Mini Moment #20: Your Salon Software Is Not Working as Hard as You Are – with Sherri from Timely
Most salon owners set up their booking software once and never go back. The descriptions are outdated, the services do not reflect the brand anymore, and there is revenue sitting quietly in the background that nobody is capturing. Sound familiar?
In this Mini Moment, Jen sits down with Sherri from Timely to talk about why an annual audit of your salon software is one of the most underrated things you can do for your business. And why the new Timely add-ons feature might just be the thing that changes how you think about upselling forever.
Because here is the thing. The best add-on conversation is the one you never have to have out loud. When your software is set up properly, it does the prompting for you. Your clients get the nudge at the right moment, they feel in control of their choices, and you get the revenue without the awkward middle bit.
What we cover
- Why auditing your salon software once a year is non negotiable
- How misaligned service descriptions can disconnect your brand experience
- The new Timely add-ons feature and how it works for your business
- Letting technology do the upselling so you do not have to
- Why giving clients ownership of their booking increases add-on uptake
- How solo operators can use software to reduce overwhelm
- AI, social media and the future of working smarter not harder
- Why having fun on Instagram is actually a strategy
Your software should be working while you are behind the chair. This episode will show you how to make that happen.
Mentioned in this episode:
💛 A HUGE Thank You to Our Podcast Sponsors - Timely
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Transcript
[00:00:15] Sherri: Hello. Nice to see you.
[:[00:00:39] Sherri: Yeah, like I've just been noticing a little lately, a lot of salons are also having rebrands or their names, or they may have been in business for five, six years and they're rebranding, and then they're going back and they're auditing their timely accounts. And I think it's a really good opportunity that everyone should maybe every 12 months just check, is your descriptions aligned?
How's it all
[:[00:01:08] Sherri: up? Is it working for you Because kind of set it up and you hope for the best and uh, off you go and you don't really go back as a customer or a client and view things.
[:I would've realized that, but that's okay. That's by the buy. But I, and I think too, we can often get caught up in that, the visual rebrand aspect. Right.
[:[00:01:50] Jen: that. There's so many different things that we are putting out and we can visually change, but if we haven't moved everything else with that alignment, it, it can kind of have a disconnect with the brand that we are now, you know, the steps that we're taking and what we're moving into.
I know, Samara and I have talked about this with the. Needing to rebrand her business because she's gone more boutique and, and like a smaller team now that all our existing old branding for her business was really like big team focus. So it's like, okay, how do we change the wording? How do we like really get the message across from the experience that you're gonna have when you come to the salon?
Right?
[:[00:02:37] Jen: Yep.
[:[00:03:07] Jen: Yeah.
[:[00:03:20] Jen: Yes.
[:[00:03:48] Jen: Yeah, and I think there's a beauty in giving the client the ownership for that as well. So both Samara and myself have check-in forms in our salon on where we check like it's, we call it like a temperature check for, to see where our clients are at for that day. This is not part of our consultation.
It is like, just seeing where they are at. Right. So are you, how are you feeling? Is there anything you need me to know?
[:[00:04:15] Jen: and I, and I have had things from like, I am really seedy to, my brother's just died. Please don't talk to me about it. You know, like, so it's that, but we also give the opportunity at that time to add things on because people like to have that ownership of like, yeah, actually my hair is feeling a bit funny.
Yeah, maybe I do need to add that treatment there. And, and when you give someone the option to add and select that themselves, which is what the timely add-ons do in that online booking, it really gives them that opportunity to reflect how they're feeling about their hair without feeling like you are telling them to do something.
[:[00:04:59] Jen: Yeah.
[:[00:05:01] Jen: And
And that's the thing. Sometimes it's like, oh yeah, I haven't had that for a while. I probably do need that. You know, actually, yeah, I do. I do really wanna add on a tip out or. If it's someone in beauty, like, oh, what should I add on? Should I add on getting my lashes done while I'm getting my brows done?
Maybe I should add that on. You're just prompting someone to think, oh, that would be really nice. But you're also giving them the option to not select it if they don't want to, and then people don't feel like they're sold to.
[:[00:05:32] Jen: Yeah.
[:[00:05:46] Jen: Yeah.
[:[00:05:55] Jen: Yeah.
[:[00:06:17] Jen: Yeah.
[:Like you can remind them every time you're like, I've got this beautiful treatment. And they're like, no, imagine that one time that that client jumps online
[:[00:06:29] Sherri: I
[:[00:06:30] Sherri: to see these stories happen 'cause I just know it is. We've all been there, we've all got those clients that like. You hope that that one time they're gonna say yes. You're like, it's just 25. on. Like it's just, and that one time I can't wait to like, as we roll this out, people say there's these clients that just never had it done and then they
[:[00:06:54] Sherri: And that as a business owner is gonna be the biggest flex. And that's what I feel like, you know, this is the future of technology. We want it to do those things in the background for you.
