ChairIt – Salon Booking & Appointment Scheduling

Description

ChairIt is the appointment booking plugin made for salons. Clients book online in a few taps, your team sees every appointment in one shared agenda, and ChairIt only offers times that are truly free: with the right staff member, within opening hours and around breaks.

Made for hair salons, barbershops, beauty, nail, brow and lash studios, massage salons, make-up artists and dog groomers: anywhere clients book a treatment with a staff member. One location or several, one staff member or a whole team: there are no limits on staff, locations, treatments or bookings.

Try it yourself in the live demo salon: demo.chair-it.nl.

Online booking that clients love

• Book an appointment block: clients choose one or more treatments, a favourite staff member (or no preference), a date and a time. ChairIt adds up duration and price.
• Show it step by step, on one screen, or as a compact pop-up behind a button. Works on every phone, tablet and computer.
• Only truly available times: ChairIt checks staff schedules, opening hours, breaks, days off and existing appointments.
• Processing time for treatments such as colour: while it develops, the staff member is free for another client, online and in the agenda.
• Confirm bookings instantly or approve them first. Clients receive an email with a calendar file and can cancel online until a time you choose.

A team agenda for the salon desk

• All colleagues side by side per day, or a week per person.
• Add phone and walk-in appointments, drag appointments to another time or colleague, and block time for lunch or meetings.
• Use it in the WordPress admin or on a page of your site, for example on a tablet at the desk. Staff get the “Salon staff” role; clients never see the agenda.
• Staff schedules per location, with days off, holidays and a daily break you can move per day.

Clients, no-shows and privacy

• Client records with visit history, notes, newsletter permission and “book again” for returning clients.
• Mark no-shows and see them per client.
• Privacy-friendly: client details stay in your own WordPress database, are removed automatically after a retention period you choose, and work with the WordPress privacy tools.

Show your salon on your website

• Price list block with tabs for women, men and kids.
• Team block that introduces your staff with a photo and a short story.
• Opening hours block that shows whether you are open now, with exceptions for holidays.
• Every block also works as a shortcode, so ChairIt fits any theme and page builder.
• About 20 currencies, and translated into 10 languages: Dutch (Netherlands and Belgium), German, French, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Polish, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian.

ChairIt Pro: messages, payments and more

Everything above stays free. ChairIt Pro adds tools for growing salons:

• Online payments with Mollie or Stripe: cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal and the other methods you enable in your Mollie or Stripe account. Let clients choose between paying online or at the salon, or require payment in advance for everyone, for new clients or for clients who did not show up before. Refunds are automatic when a client cancels in time or you cancel. Uses your own Mollie or Stripe account; the client pays on the payment page of Mollie or Stripe, and ChairIt only sends the amount and a description of the appointment to the provider you choose (Mollie: https://www.mollie.com, privacy: https://www.mollie.com/privacy; Stripe: https://stripe.com, privacy: https://stripe.com/privacy).
• Gift cards: sell them on your website with the Gift card block (paid online through your own Mollie or Stripe account, the code arrives by email straight away) or at the desk. Clients enter the code when they book online; whatever is left stays on the card for next time. Choose the amounts, an own amount between a minimum and maximum, and how long gift cards are valid. Look up a gift card by code, name or email, deduct an amount at the salon, change the expiry date, send it again or cancel it.
• Discount codes with your own rules: a percentage or a fixed amount, a start and end date, how often in total and per client, only for new clients, a minimum amount, or only for certain treatments or categories. Clients enter the code when they book online, in the same field as a gift card.
• Client moments with a personal discount code: a birthday message (clients can add their birthday, day and month only, when they book and agree to receive offers), a yearly thank-you on the anniversary of the first visit, a “we miss you” message when a client has not been in for a while, and campaigns on a date you choose. Only for clients who agreed to receive offers, with an unsubscribe link.
• A message centre for all emails and text messages: choose when each message goes out (when an appointment is confirmed, changed or cancelled, or any number of hours or days before or after it), to the client or the salon, by email or by SMS, in your own words (emails with simple formatting: bold, italic, lists and links). Each text message shows how long it will be once the details are filled in. Ready to use: a reminder 48 hours before, a thank-you with a review button for Google, and an invitation to book again 60 days later (only to clients who agreed to offers, with an unsubscribe link). Your own email design (logo, colours, font, footer) and a log of everything that was sent, kept as long as you choose.
• SMS text messages through your own Twilio account, from the message centre. Only clients who leave a phone number and keep the SMS checkbox ticked receive them; ChairIt only sends the phone number and the message text to Twilio (https://www.twilio.com, privacy: https://www.twilio.com/legal/privacy).
• A no-show rule for repeat no-shows.
• Statistics: revenue, occupancy, busiest times, popular treatments, staff performance and a CSV export.
• A Locations block with photo, “open now”, route and booking button for each location.
• Export newsletter subscribers (CSV).

