Episode Transcript
Welcome to the Insync Insurance podcast. I'm your host, Dawn Cross, and today we'll be discussing the brand new app SOS Beauty, a new service for customers to book beauty and aesthetics treatments with local professionals. Here today, we have guest Fay Finero to talk about her brand new app and how it revolutionized booking clients throughout the UK.
My first question, how did it all begin? Where was your thought process behind SOS Beauty?
So I originally came up with the idea back in 2019, January, 2019. And I was just looking at the fact that I see so many people posting on Facebook saying, who knows where I can get my nails done on Friday?
And you'd see 20 people commenting or tagging friends into it. And then they'd be like, oh actually, I'm not available Friday, or I've got no availability for three weeks. And the person would get, you know, two days later, they've got 50 people now tagged on their post, but none of them are actually available still when they need them.
And I was kind of like, not just that, I was also finding that people were getting tagged. Um, from people that lived very close by. So, for example, my cousin was asking for a lash lift and she's like, does anybody know where I can get a lash lift? And I was like, my best friend lives on the next street to you.
She offers lash lifts from home, but they didn't know each other so they weren't connected. And for how many people have got somebody living at the end of their street in the block of, um, flats, you know that they just don't know offer a service that they need. So I came up with the idea initially, like I said back in 2019, and it just, it took me three years to kind of get my act together and to make it a reality.
But during that time, I'd actually gone on to train an aesthetics myself. Um, I also set up an accredited Aesthetics training academy as well. Um, so I'd gotten to know the industry from both the customer's perspective, but also then from the business perspective as well. And I started to see some of the issues that were kind of arising within the beauty industry, um, especially through Covid as well.
Covid was a real challenge for beauty businesses because I actually launched my, I opened my clinic two weeks before the first lockdown. So you can imagine I generated on huge loss. I had loads of people that were interested in coming to my clinic. I'd done a lot of online marketing. A lot of people in the local area know me anyway, so I was like, this is great.
I've got deposits for all these appointments. Everybody's gonna be ready to go. And I had to close down two weeks later. I had to refund everybody's deposits because we didn't know when we could reopen. And then when we did finally open back up, I think it was like August after we closed in March, and I had to start completely again trying to find new customers.
And I was like, at that point I was like, SOS Beauty would've been great now because I could have just created a free profile. I could have gone on there. People would've sent notifications when they wanted treatments, and I would've been able to get new customers. So that's when the seeds started kind of being planted in my head.
Like, you had this idea a year ago. Maybe you should do something with it, because what a great tool to be able to help people to market their businesses. Also, what I've noticed is when we kind of came out of the end of Lockdowns, um, there was a lot of people that were canceling, beauty appointments because of Covid.
You know, I've had a positive lateral flow test and I kind of thought. Building SOS beauty is an opportunity for us as well to try and help manage some of this like new council culture that seems to have been created, you know, oh, I've had a positive lateral flow test. I can't come in. Well, it's, it is kind of an easy cop, and I'm not saying everybody uses it as an excuse, but it was giving people this opportunity to kind of be able to say, Oh, you know, I don't really have to provide any evidence.
You don't know if they've got a picture off of Google or if it's a real picture, but if they suddenly decided, oh, I can't really afford that treatment, or something else has come up, that it was just easy to say covid and nobody could really question it. And so what we did, and what I did when I decided to start building this was also looked at what tools do the beauticians need on this platform to protect them as well from.
And cancellations and things. So there was quite a lot of learning that went into this over the three year period really from coming up with the initial idea, thinking how I'd use it as a customer, then going on to train in aesthetics and also becoming a training academy, understanding what made a good aesthetics practitioner, you know, and then also looking at what did they need in place to protect them and to make this system work for them as well.
Like I say, it has been quite a process, but now I've finally got a product that I'm really happy with and I feel that it's gonna be a great asset to beauty businesses and to customer.
No, that sounds amazing. And it's really great that you're coming out with this idea. Cause you know, I've, I've personally seen those Facebook posts where they're like, oh, can someone recommend somebody?
And there's like loads of people going like that, and then there's no availability. Um, and having that all in one place, I think is gonna be absolutely amazing and worthwhile to everybody that uses the.
So you obviously mentioned some of the features of the app. Could you give me a bit more of a rundown of how it's gonna be structured or like how you're gonna be able to use it as a consumer?
Yeah, so basically, um, what will happen, a customer creates a free profile. They go on there and they can send a specific request. So they can say what kind of treatment they want. So for example, they want nails and they want gel overlays. So they can put that on there. They can specify the date and time that they want the treatment.
You know, I've got a two-hour break on Friday. I ideally want that treatment on Friday because, again, another one of the issues is that you, what you find in the beauty industry is the customer's trying to work around the beautician. And that's sometimes why they're not reliable, because it doesn't fit their own diary.
You're trying to fit about around when the beauticians got availability and you wouldn't go to a restaurant. Well, unless it was in that, you know, a kind of like a Michelin star restaurant or somewhere that you've been, you know, you've really had your eye on, if you, if you decided I wanna go out for dinner on Friday at seven, you wouldn't think, oh actually that restaurant hasn't got availability for three weeks, so we won't go out for three weeks.
