Pre-book rate

Definition

The share of clients who book their next appointment before they leave the chair.

Why It Matters

It is the closest thing a salon has to recurring revenue and the best single predictor of whether a book survives a change of owner, because a client with a date on the calendar comes back and a client without one is a marketing problem. Ask for the rate by stylist rather than for the salon, and ask what the software actually records, since a shop that pre-books at the desk and a shop that hopes for a text message report the same revenue today.