What to expect from ST @PB!

Only a month away from PB North in Manchester central, the biggest trade show in the north of England! Here’s what to expect from our Salon Management Software for the end of this year.

We’ve recently updated our subscription software which includes some brand new features, desired by some of our wonderful customers. For the show this year, we’ve had a redesign of our stand and we even have a few new faces!

The New Stand

For this PB show we have redone our stand tables and even changed the layout, with a fairly updated theme. We’ve decided to change from our plain black and pink lotus logo, so keep an eye out for our burnt orange counters! We will be demonstrating a number of the products we sell and giving demos on the software throughout the day on request, showing potential customers our new features. This year our stand is E67 so it’s quite central to the show room, we’ll have a number of our team dotted about the stand so don’t hesitate to come over and have a chat!

The New Features

The tech team behind Salon Tracker Software have developed a number of new features

to add on the program in time for the PB show, so here’s a quick rundown of what we’ve recently added in.

One of the latest features we’ve had implemented is ‘Advanced Deposits’. This is for

when bookings are made and you want the customer to leave a deposit with you, to secure their booking and reduce the number of no-shows in your salon. This is very flexible so you can adapt the feature to suit the way that your salon works which is a great benefit. You can either setup the deposit to be a percentage of the overall

treatment cost, where you can add a set minimum or maximum value or you can set a flat-rate deposit for all services. If it is only particular product groups that require a deposit, you can now also set this up easily with our ‘groups’ feature. For example; if you only wanted to take deposits on hair treatments over £50, this is possible.

Another one of the new features is a signature screen which you can advertise your salon on, through a touchscreen tablet! This is similar to our signature pad feature which enables you to obtain your clients signature, this is for purposes such as patch test requirements or written consent to salon disclaimers. However, it also now allows you to display your company branding, logos and gives you the opportunity to advertise any current offers you may be running, all-in-one!

An additional new feature is a settings icon which can be added on to your Calendar Booking Screen. This features allows you to quickly make any staff unavailable for booking on that day and allows you to transfer any bookings on to another column, under another staff member. Using this feature you can also hide all the unavailable staff for that day, expanding the dimensions of your calendar and only showing available staff.

The PB North Offers

This year we have an entirely NEW OFFER on Salon Tracker Software, this will be available from the 21st of October 2018, the weekend of PB North, up until the 16th of November 2018. This end of season offer will include 30% off all hardware and software for the first 3 months of your subscription. These is an exclusive offer and is only available in the given time period, so get signed up before it ends!

If you haven’t already signed up for your free PB North ticket, you can do that here! https://registration.n200.com/survey/3pud1tsgfmxw1?actioncode=NTWO000118SAF
 
We hope you all enjoy this years show, see you there! Salon Tracker x

September Salon Tracker Feature of the Month: Advanced Deposits

Ever get frustrated with people not showing up to appointments, even when you’ve sent them a text-reminder message that it seems that they’ve completely ignored? Do you think that people would react the same if you added a little upfront pre-pay rule to their booking? We’ve enhanced our software by advancing our upfront deposits system, to help you to clamp down on people missing their appointments once and for all. Especially with Peak season, Christmas, being just around the corner, your calendars are going to be booking up fast with festive appointments and so you really don’t have time to waste with no-shows! That’s why for September we’ve chosen ‘Advanced Deposits’ as our feature of the month! So how do our deposits work?

You have a few different options when it comes to setting the rules for your deposits. So, if you want to take a set value amount for every treatment that you offer, we have a simple way of implementing this. Or if you want to do specific percentage deposits for a certain range of treatments; so, for example say that you wanted to just take deposits for all treatments that are over say £50, we can also set this up as a rule for you using our product-group permissions feature. You can also set a flat-rate deposit, or a minimum and maximum value dependent on the price of the treatment, therefore the feature is extremely flexible depending on how you wish to run this in your salon.

Some of the benefits of having a deposit as well as an appointment reminder are:

- If a client has already pre-paid a small percentage of their appointment then they are less likely to cancel a booking that they have already committed money to

- The benefit to you if the client doesn’t show is that you at least retain the value of the deposit to slightly make up for the inconvenience

- It makes the clients remaining amount cheaper when they arrive for their treatment, which some customers deem as a benefit, as this splits the payment up for them making it seem more affordable

- It gives you and your client a better sense of security for their booking, as for you as salon owner you have the confirmation of the deposit and for the client they have the confidence that their booking is secured with a payment.

