From booking to checkout, here’s how to choose software that will help you grow your business and create a luxurious experience
When you’re running your own business, you quickly learn there’s a lot more to it than simply serving clients. To focus on the many details that make the difference between failure and success, you can easily run yourself ragged. You shouldn’t have to do it all by yourself.
Whether you’re a solo operator or you have a small team, the right spa management software can help you fill in the gaps, grow your business, and free up your time so you can spend it on the most important tasks. Your software can’t replace your service providers, but it can help you manage almost every other aspect of your business.
Start with spa scheduling software
You’re ready to take the leap into using spa management software, and spa scheduling software is the place to start. Since the booking experience is likely your client’s first experience with your brand, you want it to be as seamless and friction-free as possible. Spa scheduling software helps you get there.
Spa scheduling software is designed specifically to meet the needs of spa businesses. Sure, you could use an online calendar, a separate spreadsheet to track utilization, handwritten notes, and manual phone calls, but spa booking software gives you all of the same results and more in one place, with an interface designed to make your day easier.
Here are some of the essential features of spa scheduling software:
Self-booking
Self-booking is probably the most important feature of booking software. You want to make your client’s booking experience is beautiful and stress-free, just like a visit to your spa. Look for scheduling software that will be easy to use, whether your client is visiting on their phone or their laptop, through your website, Facebook, Instagram, or anywhere else you have a presence. Make sure your booking software is deeply integrated with the rest of your scheduling software.
Optimized scheduling
Showing your clients a list of open times is easy. Optimizing every appointment so that transition, processing, and finishing times are taken into account and your team’s efficiency is maximized takes effort. That’s where spa scheduling software really shines, since it can crunch all of those numbers and account for each variable in the background.
Integrated payment systems
Collecting payment is a crucial step for you, the business owner, but it should be the least painful part of the visit for your client. Whether you’re collecting payment upfront to offset no-shows or trying to make the process of paying for their visit as smooth as possible so that clients can sail straight into being pampered, spa scheduling software with integrated payment systems takes the stress away and puts the cash in your pocket.
To learn more about spa scheduling and management software, read Spa Scheduling Software: 7 Features Your Booking Tool Needs and Spa Software for Small Businesses: How to Find the Right Solution.
Spa POS software streamlines checkout
The next step in your spa management software journey is POS software. Your client comes to you for a relaxing, rejuvenating experience. The process of paying you for that service should be as smooth and painless as their treatment. The right POS software can make the difference between a seamless checkout and an ordeal that might have your clients thinking twice about returning.
Intuitive interface
Since paying for service is the last interaction your client will have with your business in any given visit, you want it to be beautiful and on-brand. An intuitive POS interface clearly communicates to your client what was charged, how much each portion of their treatment contributed to the total, when to tap/swipe/insert their card, and how they will receive a receipt. That’s a lot of information to process! The less instruction your checkout requires, the happier everyone will be, from the client to your staff.
Inventory management
The best spa software helps you run your business while performing necessary functions. A good POS system is no exception. It can manage inventory by tracking what supplies you have on hand and letting you know how many more services you can provide before you need to restock. Your POS software should also keep track of your retail offerings, letting you know when it's time to re-order. Bonus points if it feeds into data analytics, helping you avoid wasteful spending.
Offsetting credit card fees
Credit card processing fees are a fact of life. Clients understand and accept that they might have to pay extra when using a card, but the clearer you can make that part of their transaction, the happier they will be. Boulevard Offset, for example, adds an additional 3% charge to cover transaction fees, giving clients and businesses both a more accurate picture of costs and revenue.
For more features to look for in a good POS software, read Spa POS Software: 5 Must-Have Features for a Painless Checkout.
Drum up new business with spa marketing software
If you’re reading this, you’re probably a business owner who’s used to doing more with less. In the real world, that often means doing it all yourself, from scheduling to social media to marketing. You may not be able to hire a marketing firm to help you drum up business, but you can offload a lot of that heavy lifting to your spa business management software.
Spa marketing software can automate many essential tasks to give you time back. Whether that’s sending email reminders, responding to questions over text, or tracking memberships. Take a look at what spa marketing software can do for you:
Automated marketing
Your clients want to feel like your messaging is as personalized as your services. But customizing your marketing to fit each client is a lot of work, and could easily fill your already full days. The solution is automation.
Spa marketing software uses automation to customize your messages. It can pull in details from your records, such as names and upcoming treatments, to make clients feel like your message was crafted just for them. It can even identify clients who haven’t visited in a while and send them special messages (with an optional discount offer) to get them back in the door.
Personalized client experiences
Once you get those clients through the door, your spa business software can take even more weight off your shoulders by helping you personalize their experience. Client profiles let you tailor the visit to a client’s specific needs and desires by keeping track of their recent treatments, current regimen, and more, regardless of which of your locations they visit or who treated them last.
Customized packages and memberships
You want your clients to keep coming back — that’s why you offer loyalty programs in the first place. But tracking their visits, managing their offers, and checking to see if they’re members at all is a lot of work. Without assistance, it could easily make check-in and checkout a hassle for both your client and your staff.
Let your spa management app assist with built-in loyalty tools. Track points no matter where your client redeems them, manage offers at multiple locations, and keep the experience consistent for your client all in your spa management software. Plus, you can use built-in analytics to see which services are used more often and how frequently clients redeem points to help you improve your offerings.
Learn more about using software to manage your marketing by reading How to Gain and Retain Clients with Spa Marketing Software.
Dig deep into your numbers with spa reporting tools
So your business is successful. You probably got it there with a lot of hard work and by keeping your eye firmly on the bottom line. The good news is that success makes a lot of things easier. The bad news, well, it makes a lot of other things harder.
The problem with a growing bottom line is that it just means more numbers, details, and factors to keep your eye on. If you don’t already have spa business software you trust to help you manage your financials, now is the time to level up.
Here are some of the ways the best spa management software can help you manage your success.
Reinforcing revenue
Managing success means understanding how you got there. If you don’t, it’s difficult to build on it and grow even further. Spa reporting software can help you by running revenue reports that will provide you not only with the basic details about where your money is coming from and where it is going but also help you analyze trends and look ahead.
Digging deeper, reporting software can help you understand more about how the services you offer impact your bottom line. Which services are the most popular, and which have the healthiest profit margin? Knowing the answers to these questions can help you lean into your money makers and maximize your profit margins.
Considering client value
On the front end of your business, you need to see your clients as unique and cherished guests that you treat with the utmost care and professionalism. On the back end, you need to be able to see how they translate to revenue. Using spa reporting software, you can calculate average transaction value (ATV), which will help you understand how the changes you make to your offerings and pricing will impact your revenue.
Say the average client brings in $100 per visit. Knowing this, you can start to see how increasing or decreasing the price of a service will impact your total revenue and how any changes you make will add up to your overall performance.
Amplifying employee excellence
Your staff is the front line when it comes to fulfilling your clients’ expectations and providing them with the star treatment they deserve. You want to measure their performance and reward your key players. But measuring performance can be tricky.
One way is tips. Staff members who are getting good tips are probably making a big impact on your client satisfaction. The same goes for staff members with a large roster of repeat clients. Spa reporting software can help you track these factors so that you can reward the service providers who have the most positive impact on your success.
For more about how spa reporting software can boost your bottom line, read Pulse Check: How to Use Spa Reporting Tools to Maintain Business Profitability.
With all these features in mind, you’ll be better equipped to find the best possible fit for managing your spa. And with that extra assist from your software, you can spend more time creating the best possible experience for your clients so they keep coming back for more.
