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CASE STUDY
Helping a leading hair salon franchise more accurately predict wait times to grow their business.
A franchiser/operator’s CIO and new CEO are committed to digitally transforming the company, increasing customer satisfaction, and building business. The chain includes 1,800 salons spread across the United States and Canada, with some company owned and others owned by 400+ franchisees. Each location produces very valuable, high-volume data. Ironside is working to leverage machine learning (ML) / artificial intelligence (AI) to drastically improve the company’s ability to effectively collect, organize, analyze, and act on that data across locations, without burdening franchisees possessing differing levels of technical know-how.
BUSINESS NEED
To improve customer convenience and operations.
INDUSTRY
Personal Care Services
CLIENT
North American hair salon franchise
- 1,850+ locations
- 400+ franchisees
- 7 million annual customers
IRONSIDE’S SOLUTION
Built three machine learning models involving over 35 data points into a real-time, cloud-based application that delivers to customer a hyper-accurate prediction of how long their wait for a haircut will be. Results are delivered in under a half second, servicing over 1 billion API calls per year.
SUCCESSFUL OUTCOME
Providing accurate wait times to customers has led fewer customers to walk out and customer and revenue to increase.
- Higher customer satisfaction scores (CSAT)
- Greater customer retention
- Increased revenue and improved profitability
The new AI platform also provides valuable data and insights to company executives, allowing them to improve operational effectiveness across 1,800+ locations.
How we delivered
01
USE CASE DISCOVERY
Identified 13 use cases for key criteria:
- Data and business viability
- Business priorities
- Customer behavior
- Staffing
02
RAPID VIABILITY ASSESSMENT
Identified 4 use cases for further assessment
03
MACHINE LEARNING
Trained ML models
04
AI IMPLEMENTATION
Deployed 2 models into cloud native real-time app
05
PERFORMANCE MONITORING
- Created dashboard featuring key metrics
- Provided managed services