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Not long ago, a recording of a phone call between Google Assistant and a receptionist at a hairdresser's struck the Internet. It turned out that artificial intelligence is able to book a hair appointment for us. Even more surprisingly, the person on the other end of the phone didn't even realize she was talking to a robot. This was possible thanks to the extraordinary achievements of speech synthesis and the use of neural computing to teach artificial intelligence.
This technology is a little too advanced and maybe it shouldn't come out right away. With these innovations, we run the risk of pushing the new technology too quickly in a society that still needs more human contact. But on the other hand, other advanced technologies applied to hairdressing that don't really have a negative impact on human relations are constantly gaining popularity and are starting to make their way into salons. In this article, we highlight the main industry trends to watch out for in 2020.
Technology has changed almost every aspect of our lives. Today's beauty salon owners are increasingly adopting technology to gain an edge over their competitors.
Coins and notes remain the most popular means of paying for items in most countries. But in the longer term, cash is likely to disappear as it seems to be engaged in a losing battle with new payment methods.
Imagine that your customers are fully focused on their experience in your salon. Nothing stands in their way, especially not the payment. Paradoxically, The less intrusive payments become, the more value they add to the customer experience.
Specifically, in your hair salon, your client makes an appointment, arrives and you start taking care of him. Each of these steps increases his happiness.
Unfortunately, in the end, he has to pay and this step will inevitably bring down his pleasure curve.
The ideal salon customer experience would be for payments to become an invisible part of the purchasing process. Imagine a customer coming to the show, performing a service, and then leaving 'without paying'. At Wavy, we believe that the future is "payment less experience". In other words, transparent payment: your customers will leave an imprint of their credit cards at the time of their first booking.
On the day of the service, once the appointment has been made, the credit card may then be debited automatically, even if a resale product or other service is added. More than a simple online pre-payment, with the "payment less experience" the customer will no longer have to leave a card imprint each time and before each appointment. This better experience will increase his satisfaction, which in turn will increase the likelihood of him coming back (even if he is obviously aware that it is not free).
New technologies and a focus on the customer experience are changing the way hairdressers design their salons or beauty salons.
A living room must be clean and all its elements must fit together. Therefore, the countertop should take up as little space as possible. This is why we have decided to develop Wavy on mobile.
Many Wavy customers have done away with the traditional payment counter and instead rely on mobile devices such as tablets to execute transactions. This dramatic reduction in the size of the cash cabinet offers many benefits, including savings on expensive payment counters, freeing up valuable floor space, greater design creativity and improved customer service.
Although a cash register is a standard feature in many retail businesses, hairdressers may benefit from excluding the cash register from their hair salon or beauty salon in the very near future. And this is thanks to the "payment less experience".
Not having a cash desk could allow for better organization of space and flow in the lounge and improve the customer experience. The objective being to leave more room to present your resale products, a seat for another employee... All this could lead to additional sales and an increase in turnover.
If you want to stand out from the competition in the long term, Wavy is a versatile solution that allows you to earn more money, build customer loyalty, expand your business and make your life easier. Our software has been designed to work on virtually any device so that key data elements and growth indicators are available from anywhere. Whether you have Wavy on a Mac, PC, smartphone or tablet, the experience is incredibly easy to adapt.
Our job is to ensure that our tools reflect trends and raise the bar with each update.
Many salon managers believe that the customer experience begins when the customer arrives on site to receive their service. While this is correct to some extent, a salon customer experience begins at the first point of contact, which is increasingly online.
It is then time to take a closer look at the different moments in the customer experience and the potential of advanced applications to improve it.
As mentioned before, your online presence is usually the place where your potential customer will get his first impression. It is therefore essential to be present on traditional social networks, but also on the most recent ones (Pinterest, Tiktok) which will add another added value. It is also essential that elements such as your website, online booking are easy to use by your customers...
Let's take a step back and think about it: as a consumer, how many online accounts do you have and how many different passwords do you need to create to thwart fraudsters? All of this identifying information can be difficult to manage.
If you know that a large percentage of your users are legitimate, then, to make the appointment scheduling step easier, offer a frictionless (password-free) authentication experience. But how is this possible?
