How to deal with Unscheduled, Off-Peak Appointments?

Almost 99% of appointment service providers face the off-peak problem. Customers are less interested in beauty, health or sport services at certain times of day. Off-peak appointments are hard-to-sell and are also known as „slow” because their income producing capability is less intensive. What factors are behind the off-peak phenomena and how can you make the most out of it?

Seasonality

Seasonality is mix of trends, fashion, weather and all kinds of other factors. Is doing sports currently trending? Yes, it is a fact, but the highlight is upon running, Pilates and yoga – so sports like swimming are undervalued today. There are two things you can do to ride that wave: always know what is trending – keep yourself professionally updated and be flexible – try to integrate those into what you are doing.

Payday proximity

It is rather a beauty marketing recognition than sport or health (thanks to their common monthly passes) that average customers tend to schedule appointments not too far from payday (last and first few days of the month). It is not hard to imagine that going to a spa for a relaxing, anti-aging massage or to a senior hairdresser for a party haircut feels the best when the pocket is full. As an appointment service provider you want to focus your opening days and hours on this period. As for your own holidays, aim for the middle of the month.

Daily working hours

Earlier I shared a story about a squash court owner who understood how greatly his income is affected by his customers’ daily digesting habits. If their stomach is full they won’t come to play a running-intensive, active sport. Not until they are incentivized to adapt. There is one greater power than lunchtime and that is daily working hours. On weekdays from 8am till 4pm almost 80% of potential clients are unable to come. On weekends the Saturday mornings are the more muted times. This leads up to an unbelievable vacancy rate at most salons and sport centers. They are open but the lack of clients leads only to facebooking…

I have a solution for you! Based on how far the payday spike is, try to experiment with different opening times. Instead of being closed Sunday-Monday, occasionally try a Monday-Tuesday “weekend”. You could serve clients who do not have time on weekdays but can save some for the weekend better. 

My other tip would be to incentivize an alternative appointment for clients calling you. If a new-ish client tries to set her next appointment, instead of turning a page in your calendar to the next week, ask this: “Would you be interested in tomorrow 10 a.m. for a 30% discount?” It is last minute, it is off-peak but you have definitely made it more interesting with the price. 

About the Author: Balazs Monos is the founder of Reserveline, a marketplace that lets service providers sell their unscheduled appointments to potential customers at discounted prices. Balazs has spent 7 years in sales and marketing in both B2B and B2C fields. He offers free consultations on client acquisition and pricing strategy for local service providers from and around London.

Also find him on Twitter! @reserveline

  

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3 + 1 problems with discounting and their antidotes

There’s a common and understandable question asked by local service providers, salon managers and coaches.

“Anyway, why should I discount at all?”

“Discounting means I earn less. It downgrades the image of my business. For coupons I get a lot of non-returning, often problematic customers. My services are worth it!” These are some of the common arguments against lowering prices. Let’s face it, some of these reasons can be right in certain cases. I’ll talk about how to avoid these disadvantages mentioned above.

1. You earn less while discounting

Those who say this do not see the bigger picture. Discounting can be actually done in a way so it won’t harm your business revenues. The truth is, when you give discounts only on specific terms (e.g. only to new customers for a possible future return, only for off-peak or last minute appointments, etc.) you will see an increase in profits. These discounts let you motivate either more spending per customer or realize more potential clients.

2. Downgrading the company image

Most salon managers think that the image a discount tag relays is “We are out of customers! Come in and SAVE US!”. They shouldn’t be afraid, because for an average client an average discount only says that “Hello dear Customer! I am aware of your needs. I’m being flexible here!” The solution is to mix some originality with decent drop of your prices. Try to create special days (e.g. Monday – A quick blow-dry before work (Just GBP X on Mondays), Friday – Party styling (-50% before 6 p.m.), it will send a much different and more positive image of your business.

3. Non-returning customers

I recently ran into an article on the web (by author Tommy Baker), which stated that discounts are killing the fitness industry. One of his statements was about the clients you can get for couponing: “These clients want fitness in the same fashion they want a blender at Wal-Mart: cheap and of poor build and quality, with promising features and benefits. Something that will have to be replaced quickly, but it was a “deal” so the buyer feels fantastic.” A portion of these purchases are impulse buys only so it will be hard to convince these customers of returning later.

An effective way to increase the rate of returning customers is to create discounts that can be sustained in the long run. It is clearly a no-go with 90+% on everything you offer, but can work out with 30-50% on well-specified, unique services with off-peak appointments.

+1 Your services are worth their price!

