Best Salon Software

Salon management tools help salon industry owners and professionals to manage appointments, automate routine tasks, and make their business more efficient. So you can benefit a lot by investing in a quality solution. But how do you sort the good salon tools from the average? To help you, we have prepared this buyer’s guide that details the main features and elements you should look for to do knowledgeable comparisons when selecting the best salon tools for your needs.

Get to know each product with free trial

An ideal way to start your search for the best salon management tool is by signing up for the free trials or demo offered by popular salon software providers. This will help you to gauge the efficacy of each app and understand if it is suitable for your establishment. Visit the websites of these leading platforms to check if they offer a free trial: Vagaro, Rosy Salon Software, Versum, and Salon Ultimate. These programs have been given impressive rankings in our salon software reviews that you can browse to get a general comparison of the products’ features. It’s also worthwhile to consider some alternatives first. For example, check out our article on Top 10 Alternatives to Acuity Scheduling for more information on the popular solutions available on the market.

Targeted Businesses

• Individual professionals and small businesses. These clients normally have basic needs and therefore a solution with appointment management feature should suffice. If they have employees who go out in the field, they should find a system that is mobile-friendly.
• Medium-sized businesses. Growing businesses need to capture, analyze, and segment customer data to create targeted marketing campaigns for customer loyalty. These establishments should look for features that enable them to manage customers and marketing campaigns effectively.
• Large companies. These users need a system that enables them to carry out multiple tasks such as training management, employee attendance tracking, gift card management, POS billing, inventory tracking, and report generation. Large enterprises are advised to opt for a modular salon software solution as it will give them the option to select specific modules for their needs. They are better off with cloud-based systems as these have lower maintenance expenses compared to on-premise platforms.

Examples of Salon Management Software

• Vagaro: A web-based solution for salon and spa owners to book appointments online, manage staff, connect with customers, and promote their business. Vagaro is a B2C platform where salons can create a profile, promote new events, and advertise their brand.
• Rosy Salon Software: A comprehensive suite of scheduling and business tools designed for salons and spas. Prices start at an affordable $29.
• Versum: An easy to use and feature-rich salon management platform. It offers features for employee scheduling, stats and reporting, real-time cash auditing, customer retention, and more.
• Salon Ultimate: A hybrid salon software that lets you manage your business from the cloud without sacrificing speed and reliability. Salon owners can create new services for their customers, tweak existing services, and update service details across all their stores.
• SimplyBook.me: SimplyBook.me allows customers to book service appointments 24/7 from anywhere. Confirmations and reminders are sent via email/SMS, and clients can also use the same to reschedule or cancel prior bookings.

Types of Salon Management Software

The salon and spa management software category includes the following related programs:

• Salon POS system
• Club management software
• Appointment scheduling software

Key Features of Salon Management Software

Appointment management. You can easily book, reschedule,  and follow up on appointments on the fly. Top systems allow you to confirm appointments using SMS text messages.

Staff management. You can track useful employee metrics such as employee availability, employee schedules, and customer satisfaction and retention.

Customer management. You can capture useful customer data to support targeted marketing campaigns. Includes tools that enable you to segment and categorize customers, track customer spend, and gather customer feedback.

Billing and POS processing. You can generate bills and process payments using common methods such as cash, e-wallets, and credit and debit cards. Customers can use a POS (point-of-sale) solution to redeem gift coupons.

Reporting. Customized reports can be generated for tracking employee performance, measuring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, measuring customer satisfaction through service or stylist categories, and evaluating revenue trends.

Marketing campaigns. Enables you to carry out email and SMS-based marketing campaigns to attract customers to your salon. These campaigns can offer gift coupons, loyalty cards, membership programs, and promotional packages.

Benefits of Salon Management Software

Streamlines appointments. Busy salons find it difficult to manage multiple customer appointments during peak working hours. Because of this they may double-book customers and lose business. Salon tools enable you to easily schedule appointments, re-schedule existing ones, and confirm them to your customers to save their as well as your time.

