Marlowe Hair Studio: an appointment book and checkout

The problem

A busy salon runs on a paper book and a card machine. Stylists cannot see who has walked in, the front desk cannot see who is nearly finished, and the bill is added up by hand at the end of the day. A tip written on a slip goes astray, and nobody is sure what was taken until the till is counted.

What we built

For our sample salon, Marlowe Hair Studio, we would build an appointment book with one column for each stylist, a one tap way to mark a client as arrived, and a checkout panel that adds the service, a product and a tip, then takes the payment.

Problem and answer

• A client walks in and the stylist is in the back, so nobody knows she is waiting.

  The front desk marks her as arrived with one tap. Her card turns yellow in that stylist's column, and the stylist sees it from the chair.

• The bill is added up in someone's head, and the product on the shelf gets forgotten.

  Checkout starts with the service price and offers the products the salon sells. The total updates as each choice is made.

• Tips are written on slips and shared out at the end of the week.

  The tip is picked on the same screen, as a percent of the service. It is stored against the stylist who did the work.

• Nobody knows how much was taken until the till is counted.

  A running total at the top of the screen shows what has been paid today, and how many clients are still waiting to pay.

• A stylist's day is hard to read in a paper book with crossings out.

  Each stylist has a clean column of the day, in time order, with the client, the service and the price on each card.

How it works

1. 01Bookings from the salon's website and from the phone land in the same book, one column for each stylist.
2. 02When a client arrives, the front desk taps Mark arrived and her card changes color.
3. 03When the stylist is done, the desk taps Check out. The service is already on the bill.
4. 04They add a product if the client wants one, pick a tip, choose card or cash and take the payment.
5. 05The day's total builds as clients pay, and the owner reads it at closing time.

Works with

• Google Calendar, so each stylist's column matches the calendar on their phone
• Square or Stripe, so card payments go into the salon's own account
• A text message service, for reminders the day before
• QuickBooks, if the owner wants the day's takings sent to the books

The plan we would follow

1. Week 1We spend a busy Saturday at the salon, watch how the book and the till are used, and agree what the screen has to show.
2. Weeks 2 and 3We build the columns, the arrived button and the checkout, using the salon's own services and products.
3. Week 4The stylists and the desk try it on a quiet day with test clients, and we fix what slows them down.
4. Week 5We connect the calendar and the card account, and test a real payment of one dollar.
5. Week 6Launch on a tablet at the desk, with a short walk through for everyone who uses it.

What the owner keeps

• The tool and everything inside it
• The calendar and payment accounts, all in the salon's name
• Every client record and sale, in the salon's hands, never ours
• A plain list of the day's takings, which can be copied out at any time