Picture a shop where the senior barber's book is full two weeks out, while the junior who started last year has gaps every afternoon. Charging the same for both leaves money on the table twice: clients queue for the senior at a price below what that chair is worth, and the junior's open hours earn nothing.
Pricing by level fixes both. This guide covers how to set the levels, how to size the gap, and how to keep your menu, packages, and pay in line with it.
Treat the price gap as a way to route demand
A price difference does two jobs. It pays your most skilled people for being in demand, and it gives clients who care more about price than about a particular person a reason to book someone with open time.
Say a men's cut is ₱400 with everyone, your senior does 10 cuts a day and is fully booked, and your junior does 5 cuts in a day with room for 10. Using your own numbers in place of these:
| Pricing | Senior | Junior | Day's total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Same price for both | 10 cuts at ₱400 | 5 cuts at ₱400 | ₱6,000 |
| Senior ₱500, Junior ₱350 | 10 cuts at ₱500 | 8 cuts at ₱350 | ₱7,800 |
The senior's chair stays full at a higher price, because the clients who switch to the junior are replaced by the ones already waiting weeks for a slot. The junior picks up the clients who wanted a lower price. How many move is your own guess to test, not a promise, but the direction holds: when one level is booked solid and another has gaps, the gap is too small.
Pick levels clients can feel
Each level should mean something a client notices in the chair: more experience, more precise work, or a specialty. If clients cannot tell the difference, they will not pay it.
- Two or three levels are enough for most teams, such as Junior, Senior, and Master.
- Plain names work best, because clients read the level as the person's title on your booking site.
- Written rules for moving up, such as years of experience or a skills check, keep the team behind the system.
In Onsuki, create levels under Settings, Business, Staff Levels, then give each team member a level on their Role tab. Levels set price and title only; what someone can do in the dashboard still comes from their role.
Keep one service, not a copy for each level
The tempting shortcut is three services: "Haircut (Junior)", "Haircut (Senior)", "Haircut (Master)". It triples your menu, splits one service's sales across three lines in your reports, and has to be redone every time someone moves up.
Keep one Haircut with a price for each level. In Onsuki, open the service and use Price by level: turn on each level that charges something different and enter its price. A level you leave off charges the service's own price, so services that cost the same with anyone, such as a beard trim, need no extra setup.
Show clients what they are choosing
Clients should see the level and the price before they choose a person, not at the counter. That is what makes the routing work: a client on a budget finds the junior with an open slot in seconds.
On your Onsuki booking site, each person's level shows as their title, their price shows wherever it differs from the menu price, and clients can filter the team by level. See Online booking.
Sell packages per level
If you sell packs of sessions, they should follow the same prices. Sell one package per level, such as 10 massages with a Senior therapist and a lower-priced 10 with a Junior, or a package for Any level that covers sessions with anyone.
In Onsuki, a level package is an exact match. A Senior package pays only for sessions with people at the Senior level, and a Junior package only for Juniors. On your booking site the package names its level, such as "10 sessions · Senior", and the online checkout offers a level package only when the client is booking someone at that level. See Packages.
Plan promotions around regulars and packages
When someone moves up a level, their price and title change on your booking site as soon as you change their level. Their regulars see a higher price, and because level packages are an exact match, clients holding Junior packages can no longer use them for new sessions with that person.
- Agree the start date and the new price with the team member.
- Message their regular clients a week or two ahead, so the new price is news, not a surprise.
- Check who holds a package at the old level with that person, and tell them whether to use it with someone else or how you will handle it.
- Change the level on the day.
Renaming a level changes the title for everyone at that level. To retire one, move its people to another level first.
Line up pay with the level
If your team earns commission, the level is a natural place to set the rate, so a senior earns a higher share of a higher price. In Onsuki's Commissions, enter Rates by level and leave a person's own rate empty to use their level's, or give someone their own rate. See Commissions and how to work out staff commissions.
Onsuki keeps one service with a price for each level, shows each person's level and price on your booking site, and limits packages to a level. See Appointments.
