January 25, 2018

What’s New – 2018

WOWZA!! January has been quite a month and if it’s any indication of what 2018 has in store…. look out – here comes SalonBiz! Our team works hard all year preparing for our annual PowerUp tech forum and SeriousBusiness weekend. We absolutely love getting to see many of you in New Orleans. We were beyond excited this year to launch our new client app, Pocket Salon! In addition to Pocket Salon, we’ve released some other great features throughout 2017 we wanted to make sure you didn’t miss.

We are always improving the core product, and there are several exciting things that have been released.

You can color code your block times based on your block time reasons (a staff favorite).
We’ve made filtering much easier by adding departments in addition to categories and subcategories.
Tips can be divided proportionally based on service totals.
Powerbooking (or double-booking) has been around for a while, but we’ve made improvements, such as showing staff who Powerbook in bold so you can easily identify them and maximize the book.
Several security options around inventory have been also been added.

more improvements:

A new default setting in Staff & Book, “Process Time – Assign process time to staff?” allows users to have process times automatically assigned to the parent service’s provider’s book.
A new default setting in Staff & Book, “Check In – Prompt to change start time when late?” allows users the opportunity to change an appointment’s start time to the checked in time in order to accurately reflect service duration.
A new default setting in Staff & Book, “Overlapping – Warn user when overlapping appointments?” determines if a warning is given to users overlapping appointments or blocks.
A new default setting in Staff & book, “Standing Appts – Allow standings to overlap booked appts?” allows users to turn off the ability for standing appointments to overlap existing appointments according to the maximum allowable overlap time setting.
The Add New Customer form includes the checkboxes for allowed communication methods (email and text).
Credit Cards – EMV capable integration.
A new Strategies report is available to all customers in Central’s Report Center. It has been certified by Strategies Team Based Pay System.

iPad App

We’ve also done some notable work to our apps! For instance, on our SalonBiz app for iPad, you can scan products and gift cards using the iPad’s camera making checkout super fast and easy!

iPad App improvements:

Staff with access can block and unblock the book.
Add ticket, customer and appointment notes and finally get rid of paper travelers allowing you to seamlessly communicate price adjustments from service staff to the guest care team!!
Series payments can be redeemed.
Customized consultation forms are available.
Send text messages to your clients from their appointment.
Default request reason can be set, making booking a breeze.
Block time reasons and appointment service count are displayed.
Partial cash, Promo credits and check payments accepted at checkout.
Ability to reset password from the login page.
Ability to select a Staff 2 for manually added services to tickets and those already on the ticket from appointments.
Ability to edit the duration and/or request reason of a service on the book.
Ability to access tickets created or processed on iPad.
Edit client information from the clients ticket.

Stylist App

On the SalonBiz Stylist app, you’ve probably noticed that the confirmation status shows on the book view. This is great for stylists when they are planning their day. For all the managers using the app, you have an all staff stats view that you can filter by any of our metrics and even send messages to individuals or the entire staff. We love the idea of everyone going paperless — be sure to use the ticket and customer notes to eliminate all of those wasted paper travelers!!

Stylist app updates:

Future appointments can be viewed.
You can check in guests in from your phone.
Ability to select start date for stats.
Default request reason can be set for quick booking.
Price is listed in customer history.
Admins will always be able to see full phone numbers, despite mask setting being enabled.
Clients’ previous service will be displayed in “View Info”, if applicable. This is in addition to the already present next service.

Online Booking

We are really excited about Online Booking, and if you offered a gift card promo this holiday season you’ll know why!

You can now offer bonus gift cards online. For example, when a customer buys $100 and receives a $15 card for free. You can also discount gift cards and the promos can be valid for specific date ranges. So you can set it and forget it.

Online Booking improvements:

New customers can automatically be opted in for text & email communication.
The Powerbooking feature (double booking) also works with online booking.
Don’t forget to use your online activity report to help manage your booking requests and fulfill gift cards.
Delivery details section for ship to in GC purchase screen.
Requests made from the Need Help link or the “Didn’t find what you were looking for?” button appear in the General Requests Outstanding section of the Online Activity Details report.
You can choose to display a staff’s name, photo, and category in Online Booking’s service provider list. Edit the settings in Central/Admin/Online Booking/Settings/Staff tab.

Aveda

Quick update for our Aveda salon customers. As you know we’ve updated all Pure Privilege salons with version 4 of our integration; allowing the salons to go completely paperless for enrollment, making the transactions easier and the guest experience more seamless.

The Aveda Star Report is available and accessible to all Aveda salons.
You can have your online booking linked to Aveda’s website. So when people are looking for an Aveda salon in your area they can book at your salon through the site.

There’s been a lot of buzz lately about something new at SalonBiz and we are all really excited about this game changer!

Do you remember how you used to check in for your flights? You’d show up the airport hours before your flight, waited in a long lines for someone to print your boarding pass and asked if you packed aerosol (*frantically shakes head no and hopes they don’t take out all of the hairspray). Now you can check in ahead of time, your boarding pass is on your phone, you barely have to speak to anyone.

Even some hotels now have completely gone away from the front desk. You arrive in the lobby and check yourself in on a kiosk and go on your way. Most of us and our guests want to do things ourselves, be more in control of our interactions and have it done quickly. The NEW Pocket Salon app brings a different attitude for salons; making transactions transparent, convenient and taking a different approach to driving retail.

Pocket salon connects the consumer directly to your salon, from anywhere even when they are within your walls. This new app puts everything at the guest’s fingertips. When guests log in, they’ll see their product recommendations, any upcoming appointments if they keep scrolling they’ll even see your salon’s Facebook feed.

Booking through the app is super easy too. Guests can search for services or just book from past services they’ve had at the salon.

There’s no guess work in how to use it. Guests can go back and change their search options and even add another service with an easy side-by-side view. How cool is that?!

With the app guests have an open line of communication with their stylist without having to exchange personal contact info.

When guests arrive for their appointment they can skip the lines and check themselves in. They can also manage their own profile and update their own contact info. Plus if you have more than one location, the guests can easily switch to their primary location.

Let’s talk retail! Guests can view what products their stylist has recommended during their service and add to their cart for pick up at the front desk. What’s really awesome about this feature is that your guests can purchase products through Pocket Salon and pick it up in the store that same day.

When guests are ready to check out, they can discreetly add a tip through the app and complete check out.

This app simply makes it easy for consumers to do business with your salon.

Front desk focus can shift from behind the desk where they book appointments and check out to working with guests in the retail area. Imagine implementing this new salon app and adding at least an additional 2% to your bottom line. That can bring a lot of salons from breaking even to making a profit.