Authentication without a password allows registration and login by entering the phone number or e-mail and removes the additional step of creating a new password. This streamlined process improves the customer experience and helps increase conversion rates (which is the number of bookings relative to the number of visits to your site).
As Google continues to become a truly universal service, you can begin to envision a future in which your customers will no longer need to look beyond Google pages to book an appointment with you.
Booking with Google Reserve allows your salon's customers to use three powerful Google services as sales channels: GoogleMaps, Google Search and Google Voice Search.
Users can now book an appointment from the Google search page using the 'Book' button in the lounge information box(Google My Business). They can visit your location using Google Maps to make their booking. And with Google Assistant, consumers can now use voice search to search and book. These three services combined offer you an indispensable complement to your website, to acquire your target audience directly.
It's time to intensify your social networking strategy and start using Pinterest for your living room!
Why? Because visual marketing is the current trend, so it's not surprising that establishments are starting to see huge potential on Pinterest. It's a site where photos are at the center.
Each idea is represented by a pin, which is an image. Pins can also refer to your website. That's why Pinterest is ideal for generating traffic, helping people find more information about your services and products.
Every beauty salon has a story to tell and visual content can help you tell it. Sharing your story with Pinterest's engaged and active audience through compelling images can be a great place to start. You can create Pinterest Boards, which are places where you record your pins according to their gender. You can make a board for anything and everything: a board according to the type of hairstyle, according to hair color... And when the customer is looking for a new cut, he can go straight to the board he is interested in.
If you believe the hype, TikTok may be the next Snapchat or Instagram. The application offers fun and visually appealing content. It is not the ideal place for serious sales. According to Médiamétrie, it is mainly used by people between 15 and 24 years old. So you have to connect creatively if you want to succeed on the platform.
Now that you know that TikTok is all about fun and creativity, it's time to create your own fun and creative content. Creating your own content on TikTok is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to promote your living room. It is an opportunity for you then to adopt a more fun and closer communication with your customer. You don't need to create very neat videos. Just take out your smartphone and start filming.
NFC technology opens up exciting new usage scenarios for your living room based on mobile devices. Today, it is used for contactless payment. But there's so much more we can do. Users of NFC-enabled devices can simply point their devices at the NFC stickers you stick on your window or door to open the online booking.
This will offer several advantages, namely, a time saving, a small 'Wow!' effect and above all a customer can pass by at any time in front of the lounge, put down his phone and make a reservation. No more Internet addresses to retype in your browser!
Because the future is personalization, hair salons making their first technological acquisitions are giving more and more importance to personalized experiences.
Now let's assume that your marketing actions have indeed resulted in a confirmed reservation and let's move on to the day you will provide the service.
This is the phase that will establish or break a relationship with every person who walks through your salon doors. By this stage, your client has already researched you, tracked you down and asked their friends about you.
Now it's up to you and your staff to take care of it and customize services based on customer history, detailed notes and previous purchases to attract and retain more customers.
This is possible thanks to the "client files" feature. Offer a more personalized service by tracking all your customers' details, including past appointments, preferences, contact information, etc. But not only that! You can also use images. When your customers want to redo an old cut or coloring, you'll find the picture easily. This feature allows you to store photos of your customers over time and display before and after images so customers can appreciate how fabulous you make them look!
In addition to consistent communication with your customers, it is also crucial to retain your customers via SMS, in a way that suits your customer's personality and needs.
Focus on what matters most. In order to build customer loyalty, we have the tools you need for your SMS campaigns.
At Wavy, we are convinced that automatic personalization is the future (personalized SMS messages that will be triggered automatically according to the number of visits of your customer, the date of the last appointment ...).
As you can see, with advances in technology, your customer lounge experience goes far beyond your premises and is a complete journey. And when you devote time, care and thought to making that journey a moment of ease and pleasure, you help ensure your customer's trust and loyalty.
The industry has moved from service to experience. So you need to make a giant leap into entertainment and implement a new model designed around the emotional needs of the new savvy consumer. Want to improve your customer experience? We'll show you how to do it with Wavy ! Request a demo.
