Building a Business Platform
and Digital Experience

for Seattle’s Premier Barbershop

If you’re a professional man who’s been to a barbershop recently, you’ve likely run into one of these problems: a long wait, a lousy booking experience, or a forgettable haircut.

Capelli’s Gentlemen’s Barbershop was looking to solve these problems by combining timeless quality and modern digital technology.

With two shops in Seattle and one in Los Angeles, Capelli’s wanted nothing less than to build a foundation for national expansion.

They turned to Rivet Hammer.

An invitation to reinvent barbering

“I have this idea for wallet-less mobile
check-in and check-out.”

This was the first thing Capelli’s founder Bobby Heyer said when we sat down to talk.

“It should make booking an appointment incredibly easy and deliver a frictionless experience for our customer – busy professional men.”

Before he was done talking we were hooked. We knew it was a challenge we wanted to take on, because what Heyer was basically saying was that he wanted to reinvent the entire barbershop experience.

Capelli's Mobile App iOS

A custom software solution

The Rivet Hammer team got to work. We built a custom software solution with a highly scalable back end to accommodate rapid customer and store growth.

The changes included:

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  • drag-and-drop calendaring and scheduling management
  • web and mobile customer appointment booking and account management
  • beautifully designed, easy-to-navigate interfaces
  • a subscription platform for recurring membership revenue
  • a frictionless, beacon-driven check-in and payment experience

The membership plans and the incorporation of beacons were especially noteworthy.

Automatic gift cards add virality to membership plans

To add virality to membership plans, we incorporated a system where members would receive two complimentary service gift cards with each membership. We designed the interface so that sending the gift card to a friend was easy and automatic.

Capelli's Gift Card Interface

Members simply drop in a friend’s email address and a short note, and the platform does the rest. Recipients receive the email, click a unique link, and when they register with Capelli’s the digital gift card is automatically added to their account.

The complimentary gift card program grows Capelli’s customer base and members get to share a little love (and good grooming) with their friends.

Beacon automation personalizes the service

The use of NFC beacons in retail has grown significantly in the past few years, primarily driven by in-store advertising. Rivet Hammer built Capelli’s beacon-tracking platform from the ground up using beacons from Roximity.

Customers walking into a Capelli’s location with the Capelli’s mobile app installed now receive an automated push notification triggering automatic check-in. At the same time, the front desk receives a web notification showing the name and photo of the customer walking in the door.

Front desk staff can greet the customer by name and instantly know which barber they’re seeing. Meanwhile, the barber gets a push notification on their mobile phone announcing that their client has arrived.

Use of beacons and the entire notification process speeds up the check-in and checkout process, and allows the front desk to stay focused on making a personal connection with the customer. Capelli’s employees can take the customer’s coat and offer them a beverage before their service even starts.

More customers, more customer satisfaction

As a result of the changes in the subscription program, bookings are up, most notably for the coveted segment of customers who visit every 6-8 weeks.

And customers love the beacon automation. There’s less waiting, and if they add a payment method to the mobile app, they can simply review the invoice, add a tip, click “pay,” and walk out the door.

They save time, and head back into their day on top of their game.

Where can we take your company?

From the outset of this project, we believed in Bobby Heyer’s vision for the business and in the growth potential for Capelli’s. So much so that we decided to offset a portion of our fee in exchange for equity in the business.

This is a venture development model Rivet Hammer embraces as a way to align our goals with yours, and realize a higher return for all of us.

Have a potential project for us?

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Rivet Hammer is a wholly owned subsidiary of BluCapp, Inc.