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

My First Year!

 

 

I’m sure I have had the pleasure of speaking to the majority of our clients, if you haven’t spoken to me yet… I’m Mia. I am part of the support team here at Salon Tracker Software.

I started working at Salon Tracker in June 2022 and began learning how the software works. Once I was comfortable with the system and understood it I began looking into the support side of Salon Tracker.

A typical day in my life consists of answering your support calls and helping out with any queries that you may have and also going through tickets we have taken from you with things such as feature requests and seeing if these requests are something we can add.

As the software is always being updated one large part of my role is to conduct testing on any of the new versions of Salon Tracker to make sure everything is running correctly before we set this live for our customers.

As well as supporting our customers with their software needs, I also have a role in setting up PC’s that customers have bought from us and also connecting any other hardware, such as Cash Drawers, Fingerprint Readers and more for our customers in their salons.

As well as that I am also studying at Sheffield Hallam University to complete a Chartered Management Degree Apprenticeship , which Salon Tracker has given me the opportunity to complete alongside working. Completing this degree whilst working at the same time has given me the opportunity to take skills that I have learnt at University and put them into practice at work. 

In the future I am hoping to develop my knowledge more in the support side of Salon Tracker so I can learn the more technical side of the system as this is an area which interests me most due to it being a bit more complex.

Overall, I have really enjoyed my first year at Salon Tracker.  I have enjoyed getting to know the system and speaking to the new and existing customers. The team have been extremely helpful in terms of helping me settling in and helping me answer any questions I have had. We have many projects planned for the near future so keep tuned and see what the Salon Tracker team is going to be up to over the coming year. I look forward to speaking to you in the future!

Mia x

How using Salon Tracker's Online Services can Benefit your Salon!

As summer fast approaches, here at  Salon Tracker we know that this means busy season is close for our customers. In this blog we are going to talk about how using the online services available in our enterprise package can help you and your salon business, especially in these upcoming months.

 

Open 24/7

One of the major benefits of offering online services such as online booking and online payments is that your customers aren’t limited to your salons opening hours when it comes to booking appointments and paying for services. When it comes to our customers who use our online booking feature, 36% of all of their online bookings are made out of their salons opening hours. This means that if they didn’t have this feature, they would lose out on 36% of their bookings. Our online payment feature also allows your customers to buy services out of your salons opening hours meaning your salon is bringing in a profit even when you’re shut.

Reduces Waiting time in the Salon

Another benefit of using our online services for your salon is that they can help reduce your customers' waiting time in the salon drastically. For example, if you’re a tanning salon or a nail salon who predominantly offer walk in appointments, offering your customers online booking will mean that they won’t need to just show up and wait for an appointment, they can choose a time which works for them and will know that they won’t need to wait once they get there.

Cloud Backup

One major benefit of using our Enterprise package is that all of your salon/customer data is backed up to the cloud. This means that every time your Salon Tracker syncs to the internet, this goes to the cloud. Due to this if your salon unfortunately gets into a situation where your PC breaks, gets damaged or even stolen, you won’t need to worry about losing any information on your software. All we will need to do is connect to your new PC and then redownload all of your Salon Tracker information onto there. Having all your data backed up to the cloud also means that you don’t have to back it up locally to your PC, saving space on your disk.

 

If you’re interested in getting booked in for a look at these services in a FREE demonstration of our system 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 potentially upgrading your Salon Tracker package to our Enterprise package, again please don’t hesitate to contact us by calling 0113 350 8230 or emailing us on info@salontracker.co.uk .

 

Salon Tracker x

Professional Beauty London 2023

 

We are back and better than ever!

Come and join us this March at Professional Beauty 2023 at Excel London. It has been a whole year since we've seen you all and we can't wait to tell you about what we have been working on this year. You can find us at stand Q32 on 5th-6th March and talk to one of our dedicated sales team and receive our exclusive show deal! We will be showcasing all of the new features from the past year and we can't wait to see what you have been working on too. 

What's new and improved?

