Salons can be hectic enough without throwing bad technology into the mix. Busy stylists are often booked to the brim with back-to-back appointments, colorists are slammed preparing dyes and bleaches, and oftentimes, employees are playing double duty between the front desk and their hair station. Imagine pairing that with clunky salon point of sale systems that make scheduling and payments more frightening than your mom sitting you down and giving you a bowl cut. That’s why many salons can benefit from a bit of a tech overhaul.
Wrangling a Busy Schedule
It’s no surprise that popular salons often have a tough time juggling fully booked schedules. Since salon competition can be fierce, using a legacy POS system, or even a pen and paper roster isn’t going to cut it, pun intended. Scheduling mistakes are common with these systems and can happen if a client is scheduled for a day when their requested stylist is not available or ends up double booked.
Integrating an innovative salon point of sale system makes the scheduling process that much easier. When you implement a modern POS solution that includes scheduling functionalities, you make it simpler for customers to view availability calendars and book services based on real-time stylist availability. Plus, it helps you see where you can make staffing improvements which is helpful if your stylists don’t rent their own stations.
Utilizing Salon Point of Sale Systems for Efficient Staffing
Technology advancements in POS systems present you with some exciting and effective ways to manage staffing levels. Legacy appointment books or data entry of appointments miss the mark when it comes to adjusting staffing levels. With innovative POS software in place, you no longer need to have staff sitting idle waiting for walk-ins or hanging around because there is a two-hour gap between clients. This can save both you and your employees time, with the latter leading to better job satisfaction and reduced employee turnover.
This aids in payroll as well, as appointments and scheduling can be tied to transactions and the appropriate staff. Your timekeeping and payroll are much easier to manage, and you can easily run reports that monitor staff performances and tip rates. The in-depth reporting options in your salon point of sale systems must include the ability to see all aspects of the interaction between staff and customers to pinpoint areas of improvement and identify your top performers. Additional benefits of salon point of sale systems include tracking product sales as well as who is making the sale, providing you with more avenues for performance and revenue improvements.
Developing Customer Satisfaction is Easy With the Right Tools
Advancements in salon point of sale solutions give owners many opportunities to enhance the customer experience. Clients visit your salon not just for the products and services offered, but to be pampered and treated like royalty as an escape from the frantic pace of their normal day. This means that in light of growing expectations, you will need to leverage emerging POS technology to be flexible in addressing their needs and anticipated options.
For example, say two customers make online reservations for two-hour appointments with one of your stylists. Both have requested hair coloring services, and the appointments are back-to-back. The first client arrives 15 minutes late but asks for a blowout upon arrival that will take an additional 30 minutes to perform. Faced with a customer appointment that will now run 45 minutes later than expected, you send a message via your CRM to the second customer asking if their appointment can be pushed back an hour. Upon querying the second customer’s transaction history, you notice that they purchase two hair products at every visit, so you include in your message an offer to give these products to them for free in exchange for the moved appointment, which the client eagerly accepts.
While this is not impossible to perform without salon point of sale systems in place, it would be more time consuming for both the client and your staff. In leveraging this solution, your staff would be able to identify and remediate issues such as these swiftly and to the customer’s liking, without any unwanted surprises, ensuring repeat business down the road. This allows your staff to focus on creating styles and looks for your clients instead of focusing on paper and computer screens.
Using POS Software to Deepen Customer Loyalty
Salon loyalty programs can easily be implemented or updated to achieve high levels of customer satisfaction. When salon point of sale systems are in place, you can easily manage and track rewards, while allowing to alert customers to their free birthday services waiting for them, or that free scalp massage they earned with their last visit. And, by mining customer shopping data through easy-to-read reports, you can freely offer product discounts and specials seamlessly and without the embarrassment of running out of a special item.
Your Salon Point of Sale Systems Partner
Getting it right with your customers is a must, as the data shows that it is six times more expensive to attract new customers than it is to retain current clients. Also, 86% of customers will pay more for an elevated customer experience. You need a next-gen POS solution in place to meet and exceed the expectations that your customers are developing, and that must involve seeking an implementation to ensure you get it right the first time. Your partner will learn and understand the challenges you face and will align your POS system to address them head-on while leaving you with the flexibility to expand the solution as you grow.
Retaining an expert in POS and developing customer satisfaction is a priority to ensure your success. You will require a wide range of customizable features, scheduling and flexible hardware options for your POS to drive your success. At talech, we developed an appointment scheduling solution that seamlessly integrates into your POS system for salons to leverage to their advantage. Reach out to us today to sign up for a demo and to learn more about how talech can be your valued POS partner.
