Found you once, booked through them forever
A client finds your salon on a marketplace app while searching for a gel manicure nearby. She likes the result and rebooks. Through the app, because that is where she found you. And again the time after. She has been coming every three weeks for a year, and every booking has come through the marketplace.
You have no complaint about the first booking; that is what the marketplace is for. But the relationship stays with the app, including reminders, offers from other salons and the booking habit.
Nobody offers her another way
- The salon does not track which clients came from which marketplace.
- At checkout, nobody suggests rebooking directly.
- Rebooking reminders come from the marketplace, not from you.
- Your own booking page is harder to find than the app she already has.
- Staff are unsure what they are allowed to say under the marketplace terms.
Paying repeatedly for a client you already have
Beauty clients rebook often: gel nails every few weeks, lash infills every few weeks, brows monthly. A client who came through a marketplace for her first gel manicure may book many more over a year, which makes the rebooking channel matter far more than it would for an occasional treatment.
Depending on your agreement, bookings through a marketplace may carry fees or commission. When a regular keeps booking that way, you may be paying for a client who already knows you well. You also miss the chance to look after her properly: reminders timed to her treatments, notes and history in one place, and messages from her own therapist.
A fair route from marketplace to direct
- We tag each client's source in your salon software, using the marketplace's booking data or integration where one exists, so you can see which clients came through which channel and how they rebook.
- At checkout, the therapist's screen suggests rebooking the next appointment there and then in your own diary, with her preferred time. Most clients are happy to book before they leave.
- Clients who have agreed to hear from you get your own rebooking reminders, timed to their treatment, with a link to your booking page and their usual therapist.
- Your booking page is made quick to reach: saved to the client's phone from a text, linked from your Instagram and Google profile.
- A monthly view shows marketplace clients who have become direct rebookers, and those still rebooking through the marketplace.
- We work within your marketplace agreement: we check what its terms allow before anything is set up, and you decide the approach.
| Client | Current path | Offered path |
|---|---|---|
| New from marketplace | Books through the app | Welcomed, first visit as normal |
| Second visit onward | Rebooks through the app | Offered rebooking at checkout |
| Regular | Marketplace reminders | Your own reminders, with consent |
| Prefers the app | Keeps using it | Nothing forced |
Your agreement with any marketplace, and what it allows, is between you and them; we read it with you but do not give legal advice on it.
Regulars who book with you, not through someone else
On a normal day, a client who found you on a marketplace has her second gel manicure. At checkout the nail tech's screen shows her preferred Thursday evening in three weeks, and she books it before leaving. From then on, reminders come from your salon with her nail tech's name. The monthly view shows more marketplace clients rebooking directly, and the marketplace goes back to being what it is best at: finding new clients.
Is your salon in this position?
- Many regulars originally came from a booking marketplace.
- Those regulars still rebook through the marketplace.
- You do not track which clients came from which channel.
- Rebooking at checkout is not routine.
- Your own booking page is harder to reach than the app.