What package is deposits available on? We are offering this as an inclusion on both our Professional and Enterprise software packages, as they are part of our advanced management tools which are available on both of these software editions.

For more information or for your FREE demo and trial, please call our team on 0113 350 8230, who’d be more than happy to give you a run through of how this feature can benefit your salon this season.

We are also exhibiting at Professional Beauty North next month, where we will be giving live demos of this feature to anyone who wishes to visit our stand! You’ll find us at #E67 across the 2-day event. Not got your ticket yet? Simply head to https://registration.n200.com/survey/3pud1tsgfmxw1?actioncode=NTWO000118SAF to get your FREE ticket to the show with Salon Tracker!

Hope to see you there!

Salon Tracker x

It’s been a year!

And what a year it’s been! I’m sure we’ve had the privilege of speaking to the majority of our clients already but if you haven’t spoken to us yet… we’re Christie and Naomi, part of the sales and marketing team at Salon Tracker, and degree apprentice students!

Naomi started just over a month before Christie, at the start of August, and this tends to be our more off-peak season; which meant that the first few weeks were focused on picking up the ropes and learning all of the aspects to the job. However, since around the time that Christie started it has been none stop (with it being our peak season) so this has lead us to where we want to be, therefore allowing us to progress and develop further. When we first started we both don’t think we really realised how hard it would be to pick up the role of the job and be able to answer a call without having to double-check answers from our manager Nicki. But once we got closer to the end of September, we found that it was much easier to manage clients of our own and new enquiries, without having to hold to find out more information. We then worked up the courage to deal with more difficult tasks and by Christmas we were flying through our day to day responsibilities.

Shortly after we’d both come to grips with the job itself, we both started University in February of this year. We study at Sheffield Hallam University and are completing a Chartered management degree, both due to graduate in 2021! So, a little low-down on the Uni-work life: Our degree is the equivalent to your regular degree, however the only difference is we work full time as well as attending university for 4 days every 8 weeks. In that small 4-day period, a full module is squeezed in and admittedly, at first, taking everything in was a challenge and it can be quite intense. But with a bit of perseverance it became natural and allowed us to return to work with new information fresh on our minds. We’ve even brought ideas back with us that have been put into place at Salon Tracker, showing that the degree is really bringing something to the business! At times it has definitely been a struggle trying to juggle both work-life and our university course-work, and often we will have to come into work early or stay late to make sure we meet our deadlines. But we are dedicated!

In February, Christie attended her first exhibition at the Professional Beauty London show with some of the team. This is where it really tested her knowledge, as she was often speaking to visitors and giving demonstrations on her own; which although it was challenging, it was exciting to meet current customers and potential future clients. In case you didn’t know… we are attending Professional Beauty North in Manchester this October too, we’ll be on stand E67 so make sure you come and give us a visit!

Overall though, the past year has been a very enjoyable one and despite all the things we have already learnt, we are always expanding our knowledge of new things and loving meeting clients (and getting to know our current ones!) We’ve got lots of exciting projects planned for the lead up to the new year so keep tuned, and if you are interested in visiting our stand (E67) at Professional Beauty North; you can get your free tickets here: 

https://registration.n200.com/survey/1pkbrn40glgdr?actioncode=NTWO000075TWK&partner-contact=1uzk9m0whf61y

We hope to hear from you soon!

Christie & Naomi

Feature of the Month - Autumn Marketing with Salon Tracker Software

With summer coming to a halt and the Autumn months fast approaching, you’re all probably tired of hearing the phrase ‘Back to school, back to normality’ but that’s exactly what it is. Here at Salon Tracker, we want to share with you some of our top tips for marketing your Salon effectively this season.

The Autumn season leaves plenty of opportunities for some great campaigns for you to take advantage of in your salon.

Back to School Bundle

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’ hamper containing some of the retail products you may stock would mean you’re making a positive of this otherwise dreaded time of year for many people.

