Better Tech, Better Talent: How Your Software Impacts Staff Loyalty

Good software is as much for managing staff as it is for managing clients

Managing a salon, or any beauty business, isn’t just about keeping the clients happy; it’s about being a good boss to the people who work for you so that you can keep your talent (and enjoy working with them more). Good salon management software is useful for more than just booking customers and keeping track of your inventory — it’s also great for making sure everyone in the business is looked after and stays around long term.

Keeping payroll on lock

Look, no one wants to be paid late. That’s a fact. The beauty business can often be a precarious one for owner and worker alike, and every single person who makes a living inside your walls will be happier if they’re getting paid on time. Nothing will make them ready to walk more quickly than if their wages are late — and it could scuttle your reputation in the local community, too. Good software will let you keep track of all incoming and outgoing transactions, stay on top of expenses, and know you have the requisite cash flow to make sure that those deposits land in the stylist’s bank accounts on time, every time. It can also be used to track tips and, depending on your salon’s policy, make sure they’re distributed equitably.

For businesses that rent booths rather than employing stylists and beauticians directly, salon management software can also be used in the other direction, to make sure fees are paid when they’re due without you having to chase up with the person every month.

Balancing schedules for work (and life)

Not every employee will be available (or even want) to work on the same schedule. The beauty world often needs people on staff at odd hours because clients often can only make it to the salon after work or on weekends. Salon management software can make scheduling your staff a snap so that you know you have enough people on hand for busy periods and aren’t overstaffed when it’s going to be quiet. Plus, if you have people who have a preference for what days they want to work, or how many days a week, scheduling software will let you make sure that those preferences are honored. This becomes especially important during the holiday season, when stylists may want to be taking time off with family or for travel.

Dialing down the drama

One of the too often ignored factors of being a manager and business owner is that not every employee on staff is going to be friends with one another. Two people can both be extremely good employees who each excel at what they do but also butt heads at every occasion. So how do you handle folks who can’t stand to be in the same room together, and might start something if they do (or at least be utterly miserable, which will affect their performance)? Scheduling software. It may seem a small thing, but if you want to keep a good vibe, sometimes the easiest answer is to just make sure incompatible stylists overlap as little as possible.

Helping staff build a loyal clientele

The client side of salon management software is also crucial for keeping employees happy and engaged. Good, modern management software will let them track their clients and take notes about repeat customers so that they can stay on top of what works for each person and what doesn’t. These notes can be for things like what sort of style they like, product preferences, or even potential red flags that a stylist may see coming down the road.

Client management is also useful because it allows you to contact a person’s clientele if you need — maybe to give a heads up that the stylist will be out of town for a while, or if you’re running a special discount. You can even set your stylist up with a personal email address in case they need to stay in touch directly.

You can also use the software to send out reminders of upcoming appointments — which is crucial for cutting down no-shows. Because when a client doesn’t show, nobody gets paid.

Reporting to improve performance

Performance reporting is a far less glamorous side of the glamor business — but it’s important, both for you and for your employees. From a business perspective, you need to stay on top of how each stylist or beautician is performing. How long are they spending with each client, and how much does that deviate from the rest of the staff? If they’re an outlier, is it a problem, or is it due to more time-intensive (and higher-earning) services? Ideally, these numbers are useful to make sure that your business is doing well, that your employee is seeing clients at a rate everyone is happy with, and to provide concrete data to justify any necessary changes.

Good management software is a key part of any beauty business — not just for you, but for everyone who works with you, too. It’s crucial for making sure that people are working when and how they want, that they’re getting paid on time, and are happy in what they do. Which leads to a happy staff, who will stick with you through thick and thin.