No architect would think of constructing a building without a blueprint, yet many salon owners today are seeking new clients, introducing new services and planning acquisitions without a clear and defined marketing plan.

Your marketing plan should be comprised of small, interrelated steps that involve everything from the courtesy of your staff and your letterhead design to your company’s image as a storefront, online and in your community. All these items involve marketing and all must be planned, coordinated and evaluated in an overall action-oriented and cost-effective road map.

That road map is the marketing plan that outlines the path your salon will follow to long- term growth and success.

Basically, developing an initial marketing plan can be divided into four steps:

Define your current situation.
Situation analysis is usually the longest portion of the marketing plan. It is a statement of where your business is today and how it got there. It should include all relevant facts about the company’s history, growth, products and services services, sales volume, share of market, competitive status, markets served, past advertising programs, results of marketing research studies, company capabilities, strengths and weaknesses and any other pertinent information.

Marketing requires a clear understanding of what you have to offer, what you want to achieve through marketing and how you are going to communicate to your audiences.

Strategize and write the plan.
Exercise your creativity by setting meaningful goals. Vague directions result in wasted time. Ask yourself how changes will take place. Be specific so you can measure progress. Your plan must include a sensible time table, a realistic program budget and a back-up plan in case the market changes, the economic climate is altered or you find yourself facing new competition. Establish key dates and work backward from them.

A key factor in determining an overall marketing plan for your business is determining the image you want to project to your clients and non-clients. It is helpful to consider:

* What does the local community know about your salon?
* What image do you want to portray in your local community?
* How has your salon’s image changed in the last few years?

Additionally, you must know the position of your salon against the total market. The position is basically what makes your salon unique. Proper positioning can make a positive difference when it is consistent and consciously built in a way the practice is operated. Good positioning will also work well against your competition.

Implement your plan.
After you’ve written your plan, take some time each day to implement a part of it. Assign tasks to staff members and pursue the market with consistency. Implementation means follow through at all points. Here are some ideas on programs that can be put into place with a professionally designed marketing plan:

* Identify key referral sources and target each for new business.
* Publish a periodic newsletter or e-newsletter that includes incentives, discounts and rewards for your clients.
* Create a brochure outlining what your business does and the services offered.
* Establish a permanent public relations presence.
* Design and implement a program for client retention.
* Train new staff members to develop new business.

We all know someone who constantly talks about plans but nothing happens. If you find yourself making a habit of procrastinating, go back to step No. 1 and make sure you’ve written down the right goals. Then go forward and do not give up.

Evaluate your progress.
As your plan takes shape, you may notice that some of your objectives have changed. Do not lock yourself into a result you no longer want. Be open to adjusting your marketing plan to a changing market. A monitoring and evaluation step should be included to track results and make changes as needed.

Conduct monthly or weekly meetings with your staff to review projects, budgets and new business. At the end of each month or quarter, review milestones set in the original plan to be sure you are on track.

Some problems you may run into are lack of coordination, communication, personnel commitment in the business – and time. But remember, these things can be the difference between a workable effort that gets results and a meaningless, unsuccessful plan.

A complete marketing plan is one that is well thought out, uses all staff input and involves upper management and all employees working together to accomplish mutual goals. If all this is accomplished, the plan can be successful in making things happen for your salon.

Article by Coles Marketing Communications.

For more information visit http://colesmarketing.com

It’s a fact that customer service-committed businesses are more profitable, have lower marketing costs, suffer
fewer customer complaints and enjoy more repeat business than those
with little or no commitment to customer satisfaction.

Whether in the smallest town or the largest city,
you are your practice. Everything you say and do impacts your image
positively or negatively. Therefore, everything about you – from
your personal appearance to the way you deal with your customers –
is a billboard that advertises you. Here are some customer
satisfaction tips to help you attain or polish a positive image and
retain valued customers:

Knowledge of the customer

Go straight to the source. Ask your customers what
they want and expect from your business. Learn which details have the
most positive or negative impact on your customers’ satisfaction.

Once you inquire, you’ll find that your
customers will generally evaluate your service quality on the
following factors:

• Reliability: The ability to provide as
  promised, dependably and accurately.

• Responsiveness: Helping customers eagerly and
  in a timely manner.

• Assurance: The competence, trustworthiness
  and courtesy that is shown.

• Follow-through: Paying attention to details
  often ignored.

