Goodbye 2023!

 

We can’t believe it’s already that time of year!

This year has been a big year for Salon Tracker with us expanding our Salon Tracker Family both internally with many new team members I’m sure you’ve had the opportunity to speak to and also a number of new customers who are now allowing us to help grow your business!

We want to take this opportunity to thank you all for your consistent support and loyal custom this year as we have been working hard on improving the basics of the software so in 2024 we can add some very in demand features!

We know this year has been difficult with the cost of living crisis that has affected many of our customers. This is why we have kept out subscription prices the same for over the last 10 years, even though we are continuously adding to and improving the system.

As we go into 2024, we know that this can be a difficult time of the year for salons where they may get a bit quieter, so if you’re thinking about getting set up with us keep your eyes peeled for some potential offers on our social media accounts.

With that being said, we are CLOSED for Christmas between the 22^nd of December and the 2^nd of January. If you need any support during this period please go to www.salontracker.co.uk/help where you can see help videos and support guides on how to fix frequent problems .

If you do require any urgent licensing assistance during this time, please telephone our support line on 0113 350 8232 and someone will get back to you where possible with your activation code.

On behalf of everyone here at Salon Tracker, we would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy and health new year and we can’t wait to continue working with you all in 2024!

Salon Tracker x

Effortless Stock Management with Salon Tracker

With our stock levels section on Salon Tracker, keeping track of your retail products has never been easier! 

This blog will give you a step by step guide on how you can track your stock on Salon Tracker, as well as add in extra features such as notifying when stock is running low and adding commission on products.

In the products section of Salon Tracker you can add your retail products that you sell within your salon. 

This section is completely customisable with options to add beauty and salon products as well as tanning products, and any snacks you may sell too!

To add a category simply select Retail Products then the plus (+) button.

Then you can add in the category you’re wanting to by typing into the description box (e.g. typing beauty) and clicking OK

Then to add a product you can select ‘Add’ and similarly name it (in the description box) and add in your retail price and trade price

Note: adding the trade price is optional, but it may be useful to you if you want to calculate your profit per product.

If you wish to keep track of the amount of stock you have of your products you can customise this in the stock info tab. 

To do this simply tick the ‘Monitor Stock Levels?’ tab and add in your stock level (i.e. the amount of retail products you have in your salon) and if you wish to do so you can also add in a low stock warning level so you know if you are running low on stock and need to get more.

Finally if you wish to add commission on your products you can do this by selecting the commission tab, ticking the override commission box and typing in what percentage commission you wish to add to the product.

Once you have added all of your products in you will be able to see your stock levels, as well as which products are running low which are highlighted in red. This shows as a list on the right hand side of the products tab.

This can then be further edited once you have more products in.

I hope that this blog gave you more insight into one of our many great services on Salon Tracker. Please note that this feature is available on our Professional and Enterprise packages.

If you’re interested in getting booked in for a look at these services in a FREE demonstration of our system or FREE two-week trial, please don’t hesitate to contact us by calling 0113 350 8230 or emailing us on info@salontracker.co.uk .

If you’re an existing customer and are wanting more information about upgrading your Salon Tracker package to our Professional or Enterprise packages, again please don’t hesitate to contact us by calling 0113 350 8230 or emailing us on info@salontracker.co.uk.

Salon Tracker x

Your Guide to Christmas Marketing

 

Your Guide To Christmas Marketing

Everybody wants to look good for Christmas, so they’ll be more likely to book their beauty treatments and tans, but how can you drive them to your salon? And how do you keep them coming back?

 

Word of Mouth

Word of mouth is possibly the most powerful marketing strategy to drive in new clients. One of the most effective ways to spread the word is to incentivise current customers with a refer a friend scheme, offering a discount for both your existing customer and the new member that they bring in. By doing this, you are likely to keep the new client coming back after they have experienced your amazing in-salon experience, and then they will likely refer someone else, with this cycle continuing to bring you in lots of great new customers.

