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Testimonials
Quick Jump:
LolliLocks | 10 Minute Manicure | Aveda | Stefan | Caci | Francesco Group | hob salons
Company profile
Tammy Rohde, Anne Franklin and Martine Yano opened their first LolliLocks location
opened in September of 2001 in the south Denver suburbs. The three co-owners
have come a long way since their first shop with plans to have their 10th
location completed by the end of 2007.
“We are all moms of young children and work hard to create a wholesome,
full-service salon experience that starts and ends with sweet customer service.
We also value long-standing relationships with our loyal clientele, high quality
service and product offerings and cleanliness,” said Rohde.
Not only is this business growing in numbers of sites, but they are also growing
within the operation. In addition to haircuts, LolliLocks specializes in hair
styling for special events and pictures, manicures and ear-piecing. They also
offer special packages such as the 1st LolliCut package, FancyLocks and the
perfect birthday celebration for your little princess!
Business situation
Services is the core business at Lollilocks but they have added an extensive
boutique and some of the items don’t have barcodes which can be overwhelming
to come up with a description for each of their several variations of the bow.
They need something that could help them streamline their products and understand
what is selling.
“In the beginning, Michele Armstrong one of your educators came out
and set up the entire database,” said Amanda Ford, LolliSystems Director. “The
great thing was that she also trained us on making changes ourselves so now
I can easily make changes as we evolve as a business.”
As a detail-oriented business, a major focus for Lollilocks
was powerful marketing. “We
really liked the centralized marketing in Shortcuts and the fact that it could
track email addresses, mail address, client information and purchase history,” said
Ford. “We can also easily control price and product information which
is essential for maintaining consistency and the brand.”
The reports were also a main driver for Lollilocks because
as they grew in numbers, they needed centralized reporting available at any
time of the day. “We
need to look at things like time frames, ranking and regional figures. I look
at these especially on the inventory side, but different people in the company
use the reports for different reasons.”
Currently using touch screens in each site, they needed flexibility
for each front desk while still maintaining consistency across the entire
system. “I
set up all the stores and train them on Shortcuts. It’s nice that in
each store I can change maintain certain things consistently such as requiring
the same information for each new client.”
Benefits
A large part of managing a rapidly growing business is understanding how successful
each site is and how healthy the entire company is. Without centralized information,
that task is near impossible. “I used a lot of the comparison and ranking
reports to compare regions and stores on things like new promotions, marketing
success, retail sales, employee performance,
said Ford. “This helps me identify coaching and training needs in each
area. You just can’t argue with the numbers and detail!”
One of the biggest concerns of any multi-site operation is
rolling out new stores. “After the head office is set-up, it’s pretty easy from
there with other regional variations,” said Ford. “It doesn’t
need a whole lot now.”
As far as the employees in each location go, that can be an
even tougher task. “The
software is so user-friendly and very intuitive,” said Ford. “The
touch screens are a huge hit with employees along with the interface design
and client history.”
Company profile
Nails done on the run – not only the reality of many traveling professionals,
this is the 10 Minute Manicure motto that helps them cater to thousands of
clients as they rush on with their busy lives. 10 Minute Manicure is an express
nail salon concept built around the increasing needs of the traveler. Strategically
placed primarily in airports, 10 Minute Manicure offers manicures ranging from
10 minutes to 45 minutes, pedicures starting at 20 minutes and in some locations
they also offer chair massage.
With their first location installed in January of 2006, 10 Minute Manicure
are now up to their 11th location with another 8 underway. They are fast, convenient
and sophisticated in their service delivery and have been getting more and
more recognition as an entrepreneurial concept and successful business.
Business Situation & Solution
Before 10 Minute Manicure even started on their first location, they were already
thinking business growth. Evaluating vendors started early in the planning
process since they new they accurately predicted aggressive growth and needed
scalability in their infrastructure. “Our very first location was off-site
from our offices, so access to information and controlling the business remotely
was a key part of our decision making process,” said Vivian Jimenez,
Founder of 10 Minute Manicure.
When evaluating vendors on the market, they had certain criteria that needed
to be met so they could tackle the challenges of running a national operation
with no centralized geographical region. “The top things we were looking
for were an easy-to-use system that was reliable,” said Jimenez. “Shortcuts
also has a great reporting capability and it’s great that changes are
automatically distributed [from head office to the individual sites].” That
way nothing has to be double-entered and management time can be spent elsewhere
while local site administration can be spent on tasks managing the local business.
Enterprise created a central administration capability conducive to the business.
