Timely Bootcamp: Bulk up your calendar

Over the next 4 weeks we’re running our very own Timely Bootcamp to help get your business fit and ready to hit the ground running! This blog is the third in a series of four, and each week we’ll be releasing a blog and hosting a Facebook LIVE class focusing on a different topic covering all the essential information you need to get ready to reopen. Follow us on Facebook to learn more.

Contents

1. Fill your calendar using online booking
2. Save hours of scheduling with Client login
3. Make your marketing work harder with SMS and email campaigns
4. Protect your business with consultations

Fill your calendar using online booking

If you don’t have online booking setup, now is the perfect time! 51% of bookings are made outside of salon opening hours, and many clients looking for a new salon will only book if they can do it online. 

You have the time now to understand how online booking will work for you, test it out, and introduce it to your clients. Without a doubt, it’s the best way for you to manage your bookings, saving you hours of admin time trying to handle the flood of appointment requests. 

Using online booking;

• It’s easy for your clients to book in 24/7 from your website, Instagram, Facebook page, a marketing SMS, or an email 
• You’ll stay in control of your calendar and maximise staff productivity and profit with (optional) features like Minimise the gaps, which only shows online booking availability before and after booked timeslots.
• You can also take part or full online deposits to keep the cash flow going, and help to eliminate no shows.

Tip: Customise your online booking so it matches your brand and looks sleek and professional. Timely has online booking options that can easily be customised for everyone’s needs – it’s a no brainer!

Help Guides:
Setting up online booking help-guide
Customise your online booking colours help-guide
Create booking buttons help-guide

Set it up in Timely:
Turn on and customise online booking
Set up booking buttons, links, and widgets

Save hours of scheduling with Client login

Clients can now view and manage their own appointments, if you want them to! Client login not only saves you hours of time you’d otherwise spend managing or changing appointments, but it gives your client the freedom to book and manage their appointment in an uncertain time, when clients might need more flexibility with appointment dates and times. 

Save hours of scheduling when it’s time to re-open by sending your clients a link to login to their client portal via SMS or email. Let them know they can see their past appointments and rebook those if they want to, which will cut down the time you need to spend contacting clients and ensures they book the right appointment.

Tip:  You can make Client login work for both you and your clients by controlling how far in advance they need to change their appointment, so you’re not left out of time or pocket.

Help Guide: Setting up client login help guides
Set it up in Timely: Turn on client log in, in your account

Make your marketing work harder with SMS and email campaigns

Our bulk SMS rates are the cheapest in the market, so you can send a high value message to all of your clients or just a few targeted ones, without breaking the bank. Using advanced targeting, you can let clients know via SMS when your business will reopen and include your online booking link so clients can book ahead for when you’re back up and running. 

You can filter and find customers who have had a specific treatment, at a specific location, with a specific staff member, within a specific date range, so it’s easy to target the exact group of clients you want to receive your marketing campaign. 

Prefer email over SMS? Timely integrates with MailChimp, so you can easily create and send ad-hoc or automated marketing emails and newsletters to promote your business, and monitor the results.  

Tip: Customise your SMS and email campaigns so every interaction with your clients reinforces your brand and reflects well on your business. Read more about using SMS marketing campaigns in this blog.

Help Guides:
SMS campaign help-guide
Mailchimp help guides

Set it up in Timely:
Send an SMS campaign now
Connect MailChimp now

Protect your business with online consultations 

A great way to ensure the safety of your clients and your business before your appointments is by running online consultations, and you’ll be able to do this from next week using Consult by Timely. 

Consult is a free iOS app you can use to create customisable digital forms for online and in-salon consultations, as well as client waivers and consents, injectable treatment forms, patch testing, SOAP notes, image mark-ups, and more.

Using Consult, you can create and send forms before an appointment that ask clients to confirm their details and any health related questions to ensure they’re healthy and not putting anyone in your business at risk.  

Tip: If you’re on Timely’s Elevate package you can sync your digital forms directly to the client’s record in Timely, as well as create a new client record or update the details of an existing client.

Help Guide: Using and setting up Consult help guides
Learn more: Find out more about Consult