Choosing the

Right Software
for Your Spa or Salon
.......... .........

....................... Brought to you by

Zenoti

Wwww.Zenoti.com
Copyright 2016, Zenoti All Rights reserved.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT SOFTWARE FOR YOUR SPA OR SALON .........................................

Software, similar to your other tools of trade, is a critical factor in

your overall success.

Use this eBook for a step-by-step guide on how to evaluate software

for your spa or salon.

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Contents
A Business Decision 01
Cloud vs Desktop

Understand Your Goals 06

Review Capabilities 08
A Checklist of Features

Adoption & Success 15

 ...........................................
A BUSINESS
DECISION
Cl o u d vs D e s kto p
 CHOOSING THE RIGHT SOFTWARE FOR YOUR SPA OR SALON ................................ 1

Technology evolves at a rapid pace - once measured in decades, now

measured in years and even months. The most signicant recent
change is the shift from desktop to cloud solutions

Cloud
Desktop
With a cloud solution,
your software installs, runs
and maintains software for
you. You simply access
the software through the
internet.

With a desktop solution,

you purchase, install and
maintain the software and
hardware on your own.

Wwww.Zenoti.com .........................................................................................
CHOOSING THE RIGHT SOFTWARE FOR YOUR SPA OR SALON ................................ 2

Why Cloud Wins

Businesses moving to cloud

solutions realize many important

Minimal upfront investment

Low monthly payments andno-lock-in contracts ensure you pay
only as long as you getvalue from the software

Minimal investment in hardware

The software vendor uses high end servers and maintains an
infrastructure, so you don't need to purchase a server or database
infrastructure

Minimal IT involvement and expense

The software vendortakes care of installation, maintenance,
updates, and back-ups.

Access your software from anywhere and anytime.

Software is always operational.

Multi-center support
Database can be shared between multiple locations, shared
gift card and membership data, centralized marketing, and
inventory transfers. And, your data is always in sync and up-to-date.

Real-time reports and analytics across centers.

Free upgrades
Regular upgrades ensureyour software helps you
stay current and competitive

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CHOOSING THE RIGHT SOFTWARE FOR YOUR SPA OR SALON ................................ 3

Focus on Your Business, Not Technology

Maintaining software and the computers it may aect can be costly.
Back-ups, virus checks, upgrades and security features can create
expenses paid to IT sta or outside experts who manage them.

With desk-top solutions, you're largely on your own with technology.

With cloud solutions, your vendor becomes a partner by taking on
these responsibilities.

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CHOOSING THE RIGHT SOFTWARE FOR YOUR SPA OR SALON ................................ 4

Data Security
Ensure your software has built-in security mechanisms that prevent
inside and outside to manipulate or steal customer data.

Desktop solutions are easy to copy data from as your customer data
physically resides on a single machine. To properly secure your data,
you require expertise beyond default settings on your machine.

A good cloud solution secures

your data as the data is not
stored in a place that employees
can access. While your employees
use the software to take care of
your guests, their access is
limited by you to the areas
required by their job function.

Additional security features may be available with cloud software.

For example, the ability to limit employee access to specic
machines on the premises.

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CHOOSING THE RIGHT SOFTWARE FOR YOUR SPA OR SALON ................................ 5

Zenoti R ecommends

Look for a full cloud software.

This allows you to focus on
your business, mitigate cost
and time to maintain your
system. And, as your business
grows, your software will grow
with you.

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 ...........................................
Understand
Your Goals
CHOOSING THE RIGHT SOFTWARE FOR YOUR SPA OR SALON ................................ 6

Software ranges from solutions that perform single functions (like

maintaining a calendar or running bills) to multiple functions
(integrated systems) capable of supporting all of your business
needs.Before you decide what scope is right for you, consider your
business goals.

Examples of goals you can expect to achieve from

your software:

Real-time reports and analytics across centers

Encourage rebookings

Provide a personalized experience to every customer, every time

Accommodate new appointments on busy days by easily shuing

appointments

Send automated appointment reminders

Easily conduct accurate and regular inventory audits.

