All • Best Practice
How to Make Client Communication Powerfully Simple
By Boulevard Staff . Feb.11.2021
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Client relationships are crucial to your business, which is why it’s critical to make every touchpoint count. Long hold times and dropped calls when trying to schedule an appointment are less than ideal — and it only takes one bad experience to lose a valuable client. Ideally, your salon or spa’s business management platform should enhance your communication options, and most advertise that they will with the promise of things like “two-way texting support.” However, more often than not, if you dig deeper into these promises, you’ll find limitations to these claims. Luckily with Boulevard, you can easily keep clients happy and in-the-know with multi-device communication that fits their busy lives and your busy schedule. Here’s how we make it convenient for your clients and your staff (a true win-win).
Keep it fully integrated for your convenience
There’s nothing more annoying than having to switch back and forth between dashboards just to send your clients a text. Not only do you not have the time, but the more dashboards you’re juggling, the more likely you can make a mistake and send a response to the wrong client or miss an important message. So, when it comes to any sort of communication feature or platform add-on, it’s crucial to ensure that you’re not just adding another system to your collection. This is where Boulevard blasts away the competition. Our Messages add-on is fully integrated into the platform’s dashboard, allowing you to schedule & confirm appointments, chat with clients, and save conversation history— all in one place. We even make it easy to communicate with clients while you’re out grabbing a coffee with our iMessage integration. So feel free to close all those extra tabs; we’ve got you covered.
The freedom of truly free-form two-way texting
This is where some companies really start to stretch the truth in their advertising. You’re likely to see a lot of platforms touting their two-way texting features; however, many of these can be a bit misleading. More often than not, the “two-way texting” really restricts your ability to communicate with your clients within the feature, often limiting responses to yes or no answers or other pre-loaded, robotic expressions. With Boulevard, that’s simply not the case. Our two-way texting feature is entirely free-form, meaning you can have actual conversations with your clients all in real-time. And if they want to respond with something other than “Y/N,” they can rest assured that you’re able to respond with details, are always listening, and never miss a message. That’s not only extremely convenient and helpful for your clients; it’s also reputation building for you.
Let your platform remember past convos for you
Speaking of having actual conversations, let’s talk about keeping track of them. You’re busy. You’re juggling multiple clients, interacting with staff members, focusing on your craft, and let’s face it — you also have a whole life filled with many conversations outside of work! Should you really be expected to keep track of when you confirmed what with who? We certainly don’t think so. That’s why Boulevard’s Messages automatically saves all conversation history for you to reference at any time. Need to review your messages, check any internal notes before an appointment, or double-check appointment communications? No problem — everything is saved in both your dashboard inbox and on the client’s profile for quick and easy reference.
Owning analog communications, too
Technology is forward-thinking for sure, but the best tech platforms don’t just offer brand new solutions, they also enhance the experience of classics. Take the phone, for example. While texting and iMessages are newer ways of communicating, there are always going to be customers who prefer a good old fashioned phone call. And just because calling leans a little more towards the analog side of things, that doesn’t mean it should be ignored. Boulevard’s Messages also includes a custom dedicated phone number with caller ID built directly into the platform. As the calls come in, you can see who’s on the other line and even access their client profile before picking up the phone — allowing you to personalize the conversation and cut down on time exchanging details. It’s little differences like this that can really set your salon or spa experience apart from the rest.
Cultivating a close and conversational relationship with your clients is the best way to increase both revenue and loyalty while also elevating your brand beyond the competition. But you can’t do it alone! The role of business management platforms is to empower and support your salon or spa from every angle, with communication being an integral part. Boulevard is ready to do all of this and more. If you’re ready to see how, feel free to schedule a free demo today.