MIKAL Salon & Spa Software

MIKAL SEVEN point ONE

MIKAL 7.1 lets clients communicate back to your salon/spa their APPOINTMENT CONFIRMATION. When clients receive the appointment reminder from MIKAL, the system offers a link for the client to confirm the appointment. This confirmation is registered in the confirmation field of the appointment. Plus Mikal 7.1 confirms the confirmation back to the client.

Now it is easy to call only the clients who have not electronically confirmed the appointment. Save tons of time and have a more interactive system with 7.1.

Dramatically reduce no show and missed appointments.

Clients can now OPT-OUT of your emarketing automatically by clicking an opt out link in 7.1. MIKAL also sends an opt out confirmation back to the client. Save time dealing with clients emails requesting opt outs and have a more effective marketing program that is directed at clients who want and look forward to your specials and notifications.

Mikal 7.1 allows you to keep Client CREDIT CARDS on file. You can now offer the convenience of credit cards on file knowing they are secure and you are in compliance with all credit card information rules. Keep multiple client credit cards. Name or nickname the cards. Process the cards at point of sale as easy as a paytype. Fast and easy with no extra work. A great service to offer your busy clients. This feature is available with Charge It Pro/Gravity Payments and is coming soon for X-Charge customers. You must use one of these processors to take advantage of this option.

More updates with version 7 and 7.1

On-line booking now has a Guest booking option allowing clients to look at availability without going through the sign in process. On-line booking also allows a flat appointment hold charge or the charge for the actual service to be required with a credit card payment at time of booking. On-line booking has a greatly expanded Service Description area for all services. Cut down on no show clients with credit card billing at time of booking!

More on Marketing with the Mikal 5 Step Program

Now for the Skeptical clients.

The Skeptical clients need to get back on schedule with you. Mikal salons and spas use the JITA program, Just In Time Appointments, to entice the clients back in with those last minute opportunities. In this new environment cancellations are up. This is a problem and an opportunity. JITA automatically looks at your book every day and sends out email and text messages to clients about those last minute opportunities. Don’t think this is like a post on Face Book or a Tweet that is lost in seconds on your client’s timeline. JITA sends the message directly to your clients offering services and does not bother your clients that have been to you in the last 30 days or have a future appointment booked. JITA is direct and smart about offering the opportunities for you to grow your book.

Today’s client is Skeptical and conservatively impulsive! That means they hold on to their money as long as they can but when the urge hits them to buy something - they do! (Remind you of anyone you know?)

At the same time in this post Covid economy clients have slowed down their visit frequency. Clients are stretching their appointments out and did you know if your average client puts off their visits by just one more week that can mean a 15% decrease in sales volume? OUCH!

JITA is the answer. Just In Time Appointment offers take advantage of the new buying trends and increase client visits and income.

JITA looks at your book each morning and checks for available times. Then JITA e-mails/texts clients who you want to offer these appointment opportunities to. Only each service provider’s clients that have opted in to JITA, only for the services you want to promote, only for the times of day you want to build, and only to clients that do not have a future appointment. JITA makes smart marketing offers!

So you need to get Mikal’s JITA going NOW! It only takes minutes to set up and runs every day automatically.

Just imagine.................Having your MIKAL computer look at the cancellations and availability in your book and automatically send appointment opportunities to your clients. The book fills up! Like MAGIC….Your JITA Genie has arrived!

Every night our system looks at the availability in your book and sends your clients an e-mail or text message inviting them to take advantage of the booking opportunity. We call it JITA the Just In Time Appointment system.

What is JITA worth to you? If JITA adds just one appointment per day for a service provider and the average service is $40 then JITA will increase sales $8000.00 per service provider per year. EIGHT THOUSAND DOLLARS! That is a 10 percent increase in sales for the average service provider. WOW!  PLUS - when a client cancels, how much time do you spend trying to fill that appointment? Do you call the wait list, try to rearrange the book? Save all that time and know that JITA is working for you every day. Cross market openings for Spa to Hair clients and Nail to Spa clients – automatically. JITA runs and the book fills up!

 Wish you were booked SOLID?

Important points:

You are in control

You decide who gets the JITA offers.

You decide to send only to clients who do not have a future appointment for that service.

