To help you fill open times in the schedule, increase productivity, and re-engage lapsed clients, you can automatically discount and notify clients of flash sales when your schedule utilization is under a certain threshold. In this article, we will walk through how to configure an automated flash sale.
Things to know:
- Once the campaign is activated, it will be automatically triggered and scheduled to run again in 24 hours
- The discount is only valid for online bookings; it does not apply to appointments booked in-store
- The flash sale discount will NOT be available to all clients who booked through the booking widget or the guest app. Only clients who received the flash sale automated message will be able to access the discount by clicking the "Book Now" button from the email
- Existing appointments are not eligible for the discount. Only appointments scheduled after the sale was configured
- Unfilled slots will be determined for each location within the child company, and the message will be sent only to locations that meet the unfilled slot criteria
- Clients who haven't opted in to receive marketing emails and/or SMS will not receive flash sale emails and/or SMS.
- Clients can opt out of flash sale emails and SMS by replying 'STOP' to the email or SMS received. However, unsubscribing from flash sale emails or SMS will not automatically unsubscribe clients from other marketing emails and SMS.
- If a client is associated with multiple locations, they will only receive one notification throughout an X-day cycle
- Clients without past appointments will only receive the notification once every 14 days
- Clients who have never received a flash sale will be prioritized. If all clients have received a campaign, those with the oldest campaign date will be given preference.
Configuring Flash Sales Template
- Navigate to Marketing > Automated Messages
- Under the Marketing tab, locate the Automate Flash Sale template under the Sale section
- Hover over the template and select View to edit the template and Activate to enable the template
- After clicking view, you can edit the following:
- Send if [X] % unfilled or more, for each day - Unfilled % is calculated as the ratio of unbooked minutes to total minutes scheduled across all staff members for one day. This allows you to choose what percentage of your schedule has to be unfilled for the flash sale message to be sent
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Between [X] day(s), and [X] day(s) from today - Unfilled % is calculated for each of the days specified in the window. A flash sale is triggered for the specific days where it is above the % specified above. This allows you to set your preference for when to send the flash sale message
- For example, if today is Monday, and you set the flash sale message to "Send if 50% unfilled or more and Between 2 and 4 days from today" then the promotional slots will be for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and the flash sale message will be sent for those available days
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Discount of [$/%] [Value] off - This allows you to specify whether the discount is a dollar value or a percentage off
- Note that once the discount is specified in the parameters, it must also be set in the email and SMS templates
- Discounts will be available to all clients who booked through the booking widget or the guest app and not just the clients who received this flash sale message.
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Applies to -This allows you to select whether the discount should apply to specific services or all service
- To Clients Not Seen For [X] Days: Select the timeframe for lapsed clients, referring to those who haven't visited the business within the last "x" days, to receive the flash sale notifications. If left blank or '0' is entered, the timeframe will default to 14 days.
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Delivery by - Choose the method of delivery - email, text message, or push notification. If the method selected is not available for a client, we will try other available methods even if it was not selected. For instance, if you select email as the delivery method but the client does not have an email address on file, we will send the notification via text message.
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Email - The client must have a valid email address on file and be opted in to receive marketing emails
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Text Message - The client must have a valid mobile number on file and be opted in to receive marketing SMS
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Push Notification - The client must have the Custom Guest App installed on their mobile device
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Reply-to Name - Name of the business that appears when your clients reply to an automated email. We will use the business name that was added to the business profile page
- Subject - The subject of the template that will be displayed when clients receive it
- Edit the body of the template to your preference - You can customize the template using any of the icons displayed on the template. By default, flash sales will display the location's nickname but will fallback to the location address if the location nickname is not present
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Be sure to click on the promotional discount hyperlink in the template to input the promotional discount value
- Click Save
- You will then be directed to the Text and Push Message tab to edit that template as well
- When you are finished editing the templates, select Save at the bottom
See the image below for what your clients will receive when the flash sale message is sent to them:
Booking Widget
For more information contact us at support@mytime.com.