 

Social Media

So you already post multiple times a week, but how do you get your salon’s name out there to new potential customers? Running a giveaway on your Instagram or Facebook page is a very effective way to reach new people. Give instructions for people to follow to be entered into the giveaway like “tag 3 friends” and “share to your story”. Everybody loves a freebie, so everyone will be tagging their friends and sharing, especially when it’s not costing them anything.

 

Salon Exterior

Get creative with your festive decorations! Make sure you pay as much attention to the outside and windows of your salon as you do to the inside. With sunset coming much earlier throughout Winter, some bright decorations and lights in your windows will attract people who are walking and driving past; it’s like having a free billboard! An added benefit of this is that putting up Christmas decorations is super enjoyable and sure to get you and your staff members into the festive spirit.

 

Salon Tracker’s SMS and Email Marketing Suite

A great way to entice current and previous customers is through SMS and email marketing messages. You can offer special discounts or incentives for them to book with you. With Salon Tracker’s marketing suite, you can filter your customer list to include only relevant customers (e.g. customers who haven’t booked with you within a certain timeframe). This clever feature allows you to send different messages to different groups of customers.

For more information, please call us on 0113 350 8230 or email info@salontracker.co.uk and one of our friendly sales team will be happy to help!

Have a great Christmas!

Salon Tracker x

How to make the most out of Black Friday!

Everybody loves a good deal, and with the countdown to Christmas beginning soon, treating your clients is the best way to keep them coming back for more.

This blog will give you a rundown on how you can benefit from Black Friday deals in your salon!

One great way to get your customers to buy more of your courses, treatments and retail products is by adding discounts. A deal always appeals to customers and will ultimately increase your sales and keep your customers happy.

Another great way to benefit from Black Friday is by offering discounted gift vouchers in store. This is a great Christmas gift for your customers to purchase, and of course expand your customer base.

You could also offer free minutes on a course you sell which will attract your customers to purchase them, in return bringing more bookings to your salon.

A great way to promote your deals is by using social media and our advanced marketing suite on Salon Tracker. Letting your customers know about your offers will bring in more business.

And we of course practice what we preach and had to do some deals of our own! 

Read below to find out what our amazing Black Friday deals and discounts are:

 

Sign up now and get 50% off your first month

Purchase our SMS bundles and get 15% off now!

And last but not least... Purchase our hardware for up to 15% off 

Our deals are available until 1st December 2023 so don't miss out!

 
If you're not already a customer of ours then what better time to join us than now with these amazing deals on offer! Just give us a call on 0113 350 8230 or drop us an email at info@salontracker.co.uk.

That's all for now!

Salon Tracker x 

How Salon Tracker's online features can help your Salon!

On Salon Tracker’s Enterprise package, we have a range of online features that can help you build profits, win customers and grow your business. In this blog we will discuss the features we can offer you.

Online booking:

Salon Tracker's online bookings page allows your customers to log in using an email and pin to view and create their booking anytime, anywhere, any place. Research shows that over 36% of our customers' online bookings were made out of their salon's opening hours. By having customers log in using their email and pin, connects their online booking account to their customer card within Salon Tracker. This keeps all of their booking history, no matter if they were made in store or online, in one place. We can EVEN customise your online booking page with your salon logo and colour scheme to match your salon aesthetic.

Online Payments:

One of Salon Tracker’s newest and highly used online features is online payments. This gives your salon the opportunity to take deposits or full payment amounts through your online page. Taking deposits for online bookings reduces the likelihood of customer no shows as they have already partially paid. Also, by giving customers the ability to purchase services such as tanning courses and eyebrow waxes, your salon could be making a profit whilst you enjoy a good night's sleep.

Siteview:

Siteview, which is also known as homeview, gives you the ability to keep up with the activities of your salon from anywhere in the world whether you’re in sunny Jamaica or at home with the kids.

The dashboard feature gives you the ability to quickly keep up with what’s going on at your salon by showing you things such as overall takings and the amount of customers who have visited that day.

Siteview also gives you the opportunity to view all of your customer details, calendars and all of your business reports that you get on Salon Tracker.

This is available as a weblink or downloadable app.

Online data sync:

Salon Tracker's Enterprise package also gives you online backups. This means that all of  your Salon Tracker data is stored safely in the cloud, meaning that if anything were to happen to your salon PC we can just download your information to another one.