We have spent the past year improving all of our existing features and we even have some new features that we think you'd love to hear about. Here is an introduction of what we can't wait to show you in March: 

Online Payment and deposits-

We have now made online booking easier and more effective for you by adding online payments and deposits. We have brought this feature out with you guys in mind. Did you know that 40% of bookings are made outside of Salon hours?  This is why we've partnered with the payment provider stripe so customers can now charge their clients a set deposit when booking appointments online therefore reducing no-shows and generating a more streamlined revenue. 

Editable Siteview-

This past year we have been improving our Siteview app so that you can edit appointments within the app. This is available both as a feature within the native app on IOS and Android devices but can also be used in the web browser on any PC/iPad that has internet access. Appointments can now be added, edited, updated and deleted within the app, in which this is all permission based within the software itself, meaning if there are certain elements within the app that you don’t want some employees having access to (for example reports), these can be restricted for certain logins. This is now available to anyone on our Enterprise software package.

Enhanced security-

We know how important it is to keep your reports, takings, customer data and much more safe and secure. This year we have been further developing your Salon security. With Salon Tracker's Professional and Enterprise packages you can create password protected staff logins, you can even add a staff fingerprint for extra security. We can change your staff members' permissions so that only you can access to features such as reports or stock levels. With our fingerprint reader you can ensure that your customers are only using their own minutes and keep their data safe. 

Hardware-

In addition to all of our existing hardware, we have been working on a new hardware feature to improve your salon's efficiency and security. We are now launching QR code scanners for all of our Enterprise customers. All you need to do is get your customers to log into their online account and click into their profile icon to pull up their unique customer QR code. They can then scan this in the Salon to pull up their customer details making the book in process quicker and easier. 

On top of all our great features we also offer free demonstrations of the software and free two-week trials so that you can try Salon Tracker out free of charge. 

So come and visit us at stand Q32 for your very own live demonstration with one of our sales team who are there to answer any of your questions! 

Register for your free tickets at: Professional Beauty London 

See you soon, 

Salon Tracker x 

The Hidden Costs of 'Free' Salon Software

You may think you’re onto a winner when you sign up to a free Salon Software subscription but have you actually thought about the hidden costs and implications that come with it? You may end up paying overall just in the online bookings you take when the money from them bookings should be rightfully yours, wouldn’t you agree?

Here at Salon Tracker we have kept the same pricing model since 2014 – that’s nearly a decade of affordable software that is tailored to each of your Salon needs. Furthermore, we have 3 set subscriptions with no hidden costs… FREE training, FREE support and unlimited FREE online bookings. What more could you want?

The beauty industry is a competitive place, and it's important for salon owners to stay ahead of the game. However, when it comes to salon software, many salon owners mistakenly believe that free software is the best option for their business. While free salon software may seem like a great idea, there are hidden costs associated with using it that can add up over time. First, free salon software often comes with limited features and functionality. This means that salons may not be able to do all of the tasks necessary for running their business. For example, if a salon uses a free software to manage their appointments, they may not be able to customise the system to fit their business's needs. At Salon Tracker, all our development of features is done in house and we really care about the needs of our clients so everything that is requested is always taken on board. We really rely on our clients feedback to improve the software in every update we do – something a free software has not got the capacity to give you.

Additionally, free salon software may not offer online booking or other features that are necessary for a successful salon. Did you know that according to a study carried out by Zippia in Nov 2022 67% of clients prefer online booking and 40% of bookings are made outside of salon hours? That statistic alone is too significant to ignore as online bookings become more of a necessity than a luxury in order for your Salon to stay competitive. Although free software providers may offer the online booking functionality, there is a high chance they charge per booking made instead and in some cases they charge a high amount per new customer that registers. One free software actually charges a 20% finder’s fee for every new client booking so if they book a £60 treatment, £12 of your hard earned money goes to the software provider.