You decide the limited number of offers for each employee.

You decide if JITA offers morning, afternoon, or evening booking opportunities.

You decide the service recommendations that match each employee's services.

You decide if there is a discount.

So unlike web based services that you have to pay for and revenue share the booking income with..... YOU ARE IN CHARGE.

You don't share your revenue. (Booking services charge a sign up fee and 15-18 percent of service booked)

You don't have to give discounts.

You don't create clients who WAIT for appointment offers.

You don't have staff mad at discounted offers being done during busy times.

You don't give your client list to someone else.

You MAKE MONEY.

Want to see JITA?

Call MIKAL and see how JITA will work for you. Call your MIKAL consultant today 513-528-5100 or email  [email protected]

Salon and Spa Spring Money Making Ideas

Now that winter is almost over and here in Cincinnati it will be SEVENTY degrees today!

(great isn’t it?)

 So……………………..it’s time to get back down to business and get into the business of Spring. 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 winter 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! How about NOT wearing all Black – or even banning Black!

 $ Get into the Spring 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 May 1st and end it on August 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! Order the Gift Card On-Line sales option in MIKAL. 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. ChargeItPro, Gravity payments and X-Charge, our credit card processing partners have a meet or beat pricing incentive for you to switch! Please note the on-line Gift Card sales require ChargeItPro for processing the payments. You can use them just for that function or for all your payment needs.

 $ Increase your Nail service prices now just before the prom and summer seasons. This will give you an additional boost to your income and the customers are coming in for that popular service during the Spring season.

 $ Activate 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!

 COME to Camp Mikal Cincinnati Aug 21-23 Cinci Airport Wingate Hotel/Meeting Center

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.

Mikal Salon and Spa Software comparison with Square

First Mikal gives you 2 competing credit card companies to get the best rates. Square is 2.5 to 2.9 percent plus a trans fee with no discounts.

Charge it Pro and Xcharge are from 1.3 to 2.1 percent with some other fees – but our salons say it is cheaper.

Now for the software

Square does not have Employee goals, employee retention tracking, employee sales analysis except very basic sales reports.

Square does not have inventory purchase orders, auto min/max or package sales and tracking.

Square does not book with prototypes or multi room/service/staff

Details Mikal System Square

The costs 2 terms Mikal $159/mo  Square (get ready!) A La Carte

Points system Mikal included  Square $45/mo

A/R packages Mikal included   Square n/a

Gift cards Mikal included   Square 2.9% + .30 ea + $2/card

Retention tracking Mikal included   Square n/a

Purchase orders Mikal included   Square n/a

Goals Mikal included   Square n/a

On line booking Mikal included  Square 5 emp $50/10 emp $90

Text msg Mikal included   Square 10/mo min or .05 each

Apt reminders Mikal included   Square see above text cost

Client marketing Mikal included   Square see above text cost

Phone support Mikal 9-9 m-f 9-4 sat est   Square 6-6 pacific time + cost

Mikal call us!  Square Text support preferred

So a 10 emp salon,  With 800 apts/mo, Confirmations, Selling 60 cards/mo Costs

Mikal total cost no extras or per transactions$159/mo    Square $225/mo  plus plus...

Plus Mikal gives live phone support INCLUDED

MIKAL is rolling out the new and improved On-line booking system for our salons and spas. Easy to use and full of features clients love!

 New clients can now activate an account and book on-line

Clients can prepay an appointment reservation fee by credit card to secure the appointment

Clients can see their loyalty points

Management has a dozen management reports available at the touch of a button

 Also - sell electronic Gift Cards in Mikal on-line. Set up multiple cards, packages, and have the card emailed to the client/recipient. Automatically updated in Mikal and all cart processing handled. See and get operational at Camp Mikal

 On-line booking will quiet the phones and reduce front desk costs, give clients 24/7 booking ability, and give you analysis reporting at the touch of a button

Is your Salon or Spa ready to make some serious money for Valentine's Day?

MIKAL Salons and Spas are ahead of the curve and are taking advantage of the big Valentine promotions now with our award winning software. See the ideas below and give us a call with any questions! NOW is the time to get your promotion together. Don't be paralyzed by weather, a slow economy mindset and don't let the retail stores get all the Valentine Promotion $ales!

