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Old 10-29-2006, 01:55 PM   #1 (permalink)
 
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employees and the internet!

One of my new girls is about to be on shift by herself until the middle shift (myself) comes on in the middle of the day. I am concerned about her playing around on myspace, etc. when she could be reviewing lotions and her tour.
The problem is... we're a Planet Beach and our database has to be online 24/7. We also use PC Charge which is internet based. How can I effectivelly block certain sites without messing up programs that need the internet?
No myspace, facebook, online banking, abercrombie.. etc!!!

Thanks a bunch!
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Old 10-30-2006, 02:35 PM   #2 (permalink)
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Re: employees and the internet!

I dont know about where your from, but I live in one of the hottest employee and housing markets in the world right now.

Currently housing prices have risen 200%+ in two years. What was a 150K house is now a 400K house. And noooooobody can keep people working for them here. Two years ago, if you worked in a lumber yard, you made 10 dollars an hour to start. Right now, Mcdonalds is starting people @ 12, and about 2 hours north of here, they are starting at 18 DOLLARS AN HOUR! And that 2 1/2 hour drive north, the trailers in trailer parks are worth a quarter million. Its alberta's oilpatch.

My salon is in West Edmonton Mall, where the turnovers are extremely high because theres 900 stores here, plus waterparks, amusement parks, theatres, hotels, night clubs, mini-golf courses, etc. Theres so many places in this mall to work that at any point in time, theres 26-28 thousand people working under one roof. Almost all the staff are girls under the age of 20, and the wages are pretty much the same everywhere you go in this mall. 8-10 dollars an hour. I pay my girls between 8 and 8.35.

My salon has done fairly well financially, this month was the only month I have lost money since the day I opened. But I pulled more money out this month due to switch jobs, my fault.

The internet has been my saving grace, theres only so much you can ram down a 17 year old girls throat about lotions and salon tours. My girls know what they can sell, and how they are able to sell it. Honestly, our customers dont care whether its got quad bronzer, bronzer 5000XX+.... Tingle,Hot Action, or Sizzle, Stritivan, French Wine Extracts, or Thinmax ingredients.

If they say to a customer, in friendly language, this is Spellbound, its a great lotion, I love the smell cuz its like an expensive perfume, not some fruity concoction. It makes my skin feel like butter, all the models seem to love this stuff, and its got a quadruple bronzer so your building a base tan under the immediate results of a great bronzer. I really like it cuz its low maintenance too, it doesnt make your hands all orange like some of those other bronzers, just buy a sample packet, and if you like it I'll apply what you paid for the packet against the bottle if you buy it today.

Most of the time they make the sale, there was no reviewing of the lotion binder thats collected dust, and the tours are simple. My girls just go around, and explain the few simple differences between myself and the competiton (rather than talking wattage, bulb numbers, etc) and it sells itself. The valuation of my business is that I am in the only Tanning Salon in this mall, and one of few in this area with high wattage standups and laydowns with facial tanners.

So whats to make my staff stay here and keep selling memberships, and lotions, and keep from leaving so I can spend more time at my job, with my girlfriend, out partying in the nightclubs 6 days a week like I have been for the last 8 months? The internet.

I occasionally have to come in and take away the internet when the salons dirty or sales are down, and a few days without it and they find the natural balance between keeping me happy, and them enjoying their job.

My girls sit on the internet, chat on MSN, listen to the lastest songs they downloaded on limewire, blast busta rhymes out the stereos, visit nexopia and myspace all day long, sell lotions because they love their job and want to keep it cuz theres nowhere else they can make the same money they are making as all the clothing stores etc, where they can get away with this much. They clean the salon because they know that if I dont hear anything about a dirty salon, I wont bother COMING to the salon to take the internet. They serve the customers well because as long as I get my text @ 10:00 pm with a cashout thats over their daily quota, and I keep signing 1-3 members a day, I wont bug them.

Id rather have my friends mystery shop, and have to come in here once a month and cut off internet for a few days, and spend an hour or two, or 80 bucks on a computer tech here and there to fix downloaded stuff, then have to sit here TRYING to stop her, constantly training new staff and getting bugged about raises and whatnot because they need some kind of 'PERK' to pick one job over the other... that perk is freedom to play on the internet.

The golden rule in Gold'N Tan is

Sales and Customer Service have to be up high, if sales are down and theres no customers, it better F***ing be clean here (I dont censor it for my staff.. adds effect) and if its clean, sales are high, and customers are happy, blow the speakers and chat on the internet and text message on your phones all day for all I care....

Its worked well and I have only had one person quit in 8 1/2 months and it was because she had to go back to school. Ive never had to fire anyone, and hiring has always been super easy. The girls know I have 6 resumes, half of them friends of theirs, in my desk at any point in time.

adam

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Old 10-30-2006, 02:40 PM   #3 (permalink)
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Re: employees and the internet!

If I were to allow internet use I would only allow it on a computer that is not a part of my store POS system.
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Old 10-30-2006, 03:38 PM   #4 (permalink)
 
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Re: employees and the internet!

This has been addressed here before, here's a link to what works for me

Blocking employee internet access?
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Old 10-30-2006, 04:06 PM   #5 (permalink)
 
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Re: employees and the internet!

Adam I agree with you for the most part. We have what we call blackout times. Basically if we are busy then the internet is not permitted. I don't agree with you on limewire however. You are in effect telling your employees while working for you it is OK to steal. I purchased two online accounts for my employees to use for their music... Rhapsody and Music Match both. For us it's worth the $99 a year to not worry about being sued for copyright issues. Not that I agree with the RIAA at all. It's also an employee benefit, they can download music to their mp3's players at no cost or risk. Also you probably do this already but check often to make sure file sharing is turned off. :)
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Old 10-30-2006, 05:00 PM   #6 (permalink)
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Re: employees and the internet!

No internet usage by employees period. Saves on having all kinds of problems.
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Old 10-30-2006, 07:02 PM   #7 (permalink)
 
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Re: employees and the internet!

Ditto ^^ Had an employee who had a penpal in Sweden she was e-mailing all the time, my computer got infected with a virus and crashed and I could not open the shop for 2 days. Now, no more internet!
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Old 10-30-2006, 07:18 PM   #8 (permalink)
 
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Re: employees and the internet!

Well in my case they can have internet mainly because that is my line of work before the tanning salon and still is. I fix computers, network computers, do websites, graphics, digital photography, software repair, hardware repair, virus repair and video. Not to mention endless beta testing experience (14 yrs). I know our computers inside out and don't have worries of viruses.
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Old 10-31-2006, 10:59 AM   #9 (permalink)
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Re: employees and the internet!

Eileen, that's different then. LOL...I hope I didn't give Doug any ideas @ Rusty's.

We used to allow some internet usage but we ended up having problems so we decided it was just best to block all access to it. If employees having internet access works for you and your salon, there's no reason for them not to have it. It just works better for us this way.
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Old 10-31-2006, 11:08 AM   #10 (permalink)
 
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Re: employees and the internet!

Internet Explorer, Tools, Internet Options, Content, Click Enable...This allows you to give them sites only you approve and require a password so that it can be accessible to you or your manager.

NO INTERNET! That creates even more drama!
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