djgodwin4

This is my first year of owning & operating a tanning salon. I bought all of my beds new and I've been open since Feb. 2010. I had a customer complain about not seeing results from my tanning bed and wanted to know if I could freeze her last month of a tanning package until I change my bulbs in the beds. The bulbs have less than 200 hours on them! This is a blonde fair skinned lady who thinks she needs to get close to being black and absolutely loves to tan. How do you deal with customers like this one?? Any help would be appreciated!!

ekc123

what bed does she use
what lotion does she use
how often does she tan
do you have a meter for your lamps

tan goddess

The best thing to do is ask questions cuz 9 times outta 10, the customer is doing something wrong. You just need to troubleshoot the problem by finding more about the customers tanning routine.

1. Ask customer what tanning lotion she is using.
2. Make sure customer is pulling down the canopy.
3. Is the customer using moisturizer , drinking enough water, using body wash and not bar soap. etc
4. Is the customer on any meds?
etc, etc, etc

Is this the only customer you have had that made this complaint? And no, i would not freeze her account

djgodwin4

She uses our Advantage 400 with lamps at 160w. The lotion that she uses is Goddess, and yes she is the only customer that has complained. She says she has a tanning bed at her house that gets her much darker and tans almost every day, therefore I believe there's another reason that she wants to freeze her account. I'm not sure about the meter for lamps, I have been going by the hour usage on those beds and they are at 187 hours to be exact. Thanks for all the help!

ekc123

she is probably tanning toooo much and her skin is drying out and even though she is using tanning lotion, she may not be using a quality moisturizer (maybe something store bought with mineral oil in it), but sounds like she is tanning more than once a day possibly and has sped up her natural exfoliation (just dried the **** out).

maybe suggest her tanning every other day or every third day and maybe also alternating her lotion. goddess is not a bronzer, so maybe a lotion with a bronzer in it to boost her color too.

you should not go by the hours on the lamps, that is an estimate. the way to truly know when your lamps are decreasing is to have a meter and meter them in intervals so you will KNOW when their performance is decreasing. EX( we buy lamps that are estimated at 800 hours, but by the meter a 25% decrease usually happens between 400-500 hours and then we change them. we usually keep a couple of sets for back ups and will sell to people with home beds for @ $100 as they will work fine for one person/family for a while.

DO NOT freeze her package, she is doing this to herself most likely.

sunsally

The answer is - No.

If she has some minimum number of months (e.g. on an EFT) or if she bought a month or a yearly or something where you don't given any options for freezing then - no.

Honestly - this is a customer you will never please and it is not worth changing your policies to try.

She is testing you to see if you are a pushover. Very nicely explain that the lamps are "rated" for 1000 hours (or whatever) they are barely at 20% of that and they are considered fresh and new by any and all industry standards. Smile nicely and hold your ground.

She will probably stay. But even if she doesn't - no loss.

ekc123

did she buy that tanning lotion from you??? is she a new customer or has she bought multiple packages???

djgodwin4

Thanks so much for all the great advice. The package that she bought was 3 months in the Advantage, not an EFT customer. She also bought her lotion on-line and not from a salon because she can get it a lot cheaper. There's a new tanning salon opening up near her house so I think she's going to try them out and if it doesn't work, then she'll come back to us. She's a customer that's way too obsessed with tanning and I believe you're right, she's tanning too much. Thanks so much for all of the great advice, it's much appreciated.

ekc123

yeah, she just wants to go there and still have time when her package runs out at the other place.

also, let her know that goddess has been around a long time and buying that lotion online there is no telling how old it is.

i hate to say it, but there are a kazillion more just like her and they will eventually find their way to your place!!! Good luck.

MATT A

Hand her a can of black spray paint.