How to Build Salon Booking App - Benefits, Cost & Features

Introduction?

The rising growth of digitalized salon industries is remarkably splashing its profound opportunities for many startups and large-scale businesses. Over the past few decades, the alteration of salon booking appointments has moved to a different platform called a mobile application. A salon app is everything a salon business owner and their users are always looking for, but managing salon appointments have become easier and more efficient. The increasing popularity of salon applications has given salon owners a spectral way to drive their business more effectively.?

Therefore, today we have come up with a new post: "how to build a salon booking app and its benefits, features, and cost”. This article teaches you everything about a salon booking app, from its development to cost. ?

Why Do You Need a Salon Booking App for Your Business??

Managing a salon business is hard when you don't have a proper management system. A salon app can provide everything from your business management to marketing which is necessary for your business to grow effectively. ?

The flexibility of such apps can provide you with more opportunities to expand your ongoing business or launch your new startup with the right strategies. All this can be done by salon app development. A salon booking app can be an incredibly valuable tool for any salon business. Here are a few reasons why:

Top Benefits of Developing a Salon App?

Streamline the Booking Process: A salon booking app makes it easier for clients to book appointments with your salon. They can easily select the services they want, choose a time and date that works for them, and book their appointment. This saves time for both the client and the salon staff, eliminating the need for phone calls and emails back and forth.?

Reduce no-Shows: With a salon booking app, clients can receive reminders about their appointments, reducing the likelihood of no-shows. This is especially important for businesses that rely on appointments to generate revenue. If a client cannot show up, they can cancel the appointment at any time through the cancel option in the app; this way, salon staffs don’t have to wait for clients to show up until their appointment booking time ends. It allows salon staff to move on to the next appointment and utilize the time.?

Online Payment: The most common challenge owner’s face when managing a salon business is payment management. One of the biggest advantages of having a salon app for your business is that it allows you to add the most reliable payment gateways that customers easily check out. Online payment system frees you from payment-related management and allows you to focus on your core business operations.?

Increase Customer Satisfaction: The most important thing is that a salon booking app can provide clients with a more personalized experience. They can select their preferred stylist or technician, view their availability, and choose their desired services. This helps to create a more customized experience that can lead to greater customer satisfaction.?

Collect Customer Data: A salon app for your business can help you collect valuable customer data, such as their contact details, preferred services, and appointment history. This information can be used to improve your marketing efforts and better target your promotions and services to your clients.?

Inventory Management: Another great advantage of using a salon app is that it can easily help you manage your store’s stocks. Through this, you will know which stock you have left and which product needs to be refiled. App owners can manage their complete inventory to order products that are out of stock.?

Overall, a salon booking app can help you streamline your business operations, increase customer satisfaction, and generate more revenue for your salon. Now that you know the advantages of having a salon app for your business, you can easily determine why you should invest in building a salon app.?

What Features Should You Include in Your Salon Booking App??

Investing in a salon booking app is not enough, but investing in the right part is very important. Similarly, integrating top-class features in your salon app will add five stars to your business. Therefore, before developing your salon app, consider adding must-have features that fulfill your customer's needs and allow them to book salon appointments easily. Here are the top must-have features you should consider adding to the salon app development.?

Salon Booking App — Customer Panel Features?

In-built Calendar?

Make sure to add In-built calendar functionality in your salon app so that customers can easily see their salon reservations directly linked to your in-built salon app calendar and book their appointments.?

Booking Fee?

This is a remarkable salon app feature that you should incorporate. Through this feature, when customers book their salon appointments, it will allow you to charge a small percentage of the total amount at the booking time. It will also reduce no-show issues. ?

In-app Payments?

In-app payment makes it easy for customers to make payments without any issues. This feature also allows you to manage all the customer transactions and payment details on one screen.?

Loyalty Programs?

A must-have feature that increases your customer retention and helps grow your business more substantially. A loyalty program allows you to show your customers that you care about them. This includes giving timely promotions, product offers, add-on coupons, and adding perks and rewards for customers.

Style Library?

Including a style library feature in the salon app can be highly advantageous by incorporating a photo gallery with many pictures, enabling clients to choose their desired style and improving communication between stylists and clients.?

Push Notification?

Through push notification service, you can engage your customers by sending new offer-related notifications, appointment booking notifications, or sending latest updates and news. This is the best way to make your customers remember you, as many other salon businesses are available.?

GPS?

Another great salon booking app feature that will allow your customers to know the salon locations. It is a perfect solution for you if you have multiple salon businesses. In that case, you can allow the customers to find the nearest salon location through the in-built app GPS.?

Salon Booking App — Admin Panel Features?

Client Management?

Manage your clients efficiently and effectively by going to the client management system. Through this, you can view, add, delete, and manage clients' profiles accordingly.??

Appointment Management?

Managing client appointments is not a simple task; therefore, admins can easily handle all client bookings using the appointment management feature, including rejecting, accepting, scheduling, and re-scheduling customer appointments.?

Robust Reporting?

Another great feature that your salon app should offer. Running any business is all about how it's performing in the market. And having a full-fledged salon booking app on your business side gives you a complete end-to-end insight into how your salon business is performing, how your business staff is performing and contributing more to business, etc.?

Service Management?

The salon industry has evolved a lot in the past few years, and most importantly, now they offer a wide range of services. If you are running a salon business that offers various salon services, then adding this feature allows you to inform your customer about the different types of services you offer.?

