Are you ready for the GDPR? We are!

With less than 2 months to go until the big change we thought we’d give you a run through on what we, here at Salon Tracker have done in order to be fully GDPR compliant. Meaning you can put your trust in our Software and put your mind at ease. 

If you’re unaware of what the GDPR actually is, then it is an act which is put in place of the current data protection act 1998 and will be standing as of May 2018. The data protection act 1998 is very much still standing, the GDPR is just added security on top of what was already there.

Want further information? Visit our own previous blog: http://ow.ly/Z4w130iPhLI or the official GDPR homepage: https://www.eugdpr.org/.

So, here’s everything you need to know:

• We have made sure that the marketing consent boxes which serve the purpose of including your clients in mailing letters and SMS texts are now unticked by default, meaning the client now has to opt in to marketing by ticking the box themselves and wouldn’t be included in a salon mailing list under false-impression/ not agreeing to it. 

• We have also implemented a “lock down” on all of your clients given data for anyone that has a user logon lower than a manager status. This means that the clients data requires extra authentication in order for staff members to access any client data by “unlocking” the data for it to be revealed. Every unlock of data performed by all staff members is logged and can be viewed in an audit report as often as the owner wish to sees it. Meaning that you can monitor when any client’s data is being viewed and whether or not is it being viewed without reason allowing you to follow up accordingly. Furthermore, this feature is very useful for safety reasons too. For example, if a client has an allergy to a certain product, then the information regarding the allergy would be stored on their client card, therefore every practical employee must check their card so they can avoid giving them an allergic reaction. If a situation comes up where this was to happen, the owner can check the audit report to determine whether or not their employee checked the client card. And every employee account is password protected so there’s no excuse for mistakes, making your salon a much safer place. 

• We have also put into practice a “master delete button” which if functional for ‘forgetting’ clients details at their request. Don’t worry, under the GDPR you are still inclined to keep all legal information such as the signing of disclaimers, patch tests and treatment consent which can be stored securely in an external format to our software. However, you may need to be in touch with a solicitor for further advice should you need to keep these legal documents. 

• Under the GDPR, clients have the right to request a SAR (Subject access request) at any given time. The Salon then has to product ALL information they hold on the client free of charge and within 30 days. Now you might think that sounds like a timely effort and a costly one… but with our software you can do an extensive customer history report within the click of a button and then export it straight to print, the joys of technology! 

• It’s not new but golden for the GDPR! – Finger print reader. We integrate our software with our very own fingerprint reader (professional package and above) which makes the security of client data extremely safe with the help of personal biometric data. Clients can lock their data to their individual fingerprint meaning only themselves can access it and it’s as simple as walking into the salon and applying their finger print to the reader which automatically brings up their client card, perfect! 

And that's a wrap! A fully GDPR compliant solution to answer all your Salon needs, taking the weight off your shoulders and giving you the confidence when May 25th comes around!

Any questions? Email christie@salontracker.co.uk or call 0113 350 8230, we're always happy to help. 

Salon Tracker x

Feature of the Month; with a twist!

It’s time for our monthly blog, that we know you all love, on what we value to be the “feature of the month”. However, this month, there’s a little twist…

Our software developers have been working extremely hard these past few months, as they have taken on-board the voice and opinion of our loyal clients and pursued their thoughts into some new and pretty impressive features. So instead of one feature of the month, we’ve decided on our five features of the month… because it was just so hard to choose!

Easy appointment extension

Our software now allows you to simply drag a client’s appointment block if it is running over or under. Making it easier to manage your booking calendar both visually and in terms of running your reports so that everything matches up without causing you any confusion.

How to: To extend an appointment simply hover your mouse over the bottom of the appointment until an expandable arrow comes up, click it and you can adjust the appointment to either be longer or shorter.

3D reminders

We understand that not all of your clients will be tech friendly and therefore text reminders might not work well for them, which is why we’ve linked the “print appointment reminder” feature with the software so your clients can decide their preference keeping your customers happy. 

How to: Once the appointment is booked (at least 1 day ahead), right click on the appointment and click “print booking reminder”, it will then automatically print from your receipt printer… simple!

