Marketing Director on how beauty salons can increase their customer flow using technology

Yulia Li is the Marketing Director of the Zapis.kz service. TheTech.kz spoke with her about how salons can avoid losing revenue even at night with the help of technology.Yulia, what services does the zapis.kz service provide and who is it targeted at?Initially, we launched a CRM system to automate business processes in beauty salons. This was back in 2017. For salons, this became an excellent opportunity to simplify their work. Previously, it was necessary to keep paper appointment books and Excel spreadsheets. It was very easy to make mistakes and thereby reduce the audience's loyalty to the salon. A client will not come back to a place where they were forgotten once. This problem was especially acute in salons with many masters. In addition, it was quite difficult for a director who was not constantly present in the salon to monitor processes and understand what was happening in their business. We offered a solution where, with the press of a single button, the salon owner could find out which master brings in the most revenue and who receives the most clients. Also, which clients return most often and which services are in the highest demand. The CRM system made it possible to analyze these factors and improve operations. We addressed a need that was present among business owners.How does the CRM system simplify life for beauty salons?Maintaining an electronic journal, a calendar for each master. The system also allows you to control income and expenses. There is an electronic warehouse function. For example, if the salon additionally sells cosmetics and purchases them wholesale. This function notifies when it is time to make the next purchase. In addition, it is easy to calculate masters' salaries based on their workload. An important aspect for every salon is client analytics. Where did the person come from — from the salon's Instagram or by a friend's recommendation. How many clients came and left this month.We also work with dental clinics and provide them with slightly different functionality. In addition to the electronic journal, you can maintain an outpatient record for each client. There you can also see the dental chart. By logging into the system, a doctor can see absolutely all data about the patient that was entered there previously. Medical history, treatment plan. This is especially relevant when people book with different specialists. And the doctor who takes over the patient sees what their colleague planned to do before. In addition, the system reminds about clients' birthdays.Over time, the CRM system evolved into the zapis.kz service. What functions does it provide to clients of beauty salons and dental clinics?First of all, a portfolio. A list of salons and their services. Convenient search, beautiful photos, a catalog of all services and their prices, schedules. For example, using the service, a client can understand what promotions salons have, when the same service costs differently at different times. And thus plan their schedule. Sometimes salons set cheaper prices for services in the morning than in the evening. On the website, you can read reviews about salons and choose the most in-demand master. We publish all reviews, even negative ones, for maximum honesty with users. After studying all the information, a person can book where they need to go, right here — on the website or in the zapis.kz app. Booking through our service is financially beneficial for clients because they can receive cashback on their payment. This is not yet available in all salons, but we are working on it. Another important point is that a prepayment of 500 tenge is required when booking. This reduces the percentage of last-minute cancellations when a person changes their mind about coming — this is a big plus for business owners. With a prepayment, the salon receives some compensation. Prepayment significantly reduces the no-show rate. And it also allows the client to accumulate cashbacks on our website. As well as periodically use emerging bonuses and discounts. And even more conveniently — the service maintains a calendar not only for salons and dental clinics but also for clients. By logging into the website or app, the user can understand when they last visited a barber, which specific one, and whether it is time to visit them again.So, automation excludes the human factor and makes the process more organized for both sides?Yes, exactly.The salon administrator no longer needs to answer a million calls, get distracted by WhatsApp, and check the paper journal to see if the most popular master has a free slot. A person can go to the website and see this themselves. And even if they call the salon, the administrator will quickly find this information in the CRM system. Or a girl remembers late in the evening that she urgently needs to book a manicure. Salons work until 20:00, and after that time, no one will book her. But with the website, she can find a convenient time for herself, even the next morning. For salons, this is also good — they do not lose clients who remember them at night. And therefore, do not lose revenue.In Kazakhstan, there is a trend that the number of salons working as a single organization is decreasing compared to individual masters working in separate offices. Do you have enough clients? We cooperate with large networks, which are prestigious for masters to work in. Therefore, there are not few salons in Kazakhstan that work as a single organization, and we have enough clients. Also, our CRM system allows connecting individual masters, who also find it more convenient to keep an electronic journal.How much have you managed to increase conversion in the salons you work with?More than 700 salons work with us. More than 80% of them have gone online. The user books independently through the website or app. The rest use the service only to automate internal processes. Every month, more than 50 partners connect to the system in Almaty alone. In total, we work with 23 cities in Kazakhstan.More than 20,000 users book online every month. On average, more than 13% of all bookings are made online, and the share of online bookings is constantly growing. In 50 salons, this figure exceeds 30%, i.e., a third of these salons' clients prefer to book online. Top salons we cooperate with: Gaukhar Amirkulova's salon network, Victoria's Beauty salon network, barbershop "Borodu ne brey" Queen Bee, Krasnoe Yabloko, Dermalogica, Sass, Sozo, Phenomen, Mom's Beauty, Avessa. For one salon, we attract about 1,000 new clients per year, who make about 3,000 new bookings. On the example of one large salon: from January to December 2020, the number of users attracted specifically online increased 10 times. If in January it was 10 people, then in December it was already 100.Do you plan to take this product to foreign markets?Currently, we are actively investing in the development of the product in Kazakhstan. Because we believe in it very much and want to develop the IT products market. If we go to other countries, it will only be in the form of a franchise. There are plans to enter Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, where there are no similar products. But for now, these are only plans.