Growing from strength to strength!

Jackie Brown, HandsOn » Worchester

“Salon Tracker has transformed the management of our salon. It’s great to see your days/weeks appointments on screen; you can see where you have gaps and where potential crossovers may occur. It makes you work more efficiently. 

The weekly/monthly reports have been great for pushing to beat previous week’s sales figures. It’s so easy to use and you know exactly how you stand. My accountant is going to love this report system for next year’s accounting, it’s so much easier. It’s great for monitoring stock levels too. 

The SMS is brilliant for confirmation of appointments; men tend to be a bit forgetful and really appreciate a text to remind them. It encourages clients to phone and re-book if they can’t make the time as there is now no excuse! Clients love the texts and comment that they are very professional. The ease with which you can send a selected group of clients a personalised letter/SMS is great. It’s a shame I didn’t have this system 6 months ago when I moved premises and did all my letters individually, it took forever!”

Spring Marketing Ideas!

There are many benefits of seasonal marketing, such as increased awareness, improvement in profit and a sense of urgency. A seasonal promotion is brilliant as it highlights the fact that the treatment or price is only temporary and will not be available for another year which heightens your clients enthusiasm to buy now. Your treatment list is the main attribute of your business, it provides you with the opportunity to sell yourself and be creative and different. This is the place where you can increase profit and usually, spend per client. So if you have decided to partake in seasonal marketing then put a spring into your step and be creative with your treatment list in the run up to summer with these fruity tips!

- Make sure you have a plan for all year round- you need to know the exact dates when promotions will start and end. It is also important to note the collision of promo ideas with each public holiday in the annual calendar. Consider ongoing discounts and treatments and include them in your campaign rather than just for fun, it gives more reason to publicise your promotions.

- Get adventurous- Egg-cellent exfoliating facial, spring stone massage, full fruity massage, luscious lashes for spring! Don’t be afraid to have some fun, get creative and give your treatments quirkier names around different times of the year. Don’t just consider main holidays, be unique and give people reason to talk about your salon!

- Make sure you use your SMS marketing tool- Salon Tracker Management Software provides an advanced marketing suite enabling you to communicate with your customers whenever you desire to do so. Let them know what you are doing, distribute offers and highlight why you are doing certain offers. Be informative, fun and creative. The warmer you are towards them the warmer they will be towards you.

- Listen to your customers- Creating a seasonal marketing plan is a great idea but sometimes difficult because you may find treatments not being popular with the majority of people but 20-50 may love it! Always record your campaigns and prices and if customers request something let them have it as it was if it isn’t going out of your way. This is your business and the truth is you will make more money catering to what people want. This keeps clients loyal as they can see you are going out of your way for them!

- Put a spring into your step! Many people focus on their body, rejuvenation and detoxing around this time of year in preparation for summer! Focus your treatment on the lighter factors rather than winter treatments. Strip back to neutral and highlight all the nourishing sun kissed treatments to bring out the natural beauty and the good it will do for your body. 

- Nail colour of the week promotions- Flick through a couple of magazines and see what all the latest nail colours are. Maybe try 20% off when people get pastel lemon or pastel pink coloured shellac on their nails. Anything spring coloured and push promote it!

- Holiday packages- Some may say March is a bit early but a lot of people start holidaying from this time onward so why not try an all-inclusive package that your customer might need at a set price. Come into the salon for 5 hours and get everything done ready for holiday. They will feel like it’s a great deal as it is all combined into one. Cater for your customer!

Salon management system launched by Leeds entrepreneur...

Phil Cave, the beauty entrepreneur behind Salon Tracker, has launched a new salon management solution called Salon Tracker to help salon owners, spas, nail bars and other beauty professionals to manage their businesses more efficiently and grow sales.

Mr Cave andhis team at Salon Tracker have created a range of software solutions aimed at the beauty sector to help salon owners improve how they engage with their customers and manage their cash flow and profits.

Mr Cave, an expert software developer who has worked in the beauty sector for a number of years, has worked with a wide range of salon owners to create a new salon management system which is fully integrated with social media allowing salons to take bookings through their Facebook page.

Mr Cave said: “We have taken a lot of time to listen to salon owners to understand how we can enable them to run their businesses more efficiently and most importantly, get the most out the marketing features such as mobile text messaging we have created to help them communicate with their customers.

“Since we have launched Salon Tracker the feedback has been very encouraging with many users telling us that they have already seen improvements in their bottom line, cash flow management and better client retention.”

Salon Tracker is available in three formats – Standard, Professional and Enterprise – and allows users to manage every facet of their beauty business.

Using a PC, tablet or mobile phone users can access their business online 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year to ensure it is run efficiently and profitably.

Fully integrated with Facebook and with a dynamic SMS messaging service, Salon Tracker allows users to manage and prioritise appointments; capture customer information and build an interactive database – which can even tell users how clients like their coffee  and market special offers to customers direct from the system with mobile text messages.

The system also delivers fast and efficient Point of Sale with simple business sales reports; cash flow and profit and loss accounts management; staff commission and stock management; and remote access from anywhere in the world – even when the salon owner is on holiday.

Flavio Refrigeri, who runs Clinica Fiore in London’s Covent Garden, said: “Salon Tracker has benefitted the salon greatly and the system is very easy to use.  Salon Tracker’s reporting feature has helped improve the performance of our clinic by 80 per cent making the software well worth the initial investment. The software has also helped with security in the salon and the free customer support I have received since purchasing the software has been excellent.”

Louise Tillotson who owns Dreams Wellbeing Salon in Bradford, said: “Salon Tracker has made day-to-day salon tasks a lot simpler and we are a lot more productive because of it.  It is simple and effective and customers love the fact that everything is stored on the system and they don't need to bring in appointment cards or receipts. 

“We regularly use the SMS marketing to inform customers of our offers.  This has resulted in customers revisiting us when offers are running or when we have product ranges on special offer.  We also wish high spenders a happy birthday and offer them something free if they visit us that week. “