MIKAL Salon & Spa Software

Merchant services usually refers to processing services that enable a business to accept a transaction payment through an encrypted channel using the customer’s credit card, debit card or NCF/RFID-enabled device. These services can also include gift card and loyalty programs, online transaction processing, and point of sale systems.

Merchant processing as an industry is like the Wild Wild West. Given there are nearly 318,000 merchant services providers in the US and there is no real oversight for the industry, for decades many of them have gotten away with surreptitiously inflating fees without informing the merchants they service. In fact, you can search online for merchant processors to avoid! One online article pointed out, “The credit card processing industry is full of scam companies that seemingly pop up out of nowhere. These processors are willing to say or do anything to make a quick buck at the expense of small business owners.”

In addition to the fee the business is charged for processing a transaction, there is a myriad of fees the business must also pay, including account fees, statement fees, PCI-compliance fees, chargeback fees and NSF fees. The entire industry can be confusing and even overwhelming.

One of our Mikal salon owners nearly lost her business to an unprincipled merchant processor a few years back. Her battle with them lasted nearly three months and because she was tenacious, she finally extricated herself from the contract. She told her husband, “From now on, if a merchant processor is not vetted by the Mikal team, I’m not even talking to them.”

She selected Charge It Pro (now known as Gravity Payments) and stayed with them without even a hiccup until she sold her business.

Mikal has thoroughly vetted two merchant processors for our salon and spa customers. They are trusted, honest and secure. When you are a Mikal salon or spa, selecting a merchant service provider is easy and stress free. We recommend Gravity Payments and X-Charge to all of our customers.

2022 has had some challenges -  But we are starting the New Year!

Don't think New Year's Resolutions, think about your 2023 EVOLUTION

Resolutions don't work. The average person keeps them for less than 2 weeks (remember the gym membership, fruit diet, juicer machine etc…;). So the wheels will fall off the Resolution train.............

Why don't resolutions work? Because it is our human behavior. It is our habit. It is easy. It might even be satisfying. So instead of trying to change behavior why not change the environment, the process, or the system and the behavior will change.

So instead let's EVOLVE!

Let's look at every system and process in our business and figure out how we can make it simpler, faster, better for staff and clients, and of course more profitable.

A few examples:

The front desk is an area of on-going frustration. Turn over of staff, poor client service, down time is not used to clean, organize, do confirmations, and retail and rebooking is not a priority.

So do we resolve to put as much time into the front desk as needed to change these things? Do we clean house and hire new receptionists? Is that our Resolution, to have a Revolution?

Ready to go all Tabitha on the desk?

Or the idea from MIKAL....

How about activating EMBA so the future appointment is booked before the client even comes up to the front desk to check out? The Employee Mobil Booking App lets your staff book the client's next appointment on their smart phone with the client at the end of the service!

How about embedding the Surveymonkey surveys into the automatic new client and reminder emails and texts MIKAL sends out for you for immediate feedback and ideas on what needs to change to improve the client experience?

How about putting in message on hold and call queue option on the phone to auto hold calls if not answered in 2 rings so the front desk can finish sales, rebook, and close retail without interruptions on putting people on hold?

- Support system involves giving the upsell offers in your message on hold.

- Education needs to happen so staff knows how to handle the call queue option.

How about giving a bonus when the receptionist rebooks a client, upsells a service, converts a price call to a booking, and sells NEW retail items to a client? The desk would be rewarded to do the things you want them to do. Sales would increase, retention would go up, and the bonus would increase wages so they would not leave over a fifty cent pay increase from a company down the street.

- Support system involves setting spiffs for rebooks, upsells, add on sales in MIKAL.

- Education needs to have scripting in place to deliver the offers.

- Support system needs to give clients loyalty points for rebooking automatically.

How about setting up the receptionist goals so every week they get a report on how they are doing compared to your expectations?

If the present desk staff can't embrace these positive steps how about hiring people that are going to embrace your systems?

So we Evolve with changes to the systems and the process allowing the people to change their behavior. You can manage the process instead of the people.

Why not do this for other areas?

Retailing - what can be changed to make retail easy?

Professional inventory- what can be put in place to track and fine tune inventory?

