Salon Today | Technology Case Study: Salon Apps | Khiem Hoang for Umbrella Salon

By Stacey Soble | 07/19/2010

Khiem Hoang originally developed Umbrella Salon’s mobile App as a solution to the problem iPhone users had accessing the salon’s website—now he sees it as a direct connection between their phones and the salon.

NESTLED IN SAN JOSE, right in Apple Corporation’s backyard, is Umbrella Salon. Considering the surroundings, there’s little surprise that Khiem Hoang, Umbrella’s business manager, was one of the first owners to produce a mobile iPhone application for his salon. “I was proud of our salon’s artistic website, but I was also frustrated, because more than 400,000 iPhone users in the area couldn’t access the Flash-based site through their phones,” he says. “We discovered it was more cost effective to develop the App, than it was to reprogram our site.” 

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Salon Today | Khiem Hoang for Umbrella Salon with Stacey Soble

By Stacey Soble | 06/18/2010

As the owner/manager of Umbrella Salon in San Jose, California, Khiem Hoang shares how he developed his own iPhone App to drive traffic to his salon and how other salons can incorporate the technology for a similar competitive advantage. 

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Salon Today | Walking in My Shoes - Oribe Owner's Forum | Khiem Hoang for Umbrella Salon

By Stacey Soble | 06/14/2010

..."To me, the most valuable learning often comes from people who practice what they preach—who actually use these strategies daily and understand, from experience, what works and what doesn't," says Finger. "Here at Oribe, we deal with the country's top echelon of salon owners, and they all have developed practices they know work really well. Who better to teach salon owners that the owners themselves?" 

While the creative jam drew more than 1,000 hairstylists, the Owner's Forum sought some quieter space on the second day, so the 200 salon owners in attendance could gather and focus on business practices. During the forum, Khiem Hoang of Umbrella Salon in San Jose, California, took the stage to explain how he built his own iPhone app to help drive traffic to his salon and create a community among his clientele. Sandy Poirier, owner of Boston's Shag salon, share how he's using social media, including Twitter and Facebook, to promote his salon. And, Jack and Joelle Ray of Samuel Cole Salon in Raleigh, North Carolina, detailed their forward-thinking compensation strategies and how to deploy them. As an added bonus, the Rays gave away an in-salon business review session, valued at $3,000, to one lucky salon owner...

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Modern Salon | Oribe Member Salons recreate Italia hair style | Umbrella Salon

By Maggie Mulhern | 02/23/2010

The Vogue Italia cover from June 1990, featuring Linda Evangelista, was the inspiration for these hair styles from Oribe Member Salons. The winner was the one in the middle of the top row, from Krystal Dees of Goldwaves Salon in Fort Worth, Texas. Other styles (top row right): created by Susan Ulatoski of Salon Tivoli in Livermore, California; (bottom row, left) created by Sandy Elma of Spalon Montage in Minneapolis; (bottom row, center) created by Lisa Nguyen of Umbrella Salon in San Jose, California; (bottom row, right) created by the team at José Luis Salon in Austin, Texas.

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Bottom row, center. Hair by Lisa Nguyen for Umbrella Salon

Salon Today | One Salon's Killer App | Khiem Hoang for Umbrella Salon

By Stacey Soble | 02/19/2010

Khiem Hoang, business manager of Umbrella Salon in San Jose, California, was proud of the salon's artistic website, but frustrated that many clients couldn't access it through their phones. "The website is Flash-based, and iPhones in particular don't support Flash," he explained. "Since we are in the Bay Area, which also is the home of Apple, there are about 400,000 iPhone users here who couldn't access our website on their phones."

Hoang's solution was to design an iPhone application just for the salon. He researched it himself and worked to develop a simple application that featured a few photos of the salon and allowed users to directly download the salon's number, access directions to the salon and e-mail the salon desk with an appointment request. He purposefully kept the app simple: "We know they are looking at this information on a three-inch screen and we didn't want to inundate them with words."

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 A screen shot of app's Welcome Page for Umbrella Salon in San Jose, CA. Hair by Kien Hoang