Give your clients a way to book that isn't a marketplace.
IG Digital Lab, Sacramento builds salons and spas a booking channel they own: a site with online scheduling, automatic text reminders and deposits on long services. An embedded booking widget fits the $2,500 to $6,000 band; a full booking system of your own runs $6,000 to $15,000.
Your booking lives on someone else's platform.
Booksy, Fresha, Groupon and WellnessLiving are good at one thing: putting a stranger in your chair the first time. The trouble starts with the second visit.
The platform keeps the relationship, not you
The client record, review history and rebooking prompt all live inside the app. When fees change or the salon two blocks away outranks you, none of that is yours to move.
You keep paying for clients you already earned
Marketplace pricing routes every booking through the app, including the regular who would have come back regardless. That is margin leaving the chair for nothing.
Deal platforms train the wrong client
Deep-discount vouchers fill a slow Tuesday with people shopping for the next voucher. It is a customer-acquisition tool used as a revenue plan.
An empty hour cannot be re-sold
A no-show on a two-hour color is two hours that no longer exist. Confirming at booking and reminding twice loses fewer of them, but only if something sends those messages automatically.
Outside the app, you are invisible
Someone searching “balayage Citrus Heights” sees marketplaces and competitors. An app profile is not a page an AI assistant can read or cite.
What we build for a salon or spa
Take the pieces that match your bottleneck. We do not install all of it at once.
A site with real booking
Services, prices, stylists, photos and a scheduler on your own domain. Simple version: an embedded widget. Full version: staff calendars, service durations and card capture.
Scheduler on your own domainWorkflow automation
Confirmation, reminders, a rebooking nudge at the right interval, a review request the day after, and a waitlist text when a cancellation opens a slot.
Reminders and waitlist textsAI for calls and chat
Answers the phone and Instagram or website messages when everyone's hands are busy: hours, prices, parking, and it books the slot instead of promising to call back.
Books the slot, not a callbackSEO and AI search visibility
A page per service and neighborhood, correct listing data, and the structure that gets a salon named in AI answers rather than skipped.
Named in AI answersWe do not recommend deleting your Booksy or Fresha profile on day one. Keep the marketplace for discovery, move repeat clients onto your own channel, and watch the split for a season before deciding anything.
How the work goes
Free audit first. Then a scope, a fixed number, and one process built end to end.
Free audit
We look at where your bookings come from now, what each channel costs you, and which parts of the client relationship you do not currently control.
Proposal
One scope, one number, and the order of work. Nothing is a package, and nothing is a subscription you cannot leave.
Build
Design, booking rules, service catalogue and message timing, tested with your staff before a client ever sees it.
Support
We monitor, fix and adjust, and report what came through your own channel versus the marketplace.
What it costs and how long it takes
The audit costs nothing. Timeline: 3 to 6 weeks for a standard site, 6 to 12 when booking or payment is involved.
A marketing site with an embedded booking widget and a contact form.
- Site with services, prices and photos
- Embedded booking widget
- Typically 3 to 6 weeks from kickoff
Your own booking system, online payment, or a client portal.
- Staff calendars and deposits
- Card-on-file for long services
- 6 to 12 weeks, tested with your team first
Bespoke software, built from scratch.
- Multi-system builds and custom integrations
- Full DevOps and a security review
- Shipped in slices, with support after launch
3 to 6 weeks for a standard site, 6 to 12 weeks with booking and payment, 8 to 16 for a full portal. Full price list, including hosting, is on our pricing page.
Who this is not for
We turn away work that will not pay off. Here is who that usually is.
- Booth-rental salons where every stylist keeps a separate book and there is no shared schedule to build on.
- Owners who are already booked out for weeks and have no gaps to fill.
- Anyone who wants a promised number of new bookings. We will not put that in writing, because it cannot be known in advance.
- Salons that will not collect texting consent at booking. Reminder messaging depends on it.
Common questions
Answers to what salon owners ask before signing on.
Do we have to leave Booksy or Fresha?
No, and IG Digital Lab would not start there. Keep the marketplace as a discovery channel and give returning clients a direct way to book. Once you can see how many bookings arrive through your own site each month, the question answers itself with numbers instead of opinion.
Can clients pay a deposit or prepay online?
Yes, with your own booking system. Deposits, card-on-file for long services and full prepayment are standard in the $6,000 to $15,000 band. The simpler embedded-widget version can take deposits only if the widget you choose supports it.
Who owns the client list and the booking data?
The salon does. Domain, hosting, booking data and the payment account are registered in your business name, and every credential is handed over at launch. If you stop working with IG Digital Lab, nothing switches off and nothing has to be rebuilt elsewhere.
Will automated text reminders comply with texting rules?
Text reminders require the client's consent, so the consent checkbox and its record are built into the booking flow, and every message includes a way to stop. IG Digital Lab builds to that standard but does not act as your lawyer or give legal advice.
How fast can a salon take its own bookings?
A straightforward site with an embedded scheduler is typically live in three to six weeks. A booking system with staff calendars, deposits and payment takes six to twelve. Both clocks start once photos, the service list and prices are in hand.
Can the assistant handle Instagram messages too?
Yes. Most salon enquiries arrive as direct messages, so the assistant answers routine ones about price, availability and what a service includes, and books directly. Anything unusual is passed to the owner with the full message thread attached.
Hear it for yourself. Then decide.
Call the demo line and walk through a real booking call, or book a free walkthrough and we'll show you exactly what your salon would look like running on this system.
Ready to transform your business?
Tell us what you need. We reply the same business day.