Feature integrations are an essential part of any salon booking app development. It provides you with a different identity in the market. So when developing your salon app for your business purpose, consider adding these or other profound features. Now let’s discuss how you can develop such an app effectively.?

How to Develop a Salon Booking App? A Step-by-Step Guide?

Developing a salon booking app is no easy task when you have less idea about the development procedure. Therefore, working with a professional salon app development company can help you achieve your targets efficiently and effectively.?

Salon Booking App Development Process?

Identify the target audience and their needs?

It is crucial to identify the target audiences and their needs. Understanding the target audience and their needs helps you consider the essential prospects in developing a salon app that meets their requirements. It helps to conduct market research to gather insights about the target audience’s preferences, behaviors, and pain points.?

Do market research to identify competitors and industry trends?

Conducting market research is a part of salon booking mobile app development. It helps identify your head competitors and industry trends in the same domain. You can research what your competitors are offering and what are the current trends in the market. This way, you can plan your salon development and its marketing strategies.?

Choose your app structure?

Hundreds of salon apps offer something unique; therefore, you need to decide what app structure you will go with. An app structure defines your app overview like the outlay of a completely functional app. When it comes to the specifics of building a salon app, everything starts from these fundamental layers:?

Data layer — the data-related platform within an app?

Business logic layer — the place for all the domain processes and operations

Presentation layer — all the technical details connected with the app user interface?

By considering a perfect architecture approach for your salon app development, you can have a perfectly balanced app structure that you can work on.?

Add a list of features?

This stage is crucial as you must decide what features to add to the development process. There are many interactive and feature-rich salon booking apps available that offer exceptional salon services to their customers. But there is one thing: they all started with step one, which means they included only the necessary features and functionalities for a start.?

So what does that mean? Should you also consider adding only a few features? Not necessarily.

It completely depends on your budget and vision. If you’re a startup, you should go with fewer features and basic app design, but if you’re already a well-established domain, you can have all the rich features and functionalities. As mentioned, it depends on your business structure.?

Work with professionals?

Now that you have cleared your vision about every process, it's time to hire an experienced mobile app development company or dedicated developers with expertise in the same field. They can help develop your exact vision and bring it into reality. You only have to tell them your requirements; after that, the work is completely theirs.?

Launch the app on the selected platforms such as iOS, Android, and web

Launch the salon app on the selected platforms, such as iOS, Android, and the web. Ensure that the app meets the guidelines and requirements of each platform.?

What Should Your Team Structure Look Like??

Your team structure completely depends on the type of salon app you are looking for. Since you want to develop an app that manages salon booking appointments well, you will need the following development team to handle it:?

Project Manager

Make sure you work with an experienced project manager on your project.

App Developer?

A professional designation Application Developer includes:?

●?????Backend Developer

●?????Front Application Developer

●?????Android Application Developer

●?????iOS Application Developer?

App Designer?

You will need some app designers on your team, including graphic designers that will create content and professional UI/UX designers that will add enhancements.

?App Tester

Don't forget to include an application tester responsible for detailed evaluation and feedback so that you can improve the app's quality.?

How Much Does It Cost to Develop a Salon Booking Mobile App??

The cost to develop a salon booking app will depend on the features and functionalities you want to add. If you’re working with an agile development methodology, then you can expect to be able to build a salon booking iOS app within 2 to 3 months with a standard feature pack. However, with more additional premium feature packs, it will take 4 to 6 months. The features you want to incorporate are ultimately meant to simplify the work of admins, customers, and staff.?

You must ask yourself whether you want to build a salon booking app for Android, iOS, or both platforms. In this high-tech world, there are nearly similar audiences on both platforms. In this case, your best option is to choose a hybrid approach.

Besides this, you must pick whether you want to work with a mobile development company or independent developers. You need to note down some things such as the cost, skills, time zone, etc. here are the key factors that will affect the cost of your salon booking app:?

●?????Platforms: iOS or Android or both

●?????Features of the app: Must-have or advanced features

●?????Front-end development

●?????Website connection

●?????Back-end development

●?????UI/UX development

●?????Development team location?

Developing a salon booking app can cost anywhere between $1,500 to $3,000 in India for a basic feature pack app. And developing a feature-rich salon booking mobile app can cost anywhere between $5,000 to $10,000 in India.?

However, it is important to carefully consider the key features your app must have and the costs involved in developing and maintaining it. By considering these factors and seeking professional guidance, you can create a successful salon booking app that meets the needs of your business and your customers.

?You can also use an online app builder website to develop your salon booking application. All you need to do is:?

●?????Use their Salon App Template; it can be paid or free

●?????Customize the look and drive your app according to your vision

●?????Add your content but use less text and focus on more visuality (videos and high-quality images)

●?????Use their Publishing Wizard to launch your salon booking app?

Conclusion?

Building a salon booking app can be a highly lucrative venture for entrepreneurs and established businesses. With a wide range of benefits, such as increased efficiency, better customer experience, and improved business management, it is no wonder that salon booking apps are becoming increasingly popular in today's digital world. However, it is important to consider the key features you will add and the cost involved in developing and maintaining them. ?

By considering these factors and hiring professional guidance, you can develop a salon booking mobile app that compliments and meets the needs of your business and your customers.?

You can create a successful salon app using this guide, but professional help is recommended if you don’t know enough programming and technologies. We hope this guide will help you understand the criteria of a development process. If you need any help feel free to contact us.