Not only can you print your appointment reminders, you can also print your customers remaining minutes and pack quantities out so they’ve always got a record which avoids any conflict between the Salon and client! 

How to: Go to the client in questions client card, click on the “my products” tab, all the minutes they have purchased and pack quantities they have will appear here. Next to each one, there will be a little information button, click that and the remaining minutes/ pack quantity will come up and it will also tell you exactly when they were used. Simple click print and your client will have their own copy at their request.

Help on your doorstep

Don’t get us wrong, we love being here to help and assist you when you get a little stuck with the software but we can understand it may get a little annoying for yourselves if you’re constantly having to ring up, especially if you’re new to software. This is why we’ve brought out a whole section full of help videos (50+ to be precise) which you can access directly from the software “help section”. The videos cover anything from setting up your calendar to things like the SMS marketing section and reports. All this along with our free support calls, what more could you want?

How to: Go to the help tab at the bottom of the screen, click the help tab along the top left of the page, several tabs will then be visible which divide the videos into different categories making them very accessible and user friendly.

Send SMS’S directly and quickly

This tends to be one of our hidden features that our clients don’t really know exists but is so handy! Our system gives you the option to directly text that specific customer straight from their client card with a completely personalised message so it is suited to everything! For example, if a client has left a personal item in the Salon, you can quickly message them letting them know and tell them to pop in the salon for it. Furthermore, they haven’t got the option to reply so the use of the one way communication line really helps you save time. 

How to: Go to the client in questions client card, click on the contact tab, to the right of their phone number there will be a phone icon, click that and the SMS gateway will pop up allowing you to put in your message and send it. Just make sure you have SMS credit!

Quick and easy reviews

Our software allows you to set up a automatic review SMS service which sends out directly to customers a day or so after their treatment. A great feature to get your salon name about and gather a wider client basis. 

How to: Go to your marketing section, click on the reviews tab, edit, and you will then be able to input your own review message and the system will automatically change each clients name etc by default. You can then preview the message to your mobile number and click save which will then enable the systems review system.

And there you have it, a complete run down of our 5 exclusive features of this month. Need any further assistance? Don’t be afraid to give us a call on 0113 350 8230, we’re always happy to help!

Salon Tracker x

Safe-Tanning: How Salon Tracker can help you to maintain maximum client safety

Hello there and happy month of Spring (hopefully). Now, as we enter the fresh daffodil season, it is likely that you will see an increase in footfall in your tanning salons due to the fact that people are wanting their glowing base-tan prior to their spring-break. Still, many of you will know that there remains to be lots of contrasting opinions surrounding the use of sunbeds and their potential dangers to people if they over use them. So as a salon software company that specialises in tanning, we just wanted to discuss with you how we have designed and built our software to ensure that sunbed clients are tanning as safely and legally as possible. So, without further due let’s chat sunbed safety.

First off, a few things about Vitamin D. Your body creates Vitamin D by using sunlight or UV rays. Therefore, it is essential that over a lifetime, every single person is exposed to some form of sunlight, with the current recommendation being 5 minutes 2-3 times per week on average for a person to sustain the amount that they require to produce enough Vitamin D all year long. In some countries however, and especially in the UK & Ireland, we are prone to much longer Winter months, meaning that this 15 minutes per week average can prove to be difficult, as the sun is not strong enough to produce the UV rays needed for our skin to absorb enough to make Vitamin D. This was therefore the start of sunbeds and also the vitamin capsules that you will find in many supermarket or pharmacy stores. 

Believe it or not, some medical experts have been known to advise a little bit of short-term sunbed use to clear up certain skin conditions. For example, eczema or psoriasis. Vitamin D is associated with healing up conditions such as these, in which if a sunbed is used in moderation and protective UV sun lotion is applied beforehand, this is similar to someone spending 6-9 minutes outside in the summer sun.

The Vitamin has also been linked to improving other medical conditions such as auto-immune diseases including Diabetes and Arthritis. It is also proven to improve the general mood of people’s mentality, especially those who suffer with SAD syndrome.

