01Why discounting every service is the expensive way to fill a diary
Take a service that costs 100 EUR and cut it by 20 percent. It now brings in 80 EUR, so you need 25 percent more bookings just to earn what you earned before, and your hour, your products and your rent did not get cheaper. Those are round numbers, not a market price, but the sum holds at any price. A blanket discount also reaches the regulars who would have paid in full, and it can teach people to wait for the next offer. We have not measured what discounts do for salons, and we do not claim to. If you use one, aim it: one named service, one first visit, or an empty Tuesday slot, with an end date. Everything below is about the rest of the month.
- At 20 percent off, you need 25 percent more bookings to take the same money
- If you discount, name one service, one audience and an end date
- Fill gaps, not the whole diary: an empty weekday slot is a better reason for an offer than a Saturday
- Count how many people who used an offer came back a second time, not only how many used it
02Rebook at the chair, before the client reaches the door
The easiest booking you will win this year is the next one from someone who just liked the result. While the client is still in the chair, the diary is open and the result is in the mirror, so ask for a date, not for an opinion. 'Shall I put you down for the same day in six weeks, or would Thursday suit better?' gives two answers and neither is no. Use the interval you would recommend for that service, which you know better than any article. If the client is unsure, hold the slot and say it can be moved. Then count: for one month, note how many clients left with a next appointment. We have no figure for salons, so yours is the only one that matters.
- Ask for a date, offer two options, and use the interval you would recommend for that service
- Let the client move or cancel the slot freely, so saying yes costs nothing
- Let the booking platform you already use send the reminder
- Keep a tally for one month: clients who left with a next appointment
- Keep clients without a discount: the same specialist, who remembers and mentions what was done last time
03Real photos of your work, taken with permission
People choose a salon with their eyes, and stock photos tell them nothing about you. Show your own work: finished cuts, colour, nails or treatments, shot in your light against a plain background. A short clip of a service being done shows more than a gallery of twelve similar pictures. Ask the client before you post, in writing (a message counts), and take the picture down if asked. Caption each photo with the service and, if you can, the price or a 'from' price, so the photo answers the question 'how much?' at the same moment. On the website, put each photo on the page of the service it shows, not only in a gallery at the bottom. Do not retouch the result into something your chair cannot repeat.
- Your own photos, in your own light, one per finished result
- Written permission from the client before posting, and removal on request
- Each photo on the page of the service it shows, with the service name in the caption
- Nothing retouched beyond what you can repeat in the chair
04Google reviews: ask everyone, reward no one
A review is someone who is not you saying the work was good. Google's contribution policy bars businesses from offering payment, discounts or free goods and services in exchange for a review, from selectively soliciting positive reviews, and from pressuring people to write one while they are on the premises. So the 'ten percent off for a review' card is out, and so is asking only the clients who smiled. The honest routine is simple: send every client the same link a day or two after the visit, while the result is fresh, and answer each review in a sentence that names the service and nothing about the client. We cover the routine in more detail in a separate post.
- The same link to every client, a day or two after the visit, not at the chair
- No discount, gift or prize in exchange for a review
- Answer every review in a sentence, with no details about the client
- Note the rating and the count each month so you can see the trend
06Where PROOF48 is the wrong choice for a salon
None of this needs us. Rebooking, photos and review requests cost time, not money, and a full diary needs nothing else. We have no figure for what our marketing plans do for a salon, because we do not measure SCP's bookings and will not estimate them. FOUND costs 297 EUR a month, or 3,564 EUR over twelve months. If one regular spends 400 EUR a year with you (round numbers for the sum, not a market price), you need about nine extra regulars just to cover it, and we promise none. Skip us if your clients book by WhatsApp or phone, which our plans do not cover, if your ads would make medical claims, since our marketing page lists strictly regulated advertising as a poor fit, or if you want an online shop for products (2,500 to 4,500 EUR, its own timeline). Booking built into your own site, with accounts or payments at booking, is a web app, from 5,000 EUR. A page per service past about five pages is scoped separately, and we give you the number before we build. The first step is usually smaller: a site of up to about five pages, 500 to 2,500 EUR, built in 48 hours and paid for after the preview.
- A full diary, or clients who already rebook: do the free steps above and skip any plan
- Bookings by WhatsApp or phone: our plans cover neither
- Ads with medical claims: a poor fit for our marketing plans. An online product shop: 2,500 to 4,500 EUR, its own timeline
- Accounts or payments inside your own booking: a web app, from 5,000 EUR. More than about five pages: scoped separately
SCP Shine & Style: a page per service and a booking flow into the salon's own platform
SCP Shine & Style is a beauty salon on Strada Baba Novac, Sector 3, Bucharest. It already had a website, built badly and ranking badly, so we rebuilt it and redirected every old WordPress URL. Every service got its own page with its own copy and media, and the booking flow points at the salon's live booking platform. We also shipped 21 salon video clips declared in the sitemap, and blog posts signed by the owner. It has been live since August 2026. We do not publish the salon's revenue or booking counts, because we do not measure them, so we cannot say how many clients it brought.
See the build: SCP Shine & StyleQuestions, answered
Is it ever right to offer a discount at a salon?
Yes, if it is narrow: one named service, a first visit or an empty slot, with an end date. A blanket discount lowers the price of every visit, including those that would have paid in full. We do not know your margins, so the numbers are yours to set.
Can I give a client a discount for leaving a Google review?
No. Google's contribution policy does not let businesses offer payment, discounts or free goods or services in exchange for reviews, or ask only for positive ones. Send everyone the same link and thank them in words.
How many weeks until a client should rebook?
That depends on the service and on what you recommend, so we will not give a number. Use your own interval, ask for a date at the chair, and keep a tally for a month to see how many clients leave with one.
Can my PROOF48 site use the booking platform my salon already has?
Usually yes. Booking links are part of the 48-hour website offer, so the button can open your existing platform. Booking built into the site itself, with accounts or payments, is a web app from 5,000 EUR with its own timeline.
Where PROOF48 fits
A salon fills its diary without discounting every service by rebooking at the chair, showing real photos with permission, asking every client for a Google review the same way, and putting prices beside a booking button that works on a phone. A PROOF48 site of up to about five pages costs 500 to 2,500 EUR, is built in 48 hours and is paid for after the preview, and we say plainly when a smaller step or no purchase at all suits your salon better.
Cosmin Tiu · Founder, PROOF48
Cosmin has worked in online marketing and software development since 2018, and has built with AI every day since January 2023. He still writes code from scratch daily, in Python, React, Rust and C#. PROOF48 ships business websites in 48 hours and invoices afterwards, so every opinion on this blog was paid for in real builds, not in theory.