Travis Wilkinson, owner of Berry Beautiful Salon & Spa and CFO of Day Spas of Florida, Inc., makes sure that the staff provide clients with the personalized service and professionalism spa goers expect so they feel comfortable, relaxed, and pampered from the moment they walk in the door.

With its busy appointment calendar, it is hard to imagine that Berry Beautiful Salon & Spa just opened in 2007 during a difficult economy. They also face the challenge of being located in a vacation area with large seasonal population swings. In fact, eight local spas and salons have closed their doors since the spa opened, while Berry Beautiful Salon & Spa has enjoyed steady growth and success. “This is in no small part due to the added exposure and ease of access that SpaBooker

Bringing New Clients With Online Booking, And Serving Them Better

Since implementing SpaBooker in May 2008, Berry Beautiful Salon & Spa has seen online bookings and inquiries increase by over 300%. Potential clients can now book a complete menu of services, select special packages, choose their therapist, and purchase customized gift certificates (through a system provided by SpaBooker’s partner company SpaBoom) directly from Berry Beautiful Salon & Spa’s website.

Spa and salon clients are increasingly researching and booking their appointments online today, and we want to be at the forefront of that trend,” says Wilkinson. With SpaBooker, there is no danger of double booking therapists or treatment rooms, and schedules can be adjusted instantly if a staff member calls in sick. The SpaBooker system sends instant email confirmations to clients after they book and follows up with reminder notices as required. In addition to offering a convenient new booking option to its clients, Berry Beautiful Salon & Spa now has access to over five million potential new customers through SpaBooker’s association with SpaFinder, the world’s largest spa marketing and media company.

SpaBooker Technology Personalizes The Client Experience

With SpaBooker, Berry Beautiful Salon & Spa’s therapists now have customer records at their fingertips so they can add details to each customer’s file about likes/dislikes, treatment preferences, personal details, and more. “This is great for repeat business, as we get to know our customers really well,” says Wilkinson. “When we surprise them with a small detail that is important to them, they notice right away.”

Staying responsive to market changes and customer preferences is vital to serving clients well, so Wilkinson has taken full advantage of SpaBooker’s package deal and discount service booking options to meet the needs of clients in his area. For example, Berry Beautiful Salon & Spa offers complete treatment packages for brides and wedding parties either at the spa or the bride’s location of choice. They also offer seasonal packages and special short-term discounts whenever they wish, and SpaBooker instantly reflects these deals on the spa’s website as well as SpaFinder.com.

SpaBooker Makes Business Easier

Using SpaBooker, Berry Beautiful Salon & Spa was able to greatly enhance its accounting and reporting capabilities, saving time while providing a deeper understanding of its business. “Previously, we were just tracking clients and sales with a cash register and Excel, with little ability to analyze trends,” says Wilkinson. Now, with just a few clicks, he can track inventory levels, compare therapist productivity, adjust the pricing of any item in the store, compute weekly commission checks for therapists, see the value of outstanding gift certificates, and more. This information can also be easily exported into QuickBooks, making accounting a snap.

Berry Beautiful Salon & Spa’s revenues have been bolstered by selling high quality hair products and other specialty items to clients. SpaBooker’s built in inventory system greatly simplifies the tracking of these products and increases sales efficiency with a bar code scanner, credit card swiper and invoice printer, all available through SpaBooker.

Wilkinson especially appreciates SpaBooker’s dedicated customer service e-mail and phone lines. “Anytime I call with a question, I am amazed how quickly someone picks up! They are right there for me every time.”

SpaBooker’s “cost neutral” pricing structure was a pleasant surprise for Wilkinson, especially considering the impact the system made to the spa’s profitability. The savings in credit card transaction fees he enjoyed by switching to SpaBooker’s preferred merchant processor more than covered the cost of the system itself. “As a business school grad, I had to wonder how do they make any money?” he jokes. “I saved so much on credit card processing that the system seems free to me.”

Bringing Today’s Spa To The Leading Edge Of Technology

Without question, SpaBooker has helped put Berry Beautiful Salon & Spa on the leading edge of today’s spa business. “Implementing SpaBooker was the best decision I ever made for my business, bar none,” says Wilkinson. “I have no doubt that this system has greatly enhanced our customer’s enjoyment of our spa while taking our profitability to the next level.