Times are getting tougher, that’s no longer a secret. This makes it all the more important to not only get better and more creative with your tattoos/piercings, but also with your marketing. And since everyone, really everyone in the industry is doing Insta, alternatives are needed. Anyone who is too quick to dismiss the topic of “online booking” is making a big mistake.
Of course, if you work without an appointment for piercings, for example, or if you can’t imagine how the customer is supposed to book the right appointment in the tattoo sector, online booking may seem unnecessary.
But a good customer portal is much more than just an appointment booking!
We would like to give you a brief overview of what is possible with an online booking using specific practical examples. But even more interesting are the enormous opportunities that arise for you afterwards: You collect customer data for your marketing, without having to lift a finger.
Because the data on your paper EVE is simply worthless for your marketing. If you decide not to use your customer data for your own marketing these days and instead spend a lot of money on Insta/TikTok/Google campaigns, you might as well throw your money down the drain. Or no, please, donate it to a charity, then at least you’ve done something useful with it.
Each of the examples is linked to our customer portal, so you can try it out for yourself:
Tattoo requests
Before booking an appointment for a tattoo, there is usually an inquiry, i.e.: “What, in what style, how big, where, what is already available…?”. The online inquiry(without booking an appointment) is available to customers 24/7. They can describe their tattoo request, upload pictures and enter their contact details. An AI also asks for missing information (how big, colored or black/grey, …) and creates a brief summary of the key data for the project.
And the best thing is that all the data (customer, project, request, images) is ready and waiting in your system without you having to enter anything. With such a complete request, you can send the customer an offer (or a rejection) with just a few clicks and send them directly back to the online booking for a tattoo appointment with the necessary information (artist, duration).
Consultation appointments (Zoom, telephone, on site)
Have you ever thought about offering counseling appointments via Zoom or telephone? Very practical for customers who live further away, but also for single mothers/fathers, for example.
And if you limit the consultation appointments to certain days and times, you can also offer this without additional staff or do it from the comfort of your sofa at home.
More complex consultations (e.g. for cover-ups or large projects) can of course still take place in the studio.
Wanna-Dos
That makes sense: Offer your own Wanna-Dos with time and approx. price specifications online for booking. Attractive scrolling and zooming for your customers, simply click, book, done.
Would you like to pay a deposit in advance? No problem: this can also be done directly online. And of course everything will be ready and waiting in your calendar system afterwards.
Tattoo appointments as offered
How does the customer know what to book and with whom? Well: from you, via your offer in response to their request (see above). Simply send them a link and the information (“…book a 3-hour appointment with Tara…”) directly back to your online booking for a tattoo appointment.
For example, you can open your calendar for 90 days in advance or on a quarterly basis. Of course, you can also collect the deposit online.
Based on the appointment duration, your working hours, possible absences (vacation, guest spot, conventions, …) and the already assigned appointments , the system automatically searches for all available slots and offers them to your customers.
Piercing appointment with jewelry selection
Offer your piercings directly with images/symbols. For a better overview, it is best to group them by body area (ear, face, mouth/tongue, upper body, intimate male/female, …). And for the general initial consultation (“Do you wear a helmet regularly?”, “Have you already had the piercing and how long ago?”, …) you simply activate an AI.
Of course, you can also present your piercing area separately from the tattoo area with your own logo, colors, booking options and even help wizards.
And at the end of the booking, you send your customers directly to your jewelry selection, where they can choose the right jewelry for their piercing based on pictures.
Of course, you will have all the dates and information ready in your calendar and can prepare your piercing day in the best possible way.
Self-Check-In (Walk-In / Conventions)
You don’t work with appointments? No reason to do without an online booking. Simply create a QR code from the link and hang it in your entrance area with brief instructions and the heading “Self-Check-In”.
Your customers enter themselves into your system using their cell phones, select the piercing and jewelry and schedule the appointment. You then send the EVE with all the data to your tablet and hand it to the customer to fill in. After 15 seconds, you can move on to the next customer.
Of course, this also works for tattoo appointments at conventions or on walk-in days: Make an appealing display of your Wanna-Dos including artist, duration and price, add a QR code and customers can book a tattoo appointment with you. And yes: you can of course restrict certain appointment bookings to certain locations (here: conventions or walk-in days). 😉
Action days (example OPT-INK)
Just as an aside: charitable actions always have two advantages: 1. you help others, 2. you help yourself . Because they are (almost) always good marketing and bring in new customers.
But of course you don’t just want to fill your calendar with free organ donation tattoos. Simply set up certain action days for this (e.g. one every one or two months) and restricts online booking to these campaign days.
Then a newsletter to customers every now and then and, of course, your Insta posts, and it’ll run like clockwork.
Lottery
How about an advertising partnership with a bar, a movie theater or whatever? You could hang your advertising there with a QR code that customers could use to register for your lottery and win a €500 voucher, for example (or a €100 voucher every week, whichever you prefer).
At the same time, your customers automatically receive a voucher from the bar, movie theater, … e.g. for a free drink with every tattoo.
Then you both diligently advertise it (yes, just write to your customers – you now have the data) and the business is up and running.
Of course, the lottery runs via your online booking, simply as a request for an artist “Lottery”.
And even more…
The fact that there are also online vouchers and a chat bot for your customers with voice input and output (in 5 languages) should only be mentioned in passing here.
Meet us at BMXnet!
If you would like to see all this live or have any questions, you can visit us again this year at the BMXnet (August 14-17) in Berlin meet us. Or you can book your place on our next free webinar on Mon. 16.6. We look forward to seeing you!
Yours
