Customer Preferences Explained

Frequently Asked Questions and Important Notes

As new and more advanced versions of the SuperSalon software are released, it is sometimes the easy to get lost in the maze of what is old, and what is new. More so on the end user level than for those of us who have access to regular release notes, this confusion is usually resolved for our clientele after several meetings and / or conference calls.

The following article represents just that; the re-format and breakdown of the lengthy conversation on Customer Preferences between the managerial team of ProPoint, and one of its corporate clients.

Much like the Customer Points article, this explanatory one on Customer Preferences is meant to be a one stop source for all information pertaining to this particular niche of the POS.

Future updates may consist of newly found troubleshooting steps, advancements in the UI, or any other new information pertaining to this often overlooked section. Much of the text used in this article is a directly quoted copy and paste from specific sections of the conversation, per Management’s request.

Illustrated Breakdown of Settings

The Customer Preferences interface can be found in the Manager > Customers section of the POS after a customer profile is retrieved. Illustrated below is where the Customer Preferences section of the UI can be accessed from the customer profile (button highlighted in green).

Broken down in order of appearance in the interface itself, are each of the five primary settings located in this section of the UI, as well as an explanation as to what they do and what they control. The bare Customer Preferences interface, shown below, also allows for the configuration of two favorite stylists as well.

Send SMS

Requires subscription to SMS service, this service is independent of SalonCheckIn.
Triggers the sending of an SMS message when an appointment is confirmed.
Uses the cellphone field, “Appointment Alert Messages” field and “Appointment Confirmation Message” field for the default message (located in the POS under Setup -> Software Settings -> Marketing -> SMS & Email).
Also controls sending of birthday messages via SMS, loyalty changes or on new loyalty program enrollment messages.
If the SMS subscription service is not active and the option is enabled for a particular customer, nothing will happen.

Visit Reminder

Requires subscription to SMS service, this service is independent of SalonCheckIn.
If this option and “Send SMS” are selected, an SMS will be sent reminding the customer that they should return to the salon.
Uses the “Send message X days after checkout” (located in the POS under Setup -> Software Settings -> Marketing -> SMS & Email -> Return Visit Reminder Message) to control when the message is sent.

Allow Appointment Confirmation

This is a legacy option that used to tie in with our old (now unused) customer profile screen.
It precedes the “Customer Information (Private)” permission and used to mask the customers phone number if the option was enabled.
It essentially told the salon that they don’t have permission to contact the customer via phone to confirm appointments (in the days before SalonCheckIn).

Allow Mailings

Does not tie in with SalonCheckIn or SMS.
Reports a “yes” or “no” in column “V” on the customer export from iOffice. Spreadsheet can be filtered based on the setting.
This is useful for your own marketing campaigns, but again, does not fire off any automatic mailings (snail mail, email, SMS, etc…).

Enable SalonCheckin

Functionality requires SalonCheckIn service to be enabled.
When checked, it creates a user account for that guest in SalonCheckIn without them needing to register manually.
A welcome email is sent to the address on record. This allows salons to invite their guests to use SCI. The welcome email is queued immediately when the option is “checked” and the customer profile is saved.

Frequently Asked Questions and Important Notes

Much like the preceding section, this FAQ is a direct distillation of a series of questions and answers posed to both management, and subsequently to development for clarification. Much of the text being used is a direct copy and paste per the request of management.

What is the difference between a visit reminder and an appointment confirmation?

A visit reminder requires the SMS subscription service and will remind a guest when they should come back in for their next service. An appointment confirmation will send a guest a predefined SMS message when appointments are booked and confirmed. The dependencies for this service are as follows: the SMS subscription service must be active, the customer must have “Send SMS” enabled in “Customer Preferences“, then “Appointment Confirmation Message” must be setup and enabled in Setup -> Software Settings -> Marketing -> SMS & Email. So again, this is separate from the SalonCheckIn service.

Does SalonCheckIn send out appointment reminders via SMS or email?

SalonCheckIn does not send out any SMS. From iOffice -> Setup -> (Select Group) ->Edit -> Web Settings, SalonCheckin has 4 options that can be toggled:

Email user confirmation: Determines if a confirmation email should be sent to the user when a booking is created. Default value: Enabled.
Email Store Admin Confirm Email: Determines if a confirmation email should be bcc`ed to the store administrator when a booking is created. Default value: Disabled.
Email User Cancel Email: Determines if a confirmation email should be sent to the user when a booking is cancelled. Default value: Disabled.
Email Store Admin Cancel Email: Determines if a confirmation email should be bcc`ed to the store administrator when a booking is cancelled. Default value: Disabled.

Can the end user (customer) configure their alert preferences through the SalonCheckIn portal?

Currently, there are no settings that can be configured by the end user. In the “My Profile” section of SalonCheckIn, there are 2 toggles at the bottom: “Please send information on specials and promotions via email” and “Please send information on specials and promotions via SMS”.

Both options are currently inactive and only there for future use.

If an appointment is booked and the salon makes a change to the itinerary at the POS level, will the customer be notified of the change?

Customers are not alerted to any change made to their appointment itinerary made from the POS. However, if the “Email User Cancel Email” option is enabled in the general SalonCheckIn settings, customers will receive confirmation via email if they themselves cancel the appointment through the web portal.

Notes on Merging Customer Records (between records created in the POS and records created through SalonCheckIn):

There is an automatic matching process that tries with best effort to find the existing customer record with name, phone number or email address. If a match is found, SalonCheckIn will use that customer record for appointments/tickets. If the auto-match doesn’t return any match, a new customer record is created. Salon staff can use customer merge for any manual adjustments and the merge should reflect on SCI without issue.

There’s no harm in merging the customer created from SCI into a previously existing record on the POS…IE, the POS customer record becomes the “master“, while maintaining the relationship with SalonCheckIn.

Notes on Hyphens and Phone Numbers:

If subscribed to the SMS service, phone numbers must be saved in a 10-digit format, with no additional characters (no hyphens).

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