Merry Christmas from the Salon Tracker Team x

So, Christmas 2020, and what a year this has been. Definitely not the year or Christmas we were expecting or had hoped for, but here we are! Despite the difficult months we have faced and what looks like a few challenging weeks ahead, as a company throughout this year we have tried to do all we can to support you our lovely loyal clients, and we want to thank you for your patience and understanding over this time. We appreciate how tough times have been for you over the past 9 months, and we want you to know we will do everything we can to help to support you as we continue in to the New Year and throughout 2021. We want to again thank you for using Salon Tracker over 2020, it has been a pleasure to work with you during this time, we are all in this together!

If you didn’t catch our post last week, we just want to again reiterate that all payments for our clients located in Tier 4 in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, will remain frozen for the duration that you have to close. We will also closely monitor the news over the coming days, and should changes affect any of our clients in other areas of England, we will act accordingly and pause your payments too.

If you are still open over Christmas, we will be open today until 5 and then we will re-open on Monday 4th January at 9am.

Please note: we are closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Bank Holiday Monday (28th December) and New Year’s Day.

If you require urgent support for licensing or timer controls over 29th, 30th and 31st December, please contact us on 0113 350 8230 and leave a voicemail and we will get back to you with best endeavours.

We hope you all have the best Christmas that you can, even if it looks a little different for us all this year, but we go in to 2021 with the best hopes that we can, hoping to be in a much more positive situation this time next year.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,

The Salon Tracker Team x

Important Message for our Clients

Important Message for all of our Clients:

Following the announcement from the Prime Minister on Saturday that many regions in England were to be placed in Tier 4 restrictions from Sunday 20th December, in order to do our best to support you during this time, we are freezing all of your software payments for the duration you have to be closed.

We are also freezing payments for all of our clients in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, who have similar Tier 4 lockdown restrictions nationally; starting Sunday 20th December for Wales and beginning from Boxing Day for Scotland and Northern Ireland.

These payment freezes will remain in place until further notice from the government.

Please note: For any salons that are currently still open, if restrictions from the government alter in your local area instructing your salon to close, we will pause your subscription payments until further notice.

Clients who are currently facing closure; please bare with us during this time as there are a large volume of clients to process. You will however all be credited any pre-paid days you had remaining from your recent payments once you are able to reopen.

During this time, you are still able to access your software, should you need this for reporting or marketing purposes.

If you would like any help during this time, training on the system or want some tips on sending a marketing campaign to your clients, please don't hesitate to call our team on 0113 350 8230, or drop us an email at info@salontracker.co.uk.

We wish you well during this time. Stay safe!

The Salon Tracker Team x

It's BLACK FRIDAY (countdown to Christmas is officially on!)

It’s BLACK FRIDAY! 🖤🎄✨

And so we wanted to bring to you an exclusive deal, to help you kick start your marketing for reopening and also towards your appointment reminders for your busy December!

We are offering:
✨15% Off ✨ all of our text bundles from today until 11th December! 

And don’t forget, if you’re new to us, we are also offering:

✨30% off first 3 months subscription✨
✨10% off hardware✨

(this applies to all hardware purchases made before 11th December!)

Happy Software shopping🎄🎁✨

And less than a week to go till most of our clients can re-open, we're so excited to be working with you all again, let the countdown to Christmas begin!

Salon Tracker x

Salons In England Can Re-open on Weds 2nd December!

Important Message for our UK Clients

It has been confirmed that the reopen date for salons in England is now Weds 2nd December.

All Salons in England have been given the go ahead to reopen in every Tier  

We will be restarting all subscriptions from Weds 2nd December, taking any pre-paid days into account and crediting you those before taking your next payment.
As your software has been de-active for a few weeks, you may require your activation code to relicense the software. To get your activation code, please call our team Monday-Friday 9am-5pm and we can provide this for you. Please be aware that our phone lines are busy at this time, so there may be a slight wait before we get back to you. We appreciate your patience at this time.

If you require your clients tanning or beauty courses extending, we are also able to do this for you and would advise that you call prior to the reopen date, in order to get this sorted before you reopen as we expect our phone lines to be busy on Weds 2nd Dec. We are open Monday-Friday 9am-5pm to sort this for you.

