Blog

2020 – what a year, right? With restrictions now easing in Victoria (happy dance for face-mask free treatments!) and the rest of Australia and New Zealand gearing up for the holidays, word on the street from our clients is that “every week is a Christmas week from now until the new year”. What that means for businesses is a chock-a-block appointment book, constantly crowded front desks and a roster that looks like a who’s-who of your team zoo – everyone on, all the time.

Cardless checkout is the new, Uber-style way of paying for an appointment. And she’s fancy. You know the convenience of catching an Uber? You sign up and enter in your card details once, and from then on you can catch Ubers wherever and whenever you like! Well, why should paying for a haircut or facial be any different? The answer – it shouldn’t!

Keeping track of the clients that come through your salon or barbershop is going to continue to be an important step in the nation’s recovery from COVID-19 – regardless of what stage of restrictions your state or country may be in. Everyone is so aware of the possibility of a second wave, like we’re starting to see in Victoria, so making sure you’re on top of contact tracing in your salon, spa or barbershop is a must.

Suddenly barbers all over Australia and New Zealand are scrambling to figure out how the heck to keep track of the clients walking through their doors when they’ve never taken appointments before. So what can you do ASAP to safeguard your business against COVID-19 and get your contact tracing requirements up to speed?

In this strange new age we’re living in, so many of our wonderful clients have needed to change the way they operate to ensure they are trading more safely and strongly in a coping-with-coronavirus world. From pre-appointment checks, to new cleaning and safety precautions for the team, and limits in waiting areas and appointment times – business owners are finding it hard to know where to start.

When life gives you lemons you’ve gotta make lemonade, honey. Instead of fretting about what you might be losing and what you can’t control, it’s important to try and flip your focus to how you can progress your business and regain control. We have some great tips to help you on your way.

We know you might be playing a bit of catch-up with the clients who are banging down your doors and calling off the hook to make an appointment with you. But it’s the clients who are silent and aren’t hassling you for an appointment that are the ones you really need to focus on. So what are some easy ways you can start to spark that connection with your clients again?

Wondering how you can adapt to be your best reinvented self in this new-normal world? There are so many things the new-normal changes in the client experience – from social distancing, to disposable Styrofoam coffee cups (yeah, we’re not a fan either). So how can you adapt to these new-normal changes – that feel a little strange right now – to continue to deliver the top-shelf experience you strive for?

Give yourself one giant pat on the back honey, ‘cause you have just made it to the other side of the pandemic. But with that we need to dive head-first into adapting to the new-normal. One of those things being your salon marketing and giving it a little shake-up.

When you’re trying to promote and SELL a new service or product, like Online Gift Cards, do you just choose one channel, cross your fingers and hope for results? Nope! One itty-bitty post to Instagram isn’t going to drive those sales all by its lonesome. It has to work with all the other powerful channels you have in your marketing toolkit to get you the results you’re envisioning.

While last week was grim and gloomy in the world of online bookings for our clients, the first few days of this week were BUSY… and things aren't slowing down. When we dug into the numbers we were seeing, we found some absolute 🌟 star performers 🌟. We asked them how they did it - and they told us. Find out how.

As you try to rebuild your business, let’s focus on working together to get our communities back to normalcy. Work with each other, rather than against each other and leverage each other’s customer bases. It’s time to partner-up so we can all level-up!

SMS marketing is one of THE most powerful forms of marketing in your toolkit. The pros at Message Media (AKA Shortcuts’ fab SMS provider) say that 90% of text messages are read within 90 seconds. Heck, that’s quick! Straight from the horse’s mouth, we’re delivering all of Message Media’s best practice tips for sending effective SMS campaigns.

We sat down with our little resident Google guru, Naomi, to chat about how you can leverage the power of Google to communicate with your clients and establish your online presence.

When lockdowns end and hair and beauty businesses allowed to start operating somewhat normally, it’s time to get your ducks in a row so your business is ready for clients again. Begin by thinking of the things you have control over: cleaning the salon, communicating with your staff, and creating new sanitation processes. By giving yourself time to think about your re-opening plan, you will be able to focus on each key area of your business so you can reopen with a bang! Here are a few ideas to get you started.  1) Revise your COVID-safe plan  Reconsider your current COVID-safe plan and see if there are any improvements that could be made. Think about how you are going to sanitise stations, basins, waiting areas, in between clients, and the entire salon at the end of every day. It’s important to establish and maintain a consistent routine for you and your staff to prevent the risk of contamination within your salon.  In your Shortcuts Appointment Book, consider adding a finishing block titled "Sanitation" or "Sterilisation" if you haven't already. This should be booked after every service to allow a minimum of 15 minutes to clean your space in-between clients.  Plan…

It’s time to remind your clients that there’s still an important reason to celebrate just around the corner. This weekend in fact – Mother’s Day is on Sunday 10 May.

How many times a day do you hear the familiar ‘ping’ of a text message to your phone, only to find it’s AusPost updating you on the status of an order, or an online retailer letting you know about a sale? Nowadays, SMS is a common way for businesses to spread the word, and it’s important to keep your SMS campaigns engaging and novel so that they make your clients take notice.    Our top tips? Glad you asked.     Make it personal. Use personal information like client name or appointment data wherever possible. And remember to use your name! Feeling like they’re getting a text from a real person will make your client take notice.   Use shortened links. Sites like Bitly allow you to cut down on characters by shortening website URLs for you! Simply enter the webpage address you want to shorten, and insert the URL it produces into your text. Bingo!  Mix it up. Don’t send the same message and expect a different result. Try a few different types of SMS, and see what works for you!  Here’s some ideas for SMS campaigns you can start sending today:  If you’re open…  Remind clients you’re open – with so much uncertainty around the government restrictions, your clients may not even realise they can still visit your salon!   Reinforce what your…

Now is a great time to re-energise your staff and set some little projects to keep morale up. We’ve collated some of the things we think would be great for your teams to spend some time on – and we’ve even got some we can help you with!