Colourstart Passport 2.2 is live on every salon account.
The theme running through this release is: simpler for clients, smarter for salons. Fewer steps for a client signing up and less admin for the salon onboarding clients. Passport now does much more to help your clients get set up.
Almost every change came from talking to you.
| # | Change | Who it affects |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Straight Through to Sign-Up — no email confirmation step, one account per client, QR codes merge with invites | All salons |
| 2 | We Do the Chasing — redesigned emails that support clients, two automatic reminders, and a decline option | All salons |
| 3 | Booked In Testing Automation — near real-time Phorest syncing against your approved services list | Phorest salons |
| 4 | Front Desk Rescue — SMS one-tap login links, plus admin password reset support | All salons |
Signing up takes fewer steps. Clients no longer have to go to their inbox and confirm their email address before they can register. We removed that step because the data said we should: 99.6% of clients who have ever signed up entered their email correctly, so the confirmation step existed to catch 0.4% of errors while getting in the way of everyone else. That 0.4% is now handled by automatic typo correction and by telling salons when an address has bounced.
One client now means one account. Salons sending both an email and a text invite to the same person were creating two records for one client. And a client who ordered Colourstart online, then scanned the QR code in the box, used to hit a wall if they’d already been invited from the salon. Both are fixed.
Email and SMS invites now create a single client account instead of two, and a client scanning the QR code from their colourscreen.me order is no longer blocked by an invite they never accepted. The two now merge.
Forgotten passwords no longer stop a sign-up. Clients can request a one-click login link by email instead of resetting anything.
And clients who don’t want to take part can say so. There’s now a clear option to decline, and to tell us why. We’d rather know which clients have opted out than inflate a number.
Passport reminds clients so your team doesn’t have to. The emails Passport sends have been redesigned with your salon’s logo, real detail about the appointment the client is coming in for, and a proper explanation of why they’re being asked and what to do next. Two automatic reminders can then follow up with anyone who hasn’t signed up, timed to land before their appointment.
Early testing shows a 19% increase in invitations accepted. Those are initial results and we expect the figure to move as more salons come on board, but the direction is clear: the system asks, so your team doesn’t have to ask twice.
If you use Phorest, your diary now does the work. Passport syncs with Phorest in near real-time rather than every two hours, and it reads your approved services list. Mark which of your services require an allergy test and clients booking automatically enter the screening workflow. No service list to maintain.
Passport now reads your approved services list from Phorest, so a client booking one of those services enters the Colourstart workflow automatically. Appointment dates are also now recorded properly however far ahead they sit, and Passport admins can see appointments from 30 days in the past and 90 days into the future.
And nobody gets stuck checking in. If a client arrives without having completed their re-screening questionnaire and can’t remember their password, there’s now one button in the salon’s Professional Dashboard that texts them a one-tap login link. Straight in, questionnaire done, colour can go ahead.
Salons cannot change a client’s mobile number — the link goes to the number already on record. Our admin team can also send password reset links directly where they’re genuinely needed, without compromising account security.
Nothing. Passport 2.2 is live on your account now. Nothing to install and nothing to switch on.
Work in progress includes tracking clients still using the traditional Allergy Alert Test inside Passport, so salons can standardise that process and move those clients across at their own pace. More salon software integrations are in the pipeline beyond Phorest.
If you have ideas how we can do more, tell us. We’re listening.
What is Colourstart?
Colourstart is a licensed hair colour allergy test clients use once, storing their allergy status on Colourstart Passport to share with their hairdresser.
What’s new in Passport 2.2?
Four areas: client sign-up no longer needs email confirmation and merges duplicate invites; emails have been redesigned to coach clients, with two automatic reminders and a decline option; the Phorest integration syncs in near real-time against your approved services list; and salons can send SMS one-tap login links to clients who are locked out.
Do I need to do anything to get Passport 2.2?
No. It’s already live on your account, at no extra cost.
Does removing the email confirmation step make Passport less secure?
No. 99.6% of clients entered their email address correctly, so the step was catching 0.4% of errors. That 0.4% is now handled by automatic typo correction and by alerting salons to bounced addresses so they can be fixed.
Does Colourstart integrate with Phorest?
Yes. Passport syncs with your Phorest diary in near real-time and reads your approved services list, so a client booking a service you’ve marked as a Colourstart service enters the screening workflow automatically.
Can a client refuse to use Colourstart?
Yes. Every invitation includes a “Stop my Passport setup” option, and salons can see the reasons clients give for declining.
Do salons hold stock or apply the tests?
No. Clients order Colourstart through colourscreen.me and complete the test at home. Salons hold no stock, apply no tests and handle no money.