At PENZONE Salons + Spas (five locations in the Columbus, Ohio, area), the team is always on the cutting edge of technology, using it to a streamline processes and procedures for a more profitable bottom line. After launching a new concept and rebranding last spring, the company focused on implementing technology that improves their guest’s experience before, during and after an experience with them.
Debbie Penzone, president + CEO; Jena Huffman, marketing and communications director; and Erin Kiliany, shared services director, share the salon’s strategies for using technology to enhance every guest’s visit to PENZONE.
Check-In
PENZONE has improved the guest check-in experience with SalonBiz’s self check-in kiosk feature on the iPad app.
Kiosk allows guests to check themselves in on an iPad when they enter the salon. “It was very simple to set up,” Kiliany says. “We just downloaded the SalonBiz app and started the kiosk mode. To end it, you enter a four-digit code you create and it goes back to the normal management system.”
After educating guests on using kiosk, many embraced it and began using it with ease. “In fact, our guests were such quick learners, most didn’t need instruction—that’s how easy it is,” Penzone says. “We’re continuing to innovate the floorplans in our new concepts and are removing our welcome desk all together. Guest experts will still be stationed there with an iPad, and that combined with the kiosk, will pull guests right into the amenities in our new PENZONE experience like a social room complete with wine, cocktails and cold-pressed juice.”
Online and Mobile Booking
Almost two years ago, PENZONE collaborated with SalonBiz to create a proprietary app for its guests.
Via the PENZONE app, guests can log in (using the same log in information they use on the website) and book their next appointment.
“It was a big initiative,” Huffman says. “We created a whole marketing campaign around it that included signage in the salon, information on our website, an email to introduce the app, and we even did an internal contest to track downloads.”
They also encouraged guests to download the app while they were in the chair, which allowed stylists to guide them through it. And they made the app so user-friendly, it’s practically irresistible. “Once a guest establishes history in booking on the app, they can rebook an appointment in two or three taps,” Huffman says.
The result? A steady increase in guests using online booking and the app to book appointments.
“Over the last few months, we’ve seen an increase of anywhere between 13 and 15 percent over the previous year’s totals,” Huffman says.
Recently, online/app booked appointments have surpassed booking in the salon and over the phone. More than half of PENZONE’s total appointments are now booked via the website and app.
“We noted a 17-percent average decrease in call volume to our guest experience center last year,” Huffman adds.
SalonBiz’s Pocket Salon app features the same client benefits as PENZONE’s proprietary app, and is now available to all SalonBiz customers.
Retail
Within its app, PENZONE also introduced retail rewards, which are not available anywhere else.
“Guests get points from the app, and we continue to focus on these rewards as a reason to download the app,” Penzone says. “We recently wrapped up a successful promotion over Valentine’s Day that lead to an increase in retail sales and a surge in app downloads.”
Check Out
The check out experience is also seamless for PENZONE guests. Stylists can us the SalonBiz mobile app to rebook guests right from the chair before they send them to the “wrap up bar,” to pay, which also directs them back into the retail area.
*****Note, the Penzone app was created with Web App Clouds, not SalonBiz. Though, collaboration was needed****
