Included with your current Salon Iris subscription at NO COST to you!

Because of the urgency presented by the pandemic, we fast-tracked this development, and we sincerely hope that you’ll use it to have meaningful client check-ins, re-booking discussions, or paid 1:1 consultations.

  • Styling product or hair repair

  • Hair color consultations

  • Hair color application lessons

  • Makeup consults and lessons

  • Hair blow drying lessons

  • Share basic men’s cutting tips

  • Share basic bang trimming tips

  • Meet 1:1 with your team!

Common Questions

Who can use this service?

Any web-enabled and internet-connected phone, tablet or computer can access your unique Tele-Consultation booking page to initiate the request.  Your salon must be running either a current cloud or desktop version of Salon Iris. Desktop users will also need a Remote Access license (normally $9/mo), and that can be added for free by contacting Sales. In order to conduct a video consultation, both the stylist and the client will need access to a working webcam at the time of the call.

How would I charge clients for tele-consultation services?

 

There is currently no integration with our credit card processing partners, so whether you use one of our existing processors or your credit card reader was provided by your bank or a third party like Square, the process will be the same:
  1. Decide if you want to take deposits when accepting the booking request, at the start of the consultation, or at the completion of the call. Make that policy clear in your tele-consultation promotional communications.
  2. For each approved request, create a ticket for the correct amount in Salon Iris.
  3. Contact the client for a credit card number. With CardConnect, you may already have that number stored in Salon Iris.
  4. Process the consultation payment as a ‘card not present’ transaction though your merchant portal or on your processing terminal/POS.

Can more than one stylist use this service?

Because of the urgency presented by the pandemic, we fast-tracked this development and designed it as a single user service, meaning one stylist would be sending campaigns to clients and reviewing those consult requests and conducting the consultations. We may include robust multi-user functionality in subsequent versions of a tele-consultation service, but this service was designed with one user in mind. This does not mean that multiple employees cannot use the existing service, but it does mean:
  1. You’ll need to perform a little coordination on availability – remember this free service does not use the Salon Iris calendar to track consultations, it uses the Consult tab in your online account.
  2. If you could send a campaign to all clients you could assign the consultations based on the regular stylist.
  3. Each stylist with upcoming calls would have to be notified login to consult with their clients at the requested times.

Do you plan to further integrate this service with Salon Iris?

There is obviously real value to tightly integrating this service with the client database, appointment book, inventory and payment systems, as well as extending it to run with online booking or through our mobile applications.This was the fastest way to build this service, but it may not represent the best long term choice. We stand behind everything we make, and we will be here to support you to ensure it works as advertised.  In all honesty, we don’t know how far we’ll expand this. We will take our cues from you – if stylists like it or would like it deployed in other ways, we’ll do everything we meet the need.

How It Works:

Within this new module, you will first have to set your availability for consultations, briefly describe your consultation services and complete your setup, which will generate your unique consultation web page. You can then share this web address with your clients via an email message, text campaign or social media posting.  Making the booking request page public is the first step to receiving consultation requests. These requests will then appear in your Consults tab.  

Here you can review, approve or reject your pending consultation requests. Approved requests become consultation appointments and you can initiate those phone calls from within this tab at the appointed time.

virtual hairstylist

At the time of the call, you can contact your client by clicking the phone icon in the pending calls list and you’ll be connected to your client. During the tele-consultation, you’ll see the client details section to the right which contains the following sections:

virtual hairstylist
  • Notes – Create notes during the consultation here. You’ll also see any comments submitted by the client.
  • Image  – If the client uploaded a photo it will appear in this tab.
  • Chat – During the call, you can also chat with the client.
  • Client Form  – The client will submit a form answering basic questions about the condition of their hair.
  • Email – Enter a message to send the client a direct email.

This new service is being added to your Salon Iris subscription plan at no cost to you!

We do hope that it will enable you to stay close to important clients, check-in with clients or staff members, or even generate additional revenue for your salon by charging for these consultations.

Access Detailed Getting Started Guide!

Our Customer Success experts walk you through the simple setup of Tele-Consultations within Salon Iris.

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