Every business that runs on appointments has something in common: the fuller the books, the more money comes in. Conversely, the more white space on them, the more opportunities are missed and income drops.
REACH.ai’s patented algorithm is designed to eliminate white space in the books of salons, spas, barbershops, wellness studios and similar businesses—in a way that’s unique from every other appointment-filling software out there. (Click here to get an overview!)
The algorithm has a wide variety of artificial-intelligence elements that combine to make it super effective in filling available spots, even last-minute openings.
“It does fill the books,” says REACH.ai client Steven Florio of The Hair Company salon, who admits he was initially skeptical of the technology.
Steven quickly became a believer the first time he checked the REACH dashboard to see how much revenue the software had generated so far. “Oh, this is working. l logged into the portal and I saw the numbers and was like ‘Holy cow!’ And we’re doing this with no discounts!”
How much more money could your business make if your books stayed full?
Photo: Adam Winger, Unsplash
A Key Difference: Predicting The Customers
Who Will Say Yes
Most appointment-filling software will reach out to a business’ existing customers and offer them available openings, just like REACH.ai does—but the reason they don’t work nearly as well is because they take a one-size-fits-all approach.
Though some software options can personalize customer outreach to some degree, they often do so based on flawed metrics, says David Wood, REACH.ai’s Vice President of Artificial Intelligence, who designed the REACH algorithm.
For instance, currently available software will prioritize a customer’s average time span between appointments. Though this metric should work in theory, David explains, it doesn’t work in practice. Why? Because real life is complicated and unpredictable.
“One of the reasons why using the average time between appointments isn’t an accurate predictor,” David says, “is that many customers are relatively new, and have not yet established a pattern that is reliable.”
“Another reason is people tend to schedule appointments based on what is happening in their lives, and not be on a rigid timetable. Also, there are seasonal trends. In businesses like salons and barbershops, clients will come in more frequently during certain times of the year.”
For that reason, REACH.ai prioritizes factors like: services clients have received; times of day and days of week they’ve come in; whether they tend to have one service at a time or group them together during a long visit; whether they stick to one service provider or move around; and other individual trends.
The algorithm contacts clients no more than twice per week, raising or lowering contact rate based on whether they tend to respond to communications about upcoming openings.
“We don’t want to annoy anyone by spamming them or offering openings they’d have no interest in,” David says. “They don’t feel harassed or sold to, they feel like this merchant genuinely knows them and knows what they want or need.”
There are other factors that make REACH.ai’s algorithm a super effective appointment-filler—but being able to accurately predict who’s likely to say yes to upcoming openings, based on highly personal preferences, is a critical one.
One awesome (and unexpected) part of the sudden rush of new business from REACH, according to Steven Florio, is that much of it comes from stubborn time slots with a history of white space.
“In our area it’s the mid-afternoon, when school’s getting out and moms are picking up kids. That little time frame is always difficult to fill. That’s where I’m seeing a lot of the improvement,” Stephen says.
“And the feedback from clients who get these alerts is like, ‘It was so easy, it’s great!’ That’s all I keep hearing.”
Want to set up a free demo with REACH.ai? Click here to get started.