However we are very aware that a lot of people abuse sunbeds and spent far too much time on them, essentially burning their skin due to the over-exposure to sunlight. This however can also just as easily happen if you spend a day in the sun on holiday, or even out side in the Summer for too long without relevant UV protection.

Therefore, to manage and stop the over use of sunbeds, this is where the government stepped in and made it illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to use a sunbed at all. In which now, any salon who isn’t compliant with this rule may find themselves subject to a fine as big as £20,000.

We understand as a company that it can be hard to ensure that all of your clients are telling the truth when it comes to their age, and that’s why when we developed our tanning salon software we created especial tanning rules, to ensure that we keep your clients and business as safe and compliant as possible with the current law. In 2010, we also followed the recommendations of the sunbed association, to ensure that any client that is using a tanning salon that has our software will be tanning as safely as possible.

So, what are our tanning rules and how have we implemented these to keep tanning clients safe?

Forbid a client to book a sunbed if their date of birth field shows that they are under 18. 

We are aware it is easy for a client to lie and make a date of birth up, but not so easy if you have the relevant checks in place. With our software, we have fields on their digital client card that prompts a client to have a photograph added to it so that this can be matched up with a form of their ID before they are allowed to book on to a sunbed. We have also introduced fingerprint recognition, which again means that a client's perhaps younger sibling can’t try and pass as their elder brother/sister as the fingerprint will have to match. And we have also implemented a signature pad so that a client has to sign a disclaimer stating that they are over 18 and that they will comply with your salon T’s & C’s before using a sunbed. Protecting your business from any lawful damage.

Warn a customer if they have not set a Skin Type. 

To advise clients on how long they should be using a sunbed for, we have implemented a field that asks the customer to state which skin type they are. This is because if the customer describes their skin type to be sensitive to the sun, or fair, it is recommended that they do not tan for longer that 6 minutes every 48 hours. Therefore, if your salon staff are aware of this, it gives them the option to advise the client appropriately when they come to book a sunbed.

Warn a client if they have had a sunbed in the last 24 hours (or last 48 hours if they have skin type 1 or 2/sensitive or fair.) 

The sunbed association recommends that no one tans more than once every 24 hours, and whilst this is not illegal yet, it is still a recommendation that we like to follow and would advise all tanning salons to operate with. If a client has specified that they do actually have a sensitive or fair skin type, the sunbed association recommends that these individuals don’t tan more than once in 48 hours and so our system will keep a track and record all sunbed use so that your staff can advise clients appropriately.

Maximum Minute Usage.

Another recommendation from the sunbed association is that unless a client is using a low-powered sunbed (such as the Sun Angel where we are aware courses are 21 minutes each time), no one should go on a sunbed for any longer than 15 minutes at a time. We have therefore set all of our sunbed configurations to a maximum usage of 15 minutes by default, in the hope that all tanning salons that are users of our software will stick to this recommendation to eliminate over-use from clients.

Therefore, if you currently have a tanning salon and want to ensure that you maintain the highest level of safety possible, get in touch with us today on 0113 350 8230 or send us your details at http://www.salontracker.co.uk/FreeTrial.aspx so that we can arrange you a FREE 2 week trial. Let's keep your tanning salon safe together this Spring!

Salon Tracker x

The Do's and Don'ts of a successful Salon Consultation

Whether you own a tanning, hair or a beauty salon, providing consultations for your clients is essential for their safety and overall satisfaction. Often it is during a consultation that you truly get to know your clients’ needs and good communication from your site will put them at ease before a treatment. So why are many salons skipping the consultation even though this could be fatal for your business?

Consultations are important for both your salons reputation and customer satisfaction, and additionally can help you in many other ways too. Get them right and it will contribute in positive ways, which can lead to re-booking's and client referrals. Overall, a successful and well carried out consultation means more business for you and therefore more revenue. As you can see, everyone is winning here.

When I go to the salon to get my hair done or my nails, I rarely see this put into practice though. Bear in mind though when you give consultations you back yourself up in case of claims and will have proof for the insurance company if something does go wrong. Therefore, it is important to get into the habit to provide consultations with all of your clients, whether they are new or attend for regular treatments. After all, your customers change, even on a regular level and often their skin can change too. Most people experience changes with their hair and skin affected by the outside temperatures. Therefore, anyone that is after a change should be provided with a consultation for his or her safety and satisfaction.

