How to Handle Customer Negativity and Bad Reviews

Negative feedback can be demotivating and emotionally draining, especially to the owner of a business. You are the founder of the company and sometimes it is easy to take those adverse comments as a personal attack.

The thing is, every business is bound to experience the odd poor review from time to time and this is just due to your clients' personal preferences. So this is the first rule when it comes to handling negativity, to not take things personally when it comes to poor feedback. Why? Because it can affect the way in which you deal with that negative review, especially if you are angry about the feedback that you have received. In the meanwhile, this can then have a bad impact on your business if you are to respond to a complaint in disagreement on a customer facing portal – like social media for example.

However that’s not to say don’t respond at all. Ignoring negative feedback again is one of the worst things you can do. Even if you’re ignoring it, the customer isn’t and neither are the other hundreds of individuals viewing your testimonial pages. So how do you go about rectifying the negativity and re-gaining that clients custom?

The first thing to remember is, everyone makes mistakes sometimes, no one is perfect and quite frankly it’s those little accidents that you learn from to prevent similar situations from happening again in the future. Negative reviews don’t mean that your business is bad. Sometimes it can just be one person’s opinion ‘vs’ another. Not every business is going to be perfect for everyone. It’s like anything, if everyone had the same taste in things then there would be no room for competition or differentiation. The same way if nobody complained, there would never be any room for improvement. So another point is that you shouldn’t let negative feedback deflate you. Instead, take it on the chin, act up on it and use the feedback in a positive way to create solutions so that it won’t happen again. Obviously strive to be the best always, but it’s a guarantee there will still be the odd couple of individuals who have a slightly different idea and therefore they find something to criticise. As we’ve said, this is natural so don’t beat yourself up about it.

Saying that, how should you respond to negativity? As we have mentioned above, the worst thing you can do is disagree with the complaint, even if you do disagree! By responding with an objecting opinion, this can just cause more conflict. As a result, if your review portal is public, this could end up in a long thread of argumentative comments which can then be harmful to your business profile - and you are also highly likely to then lose that client for good. Instead, take the feedback on board, apologise to the customer and offer them something in return for the negative experience. This way, you are keeping the customer happy and hopefully retaining their custom, whilst demonstrating to on-looking clients that you handle negativity well and strive to make improvements in the future. And we know nobody likes a negative review on their website or social media network, however 9 times out of 10 there is at least 1 or 2 poor reviews on every business website you visit, especially if they have reviews within the 1000’s. As we have mentioned, you can’t please absolutely everybody, as there will be always something that doesn’t quite fit someone’s taste. Therefore sometimes a couple of poor reviews actually make your company seem sincere and genuine, as long as you are acknowledging those reviews with an apologetic response.

However, on a very rare occasion, you could receive a review that is threatening, that could be personal to individual staff members and may be verbally abusive. These are the types of feedback in which are an exception to what we have mentioned above. You may need to launch investigations in to those remarks, as to what caused the client to react so aggressively. However, sometimes some of these reviews may be completely out of order, and therefore if you are linked up with a trustworthy review site, you can often appeal to have these removed. In these cases, deleting the review is sometimes the required option.

So how is it you then build back up from those poor reviews and overcome them? (With the exception of the uncommon threatening reviews that we have mentioned above, these should be dealt with in a separate manner)

Once you have responded directly to the customer, showing empathy and apologising, this then often makes the customer re-think their review. For example, if you resolve the problem by offering a small gift or discount on their next purchase or service, this may then prompt the initial poor reviewer to actually come back with a second response accepting your apology. New clients that are browsing your portals want to see positivity, and see any mistakes being resolved quickly, in which your apologetic responses to poor reviews reassure those new clients. Every business receives a complaint over time, sometimes generated from something as simple as the product/service wasn’t quite right for that particular customer. This is what makes a credible business! As your business expands, you are likely to have to deal with further poor feedback in the future. However, as long as you are seen to be empathising with complaining clients, this is okay. It’s like the old saying, if someone has a good experience somewhere, they’ll mention to friends. If someone has a bad experience somewhere, they’ll mention to friends who will then pass this on to other people – like Chinese Whispers. That’s why it’s so important that you use our tips to ensure that you acknowledge criticism and put faith in your clients that you will build solutions to prevent similar events from happening again in the future.

