Keeping your Employees Plugged in with Paging

I'd like to take some time today to explain a great feature we've had for some time but relatively few of our customers use - the Paging feature. Salons and Spas can use the Paging feature to keep their Employees informed about a variety of events in the salon without the noise of in-salon intercom systems, the cost of expensive pager systems, or having your receptionist running back and forth through the salon to talk to your service providers. If you have a Spa/Salon Manager email address - free for our Cloud and maintenance contract customers - and your employees have cell phones that can receive text messages then you're ready to get started with Spa/Salon Manager's Paging system.

It's a snap to set up Paging in our program. Simply click the Paging button at the top of the screen and click Assign Pager. After that select the employee that you're setting up. You'll then see a screen that allows you to fill in that employee's cell phone number and cell phone carrier. We ask for the carrier so that we can send the text messages out through your email system. This makes the process of sending the text messages completely free to you - the only costs would be for the employee receiving the text message if they did not have an unlimited texting plan.

In addition to the cell phone number and carrier our newest version has the following options:

• Send Pager Messages - This option is the 'master switch' that determines whether the employee should receive any pager messages at all. If an employee only wants pager messages while they're at work they could go into Paging and Assign Pager and turn this option off when they leave each day and back on when they come in the next day. Turning this option on turns on pager messages for same day appointment changes as well as notifications of any intercom messages received in addition to any other options selected below.
• Send Messages for Customer Check In - This option is the replacement for those expensive pagers or noisy in-salon intercom systems. Selecting this option sends the employee a text message to let them know each time their next customer has checked in at the front desk.
• Send Messages for All Appointments Booked - Some employees would like to know any time you book an appointment even if it's not on the current day. We had one spa for instance that had a massage therapist that came in on an as-needed basis. She wanted to know the moment the salon booked a new appointment so she could plan her schedule. Turning this option on would mean that every appointment booked in your column would trigger a text message notification.
• Send Messages Each Day with Start Time - If you're sending text messages to your customers to remind them of their appointment you can now send a text message to each member of your staff at the same time with their scheduled starting time in the appointment book as well as the time of their first appointment that day.

All of the options mentioned above are on an employee-by-employee basis. If I were implementing Paging in my salon I would take the time to educate my employees on the Paging area and then allow the employees to set their own options. That way they can keep their cell phone number/carrier up-to-date and can control what messages they receive. That puts your employees in the driver's seat and allows them to stay plugged in with Paging.