Why are Salon Reviews important and Tips to get them

It is no secret that online reviews have increased significantly over the past few years and can play an important factor for your business. But how important are they really? 

Nowadays, it is one of the most common things when looking for a new salon to check them out online first. It gives you, as a potential new client a better idea of the business and if it is the right fit for you. Therefore, hearing from previous experiences and what others think of the salon, is crucial for people these days, before making a decision. There are many review platforms out there: Facebook offers a review section for Pages, Yelp is overall popular for local businesses, but if you are looking for salon-specific review sites, SalonSpy in the UK is the way to go. But, remember if you do, it’s important to keep them up to date, make sure you have correct opening hours, contact details and pricing on there, to avoid disappointment, especially if you are using SalonSpy.

From a 1-star traumatic experience to 5-star raving customers, you will probably encounter both of them. Though customer reviews range in thoroughness and comprehensibility, they do hold a powerful effect on the behaviour of your audience and performance of your salon. Having an online culture, people being constantly online, it is no surprise that the number of online consumers who read and trust online reviews is increasing (Forbes, 2015). It is therefore important to keep an overall positive profile online, in order to grow and maintain your business.

 

Bright Local carried out a local consumer review survey and found out that 92% of consumers now read online reviews, and 40% out of those form an opinion on the 1-2 reviews they read. A further 68% say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more. (Source: http://bit.ly/29hKyhf)

As you can see from the statistics, online reviews are highly important in today’s culture.
Therefore, you need to invest time to protect and manage your online brand. Meaning, when you get a review you need to engage with your reviewers. If you skip on the reviews, or simply are not getting any you might be missing out on a great marketing opportunity. So why do we think online reviews are important? Simple, because word of mouth, if it’s online or in person, is still one of the best ways of advertising. It is honest, reliable and simple. We have compiled a few tips on how you can tackle online reviews.

Understand your client and encourage reviews

This is a good way to find out what clients think and it gives you an opportunity to improve and respond to your clients. However, convincing your clients to write you a review, isn’t always easy. Keep in mind that when you are reaching out that these are your paying customers and they are opinionated with either positive or negative feelings about your business. Listen to the feedback from your clients. Think about what they say might be true. There is always room for improvement, and if you adapt changes due to what clients say they feel like you listen to them and take their opinions serious, they feel valued as your clients.


Provide the best possible customer service 

If you provide first class service, people won’t have any reason for critique. Happy customers are more likely to agree on leaving you a good review, raving about your services. If you ask loyal clients, they’ll probably be happy to do so. After all, there is a reason they are loyal to your salon and services.


Dealing with negative reviews 

However, no matter how hard you are trying to achieve excellence, sometimes you just have one of those days where everything goes wrong and you are facing a negative response. You will always face the odd client who is dissatisfied with the service. But what is the best way to deal with negative reviews? Don’t try to hide your negative reviews. Respond to them as soon as you see them, which shows others you are listening and acting in a professional and civilised manner. It won’t get any better if you wait too long, or simply ignore the negative response. Take on any advice for improvements from the review, no matter how harsh it might be. A blend of good and bad reviews shows that you aren’t trying to hide anything.


Think about rewards

This doesn’t mean that you offer incentives in order to get reviews. It smacks of bribery if you do so. This will be more for someone that has left you a review, just as a little thank you. It might be someone has left a ‘positive-over-the-moon’ review, you might want to offer them a discount when they're booking their next appointment. It makes clients feel appreciated and simultaneously they might return to the salon sooner rather than later. Ask those clients as well if you can use it for promotional purposes. It might go well in salon testimonials or on your social media accounts and just creates a little extra advertising for your salon.



Make sure all of your Staff is on board

Consider addressing the topic of reviews in regular staff meeting. Make sure, everyone is on the same boat and understands the importance of that matter. Make sure everyone understands the ways of encouraging customers to leave a review but not to bribe them for them. However, you can run staff incentives and gifts for your employees, encouraging them to get client reviews.
Salon Tracker Software offers a SMS and Email feature, where the salon can send out an automatic text after a client’s appointment, asking them for a review with a direct link to your preferred review platform. You can enable the system to send this out to every single client or the ones you prefer.



