As we head in to autumn, clients are looking to pro-long their summer glow for as long as they can in to the festive period. However, for all tanning clients, and especially those that tan frequently, there are some extremely important factors that tanning salons must take in to account to number 1, ensure that the clients in mention are safe and, no 2, to maintain business security in the process. But you can’t do this on your own. So having said that, the first thing that we would recommend is that you have an expert team to help aid in running your salon. You will want each employee to have had adequate training, be aware of the tanning regulations, and be comfortable in advising clients with tanning advice relevant to skin tone.
Since 2010, trading standards have really clamped down on sunbed laws by introducing the Sunbeds (regulation) act. This act states that, by law, no-one under 18 years of age can use a tanning bed, and any one person cannot tan more than once in the space of 24 hours. It was after the rise in melanoma from skin cancer rose quite significantly in young adults that trading standards then decided to act to increase awareness of the disease, and to also improve the safety of the general public.
In mentioning this, it is therefore very important for tanning salons to do everything in their power to follow these guidelines, as the rules are strict and it has been known that councils do random unannounced checks upon salons to ensure these laws are being enforced. Salons have been subject to fines as large as £20,000 for not abiding by these regulations and therefore you don’t want to be a salon that is struck with the same penalty.
So how can Salon Tracker help? Especially when you have such a big team, it can be hard to manage all staff, ensure that they have sufficient training, whilst making sure that you are abiding by the law in the process. It becomes ever more difficult if you are the owner of a multi-site business, where you are trying to split your time across your different locations. Here at Salon Tracker, our ultimate aim is to offer a helping hand in your business management process, provide you with advice on how to ensure client safety and security is at the forefront of your business, whilst you are constantly growing profits.
Whether you are a single, or multi-site business you will all have lots of paper work, including client record cards and tanning disclaimers. One of the first minor changes we can make is to reduce your paperwork drastically, down to none at all if you wish! All client details, including terms & conditions and information on skin type are stored digitally, in which disclaimers can be signed for electronically with our e-signature pad, saving you the time and hassle of searching through large paper files. Now, if you’re multi-site, the great thing about this is that all information stored digitally can be accessed at any of your locations, meaning that clients don’t have to re-register and also, you can see if they have tanned at another of your sites that day to ensure that they are keeping within the ‘once in 24 hours’ regulation. Another benefit is that all salon locations can be accessed from a main headquarters, or from home, so that salon owners can keep track of client tanning activity even when absent from the salon itself.
Security! This is a big-one in the tanning industry, as you’ll come across lots of individuals trying it on with fraudulent ID’s, or in worse case scenarios, employees discounting your services for friends & family members. Salon Tracker can put a stop to both of those things as we have introduced several security features that implement strict client-safety measures, to ensure that all areas of your business are protected.
Clients can now register a fingerprint, using our electronic reader, to be saved on their client card against their details. As a fingerprint is unique to any one person, this then secures their client details so only themselves can access their record card to book on to a sunbed, meaning that no-one else can access their data to use a sunbed fraudulently.
Further security measures include a password protected admin system, which means that all staff members have to have a password to login to their Salon Tracker account, so salon owners can identify all transactions and business activity undertaken by each employee. In conjunction with this, all staff have a protected security level at the salon owners discretion, meaning that each level will have certain features that a particular staff member can have access to, or not. So, the discount feature for example you may only want a manager or senior employee to be able to operate, to clamp down on the malicious discounting behaviours that we mentioned above.
Other benefits of our system include T-Max timer integration, in which all sunbed minutes are tracked accurately and in real-time. However, if you don’t have a timer management system and are using tokens instead- fear not, as this is equally as simple for us to track, as all minutes have to be accounted for under a particular client card, meaning no freebie minutes! All minutes purchased and used within a day can be accessed on our reports system, logging each booking and transaction that each staff member has carried out in a day. No hidden mistakes, no ‘mysterious or missing’ minutes!
We’d love to help you out with your tanning salon management, and if you are keen from what you have read but want to try it out for yourself first, well, you can! We offer a FREE 2 week trial of Salon Tracker, at no-obligation, for you to see for yourself just how simply the software can make day-to-day business running much more efficient and easy-going for you. To enquire for your free trial, just follow this link http://www.salontracker.co.uk/FreeTrial.aspx.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Salon Tracker x
