We’re thrilled to see so many salons and spas opening back up for business, or preparing to.
This has been the biggest challenge our industry has ever faced. Hands down.
Now the hard work really begins.
For most of you, re-opening comes with strings attached. Those strings are whatever guidelines your state has put in place to keep you, your employees, and your clients as safe as possible.
Some of those guidelines also require your salon to keep and submit accurate records of clients and cleanings in order to stay compliant and remain open.
It’s a lot. It’s not easy. But we have your back.
While the nation was closed, we were busy adding new re-open ready features to make these new demands and restrictions easier to navigate.
1 | Contactless Checkout
Look, we get it. There is simply no way you can eliminate physical contact from this profession.
However, there are ways to minimize the chances of the virus being transmitted, and one of those is to change how transactions occur.
With Contactless Checkout, you or your employees are able to checkout a customer right from the screen, without an exchange of a credit card or cash.
This re-open ready feature does require a card on file, but once that has been added for the client it’s all touchless transactions from then forward. (The card is stored securely at the card processor, not on you computer or at SalonTarget)
It’s the little things that will add up to reassuring your customers that you are doing everything in your power to create a safe and healthy environment for them to visit.
We took a closer look at this feature in another post, which you can check out here.
Get in touch with us to learn more about Contactless Checkout.
2 | Texting from the Queue
The “Queue” is a SalonTarget feature that allows you to see and manage the day’s appointments in a different view. Our clients love it because it’s an intuitive at-a-glance view of what is happening in the salon on a given day.
Texting from the Queue means you can send text messages to clients directly from the Queue within SalonTarget.
Why does this matter?
Many of the new guidelines around re-opening prohibit customers from sitting in waiting rooms. This means that they’ll likely have to wait in their car until their chair is freed up.
But how will they know they have the all clear to come in?
Simple: you text them from the Queue.
We took a closer look at this re-open ready feature in another post, which you can check out here.
Get in touch with us to learn more about Texting from the Queue.
3 | Cleaning Block-OFF
SalonTarget’s scheduling features are powerful, robust, and also extremely simple to use. We’ve also made some little tweaks that will help your salon or spa stay compliant with state guidelines.
In Massachusetts, for example, salons and spas are required to maintain an accurate log of when the business is cleaned, as well as the scope of each cleaning.
Within our scheduling features we have a “Time Off Floor” feature with a “Cleaning” option that allows you to block off time in your salon’s Appointment Book to devote to cleaning.
These cleanings are logged along with the date and time, and each one includes a “notes” section where you can include details as to the scope of the cleaning.
Get in touch with us to learn more about using the Time Off Floor feature to stay compliant with your state’s re-open guidelines.
4 | Service Charge
Staying compliant with state guidelines is going to cost money. Additional cleaning and the use of PPE’s will increase your operating costs.
One of the newest re-open ready features we just rolled out is the ability to charge a service charge for services that may require additional equipment to perform – like PPEs (personal protective equipment) or similar disposable safety/cleaning equipment.
When a client’s appointment has a service that requires a Service Charge, the charge will show up in the transaction window and automatically added to the service amount.
We make it incredibly easy to customize where and how a Service Charge gets added, and we also allow you to add an explanation for the service charge on a receipt if you choose to do so.
Get in touch with us to learn more about our Service Charge features.
While we cheer and celebrate every salon and spa re-opening announcement that we see in the news and on social media, we know that there are plenty of challenges ahead, just as we know there are many that are still awaiting to open.
It’s been our greatest honor to stand behind and support our clients and the industry during the closures, and we continue to so as we move forward into these next months and years.
Interested in learning more about our re-open ready features and how SalonTarget can help you? We invite you to tell us more about yourself and your needs.
