From managing inventory to contactless payments, your POS system can do a lot. We’ll help you figure out which features are essential for your next upgrade.

A point-of-sale (POS) system only handles payment, right? Au contraire. Modern salon POS systems are much more than digital cash registers. They can help you book appointments for your clients, build loyalty programs to keep them coming back, generate detailed reports so you can optimize expenses, and oh, so much more. The best salon POS system can help form the backbone of your salon empire — but how do you pick the right one?

If you’re looking to upgrade your outdated tech, don’t worry: Boulevard is here to help. Keep these 11 key considerations in mind as you hunt for the perfect salon POS system that meets all of your needs.

11 considerations when choosing the right salon POS system

1. Seamless user experience

A clunky interface is frustrating for everyone, from the employees who grit their teeth while they struggle to use it to the clients who have to stand awkwardly waiting for the system to load. With an intuitive and streamlined POS interface, your staff can spend less time fighting their tech and spend more time focusing on delivering quality service to your clients.

2. Customized branding

Your salon’s identity is important to you — and your salon POS system should be as much an extension of your branding as anything else you control. Look for systems that allow you to customize color schemes along with logos so payment and scheduling feel like a seamless part of the salon experience.

3. Great payment options

Credit card chips, swipes, tap-to-pay, contactless options through Apple Pay and Google Pay — there are more ways to pay for salon services than ever before, and your clients will notice if their preferred payment method isn’t available. High-end POS hardware puts all of these options at clients’ fingertips in a compact, secure, and easy-to-use form factor, helping you collect payment and tips in seconds.

The convenience of credit card payments comes with a price — several of them, actually — but the right salon POS system can also help cover them with surcharges. By sharing the cost of processing fees with your clients, you can take an unpredictable monthly expense and make it more manageable, all while giving you more money to spend on improving services and paying your bills.

4. Re-booking and scheduling

When clients wrap up their appointments, you’ll naturally want them to book a follow-up. An effective beauty salon POS system will make that process as easy as possible, with instant access to the time slots that work best for your staff and suggestions for relevant services to slot into their schedule. The benefits are two-fold: you’ll set up your clients with appointment times that are most convenient for them while optimizing staff schedules to serve more clients.

5. Leaving a good impression

Your POS system will be the last touchpoint for most client visits. Don’t let the memory of the excellent experience they just had in the chair be overridden by a slow and confusing payment process. A sleek and modern reception desk isn’t just an aesthetic upgrade to match your deluxe digs. It’ll help you speed up check-out times so clients spend less time focusing on the money they just paid and more time loving their new look.

6. Optimized inventory management

Sure, your beauty salon POS system is where clients pay for services and retail products. But will it update your inventory to reflect that purchase? Will it alert you when products are running low so you can stock up? Does it let you know which supplies or colors are most popular so you can optimize purchasing? Or will it keep you posted on which products aren’t selling so you can blow them out the door with a well-timed sale? The best salon POS systems can do all of this — and more.

7. Client relationship management

Fostering long-term client relationships takes more than a smooth checkout process. An effective loyalty program can keep clients engaged, offering valuable rewards for their continued patronage. Your salon POS system should help you build, customize, and manage your loyalty program, from setting up point values to tracking usage across locations. The best salon POS systems can also help you manage client profiles, provide product recommendations based on their preferences, and set up customized marketing campaigns to keep your salon top of mind.

8. Deep reporting tools

Without data, you won’t know how your business is doing and how to improve. Any salon POS system worth using will feature robust reporting tools that let you dig into the nitty gritty details. Find out how much money your business brings in, how much it spends, how your staff utilizes their time, inventory costs, and so on. Get a seven-day snapshot or see how data trends over months — or even years. With this data in hand, you’ll be able to make adjustments to refine your purchasing, marketing, scheduling, and beyond.

9. Helpful customer support

Even the best salon POS system can feel overwhelming at first, especially if they’re different from what you used before. With a robust customer support system at your back, you can rest assured that help will arrive when you need it. Look for support options that offer real-time chat systems integrated directly within the software, giving you rapid responses to whatever questions you may have.

10. Scalability

You’ve got big dreams, and your salon POS system should help you achieve them. Whether you’re growing your team to meet increased demand or opening several new locations, your POS system should be able to scale to meet new challenges. Comprehensive training resources make getting new hires up to speed on front desk operations a snap. And multi-location support makes managing client data, scheduling, inventory, and reporting a breeze. 

11. Seamless integration

The front of house touches every part of your business — so how can you ensure it ties in neatly with the other systems you use?

That’s where integrations come in. Tax preparation and payroll systems will need the financial data that your POS system collects. With Apple Calendar and Google Calendar integrations, you’ll make scheduling and setting appointment reminders even easier. Plus, workflow automation tools can help you save more time on day-to-day tasks, sending data wherever it needs to go without manual intervention. Integrations can help take your beauty business to the next level, so make sure your salon POS system supports everything you need out of the box.

It’s easy to let your POS feel like an afterthought. You got into this business to give clients great looks they’re eager to show off, not to be the best at taking payment information. But once you find the right fit, you’ll find the best salon POS system helps your whole business run better — and that includes providing more experiences your clients will love.