Secondly, free salon software often comes with outdated technology. This can lead to significant security issues. This could make your software vulnerable to malware and other malicious attacks, which can place customer information at risk. Thus putting you at risk of a GDPR breach leaving you with a hefty fine.  Additionally, outdated software can also be unreliable and unable to keep up with the demands of a busy salon which can lose you customers due to frustration and therefore reduce your profit, not what you need for your up and coming Salon. Free salon software has also proven to lack customer support. This means that if a salon owner runs into any issues with their software, they may be unable to get the help they need in an instance. Without proper support, salons may be unable to troubleshoot problems or update their system as needed. Whereas here at Salon Tracker, we are always on the other end of the phone to assist you with any help you may need instead of waiting days sometimes weeks with free salon software providers.

Finally, free salon software may not be compatible with other software programs and systems. At Salon Tracker, we link with payment provider ‘Payment sense’ and all of our POS hardware meaning that everything is all in one place. Additionally, salons may have difficulty transferring data from one program to another, leading to data loss or other costly issues. While free salon software may seem like a great way to save money, the hidden costs associated with it can add up quickly. Before you decide to go with a free salon software provider, you should carefully consider the features and functionality of the software and ensure that it meets the needs of your Salon. At Salon Tracker, we offer a FREE 2 week Trial and a virtual demonstration of the software with one of our friendly sales team, just give us a call on 0113 350 8230 or enquire through the link below to get started today!

Salon Tracker FREE trial!

Salon Tracker x

Christmas Marketing Tips

It's that time of year again and we know how busy you must be in the festive season. Have you been so busy getting ready for Christmas that you haven't had time to think about your Christmas marketing techniques? No need to stress, we have you covered. We have come up with some great marketing tips and tricks for your Salon this Christmas. 

Christmas competition

Do you want to increase your social media interactions this Christmas? We have a great idea for you, how’s about running a Christmas giveaway. This idea is always fun and easy to do. You could give away prizes such as 20 free minutes on a sunbed for the festive season or a cut and blow dry ready for the annual work party. All you need to do is create a social media post with your chosen prize and get your customers to comment or share on their stories to enter the competition. This Christmas trick is a great way to engage with your customers over Instagram or Facebook whilst still promoting your Salon at Christmas.

Christmas opening hours

We know that Christmas is a busy time of year, and you will be up to your ears in bookings. If your Salon has decided to have extended Christmas opening hours, make sure people know about it. A great way to make people aware of your extended hours is to do a social media post displaying your new Christmas hours. This will ensure that all of your customers are aware of your extended Christmas hours and will help to boost your bookings.  

    Window Display

    A great way to engage your customers and increase the sales of retails products is to create your very own festive window display. A window display is the perfect way to grab your customers attention and create a desire to buy your products for themselves or as presents for others. At Salon Tracker we think the best way to create an engaging Christmas window display is to have a theme. For example, Winter Wonderland or Santa’s workshop. Having a theme will make sure that your display is not overcrowded and keeps your products at the focus of attention.

    Gift vouchers

    Another marketing tip for this Christmas is to use Christmas gift vouchers. If you are wanting to have an offer on this Christmas how’s about using a gift voucher. Creating a gift voucher with festive images on is a great way to entice customers into your salon and make use of your offers. You can post on your social media accounts to make everyone aware of your gift vouchers and get them lining up to book in with you. 

    Christmas countdown loyalty card

    We have a great marketing trick to increase your bookings in the lead up to Christmas. This year how's about creating a loyalty card for the Christmas countdown. This will urge customers to come into your salon repeatedly to claim their free festive reward. We think it would be a great idea to do a 12 days of Christmas loyalty card. For example, the customer would use a sunbed 12 times and get their last session free. This Christmas trick would help to bring up your bookings and will give your customer a Christmas reward for their loyalty. 

    We hope that these Marketing tips will help you in the lead up to this Christmas season. We would love to see your Christmas decorations and displays, just dm us a picture @salontrackersoftware. Here at Salon Tracker, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. 

   Salon Tracker X

How to do Black Friday in the most Cost-Effective Way!

 

Black Friday is fast approaching so normally around this time of year we would be giving our best advice on how you could take full advantage of this event. However, we know that this year because of some external factors such as the cost-of-living crisis, some salons may be struggling to decide whether or not they can afford to do something this year. This is why we decided that in this weeks’ blog we are going to give you some ideas on how you can do Black Friday in the most cost-effective way.