Stylist behaviors - what can be put in place to reward positive behaviors?

Social marketing - what can be put in place to make it automatic and effective?

Let's think through these areas and enhance the process and systems.

MIKAL Salon Software             

I was reviewing some of our MIKAL long term accounts - maybe you! And noticed that you are still on an OLD version of MIKAL!

The latest and greatest has Automatic Text and E-mail marketing, keeps client pictures, has much more flexible reporting, and has years of updates and enhancements written into the system.

So why not upgrade now?

If you have been holding off due to the one time cost I have a solution. Switch to the rental version of MIKAL! You can rent MIKAL with support, enhancements, upgrades, all included in a reasonable monthly cost. Plus get all the power of MIKAL SEVEN.

Rental includes Employee mobile app - On Line Booking - Just In Time notifications - Loyalty Points program - WOW!! Keep your information. Easy learning curve and powerful new features.

PLUS rental includes On-line booking, EMBA employee mobile app, JITA just in time system and more!

Sincerely,

Your MIKAL Consultants

[email protected]

513-528-5100

www.mikal-salon-software.com

SUMMER Money Making Ideas

Now that 2021 is almost HALF over (can you believe it?) and here in Cincinnati it will be ninty degrees today!  (great isn’t it?)

So…..it’s time to get back down to business and get into the business of Summer. Now is the time to crank up the business of beauty.

Here are a couple of ideas to get you and your staff back down to business:

$ Get a staff meeting together and go over these (and your own) promo ideas. See what ideas generate the most excitement and appoint people and set dates for getting the projects going! Introduce JITA the just in time appointment feature of MIKAL to fill the book. Get EMBA for the staff and they can go CRAZY booking all over town on their smart phones.

$ Clean the salon/spa from top to bottom. Paint a few walls and make a few small changes. Move some plants and displays. Decorate for the season!

$ Have everyone get dressed up. I don’t mean formal but every spring people get a little casual. It’s time to change our look and the change should be professional and upscale. Have a staff party to get the excitement going!

$ Get into the Summer colors. Make sure your make up is right for the season and coordinates with your new look! Get the staff together for a make up session and new fashion review.

$ Start your Referral Contest July 1st and end it on October 1st . Pick your prizes, do your precontest mailing/e-mail September 3rd, and get the signs up in the salon/spa. Call us for a free 11 page Referral Contest planning book. How would 50-100 new customers sound in the next 60-90 days?

$ Get your front desk staff to commit to cleaning up the customer data base in the next 60 days. All of your regular customers will be in for the season. Run a list on your MIKAL system of all customers with Invalid addresses. The goal is to verify every customer’s address in the next 60 days. Check on the progress by running the Invalid Addresses report for all Last Visits in the last 7 days each week. The report should be blank every week if the front desk staff is cleaning up the list!

$ Get your Gift Cards on order NOW! Call RACO Card 866-940-4676 for a free sample kit. Order the Gift Card option is MIKAL’s SMS software and ask for our free information pack on promoting gift cards. Gift Cards will make a huge difference in your sales over the old gift certificates. NOTE: beware of companies giving you gift cards for use with their Internet or bank card systems. The costs for the processing of the card every time it is swiped become a huge expense and if a customer loses their card there is no way to cancel that card and charge the balance up on a new card. Call us at MIKAL to make an informed decision. Also revisit a switch in credit card processors. X-Charge and Charge It Pro, our credit card processing partners has a special deal and amazing rates waiting for you to switch!

$ Increase your Nail service prices now at the strart of the summer season. This will give you an additional boost to your income and the customers are coming in for that popular service during the Summer season.

$ Sign up for the Autopilot Marketing system from MIKAL. The business can get hectic. Don’t let your marketing Spring by the wayside. Put it on autopilot, and make sure you stay busy when summer months roll around!

Fred Dengler                         Come to Camp MIKAL Cincinnati for more ideas Aug. 21-23 with great rates at the Cincinnati Wingate Airport hotel

513-528-5100

email us at [email protected]

Website: www.mikal-salon-software.com - sign up for Camp go to Pricing - Training - Camp sign up! Early Birdie only $169 WOW

Success Club Ideas 2020

WOW was the MIKAL Salon and Spa Owner Success Club meeting great.

