The peak season for the salon and beauty industry has begun. With holidays, the wedding season and festivals like Navratri, Karwa Chauth and Diwali being around the corner, there is a significant rush in salons. The demand for salon services such as hair styling, makeup, blowouts and henna is quite high. While it’s a great potential revenue opportunity, it can also be an overwhelming phase for beauty business owners. The surge of appointments, walk-ins and enhanced retail sales can lead to chaos on the salon floor. Needless to say, proper planning and management is a must. Technology has a crucial role to play. Whether it’s streamlining operations or improving customer experience, using new-age tools can change the way a beauty business is run and managed. It can also help you maximise profitability during these high-traffic times.
Common Pain Points Faced by Salon Owners During Peak Season
- Scheduling Conflicts
When you’re an owner of a busy beauty business, appointments keep coming in. Managing these can be a task which leads to all kinds of scheduling conflicts. A few of them are overbooking, double booking and appointments overlapping. It can even lead to an embarrassing situation when you’re servicing one client and another client walks in. Scheduling conflicts mainly occur due to lack of a proper appointment system. This also leads to not enough buffer time between services.
- Staff Fatigue
Staff fatigue or burnout cannot be overlooked. Poor scheduling can lead to overworked employees. This mainly occurs due to long hours and back-to-back appointments. They feel stressed and, in the bargain, the service quality and efficiency are considerably reduced.
- Increased No-shows
While it’s peak season for your salon, it’s also a busy period for your clients. They too may be busy prepping for the festival because of which they might forget they had an upcoming appointment with your salon. Every no-show during the busy season can cost you a lot. It can lead to lost revenue that is hard to recover. As a salon owner, it’s important to understand why no-shows occur in the first place. A primary reason is because clients tend to forget and they were not intimated earlier.
- Running out of Inventory
Product usage is at its peak during demand seasons. This means, your backbar (shampoos, conditioners, tools) has to be fully stocked. Running out of products is a nightmare. With an inventory management system in place, you can track your backbar products in real-time and prevent any kind of reordering delays. On the retail side of it, inventory shortages can even result in missed upselling opportunities. This is a considerable pain point most salon owners cite.
- Poor Customer Experience
During this time, customers complain of being rushed into services or consultations. Time constraints even lead to lack of personalised services. These days, every customer prefers services that are personalised to their needs. For this, salon owners need to switch to a salon CRM that accurately personalises the salon experience for every client. An inconsistent experience will only draw clients away from your business.
- Limited/Lack of Client Communication
As a beauty business owner, you need to stay on top of client communication. When last-minute changes are not communicated effectively to a client, it can be quite frustrating. When you run a small salon business, you’re probably doing it all because of which you might end up missing certain details. Not updating clients about delays or promotions can result in losing the client altogether. Thus, a strong communication system is a must.
Salon Software Features to Navigate the Festive Season
- Salon Scheduling Software with Flexible Booking
Switch to modern appointment scheduling tools that allow clients to book 24/7 without needing to make a phone call. This gives the client immense booking flexibility. For example, they can accurately view your calendar for Diwali and see which appointments are available. They may want to get a blowout on Dhanteras and thus for this, they will see which are the available appointments on the 18th of October. Real-time availability also reduces scheduling conflicts. When clients book online, they also receive automated appointment reminders that help prevent no-shows. When appointments for the upcoming festive season are scheduled in advance, salon staff get enough buffer time between each appointment.
- Smart Staff Scheduling
During peak hours, smart staff scheduling is a must. Before your employees come in, they should know what the day has in store. This will help them predict high-traffic days, and they can plan their schedule accordingly. This also helps with understaffing or overstaffing. If there are many appointments scheduled on a particular day, you can create optimal staff rosters. In case, stylists or technicians do end up working overtime, their commissions will be automatically calculated by the salon management software.
- Customer Relationship Management
A CRM is an integral feature of any salon software. It is an invaluable tool for targeted marketing as well as client retention. In case of regular clients, your salon CRM already tells you what the client wants. This helps you personalise the service. Churn out the previous year’s data of the client during the festive season to see what services they availed then. This will help you understand what their expectations can be. With salon CRM data, you can even create segmented SMS or email campaigns and send out specific seasonal offers to these groups. By investing in the right CRM, you can navigate Diwali or any other festival with ease. Since it stores customer data, it also has important information about loyalty programs. Here’s how you can make the most of festival loyalty programs.
Example – Offer a client 2x points when they avail services during Dussehra or Diwali. This motivates clients to return even after the busy festive season. Once the noise settles and the festivals are over, you want your salon to continue bustling. Only to redeem the points, a client will come back and you can boost revenue even during low season.