Reliability

Good customer service does not mean doing the
impossible. The tendency is to promise the customer the moon to cut
off the competition. There’s one problem with this approach: It’s
impossible to deliver the moon. Attempting to achieve the impossible
too often may ultimately result in a service failure. You may wind up
with a customer who doesn’t return or, worse yet, tells others
about their unhappy experience.

Conversely, being reliable puts you in a position
to shape your clients’ expectations to match what you can provide.
It’s in your best interest to educate your customers regarding your
work requirements, timetables and processes. There will be occasions
when circumstances will not allow you to meet a customer’s needs.
If you have dealt reliably with that customer in the past and explain
your situation, along with your unwillingness to disappoint them,
then your customer will know that you have been honest and concerned
about his or her satisfaction.

Responsiveness

Timely response is always important. If your
customer leaves you a message asking for a call back, attempt to
gauge your customer’s urgency so that you can respond to his or her
message appropriately. Dissatisfaction is usually a byproduct of
uncertainty. Be specific on your voice mail as to when you will be
returning calls and give customers an option to reach an assistant or
peer who can help them if you are unavailable.

Assurance

There’s no substitute for competence. Good
customer service is built on attention to detail and customer needs
and knowledge, confidence and know how-how. Good reputations are
built on assurance, the substance that makes your customers believe
you will deliver marketing and industry knowledge, listening skills
and sales and negotiation skills.

Follow through

Send a service evaluation form to your customers.
The information you get from the form will help you gauge your
successes and it will leave your customer feeling as if his or her
future satisfaction is truly your goal. Similarly, a sincere and
timely thank-you note to clients can create a positive impression and
boost your image and to help earn repeat business.

In a world long on hype and short on quality, most
people are willing and eager to share their discovery of good
customer service. Maintaining good customer service is maintaining
your good reputation – the most effective and least costly form of
advertising available.

Indianapolis-based Coles Marketing Communications is a full-service public relations, marketing, communications, Word of Mouth and creative agency. Visit Coles Marketing Communications online at www.colesmarketing.com and www.colesmarketing.com/blog.

Coles Marketing Communications is on Facebook and Twitter: @colesmarketing.

]]> http://yourpartnerintanning.com/focus-on-customer-service/feed/ 0 http://yourpartnerintanning.com/focus-on-customer-service/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/YourPartnerInTanning/~3/XomjoKPzRTk/ http://yourpartnerintanning.com/iarc-risk-difference-1-in-1000/#comments Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:00:57 +0000 admin http://yourpartnerintanning.com/?p=251

A Wilmington News-Journal report published last week best-expressed the weakness of the data used by a World Health Organization working group last summer in a controversial report used to suggest that tanning is on par with cigarettes as a risk. The data suggests that this just isn’t the case.

Click here to read the rest of the article from Smart Tan and The News Journal.

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Think of some commercials you’ve recently seen that promote destinations, like hotels, casinos, theme parks and vacation sites.

They look great, don’t they? High production value and multiple camera angles. Paid models and spokespeople saying carefully crafted marketing messages. They’re all blue skies and green grass, with smiling, active people full of excitement and energy. Their messages scream, “You have to come here.”

The corporations buying and placing these commercials strive to promote their destinations and all of the services, amenities and activities available by visually enticing viewers in hopes of landing their business.

It takes thousands – sometimes hundreds of thousands – of dollars to create some of these commercials. But in a world that’s watching less and less TV but craves more online video content than ever, are these commercials necessary or the most effective way to showcase these destinations?

The answer is, maybe – for them. Corporations with deep pockets can afford to do it all – advertise across a wide spectrum of media, market to every section of consumers, push for earned media through public relations activities and stage a multitude of special events and promotions to build excitement and exposure. So a six-figure expense for a commercial is nothing to them.
But for salon owners looking to advertise as a local destination to look good and feel great, placing a commercial that costs even a couple thousand dollars isn’t practical.

It’s a good thing the top social networking sites are free.

Small businesses are capitalizing more and more on consumer appetite for video content and free social networking sites by posting video clips online, including testimonials, product highlights, consumer news and more.

A very effective way to introduce your salon and its services, amenities and staff is to create a video tour of your salon.

With a simple mouse click, people in your area can listen to what you have to say about your salon while seeing what you have to offer. They can experience your salon without even setting foot in your door. They can make a decision based on your video tour about whether to select your salon as their tanning destination. And they can spread the word about your salon with their comments, sharing links and more.