Overall, studies have proven that people do read online reviews and it has major influence on their decision making. This is especially important for the Hair and Beauty industry since reviews are often personal and reflect the business accurately. Many people these days trust online opinions before booking an appointment at a new salon. The more reviews you have and the more honest they are, the more products you are going to sell. Just make sure the negative ones don’t overwhelm the positive ones. Therefore, it is important to take online reviews serious and to keep your salon profile up to date. Not only are they important to a vast variety of people, they’re also responsible for your business growth.

Salon Tracker x

How Salon Tracker Ensures that You are Tanning Clients Safely and Maximising Salon Security

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

How Salon Software could help you this Autumn & Christmas

Now with Professional Beauty North past us it’s almost that time of the year. The days are getting shorter, the leaves turn colourful again and then there’s Christmas. It feels like summer has just ended and now you’re proably thinking 'you're mentioning Christmas – already'?! But for many salons this is one of the busiest times and there are so many opportunities leading up to Christmas; Halloween, Bonfire Night, Black Friday and the Festive Period itself.

As winter is approaching, most salons see an increase in the amount of clients wanting to book appointments before the New Year. A lot of salons get their best deals and incentives out of their sleeves around this time. This could either be an ‘Unlimited Tanning Month’ motivating those who want to keep their summer glow, or 2-4-1 on selected Hair and Beauty services…, the options are endless. No matter what it is, our Salon Software can help you stay on top of your appointments and assist with growing your business. Let me tell you about our new features that make it easy to manage your business, wherever you are. Salon Tracker is designed to make life easier for you at the salon as well as help you to run your business smoothly. If you’re thinking of investing in software, here are ways our system can help in retaining and acquiring clients. Our Software offers features to help resolve some of the day-to-day issues that arise for you at the salon. Here we're exploring the different ways that we offer, with features such as online booking, marketing and staff-rota-systems:


Mobile App & Online Booking

Our Salon Branded Mobile App makes booking for clients easier, as they’re now able to book 24/7. This is a fantastic way for your clients to contact you at their own convenience, wherever they are. Clients will be provided with their own exclusive login, which allows them to be able to book and update their services at any time. Any appointments made will synchronise straight to your Salon Tracker Calendar. The app also allows you to advertise last-minute salon slots and deals, filling any unwanted calendar gaps and increasing business sales.

The online booking feature has become more and more popular with our clients over the last few months. Salon Tracker makes sure to install the feature on your Salon’s website, as well as Facebook page. Same as with the app, any client who registers and books an appointment with you online will automatically appear within your calendar and database. The great thing is that the system knows what appointments are taken and which ones are available and therefore it won’t double book for the same time slot.


Site-View

This function allows you to overlook your salon activity when at home or on the go. If you have a busy salon and are in and out, you can easily keep track of bookings and reports. Site View works for those business owners that are constantly on the go. It allows you to access your current business activity from your Smartphone, iPad/tablet or PC. You simply need to login to your admin account to see what is happening with your staff and with your takings. 


Marketing

Now is the time to really focus on your marketing campaigns. If it’s through posters in your shop window or through your website, people respond to a good offer. SMS and Email Marketing is always a quick and easy but useful way to improve client retention. It can also be used to send exclusive offers to your VIP customers and to keep them informed about any bookings with our SMS booking reminders. Our SMS and Email service is so simple to set up and a very easy way to engage with customers.


Fingerprint Staff Rota

When your Salon is busy and you as a salon owner have a lot going on, it sometimes can be hard to observe every client that comes through the door, not to mention your staff. To ensure that your salon runs smoothly and your staff are acting professional, especially during the festive season, we have released the smart staff rota. This now lets you take control and ensure your staff arrive and leave on time. We have integrated a function on our software that links to a fingerprint reader. Our ‘Staff Rota’ feature is an easy way to track clock-in and clock-out times. Once it is linked up to a fingerprint reader, staff members simply place their finger on the reader before they start their shifts, and then again when they finish. The feature will accurately track the duration of staff shifts without them being able to edit or manipulate the rota.


