Improving your Salon Software and the Client Experience with: The Salon-Branded Mobile App

Nowadays, according to Statista, 52% of the population use their mobile devices to browse the internet and this is expected to rise to 60% by 2017. (Statista, 2016) Judging by these stats, businesses should be prepared for the increase in mobile browsing, as customers may opt for companies with online assistance, as their services are more accessible rather than having to telephone somewhere and risk perhaps waiting in a queue or not getting through on an engaged line.

Many salons now already offer an online booking service through their website, however if the target market is predominantly using their mobile to search the net, now is the time to switch up and prepare your online-booking feature to go mobile. Whether this be through making your website optimised for mobile initially, and then later looking at introducing a mobile app.

At current, competition between salons is extremely high when it comes to smart tech, and for a lot of salons these kind of features are fairly new to them and so the switch can sometimes be daunting. However, we have introduced a feature that provides salon customers with the ability to book services 24/7 using a salon-branded mobile app. The app is really simple to use, and appointments synchronise straight to the Salon tracker digital calendar already on the system in the salon, without the salon owner having to do anything. Clients will be able to access the app when on the move, including being able to pick a preferred therapist and chosen time slot when making a booking. Each customer will have their own exclusive login, enabling them to view and update upcoming appointments at the click of a button. Other great benefits of our app include free marketing, where salons can advertise last-minute slots, salon offers and customer rewards!

If you haven’t yet got a software package in the salon, we also offer a FREE 2 week trial, so you can try & test our system for yourself before looking at introducing the mobile features.

So, why do we think having a mobile app is useful and how will it benefit your business?

- The app will be branded to your salon, improving salon awareness and the accessibility for customers to be able to communicate with your salon, by being able to access the app at any time when on the move or at home.

- Customers can access your Salon Calendar and book appointments 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

- No more phone line queues or salon lines being engaged. Busy phone lines could mean missed custom for some salons, however with an app there is an unlimited client usage at any one time, meaning appointments can be booked simultaneously. Another benefit is it also prevents therapists from having to break off from treatments to answer the phone.

- The booking service seems more personable to your customers, as each client has their own login, in which they can access their services, rewards that you have given them and update their appointments at the click of a button.

- You can promote your Salon freely, by advertising last-minute deals to fill slots on the calendar and highlighting any upcoming offers or events that you are hosting.

- More time for salon staff to focus on other areas of the business rather than managing bookings, as the mobile app links with the Salon Tracker system and will therefore keep track of the bookings for you.

For those of you that didn’t already know, we will be exhibiting at Professional Beauty North this September where we will be giving live demonstrations of how the app works in everyday salon situations. Keep posted on our news page and social media sites for the link to register for your FREE tickets to PB as this will be coming soon…

Salon Tracker x

How to improve your tanning business with our Salon Software

For those of you that follow our news page regularly, you may recall that we covered a lot of tanning safety and how salon software can improve the security of your tanning business during busy periods.

As we’re in the height of tanning season again, we just wanted to re-visit some of the daily hindrances that owners of tanning salons find and how our salon software can solve some of those problems.

Under-age tanning

You’ll get several that will try it, and especially if they’re the younger sibling of an elder who is over 18. You’ll find many trying to pass as others using fake ID’s and the like, and sometimes, these may look so legitimate you actually end up allowing someone to tan, who shouldn’t be, without even realising! So, we came up with a fingerprint recognition feature that prompts clients to scan their fingerprint on registration. Obviously as a fingerprint is unique to any one person, this then secures their details and also provides salon owners with piece of mind that no one is using another’s details maliciously, as each time a sunbed is booked the system will require the fingerprint to match before that client is able to use the bed. The system also simply stores date of births, another requirement upon client registration. Therefore if you have clients that are under 18 and they use your salon for other treatments, such as beauty etc, if they then come and try to book on to a sunbed the system will physically put a block on that client being able to as it will show up that they are under 18. A great feature for when salon owners are away as this ensures security and legality by making sure that therapists can’t make mistakes of allowing underage clients to tan.

