Business management software Vagaro has been making the lives of beauty and lifestyle entrepreneurs easier for many years now.
Whether you manage one or multiple businesses, Vagaro makes it possible to streamline the process of running your business by offering features such as online booking across different social platforms, 24/7 live phone, email & chat support with free training, and free email marketing messages.
But there’s one thing users kept asking for via both Facebook and user voice: two-way communication.
Charity Hudnall, Chief Marketing Officer at Vagaro, explains that, since software innovation in the company is mainly driven by customers, the organization decided to create a two-way messaging and collaboration system.
Meet Connect by Vagaro
Launched in June, Connect by Vagaro is designed to be a business management tool created to strengthen and establish a formal business relationship with clients and foment two-way communication.
The new system is described as a part of the Vagaro app customer messaging platform created to improve customer and team communication. The streamlined business management tool it’s incorporated into the Vagaro app so people don’t have to use their personal phone number or social media to communicate with clients and coworkers.
The software also has artificial intelligence and other features that look to unload some of the organizational and management burdens that both business owners and employees have to carry.
“There’s some artificial intelligence built in there so that they don’t have to spend their time or have to take breaks to communicate, if they’re getting regular messages from their clients they can set some automated responses for them,” Hudnall explains.
It also helps with overall organization. The system keeps client records and past history readily available for all business members to access in case of cancellations or emergencies.
“The perfect part of this, the most innovative part of this, is that it’s all integrated. It’s blended,” Hudnall adds. “You can go in and take a look at their past communications with other coworkers, take a look at some of their past services, any past history, it’s all stored within Vagaro.”
Making Hairstylists Lives Easier
This year, the company celebrated its 15 year anniversary. Fred Helou, Vagaro’s CEO, was struck with the idea while traveling and in need of a haircut. Hudnall explained that Vagaro was the first app in the Apple Store that had a marketplace to facilitate services, like a haircut, internationally. “That was his initial approach, the consumer side of it. Almost like a dating app where you’re trying to connect the client or consumer with a service or business near them.”
Thanks to the influence of Helou’s sibling, who used to be a hairstylist, the app continued to evolve into a full fledged business management tool for beauty and hair professionals.
“What we like to say is we help businesses get found, get booked, and get paid really simply,” added Hudnall. “It started off with booking and evolved into features and functionality that our CEO Fred noticed businesses needed from day to day, and putting this in one integrated system.”
Helou even went a step further to purchase a salon a few years ago to closely watch how Vagaro performed in a business setting. Based in Pleasanton, California, Salon 77 West has been a thriving establishment and a test subject for Vagaro developers.
According to Hudnall, this is only the beginning and we can expect much more from Connect by Vagaro in the future.
“We really took our time and did our homework on what features and functionally we wanted to put into this, making sure we solve the immediate problem and pain points of our customers, which is our number one goal.”
To learn more about Vagaro and their new Connect by Vagaro app, be sure to visit vagaro.com or follow @vagaropro on Instagram.