Salons in Northern Ireland and Scotland affected by further closures, we will not charge you for the time that you are closed and will restart payments when you are able to fully reopen. 

Salons in Wales, you continue to remain open! 

We can’t wait to be working with you all again soon, let the countdown to Christmas begin

Salon Tracker x

BLACK FRIDAY HAS ARRIVED (a week early!)

Black Friday is just around the corner, only 1 week away, on Friday 27th November. However, after the year we've all had, we thought we'd treat you and bring you our offers 1 week early!

Starting today Friday 20th November - Friday 11th December, for 3 weeks we will be offering you:

30% Off First 3 Months Software
10% Off All Hardware Purchases

And, if your salon is still subject to local or regional lockdowns during this time, don't worry as we will extend your trial period until you are able to re-open, not taking your first payment until you can open your doors again.

To claim your offer, simply head to https://www.salontracker.co.uk/FreeTrial.aspx to enquire for your FREE TRIAL, and if you are on trial before 11th December, you are still eligible for our offer from your first software payment. All hardware purchases must be also made before 11th December to be able to redeem the discount.

Happy Software Shopping! And as always, any questions our team are on hand Monday to Friday, 9-5 to answer all of your questions.

Hope to speak to you soon,

Salon Tracker x

We have some exciting news amongst all this doom and gloom...

We're exhibiting at the 'Virtual Hair & Beauty Show' this weekend (Saturday 7th November until Saturday 21st November)!

I know that your Salons will be closed over the next 4 weeks and I also know that your Salons are your pride and joy so why not invest all that spare time you're going to have into something beneficial for you and your Salon? 

It is a certain fact that we are all missing attending our regular Hair and Beauty shows due to the Pandemic but instead of having to get all dolled up and travel too and from you can now experience this show straight from your sofa - amazing! 

We know that the circumstances are hard which is why we have frozen all our current clients subscription payments until they are back open again and not only that, we are also offering a trial period to new customers for as long as lockdown continues - meaning you can trial the software absolutely free of charge until your Salon is back up and running again! And what a better time to trial it whilst you have all this free time on your hands that you definitely never had before!

After your trial period, if you do decide to go ahead you will also be given 30% off your first 3 months of subscription with any package so that means you've got the whole of lockdown to trial the software absolutely free and then enjoy your discounted first 3 months of your subscription! 

If what you've read appeals to you, you can register for your virtual ticket at: https://thenationalbeautyshow.com/ we can't wait to chat with you all!

If you have any other questions at all, please feel free to call us on 0113 350 8230 or alternatively email info@Salontracker.co.uk.

We look forward to speaking with you soon, stay safe!

Salon Tracker x 

Important Update For Our Clients In England

Following the announcement from the Prime Minister on Saturday that a second National Lockdown will begin on Thursday 5th November, in order to do our best to support you during this time, we are freezing all of your software payments for the duration you have to be closed. This will remain in place until further notice from the government.

Please bare with us during this time as there is a large volume of clients to process. You will however all be credited any pre-paid days you had remaining from your recent payments once you are able to reopen.

During this time, you are still able to access your software, should you need this for reporting or marketing purposes.

If you would like any help during this time, training on the system or want some tips on sending a marketing campaign to your clients, please don't hesitate to call our team on 0113 350 8230, or drop us an email at info@salontracker.co.uk.

We wish you well during this time. Stay safe!

The Salon Tracker Team.

Feature of the Month- Post Delay

Another month, another feature!

This month’s feature of the month is all about out ‘post-delay’ feature. This is a feature that is available on all three of our different software packages and is mainly utilised by our hair salon customers.


The way this works is that when you have a customer who had come in for a colouring and then a finish such as a cut or blow-dry, we realise there needs to be a short break in between for the colour to develop. This feature allows you to insert an automatic development time in-between each of your colour treatments so that there is a gap on the calendar for you to book another client in.


This means when one of your clients is sat waiting for their colour to develop, instead of waiting and having a gap in your calendar you can book another client in. This feature also works when customers are booking online, it will leave a gap between the colour application and the finish for you to either book someone else in in the salon or online.

This feature isn't just for our hair salons either, any salon who offer services where a break is needed in-between for any sitting time!