High volume of paper disclaimers and client record cards

When your salons client database starts reaching the thousands, it can become very time-consuming to search through realms of paper documents when looking for a particular client’s records. Our salon software stores all client information digitally, from their name and address to their skin type and tanning minutes. Another great feature is that we can also link up with an electronic signature pad, meaning that clients can sign your salon terms and conditions electronically, again meaning that you no longer have to refer to searching though paper documents. Essentially, your salon can become paperless, improving efficiency and also space management!

‘Mysterious Minutes’

From time-to-time, you may have human error mistakes made where minutes are accidentally not accounted for, or someone has given somebody more minutes than they may have paid for. You however unfortunately may find that on the off-occasion you have malicious behaviours going on in the salon, where ‘freebie’ minutes are given out and you have no record of this happening. So, we came up with an integration that allows us to link with T-max timers, meaning that the system accurately tracks all minutes used in real-time, and assigns them to clients meaning that no-one can book on to a sunbed without being registered within the Salon Tracker system. And even if you don’t want to implement a timer manager yet, our software tracks all client minutes accurately meaning that you can see how many minutes a client has purchased, when, and how many of that package they have remaining. These can all be identified on digital reports and on the client’s record card stored within the system, therefore if anything doesn’t add up you can easily identify why.


Sound like this may benefit you, why not try it out for a couple of weeks? We offer a FREE no-obligation trial, just simply sign up here http://ow.ly/wNrl301GhQV

Salon Tracker x

Salon Tracker: How our Salon Software can improve your Business Management

Running a salon can be extremely stressful, especially if you have been around a while and your client database is quite excessive. Using the latest technologies, Salon Tracker have created three different software packages that are guaranteed to help you manage and grow your business and also achieve your goals. You may have also noticed that now all of our packages are on a subscription payment method, meaning we will give you software updates throughout your contract free of charge.

So having said that, how can our software improve the day-to-day regimes in your salon? Under the below sub-headings, I’m going to analyse key points throughout a typical day in the salon and explain how Salon Tracker will help with the management of those.


Reception Process

How many of you are fed up of searching through realms of paper documents on a client’s check in to the salon or when they simply want to make a booking? Starting off on the Standard package and above, our software includes a built in digital client card, meaning that all clients records are stored on the Salon Tracker system. We provide a seamless client registration process, which allows all of their details to be inputted and stored digitally, taking only a couple of minutes to complete. If you go for our Professional package or above, you can then link your disclaimers and patch tests to the clients’ records and have the client sign for these via an electronic signature pad. Appointment, retail purchases and transaction history will all be stored under the same record file within the system in case you should ever need reference of that client’s history with your salon. A great space saving feature also, as this means that your salon can go entirely paperless.


POS System/Service Transactions

Struggling to cash up accurately and sometimes find that you can’t account for certain missing payments? Salon Tracker provides a seamless POS system that can be integrated with the software itself, in which all transactions are recorded, including the method in which the customer paid, which is highlighted on digital reports. A benefit of the integration is that a client’s transaction total & change is automatically worked out and the cash drawer operates automatically upon payment, which will improve human error mistakes.


Salon Security/Staff Shift Tracking
Looking to improve Salon Security and Staff management? On our Professional Package and above, we have introduced a Fingerprint sign in and out method, which can be used for both client security and also staff login/logout of their shifts. Especially useful in tanning salons as the finger print recognition means that only the client in which has registered with the salon can book on to a sunbed and use the salon services, as the system will prompt a fingerprint requirement before that client can book a treatment. This ensures that no one is illegally tanning and using a ‘friend’s ID to fraudulently use a sunbed, which is great for ensuring that tanning salons are meeting the legal requirements set by trading standards. For hair and beauty salons, this security feature works in the same way that someone wouldn’t be able to pretend to be an already registered client, which then eliminates risking the fact that they wouldn’t have had their patch test before a treatment, improving overall salon security and client protection. For staff, this is a great way to track employee shift patterns and also provides salon owners with the ability to be in control of the salon even when absent, as they can access staff-rota reports from home if they use our Enterprise Software package. 


Stock Management
Throughout the day, you will make several retail sales, will use measurements of your stock throughout services and if this is during a busy period, it can be hard to keep track on paper of exactly what you are using/selling per day. Salon Tracker’s Professional Software Package allows access to digital reports, in which the system will track daily usage of stock measurements in specific treatments and client retail purchases. Our stock management suite also enables salon owners to set low stock warning levels and default stock quantities, great for when you are re-ordering as the system will just update the levels automatically. The reasoning behind this is so that stock takes can be accurately carried out using the digital stock report that is generated daily by the system, and also to improve space management as there will no longer be need for excess over-stock.


