As salons and spas continue to adapt to the new normal within the industry, our Product Team has been hard at work updating Meevo 2 and adding new features and integrations to help our clients now and as we move into the future.
This week, our Summer 2020 Release went live, and to go over some highlights from this update, we sat down with Andrew Clarke, VP of Product Development at MSI. Check out our Q&A with Andy to learn more about some of the new additions and features now available to Meevo 2 clients.
Q1: How big of a role did the contactless experience have in planning for the summer release?
We had already planned on releasing several contactless features in our Spring and Summer releases even before the COVID-19 pandemic. We knew these features were important to salons and spas to improve the client experience.
However, Meevo 2 Self-Pay was actually on our roadmap for our October release, but then we decided to move up production so it could be part of our Summer release as we felt it was a necessary and valuable feature to our clients as they started to reopen and adjust to the new normal within the industry.
Q2: What are some of the new features that you are most excited about?
Online salon booking software prepay, Meevo 2 Self-Pay, and the geo check-in feature now available through the Snap Lite integration are what I am most excited about.
Our Online Booking prepay feature gives salons and spas the flexibility to collect money upfront to pay for cancellation fees or fully prepay for services ahead of time.
Meevo 2 Self-Pay lets salon and spa customers securely pay for services at check out through a link sent to their mobile device. Customers will also be able to add a tip through Self-Pay.
Snap Lite’s geo check-in enables customers to check-in for appointments from the comfort and safety of their vehicle. Salon and spa staff get alerted that their customer has arrived, and can then communicate via text message when it is time to come in for their appointment.
Q3: Why is Meevo 2 Self-Pay such an important addition to the contactless journey and touch-free checkout?
Self-Pay helps to enhance the contactless journey since salon and spa customers (and staff) can feel safe not having to touch credit card processing devices that other individuals have touched before them. Customers can have their services performed and then notify either their Service Provider or front desk that they would like to pay via Self-Pay and then use their own mobile devices to complete their transaction.
And if a customer has a credit card already on file, this payment method can be used to complete the Self-Pay transaction.
Q4: How will Per Ticket Service Charges help our clients as they adjust to their new normal?
To adhere to safety and social distancing guidelines, many salons and spas have had to incur additional costs to renovate areas of their business, purchase PPE equipment, and stock up on sanitizing products to clean areas after each appointment. This ends up adding to the cost of performing each service.
To take on these new costs, many businesses have added a temporary sanitation fee to each ticket (not commissionable) to help offset rising costs. Meevo 2 now lets our clients easily create Per Ticket Service Charges that are automatically applied to all tickets, helping our clients recoup some of their sanitation expenses while saving time at check out for staff and customers and making the process much more efficient.
Q5: Just how big of a role does client feedback play in determining future Meevo 2 updates and releases?
We don’t like to think of businesses that purchase our software as just another client. We prefer to establish relationships to get to know how each owner would like to run their business and help them utilize Meevo 2 in a way to accomplish their goals within their spa business plan. That mentality helps our client-facing teams understand businesses’ needs and determine if a workaround exists or if an idea should be submitted to our Product Development team.
Another important aspect of our approach is enabling clients to communicate with each other to improve on ideas being submitted. Hundreds of ideas and thousands of votes are implemented with each release, and our clients are kept up to date when ideas that interest them are being considered, planned, or have shipped with a release.