See the ideas below and you can’t beat Florida for the weather and activities.

 Staffing:

Interview groups for the first cut. Use a team of staff to do it. Cut half the applicants after a few group questions. Then get serious.

 Test your best team members with Meyer Briggs and then test applicants. Hire the ones like your best team members. Don’t hire people the test like you!

 Use a little stress in the interview. Have 2 people interview the applicant at one time. Ask tough questions about last job. Ask them to sell you a pen in the interview.

 Always ask about hobbies, what magazines to they read, what do they like to do on their time off. Look for people that have interests and passions about things.

 Use Craigs list for applicants. Sign up for the state Job1 or Workforce1 program so the applicant ad gets uploaded to Monster free!

Do interview off site and always state in ad it is a confidential interview. The first phone call to the applicant needs to be an interview. Ask questions allowing them to sell themselves in the interview.

Have an interview presentation kit. See the MIKAL PDF for ideas.

Always list the job benefits and the critical requirements.

If a staff member leaves do not give out their new location. Say “they have not authorized us to give out that information” when a client asks.

Use the 4 step MIKAL client retrieval mailing and emailing to keep clients when a stylist leaves.

Set up Advanced goals in the MIKAL system. Also receptionist and managers goals. Put them in the paychecks!

Don’t let staff go to next price level until retention is at least 80% repeat request.

Salon normal new client retention is 30% - ouch! Work on welcome book, walk up script, and client exit to improve new client retention.

Marketing:

Align with a good reputation management company that has strong local track record to push good comments and improve rankings. Check their referrals locally!

Use JITA with all the filters!

Use EMBA to book right at the chair or in the room before the client goes to the front desk.

Review the Demandforce option – it may be right for you!

Get your Upsells in place in the prototypes and spiff the receptionists who deliver the upsells. Start tracking the upsells, rebooks, and cancel no rebook in the MIKAL system.

Set receptionist goals in the MIKAL system.

Activate all the autopilot offers. Subject needs to only be 3 words.

Use AIDA in your marketing:

Attention

Interest

Desire

Action

If the marketing does not create a phone call is not good marketing!

Update your Google Places and activate your Google offer TODAY!

Use surveys in salon/spa and on-line for feedback. Try the free surveys in Survey Monkey and Google Drive.

Always ask the 4 main questions relating to why clients don’t come back:

Was the salon/spa clean?

Was the receptionist nice and accommodating?

Did the service provider listen and do what you asked?

Were you taken on time?

Get the loyalty points program going now. Roll all your rewards into the points program including referral rewards, prebooking, new client points, and early week bookings. Make it about a 2% cash back on sales. Only let the client redeem 50% of a sale for points. Set this all up with your MIKAL reps.

 Get a referral contest going! Get 60 to 120 new clients.

 That’s it for now. Wow what a bunch of great ideas in 3 days.

Fred Dengler    MIKAL  www.mikal.com    [email protected]  513-528-5100

Are you opening a NEW SALON and SPA this spring or summer?

SUCCESSFUL START PROGRAM

Exclusively by MIKAL

MIKAL, with almost 40 years in the business of helping salons and spas market and manage better has put together a Successful Start program for new salon and spa launches.

We have start up spreadsheets. Opening checklists, Front Desk Operations manuals, Employee Policy manuals, Award Winning Software, and HP Point-of-Sale computer systems.

Important statistics:

The average salon/spa does not reach break even for 2 years!

The average salon/spa (50%) is not in business for 3 years.

With your time and money investment you DO NOT WANT TO BE AVERAGE. Our program will insure that your dream is a success!

MIKAL has the systems, training, marketing and management ideas that will make sure your business is busy and profitable fast.

This plan can be tailored to your needs. We can accelerate the time line to make your opening deadline. We are here to help you!

The MIKAL Marketing Team

800-448-5420

The Success Plan

You need a plan to be successful with your new business. Many salons and spas open the doors, have a one week grand opening, and wait for the clients to come rushing in. And wait. And wait. And….

Or

A MIKAL Success Plan story:

60 days prior to opening.

