Is Shortcuts Software really worth your money? The short answer is yes, especially if you want to grow your salon business.
We do however understand that investing in business management software can feel like a big financial commitment, so we’ve explored the value of using Shortcuts Software.
Keep reading to discover why salon software is essential. You’ll gain an insight into how it pays for itself with the significant return on investment and ways you can make more effective cutbacks.
What is Shortcuts Salon Software?
It’s exactly what it says on the tin, it’s salon software that helps you to take shortcuts in your salon, spa, or barbershop without cutting yourself short.
Shortcuts features have been designed by industry experts to tackle the challenges facing salon owners, enabling you to work smarter, not harder.
Our easy-to-use technology has the power to help you increase your profits, reclaim your work/life balance and do better business.
Whether you’re looking to increase your salon revenue or adapt to changes in customer spending habits, having the right salon software will equip you with the tools you need to book more appointments, manage your staff and services and continue to grow your business.
Adapting to Changes in Customer Behaviour
In order to remain successful, your salon businesses must adapt to changes in customer behavior. If you’re not giving your customers what they want, you’re going to struggle to stay competitive.
For example, did you know that customers returning to salons to have their hair colored reduced from every 8 weeks to every 12 weeks? That’s a whole month, which will inevitably have an impact on your revenue. So what can you do to adapt to this?
Incentivizing your clients with a reward system is a powerful marketing strategy, if you offer clients who return every 8 weeks 10% off their service, they’re more likely to book themselves in to qualify for that promotion. This will help you to take control of your bookings and revenue. Our Loyalty Feature is the perfect solution.
What about your booking system? Do you offer online booking or do people need to call you to make an appointment? With 75% of millennials avoiding making phone calls as they find them time-consuming and 63% of salon bookings happening after hours, online booking is surely a no-brainer. Without offering this feature, you could be missing out on a significant amount of bookings. Our Online Booking feature can help you to make sure you secure all the bookings you deserve, thus boosting your revenue.
These are just a few of the examples demonstrating the value of being aware of behavioral changes and adapting to these in order to meet the needs of your clients.
The stats really do speak for themselves, change is inevitable, but how you adapt to these changes is what will set you apart from your competitors. With Shortcuts Software, you can rest assured that we’ll help you to stay ahead of the game.
How Can Shortcuts Help You to Grow Your Business?
So the question is, how exactly can Shortcuts help you to take your salon to the next level? We’ve outlined some of the key benefits of our features below.
Increase bookings with Shortcuts Online Booking
With our new and improved Online Booking platform, you can make money around the clock, whether you’re working hard in your salon, or curled up on the sofa, the bookings will be coming through without you lifting a finger.
With the shift that we have seen in customer behavior, having an online booking system is no longer a luxury, it’s an absolute necessity.
Regain and repurpose your time by cutting your to-do list in half
Business owners and salon managers know all too well how much time is lost doing admin when running a salon, and how it feeds into your personal life. But what many don’t realize is that it doesn’t have to be that way. Shortcuts Software can reduce your admin by half, freeing you up to spend more time nurturing your salon’s clientele or on other important areas of your business.
Our integrated Tip Cards feature allows you to easily load your employee’s tips onto a debit card, simplifying your process and reducing the time and errors associated with manually distributing tips.
Nurture a loyal customer base with the Shortcuts Loyalty feature
Retaining long-term clients is an integral part of building a successful salon business for many reasons. For example, loyal customers are more likely to refer friends and family (and you can’t beat word-of-mouth marketing). Not to mention that existing customers spend on average, 67% more than new customers.
With our Loyalty feature, we can take the stress out of implementing a loyalty scheme, this feature has been specifically designed to help you to incentivize and reward your customers to keep them coming back time and time again.
Boost employee performance and retention with the Shortcuts Employee Management Feature
It goes without saying that your staff are an integral part of your business, they are your ambassadors, the people interacting with your clients, building and maintaining those key relationships. They play a key role in customer satisfaction and retention, so it’s essential that they are managed correctly.
We have designed our Employee Management feature to make this process both efficient and effective. You will gain valuable insights into your staff performance at the touch of a button, from their attendance to their retail upsell, and everything in between, allowing you to help your team to develop and stay on track.
Reduce no-shows and increase your revenue with Shortcuts Upfront Payments & Cancellation Fees
With no-show appointments costing the hairdressing industry 1.2 million pounds a year, our Cancellation and Upfront Payments features are the perfect way to reduce no-shows, increase your revenue and ensure your team is always working efficiently.
You can also save time and avoid human error with our Integrated Payments terminal This could reduce the costs to your payment provider as well as speed up the check-out process at the front desk.
Where to Make the Most Effective Cutbacks
So you want to invest in salon software, but you also need to make cutbacks in your salon, what can you do?
Establishing more sustainable salon practices is an effective way to not only do your bit for the environment but also save money, it’s a win-win, music to every salon owner’s ears.
Reduce Energy Usage
Reduce your salon’s washing machine usage, and instead consider switching to eco-friendly biodegradable towels.
Reduce water usage
Cut down on your water usage by encouraging your stylists to shampoo your client’s hair once rather than twice, never leave the tap running and be more conscious of your salon waste, such as using grey water to water your plants.
Install a water reducer such as EcoHeads, not only does this reduce the amount of water being used, but it also improves the quality of the water. We’re really spoiling you with all of these wins!
Reduce Colour Waste
Eliminate color waste, improve profits, and control pricing with our color management software partner, Vish. With Vish, you’ll be able to implement smarter pricing strategies. Salons using Vish saw a 25-40% reduction in product costs and increased their service revenue by 10-15%.
Invest in Shortcuts, Invest in Your Business
You can count on us to help you take your business to the next level, whatever your goals are, be it to increase your bookings, or improve customer retention, we can get you there. At Shortcuts, we work closely with our customers to create solutions that will actually work for YOU!
Our team of Shorties come from the hair, beauty, and barber industry and help us design features that will solve your problems and run your business in the unique way we love so much about this industry!
To learn more about Shortcuts, get in touch with us or book a demo.
