| SUnnie Side Up & Ramcat are right. THese big boy salons lose the customer service and personal feel to a tanning session. They are all about the money, in and out attitude. The smaller salons offer more personal touches. Something like, "how was that vacation last month", "how did your daughter perform in the play last night", "is your eczema getting any better now that you've been tanning?" They may sound stupid out of context, but when you are building a rapport with tanners, they are vital to making small salons survive. Word of mouth spreads that you are the nicest and cleanest salon around, slowly but surely they will come flocking to your doors. If I wouldn't want to be treated like another client in a database so I wouldn't treat our customers that way. Remember names, faces, what type of bed they like, what lotions they like and your business will be better than the big boys.
My hairdresser tells me all the time that she enjoys our salon much better than "XYZ" down the street. We are much cleaner, our place is so much cuter, the girls know what they're talking about and she doesn't have to deal with the rudness at other salons. Big boy salons cheap you in a sense. My hairdresser went to "XYZ" down the street because someone got her a gift card. She had $60 on the card. She purchased a week and a packet of lotion. THe next time she came in, she only had $15 left. IT turns out that the girl working the counter had charged her gift card more money so that she could purchase a lotion. Unbelievable! I wouldn't have even thought that up. Big boys rip you off all around sometimes.
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