'According to the NHF ‘it is actually a legal requirement to 

perform a consultation before every treatment, even for 

regular clients.’ (National Hairdressers’ Federation 

Limited, 2017).'

Here are some tips on how you can improve your consultations to benefit your salon and what things you best avoid doing:


Things to do: 


-Saving client record cards and history is important. Therefore, make sure you keep records up to date and edit them accordingly. Not only do you have evidence of treatments and consultations in case you need it but also to reference back to it and see the client’s transformation journey. 


-Staff training: It is important that staff can cater for a variety of consultations and can carry them out confidently. Make sure everyone is on-board and happy with the procedure and attend additional training if necessary. 


-Catch up on all their visits. If it is a regular client that comes to the salon, make sure you ask them about their previous experience and if there are any areas of concern. Good communication will ensure you fully understand the customers’ needs and can deliver what they have asked for. Overall, this will build trust between you and your client.

-Advise them on products and aftercare. Take the time to explain the different products and advise how they can care for their hair/skin/brows at home too.


Things to avoid:


-Don’t ask at all. Under no circumstances should you skip a consultation. If you fail to ask and something goes wrong you could end up with a lawsuit that could cost you your business and get you into a lot of financial trouble. 


-Don’t talk to the mirror or avoid eye contact. It can seem to your client as if you’re not really interested. It can be easy when you are mid treatment to get distracted. However, make sure the consultation is personal and adapt to their body language. 


-Don’t skip important questions or try to rush it. Make sure you ask deeper and wider questions, taking the time to get to know your clients history. A good consultation should not be rushed, just to get it over with but rather for you to understand your clients' needs.

Steps to a successful consultation

The most important part of consultations are for you to get to know your client in order for a successful completion of service. Additionally, this also helps your business in other ways if the client is happy. For example, it can result in positive feedback, build trust and referrals to friends and family. All in all consultations makes a client feel valued and results in re-bookings, which will help your business grow. All of which, directly leads to an increase in your revenue.

As always if you have any questions on the topic, don't hesitate to get in contact with on of our team members via phone or email.

Salon Tracker x

Thinking about pushing your line of retail products? Here’s how to do it the right way!

I know you’ll want to bury your head in the sand when it comes to talking retail products… let alone actually doing something about them! Not to worry, we’ve got a long enough list of tips and tricks to help you get your salon retail sales flowing and the dust on those shelves no longer showing! 

The right Reception

You may not think that your Salon Reception is that big of a deal and therefore doesn’t need that much attention… wrong! It is the hub of the Salon! It is important that it looks the best it can be as this is where customers go to when they enter the Salon and when they leave, making it the perfect place to sell your retail products. The way you organise your products is more important than it seems. Firstly, when placing the products you should aim for the customers eye level. You know the saying: “eye level is buy level!”. Aim to group your products together, e.g. shampoo & conditioner, styling products together, and then place all your new products into their category shelf but at the front with a “new” label on, do the same for your best sellers. If you’re unsure on how to monitor your new products and identify your best sellers you can use our impressive stock management feature and save your own valuable time!

Get Savvy

You need to get technical when it comes to pushing the sales of your retail products. Do your research and establish a really well selling product (preferably something which is fresh to the market) which you think would sell well in your salon. Aim to order a new product once every month or so to keep your customers intrigued and then place this product on a shelf-like pedestal surrounded by accompanying products that go well with it. When a customer asks about the product this is your opportunity to sell it and the products that go well with it. Offer the products in a special price bundle such as "buy 2 and get another half price". Not only will this increase your retail sales short-term but also long-term as it will encourage repeat buys from your clients.

Simple yet effective

It has been proven that clients don’t feel comfortable asking the price of a product in a Salon which often results in the client not purchasing any retail products. To avoid this, make the price, size of product and the name of it clearly visible so the client can read it. This will stop any awkwardness there was before when the client didn’t know whether to ask the price or not and then just ended up leaving without a product they may have really wanted.

