Salon Software

What is salon software?

Salon software assists salon owners with appointment booking, client management, employee scheduling, marketing, and inventory management. The software is used by individual salon professionals and businesses in the wellness industry, such as hair salons, nail salons, and beauty parlors. Salon apps also provide features for feedback management and client retention that help salon professionals maintain a positive relationship with their clients.

What is the best salon software?

To find the best salon software for your business, view our GetApp’s Category Leaders report for salon software that is based on verified user reviews. The list—which features top salon software solutions—is based on ease of use, functionality, customer support, value for money, and likelihood to recommend. You can use this list to compare and select between two or more salon platforms to find the right one for your business.

How much does salon software cost?

Salon software costs in the following price ranges*:

Price ranges*:

• $5 - $10

• $11 - $30

• $30+

Most products in the market are priced on a “per month” basis and can be divided into three pricing tiers based on their starting price.

Why is salon software important?

• Streamlines appointment scheduling: Styling professionals and small business owners may find it difficult to manage customer appointments during peak hours. Salon software streamlines the online booking process for users and allows them to schedule, reschedule, confirm, and cancel appointments in only a few clicks. It also offers calendar management that helps prevent double bookings.

• Automates client database management: Salon software offers a centralized location to store customer records, including their personal details, past service records, and purchase history. It also allows users to segregate customers according to their visit frequency in order to curate personalized experiences, such as gift vouchers and coupons.

• Facilitates staff management: Salon software also enables salon owners to make more accurate evaluations of the team. The system offers team calendars, employee scheduling, work progress tracking, and attendance management so that users can assign appointments, measure employee performance, incentivize members, and provide feedback based on accurate results.

How do you choose salon software?

• Access data security features: As a salon business owner, it is important for you to ensure that customer information, including their contact details and credit card information, are kept safe at all times. While evaluating potential salon management solutions, make sure that they offer necessary security measures, such as data encryption, CVV2 verification, customizable security settings, and unauthorized user alerts to prevent data and information breaches.

• Prioritize accessibility: Before investing in salon management software, confirm that the software offers easy access to clients and staff members alike. The software you select should enable customers to book appointments online and make changes to an existing booking sans hassle. It should also allow your staff members to view and confirm client appointments, reschedule bookings, update schedules, and send online booking reminders to clients.

• Consider robust reporting features: Similar to every other business, it is important for salon owners to gauge the success and functioning of their businesses. Therefore, investing in a solution that offers robust reporting makes more sense. Consider a software solution that is able to generate important reports, such as employee schedules, pre-bookings, canceled appointments, client analysis, inventory value, ticket summary, and sales growth reports that helps you understand the performance of your business over a period of time.

How does salon software help SMBs?

• Reduces no-shows: Cancellations and no-shows (a situation where the client neither keeps nor cancels a booking) are quite problematic for small beauty salon owners. These often occur with no correspondence due to which the staff members are left waiting and losing out on other clients. Salon software offers features, such as cancellation management and periodic automated reminders that help prevent the loss of client appointments. Several tools also facilitate prepaid appointments to save users from the risk of late cancellations or no-shows.

• Facilitates inventory tracking: Whether you are a small salon business owner or an individual stylist, keeping track of inventory, including the usage and minimum stock levels can be time consuming. Salon software offers inventory management as a core feature that allows users to automatically track inventory and its utilization. Several salon management software tools also provide notifications to alert the salon manager of low inventory levels and facilitate the restocking of products.

• Improves client experience and retention: Customer experience is of utmost importance in the beauty business. Salon software eases the appointment scheduling process for clients, sends out appointment reminders to notify them of upcoming bookings, and also helps salon managers with personalized communications and loyalty program management. The tools also offer convenient payment modes, including debit/credit cards and electronic transfers for faster checkouts. All these ensure that your clients have the best interactions with your beauty salon.

Sources

Products evaluated for the pricing calculation were taken from GetApp’s salon software directory. The pricing ranges exclude freemium versions of the products. The features highlighted were identified based on their relevance and the percentage of products in the Get App’s directory that offer them.

*The pricing included is for the entry-level/lowest-priced offerings found on vendor websites as of December 5, 2022. These ranges correspond to the 25th, 75th, and 100th percentiles of pricing information gathered from vendor websites of sample products.

The above list includes pricing for the base plans of most products. An enterprise or premium product that is priced higher may include additional features such as customer surveys, email marketing, loyalty program, and booth rental management.