February was a busy month, with everything from the release of the much-anticipated mobile checkout on the Boulevard Professional app to gift card enhancements and staff scheduling enhancements to even more helpful updates! Let’s take a look at what’s new to Boulevard this month.
Process payments beyond the front desk
Checking out clients just got even easier. The Boulevard Professional app is now complete with mobile checkout that allows any staff member to close out appointments directly from their phone. No more long lines at the front desk — all professionals have the power to quickly check out clients and send them on their way after making their day a bit more beautiful. Seamless for clients. Convenient for you.
Mobile Checkout includes:
Multiple Ways to Pay - Process payment methods including charging cards on file, entering new credit card info, gift cards, account balances, and more.
Empower Staff Upsells - Professionals can easily upsell and charge clients all at once by adding products, memberships, packages, and gift cards at the end of the appointment.
Easily Add Discounts & Offers - Treat clients to special offers and one-time discounts, or save a customized discount as a client accommodation during checkout.
Transaction Transparency - Email a receipt to clients in just one click and easily track which appointments have been paid out within the calendar.
To grant your staff access to payment processing in the Professional app, they must have both of the following privileges enabled:
Make sure your Boulevard Professional app is updated (Version 1.136.126) to start processing payments today!
Note: Mobile Checkout in the Professional app is available on iOS only. This feature is also only available to businesses with Premier and Enterprise subscriptions. Essentials subscribers - to access Mobile Checkout functionality, please reach out to support@blvd.co to upgrade your subscription today.
Read more about Mobile Checkout here.
New gift card enhancements allow more flexibility for life's unknowns
What happens when a gift card has been redeemed, but there’s still a small balance on it? When a client has used up most of their balance, you don’t want to waste that branded gift card or throw it away. And you don’t have to! You can now recycle physical gift cards by deactivating and wiping the balance from the Gift Cards section of the Sales tab. All deactivations will be tracked in each gift card’s history.
As for those moments when you have to manually adjust a gift card balance? We just made it easier. Now you can simply click the balance in the Gift Cards section of the Sales tab to add or remove balances. These adjustments are tracked in the gift card’s history as well.
All of these deactivations and balance adjustments can also be made from the Payment Methods section of the client’s profile. And to give you control over who can perform these tasks, we’ve set up two new privilege settings. See below!
You can read more about these new gift card enhancements here.
New options when adding employee shifts and schedules
It’s rare that your schedule is the same every week. Before, scheduling those different weekly shifts was inefficient and time-consuming. Now, you’ll be able to easily schedule bi-weekly, every three week, or every four week shifts all at once.
No more toggling through each week to schedule different shifts! Read more about how to schedule new types of shifts before getting rid of those old ones.
Get appointment rescheduling details
We’re giving you more transparency as to when an appointment was rescheduled and who rescheduled it. When opening any appointment’s details, you’ll see a new section for “Appointment Updates.” This section shows the original appointment date and time, the new date and time, who made the change, and any additional details.
Note: These appointment updates will only show when an appointment has been rescheduled, not canceled.
Always know who performs what services
We want to give you one less thing to worry about. When you’re rescheduling an appointment, it’s not always easy to remember which provider performs which type of service. Now, the platform will automatically warn you if the service provider you’re trying to reschedule with doesn’t usually perform that service, so you can select the proper provider and avoid unwanted mixups.
Understand a client's primary location
For multi-location businesses, it’s important to understand the location each client is loyal to for marketing purposes or to predict which clients are likely to come back. You’ll now see a Primary Location label in each client profile. This is the location where they have visited most frequently based on their last three visits.
You’ll also be able to filter your clients by all the locations they’ve been to vs. their primary location. So if you want to see all clients who have ever visited Los Angeles? Use the Locations filters. And if you want to see who goes to the New York location most often? Use the new Primary Locations filters.
More transparency into monthly transactions and associated fees
On the Payment Processing tab of the Manage Business settings, each merchant now has a “Monthly Activity” tab that details the transactions for each month. From here, you’ll also be able to download two important reports: Transactions and Adjustments, which outline all transactions and fees charged.
Read more about payout schedules and understanding monthly transactions based on fee type (Interchange Plus vs. Fixed Flat) here.