That mismatch gets normalized fast: a color timer running in your head instead of the system, a walk-in that throws off three other appointments, commission tracking held together with a spreadsheet. This two-minute assessment adds up what that's actually costing you every month.
Grove's free two-minute assessment estimates what a salon's current booking software costs each month in staff time. In salons, that time goes to color timing tracked from memory instead of by the system, walk-ins that force three other appointments to move, and commission payouts calculated in a spreadsheet at the end of each week. The assessment adds those hours up into one monthly number.
Salon owners we talk to describe three recurring problems. Generic booking slots don't know a balayage takes longer than a root touch-up, so someone tracks color timing by hand every day. A full book with no slack for walk-ins means turning revenue away or moving three other appointments on the floor. And commission math happens in spreadsheets at the end of the week, because the booking system stops at the appointment.
Generic booking slots don't know a balayage takes longer than a root touch-up. Someone's tracking the difference manually, every day, because the system won't.
A full book with no slack for walk-in demand means either turning revenue away or scrambling three other appointments live, on the floor.
Spreadsheets, sticky notes, manual math at the end of the week: the booking system stops at the appointment, not the payout.
Most salon owners chose booking software for the salon they had at the time: fewer chairs, a simpler menu, less on the calendar. As the salon grows, the workarounds add up to ten extra minutes here, a double-booked chair there, and a commission error that takes an hour to untangle every week. None of that time appears as a line item on the software bill.
It shows up as time, yours and your team's, and that time is what this assessment measures.
See your own number →Grove's salon guides cover the full head-to-head numbers for Mindbody vs Boulevard, the Mindbody alternatives salons consider most, booth rental processing fees, and how Mindbody data export works. Separate guides compare Vagaro and GlossGenius against Boulevard and review Vagaro, Booksy, and Square. The salon owner FAQ collects the questions owners ask most before they switch.
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