Owning and managing a business in today’s economic climate is no easy feat. From managing appointments and client communications to increasing revenue and marketing, the administrative responsibilities associated with running a successful salon or barbershop can often feel overwhelming. Whether you’re a salon owner who’s looking to focus more on working creatively behind the chair or a manager in search of ways to work smarter and not harder, using AI can help assist with many time-consuming tasks. “As a small-business owner, I use AI to support me on the administrative side, so I’m able to do hair and focus on the creative things that I love to do,” says Jessica Berswick, owner of Daughter of Oz Salon in Toronto. “Being service-based and having these sorts of administrative tasks removed from my plate means that it’s not only saving time but also helping to increase revenue.” While the concept of AI may be scary to some, especially with how advanced it has become, salon software and technology companies are now incorporating it into their features to help make it easier for users to make the most of it for their businesses.
Automation
While most salon software companies are known for their online-booking capabilities, many of their offerings extend far beyond that and can help with automating tasks like appointment reminders and add-on service suggestions. Berswick, who was first introduced to Vagaro more than a decade ago, has been using its Connect by Vagaro platform, which includes an AI-powered chatbot that acts as a virtual assistant to help manage client communications both during and outside business hours.
“It’s a private phone number for your business that enables clients to contact you via text message or through the Vagaro app,” she says. “I’ve found what the AI assistant does is it really helps guide my clients in the right direction. For example, if they want to independently handle the rebooking of appointments, this gives them the tools and the knowledge to be able to do that. It also allows for 24-hour contact capability. For me, it just removed that constant feeling of not having enough hours in the day [to respond to everyone].” According to Berswick, using the AI- powered assistant also keeps all client communications within the salon to help her and her staff maintain a healthy work-life balance.
“AI HAS CHANGED MY ENTIRE BUSINESS CAREER. IF YOU’RE NOT USING THE PROPER SOFTWARE PROGRAM, YOU LIKELY WON’T SEE ALL THE CAPABILITIES THAT AI ACTUALLY HAS TO INCREASE YOUR BUSINESS AND I THINK THAT YOU’LL GET LOST AND LEFT BEHIND.” — CHAD STEWART, OWNER, CONCRETE BLONDE, SHERWOOD PARK, ALTA.
Accountability
Ju Tenuta, manager of Regal Grooming Lounge, was looking for a robust system that supports advancements in technology and helps manage the back end of the business while also providing an innovation front-end experience for clientele. After trying three to four different systems, the Vancouver-based barbershop began working with Zenoti eight years ago.
She has noticed how the company’s offerings have evolved and expanded over the years. Today, its HyperConnect platform has a fully integrated, AI-powered internet phone that instantly provides customer information on the screen for easy reference and even records, transcribes and analyzes every call answered by your team and rates how it went, with suggestions on areas to improve.
“We believe that grooming is about the full experience,” says Tenuta. “There are too many barbershops to compete with, so we understand that if we don’t outperform our competition, we’ll be short-lived. Now, when you bring a tool like this to a business that thinks this way, the amount of work we used to have to do is gone.”
“In the morning, I open HyperConnect and can filter my calls [based on how the system has rated them] and see where we may have dropped the ball,” she adds.
“Staff can listen to their own recordings, too, so the accountability is incredible—I don’t need to tell them what they could have done better. It is unbelievable and has had a huge impact on our business.”
For missed calls, HyperConnect is integrated with SmartBot that provides automated text messages to help clients book, reschedule or cancel appointments and answers commonly asked questions.
Also, through the power of AI, it helps manage reviews by integrating with Google to help simplify monitoring, aggregation, response management and sentiment analysis with real-time notifications.
“Artificial intelligence actually helps you think out of the box a lot because it gives you a lot of different perspectives that you would never come up with,” says Tenuta. “You have to be curious and really have a mindset to improve your business. If you’re just happy with the way things are, you’ll never look for something different.”
PRO TIP
CONSIDER USING AI TO HELP WITH SENDING APPOINTMENT REMINDERS OR TO REACH OUT TO CLIENTS YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IN A WHILE.
Client Retention and Acquisition
When it comes to retaining existing clients and acquiring new ones, AI can be your secret weapon for marketing to help with generating copy for emails, advertising and social media.
After working with another software company for more than 20 years, Chad Stewart, owner of Concrete Blonde in Sherwood Park, Alta., began working with Phorest two years ago and hasn’t looked back.
“It has been the best decision of my career,” he says. “AI is huge for us. We use it for everything. ChatGPT and Phorest’s AI features are unbelievable.”
According to Stewart, he has noticed a significant increase in service sales within the first month of using Phorest’s AI-powered marketing tools.
“It was the email marketing in particular that we created within their email database,” he says. “In two weeks, we increased our services by $25,000.
It was helping us hit the proper targets and demographic that we set with our parameters. I think that’s how we all look at and read our emails nowadays. What are those words that are going to track with a certain promotion that we may have?”
While Stewart admits that marketing was already one of his salon’s strong suits, it’s the AI-powered verbiage, frequency and consistency that have been keys to their success.
“It’s just knowing how to properly utilize the program to its full capacity,” he says. “Now, we’re continuing to utilize those marketing tools through their social media marketing that allows us to have them all set up on a continuous basis, so we’re always targeting and trying to be a step ahead.”
Comments are closed.