The Truth About Stopping Pre-Booking - Dangers, Answers, & Strategies

Hello, friend. Welcome back to the Modern Hairstylist Podcast. I am hype and nervous for this conversation. And why am I nervous?

Because it's controversial as fuck. So, if you're ready to get into it, let's go. Let me guess. You are a hustling, bustling hairstylist behind the chair, working so hard to build a beautiful career for yourself, one that gives you time, freedom, and energy to spend with yourself, your family, and your friends.

But you feel like you're always working in your business, even when you're not behind the chair. My name's Hunter Donia, and I help you automate your systems and implement really beautiful strategies so you can grow your business without the overwhelm. And this is the Modern Hairstylist Podcast. So, I know I let you...

I know I left you off with a very ominous intro, but we're gonna be talking about the truth, the danger, the scary, stopping pre-booking, all about stopping pre-booking in, what the tea is behind this very scary beast of a monster that we've been introduced to over the past year or so as an industry. Here's the tea. I was so overwhelmed with my schedule that I was more concerned about not getting COVID because of me having to reschedule my clients versus my own personal health and my family and my friends' health. Like, that's fucked.

You should not be in that situation. And so that's exactly why I removed pre-booking because I was just so over, over the emotional stress and overwhelm that went into being so freaking booked out. Here's the tea, all right? You, my friends, need to take a step back as the CEO of your motherfucking business and you need to decide what is best for you as a business.

You need to start taking responsibility for yourself, okay? And you need to take into consideration what you really want, what your current struggles are, how you can make things better, and what actions, decisions, structural changes make sense for you. I am, by all means, somebody who I think is... I- I think it's completely irresponsible to tell somebody that, "Everybody needs to be doing this right the fuck now, or you're gonna fail and you're gonna flop," because it's just not true.

Everybody has such different experience and such different businesses. However, I think that there are certain strategies out there that make sense for a lot of the things that people want in their lives, for their happiness of their lives and their business and all of the things. And removing pre-booking is actually something that people should really consider as a, a possible strategy that can really help them in, in their boundaries and in their life and in the way that they're enjoying their career. But it's not for everybody, and people...

When people hear this concept, they take it way too literally, and they don't think about the different contingencies. And I see people actually going ahead and removing pre-booking, but they don't have the systems or the, the knowledge or tools that they need to really make it actually work for them. So, let's talk about it. I'm here to talk about it.

Let's go. So number one, what is pre-booking? Let's get a really clear definition of what pre-booking is so that way we can, like, actually be all on the same page. So pre-booking is literally in the chair booking somebody else's next appointment, or one of your client's next appointment, um, for however many weeks from that day, so that way they are secured a next appointment, right?

And this could be just one appointment ahead. This could be multiple appointments ahead. People do sometimes the entire year. Sometimes people have standing appointments, right?

So, that is pre-booking. And pre- pre-booking has been traditionally, like, preached to, screamed to, to be the, like, indicator of success. Like, if your pre-booking metric is high and you are doing well, you are secured income if you have a pre-booked appointment with somebody, et cetera, et cetera. Here's the thing.

It's completely not true that you're secured your income and financial freedom or whatever it may be if you have a pre-booked appointment. Like, that is just, like, not true at all. You know, somebody gets sick, those appointments that are... that you're booking out the whole entire year, you know, somebody's gonna have to reschedule at one point.

You don't know what the fuck's going on in, in three months from today. Your client doesn't know what's going on three months from today. And your client might wanna leave you in three months, and so you could have filled in that spot with somebody else instead of them. Like, it's just not a good indicator for how well your business is doing at all, like period.

It's not something that we should be relying on to make us, like, feel successful and comfortable, although it does feel comfortable and it's what we're used to. Now, the flip side of that is pre-booking, I believe, can actually really help you when you are building a clientele. I know myself as a consumer, I know there are many places that I actually probably would not have returns if I had not made the appointment before I left. So, I will say that.

Caitlin, can you agree with me? Yes, 100%. Yes. I 100% agree.

This actually just happened to me, same situation. Like, I forgot to pre-book, and then I was, like, overdue for an appointment. And so, like, I had... I needed to pre-book my appointment, otherwise it wouldn't happen.

Well, but... So let me ask... But, but let me ask you this. This is important because I wanna talk about this.

