Four ways to prepare your salon for wedding season.

As the passionate and dedicated owner of a hair or beauty salon, you know all about making each guest feel special. However, the bridal season gives you an unparalleled opportunity to magnify this everyday commitment in a variety of ways.

1. Use the power of communication.

Even if you have staff with impeccable qualifications and insider knowledge of the hottest trends, potential customers may be unaware of who you are. Fortunately, your current clients can be a rich source of referrals.

When you perform hair services, you often take on the role of a trusted friend. How often have you found that people bear their hearts and souls to you when they are getting a haircut or color? Over time, these relationships grow and deepen.

During these conversations, you may learn that your client or someone they know plans to get married soon. Take this opportunity to highlight the services you offer to brides and wedding parties. Then, be sure to thank your client for their referral by giving them a free product or discounted service.

Social media sites like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram are also great places to discover the benefits of word of mouth. If you haven’t done so already, set up a page for your salon on the sites your customers like to use. Show off the wedding-related services you offer while including your favorite pictures and videos that feature your unique stylings.

2. Take your salon on the road.

You don’t necessarily need to wait for brides-to-be to walk into your shop inquiring about what wedding-related services you have to offer. One of the best ways to generate a buzz among your target customers is to meet them where they already are. That may include running a booth at bridal shows or setting up a pop-up store at a wedding retailer. While you’re there, find a way to engage curious onlookers: You might offer free mini-makeovers or micro-stylings that can help entice the undecided to come into your business for a consultation.

Whether you are in your salon or at a show, make information capture a priority. Encourage potential customers to provide you with their email addresses so that you can send offers and newsletters that notify them about upcoming promotions. A great way to convince people to give contact information is to enter their name into a drawing for a free styling or makeover.

3. Use AI to ensure that you never miss a call.

Competition during wedding season is fierce, and you can’t afford to lose business because you were unable to get to the phone. While you should do everything possible to take calls in person, investing in an AI receptionist is a great way to pick up the slack should all your human systems fail.

With the help of your AI assistant, you can immediately text the person and help them book an appointment anytime, day or night. Of course, the next important priority is to follow up with each of the appointments to verify the time and place and ensure that the customer knows exactly what to expect.

4. Make the customer payment experience simple and painless.

We all know that preparing for the big day can be one of the most stressful times in a bride-to-be’s entire  life. Furthermore, now that wedding season is about to kick off, you never know when a bride and her bridesmaids could walk into your salon. That’s just one reason why taking advantage of fast and frictionless payment processing for salons is so important. 

To choose the best payment platform that meets your needs and provides your clients with seamless purchasing experiences, your first step is to conduct some thorough research. Today’s platforms are loaded with features that can make running your business easier while simultaneously enhancing all your clients’ buying experience, whether they’re brides-to-be or not. Here are just some of the features you should look for when comparing payments platforms.

• The ability to accept payments in multiple forms, including credit and debit cards, checks, and even coupons.
• Assisting in the booking of appointments. At the very least, it should integrate with third-party scheduling software.
• Employee and inventory management.
• Payroll processing.
• Capable of integrating gift cards, loyalty programs, and referral codes.
• Equipped with mobile point of sale readers. These allow you to accept payments from anywhere in your shop,  at wedding venues, and anywhere else your business takes you. Having this flexibility offers an added layer of convenience and also lets you accept last-minute or spontaneous purchases made on the day of the big event, potentially at the wedding venue itself.

Once you have put all of these strategies into place, you can look forward to a bridal season full of opportunities for you, your staff, and, of course, your special customers.

Long after May and June have faded into memory, the benefits of your enhanced marketing strategies will continue to bear fruit for your salon. Keep the positive vibe going by sharing the pictures you are most proud of, and you may well discover that the wedding parties of earlier in the year become long-term, happy customers who trust you for their ongoing hair and beauty needs.