Getting the Message Across

Whilst having these promotions and campaigns is all well and good, you need different ways to get the message out in order to ensure that all your existing clients and possible new clients are aware of it. There are many different avenues you could take when it comes to this.

Social Media

Social media is a great way to advertise your salon and the campaigns you’re running, to ensure that a wide array of people see it. Social media marketing is a great way to reach your current audience and then also broaden it to potential new clients. Using popular hashtags will also increase your income traffic. The best thing about social media marketing is that it is completely free so is possible for every salon owner to take advantage of.

SMS Marketing 

An advantage of this 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 now for your new Autumn look before space runs out!

<<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.

If you would like any more information on our filtered marketing or any of our software features, don’t hesitate to head over to www.salontracker.co.uk or call our office on 0113 350 8230 to book your software demo, our support team are available Monday-Friday from 9am-5am.

You can also trial salon tracker free of charge for a 2-week period. Hope to hear from you soon!

Salon Tracker x

My Glam Camping Essentials

Doesn’t the idea of sleeping under the stars sound enchanting? If you’re not the biggest fan of camping, I might have a suggestion for you…

With August being the prime time for holidays, here is a new blog to give you some of my essentials for having the perfect glamping trip! There are two main types of glamping, the first is bringing along a luxurious tent or campervan which you can make in to your home away from home. The second is there are a number of campsites available throughout Europe which offer various luxury accommodation, more campsites are upgrading their facilities and services to accommodate for the growing amount of happy campers.

So what makes Glamping more appealing than camping? Well first of all the accommodation, wouldn’t you rather spend your week in a spacious 16-ft canvas Tipi tent equipped with zip-able mesh windows, a heavy duty waterproof canvas and a zip-able ground sheet, like this one from Amazon.

Tent - https://amzn.to/2BxV3e0

What also makes it more appealing is the bigger the tent makes more room for a comfortable camping bed. Some of us have learnt the hard way that sleeping outdoors can be uncomfortable, I’d recommend investing in something slightly more pretentious than an off the ground camping bed. Although they would keep you dry if there is sudden torrential rain, I prefer an inflatable double mattress with inflatable pillows.

My next tip to making your trip entirely more comfortable is taking
various extra sleeping bags or even a duvet to build up the layers on your camping bed. Taking extra blankets and cushions to decorate the tent and your bed with will make you feel more at home as campsites can get extremely chilly during the night even in summer, you never know when you might need an extra blanket. It also makes sitting round a campfire at night cosy and more enjoyable.

Portable grill - https://bit.ly/2MFRczO

Another one of my essentials to a Glamping trip and what first time campers might forget about is a light! A typical torch is good enough but if you want to go the extra mile and feel more homely, a nice touch is string lights. A lot of garden stores sell solar powered fairy lights which saves you having to change the batteries after a few days and they look adorable!

If you’re planning on eating while you’re at the campsite I’d recommend investing in a portable grill and BBQ, they are becoming increasingly popular and more affordable. They’re extremely useful, easy to maintain and saves you spending your money in restaurants. Taking plastic dishware and cutlery are also easier to eat meals from and a lot easier to clean. To store your food many camping stores sell large cool boxes, finding one which will charge from your car is really useful or using a solar panel charger.

Shelves - https://bit.ly/2PrhfZU

There’s nothing worse than trying to enjoy your holiday while you’re practically living out of a suitcase! For general storage I’d recommend purchasing a collapsible wardrobe and shelves, there is a variety of sizes to suit your needs. They are really useful when it comes to keeping unworn clothes fresh throughout your trip.

Another tip is to take some comfy glamping chairs or even fold up deck chairs, you will feel the comfort after a long day and it means that you can sit outside and enjoy the last of the sunshine during the evening! Whilst you’re out and about, I’d recommend a waterproof picnic blanket to sit on so you can rest your legs even if the ground may be wet.

Lights - https://bit.ly/2BzCy8L

Here are some extra decorations you could add around your pitch to make it even more glamorous. Some outdoor mental lanterns, you can purchase these usually in bargain stores in the outdoor section, some bunting to hang around the trees and from your tent, I also really like the idea of a welcome matt at the front of the tent to take off any shoes or muddy boots.

