Nail salon software that knows a refill is not a full set
Wildly different durations, technicians who each do different things, and a client whose last shade nobody wrote down.
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How should a nail salon schedule appointments?
By the real length of each service rather than a uniform slot. A gel refill and a full set of extensions can differ by two hours, so a diary built on fixed slots either wastes half the day or runs late by mid-afternoon. Scheduling should draw on the number of stations that exist and on which technician is actually trained for the work.
Durations are the whole scheduling problem
Nail work has an unusually wide spread: a soak-off and tidy might be twenty minutes, a full set with art can run past two hours, and a pedicure sits somewhere in between while occupying a completely different seat. Every service carries its own duration, and an appointment consumes exactly that much of the day. The consequence is small and enormous at once — the afternoon on screen is the afternoon that will actually happen.
- Duration set per service, in minutes, not rounded into a standard slot
- Several services on one visit add up to the real length of that visit
- Manicure seats and pedicure chairs counted separately, because they are different furniture
- Online booking offers only what genuinely fits
Not every technician does every service
Art, extensions and a straightforward polish are not interchangeable skills, and a diary that treats the team as identical will eventually put a beginner on a bridal set. Skills are recorded against each technician, so who can do what is a stored fact rather than something the front desk carries in her head. On a bill each line names the person who performed it, which is what makes any later conversation about pay a matter of record.
- A per-technician skill list, maintained rather than remembered
- Each line on a bill names who performed that line
- Rosters and leave for the team, alongside the day's bookings
- Individual performance measured from billed work rather than from bookings taken
The client's file is what earns the next visit
Repeat nail business turns on detail nobody can recall three weeks later: the shade she liked, the shape she asked for, the product that irritated her. Preferences, allergies and free-text notes sit on the client record and open with it, so the person greeting her has the context whether or not she saw her last time. Birthdays and anniversaries are stored on the same record and can carry a one-time offer on the day.
- Preferences, allergies and notes on the client, visible when the bill is raised
- Full visit and spend history, including which technician did what
- Birthday and anniversary offers, granted once per occasion rather than repeatedly
- Medical notes held encrypted at rest rather than as plain text
Getting her back before the grow-out
Nail clients have an unusually predictable return window, which makes follow-up worth automating and easy to get wrong. Rules are set per service or per category, so a refill can prompt at three weeks while a pedicure waits eight, and messages go from the salon's own WhatsApp number. Somebody who has stopped coming altogether shows up as lapsed against a threshold you set instead of being noticed by accident.
- Follow-up timing set per service or per category, not one blanket rule
- Messages sent from your own number, with opt-out respected
- Lapsed clients identified against a threshold you choose
- Rules applied to your own data — there is no model guessing at timing
Common questions
- Can different services have different lengths?
- Yes, and it is the default rather than an option. Each service stores its own duration in minutes, several services on one visit add together, and the booking form only offers times where the whole visit genuinely fits. Fixed uniform slots are what makes a nail diary run late.
- Does it track how much gel or acrylic each client used?
- No. Stock is tracked for products you buy and resell, with suppliers, purchase orders and movements, but the consumables used during a service are not deducted per client. If costing each set to the gram matters to you, that is a genuine gap.
- Can I stop a junior technician being booked for extensions?
- Only through your own team, not through the booking form. Skills are recorded per technician and visible when assigning work, but they do not currently filter what a client can request online, so an unsuitable booking is caught when your staff review the day.
- Can I store a client's allergies?
- Yes. Allergies, preferences and general notes are fields on the client record and surface when her bill is raised, and medical notes specifically are encrypted at rest rather than stored as readable text alongside everything else.
What it doesn’t do
Worth knowing before you start, not after.
- There is no per-service consumable deduction. Retail products carry stock; the gel and acetate used on a client are not drawn down automatically.
- There are no photographs on the client record. Notes are text, so a gallery of previous sets is not something the product holds.
- Skills are recorded against staff but do not automatically filter online booking — an incompatible request is caught by your team, not by the booking form.
- There are no consultation or patch-test records. Allergies and medical notes are free-text fields, not a structured form with dates.
See it with your own salon’s data
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