Are you going to book with them again? Yes, I do intend to. Okay, so this is the difference. So me, right?

I have been in experiences where I did pre-book an appointment, and I would have not gotten back to the business, like period, if I had not pre-booked because the experience wasn't as excellent that made me want to go back, right? So this is interesting, right? This is an interesting point, and it's an interesting self-observation because...Do you really want somebody coming back to your business just because they had a pre-booked employment and it made them kinda feel pressured to come?

Like, to me, it was like I felt awkward, and like, annoyed, and like, didn't have the time to call somebody and cancel my own appointment. Like, I was kind of like... I was like, "You know what? I'll just fucking go to the appointment."

You know what I mean? Like, I'll just give it a second shot. So do you really want somebody coming back because, like, you forced them into this box to, like, come back? Or do you want somebody to come back because they, like, actually wanna come back?

You know what I mean? Like, what's, like, the more, like, long-term strategy once you're at a certain point in your business? Now, like I said, growing a clientele, surviving, getting a nice headstart, pre-book these people and make them feel pressured to come back. Like, do it.

Like, fucking do it. Like, literally do it. Because sometimes it also takes somebody a second impression to be like, "Okay, like, I actually feel good about this and I actually really do want to pre-book instead of feeling, like, forced into it," you know? That's my tea.

That's my tea on that. So just take that into consideration. Like, take into- into consideration how pre-booking is making somebody feel with your retention, and whether or not you really value a customer who is feeling like they're forced to come back versus one that actually wants to come back and actually wants to support you and actually is blown away from your customer experience. And you can pre-book all you want, but at the end of the day, if you're not blowing somebody away, then they're not gonna stick around with you for the price increases.

They're not gonna stick around with you, period, whether you pre-book them or not, right? They're just gonna probably no... They can even no-show you. Somebody...

Oh my god, somebody who is pre-booked for an appointment and isn't comfortable calling back and canceling on you, especially as a solo provider, 'cause there's a little bit more intense emotions there, they're just gonna no-show you. Am I right? Like, do you see what I'm saying, Caitlin? Like, do you...

Like, we need to really consider how pre-booking is affecting our clients and, like, how they interact with us with pre-booking and, and like I said, you can use it to really get a headstart and to really survive and grow. But once you get to a certain point, like, pre-booking does not have to be this necessary thing that is going to guarantee your success. And quite honestly, it might be hindering your success, and it might be hindering your happiness, and it might be hindering your joy, and it might be accelerating your burnout. So that's my tea on that.

So let's talk about, like, why you'd want to remove pre-booking. So the reason why you'd wanna remove pre-booking is because you are so booked out, things are so unpredictable, you can't change things around without having to m- move mountains. God forbid you get sick tomorrow and you're pre-booked to smithereens, and where the fuck are these people gonna go? You're gonna come in early, you're gonna stay late on your days off, all of the above.

Okay? Like, there... It just, it just, it just is risky. It's just risky and it can cause a lot of issues for you.

It can cause a lot of last-minute cancellations. It can cause you not being able to fill that spot again. It can cause frustration with your clients because you're having to move them all the time, right? It causes unfairness amongst your clients.

It can cause a whole lot of things. It can cause a whole lot of things. And I will tell you that removing pre-booking was one of the best things I've done for my business, and this is where, when I said at the beginning of the episode people take this too literally, this is where we also wanna consider saying, "Removing pre-booking completely." Let's rethink how we're pre-booking.

So I teach something called a limited booking range in which you can do this two ways. You can do... And I teach more about this in my programs and how to really make it work for you, but you can do a limited booking range in two ways And let me explain what a limited booking range is first. A limited booking range is where there's only an extended amount of time or a set amount of time and days in which somebody can book with you at a time, right?

And so there's two ways that you can do this. You can have a rolling calendar, which is basically you can... And you can do this automatically with your booking systems a lot. You can do, like, a 60-day limit, right?

So nobody can book with you past 60 days from the current date. So if today is August 1st and I have my shit set to 30 days, right? Nobody can book with me past August 30th. If it was August 2nd, right?

Nobody could book with me past August 31st. So then it just keeps going, it keeps rolling. There's no really set time, it's just you have this, like, rolling calendar of- of a limit of when people can book with you. And this can be on your online booking and/or in person, right?