This also works when booking in your customers from out new and improved Siteview app. As mentioned in last months blog out Siteview app is now editable meaning you can put bookings in from your phone or any other laptop or pc even when you’re not in the salon.

If you’re an existing customer who would like some more information on these features or if you’re interested in getting booked in for a free demo and two-week trial of the system please give us a call on 0113 350 8230 or email us on info@salontracker.co.uk


Stay Safe!


Salon Tracker x

*A Message to all of our customers in Republic Of Ireland, Wales and Northern Ireland*

We’re so sorry to hear the news that you have to close your salons.


To further support you during this time, we will be freezing all subscription payments until your local government lift the restrictions in your area.


For our clients in Republic of Ireland, payments will be frozen from today (21st October) until 1st December, unless we hear of any alterations otherwise from your local government.

For our clients in Wales, payments will be frozen from this Friday (23rd October) until Monday 9th November, unless we hear of any alterations otherwise from your local government.


For our clients in Northern Ireland, we will continue to freeze your subscriptions, as all were frozen on Friday 16th October, until Monday 16th November, unless we hear of any alterations otherwise from your local government.


You will be credited any pre-paid days you had remaining from your recent payments, once you are able to reopen.


Should you like any advice, extra training or help with anything over this time please don’t hesitate to contact our team on 0113 350 8230. We are still on hand to help with marketing campaigns and planning for peak season once you are able to reopen!


Stay safe and take care 💕


Salon Tracker Team x

How Salon Tracker Specialises in Multi-Site Salon Management

Are you the owner of a multi-site salon business, and are looking for a software system to help you with the management of your salon chain? Our software specialises in the organisation of multi-site salon companies, and therefore we have outlined our main features below that may benefit you, by investing in your own Salon Tracker system.


HQ/Siteview

Providing the ability for you to oversee all business locations from one machine, anywhere in the world. Whether you have a main office, work from home or find yourself travelling a lot, we all know that multi-site salon owners have a busy schedule and it can be very hard for you to monitor all locations regularly, without being present at the sites themselves. So, we have introduced the ability to oversee and impersonate each site with our Salon Tracker HQ system. From overseeing staff shift-times to tracking KPI’s and stock, everything you need to know about your businesses can be accessed through our HQ.

We have then simplified this further, with our ‘Siteview app’. This provides a live dashboard, access to daily reports and also the calendars of each site, so you can easily access these main aspects of your business from your mobile phone or tablet, when on the move. Salon employees can also have access to their individual calendars from their phones, in order to plan their schedules without having to be at the salon location itself.


Online Booking/Online Registration

Especially since the Covid-19 lockdown, the demand and requirement for Online Booking and Self-Registration has really increased due to new social distancing regulations. However, this has always been a really beneficial feature for our multi-site salons, as it provides clients to be able to take control of their bookings, 24/7, without salons needing extra staff members to handle booking requests. With Salon Tracker, our system does this for you, saving you and your employees time by saving you resources! Your online registration form can be customised to include certain fields that you may require, dependant on your type of salon; and your salons terms and conditions can also be implemented, to ensure that these are agreed to electronically before a client is then registered in to your database. We implement the online registration and booking on to your website, Facebook page and also offer you this as an app, making the whole process simple for you and your clients!


Share Client Data

For those of you that have a large client base and have a lot of salons in a few local areas, you may wish to offer the option for your customers to use your services at multiple locations. We offer the ability to share your client data across all locations, so say they have a salon close to home and then another salon that is close to where they work, for example; they then have the option to book and use services at both sites without having to re-register.


Marketing (SMS/Email)


Similarly, with a large client database, whether you decide to share your clients details at all sites, or keep it to individual locations; with our HQ feature, your salon marketing team can still communicate messages to all clients from the main headquarters machine. Using the HQ, you can identify a list of all clients, or split this site by site. Meaning that if you need to send site-specific promotions or whether this is an overall company campaign, you are able to do both either way from one main system.


