Sri Lanka’s first ever beauty reservation engine, Club Soirté, recently celebrated its first year. The website - and app - allows its users an efficient and user-friendly experience in making reservations at partner salons, spas and wellness centres. Life caught up with Teruni De Silva, the driving force behind the concept to talk about Club Soirté. Below are excerpts.
1. How did Club Soirté come about? Did you envision this concept based on personal experience?
I conceptualised it at my last place of work. The need for streamlined systems in our market has been a gap I’ve wanted to fill especially having lived overseas. Beauty reservations are the first thing that came to mind since I’m a frequent salon/spa visitor and had continuously encountered service drawbacks in the industry.
2. How did you come up with the name? Any particular story/reason?
Soirté was derived from ‘soiree’ which means a gathering of people to one place, and ‘te’ was my nickname in school; so the two combined made sense as I wanted a unique brand name that represented myself as well as its purpose.
3. What kind of beauty based establishments have you partnered with at the moment?
We have exclusive partnerships Salons, Spas, Wellness Centres, Medical Aesthetic Centres and Freelance artists.
4. Club Soirté also has an app now. Is it a paid app?
All Club Soirté membership subscriptions are provided free of charge, including the service provided by the mobile apps.
5. You have also collaborated with a blue chip telecommunications company. Tell us a little bit about it.
We will be collaborating with a blue-chip company during January of 2018. Club Soirté will be the exclusive beauty reservations provider on a platform that sells other ticket-based reservations to a wide audience.
6. Club Soirté currently identifies as a beauty reservation engine. Will you remain focused on beauty or do you hope to expand?
Once I have spent a bit more time getting a foothold on beauty I certainly hope to expand.
7. How has the response been from both partner establishments and clients so far?
I have gained the full confidence of both partner establishments I approach and those who approach me. As for our clients, there’s a loyal clientele who appreciate the convenience of the service as well as our Hotseats deals.
8. Christmas is coming up. Is there any special service you offer that your clients can benefit from?
Yes, we will have a special Christmas promo which will be announced in due time.
9. Any additional plans for Club Soirté in the pipeline?
There’s many and in fact year two will be packed with milestones for us in terms of both services and strategy. If I announce it all I’d be giving my newcomer competitors some edge, so will refrain from saying more.
0 Comments