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