A time-sensitive business at each location is bound to be time-sensitive at
head office, which is why Shortcuts is great with real-time reporting capabilities. “We
don’t have to rely on the locations to send in reports,” said Jimenez. “And
we are constantly ranking and comparing different sites, looking at the trading
summary, session detail reports and value of future appointments. The reporting
is one of the most useful elements and helps with daily sales and maintaining
margins – and you can log in at any-time and get real time information.”
Time and space are two critical elements at 10 Minute Manicure, so with efficiency
as a major focus, the systems and the procedures of course need to be locked
down. 10 Minute Manicure utilizes the “Train-the-Trainer” education
style available for Shortcuts Enterprise clients in which Shortcuts Accredited
Trainers train the head office team to become Shortcuts experts. Those local
experts then train each site as they roll-out. “We just concluded a training
survey and we found that Shortcuts was one of the portions of the business
that our employees know the best!” said Angela Redwing Director of Systems
at 10 Minute Manicure.
Profile
Aveda salons, spas and stores can be found in 22 countries around the world.
Escape to places where beauty and well-being converge: spas and salons devoted
to bringing you back to balance with products and services based on Aveda's
pure flower and plant essences. Sensory experiences for your mind, body,
skin and hair. So you become the peace you seek.
Client Brief
Shortcuts 2000 was installed at each site (2003 was at one), but none had internet.
Their own IT technician took care of upgrading all hardware and installing
WAN so that Shortcuts Enterprise could be incorporated into their business.
Customization and Integration
Shortcuts Enterprise was integrated with Jiwa accounting package.
Customized procedures guide was developed for both managers and reception staff.
Aveda in the News
Leading beauty and spa product wholesaler, Aveda, have recently committed to
installing Shortcuts Head Office Server and Enterprise Live to form the Enterprise
solution - Shortcuts complete product suite, to seamlessly connect ten company
owned concept stores.
Each of the Aveda owned stores currently operate Shortcuts Point of Sale (POS).
Having experienced the benefits and functionality that POS has delivered to
the stores, Aveda made the decision to implement the Enterprise solution in
January of this year.
Aveda’s General Manager of Finance and Operations, Nella Ranno, says
the main attraction of the Enterprise Solution for Aveda is the fact it is
a consolidated control and reporting device.
“
The Enterprise solution will provide consolidated sales trends and performance
analysis, online real time data, enhanced stock control, improved reporting,
global CRM and marketing, global employee management and increased security
and site management”, said Ranno.
This implementation, with a ‘go live’ date of 1 May 2004, is closely
aligned to some of Aveda’s core beliefs.
Aveda believes in:
- Encouraging innovation and empowered decision making;
- Our
actions, products and services should always embody excellence;
- Learning
never ends; and
- Social responsibility is our responsibility.
Aveda is ranked number one in the spa industry and number three
in the hair industry, wholesaling to hair and spa/beauty salons. Aveda’s
products have an abundance of luscious ingredients, blended with pure flower
and plant
essences which result in succulent formulas.
The recent signing is a sign of Shortcuts product suite’s strength
as it is the only true enterprise system designed specifically for the salon
and
spa industry.
Profile
Stefan came to Australia as a teenager speaking no English and today 55 salons,
500 staff and 1 restaurant later, caters for over 1.5 million people each
year. Stefan salons are located in every major shopping centre in Queensland
and 4 in New South Wales.
Client Brief
Shortcuts 2000 was installed at each site on a dialup WAN. They had written
their own head office solution, but wanted to receive the new features and
benefits of Shortcuts Salon 2004, which had a different database structure,
deeming their existing head office solution redundant.
Their own IT technician took care of upgrading all hardware and installing
WAN so that Shortcuts Enterprise could be incorporated into their business.
Stefan’s own IT technician is responsible for rolling out Enterprise,
with Shortcuts rollout technicians on hand if required.
Customization and Integration
Customized procedures guides were developed for both managers and reception
staff. Before each salon is rolled out, the salon staff attend refresher training
sessions at Shortcuts head office.
Key Challenges
Stefan’s POS site databases were 7 years old and held a lot of archaic
information. Shortcuts developed a custom rollout tool to remove old information
and bring across clients and their visit notes only.
Client testimonial
Starting a new franchise chain presents its own set of unique challenges. We
required a solution that was reliable and accurate, yet flexible enough
to provide us with benchmarking information, ensuring franchisees can achieve
their maximum potential. From an accounting and marketing point of view,
the information we have at the head office and franchisee level is our
point of difference over competitors.