 

Tombola

One thing that you could do in the salon is a tombola. You could charge whatever is reasonable for the prizes that you are giving out. You could include both retail products and either full services or discounted services as prizes. One great thing about doing something like this is that it gives you a way to get rid of some of the stock of the retail products that you have in your salon. By offering services or discounted prices on services, this also gives the customers who win them the opportunity to try new things that they may not have tried before. If they enjoy the service, they may then continue to get booked in for this service which would be beneficial for the salon in the future.

 

Refer a Friend

Another way you can continue to reward your customers is to offer a ‘refer a friend’ deal. This would benefit both you and your customers. It’s great for customers because by just bringing a friend in they could gain a reward such as a free small retail product, a free sunbed session or money off their booking. This would also be great for the salon as by your customers referring a friend, you’re in turn getting a new, hopefully loyal customer.

 

Utilise our Offer!

Running from the 8^th of November to the 8^th of December we have our very own black Friday offer on our software, hardware and SMS packages.

If you’re currently thinking about making the move over to a software management system from a paper based one or are thinking about swapping providers, if you sign up with us before the 8^th of December, we are offering 50% off your first month’s payment on all of our feature packages.

We are also offering up to 15% off all of our hardware. Whether this be because you’re wanting to start fresh with all new hardware, including PC’s, POS hardware, fingerprint readers and signature pads or if you’re just wanting to upgrade some of the equipment you already have, drop us an email detailing what you require, and we can send you over a personal quote.

Finally, the last offer we have on for new and existing customers alike is 15% off all SMS text bundles. These SMS credits can be used for a number of things including: Booking reminders, marketing texts, online booking PIN reset texts and finally our newest feature, payment texts. This means that if a customer is getting booked in in the salon or over the phone and a deposit is required, you can send them an SMS text with Stripe payment link for them to pay their deposit.

If you would like to take advantage of any of these deals or would like any more advice on what you could offer in your salon call us on 0113 350 8230 or email us on info@salontracker.co.uk

 

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Loyalty with Salon Tracker!

 

When it comes to running a successful salon business, customer loyalty and retention is one of the most important factors. The salon market in 2022 is one of the most condensed with a lot of different businesses offering the same services. In this blog we are going to talk about the features that are already implemented in Salon Tracker which can help you encourage your existing customers to keep coming back to your salon rather than opting to have the same services at one of your competitor salons.

Pack Quantities

One feature that is already within Salon Tracker is pack quantities. This feature allows you to sell your services in packs and take payments upfront. This means that customers can buy a bundle of services, often for a reduced price, upfront. By offering this customers can purchase multiple services upfront for cheaper and it will therefore encourage them to stay loyal to your salon. By doing it this way you are also able to take payment upfront meaning there’s no chance of your salon losing out if these customers decide, for whatever reason, to not come back.

 

Marketing

Another way you could encourage your existing customers to stay loyal to your salon is to market to them via text and email. Salon Trackers intelligent marketing suite, which is available on our professional and enterprise packages, can help you do this in the easiest way possible. In our marketing suite you can filter out your customers depending on who you want to send a message to. For example, if you are wanting to thank your most loyal customers from the past three months, you can go to the marketing suite and then select your filter for the ’10 Best Spending Customers in the past three months’. Once you have this list of customers you could send them a message as follows:

‘Congrats, you are one of our top customers this season! As a thank you show this message next time you’re in for £5 off your next booking’

This gives you the opportunity to keep in contact with your customers, encourage them to keep visiting and also reward these loyal customers.

 

Customer Groups

Another way you can use Salon Tracker to reward your loyal customers is to set up customer discount groups. You can set up as many different customer groups as you would like with different discounts on retail products and booking services. One way you can do this is to have different customer groups for silver, gold and platinum customers. You could offer different discounts in each group with the idea that customers can work their way up these groups to get the best discount by being loyal to your salon.

If you would like any more information on any of these things or would like to get booked in for a free demonstration and two-week trial, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with us on 0113 350 8230 or email info@salontracker.co.uk

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Why Building a Brand for your Salon is Important and how to do this!

