Insight Salon Software vs Salon Iris: Which Is Better?
Managing a salon is challenging, and the industry is always changing. There is a great need for comprehensive salon management software. Yet, the options are overwhelming.
To help you find out which one fits your business best, we’ve compared the top solutions out there: Insight Salon Software and Salon Iris. Here’s how they stack up against each other.
Bookings
Both Insight Salon Software and Salon Iris offer a set of core features for managing your appointments. Some of these are:
- Automatic appointment notifications.
- Real-time online booking.
- Waiting and cancellation lists.
- Multi-location view.
But Insight provides a wider range of tools to help you get the most out of your salon booking system. For example, Insight’s booking wizard allows clients to book multiple services at once. This means that you can run a single workflow for all services, which makes it easier to keep track of your clients' appointments
And if a client with multiple no-shows is trying to book, Insight Salon automatically sends an alert to your staff.
Salon Services
Insight Salon Software is the only option that allows you to create and track a series of services with customized redemptions. Besides, with Insight you can:
- Raise your service packages and pricing by percentage.
- Track the products your employees are using automatically.
- Ask your clients to have a credit card on file before booking any services.
Salon Iris doesn’t support any of these features.
Inventory Management
Insight Salon Software gives you the ability to create and receive buy orders from vendors. This is something that Salon Iris doesn’t offer.
Insight also provides you with a robust reporting tool that lets you track the use of retail products transferred from the back bar and employee stations. You can even track the average cost of products and markup. This can be helpful for checking how much you're spending on your inventory, and how much profit you're making on each purchase.
Salon Iris doesn't have this kind of feature set. It's more focused on helping with ordering and maintaining inventories, but it doesn't include solid tools for tracking your inventory.
Client Memberships & Loyalty Points
Even though both options allow clients to share their memberships over different locations, Insight is the only one providing shared memberships between multiple clients.
Another benefit of Insight over Salon Iris is that it gives you the option of setting the days of the week a membership is valid and creating custom special discounts.
You can also use Insight’s loyalty points level system to allow your customers to earn points on every purchase. These points will be then added to their account balance and used towards future purchases.
On top of that, with Insight, you can create custom loyalty points rules and set a multiplier system to double or triple the points rewards depending on how much they spend at the salon.
For example, if a client pays for a service that’s worth $100 twice, you can set a rule so they automatically get 10 loyalty points. If they spend $200, you can increase their reward to 20 loyalty points, and so on.
Salon Iris lacks these capabilities.
Employee Management
Unlike Salon Iris, Insight Salon Software is designed to assist with the day-to-day operations of a salon, so it allows you to:
- Provide payroll deductions for the US, Canada, and Australia.
- Get remittance calculation and reporting.
- Email detailed paystubs automatically to your employees.
Tanning Tracker
Insight Salon Software offers great support for tanning services, while Salon Iris doesn’t include them in their management software.
For example, Insight integrates with a T-max manager and timers to help you see exactly how much time you're spending on each client and how many appointments are in your schedule.
You can also track minute-by-minute information about each client's tanning session. The software also lets you review bed usage and bulb life hours in real-time, as well as create unlimited tanning packages and allow your clients to book them online.
Credit Card Integration
Both software support credit card integration, but Salon Iris only with Card Connect. In contrast, Insight Software has a preferred partnership pricing with International Bancard. This means that you can get a discount on your processing fees when using the software.
On top of that, they’ll match you with a dedicated integration coach. This person will answer all your credit card processing questions and make sure you're getting the most bang for your buck from your investment in Insight.
And unlike Salon Iris, Insight has a 10-year partnership with unsurpassed customer service, which means they are able to provide you with the highest level of support.
Custom Reports
Both solutions have their pros and cons when it comes to their reporting capabilities. However, one thing that sets Insight apart from Salon Iris is its ability to show visual graphs of multi-year comparisons and customized reports for each client's details.
If you need a report that isn't available, they give you the option to call them to get it done for you.
Pricing
Insight Salon Software prices range from $25/mo to $225/mo depending on the plan you choose, while Salon Iris's starts at $29/month.
Salon Iris might be cheaper than Insight Salon Software. However, Insight offers a more well-rounded and comprehensive set of features that make the investment definitely worth it.
Final Verdict
At the end of the day, it all comes down to your needs and the kind of experience you want to have when using salon management software. But if you're looking for comprehensive salon software that will help you run your business efficiently and effectively, then Insight Salon Software is the best option.
Insight allows you to manage your customers, schedule appointments, and handle your salon’s finances and staff from a single easy-to-use interface. Plus, it’s committed to providing you, your employees, and your clients with the best possible service.
