348 How to Use AI in Your Salon Without Losing the Human Touch with Frank Westerbeke

[upbeat music] AI is everywhere right now, and the rate of change and the impact that it's having on the world is not to be underestimated, and it's only just getting started. But in our industry, most people don't really know what to do with it or how to integrate AI into the daily running of a salon business. I'm Anthony Whittaker, and welcome to this week's episode of the Grow My Salon Business Podcast. My guest today is Frank Westerbeek, co-owner of the multi-generational family salon group called Gadabout and Verveé, which are based in Tucson in Arizona. So in today's podcast, we're gonna discuss how AI is being used in the Gadabout and Verveé salons in a very practical sense, whether it's salon marketing, improving financial management, the client journey, or for the team development side of running a business, and lots more. So without further ado, welcome to the show, Frank Westerbeek.

Hi, Anthony. Good evening. How are you?

Well, I'm very good, and I'm really looking forward to this conversation because, you know, as I said in the intro, AI is everywhere right now. But there are so many people in our industry that really don't know what to do with it. So it's, you know, exciting to have this opportunity to talk to you because you're someone who's using it in very practical ways, and I think that that's gonna be enormously helpful to, uh, our listeners just to hear some of the things that you are doing. So can I just sort of jump straight in off the top there and just give me a, a brief overview, first of all, of what AI platforms are you using in the business?

Oh, th- that's one of the better questions because a lot of people wanna know that answer. You know, we started with ChatGPT, um, and then Gemini came on board. And it's interesting, I look at both, I use both-

Mm-hmm

... for what I use it for. I know there's plenty of others now. Uh, I'm not a, I'm not a techy guy at all. Um, I'm a salon owner with almost 300 staff members. We have multiple salons. And where I use it is the bridge between... Because I really wanted, I needed all the help in the world-

Mm-hmm

... to try to understand what's going on, how do I keep up. You know, we've been in business for 45-plus years and still growing and still innovating. And the thing that I do, I, I call myself the human connector of the company. I'm the kind of the guy who goes around ... I still do hair one day a week, which I love. My passion, 'cause it's where the magic really happens. And talking to people, I get answers, and I get ahas that are going on, and then I talk to our staff. I... Today, after this, I'll be going through all the salons and walking through and sitting down with people and taking time to see how they feel-

Okay

... see how things are working for them.

All right. Let me go back a little bit there, uh, and pick up on something you said that you use ChatGPT. I think everyone jumped into that first.

Right.

And, uh, and then you said that you're using Gemini, which is, uh, Google, uh, product. You didn't mention anything about Claude. I'm wondering, do you use Claude as well or not?

They use Claude in the office.

Right. Okay.

Gemini seemed to be-- We, we went through it all, and