Creating a video tour is easy – even for people who’ve never been in front of a camera talking or who’ve never filmed such a project. Video tours do take some thought and planning so here are some basing things to keep in mind before filming a video tour of your salon:

Clean and organize your salon. Make things look great. Straighten rugs on the floor, pictures on the walls and lotions on the shelves. Tidy up your front counter. Make sure magazines are picked up and organized on table tops and racks and take down any dated posters or promotional items.

Light things up. Turn on all of your salon’s lighting – and a few colorful tanning beds in the background – to give your salon a vibrant look.

Film when closed. A good video tour will probably have to be filmed when your salon is closed so interruptions are avoided.

Practice. You shouldn’t “script” your video tour but you should practice it. Know what you’re going to say, how you’re going to say it and where you’ll be saying it.

Perform to a crowd. When practicing, let your salon staff hear what you have to say and watch how and where you’re saying things. Let them have input as well.

Find a steady hand. Identify someone on staff or a friend who can adequately operate a video recorder and make sure they also practice what they’ll be filming beforehand.

Be entertaining on film. No one will watch your video tour if it’s not entertaining. Be vibrant and energetic when speaking. Use gestures and expressions. Act and talk just like you would if you had a potential customer walk in and want a tour. Don’t be dry during your video tour.

Show angles. People want to watch video that shows multiple angles, different angles and scenes shot in ways they’re not generally seen. Shoot your video tour from multiple angles – from atop a step ladder or from floor level; from behind the front counter; from inside a tanning bed looking out. Anything you can do to spice up angles in your video tour will definitely catch more eyes.

Think, “No editing.” By practicing and making sure you have a good person on the other side of the video camera, you should be able to film your salon video tour from beginning to end, thus eliminating the need for any type of editing. The key to creating a successful social video is to be real; editing puts a polish on social video that people don’t want. From “record” to “stop,” highlight your salon and talk to your potential customers. That’s what they want.

Be short and sweet. A video tour of your salon shouldn’t take more than two minutes tops. If you have more than that to say and show, create more video clips and post them.

Cater to what your consumers want to see. Face it, you’re in the tanning business and people who will watch your video tour want to see youth, energy – and skin. Consider having someone on staff or a loyal customer apply lotions and tan during your video tour. Your videographer can capture images of this while you’re talking.

Most of all, have fun creating a video tour of your salon. If you’re into it and excited about meeting new people and gaining new customers, that will come across in your video.

Customers rely on you, as a tanning salon owner, and your staff to provide them with the most accurate information regarding their tanning experience.  Here a just few a ideas that can help you keep your clients happy and your employees informed.

1. Never allow the client to dictate tanning exposure times and always advise new tanners on the appropriate exposure schedules.

2. Stay current on industry news and regulations.

3. Know how to handle the media and combat anti-tanning press with positive information.

4. Establish a proactive relationship with the media.

5. Have product and equipment brochures available for your customers and be able to advise them on the best products and equipment choices for their tanning needs.

6. Give your staff regular pop quizzes and samples of products so they can better explain the benefits to customers with first-hand knowledge.

I want you to be aware of a significant victory in Washington State yesterday. Two anti-indoor tanning bills missed a key legislative deadline which in practical terms, kills both bills for this year.

HB 2652, which started as an under 18 ban never made it out of the House Rules Committee. SB 6663, also an under 18 ban, died on the Senate floor calendar when the sponsors couldn’t muster enough votes to pass the bill. HB 2652 was very troubling because it also contained a provision requiring the industry to pay for a public awareness campaign about the risks of UV exposure!

On the local level, special thanks go to Mark Willard of Desert Sun, Scott Swerland of Seattle Sun Tan and Daniel Mann of Tropical Tan for their leadership. I also want to thank Marty Gallagher (SunTan Supply) and Matt Russell (SmartTan) for their help with our successful grassroots campaign.

Unfortunately, because both bills were reported out of committee, we must assume that our opponents will be back next year. And with your continued support, we will be back to oppose them again.

**Please Note: All human activity presents risk, especially if not done in moderation. Please tan responsibly.

SOURCE: The Indoor Tanning Association

Whether it’s through security, EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) processing, or a number of internet-based management tools, the proper software gives tanning salon owners the power to unlock the full potential of their salons. Be sure to consider the following when assessing your software needs:

1. Software should be able to perform theft prevention, detailed reporting, inventory tracking, client data management, appointment scheduling, bed control and lamp-usage tracking; supply marketing information, a complete point-of-sales system, and growth potential; and contain options for Internet integration.