Basic yet important

Obvious one, but keep it extremely clean. Nobody wants to purchase a product with a two-inch layer of dust on it. Yuck! Make one employee responsible for the cleaning of the retail shelves and do it on a weekly basis. Alternatively, you could create a cleaning rota between all staff members and then if it isn’t up to standard you can easily pin point the blame and ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Educate

Make sure all your staff are full of knowledge about your line of retail products, new and old. They need to know each product inside out because I’m sure you’ll agree, who wants to buy a product the seller doesn’t even know the effects of? On top of that, time spent between the client and therapist is valuable time. Yes, it’s a time for the client to offload and relax but whilst they’re loving the scent of that new shampoo you’re using it is your perfect time to market your retail products and encourage them to buy it! For example:

Client: Wow my hair feels so soft!

Therapist: That would be our new Matrix range shampoo, we offer these in our retail line and you get 10% off them because you’ve had a treatment today!

Client: Wow that’s brill, I’ll have one of those please

Therapist: Of course, we also offer the conditioner and heat protection spray if you’d like to take a look…

See! Easy marketing done all in a day’s work! No overtime and no sweat, perfect!

Get personal

Get to know your clients, find out their routine and their preferences so you can determine the product you will be able to sell the most to them. E.g. “how would you usually style your hair?” and “do you use heat on your hair often?” are normally good pointers to get you started. Getting personal also allows the client to trust you and trust your opinion therefore encouraging them to purchase the product you recommend.

Step by step you will notice a satisfying difference in the sales of your retail products and your salon income will be higher than ever!

Don’t forget we offer stock management within our software, don’t be afraid to enquire at info@salontracker.co.uk or call 0113 350 8230.

Salon Tracker x

Feature of the Month - Permissions

Happy Valentines day everyone! For our feature of the month we are focusing on permissions, a feature beloved by our clients, mainly down to the fact that it is as simple as ticking a box. I don’t know if this applies to all of you, but not all salon owners would be 100% comfortable with leaving their salon for a ‘relaxing’ vacation knowing that their staff have full access to their system. So, by having the permissions feature it just gives owners that peace of mind that staff aren’t accessing anything they shouldn’t be.

Permissions have been around for while now, you’ve probably seen them on tablets or phones with restrictions and parental controls, and it’s a very similar thing that we have designed on our Salon Tracker software. For those of you that are salon owners, you will have access to the administrator user log in, which allows you to access every part of the system. And then it’s up to you what information and features you want to share with your staff. Within permissions you can add different user levels, so if you have apprentices or part-time staff, you might want them to be able to access less than your regular full-time staff. And with permissions we have made it as easy as possible, it’s just a simple tick and untick tool that allows you to specifically decide what your staff can view. By default, there are 3 permission levels set up, administrator, managers and staff, all of which have features pre-ticked from salon research we have done, however these can be edited and changed to your liking. If you have our Siteview or Multisite feature then you can also set your permissions for this. For example, with Siteview, if you only want your staff to be able to access their upcoming bookings and not any reports or charts, then this can also be set.

If you have any further questions about our permissions feature, don’t hesitate to contact one of our team on 0113 350 8230 or email on info@salontracker.co.uk. The permissions feature is available with our professional and enterprise packages. And don't forget, we will be at the Professional Beauty Show in London on the 25th and 26th of February, so make sure you look out for our stand (W16)! You can get your free tickets for the event here!

Professional Beauty London 2018 - New Features and how you can prepare for the event!

Less than 3 weeks to go until the big event! It’s time for #PBLondon again, we can’t wait and as always, we’ve got a few new features in store for you this Feb! So, what can you expect from us and also how can you ensure that you get the best out of this year’s show.

Professional Beauty London is always the biggest of the PB shows in the UK, with the event being held at the Excel the floor space is so much larger than other venues, meaning that there is a lot more room for increased exhibitors to attend. Saying this, you only have the exact same time at PB London that you would have at any other event, as the show only runs across 2 days like it does at all other locations - so you have to plan accordingly to ensure you get around all the stands that you want to see.

