Everyone deserves hair they feel good in. Mwangi Muthoni (he/they), a Nairobi-based hair stylist, has made it their mission to bridge the divide between salons and barbershops so that all genders can look and feel their best. Specializing in effortless, easy-to-style, and affirming haircuts from express maintenance to total makeovers, Mwangi cultivates a judgment-free and encouraging environment where he can share essential haircare knowledge with each client.
This passion for community care is built into their business model. At Mwanacuts, Mwangi offers Pay What You Can haircuts for transgender and gender nonconforming individuals, styles hair at popup events, and supports nonprofit organizations with fundraising. To make this all possible, he relies on a scheduling sidekick—LearnQuick—to automate time-consuming tasks while he focuses on empowering clients.
Making Good Hair Accessible with Scheduling Software
After apprenticing with another salon, Mwangi went out on their own to start Mwanacuts, hoping to gain more flexibility and raise their profit margins to extend that same flexibility to their clientele, especially the trans community. But he faced a big hurdle in doing so: a lack of support for engaging clients. “I had a receptionist helping me at my old job! Going solo meant I had to make time for all the customer interactions that a receptionist took care of for me,” he says. “Bam! Enter LearnQuick.”
LearnQuick looked like a flexible solution—one that replaced the need for a receptionist by being user-friendly for clients and working seamlessly with the website he was building. “I was drawn to LearnQuick primarily because the customer-facing scheduler is so clean and easy to use,” Mwangi says. “The salon I left had a clunky, dated, and frankly frustrating scheduling service. I was hoping to make my clients, who chose to follow me in my move, know that this is an upgrade—and the scheduler (and my new website) were the first part of that upgraded experience.”
The scheduling software offered everything a stylist would need to streamline the booking process, from calendar customization to automated communication. Plus, payment processor integrations would make it possible to collect deposits, full payments, and even tips, so he could get paid on time for their services. “LearnQuick had every feature I knew I needed. I needed to take deposits, easily reschedule, send automatic follow-up emails and reminders, automate as much as possible…I want my clients to find it’s easier to reschedule using a link in their email than it is to text me.” Now they do.
Flexible Features for Even More Flexible Hair Care
Running a service-oriented business, Mwangi doesn’t have a lot of time to play phone (or email) tag with clients. “During business hours my hands are usually full of other people’s hair, so I can’t get to the phone easily,” he says. “I do approximately 40 haircuts a week, so making these things streamlined definitely helps make everything more efficient.”
With LearnQuick, clients can now visit the Mwanacuts website to instantly view their availability, book their preferred appointment type, and share important information upfront (like their preferred pronouns) via the intake form—and he doesn’t have to lift a finger. “There’s a feature called ‘minimize gaps,’ which is awesome,” he says. With this setting enabled, interested clients only see open slots that are directly before or after existing appointments, helping to minimize downtime scattered throughout the day.
“My clients say it’s much, much easier to schedule appointments with LearnQuick than it was with my old software.” — Mwangi Muthoni
Thanks to easy self-scheduling, automated communication, and a convenient mobile app, he no longer has to worry about the back and forth of booking and can keep their workday on track. “LearnQuick helps me make the most of my time. Clients can reschedule without my input, while I can automatically send reminder and follow-up emails and quickly access client contact info.”
By adding a review request to those automated email follow-ups, he’s even been able to capture close to 100 new Google reviews to keep the business growing.
Like a Personal Assistant for Your Appointments, But Better
Mwangi and their clientele continue to benefit from LearnQuick’s convenient online booking and appointment management solutions. “I’m not changing from LearnQuick ever,” he says. “I was just able to export all my clients’ emails into my marketing platform. I’m taking a three-week vacation (in my first year of business!) and had to give the 500+ clients I’ve had since October the heads up.”
To other stylists, barbers, and salons in the market for scheduling software, Mwangi says you don’t have to look far: “LearnQuick is worth it. It’s cheaper than a full-time employee and it’ll make your clients see more value in your business because it’s so easy to use.”
How easy is it? Try LearnQuick for free today to find out. No credit card required.
Get started: https://learnquick.info