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Computer Essentials For Modern Salon Operations

by Scott Eric Barrett

Few moments in life feel as comfortable as spending time with a good friend. For more than 1,000 years, dogs have nuzzled their snouts into our hearts and deservedly earned the title of human's best friend. This may sound sacrilegious to millions of dog lovers out there, but let's face it, if a salon operator has a best friend these days-- it's obviously the computer.

Computers have a long history of loyal friendship. From the time that Charles Babbage began working on his analytical engine in 1833 to the world's first computer company, the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation in 1946, to the unveiling of Microsoft Windows in 1985, computers have helped businesses run faster, smoother and more professionally--indoor tanning included.

Brad Salley, owner of two Super Tan salons (www.getasupertan.com) in Lubbock, Texas, says one of the most important benefits computers offer salon operators is improved record keeping.

"Texas is a regulated state, and some of the salons around here that have been inspected and did not have computers were treated pretty harshly by the inspectors," he says. "Inspectors, as well as customers, don't respect the choice not to keep good records. Computer records not only keep your salon's documents in order, they also show you a customer's tendencies and their tan history so an operator is able to give them a better tan without burning them."

Salley's computer system files a tanner's name, date of birth, Social Security number and everything else he needs to know to personally contact them.

"It's nice because we instantly know which tanning package they have without having to sift through a filing system," he says. "That saves time and time equals money; everybody knows that. If you're not computerized, you are losing money; it's that simple."

Tony Toepfer, president of Helios Software in Aurora, Ill., believes running a salon without computers is virtually impossible.

"Computers are absolutely essential to the success of your operation," he says. "You can never be successful without utilizing computers. You'll never even catch your breath."

Joseph Smith, software development manager for San Francisco-based QDM Co., Inc., agrees. He says computers are a must, not only for the traditional reasons like employee theft control, but they also give operators the ability to offer competitive package deals and promotions of equal and better value than their competitors.

"In an increasingly competitive market, it is more important to focus on customer-retention, which requires the reporting power of good computer software--to let you see which clients represent your core base and measure your efforts to maintain their loyalty," Smith says.

Sound like a no-brainer?

Yes, but despite all of the benefits, some salon operators still try and convince themselves that they provide efficient and well-rounded service through the use of client cards. While this method has proven itself over time, client-card access is not the most expedient way to provide customers--or yourself--with information. Factor in a long line of traffic at a salon during the peak-tanning season and manual recordkeeping quickly can add up to customer frustration.

"Using client cards is fine if you're not too busy and you have a high level of trust in your employees," Smith says. "However, at some point you will need to weigh out the value of software from a purely financial standpoint. At any level of business, the relatively low cost of computers, software and timers easily can be made up with increased efficiency. If growth is your goal, the choice to use computers--or not--will be a major determining factor as to whether you succeed or not. For most operators, salon software is a must."

Ed Chaney, owner of the metropolitan Phoenix-based franchise and chain Sunchain, says client cards are good for accountability because they will never go away.

"It takes a fire to get rid of those things!" he says. "Your card box is not going to crash, but it does take a little longer to sift through. Client cards are not very costly and very little employee training is required. After this, client cards go downhill. You get no trend analysis of your customers. You have penmanship issues, lost cards and the storage necessity for client cards. As the store gets older it increasingly becomes more and more of an issue. I have used them so I know."

Despite all the hassles associated with using client cards, Super Tan's Salley believes operators shun computers because of the expense and their fears.

"Some salon operators think they won't be able to grasp the technology, while others frown at the cost of the computer software, which is anywhere from $700 and up," he says. "It will cost an operator $2,000 for a printer and computer, so you are looking at a $2,700 investment. Let's face it, a lot of salon operators aren't even willing to spend $3,000 on a new bed, let alone a computer. They just don't understand how computers will relate to their sales."

According to Helios' Toepfer, the initial expense will save operators in the long run. "The No. 1 problem in indoor tanning is not education or anything else that people talk about. It's employee theft. Period," he says. "In the United States, the average company loses 16 percent of its gross revenue to employee theft every year. Three out of five businesses fail in the first five years because of employee theft. If you are going out of business, it doesn't matter if you're burning your customers or not tanning them because you have bad beds. It's like worrying about the temperature of the water when you're drowning."