Stay in control of your business, and most importantly, your clients. Using Salon Tracker has reportedly created a seamless client journey. Want to explore how our product can help develop your business and improve your client relationships? Give us a ring to discuss your options on +44 (0) 113 350 8230 where you can also book in for a software demonstration. All of our demonstrations are done through remote assistance; we connect to your computer, show you the features and you decide if it suits you. Remember, you can always trial our software for 2-weeks FREE, no obligation.

To receive your trial click the link http://www.salontracker.co.uk/FreeTrial.aspx 


Salon Tracker x

Professional Beauty North Round Up!

Thank you everyone who visited our stand at Professional Beauty North in Manchester. We are extremely happy with the outcome of the show and it’s been great meeting so many of you. This has been the first trade show I’ve ever attended, so for me it’s been great to see what it is all about. This year’s show has been the second time we exhibited at PB North and every year it's getting better and better. We had a very busy two days, meeting existing clients of ours as well as plenty of potential ones. We are certainly busy at the office getting through all of the enquiries now. If you have missed our exclusive show offers and unique features, here’s a quick summary. All of our show offers are valid until 31st October 2016!

Offers

3 Months Free on all Subscription Software Licenses

We offer 3 subscription services:

Standard Subscription is £30 + VAT per month
Professional Subscription is £60 + VAT per month
Enterprise Subscription is £90 + VAT per month


20% off all Hardware Purchases

Including our All-in-One PC and POS Hardware Bundle

This year we have released a few new features that make our software even better. Did you know?


We integrate with T-Max? 

Seamless timer integration for tanning salons, so there are no miscellaneous minutes, as everything is tracked accurately and assigned to a digital client card.

Offer a 24/7 booking service that syncs straight with your calendar? 

Our Mobile App makes booking on the go available to clients 24/7. All clients have their own personal login to be able to book and update their services at the tap of a button.

You can oversee all your Salons from one location? 

Our HQ function is especially beneficial to those of you who have multi-sites, as you can link your client data, treatment lists and manage stock from a main headquarters.

Clients can register online or through an iPad? 

With our online registration feature, clients can register for the salon online or through an iPad displayed at the front of your shop, minimising reception queues!

Want to see how our product can help develop your business and improve your client relationships? Give us a ring to discuss your options or if you want to book in for a software demonstration. All of our demonstrations are done through remote assistance; we connect to your computer, show you the features and you decide if it suits you. Remember you can always trial our software for 2-weeks FREE, no obligation.

To receive your trial click the link http://www.salontracker.co.uk/FreeTrial.aspx

Salon Tracker x       

Salon Tracker’s 5 Mini Tips for a Trade Show:

This September is Salon Tracker’s second time exhibiting at Pro Beauty North, and so after gathering experiences from our previous exhibits, we have put together a little show guide on how we can help you to maximise your time at a trade show to its full potential. Trade shows are a great place for businesses to network and they are also full of opportunities for you, as salon owners, to take advantage of and invest in your business.

Event halls however are usually hectic environments, packed with business owners looking for products to improve their services and increase profitability. And with this busy environment, it is easy to get flustered and lose track of why you visited a trade show in the first place. Having said this, we have created some little pointers below to help you to manage your visit well, so here-goes…


Go With A Plan!

Download the event show guide if this is possible, look at the list of exhibitors and work out which stands you want to visit prior to the event. There is nothing worse than turning up to a busy event hall, with no idea where the companies are located within the exhibition and then spending half of your day looking round busy aisles to spot them! Also, if you can, try and arrange appointments with those particular brands if they are offering appointment scheduling, just to secure your time with them and to avoid delays with queuing!


Prepare Your Questions

Once you have identified the companies that you want to visit, you are then best to look in to some current factors in the salon that have room for improvement. Work out by researching the companies that you are visiting which of them may be able to help you out with these needs and note down some appropriate questions to ask the stand representatives.


Network

As much as you visit a trade show to find resources that will be beneficial to your brand, don’t forget that this is a perfect opportunity to target vendors that may be interested in your company too! The Professional Beauty exhibition is full of the salon interested and therefore what not a better opportunity to hand out your own business cards and build a relationship with potential prospects. Trade shows are such a sociable affair that you should be prepared to do a bit of brand-promoting whilst you’re there.


Collect!

