Tommie

Bronze,

It seems that you have answered your own questions then. "If it's not broken, why fix it" .... That's exactly right!

What works for some may not work as well for others. If your operations are running smoothly and you, your team and clientele are all pleased with the way things are, then I would say... Stick to it!

-Tommie-

SLI-HOT

I want to revive this discussion.

Tangirl - any input since taking over your new place?

Is there a compromise? Appointments for VIP's only? - either by unlimited packages or EFT members?

We have 6 base beds, 1 12 min upgrade, and 2 7 min upgrades.

My wife and I are on opposite sides of this fence. We need INPUT!

Bartman

pam

Thanks for reviving this! I so-o-o hate the phone & appointments during busy season. I need a plan but going no appointments scares me. There is another salon in town that is no appointment. We have gotten alot of their customers because the wait is so long. They have 4 base beds in a large beauty salon. Normally, with appointments we have no wait but I do have a lot of unused bed time each hour due to beginning tanners and no-shows.
Does anybody do walk-ins for part of your base beds and appointments for others? I said during last busy season that I didn't want to go thru that again. Also, how far in advance do you let people make appointments?
Pam

Teresa

No appointments here!!!! Cannot imagine the phone ringing off of the wall, people running late, wanting to change their time, blah, blah, blah.....I would go stir crazy(ok,ok crazier). We have 17, 14 & 14 units in our salons, walkins only. Works great, we tan 350 people per day during season and the most anyone ever has to wait is 5-10 min., that can even happen with appointments.

BooBop

Pam, A lot of it depends on how many tanning units you have. I don't think I could have pulled it off when I only had 5 beds. I notice you have 7 units in your profile. Not sure if that would be enough to cover you with no appts.

Oh, one thing you may want to try is keeping one bed open for walkins. This way you always have a space available that is not tied up by an appt. ???
_________________
Barkin with the Big Dog since April 2002
Mitzi
[ This Message was edited by: Mitzi on 2002-07-17 16:26 ]

pam

Thanks, Mitzi. Keeping one bed open for walk-ins seems like a good way to bridge the gap for awhile while we test the waters of no appointments. I might even try to free up 2. There are people in our clientele who are very schedule oriented who would freak out at no appointments (at least until we could show them that they don't have to wait).
Pam

Wizard

After viewing your previous posts, it really doesn't surprise me to hear you still take appts.
All you can seem to talk about is how hard it is on YOU, having to answer the phone.
Think about the incredable inconvenience this is to your clients.
1. They either HAVE to remember to make an appt. on their way out of a session.
2. Have to wake up at 6am or so and call your store to make an appt. b4 someone else does (not fair to people who sleep late like me)
3. Then they have to remember their appt.
Now, after all that BS, you want to charge them for missing.
This is supposed to be a luxury.
How luxurious does all this sound?
Make an appt. to see your doctor, NOT TO TAN!!!

Wizard

Oh yeah,
By the way, if you have the problem of TOO MANY people trying to tan, and don't want to spend any of that $$$ on growing.
Call me, I'd love to take that problem off your hands.

BooBop

Come on Mr. Max, don't be to hard on her. I was scared to death changing from appts. to no appts. In my town everyone does appts. Sometimes change is hard to do. Fortunately for me, it was the right move. My clients love the freedom.

Pam you can start now and work your way through it before the next peak season starts. This will give you a feel of how your clients are responding to the "freedom"

pam

Thanks for the encouragement Mitzi. Mr Max sounds like something crawled up his %@# and died.

Pam