[:[00:07:11] Sherri: We want it to work for you. And I think it's so beautiful that you have the control to go into your services, pick all your blow dry, and every blow dry is gonna have a selection of, you know, in cell on treatments that can be suggested to them.
Or if you are in beauty, you can now have the LED, you know,
[:[00:07:31] Sherri: or the derm abrasion or whatever that looks like rather than. The client going, I think that this is an add-on. I don't even know if these two go together or you know, we've all been there
[:You need this,
[:[00:08:02] Jen: you know, like just follow the, follow the way behind. But, yeah, it's just, it's just that guidance. And it's interesting too because I think, I think clearly my feelings around automations and technology and AI are starting to come through because in the last speaking event that I spoke at, it's literally the only thing I got asked about.
But I think that sometimes people see this type of thing as taking the human aspect out of it. I think it's completely the opposite, like it's just allowing all your time and focus to go into that human aspect, right?
[:Like that may happen, but we don't know. So there's no, but there's also, there's gonna be a lot of jobs that are created from AI as
[:[00:09:13] Sherri: as you
[:And I definitely think that AI will be part of that, but
[:[00:09:47] Jen: Yeah.
[:[00:10:03] Jen: So that I can focus on my clients and my business. Right.
[:[00:10:35] Jen: Agreed. I'm very much interested. I cannot wait to unpack that one with you afterwards actually, because I think it's gonna be so exciting.
[:[00:10:50] Jen: Yeah.
[:[00:11:10] Jen: Yeah.
[:So I think I'm so glad that we have some people that are talking about that now and you know, it is like, Instagram is like a gauntlet that we are like continuously just running.
[:[00:11:30] Sherri: ending, but
[:[00:11:34] Sherri: I've definitely shifted my mindset around, Instagram. I'm just there to have fun.
[:[00:11:41] Sherri: once I did that and embrace that, I'm like, oh yeah, just have fun. Just enjoy the fun of it.
[:[00:11:50] Sherri: And then that just, it removes the do this, gotta say that. Just have fun.
[:[00:12:06] Sherri: It's gotten really good. My algorithm is also pretty good at the moment. I'm, I'm with you on that. Yeah.
[:[00:12:13] Sherri: nice to see more hairdressers like I've been la like there's some really funny content out there right now that I've been seeing so many of. Our hairdressers posting and I just I literally cackle like, it's like the loudest laugh, and I'm so proud and so happy to see that those things like it's the best.
[:[00:12:42] Sherri: Yeah, it takes time, you know? And I think that's just where we're at in, where we're, where we are in the world of all the craziness and the madness. And I think when the, the shadow of all the madness happening is the fun, like as wild as that sound that the direct shadow of that is okay, there's like doom and gloom going on. But the shadow of that is actually having fun. And so like the same thing kind of happened in COVID,
[:[00:13:07] Sherri: and gloom, but then shifted online to really having a laugh.
[:[00:13:14] Sherri: what I think is awful, is what's going on. There's, there's this element of
[:[00:13:22] Sherri: a, a little
[:[00:13:27] Sherri: course.
[:[00:13:33] Sherri: Absolutely,
[:[00:13:37] Sherri: and laugh at yourself.
[:[00:13:44] Sherri: I always laugh at myself. I, I, I should have shared a photo of what my getup was on Monday night. It was a vibe.
[:[00:13:56] Sherri: I forgot my sneakers, and I had to go to the studio and I had high heels and socks on and active wear
[:[00:14:09] Sherri: I thought, God, I had to walk. I had to walk in the rain to my car in Brunswick whilst it was busy.
[:[00:14:39] Sherri: yeah. at yourself.
[:[00:14:46] Sherri: so landed, embrace it, get ready. Get
[:[00:14:52] Sherri: get ready to look at this, feature as also an add-on to your business
[:[00:14:59] Sherri: that is going to help you with revenue without you having
[:[00:15:06] Sherri: to do the
[:[00:15:11] Sherri: I am so excited to like, see as we keep rolling what's happening, you know, like we've got things moving, which is just so exciting and add-on's.
Like I honestly, and I'm passionate about this one too, because just know, I know that feeling behind the chair when you're just like. Had a quiet week, and I wanna have like, how am I gonna increase my numbers this week when
[:[00:15:39] Sherri: week? But just knowing that you've got that little bit of element working for you in the background, it just gives you that bit more peace of mind and a little less overwhelm in my opinion.
And
[:Okay guys, so thank you so much for joining us on this little mini moment
thanks so much, Sherri.
Thank you.