Enterprise came to our rescue for our Paintbox nail kiosks, and was the only
choice for our CACI clinics which required more sophisticated features. We
can now not operate without Shortcuts and franchisees are continually impressed
with the ease of use and flexibility.
Perhaps the biggest endorsement of Shortcuts has come from the strategic decision
taken at our annual CACI franchise conference to convert all the clinics in
our other Franchise chain to Shortcuts immediately.
The implementation was trouble free and the support was amazing. We have now
undertaken to rollout one new clinic every three weeks until all have been
converted. Our franchise manager is buzzing with anticipation with all the
information available.
It is fair to say that we now cannot operate without Shortcuts – plain
and simple."
David Robinson, Group Financial Controller
Paintbox & CACI Group, New Zealand
Caci in the news
As everyone knows, beauty is big business these days; what is surprising then
is the lack of franchise opportunities for motivated operators.
Enter the CACI clinics…
Already boasting 12 established clinics throughout New Zealand, and in recognition
of the growing market for beauty-based business opportunities, CACI (pronounced
Kay-see) is looking for franchisees for two new concepts: a less costly version
of the CACI Clinic suitable for smaller areas, and ‘Paintbox’,
a funky nail kiosk concept aimed at high volume retail locations such as shopping
malls and department stores.
The established CACI Clinic model is based around specialist high performance
skin treatments, appearance medicine and laser hair removal. However the recent
introduction of the latest IPL (Intense Pulse Light) technology, which emulates
many of the same functions, does not require a registered nurse and is considerably
less costly to operate. This means that a franchisee could now set up a CACI
Clinic in an area that was previously less financially rewarding for the specialist
model.
The other new concept, Paintbox, is off to a flying start, with the first four
kiosks up and running and more in the pipeline. This is an award winning retail
franchise in the fast growing nail market.
According to Nails Magazine, the US professional nail industry has service
sales of $US6.4 billion a year and employs more than 360,000 nail technicians.
Where the Australian and New Zealand industries fall behind the US is the lack
of branded or collectively marketed nail operators, reducing overall market
potential compared to other beauty segments.
Glenice Whittle, Franchise Manager for the CACI Group, says an IPL-based CACI
Clinic can be set-up from scratch for as little as NZD$80k plus fit out costs.
Or an existing beauty clinic can convert to a CACI Clinic for even less! On
the other hand the set-up cost of a Paintbox kiosk is less than NZD$50K.
The investment in either a CACI Clinic or Paintbox kiosk covers assistance
establishing the premises, stock, initial training, Shortcuts computer system,
and ongoing support. Computer skills are not a prerequisite as Shortcuts was
originally designed for hairdressers and beauty therapists, and with a large
color touch-screen interface, is a perfect match for the salon or kiosk. Backed
by the powerful Shortcuts Enterprise system, the Franchisor receives daily
updates to monitor the growth of the chain, and the franchisee sees significantly
reduced administrative workload, with automatic product updates and both centralized
and local marketing and client relationship abilities.
Franchise owners can also easily monitor best business practice by comparing
their performance to others in the chain.
Glenice says the ideal franchise owner is someone who enjoys dealing with the
public, is passionate about the beauty industry, and thrives in a fast-paced
and dynamic environment. With more Paintbox kiosks and CACI Clinics planned,
the CACI Group will play a large part in the ongoing growth and consolidation
for the whole NZ beauty market.
Client Testimonial
" At Francesco Group we are currently implementing Shortcuts Enterprise
into all of our 30 salons and two Academies. The benefits are immediate in terms
of salon business and from a marketing and head office perspective - it has
provided us with up to the minute data at the touch of a button."
Ben Dellicompagni, Managing Director
Francesco Group, UK
Fracesco's in the News
When the UK’s Francesco Group commenced their hunt for a new salon computer
system, their expectations were high and their requirements endless. Not only
were they looking for a powerful, easy to use salon software system with all
the bells and whistles, but from a head office point of view, a central access
database was crucial.
The Francesco Group had been using Pegasus accounting and payroll software
for ten years prior to introducing Shortcuts into their salons (which was able
to seamlessly integrate within this existing package). This integration is
an aspect of Shortcuts that founder and Technical Director of MJB Applications,
Jon Berg, describes as hugely convenient, particularly for complex companies.
“
We work with several major franchise groups in the UK but in terms of requirements
for a head office system, the Francesco Group is the most intricate,” Jon
says.
“
This is because they need integration not only for management reporting but
also for accounts and payroll. The situation is made even more complex by the
group already having full payroll integration with the old MJB DOS based salon
system. We needed to install software that would not only provide full Pegasus
integration but also import data from the old MJB database,” he says.
