Whether you’re purchasing salon software for the first time or changing over to a new brand, it’s a decision that should be made with thought and research. Here are some important steps to take before partnering up with a new software company.

Understand the Basic Package

For smaller salons with just a few employees, or for independent contractors, starting off with a basic package is often the first step.

A company like STX offers booking, reminders, marketing, POS, inventory, payroll and general reporting in its introductory package for $119 per month for a small salon (three to five people), and $49 per month for an independent contractor. For salons looking for appointment confirmations, automated marketing, reviews and a custom client app, STX offers upgraded packages including those features.  

There’s no set-up fee with STX, and with its cloud-based system, salons can be up and running immediately. 

What to Expect from Your Software Partner

Just because setting up your software is simple doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have help. 

When you sign on with a software company, education and support should be part of the monthly fee. Look for tech support seven days per week and for additional education.  

Salon software is sophisticated and comes with many features including reports, apps, inventory, marketing and more. STX puts its new users in Pathway to Success (PTS) training to give them as much or as little attention as they want. The goal is to maximize your software—understand all the features and use them to grow your business. From creating purchase orders to utilizing marketing tools, there’s a lot to wrap your head around in the beginning.

Your software company should be there for you just like the brands you carry on your retail shelves are with education, support and suggestions for success. 

At STX, the support team takes education beyond software, often helping owners with cross promotions or marketing campaigns, and showing them how their software can put them at the top of their game. 

Extras and Upgrades—Worth it? 

Salon software has gotten more and more sophisticated over the years, and now features apps for stylists to track their goals, branded apps for the client, and marketing packages to send out email promotions, birthday greetings, text marketing and much more.

These tools give the salon additional touch points with the client, solidifying and strengthening the stylist/client bond. You can now push your promotions out straight to your salon’s app on your client’s phone, where she can view the offering, make her next appointment, and even purchase products. Your app on her phone with a red dot that signifies a message is waiting is much more effective than scrolling through Facebook posts or email, and keeps your salon front and center. 

Ready to take your business to the next level? Ask your software company about upgrading to a more comprehensive package. 

Hit Goals and Grow

Seeing results from your salon software’s marketing campaigns or watching clients use your app is definitely the fun part. But the real workhorses of salon software are the reports generated.

Are you more of a creative than a numbers person? You’re in good company. Salon owners and stylists are generally more comfortable with colors and shapes than numbers and charts. That’s why STX developed Billboard Goals & Dashboard.

When stylists look at their billboard goals they see color, not just numbers. Broken down by day, the graph will be red, yellow or green, letting them know where they stand on hitting their goals for the day. 

The Dashboard will display your totals for the day, week, month and year in modern fluorescent colors that really pop and make the reporting part fun.  There are charts & graphs to simply see what kind of numbers you’re producing in sales, rebooking, new clients, online booked, etc. plus who the top performers are.