Throughout the event you will visit countless numbers of stands, and sometimes you visit many that offer such similar services, you can forget which brand was which. Our advice here would be to take a little note pad and jot down some mini reminders whilst you’re visiting each separate stand. This way, you won’t lose track of companies that you may want to enquire with again and also, you save yourself time having to do extra research once you’re home. Most companies will offer you free giveaways, flyers or information brochures, which are also handy to have and make notes on. You’re best to collect sample brochures from all of the companies that you were extremely interested in, then it helps you to narrow down the products that you may want to follow up after the show. Don’t forget to also make a note of the names and direct lines of any professionals that you had a conversation with, as this way they are much easier to track down after the event!


Plan Yourself Some Time-Out

Trade shows are hard-work! You spend the majority of the day on your feet, gathering information over-load and sometimes you need to remember to just give yourself that 5-10 minutes break here and there to evaluate what you have found out already and to also re-energise. Grab a floor plan when you first arrive at the event and map out the local rest/coffee areas so you can plan your route and stop-offs along the way!


We hope these little tips will help you to enjoy your time at the event, and if this is your first time visiting a trade show, we'll be on stand C42 to answer all of your salon software questions. We'll be offering free demonstrations and salon management advice across the 2 day event so be sure to pop and see us!

Salon Tracker x

What to expect at PB North (New features, releases and exclusive offers)

We are exhibiting at Professional Beauty North again this year. This is our second time at the show and we are very excited to bring our new team members with us (Danny, our new Tech Support Consultant and myself, Lydia, new Marketing and Sales Assistant). This will be my first Trade Show and I’m very excited that I’ve been given the opportunity to attend and meet all of you there. The Salon Tracker team will be available on Sunday and Monday all day for any questions, demonstrations or general inquiries. We are specialists in our field so don’t worry if it all seems new to you. Find us at Stand C42 and have a look at what we do. Come on down to Manchester, there is plenty to see at the show and the city.

What can you expect from Salon Tracker on the day?

Whether you are looking to sign up as a customer with us, are an existing customer or maybe you’re just looking for information, we have plenty of leaflets and brochures for you to take away. There will be members from the sales and support team present to answer all of your questions and give you FREE advice on all of the software packages and features. Live demonstrations will be on-going throughout the day and you will have the chance to purchase anything directly on the day. Don’t forget, you can book a demonstration and a FREE two week trial with us at the show. I would recommend that you definitely look out for our new features and exclusive offers. Our team has been working extremely hard over the past few months to improve the software and come up with new features. Each of these 3 features are a part of our Enterprise software package, in which this can be purchased for less than £25 per week and if you sign up with us from the show, we’ll offer you your first 3 months FREE!). New features include:

Salon-Branded Mobile App

The Mobile App is our newest release and it contains features such as salon-branded customisation, booking ability from your smartphone 24/7 and a marketing tool for those clients who like to check on offers on the go. A personalised app for your salon is the perfect way to stand out from the crowd. Our mobile app is customised to your own needs, you tell us what you need and we make it happen.

Home-View

This gives you the ability to view salon activity and reports from home on your PC or on the go using a smartphone, tablet or iPad. The feature ensures that business owners stay in control even when it’s out of working hours. 

Online Registration

If a new client makes a booking appointment online or through the app, our software now will synchronise all of the clients’ information into your Salon Tracker calendar instantly. 

Not using Salon Tracker Software yet? No problem, we have some great discounts and offers available for everyone attending the show.

Software & Pricing

Offers on our Software packages include:

3-Months FREE Subscription*

The offer applies to each of our 3 subscription software packages, in which these include;

• Standard Subscription RRP £30 (+VAT) PCM
• Professional Subscription RRP 60 (+VAT) PCM
• Enterprise Subscription RRP 90 (+VAT) PCM                                                                *(3 months FREE is based on minimum software contract signup of 12 months)

Hardware & Pricing

Offers on our Hardware packages include:

20% off all Hardware from Salon Tracker!

We have some great offers on all of our hardware if you purchase from Salon Tracker directly at the show. We are offering a 20% discount on all hardware orders for show visitors until 31st October 2016. The offer is applicable on each of the below products, whether bought in a single or bulk package:*

POS Hardware Bundle £499 (including barcode scanner, cash drawer and receipt Printer) Easy to set up retail POS hardware bundle consisting of a lockable, electronic cash drawer, handheld wired barcode scanner and an eco-friendly thermal receipt printer.