Valentine Sales are happening right now - are you set to plug into them?

- Get your decorations up NOW. If you don't have any take the idea from Tracy at Styling One, a progressive MIKAL owners: Tracy says "I didn't have much money and one of my stylists took me to the dollar store in town and there were TONS of cute things. For less than $20 we got window decorations, heart shaped baskets, Red and White wrapping paper. I ran my Inventory Ranking Report and set up a table with all the slooooooow moving items with a sign 40% off. We set up the table with an area with the wrapping paper I got at the dollar store and allow the clients to wrap their purchases for free! Slow moving Product is flying off the table and clients love the ability to do their own gift wrapping for free. They have even sent friends in to get items. Also be sure to set the items up in your MIKAL inventory as Non-Commission so you don't pay commission on these liquidation items. Does your software system highlite the products that you need to MOVE NOW and maximize your retail profits?

- Sell special Valentine Gift Cards: Vince at Hair Care has special cards printed by a company that does small quantities of cards that have Valentine graphics and preprinted amounts of $50 and $100. He uses the MIKAL gift card system to track the sales and redemptions. Note: MIKAL Gift Card processing is FREE - no fees or charges except for your card costs. Vince says this is his third year doing it. Vince says: "Clients come up to the front desk where we have the Valentine gift cards displayed and just buy them as quick point of purchase items. The display is what sells the items. They look great and are inexpensive. Patty Jones at Raco gets them for me fast." Raco's number is 513-984-2101 or 800-446-1991.

- Do you have a Spa Sampler package to sell? The Sonorama Spa puts a package together of services including a manicure, 30 minute mini facial, 15 minute chair massage, hair styling service, and make-up touch up for $99 for Valentine's Day. It is only redeemable Monday thru Wednesday from 9am to 5pm but includes complementary baked goods, a single rose, and a chocolate treat to take home! Last year they sold and booked 300+ of these packages by advertising on the radio the first 2 weeks in February during rush hour drive time 7am to 9am and 5pm to 6pm Monday thru Friday only. Sonorama made sure they had booking experts available to take the calls and credit cards charges right over the phone. Note: they also upgraded over 50 of the calls to the Valentine Day of Rejuvination that costs $449! MIKAL has the easiest to sell and redeem package tracking system in the beauty industry. Sell series, standings, and day packages with just a few simple keystrokes with your MIKAL software. Call us for more package ideas!

- Do you have your MIKAL Packages implemented, Client Loyalty Points Program, and Inventory Ranking report run for the Valentine's Day promotions? Call your MIKAL support team to get the systems in place and bust this recessionary trend! Call us at 513-528-5100.

- Do you have the amazing MIKAL JAVA based SEVEN software or some other package that just is not measuring up? See the power of the new Management Dash Board, the unique MIKAL SPLASH Screen, the Automatic Autopilot E-marketing system, and get a FREE Salon/Spa Policy Manual e-mailed to you if you call and give us 15 minutes to show you an Internet based presentation of our award winning software. Call and ask for an e-mail of our information package - an awesome upgrade.

Fred

Co-Founder

The MIKAL Corporation

[email protected]

WWW.MIKAL-SALON-SOFTWARE.COM

Fred,

I want to share with you one of the biggest challenges of my career in the beauty business and how I recovered with the knowledge I have gained from you and your team and with our MIKAL software.

In March two employees moved several blocks down to a booth operation. One stylist was the top producer who had seven years with us. The other stylist had been with us for twenty years and was a reliable performer. They accounted for more than $200,000 of gross income.

Our contract was implemented in 2021 so both were excluded. I considered them to be loyal employees. It's the familiar story: both came to us with nothing and we supported them with supplemented education, benefits, and support in their personal lives.

After many tears, I dusted myself off, prayed to God to guide me, and on the way to work a few days after this bombshell I heard these strategies in my head:

Cash Flow:

I called all the "monthlies" which could be negotiated and did so.

We had recently cut back to bi-weekly payroll which was fortunate.

I used the inventory software to make tough calls on products leaving and staying.

I had a tasteful sign for "SALE" items and devoted about 12 linear vertical feet to that area in a visible area (beside shampoo area)

When distributors challenged me I remained steadfast.