Here are a few extra tips and tricks for whilst you’re camping;

⧫ Micro-Fibre quick dry towel, not only does it soak up water extremely quickly but it also dries quickly too.

⧫ Take some extra string or rope to act as a make-shift washing line, useful for drying your wet and sandy beach clothes

⧫ Take some extra hoodies and coats, even in summer the campsite might get chilly and its really useful if you need to get out of the tent during the night

We hope you have a lovely time camping and find this blog useful, just in time for Bank Holiday! 

Salon Tracker x

Have you discovered this product yet?!

So, I think you’ll all agree that it has been an outstanding Summer so far. Record breaking temperatures for weeks on end with very little rain in sight… however; sadly, we are coming to the end and soon the woolly scarves and hats will be coming out as we forget what the heat on our skins felt like.

No doubt, you will have caught a tan, whether that was done with safe use of a sunbed or just spending time outdoors - my guess is that you’ll want to keep that tan as long as possible.

Well this product is great for that and has many other benefits too!

Pro Tan Perfectly Pink Daily Moisturiser with Hemp Seed Extract 

Pro Tan Perfectly Pink Daily
Moisturiser with hemp seed extract

I first discovered this product at Professional Beauty London 2018 and since then have refused to use any other moisturiser, bought from the show at a bargain of just £6, I’d say it was my best find yet!

This find comes in a handy bottle making application quick and hassle free. It has a pump lid, squirting out just the right amount meaning there is no waste. The one I purchase is a 650ml bottle however it comes in 3 different sizes making it convenient for everyone. These include a small 59ml bottle – ideal for short-breaks or a tester, the 650ml bottle – ideal for home and a gallon top-up bottle which can work out cheaper if you love this product as much as I do!

Although hemp extract has many benefits for us, it doesn’t have the pleasantest of smells alone… yet this formula smells amazing and I receive many compliments from friends and family once I have applied it. On-top of this, it isn’t sticky at all and leaves no residue, giving your skin a silky soft long-lasting feel without all the hassle.

The only con of this Moisturiser is that on the 650ml bottle, the pump function is great for easy use at home however you cannot lock the lid and stop the liquid coming out if you wanted to take it away with you. It would be handy if it came with 2 different lids – a pump and a screw one so it is portable. Alternatively, purchase the small 59ml bottle which can be refilled or buy an empty bottle to put the lotion in.

Not only is it an amazing product, it is sold at an amazing price! From different suppliers, it ranges at around £8-15 for the 650ml bottle and lucky for you, I’ve included a link where you can buy it from at just £8.39 (including VAT) from Beauty Express. On top of that, they’re currently offering 20% off your first order with the code NEW18! Head to - https://www.beautyexpress.co.uk/tanning/tanning-accelerators/pro-tan-perfectly-pink-daily-moisture-650ml/135597.html

Or… you could come visit us at the Professional Beauty North show 2018 on 21st-22nd of October in Manchester Central and grab one of these ‘must-haves’ whilst you’re there. Bonus fact – we will also be holding great offers at the show so don’t miss out - Click the link below to register for exclusive free entry!

https://registration.n200.com/survey/3pud1tsgfmxw1?actioncode=NTWO000118SAF

I hope you find this lotion as life-changing as I do, and I hope to see you all at the show - just over two months to go! 

Salon Tracker x 

Top 10 Tips To Enhance Your Salon's Social Strategy!

Social media should be your number 1 marketing and communication platform for the salon; as according to Statista, "over 2.62 billion people are users of social media world-wide, with around 2169 million people having an active Facebook account alone." It is therefore imperative that your business has a social media profile, as if not you could be missing out on a HUGE market! However, it doesn’t just take you having a business profile to ensure that your networks are seen. You then have to use your social media tools wisely, in order for you to ensure maximum engagement and post reach to the online market. So, here are our top 10 tips to make sure your social strategy improves your business and brand awareness.

No 1: Always have a current profile photo, cover photo and bio

Your profile photo and cover photo are the first things that people see so it’s important that these are updated throughout the year. Initially so that it is clear to your customers which brand you are, however also so that these are refreshed in relation to certain time frames throughout the year. Therefore, at Christmas or around Valentine’s day for example, you may wish to theme your photos in line with this.

