For those of you not already familiar with our Cloud software, take a minute to read my previous blog post Why Cloud?. It’s been less than two years since we released the Cloud version of our program and it’s taken off beyond even our expectations.  At this point almost 20% of our current customers are using Cloud! There are far more salons and spas out there that could benefit from our Cloud program but haven’t made the decision to switch …

Sad Note: Chuck Riechert my dear friend for the last 23 years and my West Coast Distributor passed away April 9th, 2012 due to complications from Asbestos exposure. Chuck and I talked every few days concerning Spa-Salon Manager projects, family and technology in general. Chuck and I met after the earthquake in 1989 in California where he owned a salon in Mill Valley that was using the Salon Manager.  After becoming my West Coast distributor, he successfully set up salons …

I’ve had many people ask why we offer integrated credit card processing.  My belief is that the advantages far outweigh the single disadvantage. To use credit card processing you will need a credit card swipe (one included free with sign up) and a receipt printer.  The cost of the receipt printer is the only disadvantage, but from my experience the cost savings from the lower service fees generally pay for the receipt printer in a few months. Now to the …

Ever since its release 12 years ago our online booking has been helping salons and spas reduce the workload at their front desk while at the same time increasing customer satisfaction. We have many satisfied salons and spas using the online booking now, both to put up that ‘Open Sign’ 24 hours a day 7 days a week as well as to increase their own employees access to their appointment books. I’d like to take a moment to explain the …

Probably the most common support question we’re asked is on how to open and close days. Surprisingly this isn’t just a question we get from our new customers. Often it comes from customers that have been using the program for awhile but find that they’re having trouble balancing the drawer at the end of the day. We’ve worked out an outstanding system to ensure that you balance each day. There are a few extra steps involved but those extra steps …

Ever since we released the Cloud version of our software we’ve been looking for ways to explain why and when Cloud Software makes sense. We’ve gone so far as to start working through our customer list calling every one of our customers to look at their business and see whether Cloud makes sense for them. Hopefully this post will help answer some of the general questions that determine whether Cloud is right for your business. Cloud opens up a whole …

We try to beat this into the ground as much as possible and this blog’s a great spot for another reminder – if you’re not doing backups in your Spa/Salon Manager program then you need to start today! I talk to a lot of people doing technical support every day. I can tell you from experience that most people will eventually face a computer failure that will require some sort of data backup to fully recover. And I can also …

This is an exciting time to be working at IBCS making The Spa/Salon Manager software and part of that excitement is the opportunity to reach out to our customers in ways that simply weren’t available or widely used in the spa and salon industry in the past. With so many of our customers active on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and the many other social sites on the web I felt it was important to broaden the scope of what we …