Digital Business Reports

Speaking of reports, on our Standard package and above salon owners have access to a wide range of digital reports that can be used to track cash flow, client spending activities, stock control and so on. The standard package provides staff with a digital end-of-day report, which provides the ability for accurate cashing-up quickly and efficiently at the end of each working day. Salon Tracker’s Professional package and above offers a wider range of reports, which allows Salon owners so manage areas of their business effectively, without having to track data manually. These reports can be accessed from home via a tablet or mobile if our Enterprise Software package is purchased, meaning Salon owners have full management over the salon even when they are on the-move or on vacation.


To let us help you to improve your business management enquire for a FREE trial with this link: http://ow.ly/kkIm301jHJo


Salon Tracker x

Father’s Day is on its way…

The holiday season is underway and you have Father’s Day, Proms and Graduations all just around the corner, so we thought we’d share a few marketing tips throughout these months to ensure that you keep sales at a peak during this busy period…so keep posted for those mini tips over the coming weeks!

Upcoming first is Father’s Day this Sunday (19th June), so we’ll kick off this week with some little how-to’s for the national ‘Dad's Day’. Which, we understand for some salons your majority client base is probably women. However you’ve got to remember, it’s the women that are buying the Father’s day gifts, so anything you can promote in the salon as the perfect present is a bonus and will boost those sales for you!

And you know what it’s like, a lot of people buy their father’s day pressies last minute so anything you can market that will catch the customers’ eye is a winner. If you haven’t created gifts already, a few ideas we’ve got for those last-min buyers are;


- Upsell your gift vouchers! For a small cost, you could have some Father’s Day voucher holders printed so that they fit the part!

- Club together male retail products and form a ‘Father’s Day gift set.’

- Couples treatments, especially appealing to your young mums who may be in their first year of parenthood with their partner.

- Gift-wrapping service…perfect way to add on a couple of pounds to your Father’s Day sales and this may especially be a winner with the Mums' as they’re always in a rush so are bound to snap up your creative service!

Speaking of the female market, you have 2 types of target audience when it comes to father’s day…the first is the Mums', (partners of the Fathers'), especially of younger children. Secondly, you have the grown up children (now maybe even parents themselves) and you’ll normally find that if there is a case of mixed gender siblings, the female will normally have more of a say on the gifts for their Dad's!

So, how to appeal to these differently and how to ensure your message reaches the appropriate people? Obviously, if you are a predominantly female based salon, then targeting for Father’s Day can be a little bit tricky. However equally, if you are a barbers or solely male-orientated salon, then again this makes your marketing tricky as how do you reach the girls with your message?!

The big one here is social media! Type out promotional messages and share them on your salon Facebook page, and for a small cost, boost the posts to your local area to engage with a wider target audience. Word of mouth promotion is large on social media networks, as people share posts in and among each other at such vast rates, your offers are bound to catch the eyes of a few people. Your messages could be as simple and direct as ‘Exclusive Father’s day offers not to be missed’ or ‘Dad’s are in for a treat.’ Create a Father’s day landing page on your salon website with the Facebook link directing viewers to this page, then display all of your special offers accordingly.

But, then you might ask what happens if you don’t have a website but still engage on social media? Then why not highlight your best 3 offers and run a Father’s Day competition allowing ‘3 lucky winners’ to treat their Dad’s? Facebook posting is free, and fun if you create a bit of a contest out of it. Plus, this again gets people talking about your salon promoting brand awareness for you!

If you are however a barbers or a solely male salon, then Father’s day is a perfect opportunity for some last-minute marketing campaigns over the next week. Create SMS and email campaigns based around the event and run an exclusive weekend perhaps offering a ‘percentage-off’ certain services, or promote an exclusive deal on certain treatments? Even if some of your clients aren’t Dad’s themselves, this little percentage discount may just sway them to spend a bit more with you too, excellent for keeping Summer Profits in mind!

Keep posted for more mini tips over the next couple of weeks where we’ll be discussing Prom, Graduation and holiday go-ers’. Until next time…


Salon Tracker x

½ way down, ½ way to go!