You'd find another restaurant and it's really moving that way in the beauty industry. The customer will specify when they actually want the treatment, and they're less likely to cancel the treatment if it fits into their own diary, rather than them trying to fit into your diary. So they might say, Friday at five, I wanna go and get someone else done.
They then can specify do they want to go, um, to a salon? Do they want someone to visit them at home or are they willing to go and visit somebody else in their home? You know, some people struggle with anxiety. They don't like to go and sit in a salon for two, three hours. They prefer somebody to come and visit them, or they'd be more comfortable.
They don't, they might not want somebody in their own home environment, but they'd be more than comfortable to go to somebody else's house and have the treatment on there, who's maybe got a salon at the bottom of the garden or something like that. So they can specify what they want. They can also upload a photograph.
So, you know, I've been to one of these dodgy nail bars. I've had my nail absolutely buffer to death, and they're in really bad condition. I can upload a photograph, um, so that when that request goes out to the, the nail tech, they can actually see what state my nails are in. So the nails tech, they, they also can create a free profile.
So anybody working in hair, beauty, aesthetics, um, holistic treatments, um, cosmetic dentistry, any of those kinds of services, they can create a free profile on the app as well. They will then receive notifications saying somebody in your area is requested nails, you know, if you've put nails as a service that you offer.
So they'll look at it, they'll say, oh, I can see when they want it. I can see what they want. And I can also see that what condition the nails are currently in. I'm gonna quote, 60 pounds. So the customer will then receive all of the quotations through in one place. So it'll show the booking, it'll show how many quotes have been received.
They can go onto that, and they can actually click through and view the profile of each person that's quoted them. And they know that those people are available because that person has, you know that that beautician has looked at the date before they've responded. So they've said, yeah, I'm free on Friday at five.
I can make that appointment. That's fine. The customer then is only getting, um, quotes from people that they know are available, which saves them a hell of a lot of time, you know, just ringing around. Checking with 20, 30 companies before they actually get an appointment, they can click on the profile, they can see reviews from previous customers.
The reviews also allow the customer to upload photographs, so they're not just seeing pictures in the gallery that have been photoshopped. They're also seeing real-life customer photographs to say, oh yeah, that looks like the work that they've put in their gallery. You know that that's a real representation of their work.
They can see their star rating. So they can also see the reviews. They've had a lot of information upfront, all in one place, about several different beauticians before making the decision who they're gonna go with when they make that appointment. So they book it through the. They confirm it with payment.
So we hold the payment then until the work's completed. Once the work's marked is completed, we then release the payment to the beautician. So the beautician only pays for the app. Uh, sorry, they only pay to be on the app. If they have a completed booking. We charge a 20% booking fee. The beautician can also leave a review for the customer.
So, you know, in the beauty industry, we've all had those nightmare customers. Um, you know, you do the best treatment in the world, but they put in a complaint, they want a refund. We actually manage that refund process. So if somebody leaves a one or two star review on our system, it automatically flags up to an admin.
We then do, um, a little bit of an investigation. We'll ask you if your side of it, we'll ask them for their side of it. We'll make a decision whether we think that's actually a fair review before it's added to your profile, because we know that sometimes you can. Somebody who's just having a bad day, they've took it out in the beautician.
Somebody who wasn't clear on what exactly it was that they wanted and you know, it didn't turn out the way they expected it to, but that's exactly what they asked for. Um, so we, we try and kind of manage that and we support the beauticians as well through the refund process. And, sorry, I say beautician cause it's easier to say beautician than to keep saying, Hey, dress a beautician, aesthetic practitioner.
But you know, generally across the board, any, any of our businesses on the platform, Um, you know, we, we would help them manage any cancellations or we'd make sure that we didn't think that reviews would be malicious. Um, but like I say, you can also review the customer as well. So a little bit like Uber or customer gets a rating in when you, when you get an inquiry come through, you can see and say, oh, that customer's a bit of a nightmare.
You know, they've got two star rate. They've been to loads of different places. Every, every place they've gone to, they've tried to get a refund. So it kind of, again, I'm constantly thinking about how do we also protect our businesses on the platform as well as protecting our customer. That sounds absolutely fabulous.
I think you've got it down to a tee as well, because especially with the, the customer reviews. Well I feel like, you know, some people try to almost, I dunno, um, you know, there's like a certain culture around Karen's, for example. You know, it's not, not relating to every person who's named Karen to any listeners that listening, but more of the, the kinda nightmare customer that you find in any sort of industry.
And the last thing you need is one dis slating you just because they want, uh, a discount of something or they're being very ridiculous and and unmanageable. So the fact that you want to protect both sides is absolutely brilliant and I think that's gonna be, um, really great to see how it develops as time goes through and more people use the app as.
Yeah, there's a couple of other features as well. So we've got things like what, what we decided to do was reverse engineer the process as well. So you know, like I say, I've got an aesthetics practice. If I've got a cancellation at five o'clock today, my salon is so empty for an hour, it's gonna, I can put a post out on Facebook, but it's only gonna reach the people that are directly in my circle, um, saying, you know, I've got a cancellation today.
