Short answer
You switch without losing clients by exporting your complete customer, appointment, and history data from your old system and importing it cleanly into your new one before you launch. Running a professional migration ensures you don't lose contact details, formulas, or future bookings, keeping your relationship with your clients uninterrupted.
Exporting your current salon data
You need a clean copy of your existing records. If you don't have an export button, you need to ask your current provider to generate the files, which is always a good test of their customer service. You want your complete customer records, appointment histories, and future bookings.
How the data migration works
When you switch to Luminate, the support team handles the transfer for you. You don't have to copy everything by hand. You email hello@luminate.salon with details of your current software, and the team helps you prepare the data as a ZIP of JSON files.
The transfer process is built to protect your records:
The migration brings across your staff profiles and levels including commission bands, monthly targets, and roster settings. It moves customer records with preferences, badges, and account credit. It imports tags, services with deposit rules, products, your colour catalogue, appointments, transactions, shifts, time blocks, colour test records with signed consent signatures, and gift vouchers.
- Pre-import validation. The software runs a dry run validation pass to check every single record before writing anything to the database.
- Database transaction safety. The import runs inside a single database transaction. This means it either completes successfully or rolls back completely. You won't end up with half-imported data.
- Fresh database requirement. You need a fresh, empty account with no data entered yet, apart from your owner profile. You should plan the migration before entering any services or staff details by hand.
Verifying your setup after the import
Once the import completes, you need to check two specific default settings before your clients start booking. The system imports your services and staff, but you must confirm how they behave in your new diary.
- Check online booking settings. Every service arrives bookable online and deposit-free by default. You need to adjust your deposit settings and decide which services are visible to clients online.
- Check the roster. Every staff member arrives on the roster by default. You need to verify their working shifts and time blocks to ensure your calendar is accurate.
Transitioning your clients to the new diary
Switching systems shouldn't disrupt your daily schedule. Once your data is imported and verified, you can launch your online booking and start using the drag-and-drop calendar.
You can set up smart reminders to message your clients about their upcoming appointments automatically. Once that's running, you'll spend less time chasing people, the gaps in the diary will shrink, and your cancellation rates will come down.
What this means for your salon
Planning your migration before you touch your new account ensures your staff details, customer profiles, and future bookings move across without errors. Checking your online booking defaults and setting up smart reminders keeps your calendar full from day one. You can switch software with confidence when you know your existing client relationships are protected.