I’m always eager to learn more about new products and technologies entering the tattoo industry. That is why I felt excited when Sandy, the owner of the Tattoogenda, reached out to me for a chat and share more about the product she has been putting love in. Enter the Tattoogenda!
Dear Sandy, what can you tell us about yourself?
Hi, I’m Sandy Verfaille, a 37-year-old woman from Belgium who is a tattoo artist and studio owner. I have a bachelor degree in computer science, but less than 2 years after school, I started as a tattoo artist instead.
What’s your background in tattooing?
I started 14 years ago as a single artist. I kept my shop growing, and now we have 12 artists in my own studio in Roeselare and 3 other locations in other cities in Belgium.
Where did your fascination for tattoos come from?
I always wanted to be my own boss and start my own company. I have always been creative. I’ve been drawing since I can remember. So this was the perfect combination for me.
How and when did Tattoogenda get started?
The very first beginning was about 6 years ago as a basic version for my own studio. But the real final version of Tattoogenda as we know it now started 2 years ago. To get my own studio running smoothly and organized, I had a need for some automation. When I had my first franchise locations up and running, it became even more clear that we needed a digital system to keep track of everything. So I made a technical analysis of what would be necessary, and I hired a professional Belgian IT company to start developing it.
What are your products/services? What’s your flagship product?
Our main product is Tattoogenda Subscriptions itself. Any tattoo studio worldwide can start a monthly subscription. Most of the time, we start with a digital meeting to go over all features, I let the studio tell their story and hear what features they might need. With that information, we decide together which plan suits them best.
The core of Tattoogenda is a digital calendar in which you book all appointments between artists and customers. Similar to Google calendar, but way more specific for our scene. TG sends out automated reminders (mail or SMS) to the clients, it collects digital deposits; it asks your customer for reviews, it sends out aftercare mails, etc.
TG is also a CRM that keeps track of all your customers, including how much they spend with which artists, their history of no shows, etc. Deposit and payment management come with the higher-tier subscription, as well as financial and demographic reports.
What is the main philosophy/mission of your brand?
Every person should do mostly what they’re good at. If an artist wants to be just an artist, let them be. The organization, scheduling, marketing, administration, and finances should be done by someone who loves doing just that. TG creates a smooth environment to let all parties work together. In other sectors, like dentists, physiotherapists, and doctors, it’s already common to work in a group practice where professionals share the costs of a receptionist.
In my own tattoo studio, we also hire a professional receptionist/administration person + a professional full-time marketer. With that setup, our artists can focus on their art. Everybody happy. Tattoogenda is the connection between those layers, simplified. A receptionist can make a booking for an artist, and TG can take care of further customer communication.
What specific challenges do tattoo studios face in terms of management and organization that your application aims to address?
The first is the boundary between customer and artist. Many artists struggle with the private message flow of customers that are already booked in (or not) and who want to change their design, have questions, or need your personal attention.
The second one is that a lot of studio’s complain about no shows. If you make a more professional impression on your customer, both of these issues will disappear.
The client will take you more seriously when they really have to commit to a booking. Eg., they need to book in and give you an email address and enough data to be able to make your design, you charge deposits and let them pay digitally; they get reminders, communication about your rules around their deposit, etc. They feel more cared for by your pro-organization, and reciprocate by showing up.
The third challenge is administration, including consent forms. With TG, you send the consent order via SMS or show a QR code, and it’s kept digital on your customers appointments. You also have financial reports for guests as well as residents, which simplifies invoicing between studios and artists.
I have noticed that a descent part of my users like it most for the capabilities of running a studio from a distance. Some of the managers I speak to keep track of all the information when they are abroad. E.g., if they use the feature that an artist should upload a picture of the finished result before entering a payment, it allows the manager to follow all works that have been done in their studio, including how long they took and how much they charged. It helps them to keep an eye out so that all artists and prices stay honest. For me, I use this feature when I want to give a raise to one of my artists. It shows a track of all their work, not just the ones you see on Instagram.
What challenges have you faced while developing and distributing applications for the tattoo industry, and how have you overcome them?
I had to learn that development never stops. There’s always something new to create, an extra feature that a customer wants, or a new technology to learn. There’s no such thing as a ‘finished Tattoogenda’. We have updates almost on a weekly basis. We learn from every new customer, and since it’s a worldwide system, it’s really interesting to see how studio’s work in different countries.
For example, consent forms have different legal rules in different countries. In one country, it is mandatory by law to keep a photo of the customer’s ID, and in another country, you are not allowed to keep such photo’s for GDPR reasons.
How do we overcome? We keep developing our software, me included. I got coached intensively by our main engineer, it was a lot of learning in the last two years! Luckily, I already learned how to learn and adapt because I started learning the skill of tattooing 14 years ago, and this one never ends.