No 2: Keep your profile up to date and consistently post 

It’s so important that when people go on your social media profile they can see that you are active consistently and that your profile information is current. This can even be down to your contact information being correct if you have recently moved, or got a new website address. However, it’s also important that your content is relatable to existing happenings and on-goings, to keep things interesting and also for extra engagement.

No.3: Don’t just post for the sake of it, have a clear strategy and message 

This can be everyone’s biggest mistake, not really knowing what to post so just putting something up anyway. There’s nothing worse than someone being able to tell that your social media is ‘forced’. However, we all know what it’s like when you have those days where you need some inspiration as for what to post and you get a bit lost with your social strategy. Our best advice for this would be to have regular meetings with your employees regarding your social message, maybe every fortnight? Just so you are all on the same page with the messages that you are wanting to relay to your followers and the content that you wish to create. This way you won’t end up off-track.

No 4: Post at optimum times 

A very important indicator in how well your post is received can be to do with the time that you schedule the post for. Apparently, for Instagram, according to the Huffington Post, "the best time to post is 2am and 5pm, with the best day to post being Wednesday!" So, depending which social media networks work best for you, it is probably a good idea for you to do a little bit of research in to the optimum posting times for your chosen social channel in the geographic location in which you are based, to ensure that you get maximum exposure.


No 5: Shake up your content

Another common slip-up, posting too much of the same thing. Going back to where we mentioned having regular social media reviews and creating a strategy, this way you’ll have constant checks in place that makes sure you’re not posting the same types of content too many times. Also, mix up your posts by sharing different types of material, for example images, videos, live streams, quotes etc.


No 6: Use common and popular #hashtags

The next tool to maximum exposure after optimum posting times is by using key hashtag’s, in order to ensure that your post reaches a wider audience. The message of your post will depend on which hashtags are good to use. If you do a search on sites such as oberlo.co.uk or makeuseof.com, these all share good insights in to popular hashtags. If you go on Instagram and Twitter themselves, their home pages also show you the main hashtags that are trending at that time, for you to get-involved and also jump on the bandwagon with those!


No 7: Paid advertising? 

As the saying goes, you pay for what you get! In which there are a lot of paid advertising methods that you can use on social media in order for your brand to be seen by a wider audience. Since Facebook and Instagram collaborated, you can now create adverts through Facebook’s ad-manager and these same ads will then be optimised for your Instagram feed, so that they are also shared on their main feed. You can pick your daily budget, meaning you can literally try out Facebook ads for as low as $5 per day. You can then also target specific age ranges and demographics, making the ad as relevant as possible to your business and the audience in which you are looking to target.


No 8: Seek reviews

Like many of us do check-ups on review sites before we book a holiday, hotel or even perhaps a restaurant; many people do a similar search on businesses before they actually use their services. And with Facebook now being the new social google, you want as much positive exposure on your social networks as possible, to promote the possibility of new clients when they are doing their mini check-up on you. So, it is important to try and collect as many reviews from clients as possible, in which you can use social media in which to do so. Why not create a competition to get the review process going? So, for every client that gives you a review they are then automatically entered in to a competition with the chance to win a prize (of your choice)?


No 9: Promote these testimonials (image on twitter to catch people’s eye) 

Once you’ve got some positive feedback, you then have some great social media content! As long as you have your clients’ permission to share their reviews (in which if they’ve posted this on a public facing site you will have); you can then share your success stories with your followers! Word of mouth and real-life experiences are the best types of advertising and so use this to maximise your exposure further.


No.10: Finally, be personal.

Last but not least, personal social media posts are the most relatable with your fan-base. And by this we don’t mean share your life story, however give your brand a personality! Think of it this way, your team are creating your social media content. Therefore, there is a professional person behind each of your posts and so if your content comes across in a certain way; as if your clients are speaking to that person face-to-face, then you are more likely to receive some engagement. This is simply because your brand seems more approachable and because your followers can further relate to these types of posts.


We hope we’ve helped you to continue your social media growth and hope you have fun using a few of our tips! If you feel you need a little bit more help, our marketing team is always on hand to answer all of your questions; simply contact them on 0113 350 8230.


Salon Tracker x