Salon Tracker x

How Salon Tracker can help Tanning Salons

Remember, last time we spoke about tanning security at the salon and how to avoid being fined? Don’t worry if you have missed it. I will include a link at the end of this blog if you want to catch up on it. While the topic of security is obviously a very important one, it is however as important to get the basics right at the salon from the beginning. Meaning, if you only concentrate on one aspect of the salon but neglect things such as management and customer care, it can be just as damaging as bad security. Here at Salon Tracker, we have developed a system that helps you with the day-to-day tasks of running a tanning salon. From managing your bookings to cashing up at the end of the day, our smart features are designed to make every salon owner’s life easier. 

You are probably asking yourself how the system can help you and your salon. Let me introduce you to a few features that are especially handy for tanning salons:

Managing bookings, walk-in’s and more

When your salon is busy our software helps to keep track of customers, manages walk ins and waiting lists. With our smart sunbed view you are always in control of the beds. You can see which ones are occupied and which ones are free, or if they’re all occupied you will see which one will be available the earliest. As the software is using a countdown mode for the beds, this is easily trackable.

Our bed view lets you put customers directly on sunbeds and you can easily track their minutes from there. We have built a waiting list and walk-in option into the system, meaning you can manage customers according to their needs and wishes. Giving clients an accurate queuing duration if they are in a waiting list is beneficial as it lets manage busy periods better. You can track minutes used per customer, which is stored on their record card or via the report feature. 

Timer Integration 

With our timer integration, you can operate your sunbeds directly from your reception area and see a countdown of those minutes on a live calendar. Furthermore, this also ensures business security, as sunbeds are operated solely from the system, meaning staff members cannot override the system or delete existing minutes. 

Security and Tanning Rules

As you know we’re all about security but we wanted to reflect on this again. Salon Tracker improves security to the highest level. No matter if you want to set booking rules that can’t be override, want to oversee what staff members can and can’t do on the system or want to avoid customers tanning under someone else’s name. It is all possible.

Tanning rules are built into the software, meaning you can set a skin type; stop under 18’s using the sunbed and set a 24h warning for fair skin types if they return within that period. Furthermore, if you add a Pin/Passphrase to a customer’s client card, it ensures that only that person can use the sunbed, once they have provided the pin. Alternatively, you can integrate with one of our fingerprint readers for an even securer option. 

Groups and Special Offers

Now you can manage groups and special promotions directly from the system. If you have loyal customers or friends and family, you can now create groups such as VIP in order for them to receive a discount on every booking and purchase. The system will automatically recognise members in that group and will apply the discount to the overall transaction.

Moreover, you can also run special offers such an unlimited tanning month or if you have a ‘Happy Hour’ promotion on during a specific time of the day or week. Special offers are easy to manage and the system will automatically turn the feature off, once the offer has expired. All you have to do is to set an expiry period and everything else will fall into place.


As you can see, the software is feature rich and will make managing your salon seem like a piece of cake. We specialise in tanning salons and therefore, our features are unique and beneficial to your business, whether you operate a coin system or integrate with sunbed timers. Now that you know a few features it is time to try it out yourself and see how it can transform your salon. 

Don’t hesitate to book your 14-day FREE trial now: http://www.salontracker.co.uk/FreeTrial.aspx

And in case you want to catch up on our last tanning blog, which discussed security options on our system, then click here: http://www.salontracker.co.uk/News.aspx?id=How-to-Ensure-that-your-Tanning-Salon-is-Secure-as-we-Enter-Spring/Summer

Salon Tracker x

How Gift Vouchers Increase Customer Spend and Improve Client Retention

Marketing is extremely important to the succession of every business. For those of you that regularly follow our feed, we have wrote a lot of blogs in the past offering our advice and pointers to help you with your marketing strategies. There are many different ways in which to advertise your brand and promote your goods & services, and one that we haven’t highlighted in some time is gift vouchers.

