Saffron Works Apps for local businesses
Your business,in their pocket.
Saffron Works builds booking, loyalty, ordering and customer apps for independent businesses: salons, gyms, cafés, clinics, trades and shops. We’re based in Saffron Walden and happy to come and see how your business actually runs.
Sound familiar?
The phone never stops.
Bookings, changes and “are you open?” calls eat into the time you should be spending with customers.
You’re paying a platform for every booking.
Marketplace and booking apps take a cut or a monthly fee, and put your competitors one tap away.
Regulars are hard to keep in touch with.
Paper loyalty cards get lost, and social posts don’t reach the people who already love you.
What your app could do.
Built around how your business works, not a generic template. Some common starting points:
- 01
Bookings
Customers book, change or cancel appointments and classes themselves, any time of day.
- 02
Loyalty and rewards
A digital stamp card or points that bring regulars back, without a paper card in sight.
- 03
Ordering ahead
Click-and-collect or pre-ordering, so customers skip the queue and you can plan ahead.
- 04
Messages to your regulars
Let people know about new stock, spare slots or events with a notification.
- 05
Tools for your team
Replace the whiteboard, the diary and the spreadsheet with one simple app your staff can use.
Off-the-shelf, or your own?
Plenty of local businesses are well served by a ready-made booking tool, and we’ll tell you if that’s you. Here’s when your own app makes sense.
Use an off-the-shelf tool if…
- A standard booking page does everything you need
- You’re happy with its fees and how it looks
- You don’t need it to connect to anything else
Build your own if…
- You want your brand, not a marketplace, in front of customers
- You do things differently and templates get in the way
- You want bookings, loyalty and ordering in one place
- Platform fees add up to more than your own app would cost
Local, and in person
A studio down the road, not a call centre.
We’re based in Saffron Walden and happy to meet in person around Saffron Walden, Cambridge, Essex and Hertfordshire. We’d rather see your shop, salon or workshop than guess how it works from an email.
The same care goes into client work as into our own apps, erm, Sapling and Felt, which we designed, built and shipped to the App Store ourselves.
See our apps →How it works.
Visit
We come and see how your business runs day to day, and where an app would genuinely save time or win customers.
Design
A clickable prototype you can try with your team and a few regulars before anything is built.
Build
Built in short cycles, with something to try every week, so there are no surprises at the end.
Launch & support
Live on the web or app stores, with help getting customers to use it, and improvements as you learn.
Questions.
Do I need an app, or just a better website?
Sometimes a well-built web app is all you need: it works on any phone, nothing to download. We’ll recommend that if it’s the better fit, and save native iPhone and Android apps for when they really add something.
Can you come and meet us?
Yes. We’re in Saffron Walden and meet in person around Saffron Walden, Cambridge, Essex and Hertfordshire. Further afield, we work by video anywhere in the UK.
Can it work with the tools we already use?
Often, yes. Many booking, payment and stock systems can be connected to an app. Tell us what you use and we’ll check what’s possible.
Will my customers actually download it?
Regulars will if it saves them time or rewards them. That’s why we start with what your customers do most, and why a web app with nothing to install is sometimes the better choice.
Who looks after it once it’s live?
We can. Apps need occasional updates for new phone software, and you’ll want small changes as you learn what customers use.
Run a local business?
Let’s talk it through.
Based in Saffron Walden. Happy to meet in person around Saffron Walden, Cambridge, Essex and Hertfordshire, or by video anywhere in the UK.