I can speak to my experiences with using the tactics Jill recommends to improve my pre-book percentage. I have been doing really well for a long time at asking every client to book her next appointment and almost everyone takes me up on the offering. It is now a habit to do so as part of my service closing. I walk them to the computer to book while they are drying their nails, so they are a captive audience and rarely say no. I mentioned earlier that even if they are going out of town I usually get them to pre-book; that way if there is a conflict I can potentially swap appointment times with another guest. Many of my clients are flexible and more than willing to do this because someday they may need the same of someone else.

Over the course of a year it is incredible how much difference it can make. To figure out what my percentage of guests are reserving their next appointments, I divide the pre-booked guest total by the total guest count and that’s how I get these numbers. Last year at this time I saw 77 guests in August and 99 in September. Of those guests 66 pre-booked in August and 92 in September. So my percentages for those months were 85% for August and 92% for September. This year I saw 116 guests in August and 103 in September of those 103 pre-booked for August and 94 pre-booked for September. So I saw more guests each month this year and reserved appointments for 88% of them in August, 91% of them in September. My percentage has stayed steady even though I see more guests now than last year.

As for Rachael (pictured), we are working on bringing her numbers up. She has really been focusing on making the offering and nearly half of her guests are pre-booking. In the last two months she has seen a total of 160 guests and pre-booked 68 of them for a percentage of 42.5%. This is up from the previous two month average at 36.2% by 6.3%. She is really concentrating on this area and it shows. I am so proud of how hard she is working and all that she is accomplishing.

— Sandy