Eunice Nixon manages Francesco Group’s payroll, a job she says is very
complicated given the number of employees and varying pay and commission structures.
“
We are not just talking about stylists but everyone - technicians, juniors
and even salon cleaners. From our point of view, installing Shortcuts will
help manage the complexity of this difficult process and hopefully make our
job a lot less stressful!” she says.
Francesco Group’s IT Manager, Corinne Barker, has the task of managing
the whole process of installing Shortcuts. On top of that, her ‘day’ job
is to train and support all the salons and to provide a series of sophisticated
reports that the company uses to manage and control its operation.
Corinne says the old system meant relying on the individual salons to email
data to head office for payroll and accounts. Reports first had to be processed
by the salons then finished off at head office by Corinne.
“
Just having all the data here at head office makes life so much easier now,” says
Corinne. “The Shortcuts program produces all our specialized reports
straight from the Head Office Database at the touch of a button. This gives
me time to manage the changes to Shortcuts and really support the salons.
“ We use these reports to help control our business but they are also the
basis of the trophies given out to salons and staff at our annual award night
- so
we need to trust that the figures are right!”
As the Director of Financial Operations for the Francesco Group, Richard Stenson
pointed out they act as bookkeepers for individual salons. So reporting procedures
will now be made easier as the HOS data is on their premises.
Ben Dellicompagni is the Francesco Group’s Managing Director and insists
the group prides themselves on the service they give to the franchisees. He
says the various components of that service are reflected in the different
departments at head office - IT, marketing, accounts and wages.
“
Now we have Shortcuts, I want to make sure that all our departments make maximum
use of having the salon data right here in the building,” he says.
Ben says a huge area for development within the Francesco Group is marketing.
Developing a sophisticated and focused marketing strategy with mail outs and
promotions is made easy with all the client data available from the Head Office
database.
“ In my job I am almost like the conductor of an orchestra, with each department
being a section of that orchestra. We may not yet be playing beautiful music,
but with the new Shortcuts system, we do at least have all the instruments
in the same room!”
Client Testimonial
" Having worked in a salon that turned over in excess of 450 clients per
week using a manual based system, running a computerized system from day one
in
my own salon has saved me hours and hours of frustration. We now have a clean
desk to work on no loose pieces of paper and no more lost client records. The
system is easy to use and I love it. My staff find it easy to use and they
would be lost without it.
At the end of the week I print out a report that tells me the staff's commission
and all I need to do is write out the checks. This feature alone saves me at
least two hours per week.
I can go home and enjoy myself......"
Ben Scott, Manager
hob, London
hob in the News
Award winning UK Salon group hob have contracted to install Shortcuts Salon & Spa
software in all ten of it's branches, following a trial at hob's Loughton,
Essex franchise and successful negotiations between Speed e-Serve Ltd, the
North London reseller for Shortcuts, and hob.
The hob salon group is one of the UK's leading hair groups. Synonymous with
cutting edge style and award-winning excellence, the hob salon group required
a business management solution to support their continuous growth.
"
Shortcuts is way ahead of any of its UK rivals in the industry at present",
said Clive Collins, co-director of hob salons. "Its innovative head office
system gives us up-to-the-minute information, allowing us to manage the business
much more effectively and enabling us to take a pro-active rather than re-active
approach".
Manager of hob's Loughton salon, Ben Scott says of Shortcuts, "The benefits
this system offers are endless, providing me with lots of useful information
at the touch of a button. As well as saving time, the system is a great marketing
tool as it records all client information from their contact details, to how
they heard about us, and it even lets us know their birthdays so we can send
them a card and discount voucher".
To all those apprehensive about switching from a manual to a computer based
system, Ben says, "The key advantage is that the system is user friendly.
With the training we received from [Shortcuts] all my staff are efficient in
using the Shortcuts system".
Multiple award nominations are testament to hob's reputation as the future
of British Hairdressing. Nominated four times and already a winner of the ''Eastern
Hairdresser of the Year 2001/2'' title at the prestigious British Hairdressing
Awards, Artistic Director of hob, Akin Konizi is touted as one of the industry's
biggest talents. He is currently nominated for the coveted title of ''London
Hairdresser of the Year'' at this year's British Hairdressing Awards held on
November 24th.
Not only are the hob salon group recognized for their artistic achievements,
the three partners, Clive Collins, Paul Simbler and Akin Konizi were also finalists
for the ''Business Director of the Year'' title at this year's British Hairdressing
Business Awards. The hob salon group started their franchising operation in
October 2002 with plans to expand their network of premier salons across the
country.
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