Manage the entire feedback cycle and quickly follow-up on

negative feedback

Motivate sta to achieve higher customer retention

Encourage cross-sells eectively

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CHOOSING THE RIGHT SOFTWARE FOR YOUR SPA OR SALON ................................ 7

Software is becoming more sophisticated, yet easier to use every year.

When deciding which option is the best for you, it is essential to
review every area of your business -- from operational aspects like
booking appointments and monitoring the guest experience, to
driving the business through loyalty programs and targeted
marketing. You must identify a comprehensive list of goals to
properly evaluate a software that will enable you to achieve them.

Zenoti R ecommends

If you require basic features now,

but expect to grow your business,
consider a comprehensive
solution that oers a lite version.
This will make it easier to upgrade
to a fuller set of capabilities,
without having to invest money
and time into a dierent software

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 ...........................................
Review
Capabilities
K LI ST OF F E AT U R E S
A CHEC
CHOOSING THE RIGHT SOFTWARE FOR YOUR SPA OR SALON ................................ 8

Software often speaks in the language of features, which should map

to your goals. We've provided key features you should expect. As you
review software, you may nd feature lists to be long and include
irrelevant capabilities. Focus on what's important to you today as well
as those features you will need as your business grows.

Appointment
Management
Engage customers
Customer self-booking mobile app and
website
Book appointments quickly
Visualdisplay of available times, rooms,
andsta, quickly identify qualied sta
fora particular service

Personalize experiences
Easily retrievecustomer information like
servicehistory,membership balance, etc.

Maximize revenue opportunities

Shue appointments quickly to
accommodate new appointments
Avoid no-shows and cancellations
Automated reminders and conrmations,
track status of appointments, warning
on customers that cancel

Upsell your clients

Built-in mechanism to up-sell
Increase retention
Encourage re-bookings

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CHOOSING THE RIGHT SOFTWARE FOR YOUR SPA OR SALON ................................ 9

Mobile
Engage customers
Push promotions, award loyalty points,
reviewandsharefeedback

Support self-booking
Browse service menu, promote specic
services
Run your business on the go
Monitorcritical issues, day's appointments,
employee performance, etc

Know whats on your shelves OR

Never run out of products
Mobile inventory management

In-store kiosks
View services, book services, enter
feedback, etc

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CHOOSING THE RIGHT SOFTWARE FOR YOUR SPA OR SALON ................................ 10

Marketing
Target promotions to specic customers
Create target segments based on visit
history, spending patterns, demographics,
etc. Software should support discounts,
cashbacks, promotional packages and
awarding of extra loyalty promotions
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Automated cross-sell and up-sell

Automaticand meaningful coupons,
targeted oers, push deals through
mobile

Connect products with services

Encourage retail sales
Fully automated memberships
Combine services, products, packages
with free services, and oer discounts.
Support recurring memberships, expiry
alerts, and automated management

Integrated email and text messaging (SMS)

Segment customers, personalize messages,
track eectiveness, apply the right discount
or promotion at billing

Integrate with social media

Pushannouncements, oers, deals, customer
reviews, etc

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CHOOSING THE RIGHT SOFTWARE FOR YOUR SPA OR SALON ................................ 11

Customer Loyalty
Know your client
Quick access to preferences, visit history,
spend, balances, complaints, etc.
Everything you need to respond to
questions and personalize every
experience.
Visual indicator of customer type
Stashould be able to immediately
identifyand personalize experience;
e.g. are theya regular, high spender, do
theyfrequently cancel, are they
a member, etc

Support the full cycle of feedback

Input feedback directly into system, support
electronic entry (mobile apps, in-store kiosk),
encourage feedback (i.e loyalty points),
receive alerts on negative feedback, track
issues to closure, share to social media,
comprehensive reporting, feedback linked
to employee performance goals