You can self-regulate when you actually... How far out you actually book somebody, right? That solves your issue right there, as far as being way too far booked out. And then you have a second option, and this is what I do and this is what I favor, and this is where I think that this is the most effective way of going about it if you are gonna remove pre-booking and you wanna keep your retention high, is you open up your books on the first of the month for the next month or something like that.

I actually... You know what? I learned this strategy from Fashion Hendrix, who I met on Clubhouse, who I fucking love She is this- She is a wig and weave specialist in New York City, and she's super successful and she's so cool and I freaking love her. Um, I learned this from her.

She has been doing this and it really works for her. On the first of the month, the next month opens up. So it's August right now, that I'm recording this. Right now, August is open and September is open.

On September 1st, October opens up. And the reason why this works for retaining without pre-booking is you have an event. You have an event that's happening, which is your booking day, right? The- my first of the month is my booking day, and so you can create a whole lot of scarcity, a whole lot of hype around this booking day, and you can create emails and text message marketing and, and you...

And- and it's like a thing, right? And it makes it something that your clients feel like they're part of an exclusive experience. And so, like, for me, like, my booking day, like, it gets filled up really fast. It's- My clients explain it as, like, The Hunger Games.

So, like, they get on their- their- the booking site at, like, 8:00 AM, right? And they, like, fight to get an appointment, and if they don't get in one, like, by midnight, then, like, the appointments are gonna be gone, right? And so it's cool because it creates a lot of scarcityAnd it creates a lot of fairness because it ensures that the people who really fucking want an appointment with me, who are gonna put in the work to get up at 8:00 AM to get all my books, they're the ones who have an appointment. Versus the people who I felt I made feel pressured into booking something with me three months out who are just gonna cancel on me a week before, I have all these other clients who would, who would have preferred that spot and would have planned for that spot months in advance or two months in advance, right?

And then they would be able to get in with me. It's just, it just creates fairness across the board. Okay? It just, it just really creates fairness for everybody.

It makes my life way more predictable. I can plan out the month ahead of those two months so well, and I can put in all the things that I need to be putting in. I can plan out my entire schedule. And I can take off my vacations, and I know that I'm not gonna have to move people around.

It's just like, I just, it just feels good for me and it really helps me a lot. And my students who have implemented this have had a really good, um, successful time with it. My number one concern or confusion that I get when people, when we talk about removing pre-booking is, how do I keep my retention high? How do I keep it so that way people are actually wanting to come back?

And I'm like, "Well, number one, your guest experience should be enough, right?" Number two, you should be planting seeds for retention. You should be email marketing in between the appointments. Your post-visit experience should be next level already by itself.

That will make people come back. But also, when you ha- are gonna remove pre-booking and you're gonna move to online booking only, you should have email communication that is reminding somebody of when they need to book online, what they need to book for. And then having these limited booking ranges and like, and a quote unquote "booking day" makes it so there's an event, so that way you're emailing about it and somebody expects it and it's predictable and it makes sense, right? What are your thoughts, Caitlin I definitely agree with you.

Um, I never got to a point where I actually used the, like, booking day per se, but I did do the 60-day range. Um, I was getting to a point where I was really starting to consider doing a booking day, but then obviously, like, I moved to England and I'm not doing hair anymore. But beside the point, I really liked having a, like, guaranteed, like, booking range. But i- in addition to, like, what I'm saying, I think that the really big takeaway with what you're saying is, like, not only are you creating urgency, but you're also just, like, naturally weeding out the people that aren't gonna stick around long-term anyway.

So, like, when you are actually... I'm, I'm gonna get, like, a little bit meta here, but, like, when you're actually, like, so fucking booked and busy and you can't get anybody in, you genuinely deserve that price increase because the people that wanna get in with you genuinely wanna get in with you. It's not just people that are just, like, hanging around because you've pressured them into booking with you. Like, they really wanna be there.

So, just a little mini takeaway. I'm obsessed with that. I freaking love that so much. Um, I posted on my Instagram story a couple of days ago and I'm, like, looking at the archives so I can see what people are specifically concerned about.

So, somebody says, "Getting clients to return." I covered that, right? People said, "How do I roll it out to my clients? How do I tell a client who plans her life out a year in advance without ev- with everything, including hair appointments?"

This is what you say, friends. Well, no, this isn't what you say, but this is how I'm gonna fucking set your mindset real quick. You run your business. Your client does not run your fucking business, okay?

