A boutique offers private appointments outside opening hours. It is the most profitable thing they do and it happens perhaps twice a month.
Customers do not know it exists. There is a line on the about page. Booking means telephoning during opening hours and asking, which requires somebody to already know the answer to the question they are asking.
The owner believes there is limited demand. What there is limited of is awareness, and the difference is worth a great deal.
Step 1: say the service exists, prominently
Not on an about page. On the home page, on product pages and wherever somebody is hesitating over a purchase.
Step 2: say what it actually is
A period of time with somebody who will help, in the shop, with things pulled for you in advance. Customers imagine something more intimidating than the reality.
Step 3: say whether it costs anything
Plainly. Most boutiques offer it free and most customers assume otherwise, which is the single largest barrier to booking.
Step 4: say who it is for
Anybody, explicitly. Customers exclude themselves on assumptions about spend, occasion or how they look, and an explicit welcome converts them.
Step 5: show the available times
Rather than requiring an enquiry. Visible availability is the difference between a booking and a message that never gets sent.
Step 6: allow booking without a telephone call
The commonest obstacle. A substantial share of customers will book online and will not telephone a shop they have never visited.
Step 7: ask a few questions at booking
What the occasion is, what sizes they usually take, what they like and dislike. Fifteen seconds of questions transforms the appointment.
Step 8: prepare before they arrive
Pull items in the right size, in the right direction, for the stated occasion. This is what makes the service feel worth an hour of somebody's day.
Step 9: offer times outside opening hours
Evenings and early mornings, which is frequently why somebody wants an appointment rather than a normal visit.
Step 10: offer the virtual version
A video appointment for customers too far away, which extends the service to an entire online customer base, as in styling and personal shopping requests for boutiques.
Step 11: confirm and remind
Because appointment no shows are a real cost, and a reminder the day before recovers most of them.
Step 12: handle the group booking
Wedding parties, birthdays and friends shopping together, which are the highest value appointments and need different arrangements.
Step 13: record what they liked
So the next appointment starts from knowledge rather than from the beginning, which is what makes a customer return rather than browse.
Step 14: follow up afterwards
A short message a few days later, asking how something worked out, is what turns a single appointment into a customer who books one every season. Almost no boutique does it, and it costs a sentence.
Step 15: let anybody request one in under a minute
An assistant that explains what an appointment involves, states plainly that it is free and open to anybody, asks which day and time would suit, asks the preparation questions and passes the request to the team to confirm turns twice a month into something considerably more frequent. The enquiry pattern sits in personal styling appointment enquiries at boutiques, the same booking mechanics in test drive booking questions across a dealer network, and the setup in automating appointment scheduling with a chatbot. See features, start at try, and the sector view sits under ecommerce.