Sample Business Cases

Business Case #2 -Salons & Spas Smart phones, tablets, and highly accessible internet are changing the way people buy goods and book services.  As a result service industries such as hair stylists, beauty salons and spas are starting to find online bookings critical to their bottom line.  Let’s illustrate this with two scenarios from a customer point of view.   Scenario #1 It’s 10pm and you decide you need a cut and style. If you remember, you call to book an appointment the next day during a coffee break.  What happens if they have no receptionist and you get a machine?  Do you try again, call another salon, or put off booking the appointment until you can get through?  Do you have time for this on your short coffee break?  Wouldn’t it be nice to have booked the appointment last night at 8pm when you first thought of it?  Too bad the salon is closed for business when you want to give them your business…  Scenario #2 In the second scenario, your stylist subscribes to a cloud based point of sales system.  It’s 10pm and you decide you need a cut and style.  You visit your stylists booking system on your smartphone, see when your favorite stylist is available and book the appointment and services you want.  A notice pops up saying your favorite conditioner is 20% off and asks if you want to be reminded about it when you come in for your appointment.  You say yes to the conditioner reminder and and your done. Seconds later a booking confimeation is received.  Instant gratification. Impact on Salon Workflow & Bottom Line From the salon managers perspective, scenario #2 let the customer book their favorite stylist, services and probably sold some conditoner all while the salon was closed.  The POS entered the booking and product reminder in the stylists appointment calendar, checked conditioner inventory, noted the customer’s interest in the conditioner offer for future bookings, and sent an email booking confirmation to the customer.  When the manager wakes in the morning they check the POS dashboard from home to see the days bookings, weekly revenues from each stylist, product inventory, check promotion sales, add new promotions, and maybe offer 20% off for the new stylist to increase their bookings.  Over 50% of online bookings occur after normal business hours.  If salons still go with scenario #1, are they losing half of their potential customers?  In 2010 Salon Today did an online booking technology case study.  Read it here.