I asked my top producer if she could give me two Saturdays a month. (She said "yes".

I discontinued the housekeeping position in the daytime and hired three new talent salaried stylists over a three month period to perform these duties.

Retail Sales:

I created retail specials for six week periods and produced framed signage at each station, easel signs, and foam board signs on restroom doors.We used an in-house graphic design software then emailed the product and specs to Kinkos and produced a professional looking sign for a very reasonable price.

I created bundles of all kinds seasonally.

We put small cards with retail promotions in every welcome bag for new clients.

Service Sales Marketing:

I used my MIKAL reporting and appointment book analysis to identify client types:

* 1. Clients who came every 8-10 weeks for haircuts only.

* 2. Clients who came every 4-6 weeks for haircuts.

* 3. Clients who came every 8-10 weeks for color and cut services.

* 4. Clients who came every 4-6 weeks for color and cut services.

* 5. Clients who came regularly for straightening or keratins.

The minute the stylists left on the last day, I began contacting clients by email (with the MIKAL system) or by telephone using the Mikal Last Visit date list if no email address was available and offered the following:

*1. Next haircut is on the house.  NOTE: all these offers were for clients who had been to the stylists who left us at least 3 times in the last 12 months.  Easy to find and automatically generate with MIKAL.  I did not want to give deals to salon or house clients or newer clients who where not yet loyal to the stylists that were exiting!

* 2. Next three cuts are on the house.  For non responders to #1

* 3. Next color and cut are OTH. 

*4. Next three (3) color and cut OTH. For non responders to #3

* 5. Next keratin deal

I personally made calls for up to five hours a day. Over a six month period I continued to place emails and phone calls to clients who had not returned. I personally recommended a stylist(s) for each client.

ALL LOYAL SERVICE PROVIDERS WERE PAID IN FULL FOR SERVICES.

Clients who received one free color and cut received a promotional card to get the next cut and style free with their next color service with any stylist of their choice.

I bought a unique hole punch and used that to punch a business card to create a gift certificate to check against the transactions in the MIKAL sales history.

Result:

Departing stylists were frantically texting and calling loyal stylists about what clients were coming in.

Stylists wondered why the departing stylists had so much time to text and call.

Loyal stylists were increasingly busy and verbalized that the departing stylists had made a mistake. They expressed loyalty to our salon.

Clients verbalized to me that they had wanted a change for a time but were reluctant to "hurt" the long time stylist.

Within two months 2/3 of the contacted clients for the 20 year stylist visited. Within 2 months 50% of the contacted clients for the top producer visited.

Clients verbalized to me how much they appreciated my personal attention.

A few clients returned but did not want to take advantage of any offer.

Final Page:

In less than two years, our numbers returned to the March figures.

On Dec. 5, two years later, the booth rental salon closed its doors.

We could not have survived this challenge without many years of education and input from your team. We could not have recovered so well without the MIKAL software.

I have learned many painful lessons and maybe they can help another owner.

My dear friend, Fred. One last tid-bit. I paid off the last piece of debt incurred after the walk out and another salon disaster last month. We had borrowed almost a million dollars across a bank, SBA, and SBA loan and paid it off in less than eight years while growing the SECOND location.

Thanks for being a key piece of our success over these decades.

Let's take this down time to fine tune our systems!   Have you ever logged into the Mikal Client web portal?

It has a TON of great information for you.

- Mikal Reports Book download a 60 page book full of examples and ideas on how to read and use your MIKAL reports. Sold for $39 – FREE DOWNLOAD this month.

- Quick Start Manual download is a daily operations and set up book on Mikal. Use this book to make sure your system is set up to make a maximum positive impact on your business. Sold for $69 - FREE DOWNLOAD this month.

Plus the Mikal BLOG with great ideas and articles and much more.

Click on the LINK to get your FREE manuals and more!

Go the the MIKAL web site and at the bottom of the page select Client Site

ID is tech

PW is tech

Download manuals, see the Blog and more!

NOW is the time to upgrade and fine tune Mikal SEVEN in your salon/spa. 513-528-5100

- On line booking running

- EMBA on staff phones

- SEVEN up and running

- VIP Loyalty Points Program

Your MIKAL Team

513-528-5100 www.mikal.com

[email protected]