Reporting/Dashboards

Business reports and KPI tracking is really important for any business, but especially with a multi-site, as the data is so extensive. You also may want to know information such as, how well a site is performing against another, your peak and quiet trading times, what your best-selling products are, and so on. So, with the Salon Tracker HQ you are able to view all reports site by site, or as a whole, in order to see how the company is performing overall; and to also compare site by site. We also integrate with Microsoft’s Power BI software, to provide the ability for you to be able to analyse your data in further detail, such as based on geographical area, age range and so on.


Stock Control

Delegating retail products between sites and tracking the sales of these can be a really lengthy task if this has to be done manually. With Salon Tracker, we provide a smart stock control system, that monitors and tracks all the retail sales and stock usage for you, making the management of your stock so much simpler. By having a universal system, this not only improves efficiency within the salons, it saves you time and improves accuracy, by eliminating the chance of human error or anomalies for if you were to use different methods per site. Stock control and stock level reports can also be pulled from the HQ for all sites, meaning you always have a clear understanding of stock levels at each site and the monetary value of this.


Security/Staff Management

Ensuring the security of your business at multiple locations can be a quite a strenuous task, especially when you can’t be at each location at once. Our system ensures the same level of security and punctuality is being applied at all salons. Through biometrics, by integrating with a fingerprint reader, we can track staff start and finish times, as they clock in and out with their fingerprint. A benefit to this being that other staff members can’t cover lateness, as a fingerprint is unique to any one person. This same level of security applies for customers, as you can save a customer’s fingerprint to their client card, meaning that you can ensure the client is who they say they are before allowing them to have treatments with age-restrictions. For example, sunbeds or laser treatments.


Flexible working

We earlier mentioned that you can share client data across all salon locations; you can also do the same with staff! This being a great tool if you have staff that cover shifts at multiple locations. Shift reports can then be pulled from the main headquarters machine, in order for working hours to be tracked that week for each employee, no matter which location. Salon employees can also have access to the Siteview app, in which this allows them to add, edit, update and cancel any appointments that they need to make within their own column, which is extremely useful if they need to work from home for a day, or need to alter a few appointments whilst on the move.


Universal Branding

By implementing a salon software system at all locations, you keep the brands booking systems consistent across all sites, which means you are aware that the quality and working operations remains the same at all locations. This also is a great tool if you operate as a franchise, where you want the brands aesthetics and equipment to look and remain the same, even if you don’t necessarily run that site yourself.


Free trial?

Interested in anything we’ve talked about today and think this could benefit you? Why not have yourself a free trial of Salon Tracker? This is a no-obligation, fortnight trial that gives you a great insight in to how our system could work for you, before you decide to sign up to a package! Simply enquire for your trial at www.salontracker.co.uk/freetrial or call 0113 350 8230 to speak to a member of our team.


Salon Tracker x

*Important Message For All Of Our Customers In Northern Ireland*

We're so sorry to hear the unfortunate news that your salons are being forced to close for 4 weeks from tomorrow, Friday (16th October)

In order to do our best to support and help you during this time, we will be freezing all of your software payments until you get the go ahead to re-open.

You will also be credited for any days that you have already pre-paid on your account once you are able to reopen.

In the meantime, we are still on hand to help you with any questions or advice that you may have or require.

If you would like any help, training on the system or want some tips on sending a marketing campaign to your clients, please don't hesitate to call our team on 0113 350 8230, or drop us an email at info@salontracker.co.uk.

We wish you well during this time. Stay safe!

Salon Tracker Team x

How to market your salon during the Halloween period with the circumstances which is Covid-19

This year has been extremely different for everyone, from how we carry out our daily activities to attending the shops and salons. It has also changed how we are able to spend our beloved holidays, including Halloween, the festival second to the Christmas holiday season. There are still certain restrictions in place which prevent us from attending Halloween events, such as parties and this means that people aren’t attending appointments to have their makeup done for the evening events - therefore there may not be a Halloween rush as large as last years. To prevent these restrictions from affecting your business, it is essential that you market other options to your clients and keep them up to date with any changes in regards to what services you are able to carry out, or if you have to close temporarily. Whether you have our Salon software or not, the ideas listed below will be relevant and worth a try!