First you need to pre-sell your services.  Get a list of perfect clients within 5 minutes drive time of your salon/spa. Load then in your MIKAL system and send a postcard to them 30 days before opening and the week you open.  MIKAL will load in your perfect prospects, help you with your Unique Selling Points Postcard and e-mail marketing, and set up your system for prebooking services.

We can also help you with product lines that give you TWICE the mark up, don’t have diversion problems, and generate tons of profits!

30 days prior to opening.

Load your present clients into MIKAL or have us import them easily and send them a special on booking and gift cards. MIKAL will help you set up credit card processing for new and pre-opening sales! Run the credit cards right through your MIKAL system. Start booking appointments from the mailing and e-marketing on your MIKAL system. Pre-sell gift cards $100 value for $80. You will need and get great cash flow.

Opening week.

Start your/MIKAL Grand Opening Plan.

Do the Grand Opening mailing and e-marketing with MIKAL.

You will be busy the first week.

On-going.

Stay with the 12 Month Grand Opening plan. Note that your Grand Opening should end the week your one year anniversary events start!

Call your MIKAL Consultant and get your plan going! 800-448-5420

513-528-5100 [email protected] 

2018 is almost half over!

Don’t think New Year’s Resolutions, think New Year’s EVOLUTION

Not where you wanted or expected to be in the business HALF way through 2018????

Resolutions don’t work. The average person keeps them for less than 2 weeks (remember the gym membership, fruit diet, juicer machine etc…;).

Why don’t resolutions work? Because it is our human behavior. It is our habit. It is easy. It might even be satisfying. So instead of trying to change behavior why not change the environment, the process, or the system and the behavior will change.

So instead let’s EVOLVE!

Let’s look at every system and process in our business and figure out how we can make it simpler, faster, better for staff and clients, and of course more profitable.

A few examples:

The front desk is an area of on-going frustration. Turn over of staff, poor client service, down time is not used to clean, organize, do confirmations, and retail and rebooking is not a priority.

So do we resolve to put as much time into the front desk as needed to change these things? Do we clean house and hire new receptionists? Is that our Resolution, to have a Revolution?

Ready to go all Tabitha on the desk?

Or…….

How about putting in message on hold and call queue option on the phone to auto hold calls if not answered in 2 rings so the front desk can finish sales, rebook, and close retail without interruptions on putting people on hold?

- Support system involves giving the upsell offers in your message on hold.

- Education needs to happen so staff knows how to handle the call queue option.

How about giving a bonus when the receptionist rebooks a client, upsells a service, converts a price call to a booking, and sells NEW retail items to a client? The desk would be rewarded to do the things you want them to do. Sales would increase, retention would go up, and the bonus would increase wages so they would not leave over a fifty cent pay increase from a company down the street.

- Support system involves setting spiffs for rebooks, upsells, add on sales in MIKAL.

- Education needs to have scripting in place to deliver the offers.

- Support system needs to give clients loyalty points for rebooking automatically.

How about setting up the receptionist goals so every week they get a report on how they are doing compared to your expectations?

If the present desk staff can’t embrace these positive steps how about hiring people that are going to embrace your systems?

So we Evolve with changes to the systems and the process allowing the people to change their behavior. You can manage the process instead of the people.

Why not do this for other areas?

Retailing – what can be changed to make retail easy?

Professional inventory- what can be put in place to track and fine tune inventory?

Stylist behaviors – what can be put in place to reward positive behaviors?

Social marketing – what can be put in place to make it automatic and effective?

Let’s think through these areas and enhance the process and systems.

Come to the Camp MIKAL VEGAS and brainstorm these areas on Total Overhaul Tuesday!

There are a few “slots” left for the seminar.

Call and register now 513-528-5100

MIKAL Salon Software

QuickBooks and MIKAL - easy - fast - money saving - WOW

 Would you like to have Monthly Profit and Loss statements on time each month?

 How about step by step training on how to enter your QB entries and advice?

 QuickBooks is easy and takes just minutes per week to pay your bills, enter deposits, and KEEP YOUR BUSINESS running smoothly.