It seems like such a simple topic to discuss, and you would think that a lot of people already have a gift voucher system implemented within their business, but you would be surprised how many don’t and you could be missing out on a simple opportunity. Obviously, there is a small outgoing for the design and manufacture of your gift vouchers, however once you weigh this up against other marketing tactics, you’ll find that the cost isn’t that expensive in comparison. The plus point with gift vouchers is, you are usually getting a direct return on that marketing cost as those customers will visit the salon as a result of receiving a voucher. Especially if this is a new customer, it is a great way to acquire new clients for your salon database.

So what are our main reasons for why we think you should introduce a gift voucher scheme?

Boosts Brand Awareness & Increases Up-selling

Your gift vouchers are a direct representation of your brand, a visual marketing product, and therefore they need to clearly include your company motto and logo to generate brand awareness. Especially for new customers, they need to be able to clearly identify your company in order to be able to recognise it in the future.

Gift vouchers are predominantly purchased as gifts for other people by your customers. However, you have to promote your gift vouchers in order for your clients to be aware that you actually offer them. The displaying of those is something that you have to think about, as you’ll find a lot of the time customers are more inclined to make impulse purchases of gift vouchers if they are displayed somewhere directly in their eye-line.

Cash desks are a brilliant way to up-sell your gift vouchers, as you catch the client post-treatment, in which hopefully this was a positive visit with you and therefore this could be your opportunity to sell! Create a script for your staff members to prompt the offering of a gift voucher to all customers. Ask the customer if they have a birthday coming up, or an event that they need a gift for? We know sometimes, sales scripts can be a bit deterring for staff, and therefore to improve the action of this, why not run a mini incentive between your therapists. Maybe offer a prize for the highest amount of gift vouchers sold per month?

Boost Your Profits

Gift vouchers often entice people in to the salon to purchase something, especially if they are a regular customer and usually spend a lot of money with you. With a gift voucher, for long-standing customers it’s almost as if they are getting their usual treatment for free. And so this time they might purchase that little extra retail product with their own money that they maybe wouldn’t normally do, this evidently increasing your sales. If the client holding the gift voucher is a new customer, this is great too as in most cases, the chances are the customer will purchase more with you than the actual value of the voucher itself.

Increase the amount of New Customers

A main aim of any business is to generate and acquire new customers, to improve company succession year on year. Your marketing strategy plays a large part in that, and we believe gift vouchers really add to client retention.

As we have just mentioned, the majority of people whom receive your gift cards may be unfamiliar with your business, and this could be their reason to try out your salon services. It is therefore important to ensure that your products and services are clearly visible for this potential new client to see. Make sure that your product lists are up to date on all of your social networks. If you already have a website, ensure that there are client testimonials on there, to promote your good work in the past. Make sure you highlight the links to your website and social media pages on the voucher itself. This prompts the client to go and visit those pages, in which another plus point is if you offer online booking, they may just arrange their appointment there and then.

Customised Promotions

What sort of gift voucher do you want to offer? Typical vouchers go up in denominations of £10, so for example £10, £20 to £50. However, what about offering specific vouchers dependent on the time of year, or to tie-in with an event? Say you do a charity event, and for all sales you make you donate a particular amount of that profit to charity. Why not create percentage-off coupons as an incentive for clients to make those larger purchases at those events?

Another simple idea would be to create a money off coupon for your quieter times of the year. For example, once the Bank Holidays are over, maybe offer a free £5, or £10 gift voucher for customers to redeem against all services that are over £50. Or when it comes to the quieter period after Christmas, run something similar where you could offer a small money-off coupon to all clients who book an appointment before the end of Jan?

Money-off vouchers tend to actually make the client buy more with you, as if they usually spend say £50/£60 at the salon, but you’re offering them £10 off, they may then just add on a small retail product for that price as potentially they are getting that free. If that is the case, it means that they will actually end up spending the same amount of money with you that they normally would, or potentially a little bit more.