Touchscreen All-in-one PC £899 Having touchscreen capabilities on your monitor enhances its usability and provides a high-tech feel, bring efficiency and style to your computer.

(You can also purchase the POS Hardware Bundle and the Touchscreen All-in-one PC together at a discounted rate).

• Barcode Scanner £149

• Cash Drawer £149

• Receipt Printer £249

• Signature Pad £49

• Fingerprint Reader £149

• Caller ID £49

                                                                                         *All prices excluding VAT

For more information about our software/hardware and how it can help improve your business download our FREE brochure now or simply ask us all your questions at the show http://bit.ly/1LPodhk . Now you know all of our offers and new features we hope to see you at Professional Beauty North in Manchester this year. Trade shows are great places to network with businesses, especially if you’re a salon owner or new to the business. It is a great opportunity to see what’s new in the salon world, explore new products and attend seminars. There is still time to sign up and take advantage of a FREE ticket. If you are interested in attending then follow the link http://bit.ly/2bB97Uo

Our team looks forward to seeing you at the event and helping you improve your Salon business!

Salontracker x

Salon Tracker: How our Salon Software can help to improve your Tanning Business and Client-Safety!

As summer draws to a close, tanning salons see a drastic increase in the amount of clients wanting to rush to the tanning salon to keep their sun-kissed summer look. A great boost for sales, however is your tanning salon as safe as it could be?

I’m not sure if you are aware, but since 2011 it has been legally forbidden in the UK for anyone under the age of 18 to use a sunbed, and consequently, salons that haven’t conformed to this in the past have then found themselves facing a £20,000 fine. Trading standards and local councils regularly do unannounced check-ups on tanning businesses and therefore you don’t want to find yourself being subject to a penalty like that for something minor, that could have been so easily prevented.

Our salon software is designed to safeguard not only salons from tanning with illegality but to also protect clients from the damages caused by sun-bed over-use. Councils advise that salon technicians provide their clients with appropriate information regarding skin tone; for example if a therapist deems a particular client to have a fair skin-type, they are recommended to inform that client of the appropriate length of tanning that they should be undertaking in relation to the nature of their skin.

These recommendations have been introduced since there have been findings that linked the overuse of sunbeds from a young age to skin cancer, where leading beauty events company Professional Beauty found that most skin cancers are caused by “overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun or sunbeds.”

Our salon software offers features to help resolve some of the day-to-day issues that may arise for you in your salon.

Salon Tracker prevents the risk of under 18’s visiting your salon as the database prompts for legal identification to be shown before allowing the clients to use the sunbeds. You can then add a secure identification feature to a client’s record card, to prevent individuals from tanning in another’s name. An example of where this may happen is if you have 2 sisters who look extremely similar, and the younger sibling tries to pass the elders ID as their own in order to use the sun-bed. Our secure identification feature locks down customers client cards by saving the clients fingerprint when they register, therefore each time that particular client wishes to use the sun-bed their fingerprint has to match the one saved on their client record card, evidently preventing fraudulent tanning such as the issue mentioned above. Another great benefit of this is that it also forbids clients from ‘sharing’ their minutes with friends and also eliminates the chance of employees treating themselves to ‘freebie’ minutes when a salon owner is absent from the business location.

Our software also limits the usage of the sunbeds over particular time periods, therefore making it impossible for any one client to go on a sunbed more than once in 24 hours. This is another regulation that has been introduced by trading standards and therefore if they ever wanted proof that a single client hasn’t tanned more than once in a day period, our system can generate reports to prove this as it stores data accurately for each time a sunbed was used, and by who.

If you want to know more about our tanning features visit us at www.salontracker.co.uk, where we also offer a FREE demo & trial that is a no-obligation fortnight period for you to try and test our software out for yourself!

Sound good to you? Give us a call on 0113 350 8230 and we’ll be happy to get you booked in for a consultation.

We look forward to hearing from you to help in improving the safety and professionalism of your business.

Salon Tracker x