How to Increase Bookings in Your Barbershop Business in 10 Ways

Whether you just started your barber career or you have your own barbershop, you know for sure how important it is to focus on growing your customer base. 

According to statistics, the barbershop market is worth $5billion, with almost 110.000 shops open in the USA. With such a competition in the barbershop industry in America, you have to improve your skills and promote yourself to attract clients to your salon.

You’re going to find how to increase bookings in your barbershop business. Our 10 actionable ideas will help you attract more clients and give you solutions to improve your barbershop business. Discover more about increasing barbershop bookings below:

1. Create a “Happy hour” program

The majority of people work nine to five, and when they make an appointment for something personal, such as a barbershop appointment, they’ll do it for sure after 5 PM. 

Now, I bet your appointment calendar is fuller in the afternoon than in the morning. If you want to increase bookings in your barbershop earlier in the day, you can create a “happy hour” program and reward clients who book an appointment in the morning. You can promote your business on social media by

offering a 20% discount on all services for people who book between 9 AM-1 PM.

This way, you will encourage them to reorganize their schedule and make time for a haircut, while you will be happy to have your calendar fully booked in the morning. 

2. Invest in a barbershop booking software

As a barber, you must always stay up to date with your industry trends and organize your time very well. A solution, in this case, is to start using a barbershop booking system like Goldie. This free scheduling app allows you to book appointments, manage your client’s information and appointments, and check your reports. Plus, you can collect payments from clients via a payment link or contactless with just your iPhone, without a POS or any extra equipment required.

The main advantage of using such an app is that you will have all your essential business information on your phone, and you will save precious time by letting your clients book on using your online booking page. 

Plus, you can sync your Goldie account with Facebook and Instagram and let your followers schedule an appointment via the “Book Now” buttons. If you want to give it a chance, here’s how to set up your online booking page from scratch.

You can download Goldie from the App Store or Google Play for free and start scheduling your barbershop appointments like a pro.

3. Offer discounts

If you are looking for a way to increase barbershop bookings, for sure discounts are the way to go. Giving clients a little incentive will not only attract them to book an appointment with you, but they will also be most likely to come more often to your salon and to recommend yourself to others. 

You’re out of ideas when it comes to offering discount packages? Well, here are some ideas. For example, you can create a “father and son” discount package. Invite your clients to come to their appointment with their child and offer them a 50% discount on the kid’s services. 

They’ll be glad you thought about taking care of their family too, and this kind of discount will encourage them to come to your barbershop again and again.

4. Create referral programs

A referral program is a way to reward your existing clients for referring you to others. Usually, this marketing solution works via word of mouth, one of the most truthful promotion ideas. 

Make sure all your clients know about your referral program and create the best customer experience for them. I bet you will increase bookings in your barbershop like never before! You can read more barbershop marketing ideas here and find out how to put in practice your referral program.

5. Promote your offers on social media

Social media is an essential promotion tool for all businesses, therefore, if you want to increase barbershop bookings, this is the way to go. You should focus on creating engaging social media content and promoting your barbershop discounts online. 

Also, don’t forget that investing money in Facebook and Instagram targeted ads will bring you engagement and followers and increase your online barbershop bookings.

6. Use client reviews in your favor

Another thing you should focus on is to encourage clients to rate your services. Use your client reviews as a promotion strategy on social media because they will increase trust in your business. How to do so? Well, you can easily create free barbershop social media graphics in Canva.

First of all, create an account (if you don’t have one).

After you create the account, choose the material you want to make. In this case, you will have to select “Instagram post.”

Go to templates, and look for “reviews.”

Insert your barbershop client review in the text box. Now, your material is ready to be published.

Another way you can use client reviews to increase barbershop bookings is by asking your clients to rate your services on platforms like Yelp.

Remember to create a document to stock all your barbershop marketing materials, including your social media content plan, your materials, your client reviews, and your actionable plan. Or you can even set a reminder with additional notes in Goldie when it’s time to publish a new post on Facebook or Instagram. 

Here you can read more about the best hours to post on social media in 2022.

7. Engage with your community

To increase bookings in your barbershop, it’s important to build a community online or offline and engage with it. 

Exercise your communication skills with your clients and give them attention every time they contact you.  Answer to comments and private messages on social media, say hi when you encounter them by chance, be available to listen to them, and give advice (if needed) when they come to your barbershop. Shortly, add a human touch to their barbershop experience.

8. Organize social media giveaways

Giveaways are a great way to connect with a specific audience online instantly. For example, if you want to grow your Facebook or Instagram profile fast or increase bookings in your barbershop, you can create a Giveaway campaign.

In the contest, you can offer your audience hair care products or free salon services. This way, you will boost your social media engagement and increase bookings in your barbershop after the contest ends. 

Remember that freebies attract everyone, so you can never go wrong with offering something free in your Giveaways.

9. Partner up with businesses in your city

Another great strategy to increase bookings in your barbershop is to partner up with businesses in your area. 

Generally, start-ups, especially in the tech industry, offer their employees additional services to make the job offer attractive. Some of them offer free meals, car washing services, car fuel compensation, and many more. You can research the most important companies in your city and contact them with a proposal. You can tell them the advantages of offering their employees barbershop services (paid by the company), and you can negotiate a reasonable price with them. 

This way, you will be sure that you have a sure customer base, and you’ll also have the advantage of being promoted by them if they enjoy your services.

10. Create a sense of urgency 

When you do this, you don’t have to be too pushy or stress your clients. Don’t go the other extreme to make them want to escape from your barbershop. 

By creating a sense of urgency, you will encourage your clients to book an appointment in advance. You can tell them that your schedule is full for the next 3 weeks or that you still have four time slots available in your schedule. You can read more about how to create urgency to deliver sales and start increasing your barbershop bookings. 

As a conclusion

Make sure you implement a comprehensive strategy before practicing these techniques to increase bookings in your barbershop. Without a plan, you risk messing things up, and that will prevent you from achieving your goal. 

Don’t forget; you have to start with research about your target audience, their age, their job, and their habits, create a social media marketing plan for your barbershop, establish what discounts you can afford to offer, and exercise your essential barber skills. After you follow all these steps, you will see immediate results, and you’ll get to increase your barbershop bookings.