The demand for beauty and wellness services is poised to grow annually in double digits. While this is very re-assuring to hear for the spa owners, it also means that in order to cater to the growing demand, new spas will come up and thus add to the competition. While it is a no-brainer that, in today’s times, you would be leveraging technology to manage all the administrative tasks associated with your spa, it must be borne in mind that the choice of technology can make or break the image of your spa. Therefore, it is an important to evaluate the features of the cloud based software that you are planning to deploy such that it helps you not beat the competition but also grow and thrive. So, whether you’re replacing your legacy system or upgrading your existing cloud based spa software, here is the list of 3 must have features.
Ease of Use
We cannot stress enough on this. You may come across multiple cloud based spa software solutions boasting of state of art features, but if they’re not easy to use then they don’t make it to the list of potential choices. The cloud based spa software is the fulcrum of your operations, and slowly but surely you will rely upon it to manage almost all of your administrative tasks. Thus, you need a system which is not complicated to navigate. Perhaps, the first and foremost requirement of ease of use comes for the client facing app of the cloud based spa software. All the administrative processes that are directly or indirectly in control of clients such as signing up, booking appointments, settling invoices and providing feedback should finish in as few steps as possible. Given that not everyone is as friendly with technology, the last thing you want is a spa software which leaves the customer fuming.
Aside the client facing side the ease of use factor is equally applicable for the business facing side of cloud based spa software. It becomes increasingly important if you consider the high attrition rate that the industry faces. For employees, the system should be such that they can jump right in and not fumble in navigating the software. Moreover, at no point should they feel the urge to either bypass the system or return to their old means and ways, thus defeating the very purpose.
Payment Automation & Third Party Integrations
Payment today is no longer limited to cash or plastic. With the progress in fintech space. Users now have a plethora of choices when it comes to settling invoices. And your cloud based spa software must be equipped to accept payments through every mode possible. Thus. The software must have an integrated payment and POS (point of sale) system. Which allows clients to seamlessly settle invoices based on their preferred method. One cloud based spa software which has a complete payment solution is Zenoti spa management software. Its PCI compliant payment feature known as Zenoti Payments is an integrated payment system, which accepts both contact based such as cards and contactless payments such as Apple Pay, Google Pay etc. Zenoti Payments is further equipped to allow clients to configure auto payments such that they payment is automatically processed as soon as the guest checks out. Furthermore, with easy third party integrations Zenoti Payments can simultaneously process payments and run accounting entries, thus reducing the operational time and errors.
Reporting & Analytics
As they saying goes, “Numbers don’t lie”. The best business decision are the ones that are based on the numbers or the in other words, the data. The cloud based spa software that you select must be able to both assess and analyze. The numbers that your business generates. Numbers such as appointment bookings. Sales data. Employee performance. Customer behavior. Financial ratios are all important to understand where the business is going. The software should be able to generate clear. Concise and actionable reports. If you operate a brand with stores in multiple locations. The cloud based software should be able to prepare. Comprehensive report for business and also for granular reports for individual locations in order to empower to you to better understand what’s working and what isn’t. These may be presented as an editable dashboard or drop down menu.
Ideally, the cloud based spa software should also have advance analytical features to give you trends based on seasons, and expected business revenue based on volumes such that you can better manage your inventory, staff deployment and overall costs.
Today, the cloud based spa software market is mature and has multiple SaaS products to choose from. Some of the renowned names are Zenoti. MindBody, Boulevard. And Phorest. Personally. We prefer Zenoti to be the best in class product as. It provides a complete end to end solution and comes with host of features such as advanced data analytics. Geo fencing. Scalability. Inventory management, employee management marketing management and award winning loyalty program module.