If you would like any more information on any our Salon Tracker features, do not hesitate to get in contact on either 0113 350 8230 or info@salontracker.co.uk.

Salon Tracker X

Halloween marketing tips.

 

Halloween Marketing Tips, will it be a trick or treat?

Run competitions/ giveaways

Spread the word about your business and increase your social media presence. Do giveaways for a free tanning course or any service your salon offers and to enter the giveaway ask people to follow your account and share the post or tag friends to enter the giveaway. This is a great way to get your salons name out there and have organic growth from people in the area. 

Seasonal offers

Get your salon involved in the festive seasons, and boost your business by offering seasonal courses and deals. Halloween is just round the corner, which is a great excuse to promote Halloween exclusive deals for your salon, be creative and give current and new customers a Halloween themed deal!

A few ideas for Halloween Tanning + Beauty deals:

- Scary Good Deals

- Pumpkin Spice tan

- Trick or Treat Yourself Package

- Glamour under the Moonlight

           Social Media Brand Identity

Having an online presence on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook is a massive aspect of your salons potential to grow and become a recognisable, popular and a trusted salon in a competitive industry. How do you do this? Well, here are a few steps you can take to increase your salons brand identity:

       Colour scheme- Ensure your salon is themed with no more than 3 colours, you can use your theme with every post you make, salon decorations and your salon logo. This will also make your account feed look visually smooth and neat, remember, nobody likes a messy Instagram feed!

          Consistency- A post a day keeps the competitors away! Posting everyday or even a short story is a great way to increase your social media engagement with potential and current customers, and also improves the personal relationship between you and your customers in and outside the salon. Show off customers results, reviews and what your salon really has to offer!

          Hashtags- Using hashtags can be very advantageous to your business on social media, especially for smaller businesses. Using hashtags that relate to your post and business will increase its reach and will appear on other users feeds who follow the same or related hashtags. You can also start using your own hashtag specifically related to your salon, which you can use every time you post. You can also encourage customers to use it when they share their results online too! This is a great way to grow your online presence organically and grow a community that you can be proud of. #trickortracker

 

      Salon Tracker Marketing suite

Last but not least, The Salon Tracker marketing suite which comes with our Professional and Enterprise packages, is designed to help your salon grow. From mail chimp integration, customer text templates, review templates for texts/emails and much more there isn’t much that our marketing suite can't do for your marketing needs this Halloween. With it all in one place, there’s less time wasting on separate platforms trying to market to your customers and more time spent on delivering the best service to your customers.

If you are wanting to treat your customers this Halloween then follow the simple steps in this blog or head to the Salon Tracker marketing suite.

 

If you are not already a customer then what are you waiting for, just call us on 0113 350 8230 or email us info@salontracker.co.uk.

Salon Tracker x

Frequently asked questions!

 

This blog is going to go through all the frequently asked questions we get here at Salon Tracker from new and existing customers. We hope that this will answer some of your questions too. 

Sales - 

What features are included in each package?

At Salon Tracker we have three different packages to suit every Salon's needs. Our standard package has all of your digital customer cards, complete client history, 8 business reports and SMS booking reminders. Our next package is the professional package, this package gives you access to an SMS and email marketing suite, stock management and password protected staff logins. All of the Salon features you could need in one place. Our final package is the Enterprise package which gives you access to your very own online account. This means you can have a customised online booking page with payments, your data backed up to the cloud and an app which gives you access to booking and reports from home. This package is perfect for boosting your sales outside of salon hours. 

Are there any hidden costs of the software?

No, Salon Tracker has no hidden costs. We do have optional extras but these are not required. If you are wanting to send out SMS marketing campaigns we sell SMS credits in bundles of 1,000 or if you would like to setup online payments we use a third party payment provider. However, if you are just wanting to use the software without any added costs that's what we do best! We also offer free training, setup and support to keep your costs down. 

Do you sell hardware? 

