The TanWall Blog

Over the past month I have visited dozens of salons, some of which are busy during all business hours and others who are struggling drive more traffic in. The biggest differences I noticed between these two types of salons are cleanliness and a sense of order. Cleanliness is not just cleaning beds between customers. Having an overall clean and orderly appearance creates comfort and security for your consumer.

Having your front reception area clean is the first thing that your consumer notices. It’s important to not have stacks of paper, food, or any other clutter on the front counter. Regularly-emptied trash cans, clean seats, and clean floors are just the beginning.

Your receptionist or other employees eating at the front reception counter or even bringing food into the salon is an extreme no-no. It’s understandable that people have to eat, but the front desk of your salon is not the place to do it. I’ve walked into a salon that smelled like McDonald’s. It’s great if all of your customers like the smell of McDonald’s, but I can guess they don’t like that smell at their local salon.

Your employees’ attire should be consistent and be branded with your salon name. I have visited many salons that let their employees wear what’s comfortable for them and not what’s best for the business. Having a presentable staff who exhibit professionalism is extremely important. As an employer you have the right and responsibility to dictate what your employees look like and wear. Remember that the reception area is where customers create their first impressions.

If you don’t have enough business, start with the simple things first. Have a regimented schedule of cleaning activities for your staff and don’t eat in the salon. Have your staff dress professionally and brand your company always. There is nothing more important than your customers!

Some salon owners we speak to are having a hard time driving additional traffic to their business.  I would like to share with you some ideas to increase the amount of revenue and customers to your salon.

There are several simple ways to drive additional traffic to your salon with little or no money.  In an earlier topic I spoke about understanding your market place.  There are a few ideas that you could push in your community to drive traffic and help the community.

Every community has a college of some sort or another.  All of them are looking for revenue streams to help them gain more money for their schools. First I would like to touch on a school that has a sports program.  If the schools have sports program they may also have a cheerleading squad, booster program, volleyball team, gymnastics program or other ancillary programs to their school. 

You could print coupon books right from your computer and revive them to each of these programs to sell.  In return you would pay them for each coupon sold. In addition, the top producer in sales of these coupons could receive $500.00 toward scholarship money or even an annual pass to your salon for free.

In doing this, there are several angles you can leverage in the media.  The first one would be the school newspaper.  Invite the school newspaper over to interview you on the new program.  This would provide exposure to you and your salon for free. The next step would be a local newspaper, TV station and other news organizations that you have in your town.  When you provide scholarship money for students or even an annual pass it will drive the sales.

Let’s walk through the math real quick.  If you normally charge $40 per month for monthly contract, you would be selling an annual contract for $480 per year. Therefore, you could give the school $5 for each month sold. If they sold an annual subscription they would receive $60.  That is big money for school and if they sold 200 annual subscriptions they would make $12,000 and you would make $84,000.00 in revenue.

In addition to schools, there are many other organizations that could benefit by selling your services to help them make money for themselves and you making even more money. There are some organizations such as Churches, Shiners, Glee clubs, marching bands, Country Clubs, and hundreds of other non profit organizations that could benefit.

During the holiday season, your salon could donate a toy to the toys for tots program for every annual contract in their name. People love to donate and that could provide you the edge to get new customers into your salon.

Remember, there are a million ways to drive business to your salon. The only thing holding you back is execution. That’s it….

This month I’d really like to talk about staying relevant with your consumer.  Most salon owners do stay relevant and some go astray.  When we talk about staying relevant what is that mean?

Staying relevant is, “understanding your customers’ needs and wants” as they happen.  Along with technology your customer’s needs are ever changing. They may or may not be involved with technology or even in the tanning industry but their needs are still changing.

As we’ve seen in recent years communication and technology has certainly changed.  With the addition of twitter, face book and my space just to name a few.  Utilizing and leveraging these to your consumers is extremely important.  Although this might only be 3, 4 or 5% of your customers currently it’s definitely growing.  Start thinking of the ways you can leverage this because it’s not going away.  Sending out specials during your slow times is always a way to pick a business.

As trends and styles change, so should your salon.  Your consumers watch TV listen to radio and follow trends and styles.  Just look at the close they wear, is that he and now?  You need to know what’s in and what’s not.

The neighborhood you reside in is also ever changing.  As the young get old, the neighborhood transitions from young children to teenagers, then from teenagers to adults.  After that you have a retirement community of sorts and smaller customer base.  You need to pay attention to where you’re at in the curve. Not all areas are college towns where the endless flow of college students comes in and out of your salon.

Some things never change; a clean store will never go out of style.  I can’t tell you how many salons I’ve visited that are cluttered and disorganized.  An organized person will notice this right away.  A disorganized person may not notice but is that your core customer?  If you lose one customer to a disorganized and cluttered store you’ve lost too many.

The store’s appearance also has to stay relevant.  I recently visited a store near a college that was decorated with a college logo everywhere.  It was a great looking salon however the school logo had changed since they last updated it.  It appeared to be an old school location instead of having school spirit and part of the community.  This store was certainly not relevant to their customer anymore.

When redesigning your store there are a few designs that never go out of style.  Clean, simple and organized never goes out of style.  Colors may fade in and out and designs may change but clean never will.

One of the keys to marketing a successful business is to simply keep control.  I do not mean doing everything. What I’m trying to say is you should manage or at least keep track of all aspects of your marketing and, furthermore, you should not hesitate to give input where input is needed.

When it comes to marketing, a consistent message is fundamental to a successful business.  Many salon owners find it easier to delegate that responsibility to someone else or to an outside marketing firm.  Not to say any of these solutions are no good, but nobody truly knows or understands your customers, and your business, better than you. In order to sustain a consistent message that follows your business game plan, you must be involved in the focus of your marketing messages, the design of artwork, researching your customers in terms of their likes and dislikes, and continually monitor the progression and success of your marketing campaigns.

Sounds like a lot of work, doesn’t it? That marketing firm is starting to look very appealing, isn’t it? Well, before you pull out your yellow pages or start running an online search, let me give you an example—a scenario—that just might help you understand the importance of control and how to easily maintain it when it comes to marketing your business. Read more…