And you need to do what is best for you and your motherfucking mental health. If you have created enough demand for yourself, if you have put in the time and the effort and the energy to create a great business for yourself, and... Th- people get pissed when I say this, but at a certain point, it's a privilege to be sitting in your chair. Okay?

It's a privilege to be sitting in your chair. Like, it truly is. Because if you have demand on your time, if you've been consistently booked and you have new clients who can't get in with you, you need to understand that it is a privilege to be doing business with you. Okay?

We are so grateful for our clients. We are so privileged th- to be doing what we're doing, and we, and we appreciate their loyalty. I'm, I'm not saying that we don't appreciate them and we don't take care of them and we don't show up for them, but you have put in the fucking work to show up for them. You put in the fucking work to say thank you to them, and you do that consistently every single time.

So, at this point, it is a privilege to sit in your chair. So, like I said, do you really want to be filling peop- filling your chair with people who are gonna be running your business, or are you gonna want people who are going to get on board with how you run your bus- how you want to run your business for your own mental health, for your own sanity? And the only thing I can say here is just roll out anything in a way where it makes things seem fairer and more beneficial for the client. When I removed pre-booking, I made sure my clients knew that this would be way more convenient because they wouldn't have to worry about figuring out what's going on in three months from today.

I would make sure to say, like, "I don't want you to, um, have to reschedule your appointment and then you not have any time with me until months from now." If I have a client who is booked with me three months from today, and they want to reschedule with me the week before, and if I'm fucking three months booked out, where is that person gonna go? It doesn't make any sense. It's inconvenient for the client.

And what you end up having to do is come in early, stay late on your days off. If you're in this type of space, if you're in this type of, of, uh, booked and busy state, it just makes sense and it's only fair to the client, like, period. And, like, if a client, like, doesn't see it that way, then, like, that's all you can do. And this is kind of, like, my verbage framework for saying things li- for things like this.

The, you're very, you very first and foremost explain what's going on, and, like, that is that. No fucking apologizing. Do not say sorry. Period.

Do not fucking say sorry. You can apologize for the inconvenience, but you don't, but you don't want to apologize for the decision That's the difference. You can say, "I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you," but you're not gonna, "I'm, I'm sorry for removing pre-booking." No, ma'am.

Absolutely not. So, you first, you first roll out the tea. You tell them what's going on. Okay?

You explain the benefits. If somebody gives you... Like, if they say, like, "Oh, why are you doing this?" You explain the benefits even more.

You explain how it's not fair to them or how, how it's gonna be fairer for them, how it's gonna be better for them, et cetera, et ceteraAnd then if they keep going, if they keep pushing, then you explain how it's affecting you and why it's important for you personally. Never do this first. Okay? Never ever, ever te- tell people, like, "I'm doing this because I deserve this and my family does this and I'm like..."

It's like, no, like, sh- they don't care. They care about themselves first and if them caring about themselves and you explaining the benefits to them isn't working, then that's when you do share your side of the story. And then hopefully people will start to understand a little bit better, right? But that's, like, last resort.

And then if somebody doesn't give a fuck about you and, like, wh- how y- why you did this for yourself, then, I mean, they're not the right fit for your business anymore. Sorry. You, you are no longer the right fit for them. Let them go.

Release them into the wild, right? That's my tea on that. Kaylyn, did I break that down well? Yeah, and if you don't mind, I have a couple of things I wanna add to that.

Mm-hmm. Please do. I think that it's really important to remember too, like, like Hunter said, I'm kind of beating a dead horse here, but I really think it's important, it is not your responsibility to like, work with your client's schedule. Like, they are working with your schedule.

Mm-hmm. And if they are so planned out that they have their entire fucking year planned out, they can make a plan to show up on your booking day at 8:00 AM. Yep. Like, they can put that in their calendar and they're gonna be able to do it.

Like, it's gonna be okay, and you don't owe them anything. I get so frustrated because I've had so many clients that get pissy and have... I've literally lost clients over not booking them far enough in advance because I didn't wanna book them four appointments in advance. Like, no, absolutely not.

It's ridiculous. I appreciate you, but my goodness. Like, we all have lives and, like, especially now too, like, post-2020, like, what if people get freaking sick? Like, everything that Hunter said.

