The ideal beauty salon is a place where patrons and staff feel comfortable and respected.
In addition to providing high-quality products and services with your unique personal touch, it is equally important to recognize the prominent role your point of sale solution, also known as a POS system, should play in assisting you to accomplish this goal.
What is a beauty salon POS system?
Before we go any further, let’s get a basic definition straight. A beauty salon POS is a suite of customized software that is designed to meet the unique needs of businesses like yours.
It is not only responsible for facilitating purchases for the products and services you provide by furnishing payment processing for your salon, it also handles a variety of specialized tasks unique to shops in your industry.
Specifically, it performs a range of operations, including sales, reporting, reputation management, customer relationships and employee management, as well as inventory tracking and ordering.
In a nutshell, taking advantage of the full suite of features that are integrated into a high-quality salon POS can be a game changer for your business.
Maximized personalization.
Regardless of the industry, today’s customers value encounters with your brand that recognize them as unique and special individuals. Nowhere is this more important than in the beauty sector.
After all, you and your expert staff can be vital in helping each client to shape the physical image that they present to the world.
Thanks to your salon’s POS system, you can help each of your clients feel special and cared about.
This can happen because your POS’s database is capable of storing numerous valuable pieces of information, including contact details, product purchase histories, preferred stylists, individualized notes about hairstyles and color mixes, and even photos that can ensure that every service is exactly in line with what the client wants.
Additionally, these nuggets of data can help you to formulate your next effective marketing campaign. You can also leverage it to create and expand a loyalty program that keeps people engaged and encourages them to return as well as to refer their friends and family.
Because of the attention you lavish and the targeted product promotions you regularly send, you can look forward to satisfied clients who remain loyal to your brand in spite of the fierce competition that is rampant in the beauty industry.
Focused inventory management.
Being able to have reliable access to the full contingent of styling products that your staff and customers prefer is crucial.
Whereas in the past you had to rely on manual spreadsheets and human memory to ensure that your stock counts were replenished, this is no longer the case. Your salon POS has all the tools you need already built-in.
The key is in the POS’s inventory management capabilities. As soon as you receive products from your vendors, use your barcode scanner peripheral to enter each piece into your system. It will then keep track of all quantities, subtracting each item from your master count every time it is removed from your stores for staff use or purchased by a customer.
By the same token, your POS can be configured to notify you when inventory begins to run low in plenty of time to ensure that you can put in an order and receive your next delivery before anything runs out.
Robust sales reporting.
Also connected to your system’s database is the ability to use stored information to create specialized reports.
Just a few of the options available to you include documents displaying productivity for each employee, sales by product, employee, date, time of the day, etc., your most loyal customers by visits or sales amounts, counts of new customers, etc.
The sky's the limit when it comes to your salon POS’s reporting functions. Use them to provide additional staff training, reward loyal customers, highlight products, create cutting-edge promotions, and spread the word about your store far and wide.
Efficient billing.
Payment processing for your salon needs to be secure and flexible, offering customers maximum choice while ensuring that their information remains safe from hackers.
To that end, your POS comes with a robust set of billing and invoicing software designed to meet the evolving needs of your customers and your business.
Specifically, your salon POS gives customers a host of different ways to pay, including by debit and credit card, via digital wallet options like Apple Pay and Google Pay, by using contactless and mobile options, and even via gift cards.
The system can also allow you to accept deposits at the time of booking to hold appointments as well as to split payments between two or more customers.
Streamlined reputation management.
A POS system can play a significant role in helping your beauty salon grow by streamlining review and reputation management. With integrated customer feedback tools, modern POS systems allow you to manage customer satisfaction, monitor competition, and collect valuable feedback from customers.
Staying on top of positive (and negative) reviews is vitally important for your salon as it can boost your salon’s reputation to attract new clients and also demonstrate excellent customer service by quickly responding to negative reviews.
Additionally, POS systems can organize and display customer preferences, so you can personalize their experiences, leading to higher satisfaction and more positive reviews. This continuous cycle of feedback and response helps build trust and grow your salon's online presence, ultimately driving customer retention and growth.
The tool you need to grow your salon.
The hardware and software that make up your salon POS don’t take up very much physical space in your salon. Even so, the system can radically transform the way you keep track of your products, interact with your customers, and mount your future marketing campaigns.
If you aren’t already taking full advantage of the many capabilities that a modern beauty shop POS can bring to your shop, talk to the company that provides payment processing for your salon. Before you know it, your operations will be revolutionized and your customer service elevated to the next level.
