Case study · Hair loss and trichology · Florida
How a hair loss specialist moved nine years of client records to Pabau
Joanna Amarante, a certified trichologist, runs Fabulously Made in Tampa Bay: hair loss consultations, lab work, before-and-after photos, and clients who book a year ahead. Her salon software couldn’t carry the clinical side, but nine years of history made switching feel too risky. This is how the move went, in her words, hiccups included.
9
years of client records moved to Pabau
100s
of clients carried across
1 yr
how far ahead many of her clients book
4
kinds of records moved: appointments, invoices, client histories, upcoming bookings
Sources: Joanna Amarante on camera, plus what came across in the migration, confirmed from her Pabau account.
The challenge
Salon software for a practice that had become clinical
Joanna started in hair. As her work shifted to hair loss, the records changed with it: medical histories, lab results from doctors, photos that track regrowth over months. Her salon system was built for a different job.
I believe the other software was great, but not in the direction that I was moving into, because it started to be more clinical, and I felt like it was more geared to salon software, with some specialties, but mine is a little bit more in detail, entailed of a lot more information that is very private to the client.”
Photos, lab work and doctors’ notes with nowhere secure to live
One of the biggest features for me is being able to capture before and after pictures of my clients and do the comparison. The other big thing was there’s a lot of documentation, medical records, lab work, that I needed to make sure was secure.”
Nine years of data, and the fear of losing it
The fear was horrible. I’m great at what I do, I’m not great at IT and transferring and all that. I don’t know what that really entails, or even how to help or give direction.”
Why Pabau
She had a client in IT check the security before she chose
Joanna shortlisted a few systems and asked one of her clients, who works in IT, to vet them. Security of client information was the test.
My client said, ‘Hey, being in IT, this one is a really secure way to have all your client’s information in there,’ and it’s someone that I trusted. So I went with it.”
Guardrails she didn’t have before
I knew HIPAA was a big thing. There’s even a little notification to let you know, ‘Hey, you can’t do this because that would violate HIPAA.’ I love that.”
Structure, for someone who needs things in their place
What stood out for me was the structure and organization. I needed for things to be in the place that it said it was gonna be in, and it was easy for me to find.”
The solution
What came across, and how the move went
Our onboarding team carried the data over. It took a while, and she says so. Here’s what came across.
- Nine years of appointment history
- Invoices
- Client histories
- Next month’s booked appointments
What the migration carried into Pabau, confirmed from Joanna’s account.
I have hundreds of clients, nine years of data, and I wanted to make sure everything was transferred safely and nothing was falling in the gap. If I reached out to tell them some of these things fell through the crack, their team went ahead and tried to make whatever adjustment necessary.”
So it was a quite lengthy transition, needless to say. But I’m glad that I’m doing it, because my day-to-day is much easier.”
Someone on the other end of the move
Neil has always been such a pleasant person to work with, and if he didn’t have the answer, he was going to find someone to help me. I needed to know that someone cared enough to help me through this transition.”
Advice for anyone putting off a switch because of the data
- 1Back it up first.Export your existing client list before anything moves. Most systems will give you a spreadsheet.
- 2Expect hiccups, and cross-check.“It’s never gonna be a perfect transition, because if it was perfect, everyone would be doing it.” Check your records and your calendar once they land.
- 3Speak up.“They can’t help you if you don’t ask for the help that is needed for your practice.” If a record looks wrong or missing, tell our onboarding team straight away.
Is my business moving in this direction … or you’re gonna stay stuck in migration and you’re gonna be stuck at where you’re at right now that’s clearly not working if that thought of changing came across your mind.”
The results
Time back, boundaries set, and a calendar booked a year out
No growth numbers here. What Joanna got once the setup work was done is quieter: time with clients, firmer boundaries around the calendar, and a record that holds up.
More time on hair, once it’s set up
Hair restoration is hands-on work. Once her setup was done, the rest became, in her words, click and go.
Time would be the most that helps me … it alleviates some time so that I can focus on either restoring their hair or doing toppers and weights for them … because once it’s set up, it just kind of, like, click and go.”
Sometimes I even have clients that tell me, ‘I forget that you’re by yourself and you have so many clients. I don’t know how you do it.’ How I do it is because I have a software like Pabau.”
A deposit that set a boundary
Her old system let clients book online with no deposit. When Joanna added one in Pabau, a couple of clients phoned to ask why. She kept it.
Some people tend to book things and not follow through, and it takes away time from the people who are ready to take the next step. I wasn’t always great with boundaries, and Pabau did help me with that, because they know you said you needed a deposit, and that’s what’s gonna happen to book.”
Clients who book a year ahead
Many of Joanna’s clients book a year ahead, and some of those dates move.
A lot of my clients book out a year in advance … it does make it easy for us to go ahead and pre-book a lot of these appointments, but also have the ability to reschedule them at a different time … Notifications always goes out … it’s also there with the name of your clinic, the time of the appointment, your address so that when the client receives it, they can literally press the address and the GPS will come up on their phone and take them there.”
The allergy flag
One small detail she hadn’t seen elsewhere, in her words.
Once they selected it, it shows in big red bold letters, ‘Hey, this client has an allergy.’ I didn’t find that in any other software that I came across.”
I am not a medical doctor, so I don’t have medical doctor software, but Pabau allows me to understand there’s information we do need, and the option is there.”
Reviews that ask themselves
A thank-you email with a review request goes out after each appointment, without Joanna having to send it herself.
As soon as they’re done with their services, a nice email goes out thanking them … if a client says, ‘Hey, I didn’t get your email,’ I can go right into the communication and see whether the email really did go through or not.”
I would say switching to Pabau was worth the headache. Nothing is gonna be perfect, but you know that this is gonna be a better option for your clinic, so it’s worth the transition.
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