Fred Helouis is the driving force behind Vagaro, launching one of the longest standing scheduling software systems. Here, fred tells us about the triumphs of building a business from the ground up, and his commitment to empowering professionals with cutting-edge tech.
“I was born in Lebanon, and I came to the United States when I was 18 years old, fleeing the Lebanese Civil War,” Fred told us. “I went to school to learn computer programming, which was a skill I developed in my first job at a very small company. I found out that I had a real passion for it, finding the quick results you could create very rewarding.”
Fred’s idea for Vagaro originated over 20 years ago, and although it didn’t happen right away, the spark for his innovation never quite died. During one of many work trips to Korea for a computer company, Fred thought to himself, “Man, I really need a haircut when I get home.” But in order to get one on the books, he was going to need to spend $3.00 a minute to make a call to the shop – and even if he did, the time difference meant he would have to make the call in the middle of the night. That’s when he thought, “I wish I could just do it online…”
Early days
Once that seed was planted, Fred had the idea of creating a scheduling software for salons and barbershops in the back of his mind for years.
“I got a job at a new company, and I was trying to focus at the job at hand, even though I had this great idea,” he explained. “Anyway, my background was in programming robotics, not website programming. I was just like, ‘How do you even start a company? How do you get money to start a company?’ I had no idea how to do any of that.”
“When I started to investigate other businesses, everything had an E in front of it, so initially I called the business eappointment.com and bought the domain for that website. Every time I would mention this to one of my friends at work, they’d laugh,” Fred told us. “It took 10 years until I fully launched the business. I had been laid off during the 2008 recession and took that as a sign to dive in. That’s when I decided that to create my own company and decide my own destiny.”
“I went to Dubai and started working on a business plan. I had my sister and a couple friends invest in the business, so it’s nice knowing that the company was started by four Lebanese people. Two years after that, we were profitable. Now, 15 years later, we have become a household name in the industry – and it’s pretty cool that we were the first app of our kind on app stores.”
Five star culture
Customer relations are at the forefront of Vagaro, which prompted Fred to develop his five-star company culture. “The way I explain this is that if you go to a restaurant, you should receive excellent service – the water comes right away, and the waiter takes your order, and your food comes… but it’s stone cold,” Fred explained. “The whole time you were having this five-star experience, but one person on the team messed up.”
“It could be either the cook or someone else in the team, which brings your entire experience down to two-stars. So, at Vagaro, we work with this concept in mind that we are a team, and if one of us lets the customer down, then we all do,” he explained. “The entire team is committed to the five-star experience, and that’s not just about customers. Internally, I want everyone in the company to treat each other with respect.”
And how does Fred ensure that this ethos is met across all aspects of the business? It all starts before the customer has even signed up to Vagaro, he explained: “From a customer experience, we want our quality to shine through, right from the advertisements to our webpage. Then, when you get to the point of signing up, we want to ensure the customer still feels like they’re having the same experience. Sometimes, once you sign up for a software, it looks like you’re about to pay taxes on the government website,” Fred laughed.
“We want the experience to be always modern. When you call us for support or you want your information, our employees will treat you with respect and friendliness, while offering you support. We aim to answer the phone in less than two minutes. We offer 24/7 support so people can reach us, whether it’s by phone, chat, or email. We’re more than happy to talk to them, and we want to be relentless in our support. We’re not going to hang up the phone until the customer feels like their question is answered or their issue is solved.”
Fred hopes that this 5-star experience then reflects on the end user. As a barber, you might give 5-star service and haircuts all day long, but if your client’s booking experience was strenuous or frustrating, that could be as detrimental as cold soup during a nice meal.
Values
And a huge part of Vagaro, is the values and hope they instill in their customers – something Fred feels extremely passionate about. “Our ideal for business is that if our customers prosper, then we prosper with them,” he told us. “We’ve been profitable in business for the last 14 years doing what we are doing, and we just want to ensure we are the best value salon and barbershop software out there.”
“There’s nothing for free in this world, trust me. So many other companies will draw you in with an offer of something for free, but there will be hidden costs. Unfortunately, that’s just the hook to get people in the door. Whereas our aim is to be responsible, we want to support our customers throughout their business journeys, and be a steady, reliable constant, in this ever-changing world.”