The fear factor should be obsolete because before anyone goes into business in the 21st century he or she has to acknowledge that we live in an electronic society. Nearly three-quarters of your customers log onto the Internet regularly, so when a salon operator pulls out a card for a customer to fill out, the customer automatically concludes that without a computer, your salon is outdated.

Most experts trace modern computing back to the Colossus and Harvard Mk I (both from 1943). Colossus was an electronic computer built in Britain at the end 1943 and designed to crack the German coding system. The Harvard Mk I was a more general-purpose electro-mechanical programmable computer built at Harvard University with backing from IBM. These computers were among the first of the 'first generation' of computers.

First-generation computers normally were based around wired circuits containing vacuum valves and they used punched cards as the main (non-volatile) storage medium. Another general-purpose computer of this era was the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) which was completed in 1946. The ENIAC weighed 30 tons, contained 18,000 electronic valves, consumed around 25kw of electrical power and cost about $3 million. So, back then, fear was justified.

Hardware/Software Solutions

Once an operator decides to join the 21st century, he or she needs to purchase a computer with a 30- or 40-megabyte hard drive to do the job. Ideally, the processor needs to be 500 megahertz or more, which gives operators plenty of room to grow.

Approximately every three years, operators should look at updating their operating system. Upgrading hardware allows users to benefit from increased memory and a faster processor due to the expanded hard drive in most systems. In addition, it also can provide salon operators with an advantage through heightened productivity, such as the ability to process their clients faster and easier.

"One of the most important requirements is a method for backing up your system--everyday," Chaney says. "If you lose your data it can take up to six months just to recover two weeks of information."

Of course, no matter how much an operator spends, a computer is useless without quality software to operate it.

"Most competing salon software programs have the same basic features," says QDM's Smith. "However, if a salon has, or foresees, a need for networking or multiple-salon use, the operator should find software designed for that purpose. He or she should also look at the company providing the software. Is that company going to be around for the long haul? What is its position in the tanning industry? What level of support can you expect?"

Steve Doty, executive vice president of research and development for Sun Ergoline in Jonesboro, Ark. agrees.

"I think salon operators need a reliable media to be able to network salons together and to be able to share data and share the actual packages and things that the other salons have," he says. "It's hard because a lot of the software programs are written and based on single salons running multiple computers."

Michael Chunn, CEO and co-founder of Huntsville, Ala.-based Solarsoft says linking salons is a tough problem to solve because you need to establish a path of communication between the stores, which typically has been an expensive infrastructure to put together. If an operator tries to do it by utilizing a wide area network where he is serving one application between all of his stores, then he could have a big problem. If the server--or even the pathway to the server is down--all of the stores are down.

"You almost have to have a technical person on staff to be able to solve any kind of server problems that may pop up," he says. "Our approach with SalonNet is that most operators can't afford to have a technical support person on staff or they can't afford to put the infrastructure in place for the wide area network."

He says SalonNet synchronizes the data based on a schedule--typically that schedule might be once a night. So every night the software dials up, it talks to all the salons and shares information between each store.

"If I tanned at one store on Saturday, I could tan at any of that operator's other stores on Sunday and that operator would know how long I tanned the previous day and whether I purchased a lotion. You just provide better service because all of your stores are like one," he adds.

Salley's SuperTan stores take computer technology even farther. Each salon has dual video cards that allow them to take anything off the Internet--such as the company's Web site--and put it on their TV screens in the stores.

"Our screens always display some type of image like a new bed we might purchase in the future or a particular lotion we sell," he says. "Customers love it, and it generates more income. All of our screens are flat-panel touch screens. They don't take up any space whatsoever. You want your counter space. At some facilities the monitor is a monster because it takes up all the counter space and it looks hideous. If you just park your computer at the front counter, great. We choose not to do that. We choose to make it work for us. There are no limitations to what you can do other than what's in your mind."

Chunn says operators that decide to computerize their salon will love the results because the best software is so user friendly that you really don't have to use it.

"Once you set our software up, you pretty much leave it alone because it is not like a POS software," he says. "Software should be like air-filters. Once you turn them on, you shouldn't have to do anything until they quit working."

A "Web" of Solutions

According to DomainStats.com, more than 35 million domains had been registered through December 2000. More than half of the U.S. adult population used the Internet last year, and about 16 million new users ventured online, according to one study. In addition, nearly three-quarters of children ages 12 to 17 have Internet access, says the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which has been tracking Internet usage and habits since March. The study says the online adult population has reached 56 percent, totaling 104 million adults.

Basically, the Internet is huge for business and recognition.

Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web when he saw the need for a global information exchange that would allow physicists to collaborate on research (he was working at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Switzerland, at the time).

The Web was a result of the integration of hypertext and the Internet. The Web started as a text-only interface, but NCSA Mosaic later presented a graphical interface for it and its popularity exploded as it became accessible to the novice user. This explosion started in earnest during 1993--a year in which Web traffic over the Internet increased by 300,000 percent--and it is still booming today.

A study published in Advertising Age revealed that despite the turmoil in the Internet ad industry, overall online advertising grew 5 percent from December 2000 to January 2001. The top three sites, AOL, Yahoo and ESPN drew in revenues of $92.6 million, $54.5 million and $39.8 million, respectively.

Most of the major lotion and equipment manufacturers and distributors have Web sites that provide salon operators with information on their products as well as the ability to order and purchase products online.

Lonn Dugan, president of BIG Design, an e-marketing company and Webmaster for SunTanning.com in Temperance, Mich., says a Web site lets the salon operators share their sales story in photographic color. There is no printing or postage. It makes the salon look more "with the times."

A Web site with a list server and list management page lets members subscribe to an e-mail mailing list--or unsubscribe--without the need for human intervention. The salon can then e-mail customers notices about salon specials, new equipment arrivals, customer appreciation days, changes in hours, etc., without spending money on printing and postage. Salon newsletters created in Microsoft Word or Microsoft Publisher can be put online at almost no charge. Over time, these add up until they create a substantial knowledge base.

Another benefit to having Internet access is that salon operators are able to research vendors or companies selling products of interest to them. They also can check out new equipment or products, discover what models are available, and communicate with other salon operators who have purchased goods from vendors with whom they are considering doing business.

"Our Web site has been a tremendous tool for people who want to check us out before they visit," says Super Tan's Salley. "We launched our site three months before our store even opened in September 1999 at a price of roughly $2,400. I felt we got a pretty good deal. We have had 14 signups from our Web site so far this year. Fourteen doesn't sound like a lot, but that's 14 people who may not have come into the store. It's very convenient. I wouldn't trade my Web site for anything. It's a tool. It's a way for people to reach you. Computers just equal money; it's as simple as that. They can make every area of your business more profitable because you have that information at your fingertips."

Dugan says a simple Web presence site can be launched by doing it yourself in as little as a single day if you have company logos, art, photos and text already arranged from previous print documents. On the other hand, a good Web site takes at least a week or two of after-hours work, and as much as a month or more.

Once the basics are in place, it is tempting to add multimedia, more photos, logos, dynamic or FLASH content. Microsoft Publisher and Microsoft Front Page are the programs that are easiest for beginners to use to create their own sites. These are the ones that might let you get a Web site up quickly. It is especially fast if you choose one of the ready-made templates from these design programs. He says your site will not be as unique as a custom site, but it is a fast start option. Front Page lets you change colors or images in their templates so they do not look as much like the ones others might have used.

"For a truly professional and custom Web site, hiring a designer is highly recommended," he says. "Once the basic design is in place, the salon operators can use Frontpage or other software to copy pages and change words and pictures as needed."

Experts agree that most operators find their Web site is never truly finished. It is not uncommon for a salon operator to put more than 100 hours into the project in the first few months.

Dugan says if an operator decides to hire a professional, the operator should allow one week to get materials together and another week or two for site development. Many professionals are booked up for two to six weeks in advance. This can be turned into an advantage as it gives the salon operator extra time to think about what the site should include.

In terms of site design, it is important to keep page load time under 10 seconds as people will tend to click off and not wait for gorgeous but slow pages to load. There is a fine balance between art and functionality.

"When we quote Web sites, we invariably find that budget is the most important factor, and that the salon operators do not really know what they want or even what is possible," he says. "About three-quarters of the way through the project, the client knows more about what they want, but the budget is largely expended on early prototypes."

He says the best results come from the salons that plan the site themselves, assemble art and text in advance, and establish clear artistic guidelines early in the process. It is easier to change a template before 10 pages are made than later in the process. Interactive sections are fun and retain visitors. Message boards, polls and feedback forms that allow customers and prospects to ask questions are all good examples of interactive pages. Dynamic HTML (DHTML) elements like rollover buttons give a site a more sophisticated look.

