What is a POS system?
It is essential to have information beforehand when looking at the best POS system for hair salons. A Point of Sale (POS) system is the amalgamation of hardware products with software that allows customers to purchase products through a managed system. A POS system replaces the cash register to take charge of your interaction with the customer through sales and billing. For businesses, having a POS system is the most efficient way to run it and keep track of everything that is going on. The POS system is developed for multiple platform like iOS, Windows etc.
Everything you need to know about a POS system
Why is there a need for POS?
A hair salon is a place where the employees and most of the times businessowners as well are almost if not all the time engaged with their customers. The need for a POS system comes in when customers need to pay for the service they just received from the hair salon. This POS system helps in quick billing for customers and wastes very little time for both the employees and customers.
If your hair salon does not only provide hair and facial services but also has a store set up for hair care and facial products, then the POS system also helps in managing your inventory and keeping track of all inventory items. The POS system will ensure your customers are satisfied with the quick service being offered by the system.
Most customers for hair salons are regular, therefore, the POS system can generate loyalty awards for customers and offer them discounts or special services on multiple visits. This ensures that the customer experience remains great while your profits increase.
The POS system can also offer additional features for customers to be treated fairly and equally. Without a POS system, employees can easily get confused on which customers to serve while not remembering who was first in line. The POS system will keep track of every customer and generate turns for every customer so that each customer is treated fairly and equally.
Advantages of using a POS system
- Accessible system
The POS system is very easy to use. Using a traditional cash register creates more problems but with the help of a POS system, it is very easy for any employee to enter the sales and bill customers for their service.
- Employee management
For all businessowners and especially those who themselves are involved directly in providing services to customers, it is essential to keep track of employees. The POS system helps businessowners to keep track of employee hours and wages through the POS system. A hair a salon is a very busy place and a POS system will help you stay in control even during the busiest time of the day.
- Inventory Management
Being a busy hair salon, it is very difficult to manage your inventory and keep track of all items. The POS system will provide inventory management and take a huge burden off your shoulders. The POS system will keep track of all inventory items going in and out and with a simple touch you can access the inventory at your fingertips at any time.
- Elevated Customer Experience
With the help of a POS system your customers will have the best experience. From the moment they enter the hair salon to the moment they leave, they will be satisfied. The POS system will ensure the equal treatment of all customers and will provide quick billing.
- Receipts system
The POS system will also offer receipts to each and every customer with the details of all the services they acquired from the hair salon along with the prices. The receipts will also indicate if the customer has been given any discounts or availed any customer loyalty program reward.
- Quick Service
The POS system offers very quick service to both the customers and businessowners. The employees want to ensure every customer is satisfied and have been offered services. With the POS system and it’s quick billing, one customer will be satisfied with the services received while the employee will be satisfied to have given the customer a great experience in less amount of time and quickly head over to serve another one.
- Reports
POS systems use a reporting feature that helps you keep track of your daily sales and profits and analyzes your costs to ensure maximum profit in the future.
Ideal things to look for in a POS system
- Set-up cost
Hair salons should consider the startup cost for a POS system. The POS system requires hardware to work. The set-up cost would not only include the pricing for the software itself but also hardware for it to work on. Looking for POS system which is compatible with everyday devices like mobile phones or computers is important. This can vary from business to business depending on the size of the organization.
- User friendly interface
It is essential to keep in mind that most staff might not be trained to handle technology, so it is better to have a POS system which is easy to use for every staff member.
- Customer Support
It is very important to choose a POS system that provides an active customer support. In the hair salon business, things move very quickly. Unlike some other stores, hair salons require all employees to work continuously. If the POS system breaks down, this will cause disturbance in the work environment; customers who have received services would not get billed and the customers waiting for their turn will have to wait longer causing a bad customer experience.
- Reporting
The POS system should have reporting features such as data analysis to present real-time sales reports. The reporting helps you manage your sales in the future and make decisions that will have a positive affect on the business in terms of profits and sales.
- Employee Management
The POS system helps manage all employees. It is important for hair salons to have employees come in at time and handle daily tasks. The POS system ensures the business is run smoothly by tracking all employees.
POS systems available for hair salons
- Salonist POS
Salonist POS is a cloud-based management system for salons. Salonist POS helps business owners to keep track of day to day activities.
Salonist POS offers services such as appointment scheduling, employee management and customer records management.
The billing and invoice management feature offers users to generate bills and provide information on salon services and packages.
| Pros | Cons |
| Available for Windows and iOS | Not multi lingual |
| Easy to access | |
| Online appointments | |
| Good customer support | |
| Reduces paperwork |
- Square POS
Square POS is a cloud-based system which helps with management solutions. These management solutions include managing bookings, appointments, acquire leads and bill customers.
Square POS helps customers to get appointments and it also allows customers to pay in advance for their scheduling with the salon.
Along with all this, this POS system has an automated notification sender to notify customers for their appointments with the salon. It also accept various methods of payment other than cash and helps in running promotions for the salon to new and existing customers.
| Pros | Cons |
| Appointment reminders | Web-based, cloud-based |
| Online booking and payments | Stability issues with account |
| No monthly fees | Not suitable for high-risk industries |
| User friendly | Information entered every time appointment is booked |
| Chip card readers are affordable | Difficult to get a hold of customer service |
- Vend POS
Vend POS is a cloud-based POS for small and big businesses. Vend POS provides hair salon owners the tools to manage their sales, inventory and customer data and also improve their customer experience.
Vend POS is specifically designed to work with multiple hardware options such as Personal Computers (PCs), Macs and iPads. Not only these but Vend POS can be linked to the salon’s printer and barcode scanners if needed.
The best part about Vend POS is that it offers an offline mode that allows the salon to continue selling their services to customers even when the internet connection is down.
| Pros | Cons |
| Offline mode | Monthly cost is expensive |
| Multi-store capability | Reporting tools are basic |
| Loyalty program for customers | Sometimes has issues with credit cards |
| Great customer support | Less payment options |
| Good inventory management | Vulnerable when new stock data entered |
- Mindbody POS
Mindbody POS is a cloud-based system for management and scheduling appointments. It caters to smaller businesses.
Mindboy POS has features like wait list management and booking appointments through Facebook. Mindbody also has tools for marketing management to help with marketing campaigns to boost business.
Mindbody offers staff management features and it allows third party developing companies to integrate the POS.
| Pros | Cons |
| Support materials are varied | Has bugs |
| Full featured | Monthly cost is high |
| User friendly interface | Steep learning curve |
| Branded App | Transactions can take a little longer than usual |
| Strong feature set | Unable to track deposits |