When I was training to be a sales agent, my supervisors never-ever allowed us to give discounts to customers. The mantra was: “we are worth our price”. It was true to some of us and not so to others. I believe that an exact and acceptable price can be set for every service and every single service provider, and that price should be something what represents both quality and quantity. Although nowadays discounted prices have become a somewhat of a necessity to gain potential clients – it is the entry barrier for a broader audience.
A simple solution could be to calculate some profit reserve for occasional price lowering. If it is not possible because of the fierce competition, your only chance for a win-win scenario is to become an expert on discounting (Here youcan find 4 steps to become one).

About the Author: Balazs Monos is the founder of Reserveline, a marketplace that lets service providers sell their unscheduled appointments to potential customers at discounted prices. Balazs has spent 7 years in sales and marketing in both B2B and B2C fields. He offers free consultations on client acquisition and pricing strategy for local service providers from and around London.

Also find him on Twitter! @reserveline

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The one question every service provider should ask their customers

Before stepping into the deep waters of customer acquisition and retention, let me tell you how I became a returning customer at a hairdresser. It was a nice summer day. I looked at the mirror and decided to have a haircut. I called my regular hairdresser to set an appointment but had no luck – she was fully booked for the rest of the week (at least for the appointments that could’ve fit my schedule). I needed the haircut badly, as my family later confirmed, so I made a few calls and got another hairdresser.

Long story short the haircut was way better than what my regular hairdresser could do and the environment was more appealing as well. However one does not simply throw away their well-established partnership with a service provider. My decision to change was based on an important psychological factor. I felt cared. And to create this feeling the hairdresser only needed a little proactivity.

He told me: “Your hairdo will hold its shape for 21 days. If you were satisfied, may I book you an appointment for around that time?” Of course I said yes! Bang, I’d just become a returning customer.

According to my quick survey more than half of the service providers are waiting for the customer to schedule another appointment and not using this simple sales technique to encourage them to return. This kind of approach – to actively try to invite the client to another appointment – requires a little bravery and minimum effort and, at the end of the day, can result in huge success when it comes to returning customers.

In almost every part of the sector there are services similar to haircuts, needed by customers on a regular basis (e.g. private yoga or Pilates classes, Swedish massage, regular health checks, hair coloring, etc.).

Here are some tips how to motivate clients towards returning:

Pilates

“Because of X, Y and Z your body posture is unhealthy. This could lead to pain and joint problems. We could prevent it with a well-structured, 6 month therapy. If you liked my private Pilates class, I can schedule your next appointment.”

Massage

“As I understood from our conversation, you are living a stressful life. This massage you just had works to fill up your energy reserves, before any serious stress inducing event (meeting, conference, race or contest). Would you like to schedule something to prepare you for these?”

Fitness

“Your body has a wonderful shape, it just needs a little sculpture. If you are interested in having a V-shaped body, I am currently forming a new group where we are learning strength training and nutrition together. Would you like to join?” 

To transform a new client into a returning customer you need to set a target that relies heavily on their original motivation of visit. This target needs to be simple, accomplishable, inspiring and original enough to create the feeling of care. Do not wait for them to make the call or to pop in at some time. Make them feel good, set a goal and create an inspiring environment for your customers. They then will more likely to return and stay with you and your services as a loyal client in the long run.

About the Author: Balazs Monos is the founder of Reserveline, a marketplace that lets service providers sell their unscheduled appointments to potential customers at discounted prices. Balazs has spent 7 years in sales and marketing in both B2B and B2C fields. He offers free consultations on client acquisition and pricing strategy for local service providers from and around London.

Also find him on Twitter! @reserveline

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4 Steps to Become a Discounting Expert

Last time I mentioned the squash court owner who found a right amount of discount to fill their unscheduled lunchtime gap. Most service providers aren’t in such an obvious situation. Unscheduled appointments tend to scatter more randomly around the whole day. There are four key things to look out for if you want to become a discounting expert.

1. Do your market research

You might think market research is a hard task that only senior professionals can do. Actually you just need to take a look at your competitors a bit, doing something called a “competitor analysis”. This varies based on the size of the business, but you really just need to answer the following simple questions:

Which service providers are your top 5 biggest competitors?

Are your prices lower or higher than theirs and why?

How do they discount? (Do they use a daily deal website or an online appointment scheduler?)

2. Know who you want to attract

To engage an effective marketing campaign, you need to do some targeting. A first step could be to target the customers who come back only rarely or visited you only once. To retain clients is always cheaper than continuously trying to get new people in, because you do not need to spend more and more on advertisements. With their loyalty increasing, your advertising cost will be decreasing.

