by Grace Barone
The Clover point-of-sale system has been around long enough to build an enthusiastic and loyal following. It offers a number of features for small businesses, such as fast and easy payment processing, payroll management, and sales analytics. The system also offers specialized apps for various business needs, including salon scheduling. If you own a small salon or are just opening a new one, the Clover Salon Scheduler app will work well for you. Plus, you get to take advantage of their POS system as well.
App Features
Salon Scheduler is the latest version of this Clover app for people in the service industry and offers improvements over the original. It provides a large, easy-to-read, and edit scheduling screen that lets your receptionist and stylists locate an appointment at a glance, add a new appointment, or edit an existing one. The software is easy to use and offers all the basic features that you need to keep things running smoothly.
With Clover, there is an unlimited number of devices for your business, such as Clover Duo, Mini, Station, and Flex. These are applications that let you process all types of payments at a sales desk or on your cell phone. You will also be able to use the system on an unlimited number of mobile phones, tablets, and other computing devices so that your employees will have all the remote access that they need. You can also text appointment reminders to your customers and email employee reminders, send out loyalty rewards for your customers.
Having the Right Salon POS Software
A hair salon POS system should have the following essential components and the salon scheduler app has them all!
Appointment Setting
Customers should be able to make reservations for appointments online, over the phone, or in person using the POS software. Which is pretty much a given if you're talking about a salon scheduler app. Also, it should make managing and rescheduling appointments for salon guests simple. This is very important, especially since the majority of salon appointments are made in advance. So the software should not only be easy for your employee to use, it should seamlessly integrate with your online booking. No one wants to go to a salon where setting an appointment up is complicated.
The software should also have the option to implement a deposit or a no-show fee. Making customers pay a deposit increases the chances of customers not canceling their appointments. Since they've already paid a portion of their service. While some customers may not like having to pay a deposit, it breaks up the payment for them. Depending on what service they want, it can get a little pricey. By having a deposit, they won't have to pay for everything in one chunk on the day of their appointment.
Appointment Reminders
If your customers are booking months in advance, you could run into an issue of them forgetting. Your salon POS software should have the ability to send reminders to your customers. You can have a text message sent to your customer reminding them when their appointment is. Your customer can then reply either saying, yes or no to whether they're still coming. This will help remind the customer of their appointment. It will also help prevent customers not showing up to their appointments without notice. No-shows cost the salon time and money. Taking steps to avoid this happening is important.
Charging a no-show fee can also help combat no-show clients. It's very inconvenient when customers don't show up for appointments. If your hairdresser gets paid hourly, having a guest not show up means you just paid your hairdresser for essentially nothing. If you're a hairdresser and you get paid commission, you just lost a chunk of time that you otherwise could have filled. To avoid this, you can choose to charge your client an amount if they do not give the salon notice before canceling their appointment. Your no-show policy must be clear and disclosed while setting up the appointment.
Inventory Management
The salon schedular app and POS device must continually track the salon's supply, including hair products, styling equipment, and other items. Managers of salons will be able to keep track of their inventory levels and replenish supplies as necessary. Making sure your salon is stocked is not the thing inventory tracking is useful for. It can also help you figure out what services are popular or maybe not so popular at your salon. This may help you market your services better.
Maybe you find that you're going through red hair dye quickly and that a certain hair care product has been sitting on the shelf for months. You can use that information to alter the price of these services. Maybe you start offering a deal where if someone wants their hair dyed red, they get 10% off that certain hair care product. This will entice people to come get their hair done by your salon. Amplifying the success of your red hair services while also selling a product that wasn't selling well.
Sales tracking
The system must keep account of every sale the salon makes, whether it be of goods, services, or gift cards. Managers of salons will be better able to evaluate their revenue sources and spot potential for expansion as a result. This is the same idea as using your inventory data to figure out what's working and what's not. This can also help you gauge whether or not the deals and promotions you have in place are giving you the results you want.
This also gives you knowledge about which hairdressers are servicing the most clients and what services they seem to be specializing in. This can help you make informed decisions when booking
new clients with hairdressers. If have an idea of what each hairdresser has the most experience doing, you can place a client who is new with someone that will give them the results they want. When you do this, you better your chances of repeat customers at your salon and loyal customers for hairdressers.
Customer Database
Consumer information, including contact information, appointment history, and product preferences, should be stored in a customer database. This will make it easier for the salon staff to personalize services and marketing initiatives. You may have a lot of customers at your salon. It's hard to remember every single one, as well as their preferences. Having a customer database within your salon POS software makes it easy to pull up that information. When your customers feel like you remember them and they don't have to re-explain everything to the hairdresser makes for a more enjoyable experience.
This also speeds up the appointment-setting process. If they call, you'll be able to just pull up their information. In a busy salon, you don't want to have to spend more time than you have to set appointments up. Having a well-set-up customer database, you can also implement a customer loyalty program. With a customer loyalty program in place at your salon is a great way to get more customers at your salon. Having a customer database can also help automate marketing to remind customers that they're due for a service. For example, say you have customers that consistently come in on a monthly basis. You should send out an SMS message or email reminding them to make an appointment.
This is also a helpful tactic to bring back customers that you haven't seen in a while. You can go into your customer database and see what customers haven't booked with you for maybe 6 months. You can then send something to those customers and hopefully get them back at the salon. There may be a chance that they found another salon. Showing them that you remember them and value their business could be enough to bring them back.
Clover POS System and Salon Software
In general, a POS system for a hair salon should be simple to use, dependable, and adaptable to the particular requirements of the salon. This is why the salon scheduler app is so great. Hair salons have different needs from say a nail salon. By implementing the right salon POS software you are ensuring your salon gets every need met.
Clover offers amazing POS systems for salons and offers apps that perform all of the functions mentioned above! If you're a salon owner looking to maximize the efficiency of your hair salon fill out the form below or visit us at getvms.com. We offer a variety of POS systems and can help you figure out what apps to download to customize your device as well as any other POS hardware you might need.