Nardi Beauty Center - Latest addition to the iRezi Network!

When you step into Nardi Beauty Center in the Lombardy Hotel, you step into a bit of history. It's famous for being the place where Jackie O got facials twice a week until 1993 "where she was given treatments with a face cream, the formula for which was given to her by Queen Elizabeth II of England".

The salon though for all its history has kept up with the times, and you see customers of all ages in Nardi Beauty Center whenever you go. Fred Nardi is a bit of a legend himself, having been featured in many magazine (ahem Vogue!) over the years, and he's even written a book! He and his daughter Angelica, create a very inviting, unpretentious atmosphere.

At the 56th and Park Ave salon, Nardi Beauty Center is a full service salon offering everything from Haircuts / Blowouts to Manicures to Massages. On CitySearch, 69 of the 116 reviews give Nardi 5 stars (a feat I've never seen the equal of) with several anecdotes about the personalization of the services and how well the staff listens to their clients.

Sounds to me like we have to make an iRezi appointment for Mr. Nardi soon!

-- the iRezi team

Profile: Dario Salon joins iRezi!

We are excited to announce that Dario Hair Salon has joined the iRezi Network! We are very fortunate to be able to offer appointments / customer rewards for Dario and his staff through the site!

If you read the reviews on Yelp and elsewhere, you might think that the man is a saint! Snippets such as "I love Dario! He can handle my mop and make it look fabulous" or "I have been going here since college off and on and I always come back" or "My loyalty to this salon is such that I frequented them not only throughout the time I lived in New York but for a couple years after I moved to DC" are all over the web.

Dario himself is a very skilled, lovable Italian from Salerno. (The genial Italian uncle that we all secretly wish we had!) He came to New York for vacation 32 years ago "and loved it so much [he] stayed". His hair styles have an air of European sophistication, but everyone in the salon is very down to earth and friendly. There are many Italian double air kisses with clients - clearly now friends because the average client has been with Dario 15 years!

Dario has worked with fashion houses and will admit that he has celebrity clients if you press, but like any good social gatekeeper, won't disclose names - just their existence (and he whispers that he even prefers to maintain a lower key atmosphere). Some of them come from the nearby 5-star London Hotel's recommendations, and they often return on their next trip to the city. Before Dario Salon (which opened in 1986 and has been in the same location on 55th st ever since), Dario trained as a stylist in Italy and even spent time doing stylings on set for various films here and in Italy.

In spite of all that, a haircut of five star salon quality will only run you $45! He said to me that "most businesses are about selling; my business is service", and for him, I believe it.

So, why come to Dario Salon? Great hair, great people, and if you're lucky, friends and good stories!

Book appointments with Dario through iRezi!
--The iRezi Team

iRezi's New Features! Book Appointments Online and Get Rewards!

We are very excited to be releasing iRezi publicly as we hope to make a real difference in small business and consumer experience. iRezi allows consumers to book appointments for all sorts of services online and compare business services apples to apples. In addition, users get discounts and free services the more they return to a given business through that business' iRezi Rewards Program.

For appointments, users can search by distance from their location, Yelp reviews, price, soonest appointment, and iReziValue score. (The iReziValue score evaluates a business along two dimensions: user ratings and how good a company's rewards program is - i.e. how much a consumer will save over time!)

The iRezi Rewards Program gives costumers rewards starting after just 2 completed appointments and all businesses on iRezi have an iRezi Rewards Program. The great thing about our service though (we think!) is that the business can choose what level of savings fits their business model. So, some businesses may offer 75% off of a service up to $200 while others may offer 75% off of a service up to only $50. We think that flexibility is important for businesses, and we use the iReziValue score to make sure that consumers know which iRezi Rewards Programs are the best when choosing which businesses to bring their business to!

We think that iRezi should be an answer to "Daily Deals" sites that are in a sense prohibitively expensive for small businesses to use. The revenue sharing with the site offering the daily deal is often quite punitive. The business itself may offer 50% off of a service and then it may only receive 50% of the actual proceeds, which means in the end, the business is only earning 25% of the sticker price of its services! While the business is trying to gain and reward repeat customers, often "daily deal" seekers don't return. On the user side, we are bombarded by daily deals from many sources, and most of them don't include the businesses that we actually do visit!

What's the answer to this dilemma?? iRezi! iRezi gives you the convenience of booking all kinds of services, classes, etc online while also giving you guaranteed rewards after a certain amount of patronage. It's win-win-win!

Give iRezi a spin: www.irezi.com, and let us know what you think!

Best,
--The iRezi Team