Google. You wanna make sure that there are several touch points within your business that you're hitting. And it could be a referral system. It could be a rebooking system. It could be the scripts that you go over with your clients. But you want to make sure, obviously, that you're getting reviews on a regular basis and that you're really thinking beyond the service. Again, go back to you. How do you decide on a restaurant that you're going to go to? What are the things that you look at? How do you decide on a personalized service? Like if you were going to go, I'm going to use the facial technician as again. If you were going to go see a facialist and you had never been to anyone and let's say you don't have any referrals. let's say nobody actually has a good facialist that they go to where you start your research and how do you determine who you're going to go to what do you base that off of what are the the places that they show up and what things do you look for before you're deciding on it so those are just like some key things to think about when it comes to you marketing your business and again what clients are actually expecting and looking for these days in 2026 it's kind of just like a very hands-on approach. And it's also one of those things that is kind of unacceptable anymore to not offer these kinds of things. Remember this time period, even though we keep talking about how volatile it is, there are clients being impacted every single day by AI taking over their jobs and by, you know, the recession, or I guess if we're not technically in a recession, then we also know that inflation is just taking a huge impact and businesses are cutting back. with businesses cutting back and there being less availability for employment with jobs it is going to impact our clients and that has a trickle-down effect in our business so we need to make sure that we're constantly staying on top of it there's never a time that you should take a back seat even if you were not if you decided that you're going to close your books you still have to nurture clients because natural attrition does and will apply always clients you know they move away they lose a job they die there's things that happen in life you know so we just want to make sure that if we're going to run a business that makes sense for us in our long-term future and we're talking about building a sustainable business and actually having wealth in our future we really want to make sure that we're taking care of these points and i have a couple of little closing stats for you just to round this out really nicely nearly half 48 of salon clients say they're much more likely to return if they can book or modify appointments anytime that's day or night so stats are here guys 50 of those clients out there in the universe they are already looking for this and if a salon doesn't offer it then they're going to go to a salon that does 35 need to manage appointments outside of typical business hours remember i was saying before earlier this shows that booking beyond the nine to five isn't a perk it's becoming expected so clients are actually booking those appointments as a matter of fact i think the most non-request clients that book through my booking app is comes through in the evening i notice it because i get a notification from gloss genius and then 75 of salon clients say they'd be more likely to be more loyal to a salon that offers an easier booking and communication option so there you have it those stats are not lying I mean that's 75% that's kind of insane actually so I mean that's me saying that because I'm an old school stylist and I've been doing hair for 26 years but I love staying on top of these things because there is kind of an old school new school thing within marketing right now that I really love and adore where some of the old school strategies are actually making people stand out more and then the new school strategies that are still hitting the pain points of the client that just want no barrier. They want to just be able to make it and have it be easy and seamless. And I know I want that too. And I also want to remind you that I am picking five reviewers at random. So anyone that's left a review on Apple or Spotify podcasts, by the way, I really, really love reading reviews. I love reading what you have to say. And it doesn't have to be a five-star amazing review. Like I just want to hear your genuine feedback I want to hear from you what hits what you want to hear more of maybe what you're struggling with if you're okay with saying it but this is how we grow as an industry this is how we all elevate each other as a whole we're all doing pretty much the same thing we're in the service industry we're here to take care of other people and as my legacy or you know just my my lasting portion in this industry this is like my this is my final chapter in the industry you know and i really want to make sure that i'm connecting with as many of you as possible and i want to help you get to the goals in your business that i've been able to fulfill and i know that if i've been able to do it you can do it too it just takes a little bit of of structure and concentration and just repeatability so i want to continue to encourage you to dream big set goals take action and I will see you very soon next week. Today's episode is sponsored by PharmaGel, a clean and sustainable skincare line of over 35 years that commits to using safe and natural ingredients to deliver effective results. Visit pharmagel.net and use code SSA15 to earn 15% off your happier, healthier skin.

In this episode, we break down how client booking expectations are changing in 2026, and what salon owners, hairstylists, and beauty professionals must do to keep clients booking, returning, and referring.

✨ Podcast Giveaway Reminder ✨
I’m randomly selecting 5 listeners who leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. I genuinely love reading your reviews - not just the five-star ones, but real, honest feedback. Tell me what resonates, what you want more of, or what you’re currently struggling with. Your voice helps shape future episodes.

Leave a review, share your thoughts, and you could be one of the five selected! 🎧

CHAPTERS:
00:00 Introduction
01:27  Client Booking Expectations in 2026
04:22  Why 24/7 Online Booking System Is Non-Negotiable
05:33  Instant Booking Confirmations Matter
06:54  Automated Texts & Email Reminders
08:15  Sample Booking Scripts That Increase Rebooking
11:43  Personalized Booking Experience
14:30  Removing Booking Friction
18:55  Communicating on Client-Preferred Channels
20:56  Automation That Still Feels Human
21:35  AI Front Desk Tools Compared
28:08  Follow-Ups That Drive Client Loyalty
29:19  Transparent Pricing & Client Trust
32:27  Booking Is Only Part of the Client Journey
34:24  Client Behavior Trends in 2026
35:47  Key Salon Stats You Should Know
37:23  Final Takeaways for Salon Growth

#podcast #salon #hairstylist #businessgrowth #business 

🔥 Elevate Your Salon Business and Achieve Entrepreneurial Success!

Are you ready to transform your salon business and become a thriving Salon Entrepreneur?

Join the Successful Stylist Academy and unlock the secrets to filling your books with dream clients, maximizing your earning potential, and mastering the art of being a 6-Figure Stylist. Our proven 7-step strategy will guide you every step of the way.

Take the leap today and watch your hair business soar to new heights!

🔗 Sign Up Now and start your journey to success! 
👉 https://www.successfulstylistacademy.com/ 

READY TO GET HELP?
🔥 Get Ambrosia Carey’s Salon Business Templates, Courses, and More:
Explore Here 👉 https://www.ambrosiacarey.com/  
🔥 Reserve Your Spot In Our Membership Waitlist:
Book Now! 👉 https://small-kiwi-98108.myflodesk.com/gnfbcgfrjq   

SOCIALS
🔥 Follow on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/successfulstylistacademy/  

🔥 Follow on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/successfulstylistacademy/

MEET AMBROSIA CAREY
Hey there! I'm Ambrosia Carey, lead marketing consultant and founder of Successful Stylist Academy.

With over twenty years of experience in the beauty industry as a hairstylist and salon owner, I've had the amazing opportunity to consult leading brands, speak on stages Nationally, and teach at hair shows with top brands like Truss Professional, Olivia Garden, and Matrix. My work has been featured in many trade magazines, and I've won awards such as Pravana Vivids International Top 6 and Top 5 Colorist Nationally with Kenra Neon Battle. My latest achievement which I’m most proud of, acquiring a partnership to Rooted, an eco conscious Hair Extension company.

I'm excited to share insightful knowledge from my experiences in the salon industry, entrepreneurship, finance, attitude, marketing, sales, social media, and many other interesting topics on my channel!