Centralizes customer data. It is important for salons to track customer information in order to create targeted marketing campaigns. Salon software allows them to securely store customer data including contact details, membership information, important dates, loyalty points, service history, and details about gift voucher redemptions. The system can also back up the customer data at selected periods for additional security.

Other benefits

• You can manage upcoming appointments for all your service providers with support for both walk-in customers and scheduled appointments.
• Efficiently manage walk-ins by finding the first available stylist, or customers can select their preferred service professional.
• You can organize customer information and have the ability to check prepaid package balances, view upcoming appointments, upload photos of previous styles, and add notes for customer preferences.
• Manage all employees with detailed performance reports including commission tracking.
• Delegate each appointment to a specific chair or booth for effortless multi-station tracking.
• Retail functionality empowers you to a sell a wide range of products apart from your service offerings.
• Easily track prepaid packages and membership programs using the customer database.
• Remind your customers of upcoming appointments via text or email to avoid missed sessions.

Latest Trends

Predictive buying. Most salon software tools lack advanced analytics capabilities to analyze customer data collected by establishments. Top vendors are addressing this problem by integrating analytics tools in salon management programs to enable salons to study purchasing behavior and predict buying patterns. This can help them to personalize the customer experience and create promotions to improve sales.

Booth rental model. Some salons and spas are renting booths that contain the essential equipment and products to third-party professionals. This business model is a win-win situation for both parties. Booth owners can earn a good income without spending on marketing or training, while styling professionals can get a fully furnished workplace for their business without heavy capital expenditure. Customers also benefit as they can prefer to avail of the expertise of their favorite stylist.

The rise of Spalons. Whereas before spas and salons were two different entities entirely, there is a growing trend that fuses both into a one-stop-shop (Spalon). Developers may want to take note of this for their next few versions.

Potential Issues

Inadequate training

Salons need to ensure their employees get adequate training to learn to use salon software effectively. This is especially applicable to new employees. Staff members can refer to how-to-guides, training videos, FAQs, and other materials to get the hang of the system. They should understand the full capabilities of the platform to maximize its potential.

Getting carried away

Salon owners can get carried away by the excellent features offered by salon software and may be tempted to send too many marketing emails and text messages to their customers. They should avoid this mistake and exercise care while using the marketing functions. Send marketing emails and SMS messages only to specific groups of customers to attract their attention. This will help you to save money and your customers will not get annoyed by the marketing messages.

Migrating from phone to software

Getting clients to move from phone appointments to a software-based system is not as easy as you think. You may encounter resistance from your clients, especially those who are less tech-savvy and would always insist that the old ways are the best. Transitioning to your new software would entail some time and a lot of patience.

Considerations When Choosing Salon Software

Staff Capability and Turnover

Salons hire staff for their skills in pampering and grooming clients, which don’t automatically translate into technical skills. Your choice of software should have a good balance between utility and usability. Given the cutthroat competition and turnover rates, your salon software should have an easy-to-use interface that can be picked up quickly by new hires.

Primary Objective of Implementation

While salon software often offers a lot of features, it’s best to keep track of your original objective that made you consider a purchase. Is your objective providing an easier way for clients to set appointments and book schedules? Or is it a way to consolidate your client list and deliver marketing strategies like promotions, mailers, or loyalty programs? Perhaps, it’s to consolidate your supply chain and ensure you are fully stocked? Whatever your main goal is, your choice of software should readily address that foremost before you get all awed with the other features.

The Bottom Line

If you’re still using a phone and a paper directory to answer inquiries and accept bookings, then your salon is going to have a hard time competing with those who have moved on to the next level. Automating your process and providing your customers with a more convenient way to reach out to you have gone from being expensive options to an accepted standard in the salon industry.

Using salon software is not a question of when or why anymore. It’s more a matter of which. Don’t be left out in the cold with the old ways.