If you would like any further information on how we can help you with your gift vouchers, request your FREE demo & trial at http://bit.ly/RGeGVd or call our office on 0113 350 8230. We can design the vouchers in house for you and implement those in to your salon software programme.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Salon Tracker x

Salon Tracker Feature of the Month: Online Booking

This month we're talking about why it is important to offer online booking and how Salon Tracker can help you get the best out of your software with our online features. Did you know that there are countless reasons that offering online booking is not just important - but rather a must when it comes moving forward with customers? 

"Research has shown that 70% of Facebook users interacting with Facebook daily and the average Smartphone user picking up their phone about 1,500 times a week". That is this crazy but I have to say I am definitely guilty of this. 

Moving with the time also means being up to date with what the internet has to offer. 

There are many advantages for your salon why online booking is profitable. It is a much quicker and more convenient way to just grab your mouse or your smartphone and book online. For Salons, it is important to stay on top and adapt to changes in technology. More and more people using their phones and the internet to do everyday tasks, such as banking and even their grocery shopping. No wonder it is expected from other businesses to offer the same service. Furthermore, you can offer customers the ability to book an appointment even when the salon is closed. Meaning, you could lose serious business if you don’t offer online booking but everyone around you does. New customer might be booking with the competition, because the process is easier and more convenient for them. 

To make sure you are moving with the crowd, here at Salon Tracker we offer different ways how you can offer online booking to your customers.


Facebook:

Signing up to Facebook and creating a business page is not just easy but also free. You should definitely take advantage of this as a salon Facebook page not only gives you the opportunity to connect with customers, it is also an easy way to promote your services, offers and updates. Make sure you let your customers know about your page in order for them to follow or like you. 

Moreover, Facebook is a great way to offer online booking as it is an easy implementation and you don’t need a website for your customers to book from. Salon Tracker’s Online Booking works through installing a widget to your Facebook page. Clients will get a unique login as they are already logged into Facebook accounts. Salon Tracker’s database will recognise their accounts, meaning the client can then access their personal salon account online and make bookings.


Website: 

Salon websites are still one of the best solutions in order to offer online booking. Websites are usually the first place new customers encounter your salon, as they have typed your name or keywords into a search engine such a Google or Bing. Your website can be accessed on a PC, tablet or smartphone, meaning customers are given a flexible option to book their appointments through various devices. Remember to make sure your website is mobile friendly and adapts to different screen sizes. 

Online booking through your website or the app is also a quick way to register new customer details. This saves time at the salon when they come in and don’t to collect their details. Same as Facebook booking, Salon Tracker will add an online booking widget to your website that synchronises with your calendar. You don’t have to worry about double bookings and appointment confirmation as the system does it all for you.


Mobile App:

A mobile app is a great addition to your salon’s website or even if you currently don’t have a salon website. The great thing about the app is that customers can make a bookings, check upcoming appointments or their salon account wherever they are, anytime they want. The app is available on any smartphone or tablet and synchronises instantly with your Salon Tracker system. Customers that book through the app will only be given available time slots and the booking will appear in the calendar without you needing to confirm anything with the customer.

No matter what option the customer chooses, your system will automatically notify you about any new bookings, as well as if the customer chose Facebook, your website or the app to book from.

There are plenty of options your customers can use our online booking features and this will certainly help to make the customer journey seamless. All online booking options are available on our Enterprise subscription. If you have any questions about any of the features or would like to Trial the software yourself then click here http://www.salontracker.co.uk/FreeTrial.aspx and our team will arrange this for you.

Salon Tracker x

Last Minute Up-selling and Easter Promo Ideas

Easter is arriving later for us this year, but this is a brilliant benefit to all you salon owners as you are in the height of spring and we all know that this is a great time of year for business. The mild weather begins, there are all the May bank hols approaching and many clients have got their late-spring holidays booked, so they’re looking to you for their pre-holiday pampers!

You may have read our post a couple of weeks ago where we looked at spring marketing advice. This week we’re going to discuss last minute promotions for your Easter campaigns, including retail up-selling!

A great planning technique for the Easter period, especially when it is later in the year, is to take advantage of upcoming events that are happening around the same time. One that’s always a winner is wedding season! Lots of people arrange their weddings from mid-April through to October, and so what a great way to tie-in your Easter discounts for those whose weddings are soon approaching? You’ll be tying 2 event discounts under one, saving you money in the long run – winning!