Automated loyalty point programs

Mobile app to engage with customers

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CHOOSING THE RIGHT SOFTWARE FOR YOUR SPA OR SALON ................................ 12

Inventory
Management
Control shrinkage and wastage
Automated tracking of projected expense
on inventory against actual expense

Support easier auditing

Use mobile devices for audits

Maintain right stock levels

Track levels,receivealerts when stock
falls low

Encourage retail sales

Integrated purchase orders

Create, raise and track status of orders,
automated stock updates on product sales
consumption

Multi-center support
Move inventorybetweencenters

Comprehensive reporting

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CHOOSING THE RIGHT SOFTWARE FOR YOUR SPA OR SALON ................................ 13

Employee Management
Track employee performance
Revenue and sales targets,
customer satisfaction, customer
retention, utilization, attendance,
punctuality

Payroll support
Employee salaries,
commission calculations,
vacation tracking, etc.

Performance reports

Create employee schedules and

vacations days integrated with
appointment book

Point of Sales
Support multiple payment methods and
split payments (i.e. cash, credit card, debit
cards, checks, memberships, gift cards,
packages, etc)

Automated tracking and redemption from

a gift card, membership, or package

Automated tracking of commissions

Integrations with marketing programs,

inventory, and employee performance

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CHOOSING THE RIGHT SOFTWARE FOR YOUR SPA OR SALON ................................ 14

Reports
Easy access to real-time data with
access via mobile

Automated reports emailed daily

Track daily and monthly performance

against projections

Customer loyalty trends

Track by employee and service
categories, conversion rate of new
customers

Revenue and sales trends

By service categories, average revenue by
customer, by demographics

Marketing eectiveness

Employee performance & payroll

Revenue targets, sales targets,
performance indicators, commission
calculations, attendance data

Inventory expenditure

Multi-center support to compare

performance across centers

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 ...........................................
Adoption and
Success
CHOOSING THE RIGHT SOFTWARE FOR YOUR SPA OR SALON ................................ 15

Your success with software can be measured by how well your sta
adopts the software, how quickly new employees can start using the
software , and how much of the software you are able to actually use.
While these may seem like a given, its important to evaluate software
for ease of use and ongoing support from the software vendor.

Ensure the Software is Easy to Use

You don't want to invest in technology, only to throw it away because
the software is too hard to use. At this step in your evaluation
process, you should try out, watch a demo or take a live tour of the
software. The software should be easy to use, which ensures your
sta will adopt the software.

Ensure common tasks like looking up customer information, booking

an appointment, and taking a payment are intuitive and quick to
perform. Tasks like creating a marketing campaign, running inventory
audits should be easy to learn. These are inherently more complex
tasks, but can have profound impacts on your revenue and cost.

Easy to use software is critical for adoption and overall success;

choose software that is easy and intuitive over features that you

rarely use.

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With a 30% attrition rate in the spa and
salon industry, your software has to be easy
to learn, and quick to adopt.

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CHOOSING THE RIGHT SOFTWARE FOR YOUR SPA OR SALON ................................ 16

Support & Training

Support & training can determine how well you adopt the software
and your overall success. Given the high attrition rate in any spa or
salon, you should expect to have to train new employees often. Things
to look for include:

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Support
Free access to a live support representative for urgent issues

Free and easily accessible knowledge base with reference

materials

For cloud solutions, ensure the site's availability is 99% or higher

for the past year

For cloud solutions, ensure scheduled down-time did not occur

during core business hours in the past year

Ask for customer satisfaction ratings

Training
Free, comprehensive instructor-led training

Free, topic-based training materials including videos or

documents

Comprehensive training during setup

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CHOOSING THE RIGHT SOFTWARE FOR YOUR SPA OR SALON ................................ 17

Conclusion
With the right approach and a little time you can nd the right
software for your business. We hope our steps help you in choosing a
software that ts with your needs and immediately helps you grow
your business.

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