TouchSuite Salon Software, Introduction Post

A warm hello from this introduction post. You're managing a salon and you already know that technology's importance to your business in increasing virtually by the minute; and you would like to keep up.

We are very proud of the rapid success TouchSuite Salon Software continues to enjoy ... and 90% of bloggers have alterior motives, like self, or product, or cause promotion.

However, our intent with this blog is to provide knowledge and info that can help you understand and adopt new salon technology, salon software, and tactics to grow your business; knowledge and info that we have accumulated from our years of success and experience.

Let's face it, win-win is still the best outcome. We win by earning and keeping your respect as a good source for objective, helpful info, and more TouchSuite users, and you win by having a go-to source for help in understanding technology that can save you time, money, help you grow your business, and in fact, pay for itself. And, if you're a TouchSuite Salon user, you can get help you may not have found in our plethora of free help and support options.

While not necessarily the case (as we have found with some of our clients who are quite tech-savvy), you likely didn't go to engineering school on purpose! Your expertise is making people beautiful, and you're good at it or you wouldn't be running a salon. But, since you are running a salon, you find yourself faced with decisions to make about your business that, well, they didn't teach you in beauty school. Well, you can consider TouchSuite your technolgoy partner, and in fact, I encourage you to ask us questions, here, on our website, our support line, our on-line chat on every TouchSuite, etc.

So please let me fulfill my win-win promise for this post ...

When we began our development of TouchSuite, we met with you guys, a bunch of you guys, and asked a lot of questions and listened a lot. The number one thing that you told us is that the Book is the center of your universe. This seems a trivial "revelation", but, when it comes to a salon software system solution for your business, it's not as trivial as it seems.

All the technology niceties, for example web appointments, performance tracking, and client database, aside, the system you choose better do book-checkout-book-checkout-book-checkout fast and easy. You know, that is your day and the potential source for minute-by-minute headaches if not done right. Be sure to see how book-checkout works on any salon software you look at. It's sort of like if your car won't go, the rear seat entertainment system is moot. It is a car after all.

Do a comparison. If you can't book-checkout at least as fast as you can with your paper book, cash box, and credit card machine, then what's the point? You'll be surprised, as we were, how hard and slow many salon software products out there are WRT book-checkout. We call it runing at "salon speed".

Run through the practicality of book-check and make a check list. Can you quickly add a new client (to a stylist's client list) get their phone number, birthday, email (for marketing), book an appointment with processing time, nudge the time or price if need be, even book multiple services with different staff? If not, keep looking.

Can you quickly build a ticket, adjust pricing, change stylists, add products, take cash, credit cards, gift cards all in one transaction (like that never happens!)? Seriously, if you can't check off all these items, then what value does the technology bring?

How about how fast you can find the next client's appointment waiting at the desk to check out after this one, and get them checked out? Whichever salon software you consider, run it through these paces as a core MUST HAVE. This is functionality you should expect. After book-checkout, virtually the rest is gravy.

Please, if you are in the middle of a decision, make a list. Start with visualizing 15 minutes on a busy Saturday of book-checkout; make the list. Then think about your whole day and how does that go? What is important to you operationally that you would like a system to help you with? Make a list. Then think about your week; payouts, batching, rescheduling, etc. Make a list. Then think about your year and the accountant. How can your new salon software help you? Make a list.

Let that list guide you in your decision. That list will guide this blog, and in subsequent posts, I'll offer some more insight in how salon software and technology can and should check off the whole list.

Thanks for being here and see you soon.

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