2. Choose a software program that allows you to streamline your needs in order to spend more time focusing on salon operations. A good program also should assist salon operators with salon promotions, pricing, employee security and tanning-regulation enforcement.

3. Choose a software provider focused on product in the indoor tanning industry.

4. Choose a software vendor that provides top-notch service and support with live-operator telephone support 24/7.

5. Assess your needs. Do you need remote access? Do you need to link multiple salons on one system? Do you want real-time access? Do you want the most advanced technology possible?

A tanning bed inside your tanning salon that needs repair or is not functioning is a direct loss of revenue for the salon. Check out these useful tips for keeping your tanning beds in top condition.

1. Be sure to stock small components known to fail every now and then. This will save you from having to lose revenue while waiting for a replacement part to arrive.

2. Learn maintenance basics such as removing the acrylics and replacing lamps and lamp holders. Why pay someone else to do it when you can do it yourself?

3. That said, call the service technician if there is any uncertainty about how to make a repair. A small mistake can create a bigger and more expensive problem. As Ben Franklin said “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.

4. Keep your equipment clean so it runs more efficiently for a longer period of time.

5. Make up a daily, weekly and monthly maintenance sheet and add it to your salon’s procedure handbook. Keep this sheet handy and note the date that each task was completed.

Choosing the right tanning equipment is one of the most important decisions a tanning salon owner will make. By investing in new equipment, you can take advantage of cutting-edge features, ergonomic interiors and eye-appealing exterior designs. Consider the following when selecting new equipment:

1. Choose a vendor that offers a complete line of tanning equipment and backs it with service and tech-support. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and expect real answers.

2. Offer multiple levels of tanning. This allows you to upgrade low-pressure tanners to medium-pressure beds, and your medium-pressure tanners to high-pressure units for a minimal charge.

3. Look for equipment with varied tanning times such as 8-, 10-, 15- and 20-minute exposure schedules. This allows for a staggered customer flow and turnover in tanning rooms.

4. Consider units with appealing features and eye-catching graphics and designs to enhance their marketability.

5. Don’t undercut your profits. You can’t sell upgrades if people are used to getting something for practically nothing. Price on the merits of your equipment and the tanning experience they provide.

Today’s tanning consumer demands high-quality products that are affordably priced. They’re also very savvy and tend to ask a lot of questions before they make an educated purchase. The following are important variables in your retail success as a tanning salon owner:

1. Set a standard for quality at your salon and only purchase those products that meet this standard. Discuss your quality concept with the staff, making sure they understand what you look for in a product.

2. Carry product lines or brands that are familiar to the consumer and have good reputations. Brands are those labels that are easily recognized by the consumer and are manufactured according to the strictest of quality guidelines.

3. Ask your customers the right questions to determine what lotions or skincare products are appropriate to their skin type and what their tanning expectations are.

4. Offer a range of tanning products that will have a wide appeal with your clients, and be sure to train your staff well so they can explain the features, advantages and benefits of all your products. Pass this knowledge on to your staff because their product knowledge will help sell more as well as provide you with feedback in terms of which products are not meeting your quality standard based on client responses.

5. Be confident in the products you are selling. If you’re not, consider changing or dropping lines. If you don’t believe in and stand by what you are selling, you will never be able to increase your retail profits.

6. The closer products are to the point-of-purchase the better. Customers do not want to have to go far to find and purchase something that interests them. Displays of products placed near the point-of-purchase are beneficial because they encourage impulse spending and make it easier for your staff to soft-sell or cross-sell different products. It also makes it easier for your staff to answer questions the customer may have about products.

7. Make your reception sales-oriented. To sell lotions and other retail products, salespeople are needed. Hire customer-oriented, outgoing staff members with a sales background and educate your existing staff on how to sell.

8. Set goals and offer commissions. Sales goals should be established for the salon by month and employee. Break the goal up into weekly and daily amounts. As with any sales goal, the numbers should be reviewed in a salon staff meeting. Review how the goal was reached, why lotions sales are important to the salon, how customers benefit from the right lotion advice and how being an expert builds client confidence (resulting in increased sales) and referrals. Set your prices on the merits of your equipment and the tanning experience they provide.