Ready or Not – Here They Come
12.07.05

Every year at this time you start looking at the possibility of finally biting the bullet and computerizing your salon. You can even recall the same internal battles you’ve had the past few years after carefully weighing out the pros and cons of moving away from your beloved card system. Now just hear me out and promise to continue reading with an open mind before you decide one way or the other, but the lines will begin forming at your counter anytime now so time IS of the essence.

I’m sure you have heard sometime in your lifetime that information is power. When you do decide to tap into the technology world you will find that you now have an abundance of information at your fingertips. Once you have gotten to this point you will finally be able to make decisions based on facts rather than assumptions or the proverbial, “That’s the way I’ve always done it”. No matter if you are interested in sales forecasting, peak busy times by time of day, advertising effectiveness, most popular products or direct mail/email opportunities, you now have a potentially endless supply of data to sort and re-sort through.

More and more successful salons are realizing the monumental benefits of this revelation. As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, the tanning industry is becoming more and more competitive and salon owners need to position themselves to become increasingly more effective in operating their livelihood. The salon on the other side of town would love nothing more than for you to keep your head buried in the sand and struggle through yet another year of sifting through your plethora of file card boxes!

There is an upside for those of you who have been putting off computerizing your salon. Today you have many more choices out there as to what type of platform and feature set you have to choose from, but the downside is that you really have to perform your due diligence before deciding which solution is right for you. Scalability and cost of entry should also be evaluated in addition to the software platform and feature set before plunking down any of your hard earned money.

Never underestimate what real behind the counter retail tanning experience can bring to your software decision. Software manufacturers who have this in their development tool box have a huge advantage since they truly understand how the software needs to operate. Tanning salon software should offer you the flexibility to use as much of or as little of the program as you wish without penalizing you with some sort of ala carte pricing. Equally as important is what kind of technical support you would receive after the “sale”. There is no logical sense in plunking down a wad of cash just to have to pay for technical support issues. Be careful of the shell game that lurks out there. Simple pricing means NO SURPRISES.

The bottom line here is that computer automation needs to be looked at as an investment, not an expense. Hope your ROI has you laughing all the way to the bank!