Salon customer records app: keep client notes and appointment history on your phone

Store every client's history, preferences and what you did last time, so the information is on your phone before they sit down.

Who it's for

A three-chair salon on a high street, or a barbershop with two barbers and a Saturday lad. The owner is on the floor all day and does the paperwork at night. Regulars come back every six weeks and expect you to remember them. The problem bites when a client sits down, asks for the same colour as last time, and nobody can find the card with the formula on it.

The problem today

Everything lives in the column book and a box of record cards. The formulas are on the cards, if the card got filed back where it should be. Patch test dates are in a separate notebook. When a client rings to rebook, I am flicking through pages with wet hands. If the stylist who normally does her is off that week, we are starting from scratch and guessing. We have lost regulars over a toner that came out wrong the second time. And I never get round to ringing the ones who have not been in since the spring, so they drift off and I only notice months later.

What the app does, screen by screen

1. Client list — Staff and the owner search by name or mobile number and see when each client was last in.
2. Client record — Staff and the owner open one client and find her contact details, allergies, patch test date, usual stylist and everything we have ever done for her.
3. Visit notes — The stylist writes down at the chair what was done, the formula and timings, the products used and a photo of the finish.
4. Appointment history and rebook — Staff see past and upcoming visits for that client and put the next one in before she leaves.
5. Due a visit — The owner works through the clients who are overdue and messages them on WhatsApp from the record.
6. My visits — The client signs in to see her own appointments, her forms and what is booked next.
7. Staff and settings — The owner adds or removes stylists and decides what each of them can see.

Who uses it and what it keeps track of

• Clients — Name, mobile number, email, how they like to be contacted, allergies and the date of the last patch test, usual stylist, what they normally have and any private note from the owner. Staff see the clients they work on, the owner sees everyone, and each client sees only her own details.
• Visits — Date, service, which stylist did it, colour formula and timings, products used, photos and the stylist's note. Staff and the owner see all of it. The client sees the date, the service and who did her hair.
• Consultation and consent forms — Consultation answers, patch test record and the client's signature, with the date it was taken. Staff and the owner can see them, and the client can see her own and sign a new one.
• Follow-ups — When a client is due back, whether we have messaged her, what she said and who is chasing. The owner and the stylist on that client can see it. Clients cannot.
• Staff — Name, what they do, their days in the salon and whether they are still with us. Only the owner can see or change this.

What it changes for the business

The formula and the history are on the phone at the chair, so the second visit comes out like the first and a client does not have to explain herself again. Nobody hunts for a card. A stylist can cover for someone who is off and still get it right. Patch test dates stop being a guess. The overdue list gives the owner a proper reason to message regulars who have gone quiet, instead of hoping they turn up. Clients notice being remembered, and they rebook.

The one decision that matters

Decide what the client can see in her own portal. One option is to show her everything, including the colour formula and the stylist's notes, which feels open and saves questions at the chair. The other is to show her the visit dates, the services, who did her hair, her forms and her next appointment, while the formula, timings and the stylist's note stay with the salon. Go with the second. Stylists will not write honest notes if they know the client is reading them, and the formula is the salon's own work. You can always show a client her formula when she asks for it, which is a better conversation than her finding it in an app.

What to build first, and what can wait

Build the client list, the client record, the visit note and the appointment history first. That alone replaces the card box, which is the thing that hurts. Add the client portal once staff are writing notes properly, because an empty portal makes the salon look careless. Photos, consent forms and the overdue list come next. Leave stock, tills and staff commission out of it for now.

How BooDoo builds it

Describe the salon and the records you keep, and BooDoo builds it. You get a real database behind it and sign-in for the owner, your stylists and your clients, each seeing a different screen. The same request gives a website on its own address and an Android phone app you can put on Google Play under your own account, with your own domain on the website. A WhatsApp button on the record opens a chat with the client. When you want the visit note changed, you describe the change. There are ready-made salon apps you can try live and copy into your workspace, and BooDoo Launch can build it for you instead.

How you'll know it works

A regular sits down and asks for the same as last time, and the stylist reads the formula off her phone before the gown is on. Nobody goes looking for a card. Week by week, the list of clients who are overdue gets shorter.

Build it

Paste this in and it gets built.

I run a small salon with three stylists and I want an app on my phone that holds our client records instead of the card box. I need to search a client by name or mobile, open her record and see her number, allergies and last patch test date, who usually does her, and every visit with the colour formula, timings, products used and a photo. Staff add a note at the end of each appointment and can book the next one from the record. Give me a list of clients who have not been in for a while, with a button that opens WhatsApp to message them. Clients sign in on a website to see their own visits, forms and next appointment, but not our formulas or notes. Only I can add stylists or see everything.