It doesn’t seem two minutes since we were typing to you to wish you good luck for 2016…and now here we find ourselves in June, I know, already?! Which, for you guys this is the start of summer peak so you’re all busy, busy- and how have you all been getting on in the last few weeks? I hope that the first half of the year has been a great success for you all and you’ve got plenty of bookings to be tending to.

However once your summer of weddings, proms and holiday packages comes to a halt, you need to start thinking about the next quarter, and you want to make sure that you are prepped for your Autumn/Winter custom, that you have done enough marketing and promotional activities to ensure that you have those clients already lined up and you generate those big sales!

Understandably it's hard to think about this now when you are in the height of a busy period and sales are thriving. However, September on-wards you have back-to-school, the autumn (where everyone wants a tan, new style and colour change) and also, the big one, Christmas.

You don’t necessarily need to start the actions for this yet however, just when you get a spare couple of hours, do a little evaluation of what worked well for you last year and perhaps what didn’t. Also, take note of how you manage the high demand through this peak summer season and see how you can implement some of these tactics in to your Autumn/Winter strategy. This way, you are prepped mega early and you don’t have to cram in last-minute ideas.

If you are currently a salon software user, why not run a report of your sales throughout the summer, and have a look at peak times against certain marketing campaigns that you send out. This then highlights to you the types of messages that have worked well for you and indicates the types of approaches that you should be using to keep a good client retention from Summer through to Autumn/Winter.

Re-booking! A great one to push to clients who visit you throughout July & August, as then you are guaranteeing yourself extra custom in the September and October months, where salons are a little bit quieter before the start of the peak Xmas season in November.

Create a new Winter treatment list…(and it might be here that you don’t actually make that many changes!) ..but if you freshen up that service list both in the salon and online, create some ‘wintery’ titles for some of your treatments and change up the design a little bit, this small change could mean a big one in the eyes of clients. Use your social media channels to push the ‘refreshed services.’

Retail products, do you supply different products in the summer to what you do in the winter? If so, order these early, just to ensure you have that quick turn around when it comes to the Summer-Autumn/Winter changeover! Also, it’s all about the presentation of those. Get your most creative technician to do a bit of visual merchandising with your retail products to increase their appeal value to customers.

Staff working preferences. Throughout Autumn/Winter, you have an array of events, including Halloween, Bonfire Night and Christmas. Demand for days off or early finishes around this time could be high, therefore plan these shifts early and get your staff to fill out a shift preference sheet, to keep it fair and to give yourselves plenty of leeway with time to arrange these shift patterns accordingly. This way, you’re not shooting yourself in the foot if all of your therapists come running with the same day-off request, last-minute.

This is just a start off…and the aim was to provide few little pointers for you to think about over the summer season in the lead up to autumn. It may be that you don’t actually action some of these until the end of the month, but it just gets you in the planning mode and gives you a few ideas in how to manage the season switch up! Keep posted as next week we’ll be offering you our best Father’s day marketing and promo techniques for how you can capitalise on this event in the salon. Until next time…

Salon Tracker x 

Salon Tracker Software: How Salons Can Prepare For Prom Season

As the most awaited night of the year for School & College pupils approaches, many of you I’m guessing will be fully booked throughout June with an array of Spray tans, up-do’s, Mani’s & Pedi’s. However for those of you that have got those last few appointments that you want to fill, here are our tips for prepping and progressing through Prom Season!

Event-

You may come across certain clients who are unsure of the style in which they want to go for, they have purchased a last-minute dress and they need a little bit of expert Inspo in to what styles will complement their outfit. If you have the staff to cater for this and have a free hour, why not plan a walk-in service that offers clients the chance to have a free planning consultation. Set it on a first come first serve basis for 10 people, giving them each a 10 minute slot in which to try these treatments. A great way to generate a bit of fun in the salon and also to promote your services.

Promotional Packs-

Affordability is key to the Prom market, as your Prom packages are directed towards a teen audience and not everybody’s parents, aunts or grandma’s can always help out with the costs. Therefore use Prom season to connect with the youngsters and as you whittle down to your remaining few appointments, why not offer some last minute deals? These smaller prices will attract clients to snap up those deals so that you no. 1, don’t have any spare appointments going to waste and no.2, have a room full of happy clients. If you need something to secure these, ensure that a small deposit is added just to make sure that a customer doesn’t miss the appointment.

