It's Sunbed Awareness Week; so here are Salon Tracker's 'Tanning Rules'

It’s that time of the month again, where we run through one of our most relevant and favourite features with you. And with the recent amazing weather, we have had lots of feedback from our fellow tanning-salon clients that their footfall has been through the roof! So, with this summer-spurt hopefully continuing and as we enter the holiday season, we just wanted to discuss how to ensure that your clients tan as safely as possible when using your beds. And with the sunbed association running a 'sunbed awareness' campaign this week, we thought that this was the perfect time to 
share our feature for this month: Tanning Rules.

So, what are our tanning rules? These are little checks, if you like, that we have put in place to ensure that your clients are as safe as possible according to current laws and regulations, when using your sunbeds. Below, we explain each of our rules and what our system uses to check each client is as safe as possible.


Rule No. 1

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

First off, it is illegal in the UK for anyone under the age of 18 to use a sunbed. We are aware however that 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. For further security, 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 as you also have the clients consent on file.

 

Rule No. 2

“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 by the sunbed association that they do not tan for longer than 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.


Rule No. 3 

“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 also recommends that no one at all, no matter what their skin type, tans more than once every 24 hours. Whilst this is not yet illegal, it is still a recommendation that we like to follow and would advise all tanning salons to operate with too. As just mentioned, 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.


Rule No. 4

“Maximum Minute Usage.” 

Finally 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 for each session. 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.


How do you implement these rules?

All salon owners using our software will have access to an ‘admin’ section, in which we have tanning calendar settings within this section, where the owner can choose the level of enforcement for each of these rules. Aside from Rule No.1, in which this is a legal enforcement that all clients must be over 18 to use a sunbed and therefore we force this rule by default, all our other rules can either be forced by recommendation, or you can simply warn the client by giving advice. Recommendations are at a salon’s discretion; therefore, we have put these rules in place for the safety of your clients, it is up to you how you use them.


So, 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 and we can offer you more information on our tanning safety rules. Or alternatively, send us your details at http://www.salontracker.co.uk/FreeTrial.aspx so that we can arrange you a FREE 2-week trial.

Let us help you to keep your tanning salon safe this season!

Salon Tracker x