 First get your easy QB interface for your MIKAL info - call MIKAL for this great option. MIKAL 513-528-5100

 Then get with our authorized MIKAL and QB consultant to go live. Call for a detailed pdf we can e-mail to you 800-448-5420..

 John from JS Consulting is trained in MIKAL and also a QB trainer. He can show you how to manage your own accounting, save tons of money, and get better control of your business.

 Give John a call at 601-765-5889 and tell him you are a MIKAL client. He can work with you.

MIKAL Success Club goes to Ft. Lauderdale

I  know the weather is nice now but remember this event is in February....The MIKAL Success Club is a three day event with the tour, workshops and meetings from 9am to 1pm. This format allows for afternoon networking and relaxation. The Success Club meeting is for owners and managers who want to make the most out of your MIKAL system.

The theme for this Success Club is ALL ABOUT SUCCESS and will be an in depth review of three major areas of the System and Business Ideas: Marketing, Staffing, and Reporting with an in-depth day spent in each area. Call for a detailed seminar kit 513-528-5100. 

Plan on spending Feb. 19-12 in Plantation Fl. - Ft. Lauderdale area. We are hosting this very special MIKAL Success Club at the Contour Spa in their training center with a behind the scene spa tour, special Mikal classes, and 20% off on all Contour Spa services. Get new ideas, network, rejuvenate, relax, recharge your batteries! Stay next door at the Hampton Inn Plantation at a special rate. Classes and tours are 9am to 1pm each day, Sunday-Tuesday and the afternoon is yours to spa, swim, shop, play, network...

This is a meeting designed to merge system operations with management and marketing ideas that when combined will move your business forward. Come in on Friday or Saturday before the meeting and unwind or stay an extra day to relax! The Hampton Inn Plantation is a 4.5 satisfaction rated hotel offering a rate of $189 per night. Register Saturday night from 5pm to 7pm with your MIKAL team in the Breakfast area. This is a business oriented hotel just across the parking lot from Contour Spa, our host location. The seminar is 14 minutes by cab from the Ft. Lauderdale airport and also offers free parking. The Sawgrass Mall and Las Olas are blocks away. You also have the whole Ft. Lauderdale experience! Call today to reserve your Earlie Birdie price and get $50 off 513-528-5100 [email protected] 

There is free full breakfast included with the room reservation, shuttle service to major attractions. Heated pool and whirlpool. High speed internet, business center and fitness center included in the room cost! Bring the family and work each morning then connect with them in the afternoon. Bring your management staff and make it a company retreat.  Bring your information and reports to use during the classes to compare your business to others in the industry. Get an individual evaluation of your reports by Fred Dengler to use during the class and a 2 page evaluation and management summary to take home with you. This evaluation is normally a $300 service and it is FREE to all salons and spas attending this Success Club. Call for the worksheets 513-528-5100

What could this Success Club be worth to you and your business?  

Call me for a Cost / Profit Justification and see what this three day experience can mean to your business! 

Plus - do you have the Employee Mobil App up and running? Are you doing Just In Time Appointments? Does Autopilot send your 5 critical e-mails and texts out automatically? Learn how at the Success Club.

Our partners at MIKAL Corp have selected OpenEdge/XCharge as their preferred partner for your integrated merchant processing. Together, for your business, we have created a much more efficient credit card processing software saving you tremendously in cost and time.

Our features include:

A secure payment processing solution on a PCI compliant gateway We encrypt and secure all card holder data OpenEdge is free; we're already built into MIKAL Corp POS All processing integrated directly into MIKAL software Process payments on any computer in office/store/salon EMV compliant and certified All you do is swipe or key enter the card OpenEdge does the rest No double posting of transactions No use of dedicated phone lines No startup costs No contracts locking you in Pre-negotiated low rates of 1.695% and $0.25 or 0.60% and $0.15 depending on rate structure Low rate guarantee Free card reader Eliminates standalone terminals No installation fee No software fees No reconciliation of transactions at end of day; close books and go home Check out takes seconds Daily, weekly, monthly custom reporting Supports all major credit/debit cards/chip cards.

Call MIKAL for contact info and questions. 

Your MIKAL Support Team  513-528-5100  [email protected]