Local Prom Dates-

The perfect walk-in opportunity! Get in touch with your local schools/colleges and see when their Prom dates are. This is especially beneficial to sunbed or beauty salons for those clients who want a last minute mini-treatment, as this way you can ensure that you are prepped for the potential demand!

Social Media Coverage-

Not only can this improve the amount of custom that your salon may get for Prom season, it also creates interest and engagement from your current followers and might help to increase that social media following. You will probably already have a lot of Prom clients booked in, therefore when you have carried out their treatments, see if they are willing to let you take a snap of the finished product- share these on your social media sites as 'Prom inspiration' to increase your brand awareness. You can also have a look in to the top 10 search terms for Prom ideas and hash tag your images with these to further increase those viewings.

Intelligent Marketing-

If you haven’t done so already, intelligent marketing is the best way to promote your salons services at any time of the year, whether this be Prom, Holiday Season, Weddings or Christmas. A simple SMS campaign can be a fast and easy way in which to ensure a promotional message reaches clients instantly, or equally a visual email campaign to capture the eye of the client. If you have social media pages, you could run a competition giving clients the chance to win an exclusive Prom Package, as this will also increase engagement on your social media channels, or alternatively create last-minute deals on your mobile app to prompt customers to make a booking with you.

Add-On-Sales-

Around Prom Season, everyone gets a bit spend happy, as they want to ensure that they are fully prepped for the big day! To encourage this spending, why not have your mini retail products displayed at the till and put an exclusive ‘Prom Offer’ on some of those. This doesn’t have to be anything sizable, just a small percentage off or even a multi-buy offer, just so that your salon capitalises on the event and improves retail sales for the month- win, win!

Happy Prom Season!

Salon Tracker x

SMS Marketing ideas for Spring Bank!

Yes, we know it doesn’t feel like 2 minutes since May Day Bank Hol, but Spring Bank is edging ever closer and so what a great way to capitalise on this holiday with a bit of SMS marketing. For those of you that already use Salon Tracker software, and currently subscribe to our

Professional package, you will already have access to our SMS marketing feature and you may well have planned a couple of Bank Hol campaigns in advance. However for those of you that haven’t and need that extra little bit of inspo’, here are a few quick-fire examples that you can create using our message templates, or even just take these ideas and submit the messages in your own way if you don’t currently use our marketing suite. We hope you find them useful, here goes…

• Hi <<Forename>> 

[Bank Holiday Bonanza! We’re offering 10% off all treatments from <<date>> to <<date>> Call <<CompanyTel>> to book your appointment and to be sure not to miss out!]

<<CompanyName>> <<CompanyTel>> T&Cs Apply

• Hi <<Forename>> 

[Improve your Bank Holiday Selfies! Book today to receive a free <<£>> reward off your next spend over <<£>>!]

<<CompanyName>> <<CompanyTel>> T&Cs Apply

• Hi <<Forename>> 

[Bank Holiday Buys…we’re offering 10% off selected retail products across the whole weekend, so don’t forget to drop by!]

<<CompanyName>> <<CompanyTel>> T&Cs Apply

• Hi <<Forename>> 

[Need a bit of TLC this Bank Hol? We’re offering <<%>> off <<treatment>> on <<date>> Book now to receive your discount!

<<CompanyName>> <<CompanyTel>> T&C’s Apply

• Hi <<Forename>>

[Bank Holiday Beauty…we’re offering a complimentary <<treatment>> when you spend over <<£>>! Call <<CompanyTel>> to book today]

<<CompanyName>> <<CompanyTel>> T&Cs Apply

• Hi <<Forename>>

[Refer a friend! Know someone who is looking for a beauty change-up this Bank Hol? Refer a pal and receive 10% off your next treatment. Click here for more details <<link>>]

<<CompanyName>> <<CompanyTel>> T&Cs Apply

• Hi <<Forename>> 

[Bank Hol Brand Offer…receive <<%>> off <<treatments>> if booked before <<date>> Call <<CompanyTel>> today to secure yours!

<<CompanyName>> <<CompanyTel>> T&Cs Apply



Happy Bank Holiday!

Salon Tracker x