With time and money, operators can create some pretty amazing Web-based projects. Two years ago, Fitness Heaven, Inc., a health and fitness company based in Signal Hill, Calif., launched a dynamic, one-stop health, fitness and wellness Web site that takes a holistic approach to personal well-being.

"We've made a pointed effort to provide content on FitnessHeaven.com that is not only authoritative and helpful, but engaging and entertaining," says Paris Roussos, Fitness Heaven's vision development and integration director. "In addition to building and providing an ever-growing reference library, we constantly are commissioning and gathering studies, articles and reports from our pool of hundreds of 'passionate experts,' doctors and scientists. Their contributions allow us to refresh the site's content regularly, even hourly in some cases."

Regarding the Web's future, QDM's Smith says small changes will include easier-to-use and easier-to-install devices, such as printers. For salon software, the big improvements will be in multi-salon capabilities. Also, as the use of the Internet becomes more ubiquitous, customers will expect things like the ability to check on bed availability from their cell phone or PDA, or to sign up for a tanning session from a salon's Web site.

"If recent history is any indicator, no one knows what the future might hold," he says. "However, you can be assured that we are constantly keeping our eyes open for new technologies to improve salon operations."

Whatever direction computers take, salon owners should embrace the technology.

E-mail: Cheap, Easy and Profitable

According to the American Heritage Book of English Usage, one of e-mail's chief virtues is that it is asynchronous--information can be exchanged without the participants having to interact at the same time.

Eliminating the need to communicate in "real time" speeds up the flow of information by overcoming two of the drawbacks of the telephone: a customer never gets a busy signal when he sends an e-mail and never finds himself playing "telephone tag" with someone who happens to be out of the office.

Another advantage of e-mail is its speed. In seconds, users can send messages and documents across time zones. Operators can respond to messages from customers in seconds as well. The speed of e-mail allows people to work at great distances from each other and still communicate effectively. It lets people telecommute, giving them more flexibility in their schedules and sparing them the distractions that gobble up so much of the work day in an office.

Another benefit of communicating by computer is its versatility, allowing operators to communicate in a multitude of forms, from one-on-one personal communication to corporate memos and electronic distribution lists. Being able to contact large numbers of people with a single act represents an enormous increase in efficiency. Operators no longer have to print and photocopy a document and then see that it is hand-delivered to the individuals on a mailing list. With e-mail, operators can distribute a document to any number of people instantaneously with the click of a mouse.

E-mail can be a more democratic way of holding a discussion than the face-to-face meeting. It eliminates the visual trappings of social status and position that are apparent to everyone in a face-to-face meeting and it allows people at various levels in an organization to participate as equals in a discussion.

People at higher levels are less able to dominate a discussion. For this reason, ideas that are proposed on a computer network tend to be evaluated on their merits more than their origin. Moreover, because discussions tend to focus on the question at hand, there is less opportunity for social posturing and other forms of unproductive "talk" than in face-to-face meetings.

The final advantage of e-mail is psychological. It can nurture a sense of connectedness and commitment in people who see that they are actively involved in a discussion, whether with family members, friends, strangers who share certain interests, or co-workers.

"We collect people's e-mail addresses as they join," says Michael Chunn, CEO and co-founder of Huntsville Ala.-based Solarsoft. "That allows us to e-mail them current specials and it doesn't cost us anything. E-mail is perfect, but you have to be careful not to abuse it. You don't want to send your customers specials everyday. E-mail must be utilized intelligently."

In addition, salon operators can create coupons on their Web site that customers can print out on their printer at home and then bring into the salon for discounts on products or services. One idea is for salon operators to offer a monthly special exclusive to their Internet customers.

Chunn says Solarsoft does a lot of electronic funds transfer, roughly 80 percent of its clientele monthly. He says the companies that handle a lot of monthly charges electronically easily could send their tanners an e-mail statement telling them that they processed their account or to let them know if their credit card was declined.

"It's just a nice touch," he says. "We haven't done a lot of that but there is so much that can be done. Over the years it will be more commonplace in the tanning industry."

Electronic mail is sent using an e-mail program that can be acquired for nothing or next to nothing. Currently, there are a number of programs available including free setups from Internet Explorer's Outlook Express, Netscape Messenger and Eudora Lite.

In addition, for the sake of convenience and compatibility, it makes great sense to use the e-mail program included with your favorite browser. However, make the right choice early. Once customers know your e-mail address you don't want to change it, plus, if you do switch companies, most e-mail programs make it difficult to export your address list to a competing e-mail program.