At Salon Tracker we sell a range of hardware from POS bundles to PC's, we have hardware to meet everyone's needs. We sell POS bundles which include a receipt printer, cash drawer and barcode scanner at a lower price than when you buy the items separate. Or if you want hardware to enhance your Salon's security and safety we sell fingerprint readers and signatures pads. We also sell PC's which fully meet the Salon Tracker specification so you know you won't have any issues. To buy hardware from us, all you need to do is call us on 0113 250 8230, it's that simple. 

Support - 

How do I connect my TMAX if it disconnects?

If Salon Tracker stops sending minutes to your beds the first thing you need to do is check the TMAX box, if it shows 00 that means the beds are connected and if it shows – they are not, and the box will need to be restarted. Once you have done this step or when 00 is showing you will need to follow these steps to connect the TMAX to Salon Tracker.

• Un-plug and re-plug the TMAX cable from the PC
• Re start Salon Tracker – this should re connect the beds, if not use the following steps
• Shut down Salon tracker
• Go to ‘Device manager’
• Look for ‘Ports’ – if there is nothing showing the cable is faulty or not plugged in
• If it shows ‘this device is not supported by windows11’ double click on it
• Go to ‘driver’
• Then click ‘update driver’
• Then ‘browse my computer for drivers’
• It should give you a list to pick from click the ‘2018’ one – if that doesn’t show ring Salon Tracker
• Once it is installed reopen Salon Tracker and the beds should be connected

How can I back up my data on Salon Tracker?

If you're on our Enterprise package you don’t need to worry about backups as we store your data on the cloud for you!

But if you're one of our customers on our standard or professional package your data will back up to your PC, but we always recommend getting a removable device back up. You can get this at most shops, all you need to do is find an 8GB (recommended) memory stick and plug it into your PC. It’s that easy! Just make sure when closing Salon Tracker down you tick the ‘Backup the database (Local drive)’ and ‘Backup the database (removable drive)’.

Where can I find support outside of Salon Tracker hours?

As our office hours are 9-5 Monday – Friday, we’re not always available but one of the things we have introduced to help out customers are our support videos. This can help with training staff or just common queries, and can be found on Salon Tracker. The help section of Salon Tracker shows all the help videos from how to use the calendar to advanced reports. We hope this continues to help all our customers when we are not around to. 

We hope that this blog has helped to answer all of your questions on both the sales and support sides of Salon Tracker. However, if you do have any questions which we haven't answered here then just give us a call on 0113 350 8230 or email us at info@salontracker.co.uk.

Salon Tracker x

Key Things to Consider when Opening a Salon

When starting a salon there are a lot of things to consider before opening shop. Things like how you want to come across to your customers, how you want to spread the word about your salon through marketing, the feel of your salon interior, what staff you are wanting to hire, and keeping up to date with bookings. This blog will talk through some of these things that are important to mull over before opening.

Clear Vision

It’s important, when opening a salon, that you have a clear idea of what you’re wanting within the salon. What is your USP? Maybe it could be that your salon is eco-friendly, or that you specialise in treatments for special occasions such as weddings. Maybe that your tanning treatments are super safe and have looked into avoiding the dangers of UV exposure. Or maybe you already know what your USP is… that’s great! 

Branding & Marketing

Branding & Marketing is also a key way to engage with your customers. A striking brand with bold colours can attract customers and marketing is also key to keep customers up to date with offers you have on within the salon and to let customers know about their upcoming appointments. With our Salon Tracker software we offer a marketing suite with marketing suggestions as well as an option to customise your own, if you so wish.

Ambience and Atmosphere

Customers come into a salon for an experience, so thinking ahead about how the atmosphere is within your salon is crucial. For example, having the right colour scheme within the salon interior, having comfortable chairs, and ensuring that customers feel relaxed and enjoy their time in your salon, making them want to keep coming back for more.

Staff and Hiring

Having professional and well-trained staff is also beneficial to your salon as it ensures the treatments that your customers have will be done by professionals and you will have no stress or any issues with the appointments. However, if you are planning on training staff then it is important to think about how to manage your time for this before opening your salon. At Salon Tracker we offer free staff training, so you can tick that one off your list!