I don't know. Sorry, I'm getting heated, but, like, my God. I agree. No, I love everything that you said, and I'll say too, like, going back to, like, limit- a limited booking range, eight weeks, it may feel a little bit far for you.

Like that may be, like, you know, two months is, like, a long time and it's still locking yourself into a schedule that might be a little bit unpredictable, but I think it is, like, the fairest in between for you and the client, because I have- I still have four-weekers and I will still pre-book those handful of four-weekers within that two-month range, but no further out, right? Because I wanna make sure that I'm being as fair as possible. So, like, if somebody is coming and seeing me, eh, like, within my limited booking range, like, then yes, I will get them in there. But if not, if they wanna book an appointment for, like, past that, like, it doesn't happen, right?

It, like, literally doesn't happen. And the other thing I will share too is that I have every now and then, if it was, like, a weird scheduling situation, like, if they just happened to come in on a weird date and, like, the way that we were pre-booking, like, I don't know, landed outside of my limited booking range, I'll just explain to them, "This appointment is contingent." Like, "This appointment is not guaranteed, period." Like, I'll just let them know the tea there so that way I don't ha- they, they have the expectation set and if I have to move them, I'm gonna move them and it is what it is.

So if you wanted to, you could share. I mean, I don't want you to cop out of doing this, but, I mean, this is, like, a, a possibly a way to make this more comfortable for you. You can say, "I'm happy to do this, but this appointment is going to be very contingent and I'm not going to guarantee it, like, at all. And I would only do that, like, one more appointment outside of your limited booking range.

Like, no more." So it's all about setting expectations. It's all about explaining the benefits, and at the end of the day, it's all about taking control of your business and running your business how you wanna run your business and not letting your clients run it for you, period. But it takes the right systems and it takes the right tools and it takes the right resources and the right communication to make it happen and make it successful for you.

My low maintenance clientele, the majority of them are low maintenance clients, they see me three to four times a year. They fucking see me on my crazy booking system situation. Like, they see me on my lim- on my limited booking range. Like, they go on there, they book, they come back, and it's because I plant seeds for retention, it's because I tell them when they need to book online, it's because I, I set those booking reminders and I, I'm, I'm emailing them and I'm communicating with them.

I've, I've done everything that I need to make sure that they have it in their heads that they are going to come back. It's because of my excellent client experience. It's all of the above. You should have that in place to make this work for you if you really wanna do it.

And I think it's compl- oh my god, it's completely worth it. I love, I love, I love how I run my calendar now. This is my pre-booking tea, okay? Do not remove pre-booking without having the systems in place first.

Remove pre-booking if it makes sense for you. Consider a limited booking range. Consider, are there certain services that I'm just gonna stop pre-booking, right? Like, am I just gonna only stop pre- pre-booking haircuts?

Am I only gonna pre-book haircuts? Because actually, I have a very small amount of haircut-only clients. Um, I actually do still pre-book haircuts, but only within my limited booking range because they fuck up my online booking if I don't. So I do, I do pre-book haircut-only clients, but I, but I will not do it, I will not do it outside of my online booking, my limited booking range, period.

I'm rambling, I'm ranting. Kaylyn, what are your final thoughts? Do you have any We might not fully agree on this, but, like, I really do think that when it comes to having, like, a limited booking range, like, I think that you really do need to be kind of, like, all or nothing. Like, don't pick and choose your favorites.

Like, I'll book Suzie out for the next four months, but no one else can book that far out. Like, that's when your booking starts to get really hairy, no pun intended, and that's when you start to break boundaries. So I would recommend going all or nothing, personally. I love that.

I would say that I wouldn't be mad at c- certain services, like choosing services, but not people. I completely agree with that. Would you- w- do you feel that with me? Yeah, completely.

Okay, period. Okay, so, so much love to you, my friend. I hope that you enjoyed this episode of The Modern Hairstylist podcast. If you did, if you found it to be insightful, if you wanna help us reach more hairstylists, if you want people to be like, "Stop freaking out about stopping pre-booking," and, like, you want them to know the tea, then please leave a five-star testimonial wherever you're listening to this.

We would really appreciate it. And so much love to you. We cannot wait to see you on the next episode of The Modern Hairstylist podcast. Connect with me on the socials.

Let's hang out, let's vibe, let's do all the damn things. Peace out, girl scout. Bye bye.

End of transcript. © 2022 Hunter Donia LLC.