Blo owner Bryan Nunes has never been one to rest on his laurels. Over the years, the Raleigh, North Carolina-based owner has won a Global Salon Business Award, been honored in multiple categories in the Salon Today Top 200 and just recently won the 2014 NAHA Salon MBA Award.

In his pursuit of accolades and industry awards, he discovered something else. Filling out applications for major business awards gave him the opportunity to learn more about his business than when he was working in it.

“The ST 200 gives me the opportunity to identify where I’m strong and where I need to work—I’m constantly in a state of reflection,” he says.

His foray into the NAHA MBA application also allowed him to reflect on the performance of his business.

As a result, Blo is in a constant state of growth and improvement. Nunes’ latest achievement is one he’s been working on for a couple years—a complete overhaul of his salon’s website, justblo.com.

Solving a Problem

So what? Every salon website gets made over or tweaked, right? Not like this. The level of detail and desire to give his clients a seamless, perfect experience has set justblo.com apart from the rest.

The main tool on the site is called “ACT,” which stands for Appointment Consultation Tool, and it’s designed to help women build a relationship with a new salon.

“For example, you’re a client and call a new salon,” says Nunes. “The receptionist answers and is really busy. You say you need your hair colored and ask who’s good? The receptionist says, ‘everyone is good.’”

Nunes maintains these types of conversations get clients off on the wrong foot. “The client knows the person they end up with isn’t going to be the best person, it’s going to be the person with an opening,” he says. “This creates distrust and pre-judgment before they even have a service.”

The next problem Nunes wanted to solve was for color clients. New clients calling the salon would get booked for single process, and show up needing a dimension service. As a result, the stylist doesn’t have time so they reschedule or try to force it all in or do just part of the service, making the client come back. This creates a negative impression of the salon and stylist.

In addition, if a new client comes in for a partial highlight, they have been given the flat rate over the phone before they come in. But when a stylist assesses it, the client may need add-ons like a glaze to correct it, which will be reflected in the price. But the client has the flat rate fixed in their mind and feels betrayed.

“Salons cannot risk this type of negative experience with social media, Yelp, etc. out there,” says Nunes. “This website is an evolution of problem solving.”

Not Your Mother’s Website

To solve these problems, Nunes set out to create a site that was intuitive to his clients. When the site asks a client one question, the next question that pops up is based on the previous answer.

For example, if you say you want a hair cut, it will ask if you want a women’s cut, then if you want a designer specializing in short cuts, etc.

“Normally, we require new clients or people with no color for six months to come in for consultation,” says Nunes. “Because we draw from such a broad area, this became inconvenient for clients who are far away.”

To solve this dilemma, Nunes called clients with tricky color issues and asked them to send him photos to his specifications (i.e. head bent over with hair parted in middle to show roots) as well as photos of what they want their hair to look like after the color service.

“There is no standard color service anymore,” says Nunes. “Every service is custom. And if you aren’t an experienced designer, you shouldn’t be seeing certain clients. But I can’t place every client myself.”

Enter online consultation. After e-mailing back and forth with clients to do virtual consultations, Nunes saw the opportunity to bring the idea to life on his website.