- Marketing Automation
As a salon owner, you probably have no time to breathe during the festive season. Marketing during this time might seem far-fetched. Well, with the right technology by your side, you can automate all your marketing campaigns. You can serve your clients while your marketing messages will reach them automatically.
Every salon or spa comes up with festive offers and promotions. It goes without saying that you will want to send these promotional messages to all your clients. Instead of individually sending it to every client, you can simply schedule them. This helps your salon stay top-of-mind. The software even sorts your clients in different buckets – active clients, inactive clients, occasional clients, etc. Based on which category your clients fall in, you can personalise marketing messages for them.
Example – “Hey Ankita, <salon name> is missing you. With Diwali 2025 round the corner, we’re glad to offer an exclusive 20% discount only for you. Applicable when you avail services worth Rs. 1999 or above. T&Cs”.
A simple message like this can drive salon footfalls.
- Bundled Packages & Festival Discounts
A trick to manage the peak season is by offering packages or bundles that are specially curated only for the festive season. This way, you know what services the client is likely to book for, and this also increases staff preparedness. They know that if a client is coming in during Diwali, they’re likely to avail services mentioned in the bundle or package. To create, promote and track packages, you can make use of salon software. Make the salon package interesting for your client. It should be a win-win for you as well as your client. Here’s a sample package for Karwa Chauth and Diwali:
Karwa Chauth “Chand Ki Raat” Package:
-Skin brightening facial
-Arms and legs waxing
– Full-face threading (upper lip, eyebrows, chin)
-Basic festive makeup
-Hair styling
-Designer henna
-Saree/lehenga draping
Price: Rs. 3,499
Diwali Glow-up Package:
-Glow-up facial (silver/gold)
-Full-face threading (upper lip, eyebrows, chin)
-Arms & legs waxing
-Hair wash & blow-dry
Price: Rs. 2,500
Book in advance to avail complimentary cut, file and polish (hands and toes)
- Inventory Control
As mentioned earlier, a grave challenge salon owners face in their beauty business during the peak season is inventory. With an integrated salon POS, real-time inventory tracking is possible. This prevents running out of popular products (backbar and retail) during demand spikes. Whether it’s a client’s favourite nail polish or hair colour, you will have it in stock for the festive season. Efficiently managing inventory is very important in the beauty business. The same salon software also offers data analytics that will help you prepare better for the next festive season.
Whether it’s Diwali, Karwa Chauth or Navratri, view our festive readiness checklist that will help you prepare better. We’re offering all the salon owners this free resource. Keep scrolling to view it.
Salon Festive Readiness Checklist
Planning
- Review last year’s bookings during the festive season
- Forecast peak dates in your festival calendar
- Plan staff schedules accordingly
- Hire freelance makeup artists to meet the demand
- Conduct training sessions so that every employee understands festival protocol
Appointment Scheduling
- Setup an online booking system
- Ensure automated SMS and email reminders are activated
- Prepare a client waitlist process
Service Packages & Pricing
- Create festive packages
- Finalise the pricing and offer bonus offers for those who book in advance
- Double loyalty points and referrals during the festive season
Inventory & Retail Readiness
- Replenish popular products (shampoos, facial kits, skincare, nail polishes, hair colour)
- Prepare festive retail displays and gift hampers
- Make sure billing and stock tracking systems are in place
Equipment & Space Hygiene
- Sanitise the salon floor
- Deep clean tools and equipment
- Hire extra chairs and stations to navigate peak season demand
- Decorate the salon with lights, rangoli or candles
- Create a photo booth with your salon branding
Marketing
- Schedule festive-related posts, reels and META ads
- Design promotional creatives
- Run limited period offers and discounts
- Share client transformations on social media
- Collaborate with local business to boost campaign efficacy
Payments
- Ensure all payment modes are working
- Track daily sales and best-selling services
- Set new commissions and targets for staff
Staff Wellness & Morale
- Keep staff morale boosted at all times
- Organise meals for staff working during long shifts
- Ensure buffer times between every appointment
- Offer incentives
Conclusion
Investing in salon software is no longer an option for small, mid-size or luxury salon owners. It is a necessity. It helps you efficiently navigate the festive season. Whether it’s automating repetitive tasks or keeping processes in place, a lot of salon owners in India have highlighted how salon software has helped them during the peak season of Dussehra and Diwali.
With the right technology by your side, you can turn peak demand into peak performance. Ready to embrace the festive season with Salon360App by your side?
Our free demo will have you sold in minutes.