How does Tattoogenda differentiate itself from other management tools available in the market for tattoo studios?
It is designed/made by a tattoo artist (me), who runs my own studio. We are living it. We use the system ourselves every day. I have multiple managers and receptionists and over 60 artists using it when they are in our studio, so I get live feedback all the time.
TG is made only for tattoo studios; it’s very specific. Other sectors would not find what they needed. Most other systems are designed to be used by multiple sectors, and therefore they are never very specific to some of our cases.
How do you ensure that your application is user-friendly for tattoo artists and studio managers who may not be tech-savvy?
Great question! The smaller the subscription you choose, the fewer features it has, and the more stuff we just don’t bother you with. We know that the receptionist/manager will most likely be working on a desktop computer at the front of the house. The artists themselves will be using TG from their iPad while at work, but at night, to quickly check their jobs for the next few days, they will be looking from their smartphones.
For every use, we make sure it works perfectly on the device that is being used. The desktop/browser version has all the features; the smartphone only lists the bookings and nothing more. I literally sit next to my artists while they use it on their iPads, for example. I say nothing. I see them work and I identify where it can be simplified. It’s fun.
Could you walk us through the key features of your application and how they streamline the operations of a tattoo studio?
Here we go.
- Create the tattoo projects with their appointments in your digital calendar. Or let your receptionist book those appointments on the artist’s calendar.
- Automated emails/sms to your client: a list of their booked appointments, mails with a button to ask for a deposit or a reminder for the deposit; reminders for their appointment tomorrow; aftercare mails.
- Digital deposits via Stripe. A customer can pay via a button in the automated mail or via a booking link you provide. TG keeps a log of when and how a deposit was paid and when you used it, whether in part or in full.
- Consent forms.
- Customer management: keep a log of all customers, how much they spend, with which artists, did they cancel on you before, etc.
- Payment management: you or your artists can enter a payment for each appointment. You can draw lists of all income, calculate shares for artist payouts, etc.
- Booking forms for your website: TG provides scripts you can copy on your website through which a customer can book a consultation appointment with you, or a piercing appointment.
- Bookinglinks: generate a unique link to email to your customers, through which they can choose their appointment date(s) and pay their deposit. You send this link only after you have discussed the project, e.g., through email or messenger.
Similar to Square, but without limiting premade services to choose from because every tattoo is unique with a different timeframe, different price/deposit, etc. There are a few more, but these are the most important ones.
What kind of support and training do you offer to tattoo studios that adopt your application?
I’m glad you asked. At this moment, I’m offering personal guidance while setting up and providing support in answering all questions in less than a day. I notice a lot of customers ask me more business-related questions (e.g., What share do you pay your artists?) instead of technical TG questions.
I’m keeping all those requests on a list to launch an education YouTube channel soon and provide more structured courses. I would love to hear feedback from your readers about what kind of course/training/coaching they would like and what their most common questions are.
What security measures do you have in place to protect sensitive data within your application?
Anything payment-related is going through Stripe. Stripe is the world leader when it comes to handling digital payments because of its security. Sensitive data, like passwords, is encrypted in our database.
We limit the storage of other sensitive data, and for the data that we do keep, our hosting specialist makes use of DDos Protection, and keeps data secure with full GDPR and SOC 2 Type || compliance. I could go on, but I’m afraid I’ll bore the reader from here on. It suffices to say we have an uptime of 99%.
Can you provide examples of success stories or case studies where your application has significantly benefited tattoo studios?
Less stress and artist happiness are hard to measure, but for the studio’s that have numbers of how many shows they had before they started using TG, we can see a drastic decrease in that. Less no shows = more gross and stable income.You need less than 1 prevented show to regain the cost of Tattoogenda’s monthly subscription; that’s a no-brainer!
What is your vision for the future of Tattoogenda and its role in supporting the tattoo industry?
I believe that in every tattoo studio, the quality of the tattoos comes first. I can not help with that; every artist is accountable for their own quality. But for artists to be able to focus on growing their quality, I would love to see more and more studio’s getting organized well, and building a decent and educated clientele so their artists can be artists.
TG supports those studio’s that want to take it a step higher and become more professional. I can’t wait to get to know all those places to behave like professionals, minding their own business.
Do you plan to develop other services in the future?
Yep. Creating websites for tattoo studio’s. I don’t mean the simple, clean landing pages with some contact info. I mean fully functioning websites that score highly in google, have a webshop with merchandise, and that we can integrate with TG. Like with the forms for booking consultations, piercings, etc.
I’m a big SEO fan; the website of my studio has over 30K visitors a month and converts multiple booking requests on a daily basis. I can only serve 1 studio per large area, or we would have conflicts of interest .
What drives your passion for both technology and the tattoo industry, and how does that reflect on the mission of Tattoogenda?
I really have no good explanation for this. I just like both, and it’s a rare combo, I know.
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