As an independent barber, you've got a lot going on. You're managing every part of your business: branding and marketing, scheduling, and client care. You've got a finger in every pie, a whole stack of hats on your head, and somehow you still manage to accomplish everything with grace and style. Having said that, there's no reason why you shouldn't make things a bit easier for yourself. Cal.com is a calendar scheduling solution that can take the stress out of booking appointments and managing meetings. The way it works is simple: just visit Cal.com to claim your name and sign up for a free account. We're not going to ask you a whole bunch of weird personal questions, and you get to keep your credit card number to yourself.
It might seem a bit boastful, but when it comes to calendar scheduling, we're built differently. Our approach is simple: we provide all of our customers with access to a privacy-friendly, secure, robust, and free scheduling product. This means that when you use our service, even at the free level, you're not going to be hampered by arbitrary limits related to the number of calendars you can connect or the number of event types you can create. Additionally, all users can monetize their meetings by connecting their profile to a payment gateway. This isn't to say that you won't have access to better and bigger tools at higher tiers – you definitely will. However, we believe that a basic plan should actually offer all of the basics.
Connecting You with Your Clients:
Using Cal.com makes it easier to connect with your clients. Once you've connected your calendar, set up your custom availability, schedules, and event types, most of the work has been done. All that's left is for you to decide how you want to share your Cal.com booking link. It can be added to your Google Business profile, so that when people find your brand after googling terms like “barbershop near me” or “Barbershops open Sunday,” they can immediately book an appointment. You can also add your booking link to your email signature as well as your social media presence. Additionally, Cal.com also offers a free app that will auto-generate booking link QR codes that you can use on printed media, flyers, business cards, and brochures. It's easy to incorporate as part of your website since each and every event created has a button that allows you to auto-generate and embed customized code. Incorporating your booking link so that it's part of the digital footprint means that whenever someone wants to book an appointment to get their hair trimmed or their beard lined up, all they have to do is click a button and then choose from a pre-approved time and date that already works for you.
Scheduling and Payment All in One Place:
One of the biggest differences between Cal.com and most of our contemporaries is that we have an app store. Our app store acts as a one-stop shop where you can add a whole host of free and premium integrations with just a click of a button. This means that you can connect your Cal.com account with customer relationship management software like HubSpot and Salesforce, as well as payment processing like Stripe. One of the benefits that actually comes by choosing to connect your Cal.com account to a payment gateway is that we have an option for no-show fees. This means that customers can be easily charged if they cancel appointments without proper notice. This helps ensure your time is valued and respected. If you'd like to learn more about setting up no-show fees, then just check out this blog post.
Taking Things to the Next Level:
Even in its most basic incarnation, Cal.com offers a lot. However, if you need more, we have more. In addition to the free basic plan, our Enterprise plan has options for SOC2, HIPAA, and GDPR compliance. It's great for barbershops with multiple locations. This option comes with dedicated onboarding and engineering support, as well as advanced database insights and extensive white labeling. Additionally, we also have a self-hosted platform option for anyone who's thinking about creating a time-based marketplace for barbers.
Cal.com also offers an extremely competitively priced team plan. The team plan allows users to remove Cal.com branding from their booking interface and access special event types. These pro-level event types are designed with teams in mind and consist of managed events, collective events, and round-robin events. Managed events can be used to assign specific appointment types to apprentices, while collective events are great for team meetings. Round-robin events, on the other hand, are great for booking first-come, first-serve appointments based on the needs of the business.
As you can see, all of Cal.com's scheduling features work together to help support barbershops on the journey to achieving the next level of efficiency and impact. If you'd like to stop stressing about calendar scheduling and start benefiting from our infrastructure today, then just click the link below.