In order to maintain functional operation of the salon it is important that the ambience within the salon is high priority, as it can help prompt consumer buying habits. Due to all the distress of the current situation which is Covid-19, doing a good dead such as offering free retail products or when it is Halloween, all employees could wear fancy dress, to lift the spirits of the customers to help create an uplifting atmosphere. Focus on window decorations, make sure there is a theme behind each one and this will ensure that clients are aware you are still able to offer Halloween treatments that oblige by the current legislations.

Offering exclusive offers just for Halloween is another way to promote your business during these difficult times. Promoting these products and services allows you to maximize your salon and its assets, an example could be promoting longer lasting treatments such as facials, manicures, eyelash treatments and many more. Instead of prompting Halloween nail art, you should promote autumnal artwork and colours as these are longer lasting because they apply to more than just one day.

Another technique to marketing your salon during the Halloween season should be to upsell retail products, as all salons and high street stores will be competing to sell out their remaining Halloween products. How can you make your salon stand out? A fantastic idea would be to market your products in a more visual way, as we say “a picture paints a thousand words”. An example of this would be to create a photo book showing the Halloween services you have carried out through the years and list the retail products that were used within this treatment.

Display tables are another crucial aspect in promoting your salon, arrange these so that they show the retail products and gift packages that you offer and surround them with Halloween accessories. The way you decorate your display tables is important, it must have a theme that is carried throughout.

Social media is the main tool to promoting anything that happens within your salon, an idea could be to do a raffle were the winner receives a free treatment of their choice and where all the money is donated to a charity that is suffering during these horrible times. Communicate with your clients show them the decorations and offers that you have in place!


If you’re looking for a software to help you manage your business this festive season don’t hesitate to contact us on 0113 350 8230 and we will be happy to assist.


Make the most of this year!


Salon Tracker X

How Enterprise Upgrades Helped Our Clients

I can’t believe that it’s now October! Where did time go? This weeks blog is going to focus on how our customers have benefited from upgrading to our Enterprise Subscription. For those of you who aren’t aware, our Enterprise Subscription includes our Online Booking and Siteview features. Over the course of the last few months we have had numerous customers upgrading to the Enterprise package, specifically for the ability to use Online Bookings, which is perfect for adjusting to the new normal.

Since the reopening of salons, we have seen a huge spike in the number of online bookings being made, with many salons introducing a booking only system. Online booking offers customers the flexibility of being able to book an appointment at any time of the day, whilst ensuring that restrictions are in place to follow the Government Guidelines. One of customers has seen a significant growth in bookings since getting the online system, with almost 8,000 bookings being made since the reopening of their salon! With such an increased demand for our online booking feature, we introduced a booking delay time to make sure that with each booking there was extra time being added to allow for cleaning and to adhere to the social distancing guidelines.

There are several other benefits of introducing an online booking system, such as reduced phone calls and emails, as customers are able to book at their own accord instead of contacting you and your team. For those of you that own Tanning Salons, customers are able to see how many minutes they have remaining on their account. Customers also have the ability to see your opening hours and an interactive map view of where the salon is for those that may not have visited before.

Our Siteview feature is one that has been available for the last few years, however given recent circumstances we realised this needed to be modified in order to make your salon life easier. Hence, we introduced Editable Siteview, allowing users to book, edit and cancel bookings straight from their phone. As well as having the ability to view customers booking history, remaining services and details. This feature is perfect for all salons, so that if you get messages away from the salon you can still book clients in. Even more so, for anyone with self-employed stylists or beauticians, as it can be set so that they can only view their own columns on the calendar, ensuring that double bookings aren’t being added. The calendar view will also allow employees to view their working hours, this is great for those of you that work in a rota format, as employees can quickly and easily check what days and times they’re working. The Siteview app is ideal for taking a quick overview when you’re away from the salon, enabling you to look at a dashboard of the days takings, bookings and customers, as well as being able to see the reports.

If you would like to take a look at our enterprise package in further detail don’t hesitate to contact us to get booked in for a free demo and trial on 0113 350 8230, or alternatively you can email info@salontracker.co.uk.

Salon Tracker x

How to make this Autumn your best one yet!

I know you'll all be just as shocked as I am when I say that Summer is officially over and as of last week, Autumn has officially begun! Last week also marked 6 months since the UK was put into full lockdown and everyone's world was turned upside down. Now you are open and in full swing, how about we make up for all that lost time and make this your best Autumn yet? After all, the autumnal vibes are our favourite!

