Running the financial side of a business is a responsibility that can consume countless hours. If you’re a beauty or wellness professional, who’s managing your own shop or chair, taking time to personally handle every financial detail and conduct each monetary transaction isn’t ideal.
To make things easier for Booksy business owners, we created Mobile Payments about three years ago. Mobile Payments takes away the stress of handling every financial transaction. Over the years, this tool has been able to help salons, barbershops, and wellness centers stay on track.
With the added stress of COVID-19, the Mobile Payments feature has become even more useful. Mobile Payments are contact-free transactions that eliminate the need for exchanging paper money. This is important because health officials agree that handling cash can spread COVID-19.
These are just a few reasons why a Brooklyn, New York based barber named Curtis Elliot decided to take advantage of Mobile Payments. Keep reading to learn how this tool helps him run a successful business where he focuses on clients, instead of being hung up on accounting.
After dedicating 27 years to the grooming industry, Curtis knows when to appreciate a service that can help him run his business that he proudly named Mr. Barber. After only using the Mobile Payments feature for less than six months, this tool has already helped him save valuable time, energy, and money—something any professional can appreciate.
From inside his barbershop, which is specifically located in the Downtown Brooklyn area of the city, Curtis has built a rock-solid reputation for running a sophisticated grooming destination, where clients walk on polished marble floors and sit in plush leather chairs.
Loyal customers who appreciate his work, applaud the relaxing experience. For them, the big appeal is the combination of professionalism, puncionality, cleanliness, and the overall attention to detail that Curtis and his staffers consistently provide. Part of the reason that Curtis is able to offer such craftsmanship is because of the time and energy he saves using BooksyBiz features.
In particular, Curtis is able to conveniently use the BooksyBiz app to find the Mobile Payments feature in the same place, where he finds so many useful business tools. So, instead of logging in and out of numerous online applications like Venmo, CashApp, or Zelle, Curtis can manage his finances with Booksy.
Other industry professionals are welcome to take advantage of the Mobile Payments feature, just like Curtis. Another one of the main reasons that so many professionals enjoy this feature is that it’s such a secure way to manage finances.
Our Mobile Payments system is managed by a payment platform called Adyen. Several other popular tech companies use this system, including Uber, Microsoft, Pinterest, eBay, and Spotify. And that’s in large part because Ayden has a proven track record with fraud prevention.
The fact that this feature lets people complete checkouts faster and easier is yet another reason why business owners have been activating Mobile Payments. So, if a customer is in a hurry, all they have to do is click their phone to pay.
And although Booksy professionals love the fact that Mobile Payments lets business owners charge clients for services and cancellation fees, business owners can also sell products to customers, who can conveniently buy from their phones or tablets.
Just as importantly, the Mobile Payments feature is also cost-effective. There’s no extra signup fees, monthly charges, or cancellations costs associated with this feature. The only thing that our business owners pay for is a small transaction fee.
The main reason Curtis speaks so highly about Mobile Payments is because of its impact on his cancellations. According to Curtis, once he started using Mobile Payments, he was able to set up his own personal Cancellation Policy to deter no-shows and last minute cancellations.
Curtis charges clients 50% for any grooming service, upfront. And he gives customers 24 hours to cancel without a penalty. If a client cancels, outside of that timeframe, he keeps the down payment. Implementing that Cancellation Policy, saves him a whopping $400 per month.
“It definitely saves a tremendous amount of money. Typically, people make their appointments, and tragically with barber appointments, people are very likely to cancel because there’s no real commitment. Before I started using this service there was really no upfront cost to the client. So, they would allow other appointments or activities to let them cancel randomly,” he said.
Since Curtis charges $45 for a men’s haircut, which doesn’t include a shave or a speciality treatment, losing more than twenty dollars has been enough of an incentive for his clients to stop cancelling almost completely. Curtis estimates that his cancellation rates have dropped by almost 90%.”
“I’ve actually had those clients who come in here and said, ‘I had to make sure I was here on time.’ If they’re running a little late, you know. Now, they try to make arrangements. Simply because cancelling an appointment comes at a cost to them. And that works perfectly,” he said.