Staying organised

Finally, an important part of opening a salon is keeping on top of your bookings and staying organised. With our Salon Tracker software we make this step super easy! Features in our software such as the bookings tab include a calendar view so you can easily see your bookings, and our software can store the customer’s information within the database to make it easy to book them in for the future.

I hope that this blog has helped you with a few things that are necessary when opening a salon, and has given you some ideas for what you could do if you decide to open one.

If you’re interested in getting booked in for a look at our services in a FREE demonstration or a FREE two-week trial, please don’t hesitate to contact us by calling 0113 350 8230 or emailing us on info@salontracker.co.uk.

 

Salon Tracker x

How Hiring Apprentices can Benefit your Business

Here at Salon Tracker, we believe in the value that apprentices can add to a business. Many of our staff members have been through or are currently going through a degree apprenticeship through Salon Tracker which has been beneficial to both the individual and the business alike!

Apprentices can be beneficial to all types of businesses, from office environments to beauty salons! In this blog we will explain different ways that apprenticeships can benefit your business.

Government funded training  When you hire an apprentice for your business, you may think that this would come with a lot of costs, but this is where you’re wrong! The government will pay 95% of the costs of an apprenticeship, making it a cost-effective way to produce skilled employees. This means that you will be able to develop the skills in your workforce in order to transform your organisation, at a fraction of the cost of other types of training. 

Diversify your workforce 

Because apprenticeships allow individuals to earn an income while studying their qualification, it is attractive and available for a broader range of people, as not everyone can afford traditional methods of gaining qualifications or be able to study full time. This opens up a wider range of people that you will be able to hire, making your workplace more diversified and bringing in fresh minds with new ideas! 

Training tailored to your business 

Unlike a traditional qualification, an apprenticeship will be tailored to your business, with the apprentice’s off-the-job training being relevant to your needs. This allows the apprentice to understand your organisation in greater depth, which will allow them to exceed in their job role. Research shows that 86% of employers say that apprenticeships have helped to develop skills relevant to their organisation.  

Improved staff retention 

Research shows that 69% of companies reported improved staff retention since hiring apprentices. Generally speaking, apprentices seem to be more loyal to the business and more motivated to learn and implement new skills into the workplace. Giving your employees the chance to learn new skills via an apprenticeship has been shown to increase job satisfaction, which in turn increases staff retention as they are happier in their job. This also decreases the cost of recruiting as you won’t have to do this as often due to retaining staff better. 

Developing new skills in your workforce 

Apprenticeships can help to develop professional skills in your workplace which will increase productivity and improve business performance. The combination of on-the-job and classroom learning enables apprentices to put into practice new skills as they advance, which allows you to develop a more highly skilled workforce even in the short-term, with skills getting more developed throughout the journey of the apprenticeship. This then boosts the talent in your organisation so that employees can make valuable contributions. 

Boost Productivity 

Apprenticeships can be a great help in boosting productivity in the workplace in many ways. When you first hire an apprentice, due to the training that they receive, the minimum wage is lower, which can make this a cost-effective way to increase the number of employees in your business, allowing an improvement in productivity for lower costs. Also, as apprentices progress through their course, the skills that they develop will be implemented into your business and they will be able to work more efficiently and to a higher standard, increasing the productivity per employee. There is supporting research which shows that 78% of businesses found that their productivity improved after hiring apprentices and 74% saying that apprenticeships have helped to improve the quality of their product or service. 

 

But don’t just take our word for it; this is what some of our past and present apprentices have to say: 

Elyse: “I am currently starting the 2nd year of my apprenticeship here at Salon Tracker and, so far, I have really enjoyed it. The apprenticeship has made me feel more confident at work and has allowed me to contribute new ideas backed up by things I’ve learnt.” 

Leah: “I finished my apprenticeship with Salon Tracker a few years ago and found that it has helped me a lot with progressing in the business up to my role as head of sales and marketing. The apprenticeship has greatly developed my understanding of business and allowed me to excel in my position and bring in new ideas.” 

Apprenticeships are becoming increasingly popular in many types of businesses, why not consider it for yours? 

Salon Tracker X