 

Lets start with a start with a few marketing tips:

Back to School Bundle 

This is one for the Mums and Dads that suddenly have a lot more time on their hands! After 6 months of no school I think all those Mums and Dads out there deserve a bit of a treat... A back to school mini bundle could be a great idea for your salon. For example, offering a package deal with some mini treatments, such as lash and brow tints, could increase your profit and help you gain a selection of new clients that you may not have previously had. Pairing this with a ‘back to school’ pamper day including a range of the different treatments you offer would be a great start as it really encourages them to book for a relaxing day after 6 months that properly felt like a decade for them!

Halloween

Although Halloween may not be the same this year, it's still a Holiday that everyone loves and why not make the most of it? Advertising early your Halloween makeup pictures will get people interested and make them want to plan ahead. You could even do a petrifying package deal such as Makeup and spooky hair for a set price and why not throw in a Halloween goody bag full of Halloween themed treats or retail products? 

What platforms can you use to get the message out?

Facebook and Instagram

Facebook and Instagram are the top social media platforms to advertise your business on.
Most importantly, they are free! Just a simple post on facebook advertising what you are going to be doing this Autumn will go a long way, followers of the page will see it and following that they may be inclined to share it with Family and Friends which could reach 1000's of new clients. Similar to instagram where you can carry out interactive stories which will engage your followers. You could do a vote story or an answer box story with the caption 'what would you like to see from this salon this Autumn' then not only are you drawing the readers in, but you are also finding out what your target market would like to see! All this client research for free - you can't go wrong. 

TikTok

Now i'm sure you'll already know that whilst boredom was taking over in lockdown, TikTok the video app became very popular and people all over the world were doing dance routines and make-up tutorials. This extremely popular platform would be a great way for your Salon to advertise their services such as autumnal nails, Halloween makeup and hair styles due to the sheer popularity of the app. I'll work a treat!

SMS Marketing

The advantage of SMS marketing is that you can target specific customers or audiences. For example, if you wanted to target customers who haven’t visited in the last 3 months, you can do this through our filters. Our software has a built-in marketing suite which gives you the opportunity to easily use SMS and email marketing. You can choose client groups or make your own in order to send out your message to the group of people it was intended to. For example: 

Hi << Customer Forename>> 

We miss you! Book in advance for a space for your new Autumn look! 

<<Company Name>><<Company Contact Details>> 

As you see, summer finishing may put a frown on many faces but with these tips you could turn it into an incredible opportunity for your salon and help you get back on track before the year is out!

If you're looking for something to help manage your Salon this Autumn enquire at https://www.salontracker.co.uk/FreeTrial.aspx for your free 2 week trial!

If you already have the software and would just like a bit of free training please feel free to give us a call on 0113 350 8230 and we'll be happy to help!

Make the most of the end of this year!

Salon Tracker x

Feature of the Month - Editable Siteview

As things are slowly getting back to normal in salons, we thought we’d bring back an old favourite, ‘Feature of the Month’. This month out feature of the month is a new, highly anticipated, one. Editable Siteview.

Whilst siteview has always been a very popular feature on our enterprise package and has been around for a number of years, over lockdown we have finally made it even better! We previously made this available as an app, you can now add bookings in from your phone, tablet or a computer away from the salon.

For those of you who don’t know what siteview is, this is a feature that is available on our enterprise package which allows salon owners and their staff members to view their calendars and reports from home or out and about on a phone, tablet or a pc out of the salon.  This allows you to keep track of everything going on in your salon no matter where you are.

After a lot of development and testing, we can finally offer our customers an editable version of this. This will allow you to search and view your customers on your app and you’ll also be able to put bookings in for them from this feature.

This is great for a lot of different types of salons. One type of salon that has found this especially useful are the ones where their stylists or beauticians are self-employed. This means that they would all have their own log in and only be able to see their own calendar and takings. They will then also be able to put bookings in their calendar when they’re away from the salon.  This however is a feature that will be useful for all types of salons however and this is shown in the wide variety of our customers who are already using this!