I might offer a reduced price, so it might have been lit filler, that should have been 175 pound, but I'm gonna offer it for 125 because I just wanna fill that booking because I've already paid for the product. You know, my, my selling site empty. I've still got overheads to cover. So instead of just posting it on Facebook, you can actually, um, send the shout out, out where it sends it to all of our customers within your area.
So they'll receive special offer notifications as well, and you can send two of those out a day. So we only, we limit that to two because we know big salons that might have 10 people working there could be sending out, you know, multiple, um, posts each day. And what we don't want is our customers to get kind of bombarded with special offers.
Um, but it just gives you an opportunity to fill any last minute cancellations so that. Um, you know, customers that might not have been aware of you before realize you've got an offer. You might get them in on the offer price, but then they come back, then as a, as a reoccurring customer. And customers can also favorite you.
So if they've come to you for a treatment, they've had a really good experience, they can add you to the favorites when they're going through the review process. And that means that then the next time they wanna go and get their lips done. Instead of, um, sending out a public notification, they can send it directly to you first, and if you are available when they want the appointment, you can accept it, and if not, they can then make it public.
So it gives you an opportunity as well to build a rapport with the client. That, that sounds incredible. I can't wait. I, I might use it myself if I'm on it. That sounds pretty. I'm hoping so. I'm hoping everybody wants to use it. Fingers crossed. That's great. So I guess my final question for you, cuz obviously this, you know, will still be quite.
New by the time we release this recording is, um, you know, once things are up and running and everything's going good, do you have any more plans for the app at all or is it just kind of get it out there and see how it goes? Yeah, so basically with the app, it's gonna take a little bit of time because as you can imagine, we can't release to the public until we've got enough, uh, beauty businesses on the app in that specific area.
So what we need to do, um, we're doing a national campaign throughout May. We're working with a national PR company. They're helping us, um, you know, we've got multiple red carpet events, newspaper, um, editorial pieces, various things that are going out there to help us, um, build momentum with this so that we can.
Bes on board quite quickly. Um, but people kind of need to understand that if you download the app, you create a profile for your business. Depending on the area that you live in, if you live in a small village, it might take slightly longer for customers to start coming through. Like I live in a village and I'm on just eat and I've, you know, I've been on just eat here for 10 years and I've still only got about eight takeaways in my village.
Um, obviously there's a lot more beauticians in an area and hairdressers and aesthetics practitioners than there are takeaways. So hopefully we can grow that a little bit quicker. But it will take some time for areas to start to build up places like Manchester, London, you know, Notting. They might build a lot quicker because, you know, there, there's big city hubs, so it's, it's gonna take some time for that.
What we're also looking at now already is our stage two development. So we are looking at things like integrating a booking system, whether or not we work in partnership with one of the existing booking systems. We create our book, our own booking system. These are all things that we're kind of going through with the developers at the moment because even though they create the appointment for walls, there's no diary management that kind of feeds into your diary at the moment.
Um, So, you know, the customer gets appointment reminders and things through our platform, but again, it would be great if that could integrate with your other booking systems and diary management. So that's coming later down the line. And we're also looking at things like being able to add yourself as a training provider in the beauty industry.
So if somebody's looking for a beauty training course, That's on there as a beautician or hairdresser or whatever, they will then be able to request a specific training course in the same way that a customer requests a treatment. So this is all our stage two development and there's a few other features as well.
I don't wanna give all of our trade secrets away, but um, yeah, we've got plenty of features that we're working on in the background that are gonna make. The system better, and we're always looking for feedback as well. So if people are using this, they're like, you're missing this treatment. You know, you haven't got this listed, or what about adding this feature?
This would work great. We're open to those suggestions as well and people sending us an email and um, you know, we can look into to the cost and the time of actually being able to add that in. Oh, brilliant. Um, wow. I can't wait to see it launch and hopefully absolutely bloom and grow and just go nuts.
Really. I reckon that's, you know, you've hit such a good niche, little bit of the market as well. I reckon it. I mean, obviously I'm not a, um, a dragon or, or a business person, but I know for definite that at least five of my friends would want to download that app. Really? So include with that. Yeah. If, if everybody's got five friends they want to refer, you know, and get onto the platform, that, that would be a great start.
But I've already got about 3000 beauticians that have expressed an interest like working. The whole of the beauty industry here in beauty industry, sorry. Um, that have expressed an interest in joining. So we're gonna be on the app stores, um, by the 25th of April. We should be on both the Apple and the Google place, um, app stores so that people can download that app, get going.
Ah, that's brilliant. Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Uh, no, I think we've covered pretty much everything to be honest. . That's right.
Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. I can't wait to see this app grow. And we'll be linking the app within the description of the podcast episode, so everyone that is listening as well can check it out.
That's perfect. Thank you very much for having me today.
Thank you to my guest today, Fay Finero, for sharing with us our new app, SOS Beauty, a brilliant new booking app that benefits the customers and the practitioners. Don't forget to download it and try it out. We have links to Google Play and iOS app stores in the description. I have been your host Dawn Cross and tune in next week for another episode.
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