More information and ChairIt Pro: chair-it.nl.

Privacy

When a client books an appointment, ChairIt stores the name, email address, optional phone number and note, together with the appointment, in your own database. Appointments with the same email address are grouped into a client record, where the salon can add notes. Client data is never sent to external services. The only external service in the free version is Freemius, and only after you agree to it (see External services below).

• Newsletter permission is only stored when the client ticks the (optional, unticked) checkbox, together with the date. You can export these addresses yourself.
• Client details are deleted automatically a set number of months after the last visit (default 24, adjustable). Appointments planned without an email address are anonymized after the same period.
• The team agenda shows client details only to logged-in staff members; its pages are never cached.
• ChairIt works with the WordPress privacy tools (Tools > Export / Erase Personal Data) and suggests a text for your privacy policy.
• “Remember my details on this device” stores the details only in the client’s own browser (localStorage), and only when ticked.
• With ChairIt Pro, the message centre keeps a log of the emails and text messages it sent (email address or partly hidden phone number, and the subject). You choose how long: 30, 90 (default), 180 or 365 days. Erasing a client also removes their lines from the log.
• Offers and invitations from the message centre only go to clients who gave newsletter permission, and always contain an unsubscribe link that withdraws the permission without logging in.
• With ChairIt Pro, clients can add their birthday (day and month, no year) when they book, but only when they also give newsletter permission. It is stored in the client record and deleted with it.
• With ChairIt Pro, a gift card stores the name and email address of the buyer and the recipient, and the personal message. These details are removed once the gift card can no longer be used and the retention period has passed, or earlier with Tools > Erase Personal Data; the code and the balance stay for your bookkeeping.
• Personal discount codes from the message centre are linked to the client and deleted when the client is erased.
• Uninstalling the plugin removes all clients, appointments, gift cards, discount codes and the message log.

External services

ChairIt uses Freemius (https://freemius.com) for the optional usage opt-in and for buying, activating and updating ChairIt Pro. ChairIt never sends client data or appointments to Freemius.

• Opt-in: after activation ChairIt asks whether you want to share basic data with Freemius, to receive notices about security and feature updates. Nothing is sent unless you choose “Allow & Continue”; you can skip this and use ChairIt as usual. When you opt in, Freemius receives your WordPress user’s first and last name and email address, the homepage URL and title, the WordPress and PHP versions and the site language, and the ChairIt and SDK versions and whether ChairIt is active or uninstalled. The list of plugins and themes (names, slugs, versions and whether they are active) is only shared if you allow it. You can opt out at any time with the “Opt Out” link on the Plugins screen.
• Deactivation feedback: when you deactivate ChairIt, you can tell why in a short form. The answer is only sent to Freemius when you submit it; you can skip the form.
• ChairIt Pro: when you choose to upgrade, the Freemius checkout opens and the details you enter there (name, email address and payment details) go to Freemius, which handles the payment, the licence and the Pro downloads. When you activate a licence, Freemius receives the homepage URL and the ChairIt and SDK versions, so the licence can be linked to your site.

Freemius terms of service: https://freemius.com/terms/
Freemius privacy policy: https://freemius.com/privacy/