Your 'Back-to-Business 101' Checklist

Restrictions being lifted are on the horizon, and we’re sure you’re looking forward to getting back to business, doing what you love, and making your clients happy; but in the safest and most business-savvy way possible. That’s why we’ve put together a checklist of what you might need to consider when preparing to reopen. 

Here are a few ways to help you get back up and running and update your customers about what will happen when you reopen and how they can continue to support you.

1. Update Your Work Schedule

 You may have made the decision to extend your working hours once you’ve reopened, or introduce some atypical shifts among your team members to minimize how many people you have in your shop at one time. Utilize Work Schedule to make the changes quickly, effectively, and be able to show to both you and your clients, who is working and when. 

2. Update Your Calendar Settings

One of the benefits of Booksy is that your customers can schedule appointments up to 24 months in advance depending on your account settings. 

Take these steps to adjust the time frame for future bookings: 

1. Open your Booksy app profile and select  “Settings” and then click “Booking Settings.” 
2. Select “Booking for Future.”
3. Select how far in advance clients are able to schedule an appointment. We recommend you allow bookings to be made at least 3-6 months in advance during this time.

3. Re-open Your Calendar

Get ready to welcome back those clients with virtual open arms and an open calendar! If you previously changed your available open times, here’s how you’ll want to amend these.

4. Encourage Contactless Payment - Edit Your Deposits Settings

Use Booksy to offer deposits. This tool lets you charge for appointments upfront and minimize the need for contact when receiving payments. Let your clients know they can support you through this time by booking and paying for an appointment in advance.

Take the following three steps to set up a deposit in the Booksy app:

1. Log into the Booksy Biz app.
2. Select “Settings,” which is listed on the main menu (on the left side of the screen).
3. Then select “Cancellation Fee & Deposits.”
4. Select “Strict policy – Deposits.”
5. Select the % of the service that you would like to charge as an upfront payment (you can choose to apply it to all services).

If you’re not currently using Mobile Payments, you can set them up yourself in under 5 minutes by opening your Booksy Biz app and heading to Mobile Payments. After set up, you’ll be automatically prompted to turn on Deposits.

5. Grow That Waitlist!

We’re sure you’ll have lots of customers lining up for their services with you, so make sure that you don’t lose out on potential revenue and have your Waitlist feature switched on! If you’re fully booked (hello, popular!), our Waitlist feature will automatically contact potential clients to let them know an appointment has become available. Want to know more? Check out our how-to video below.

6. Protect Your Revenue with Cancellations Policies and Deposits

Build a stronger cash flow and protect your revenue by setting up your cancellation policy and taking deposits for your services.

7. Extend Padding Time for Sanitising Between Clients

Use our handy padding time feature to allow yourself time to sanitize your work stations between clients, before welcoming your next client into the chair. To set up padding time in your app, go to More > Business Profile > Services > click on the service you want to add padding time to > Advanced options > Padding Time. Padding Time has to be applied to each service individually.

8. Use Consent Forms

You can utilize our new Custom Forms feature to ask clients basic questions regarding their recent health or if they’ve traveled in the last few weeks, if they’ve had certain symptoms, or if anyone they live with has had certain symptoms. These are questions you should also be asking yourself before returning to work. It’s all in the effort to keep you and your clients healthy. Check out how to set up yours here:

9. Keep Clients Up To Date with our Marketing Tools

Keep in mind that developments are being made all the time. A quick email or push message straight to your client’s phone will help comfort and reassure them that they’ll be coming back to a safe environment for their services. Take advantage of our Social Post Creator and Message Blast features to keep your clients up to date about your reopening. 

10. Edit Your Facebook AutoResponders 

You’ll inevitably receive many messages as you announce your reopening plans. To give yourself peace of mind, we’d advise setting up an Autoresponder on Facebook with a link to your Booksy profile. In the auto-reply, you can also give information like when you’ll be taking future appointments and any new safety policies you’ll be introducing.

11. Turn Automated Marketing Back On

Before restrictions came into place, you might have had automated marketing campaigns set up in Booksy, such as the popular “It’s time for your next appointment” Message Blast. Now’s the time to re-enable these. 

If you’ve never set up automated campaigns before now can be the perfect time to create one to help hit the ground running once your business is open. Just check out our useful guide here!

12. Use ‘ I’m Ready! ’

We’ve introduced a brand-new feature that will help you easily notify your clients when you’re ready for them to come inside your salon for their appointment. This is helpful in-between appointments as it gives you time to sanitize and re-create a safe environment for your next client. This also helps avoid any possible cross-over of clients and minimizes as much contact as possible. Learn more here.

Start your free trial now

‍