3. Choose services wisely

When doing your market research, you will see that similar service providers are promoting very similar services. Hairdressers are promoting mostly haircuts and blow-dry, yoga teachers group yoga classes and so on.

If you want to catch the eyes of your potential customers, you need to be more original! Take a moment, sit back, and think about what your clients want from you. An average hairdresser sells haircuts but a unique hairdresser offers party hairdos or “luxury hair repair treatment”. Most yoga promotions are about the yoga classes, you can be unique and offer “balanced body posture” or more customized, tailor made deals. Choose a service that is not overused on promotion platforms and also defines your image a bit.

4. Overdiscouting and Underdiscounting

To set the discount bar on the right level is the art of pricing. The best way to achieve success is to test your promotional prices. You do not want to sell your services cheap, because it won’t create profit and will also cheapen your business’ image. You also do not want to give too little, because it won’t create the necessary buzz and new clients won’t show up. A safe lane in discounting is to be found between 30% and 75%.

How can you test this? Use pen and paper to simply put it on your front door. Make two variations. First week try a lesser amount of discount (e.g. 30%) and on the next promote the same service with a higher 50%. You can also add that it is a limited offer and you will only sell 5 or 10 of it. Don’t forget to say that this deal is applicable only for appointments between 8am and 1pm (or any other off-peak time period).

Try it! It will work out just fine!

About the Author: Balazs Monos is the founder of Reserveline, a marketplace that lets service providers sell their unscheduled appointments to potential customers at discounted prices. Balazs has spent 7 years in sales and marketing in both B2B and B2C fields. He offers free consultations on client acquisition and pricing strategy for local service providers from and around London.

Also find him on Twitter! @reserveline

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A Good Example of Pricing Local Services

There are more than 40,000 registered active service providers in the Beauty sector in the UK. If you're reading this, you're most likely one of them.

That’s what one would call a though competition. Thousands of companies are fighting to provide hairdressing, nails, waxing or weight loss services to potential clients. Pricing and quality (in this order) are key tools to get the people in. This blog will mainly focus on how to practically win new customers and convert them into satisfied, happy, returning clients.

Pricing is key

Let’s concentrate on pricing as it still is the most important factor needs to be set right. You need a pricing strategy! What…? - you say.

In the last few hundred years pricing strategy on the service provider market was about a tiny little question at the back of everyone’s mind: “To raise or not raise?” Only in the last couple of years came a new wave – discounted deals (aka. group-buying, daily deals, coupons or vouchers). 

The internet revolution

The Groupon-led renewal brought a new era, but also new problems. Because of the inflexibility of the product-focused business model these internet based daily deal websites operate with, most service providers were not really able to use them to success. You have probably heard the horror stories of the unlucky some, who literally went bankrupt trying to serve thousands of bargain hunters. 

We need a revolution on this market!

What is common in the business mindset of an airline company and an event organizer? They both found a factor that is effectively driving their pricing strategy: Time.

Time is of the essence

It is a simple yet important variable of your business that could alter how you attain more customers. Even the most established service providers agree that their appointments are not valued equally. There are many which literally sell themselves. You can sit back and be sure that the after-working hours will be full or close to that. The problems start between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., when most people are stuck at work. 

A good example

Let me tell you the story of how a squash court operator solved their problem. They were doing well with most of their appointment times, but struggled with the ones around lunchtime. Who wants to play squash with all the running around on a full stomach?

The reality is that there are quite a few people with a flexible enough schedule to do it. They might skip lunch or postpone it but they end up playing squash anyway. All the operator had to do is to use a simple but underused trick: they discounted the empty appointment times, but only those. They didn't run a daily deal campaign with hundreds of coupons. They just put a 50% discount on their empty hours, wrote it on a sheet of paper at the reception and BANG, the magic happened.

They could have found a more effective way to promote the discounted appointments, but the basic idea worked. They are now fully booked, always!

This way of thinking is applicable for all businesses based on scheduled appointments. You only need to take a look at your calendar, identify the least popular time-slots and offer a discount on them.

More on the right amount of discount in our next post.

About the Author: Balazs Monos is the founder of Reserveline, a marketplace that lets service providers sell their unscheduled appointments to potential customers at discounted prices. Balazs has spent 7 years in sales and marketing in both B2B and B2C fields. He offers free consultations on client acquisition and pricing strategy for local service providers from and around London.

Also find him on Twitter! @reserveline

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