Inspiring Excellence: 5 Boulevard Businesses Redefining Top-Tier Experiences

These salons use cutting-edge technology and a dedication to improvement to push their client experiences over the top

What makes a self care business experience special? Is it the convenience of booking whenever and however you want? Is it the personalized attention of the providers? Or is it a dedication to constant improvement? The answer: All of the above. Every brand takes its own approach to self care business excellence, but at each one's core rests a commitment to making the client's time at your spot the best part of their day.

Boulevard's list of customers is full to bursting with self care brands pushing the art of the client experience forward. From personalized marketing to inclusive pricing, here's how some of them make every client feel like a star.

Flexible booking at SkinRN Aesthetics

In a world where the average person spends 3.5 hours scrolling social media before bed, all it takes is one well-placed Instagram ad for a client to try booking during off hours. That presents a problem for traditional booking, where clients need to phone an active front desk to make an appointment. For many clients, calling itself is a barrier. If they hit an answering machine on top of that? They may not book at all.

With self-booking through its website, SkinRN Aesthetics avoids that problem entirely. Clients can book whenever they want and with supreme ease. Founder Dana Veney describes the self-booking process as “seamless and smooth,” and it gives her peace of mind to know she’s not losing out on potential appointments.

“I think that I have been able to sleep better at night because I'm not worried whether my patients can self-book themselves at 2 a.m.,” she says.

Stellar communications at Mosaic Hair Studio

There’s a reason it’s plastered on every door in every college dorm: Communication is key, whether it’s between two roommates or a client and their salon of choice. First off, there’s the obvious stuff. Clients need to know when their appointments are, what forms they need to fill out, and where to park when they arrive. But it’s also important for a self care business to listen to its clients. For instance, clients may want to share reference images before a haircut or request a certain beverage at their appointment.

As a self care business, you want your clients to feel supported. That’s why Mosaic Hair Studio adopted SMS communications. Texts are often the most readily available (and often preferred) method for clients to communicate. By opening that channel to them, Mosaic lets them instantly share anything they think their provider should know.

Texts are also incredibly direct and hard for clients to miss. That makes them great for appointment reminders. In fact, Mosaic used them to cut its no-shows down to 1%.

Client questionnaires at ‘Cure Studios

Truly understanding your clients makes it that much easier to meet and even anticipate their needs. When you do, you help them feel cared for, and that can elevate their experience beyond a simple business transaction.

Of course, really learning what makes a client tick takes more than letting them text their providers. That’s why ’Cure Studios decided to include a questionnaire in the booking process. According to co-founder Rachel Daily, “We ask them, ‘What music are you listening to? Do you want us to offer you alcohol or do you prefer that we offer you a soft drink?' We ask them a lot of personalized questions even prior to them coming in.”

The answers clients provide go straight to a digital profile that providers can access before and during appointments. That gives them all the info they need to connect with their clients. Daily says the response has been hugely positive.

“You get a lot of comments like, 'I love that you ask my favorite song,’ or, ‘I love that you ask this or that you ask that.’ And so it just sets the tone for what they expect when they get into the salon, and our ability to deliver on even a part of that helped us show them that we really cared about that experience,” she says.

Customized reporting at Skin House Facial Bar

In the self care business, there’s always something you can do better, faster, or both. Are appointments routinely running long? Are certain stylists averaging higher tips than others (indicating a need for extra support)? Are clients recommending your brand to their friends? 

All of these are key indicators of how efficiently and effectively your business is operating — but collecting that data isn’t always easy. Manually building reports takes a lot of time and effort, and the pre-configured reports offered by your software may not meet your needs. If you never see that critical data, how can you improve your business?

That’s why Skin House Facial Bar used Boulevard’s customizable reporting to get the data it needed quickly and consistently. Founder Shireen Mustafa says, “Reports are much more accessible [with Boulevard]. And that’s huge for front and back of house. I can see everything clearly and it gives me a clear idea of where I need to improve.”

That determination to get better every day led to exciting results: Skin House Facial Bar upped its monthly booking volume by 56% and its product sales by 35% after tapping into customized reports.

Inclusivity at Scout’s Barbershop

A top-tier client experience should focus on creating an accepting atmosphere for all clients, regardless of their identities. That's the ethos at Scout's Barbershop, where founders Brooke Asbury and Keila Rokkan dared to question the traditional gender divide at salons. By boldly mixing aspects of traditional salons and barbershops, they wound up with a hair care business that helps everyone on the gender spectrum feel right at home. 

At Scout's, that commitment to gender inclusion runs deeper than the décor. That's why, as the first unisex barbershop in Nashville, they helped pioneer charging based on hair length rather than gender. Not only does this help clients feel at ease about their gender, but it makes perfect business sense. Longer hair takes more work to cut, so it should cost more. Short hair, no matter who has it, takes less time to cut. It's a simple thing, but it helps clients feel that much more cared for — and that's at the core of any top-tier client experience.