A Doctor Walks Into a Hair Salon...

At a Glance

• The Great Clips app and its Online Check-In feature inspired a Minneapolis doctor to create Q-rounds, a real-time hospital rounding app now used by 50,000+ families.

• The Great Clips app lets customers see wait times, track their place in line, and get reminders when it's time for their next haircut.

• Solving a small problem really well has a way of inspiring others to think bigger.

Here’s something none of us at Great Clips ever expected: When we launched Online Check-In back in 2011, we thought we were just making it easier for busy people to walk into a no-appointment hair salon and get a haircut without waiting too long. Turns out, we were also inspiring a doctor to reinvent how hospitals communicate with patients and families.

Dr. Michael Pitt, a pediatrics professor and hospitalist at M Health Fairview Masonic Children's Hospital in Minneapolis, was sitting in a Great Clips waiting for a haircut. Our app told him he was fourth in line. Simple. Useful. Respectful of his time.

His reaction? "If a hair salon was able to give me the dignity of valuing my time, why weren't we doing this in health care?"

That question turned into the Q-rounds app—a virtual queue that sends real-time notifications to patients, their families, and nurses when the doctor is about to arrive for rounds. No more waiting all day at the bedside. No more missing the doctor because you stepped out for coffee.

Here's the thing about what Dr. Pitt noticed: It wasn't the technology that caught his attention. It was the intent behind it—a brand that actually pays attention to what its customers care about.

Great Clips customers are busy people who want a good, affordable haircut without their whole day disappearing. The app was built around that—and more than 26 million downloads later, it’s fair to say it landed! You can see estimated wait times before you even leave the house. You can check in, watch your place in line in real time, and get a push notification when it's almost your turn. You can even see how many stylists are working on the salon floor, which tells you a lot about how that wait time will actually move.

The newest feature takes it a step further: Customers can sign in for reminders that nudge them when it's time for their next haircut. Not a marketing blast—just a genuinely useful heads-up, because regular customers have told us, in about a thousand ways, that they'd rather not think too hard about getting a haircut.

None of this is complicated. It's just the result of knowing your customer well and understanding what matters to them. That's what Dr. Pitt picked up on—the basic idea that people deserve time transparency, knowing what to expect so they can plan their lives around it.

Not bad for an idea that started while waiting for a haircut. Great Clips set out to make a Tuesday morning easier for someone who just needed a trim. Turns out, solving a small problem really well has a way of giving other people permission to think bigger. We'll take it.

What This Means If You're Thinking About a Salon Franchise Opportunity

If you're considering whether to own a Great Clips franchise, think about this: Dr. Pitt didn't walk into a cutting-edge tech company. He walked into a hair salon and left with an idea that changed how a children's hospital operates.

That's what happens when a brand is genuinely built around its customers rather than its own interests. And it's the same customer-first thinking Great Clips franchisees bring to their salons every day. The tools, the systems, the support—all of it is designed to help you run a business that works for the people walking through your door.

Curious what it’s like to be part of a franchise that truly understands its customers? I’m always happy to talk. Give me a call.

MORE: An app that answers ‘When will the doctor be here?’ raises $1.8 million: How Great Clips inspired a doctor’s app that takes the guesswork out of patient care

Beth Nilssen

Director of Franchise Development | Great Clips, Inc.
800-947-1143 | [email protected]