Automation Journey for Barbers and Hair Stylists
How the OctoFactor Tech Stack Is the Unfair Advantage for Barbers in 2024.
Scheduling Appointments
Scheduling conflicts are a common theme in the industry. In more manual approaches, careful attention to detail, clear communication of availability, and multi-tasking with schedule review while attending to daily affairs are needed on the day to day to avoid them. But, this takes a lot of time and focus from doing what you should be doing, styling and cutting hair. Some studies even indicate up to 40% of a cosmetologist’s time on average is spent on scheduling alone.
The Manual Way
Over-The-Phone Scheduling
Schedule Pads and Physical Calendars
Customer Preference Notes
The Automated New Way
Reminder text automation, app push notifications, and AI follow up campaigns
Open calendar booking
Preference Based Scheduling notifications and follow up automations
Scheduling:
Create custom workflows to remind customers and engage them before each appointment to increase probability of making them.
Open Calendar Booking:
Allow Customers to book appointments on your calendar while accounting for already booked appointments and breaks in between to clean up workstation, prepare more efficiently, and ultimately avoid scheduling conflicts.
Preference Based Scheduling:
Leverage custom information about Customers within your CRM and train AI Follow Up Booking Agents on those preferences to reach out at ideal times, understand specific customer behavior, and book at ideal times based balance between customer preference and your open schedule.
Payment Processing & Collection
According to a Forbes Advisor Survey from February 2023 indicated that 90% of transactions in the US are completed with 54% being debit cards and 36% being credit cards. If you’re not taking payments by card, you are statistically inconveniencing your customers.