Increasing a hairdressing salon’s capacity utilization thanks to digital signage

The challenge: to trigger visits

After analyzing the business activity of all the group’s salons, one main difficulty emerged: that of the capacity utilization rate, particularly during certain time slots. However, in a hairdressing salon, an empty chair represents lost revenue, while for their part the fixed costs (and particularly staff salaries) are constant and incompressible. Based on this observation, the dynamic signage project set up by the MonCoiffeur.fr network had a simple objective: to help salons fill these available slots, and in particular, the so-called “last minute” slots, which are often the most difficult to find bookings for.

A clear challenge: to trigger spontaneous visits without appointments.

To achieve this, a simple idea emerged: use a display panel in the window to display the availability to have your hair done, within ½ an hour.

Extracting the right data from each hairdressing salon’s management system

The main difficulty of the project was the need to be able to extract the data from each hairdressing salon’s “point-of-sale” system (the Hair Net management system), to incorporate it into a planner and then to display it clearly, in real time, on a screen in the window.

The Media4Display digital signage solution from Telelogos met the requirements of this project in every way, thanks to its ability to connect to the API of the point-of-sale software used by hairdressing salons, allowing information to be retrieved directly from the business application and to be displayed on a screen.  The deployment of this solution required close collaboration between a technical project manager, a developer, the publisher of the Hair Net point-of-sale software, as well as the Telelogos Support team, which was able to advise the various stakeholders on the best way to port the information in order for it to be usable. A script has therefore been created to allow Media4Display to retrieve the right information from the right place in the business application, so that it can then display it on the screens, at the desired time.

Conveying information visually using digital signage

Thanks to this script, each screen in the windows of the hairdressing salons displays a live update on the number of places available (with a maximum of 2 places simultaneously) within 30 minutes. The counter shows the number of places as well as the waiting times. Visual information that encourages passers-by who have not made a hairdressing appointment but who don’t have anything pressing to do within the next hour, to come into the salon to take advantage of this opportunity!

When no places are available within ½ an hour, the screen then reverts to displaying a more classic display loop, including opening hours, product marketing information or details of the services offered by the salon, etc. Over and above simply filling seats, the idea is to create real value for the salon by allowing it to circulate relevant information for its customers.