 As well as this new feature, there are many more existing features on our siteview that you can use. On top of being able to view all your calendars you will also have access to view all your reports from this app. This means you can keep an eye on the salon or on top of all your finances from home or anywhere. There is then also the dashboard. This gives you a quick overview of the day including how many bookings you’ve had, how many retail sales and also your cashing up figures for the day. Perfect for when you have a day off but just want to have a quick check on your salon.
 
If you’re and existing customer with the enterprise package or even someone who is wanting to upgrade or get set up on this package please give us a call on 0113 350 8230 or email us on info@salontracker.co.uk and a member of our sales team will be happy to help!
 

Salon Tracker x

Updates for our Salons on new Coronavirus Government Safety Regulations

On Thurs 10th September, it was announced that it is now illegal from 14th September for groups of more than 6 to meet and socialise anywhere in England.

By Friday 11th September, the government also introduced some extra safety measures that apply to all salons, from this Friday 18th September. For all of our clients, we can already cater for the new regulations using the software, as you have the ability to take all details, including contact number/email fields and also the ability to book them in for their appointment (which then tracks the duration of the time they will be in your salon). We are however, in line with these new changes, going to be creating a new report that will outline all individuals that have been in to the salon in any given period, should you be required to contact these clients inline with the current track and trace programme.

The updates rules as published on the Government website https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19/close-contact-services are as follows:


1. Complete a COVID-19 risk assessment. Share it with all your staff. Find out how to do a risk assessment.

· Communicate and train. Make sure all staff and customers are kept up to date with how safety measures are being used and updated. 


2. Clean more often. Increase how often you clean surfaces, especially those that are being touched a lot. Ask your staff and your customers to use hand sanitiser and wash their hands frequently.

· Keep music and other background noise to a minimum to prevent people from speaking loudly or shouting.


3. Ask your customers to wear face coverings in any indoor space or where required to do so by law. That is especially important if your customers are likely to be around people they do not normally meet. Some exemptions apply. Check when to wear one, exemptions, and how to make your own.

· You must also wear a visor and mask. Encourage practitioners to wear both a clear visor or goggles and a Type II face mask to keep their clients safe. Provide training on how to wear face masks safely.


4. Make sure everyone is social distancing. Make it easy for everyone to do so by putting up signs or introducing a one-way system that your customers can follow.

· Keep clients apart. Consider how many people can be in the space while remaining socially distant. Rearrange waiting areas so that clients can stay apart. Use floor markings to manage queues.

· Help your staff maintain social distancing. Consider using barriers between workstations, introduce back-to-back or side-to-side working, and have staff work in the same team each day.


5. Increase ventilation by keeping doors and windows open where possible and running ventilation systems at all times.


6. Take part in NHS Test and Trace by keeping a record of all your customers for 21 days. From 18 September, this will be enforced in law.


7. Turn people with coronavirus symptoms away. If a staff member (or someone in their household) or a customer has a persistent cough, a high temperature or has lost their sense of taste or smell, they should be isolating.


With this updated guidance, where before we have said to all of our clients, we would encourage you not to use the walk-in client, and always schedule/take details for appointments, this is now mandatory by law from Friday 18th September. Therefore, you must not use the walk-in client from there forward until we have more information form the government.

You must now also ensure your staff members all either wear a visor, or a mask and goggles at all times, to further protect themselves and your clients from the virus. All clients (unless exempt for medical reasons) must also wear a face covering by law.

Our current action log and booking summary reports can provide all information of clients that have visited your salon that day, and the appointments in which they have had, including duration so that you are aware of their entrance and exit times. As earlier mentioned, we are working on a report that we aim to roll out as fast as possible, to make this tracking much simpler and easier for you, should your business have a request for information due to coronavirus cases.

If you have any questions or wish to speak to us for any further advice on how to continue running your salon in a Covid-safe way, please don’t hesitate to contact us on 0113 350 8230.

We continue to help you as best as we possibly can to manage your salon during these unprecedented times!

Salon Tracker x

Social Media Tips For Your Salon!

Despite everything that’s happened this year, it’s still flown by with Autumn right around the corner. So, it’s time to gear up for the end of year rush and make sure that your calendar has no blank space! I’m sure you all know the huge benefits of using social media to promote your salon and your services, so today were going give you our top tips for maintaining your social media presence and increase your client base.