Before I go on to talk about the new features that we have in store, lets just re-cap on a few preparational techniques that you can put in to practice before you arrive in to London.

Download the map. Plan out where all the stands are that you wish to see (plus highlight where your coffee breaks are going to be). We all know that trade shows are long, busy days and so you want to make sure that you keep re-fuelling throughout the day. It’s also a nice little stop gap to run over the information that you have gathered so far up until each point over the course of the day. That way it’s not like information overload at the end of the weekend.

Have a list of relevant questions for each exhibitor. What goals are you hoping to achieve from this years’ show? Sometimes, if you go to a busy stand where there are lots of other visitors, its easy to just pick up leaflets and not really get the actual information that you were requiring. If you’re already prepped with a couple of questions then it will be quick-fire stand stops for you and no time wasted hanging around or getting information that’s not necessarily too relevant to you.

Take a large bag with you! Everyone loves dressing up for the PB London event, and rightly so it’s a fab day out! But, make sure that you’re not teaming your outfit with a little clutch bag, as you’re going to be flooded with information booklets & flyers, you want to make sure that you have something substantial to carry it all in (also to make sure that none of it ends up getting lost!) Tote, bucket and duffel bags please!

Bring a pen and notebook. Sometimes, believe it or not, stands can be limited with pens and especially so when they are busy. You don’t want to miss the opportunity to jot something down and end up forgetting the information at a later date.

Get yourself a few ideas. As much as we mention planning and identifying the stands that you definitely wish to pay a visit, there may also be companies that you didn’t necessarily plan on visiting but catch your eye in some way. It is important to be open minded at a trade show, as there are so many different businesses exhibiting that there may just be a new product opportunity or supplier that could actually help you out! Plus, the majority of companies also have some fantastic exclusive deals running, which again are not to be missed out on if you’re looking for something new.

Now we’ve had a little run through of our main 5 planning points, what can you expect from Salon Tracker?

GDPR. Well, some of you may be aware that the law is changing this Summer regarding data protection. GDPR will replace the current data protection act, in which we have altered the way in which some of our software features work in order to meet the guidelines for the new laws, enforcing on 25th May 2018.

We have ensured that the marketing consent boxes that salon clients can tick in order to be included in mailing letters are now un-ticked by default, meaning the client has to opt in to marketing and wouldn’t be included in a salon mailing list under false-impression.

There is also a lock-down on clients’ data for anyone that has a user level lower than manager, meaning that there is extra authentication for staff members to access clients contact information and addresses. There is an audit report for every time a client’s details are accessed by a staff member without reason, meaning that a salon owner can keep an eye on this and follow it up accordingly, evidently protecting their clients’ data further.

There is also a master delete button to ‘forget’ a client’s details at their request. However legal information such as the signing of disclaimers and patch test/treatment consent can be stored securely external to our software if the salon owner requires this for legal purposes, they however may need to be in touch with a solicitor regarding this matter.

For more information on the latest GDPR regulations visit https://www.eugdpr.org/

Deposits. Other advanced features that we have improved on are how we manage deposits, meaning this can now be setup as a percentage or value based on the price of a treatment rather than having to be a set amount. This is now built in to our permissions section and we will be offering live demos of this at the show.

Staff accessibility. We have also introduced a new drop-down menu on the calendar page for each staff column. Meaning that if a member of staff is off for a day, rather than the calendar 'greying' this column out, you can use our new menu to ‘hide’ that staff members column or to ‘transfer appointments’ to another member of staff if the rota staff member is off sick. This just speeds up the appointment management and the aesthetics of the salon calendar, meaning staff columns that don’t need to be visible on a particular day no longer have to be.

If you wish to take a look at our software before the show, please head to http://www.salontracker.co.uk/FreeTrial.aspx and leave your details for a member of our team to contact you with a free 2 week run of our software.

To visit us at the show, sign up for your free complimentary ticket with us here https://registration.n200.com/survey/3njgxhgn3h7vy?actioncode=NTWO000545GPV – we are stand W16 and can't wait to meet you!

Look forward to hearing from you soon.

Salon Tracker x