BLUSHES

"PREMIER STYLE SOFTWARE IS VITAL"

At Blushes, the award winning salons in Cheltenham and Gloucester, excellent customer service is the key to the success that has seen them thrive for 25 years at the top of their game. Owners Darrell and Mark Blake have positioned Blushes as the premier salon outside of London, attracting a veritable array of high class clients and celebrities.

The Cheltenham salon nestles between chic boutiques in the heart of the vibrant tree-lined Montpellier, while the Gloucester salon has a strong contemporary feel that juxtaposes perfectly with the quaint historic town.

The Blushes salons are renowned for their in-depth colour consultations where their team of technicians are dedicated to giving clients a hair colour that will suit their skin tone for a look that is truly unique – a fact that was been acclaimed in the industry when Blushes won the L’Oreal colour trophy. The Blushes motto is to make hair care an enjoyable experience not just a necessity, and who can argue as you sit back and sip a complimentary glass of champagne as you have you hair styled into the latest fashion. “We pride ourselves on creating innovative yet wearable looks, it may be fun to create wacky styles but if your client can’t visualise themselves wearing it there’s really no point” says Darrell Blake.

"THE ONLY WAY FORWARD"

The Blushes salons have gained enormous popularity and have had to expand and modernise to cope with demand. The Cheltenham salon underwent a major refurbishment and expansion in 2001 and the Gloucester salon is set for development this year following the purchase of the adjacent building. Part of this expansion included switching to a computerised salon management system and for this Blushes selected Premier Style by leading spa and salon software developers Premier Software. Darrell explains, “It was a big leap of faith to

throw away the old appointment book and convert to using Premier Style software but we have no regrets, it was the only way forward” Mr. Cotter said that last year the leisure facilitites underwent a change of software to help staff cope with the increased demand for the club's services.

"IT'S CRUCIAL"

Increasingly salons are realising that the old manual system of writing down appointments is time consuming and can often lead to inaccuracies, such as one receptionist not understanding another’s handwriting and so forth.

For Blushes, they reached the point where they simply outgrew an appointment book system, as Darrell explains, “One book just wasn’t enough, we are so busy we have five receptionists working at any one time, so one appointment book just wasn’t enough, they were clamouring to get to it, now we have a dedicated booking room, and 3 computer screens. In today’s market you’ve got to have a computerised booking system, it’s crucial”

One area that Blushes is particularly dedicated to is looking after their existing customers so that they come back time and time again. “We have found Premier Style to be a great help in this area, as we can look at our clients average spend and identify our loyal customers. We have used the software to create a list of prestige clients who spend in excess of £1,000 a year with us. Now every time one of these prestige clients books an appointment or enters the salon the software flags up a message on screen to identify them so that we can give them that extra special bit of care to let them know we appreciate their business.”

"ADVANCED BOOKING FEATURES"

The Blushes team have built up a sensational reputation through their frequent styling for top consumer magazines such as Tatler and Harpers and Queen, and advanced colouring work pioneered by top colourist Michelle Blake who works closely with the colour experts from L’Oreal to help develop new colours.

It is this strong reputation that ensures that the Blushes salons are constantly buzzing, with a team of 18 stylists and 10 colourists manning the Cheltenham salon every Saturday.

“Last week we saw 800 clients in the Cheltenham salon alone and most weeks the figure is around 700. With that many people booking and attending appointments each week we really couldn’t cope without Premier Style” says Darrell. The software has plenty of advanced booking features to help busy salons like Blushes, including automated SMS messaging appointment reminders that have been designed to help cut down appointment no-shows. “All of our bookings are sent an appointment reminder text two days prior to their appointment. We also use Premier Style to put together lists of no-shows who are then sent a letter” says Darrell.

As well as the all the day-to-day features such as appointments bookings, stock control and payment processing, Premier Style also has extensive management reporting capabilities. “Personally, I find the predicted turnover feature hugely important for the running of my business. I can press a button and know exactly how much money I am going to make from the number and type of appointments booked in. I do this religiously at the start of every month and week. I can then see where I need to develop business to hit my target turnover” says Darrell.

TELEPHONE BOOKINGS - BLOCK BOOKINGS

An extraordinary amount of research goes into the development of Premier Software’s programmes. Robert Miles, Managing Director of Premier Software explains, “Our developers spend time speaking to salon owners to find out what aspects of salon management would benefit from software. This way we know that our software has all the features needed to manage a successful salon from the financial aspect to marketing to the day-to-day tasks.”

For more information on Premier Software’s systems including Premier Style and Premier Spa call 01543 466580 or visit www.premiersoftware.co.uk

For further information on Blushes visit www.blushes.co.uk