And it’s like we always say, if you are going to discount then national holidays are a great time to do so, as everyone will be holding some kind of promotion or event. This way you’re not differentiating yourselves from competitors as the ‘salon that discounts’ as everyone will be! Try to tactically discount though, for example promote your least popular or really expensive treatments, to improve their desirability a little.

Spring is always a good time for clients to freshen up, maybe they perhaps go for a new lighter style and experiment with the latest trends. Create something as simple as an E-Newsletter or an SMS marketing campaign that you can use to advertise your latest Spring-services to clients. Maybe add a link to your Instagram page or website to showcase your client testimonials, or your service gallery to entice clients even further.

And furthermore, SMS marketing is extremely important and useful in itself aside from just reaching clients with newsletters. SMS is an instant and direct way to communicate with clients throughout the Easter and Spring period, whether this be for event notifications, info on a new product, to advertise a new discounted service or even simply just to wish your clients a ‘Happy Easter’. A little message often goes a long way and therefore planning SMS marketing in to your Easter campaigns is definitely something that we would recommend.

We’ve always said that we believe that the key to excellent retail sales is how the products themselves are presented. Think about it, if you go in to a clothing store, you see an outfit displayed on a mannequin that you may never have looked twice at before - but you then go out of your way and find that particular top, or pair of trousers for a second look. Similarly if you go in to a Supermarket, you see a messy isle of confectionery, with no prices displayed and only a few lone products remaining on the shelves. This scenario would be off-putting, and therefore this is why the visual presentation of your products is key to the success of add-on sales. Ideas that we have include:

· Gift Table – Highlight your products on a table display, maybe with gift decorations, some fancy Easter accessories and ensure that these are in the direct eye-line of your customers when they are entering and leaving the salon.

· Festive Décor – I recently visited a hotel and they had lots of really simple Easter trees with little self-decorated eggs as baubles scattered around the communal guest areas. For me, this was a really lovely touch as it made the place feel really welcoming and homely, so much so we stayed for a couple of drinks in the guest lounge before eating out in the City. From that personal experience, I would definitely recommend some festive detail, it’s definitely true that atmosphere improves consumer spending habits, as I have fallen straight in to the category recently!

· Promote your Best Sellers! Run a report and see which of your retail products are really selling well, make sure that these are primarily displayed above all other products, as the likelihood is that the buying patterns of your customers are likely to be similar and this way you will hopefully sell more of that particular range.

· Give promo discounts to those who are willing to leave a bit of feedback! For example, you could create some mini feedback cards, offering clients the chance to give you feedback in 1 sentence. That way it is a quick-fire easy process, and then in return you could offer the client a little Easter treat, such as a retail product mini or even just some complimentary sweets. What’s in it for you? – If the client likes the samples, they are likely to come back and purchase the product in its actual size, and you have also bagged yourself some free mini-testimonials in the process. Great for if you ever need some snappy quotes from existing clients for any promo-materials!


So if you needed a bit of last-minute inspiration, we hope these little pointers help you to really push those sales this weekend and through in to Spring/Summer. It really is true, the more you invest in marketing in your business, the higher the return of that investment will be. And some marketing techniques may work better for some business than others, so use this Spring to A/B test a couple and if you find some strategies work better than others, you know to implement these in to your seasonal plan for next year!


Happy Easter! 

Salon Tracker x

Spring Style LOOKBOOK

Good Morning and happy Wednesday everyone!
This week we thought we would do something different and create you a Spring Look Book. As spring has finally arrived in the UK, we can also get rid of our furry winter coats, hats and mittens. If you are lucky enough to live in warmer areas as most of us, then now is the time to freshen up your wardrobe and prepare for Spring and Summer. Always remember that a bit of colour lightens up any outfit and will make it appear more interesting. To help you find some inspiration we have created a look book of styles that we like - and hope you do too.
Let us know what you think!

How to Ensure that your Tanning Salon is Secure as we Enter Spring/Summer

We can’t believe it’s the start of another spring again (although we’re verrrry glad about it!) But this is the time of year that salons see a massive increase in their footfall, especially those in the tanning industry as everyone wants their holiday base-tan!

