Your next colour client drops into the chair, tosses her bag on the station and says, “Okay, so I loved it last time… but can we do something different around my face?”
You remember the conversation. You can almost picture it. But “almost” isn’t something you want to mix a formula from.
So you grab your phone, open her record and start scrolling. Past the old allergy note. Past the paragraph from two years ago. Past the thing about her sister’s wedding. It’s starting to feel like digging through a shoebox of mixtapes looking for the one with the good B-side.
That note matters most right now, with the bowl still empty.
Recent salonMonster updates have made the notes screen more usable on phones. V11 also gives you dated notes and pinned information, so it’s a great time to take another look at how you keep the details you’ll need at the next appointment.
The Note You Need Before Mixing Colour
Think about what you’d want to know if this client came back six weeks from now.
In our hypothetical appointment, “liked it” wouldn’t tell you much. “Liked the overall tone; wants a softer result around the face next visit” gives your next consultation somewhere to start.
That’s a suggested way to write a note, not a formula or a treatment instruction. Your professional judgement still leads the consultation.
Keep each entry specific to what happened and what you agreed to revisit. That way you walk in with something to talk through with your client, not a sentence you have to decode from scratch.
Let the Date Do Its Job
V11 dates client notes automatically. No more typing the date at the start of every entry.
That gives you a really useful distinction: what you recorded at one visit, and what changed at the next.
Read the recent entries before treating an older preference as today’s plan. A client who was growing out her fringe might be over it now. Same goes for how much time she wants to spend styling every morning.
Use the record to prep your questions, then have the real conversation with the person in your chair.
Pin the Detail You Need Next Time
Pinned notes stay above newer entries. That can keep an important detail front and centre, but a long pinned note can also push your latest information further down the screen.
If you’ve added a new note and don’t see it right away, look below the pinned information before assuming it didn’t save.
Next time you tidy up your records, ask whether each pinned entry still deserves its spot. Keep it short, and unpin anything that no longer needs to lead.
The goal is a next consultation that’s easier to prep for. An old paragraph shouldn’t get top billing just because it got pinned first.
Write the Note on the Phone You Actually Use
Our recent mobile work made the “Add a note” field look tappable, stopped it from jumping down the screen when you select it, and lined up the notes icon between the client and booking screens.
Small interface changes, but each one has a specific job: making it less awkward to jot down the detail you just discussed, while it’s still fresh.
Try the notes screen on the phone you use between clients. Check where new entries show up, how the date is displayed and which information is pinned above them.
If something looks different between your phone and your computer, ask the salonMonster team to check your app version. V11 has been rolling out in stages, so it’s worth checking with us before you start building a workaround.
Before your next colour appointment, open one client record and read it like you’re prepping for the consultation. Can you find the last decision, see when it was made and tell what you need to ask next?
That’s what a useful note does. It gives you something to act on… while the bowl is still empty.