Clients increasingly expect simplicity, ease, and speed from every service in the services industry. Technology is becoming an integral element of the procedures, from scheduling appointments to using services and making payments.
Your salon business must be prepared to keep up with changing consumer preferences and expectations in order to continue to operate successfully in the future. Salons today must adopt a futuristic business model that allows for rapid integration of technology at all levels in order to meet clients’ expectations. What is deemed normal is rapidly changing due to technological advancements.
Is your salon up to the challenge of the new normal?
Here are the five technical advancements that you must stay up with in order to succeed in the future.
1-ONLINE APPOINTMENT PROGRAMS
How do you keep track of your salon appointments?
Are you still making phone appointments and keeping track of them in a calendar? It’s possible that your customers will be dissatisfied.
The appointment process has been revolutionized thanks to the development of online programs and smartphone apps. While you should accept phone bookings, you should also make online appointments available to your consumers via your website, online portal, or smartphone app. The client will be able to see the available time slots for a certain service and schedule an appointment accordingly. Your employees wouldn’t have to go back and forth between pages seeking open slots, and appointments could be verified using an automated system.
It is more convenient, quick, and simple to schedule appointments online.
2-ONLINE SESSION OR WEBCAM CONSULTATION
Do you do walk-in consultations? What are your options?
Not every customer knows exactly what they want to accomplish with their hair. As a result, many clients visit the salon for a consultation to discuss haircut and dye alternatives.
Video conferencing has become incredibly cost-effective, even for small organizations.
You can deliver online or webcam-based consulting services to your client with the right video equipment and video calling solutions. You will be able to see and observe the client’s hair and provide advice using the video. It will not only save the client the trouble of driving, but it will also help you better manage queues or waiting lists.
3-VIRTUAL REALITY SOFTWARE
How do you know if a particular haircut is right for your client?
Hairstylists with a lot of knowledge and talent can accurately forecast the results of a haircut, hairstyle, or dye. Many of us, though, have made mistakes and experienced disasters. Are you aware that technology exists to forecast it?
Clients can try on numerous hairstyles through simulation and modeling using the newest virtual reality software in hairdressing, styling, and dying. You may show your customer their post-hairstyling appearance with greater than 90% accuracy using the latest software. Because the VR equipment and software are simple to use, salon managers may utilize them with little training, and the technology is also safe for clients.
4-HAIR COLOR BLENDING MACHINES
Hairstyling and Certificate III hairdressing are two professions where inventiveness knows no limitations.
Gone are the days when you had to choose between Ombre or Mahogany, or a limited palette of main and secondary hues. With the help of a few readily available colors, experienced hairdressers create their own colors.
However, with today’s technology, you may properly build your own colors and chromes. Color blending machines of today are advanced, allowing for complete control over mixing and blending. Color tracking machines allow every hairdresser, regardless of skill level, to express creativity and create their own color palette.
Another significant advantage of such machines is that they can reduce Hair loss as they aid in waste product control.
5-SALON MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
The salon management system is another technical innovation in the beauty sector. Are you sick of keeping track of inventories, reconciling financial transactions, managing payrolls, and maintaining customer records?
With salon management systems, you can accomplish it all at once and with minimal effort. Salon management systems are available in a variety of modules, and you can select one that best suits your needs. These technologies are extremely adaptable and customizable, allowing you to create a fully unique product for your salon.
Because of their simplicity, such systems can be used by anyone with little training. Overall, such solutions assist you in more successfully operating the salon by decreasing manual errors, inventory control, and consolidated data.
WHY CHOOSE THE NEOGRAFT PROCEDURE?
The NeoGraft system is the first and only FDA-cleared follicular unit harvesting and implantation system. The NeoGraft system delivers automation of the FUE technique, the most advanced technology in the hair transplant industry.
This revolutionary system uses pneumatic controls to precisely extract complete individual hair follicles which can be immediately transplanted to the selected areas of the scalp. The NeoGraft automated hair transplantation system is the only complete harvesting system on the market and has the only ‘NO TOUCH’ implantation technology available.
New (and Potentially Better) Topicals
There are two innovations getting a buzz on the cusp of finishing clinical trials overseas. First, there’s a drug called FOL-005 that’s being developed for men by the biotech company Follicum. It features osteopontin, a protein in hair that may stimulate or inhibit hair growth, depending on the derivative (Follicum claims to have isolated a stimulating one). It has been studied in injections and is now being looked at in topical form. Linkov calls it “promising for now, but time will tell its safety and effectiveness in humans as their clinical trials proceed.”
Another topical with growing buzz, thanks to its ability in trials to antagonize DHT without serious adverse effects, is Breezula, an anti-androgen made by the pharmaceutical company Cassiopea. Explains Halaas, “Because it works on DHT locally, we are hoping we will see good results without the side effects of Propecia.” So far its trials have been done on men but the company is currently studying its use for women.
The Bottom Line
Cloning, robots, mRNA technology, and suped-up laser caps — they all show promise. In reality, whatever technologies may come, patients will likely mix and match them to find their perfect regime. That means hair rejuvenation may end up looking like something out of a sci-fi movie. Can’t say we didn’t see that coming.