Running a salon can be fraught with complications. While there’s no easy way to retain the best stylists or ensure every client leaves happy, there is a way to simplify the appointment booking process. SalonMonster is a web-app that beauty salons can use to save money and impress their clients. By implementing an online booking system, salons can avoid hiring full-time front desk staffers while also making life easier for clients who’d rather make appointments online than pick up the phone and call during business hours.
Simplify the appointment-booking process immediately by signing up for a plan based on the number of stylists and clients at your salon. Choose the SalonMonster web address that clients will visit when scheduling appointments, and decide whether you need SalonMonster to set up and host a basic website for your company for an additional fee. Create a profile page that lists all the stylists and services offered at your salon. You’ll need to input starting prices and the times required for each treatment, and decide which services clients should be able to book online. Once you’ve got the system set up, you can view your salon calendar one-week at a time. In addition to a weekly calendar, you can also review daily appointment calendars, client lists, and service lists all from the back-end of the SalonMonster system.
When clients visit your website and click on the scheduling tab, they’ll find a professional-looking booking page where they can select whichever stylists, services, and appointment times they want. When a new booking has been submitted, the client and the stylist will receive confirmation and that appointment time will be blocked out on the stylist’s calendar. Although SalonMonster functions well as an online system that lets clients schedule their own appointments from home, salons can just as easily turn off the online booking function and still use the web-app as an internal scheduling system.
Practical Uses:
- Let clients schedule their own salon appointments online
- Save money on receptionists by utilizing a web-based scheduling system
- Keep track of each stylist’s weekly schedule
- Reduce the chances of ever double-booking or over-booking a particular stylist
Insider Tips:
- Use SalonMonster to create and host a basic business website
- Turn off the online scheduling function to stop clients from booking on the web
- SalonMonster can be accessed from any web-enabled mobile device
- Salons can require clients to register online before making an appointment
What we liked:
- Using SalonMonster can save beauty salons money, when compared to hiring someone to answer the phone during business hours
- Clients can schedule their own salon services at any time, day or night
- SalonMonster makes it easy to avoid double booking issues
- Clients can easily see how much a service is going to cost before making the appointment
What we didn’t like:
- Clients can’t actually pay for their appointments online, although SalonMonster says that functionality is coming in the future
Alternatives:
- Appointy – http://www.appointy.com
- BookFresh – http://www.bookfresh.com
- BookingBug – http://www.bookingbug.com
- YourAM – http://www.getyouram.com
Company Info:
- Launched: January 2011
- Privately Held
- Headquarters: Vancouver, Canada
- Founded by: Liam Shea, Ken Sm,ith and Stephen Parslow
- Web site: http://www.salonmonster.com
Costs:
- Free plan
- Solo plan is $19/month
- Basic plan is $49/month
- Value plan is $69/month
- Max plan is $99/month
All articles are curated and personally reviewed by Dave Onkels. Dave is tech addict and has a passion for rich web applications. He has cultivated several tech startups and runs
We’ve been using salonmonster since we found it here and it’s been great! Thanks appvita