You will all be aware that The Sunbed Regulation Act 2010 came into practice in April 2011, forbidding anyone under the age of 18 from using a tanning bed, or being within a booth that a tanning bed is situated.

In relation to this, the Sunbed Association also highlighted some recommendations that they suggest tanning salons to advise their clients of before they tan.

As we enter the Spring/Summer period, a very peak sales time for tanning salons, our Salon Software has extra tanning rules built in to help salon owners to abide by the current regulations act during the busy season.

In this post we explain how our rules work, and also the consequences that your business could face should you happen to break the law, even if it is unknowingly.

Salon Tracker Tanning Rules

Our system has 5 rules implemented, in which for each of these rules Salon owners can select the level of security that they want from the system for each rule.

The options are Disabled/Warn/Stop, meaning that you can either disable the rule, ensure that the customer is warned about a particular rule, or force that the system stops a customer from tanning altogether if their client details don’t meet the rule criteria. We however recommend that you don’t disable any of the rules, as at the end of the day there is no harm in warning clients with safety advice!

Below are each of Salon Tracker's 5 built-in rules and what they mean:

Age Limit

The Sunbed Regulations Act 2010 states that no one, by law, should use a sunbed or be within a booth containing a sunbed unless they are 18 years or over. Therefore you can ‘Stop’ on this rule, which means that the system would forbid anyone to tan with a date of birth that makes them under 18 years of age.

24 Hour

The Sunbed Association recommends that no one tans more than once in any 24 hour period. You may want to ‘Warn’ on this rule, so that you can tell a client if they have had more than one booking in the last 24 hours.

No Skin Type

There are many different ways that salons identify skin types, for example they may differentiate by putting ‘sensitive, fair, medium, dark’ or may put ‘1, 2, 3, 4’ with 1 being the most susceptible to UV. Salon Tracker has a skin type setting that can be saved on all clients individual record cards, in which you could again ‘Warn’ for this rule to let a client know that they haven’t specified their skin-type.

48 Hour Depending on Skin Type 

As mentioned above, if a client has sensitive or fair skin, it is recommended that they only tan once in any 48 hour period, as they are more vulnerable to burning from the over-exposure to UV rays. Again, you may want to set a ‘Warn’ with this rule, so that you can advise clients with fairer skin types if they have had a booking in the last 48 hours.

Bookings per Year

The Sunbed Association recommends no more than 52 sessions per year, which amounts to 4 sessions per month, 1 session per week. Similar to the rules above, this again you might want to set to ‘Warn’ just to keep clients updated of how many times they have tanned per annum.

Other Features we offer to keep your Salon Secure are:

Fingerprint Reader

Our system is compatible with a Fingerprint Reader, in which it has built-in technology so that once a fingerprint is saved against a client card, only that client themselves can then activate their own details. This means that no one can tan fraudulently in anyone else’s name, saving you from the risk of underage clients using fake identification to tan.

Signature Pad

All tanning disclaimers can be signed for via our electronic signature pad and stored within the system on the client’s digital record card. The benefit of this is that should you ever need proof of a signature of acceptance for a client, the disclaimer cannot be miss-placed or lost as it will be saved on the system.

T-Max Integration

Our system is compatible with T-Max, meaning that all minutes are tracked accurately and have to be processed through Salon Tracker itself rather than through the sunbed. This means that no one can manually activate the sunbed using purely the T-max without disabling the integration cables first, and if they do this you can then track how many minutes have been through the sunbed using Salon Tracker’s reporting tool, and if these don’t match up to the minutes on the T-Max timer itself you can then identify malicious activity.

Should your salon ever receive an unannounced visit from Trading Standards and fail to be seen complying with the current Regulations Act, you could find yourself subject to a 20,000 fine. We can minimise that risk with our Salon Software, don’t let that be you!

If you want to try out our salon software before you make any decisions, then you can have a FREE 2 week trial of Salon Tracker, which is no-obligation, to see how it works for your business.

For your demo and trial visit http://bit.ly/RGeGVd

We look forward to hearing from you!

Salon Tracker x