12 questions to ask before switching salon software

A salon changes its booking software about as often as it repaints the front desk — rarely, and usually because something broke rather than because the timing was right. That makes it hard to know what a normal changeover looks like, or which questions actually matter versus which ones a sales conversation is designed to steer you around.

These are the twelve worth asking. Ask them of us and ask them of anyone else on your shortlist. The honest answer to several of them is “it depends” — what matters is whether the person answering can tell you what it depends on.

The shortlist

Your data

1. Who owns your client and appointment data — and can you export it yourself, any time you like?

The honest answer should be: you do, and you can pull it yourself without asking anyone’s permission or waiting on a request. Try this before you sign, not after. Ask for a sample export of your current client list and appointment history, today, while you are still just looking. If the answer involves a support ticket, a delay, or a fee to get your own client list back, that is worth knowing now.

2. What happens to your appointment history — the bookings, the notes, the colour formulas, going back years?

This depends on what you ask for and what the provider migrates by default. Some systems bring years of history across as data you can still use — a stylist can open a client’s record and see the actual colour formula from years back. Others only move a current client list, and the history becomes a static file you can look at but nothing on the new system can read. Ask for the date range in writing.

3. Will the export come out in a format another system can actually read?

There is a real difference between a plain file — the kind any other software can open and use — and a PDF or printout that just sits there. Ask to see an actual export, not a description of one. This is the question that protects you against whoever you switch to next, not just the one you are switching to now.

The honest answer to most of these questions is “it depends” — the provider willing to say what it depends on is telling you more than the one with a rehearsed yes.

The changeover

4. How long does the changeover really take, start to finish?

It depends on your salon’s size, how many years of history you are bringing across, and how many stylists need their own price lists set up. Get real dates in writing rather than a verbal “a few days”. Ask what “live” actually means too — a client list moved across is not the same as a rota built, prices set per stylist, and online booking switched over.

5. What happens on the first Saturday?

This is the question that separates a provider who has done this before from one reciting a pitch. Ask directly: if the online booking page breaks, or the front desk cannot find a client’s history on a Saturday morning, who do you call, and are they actually answering calls that day. A provider who has not thought hard about the first Saturday has not run many changeovers.

6. Who trains your staff, and what happens to the stylist who is on holiday that week?

Ask whether training happens in person or over a call, once or on an ongoing basis, and what happens for the self-employed stylist who only works part of the week and misses the session entirely. A one-off training day works for a salon that is fully staffed and available. Most salons are not.

The money

7. What does it cost when you add a stylist — or lose one?

Get the exact number per seat, not a banded price that turns out to depend on your total headcount. Ask directly whether a self-employed stylist renting a chair part time costs the same as a full-time employed one, and what happens to that cost while a chair sits empty during maternity leave or long-term sick.

8. Is there a setup fee, and what does it actually buy?

Ask what the fee covers in plain terms: moving your data, building each stylist’s price list, connecting the till, training the desk. Or is it a fee to start clicking about, with the real work — the part that actually gets the diary working — quoted separately once you are already committed.

9. What is in the quoted price, and what turns up as an add-on later?

Ask specifically about the phone, colour weighing, card payments, and the rota. Some of these are included as standard; some are priced as extras that only surface in the contract, or worse, well after you have signed. Get every line item named before you sign, not implied.

Getting out

10. What happens if you decide to leave?

Most providers will tell you that you can leave whenever you like. Push past that line. Ask how long an export actually takes, whether it costs anything, and whether you keep access to look things up while you move to whatever comes next. “You can leave any time” and “you can leave any time with your data intact” are different promises.

11. Is there a minimum contract term, and what is the real notice period?

Some run rolling monthly agreements; others tie you in for a year or more, with a cost attached to leaving early. Ask for the notice period in days, not the word “flexible”. If there is hardware involved — a card machine, a colour scale — ask what happens to it if you leave: whose is it, and does it need to go back.

12. Who answers the phone on a Monday morning when something is broken?

Ask for the actual support hours, in writing, not “we’re always here”. Ask what happens specifically on a bank holiday weekend, because that is when a till going down costs the most and help is hardest to reach.

The question underneath all the others

Can you get your data out, in a form you can use, without a fight? Every question on this list is really that one question, asked about time, money, or a phone call on a Monday morning.

Ask it of every provider on your shortlist, including us. The salon that asks these twelve questions before signing is the one that is not surprised further down the line.

Questions salon owners ask