GrapePerks: a customer platform for service businesses, built and operated by Grape Digital
Barbershops, salons and similar venues run on walk-ins, repeat visits and reviews. GrapePerks gives them one system for all three. We designed it, built it and run it, and a pilot with a Brisbane barbershop shows what it does for a real business.
GrapePerks is Grape Digital’s own product, not a client engagement. Grape Digital is a software engineering company that builds for clients. GrapePerks is the proof that we can take a product from an idea to something people rely on every day.
Pilot results
Valhalla Barbershop, Brisbane. Figures from the pilot report, over a period of more than four months.
Who it is for
Independent service businesses such as barbershops and salons live or die on three things: how smoothly a visit runs, whether customers come back, and what their Google reviews say.
Most of them juggle separate tools for queues, bookings, text messaging, reviews and loyalty. The tools rarely talk to each other, the customer data ends up scattered, and the owner has no clear picture of who their regulars are.
The problem
The platforms that solve this properly are priced for enterprises, well out of reach for a single-location business. The affordable options each solve one slice of the problem and add another login to manage.
The opportunity was a single system designed around the customer visit, at a cost a small operator could justify.
What we built
A production platform that replaces the disconnected tools with one system, built around what happens when a customer walks in.
Walk-in queue management
Customers join a queue and can see their wait themselves. Staff stopped answering “how long is the wait?” within the first week.
Automated messaging
SMS notifications and campaigns triggered by real events in the visit, with opt-in compliance handled properly.
Review routing
Happy customers are guided to leave a Google review at the right moment, which is how the review numbers below happened.
Digital loyalty and contacts
Loyalty stamps and a contact list that builds itself from visits, so the business finally knows its regulars.
Point-of-sale integration
Integrated with Square so the queue, the sale and the customer record stay in sync without double entry.
How we built it
We scoped the first version around the loops with the highest leverage for the business: the queue, automated notifications and review routing. Everything else was designed to be added later without a rewrite.
The platform runs on serverless cloud infrastructure with a low operating cost per venue, which is what makes it viable for small businesses. Business rules were modelled with the owner in the room, and a shared glossary and stakeholder documentation keep the business and the engineering aligned.
The same practices we use for client work applied here: automated tests, review on every change, a documented architecture and infrastructure defined as code.
For technical readers
- Frontend built with Nuxt (Vue) and TypeScript.
- Serverless backend and infrastructure on AWS, with DynamoDB as the primary data store, chosen for low per-tenant operating cost.
- Domain-driven design used to model the business, with a structured glossary and a stakeholder documentation site.
- Automated SMS delivery, webhooks and third-party integrations, including Square point of sale.
- CI/CD with automated tests and quality gates on every change.
The outcome
The pilot ran at Valhalla Barbershop in Brisbane for more than four months. The queue became essential to daily operations within the first week, and the business went from having no usable customer data to a growing, opt-in list it can actually use.
The 47 new five-star reviews represent a 22% increase for the venue, with its Google rating held at 4.9 throughout. The 246 marketing opt-ins are a 29% opt-in rate across the profiles captured.
What this means for your project
We have done zero to production
Scoping, design, build, launch and the unglamorous work of operating software with real users. Not a portfolio mock-up.
We build for small-business economics
GrapePerks only works because it is cheap to run per venue. The same judgement applies to the software we build for you.
We keep software alive after launch
The platform is under active development, with hospitality as the next vertical. That is what ongoing evolution looks like in practice.
Have a product idea or a process to replace?
Tell us what you are trying to achieve. A senior engineer will reply to arrange a discovery call.