 The salon industry is one that is continually growing and one important thing all salons should be doing in this day and age is establishing their salons brand. This blog is going to discuss the importance of building a brand for your salon, whether you have one or multiple salons, and will also give you some tips and tricks on how to do this.

Why it’s Important

Standing out from the Crowd

One of the main reasons why all salons should establish their brand is to help their salons stand out from the crowd in what is a highly condensed market. Creating a strong brand identity and putting this out towards potential your audience will help your salon stand out from the crowd and then hopefully drive more customers to choose your salon rather than another in your area.

Helps you connect with your Customers

As well as helping your salon stand out from the crowd and therefore encourage more customers to choose you, building a good brand for your salon also helps  you connect with the customers. Creating a recognisable brand for your salon will help you establish a connection with your customers and help drive things including communication with your customers and help drive brand loyalty from them.

Increase Profit

Your salon having a consistent and recognisable brand will also help drive sales and increase profit. This is because customers will know exactly what to expect when getting a service at  your salon and this consistency will drive them to continuously come back and also recommend your salon to their friends and family.

How to Build a Brand

One of the easiest ways to build your salon brand is to utilise social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to do this. Here are some of the key things that will help you build your brand on these sites.

Consistency

One thing that will help when you’re trying to build your brand using social media is consistency with what you’re doing.  Whether that be consistently posting to your feed or making sure you’re always communicating with your followers. If you’re consistently doing something this will make it easier for your target audience to notice this and will therefore help you start to build your desired brand.

Uniqueness

Another thing that will help you build your brand is to try and base this of something unique about your business. For example, if you’re a family ran salon, base your brand around this. You could do posts about how you decided to open your salon, the process of doing this as a family and also share other family run business related content. This will help set you apart from other salons and therefore mean that more customers will likely choose you over your competitors.

 

If you would like any more information on anything discussed in this blog or if you would like to get booked in for a free demonstration and two week trial of the system please don’t hesitate to give us a call on 0113 350 8230 or email us at info@salontracker.co.uk.

 

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Feature of The Month - Online Deposits

As a Salon Owner is there anything more frustrating that a customer not turning up to their booked appointment? Especially during those busy periods.

Well, that’s where our new Online Deposit feature steps in. It’s the perfect feature for reducing your no-shows and making sure you’re never left out of pocket if a customer doesn’t show for their appointment. Did you know that an estimated £1.2 million is lost each year due to customers not showing up to their hair appointments?

How Does It Work?

Working alongside Stripe we have been able to implement a seamless payment system into our Online Booking, allowing customers to pay with card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Klarna.

Within Salon Tracker you can set the deposit amounts you wish to take, whether this is a percentage of the total value or a flat rate, and these can be different depending on the treatment the customer is booking in for. You can also set a maximum deposit amount; in case the customer is booking in for multiple treatments. 

When the customer makes a booking on your online booking system, it will automatically take them through to the payment screen, and then a confirmation screen of what’s left to pay when they come in for the treatment. Then on your Salon Tracker system the booking will show as the deposit paid and the deposit amount will show on your reports.

Why Should You Implement Deposits?

The main reason is to get those No-Show bookings reduced! If customers are paying a deposit for a booking, they will be a lot less likely to just not show up as they won’t want to lose the money they have already paid. Introducing deposits also shows your customers that booking slots and your
technician's time are valuable, so this can increase the respect from your customers as they won’t want to waste your time.

Taking online deposits can also help to cover your costs in advance, such as the cost of supplies, tools and your employee’s time. Whereas, if you don’t take deposits and the customer doesn’t show for their appointment this could end up being time wasted, as it can be hard to fill last minute appointments.

How do I Get my Online Deposits Set Up?

If you're wanting to introduce online payments into your Salon, all you need is to be setup on our Enterprise Subscription and we can help from there! Our payments are taken through Stripe so these are very secure, all you need is to create a Stripe business account but again we can help guide you through this setup!

If you are interested in getting set up on this please call on 0113 350 8230 or email info@salontracker.co.uk and we will be happy to discuss this with you.

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