Facebook

As a salon owner, Facebook is the perfect platform and tool to promote your salon, its ideal to stay connected with your clients, as well as enabling you to reach out to new customers. Setting up your salon Facebook page is just step one of successfully promoting your business, the key thing is to stay consistent with your posting. You don’t want to go too long without updating your clients, but you also don’t want to post too much that those following your page become annoyed with your spam, it’s all about finding the perfect balance.

A great feature on Facebook is the scheduling tool, this is perfect for getting ahead and ensuring that you aren’t forgetting to post, and you can plan for things such as offers or days you may be closed. When posting, you want to think about when your clients are likely to be on Facebook and scrolling through their homepage, early mornings, lunchtime and evenings are often the best with the typical 9-5 working schedule.

Sprout social found that the best day to post is Wednesday, and looking at the engagement it their research suggests that late morning/early afternoon will result in the highest engagement. However, its always best to base it on your followers, maybe try out a few different times and see which performs best. You also have the insights feature on Facebook, allowing you to view the performance of your posts, on all posts you can see the number of users it has reached and how many users have engaged with the post. Again, this is perfect to track how well your posts are doing, allowing you to improve certain types of posts if you notice the statistics are lower in comparison to others.





Despite being a newer feature, Facebook Stories are also a great tool, as they will always show at the very top of the customers Facebook home page. This not only means that they’re more likely to see your salon name popping up, but it’s also great for posting opening times, any booking openings from cancellations and any limited time deals as the stories will only remain posted for 24 hours.

The next thing you want to focus on is the content you post, you want this to be unique and different from your competitors, this will make your posts more eye-catching, hopefully resulting in new and existing customers clicking through to your page. There are plenty of great pages that you can create posts on, such are Pixlr (https://pixlr.com/) and Adobe Spark (https://spark.adobe.com/sp/). Adobe Spark has hundreds of templates that you can redesign to be more suited to your salon.

Instagram

Instagram has become another great platform to grow your salon business on, making it the perfect platform to not only post before and after images, but also fun and relatable content for new and existing customers to enjoy. With it being owned by Facebook, there are a lot of similarities that can be found, making it easy to switch between the two and keep users up to date across both platforms.

Similar to Facebook, and maybe they work even better, is Instagram Stories! Again, these only last for 24 hours, so they’re great to post the any daily updates on appointments, offers and even resharing posts of your customers that have tagged you. Stories can also be shared between users, giving the opportunity for one of your followers to easily spread word of your salon by sharing a post to their friend(s).

Unfortunately, Instagram doesn’t have a built-in feature to schedule posts, like Facebook does, however there is a great third-party alternative. The app ‘Later’ (https://later.com/) links straight to your Instagram page, allowing you to schedule posts for weeks and months in advance. This is a great tool to use during a quiet period, in order to ensure that you are ahead on your posts before you’re too busy and don’t have the time to do it. If you wanted to schedule all of your social media platforms in one place, Later enables you to do so, this may make it easier that having the separate scheduling on Facebook, as you won’t need to keep switching in and out of apps whilst planning your posts.

To grow your page to a bigger audience, hashtags are the ideal method, as this helps non-followers find your page and images, the more hashtags you use, the more users will see your post. It’s important that the hashtags relate to the image and to your salon, using local based hashtags is also a great idea as this will result in people in close proximity to the salon viewing and finding your page. If you don’t want to include hashtags in the caption of the image, you can always add them into the comments after you have posted. It’s also key not to use the exact same hashtags in every image, these should be changed and tweaked depending on the image you are posting in order to reach the best target audience.

Finally…a theme! Although not super important, it does always look nice for customers viewing your page. It may be best to stick with the colours that can be found within your salon, then everything is seamless both in the salon and across your social media platforms.

Hopefully these tips have been helpful for you, in order to maximise your social media presence! If you are wanting to take a look at our Salon Tracker softwae, we do offer a free demo and 2 week trial, so don’t hesitate to contact us to get booked in! You can call us on 0113 3508230 or catch us via email at info@salontracker.co.uk.

Salon Tracker x