By Matt Russell, Smart Tan CEO

This summer, I met with a salon group that has been using SmartSun Therapy medical grade red light beds in their stores for two years. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss what we’ve all learned about red light therapy services in the tanning salon environment. In the meetings, we discussed everything from customer experiences and feedback, marketable treatments, session and membership pricing, operator and consumer education, and non-salon competition.

After reviewing mountains of information and evaluating everything we’ve experienced in the past two years, a number of revelations came to light. The resounding point being that to truly unlock the full potential of red light therapy in tanning businesses, we need to price, consult, and sell it the way consumers would expect from a medical-grade service provider.

In a professional wellness therapy environment, caregivers provide scientifically supported treatments after carefully evaluating each patient, and then prescribe the appropriate treatment schedule. Sound familiar? For years, Smart Tan professional tanning salon operators have been trained to do just that for our UV services. We ask why our customers are tanning, evaluate the best course to achieve their desired results, and schedule them into the appropriate UV device and spray service, along with recommending additional beneficial products.

But with red light services, I think many of us may have skimped on the training, evaluation, and prescribing sessions program while providing their medical-grade red light therapy treatments. Many of us have become so focused on driving sales and increasing our average EFT ticket that we’ve ignored just how impactful this level of red light therapy can be to our businesses. We didn’t think about how much our existing customers were willing to pay for the service, or about the cost of similar services from other non-tanning salon providers. We just focused on getting the device into our stores, adding a few bucks to our all-inclusive EFTs, and were happy to see our top EFT membership climb.

Now don’t get me wrong – increasing our top-level EFT is a huge win. But did we leave a lot of money on the table? Did we cheapen the perceived value of this medical-grade service? More importantly, did we miss a rare opportunity for our businesses to shed the “tanning salon” stigma that we’ve all suffered from for so many years? Are we missing the opportunity to become serious wellness providers in the eyes of our community? These issues need to be an important part of our planning as we continue to advance our businesses into the future.

Let’s take a look at our own industry’s successes over the past several decades. Our industry began as unsophisticated operators that didn’t know much more about UV light and the skin than a fast-food employee knew about nutrition. In our early years, we got away with that lack of professionalism because tanning was cheap and easy.

Fast forward to today’s sophisticated tanning businesses, and we find professionally certified operators who understand UV light and how the skin tans. We evaluate and prescribe tanning “treatments” utilizing a variety of German-engineered high-end devices that today include UVA, UVB, and red light. And let’s not forget our spray tanning services that include pre-spray, color variations, and after-spray options. Yes, today’s tanning salon is a highly sophisticated operation requiring technical skills that weren’t needed in our early years. Today’s tanning businesses also command solid pricing and memberships that are commensurate with our level of equipment and services.

Thanks to our industry rising to this level, we are able to effectively compete with powerful fitness chains and franchises that have nice equipment at very low prices. Have you ever considered how this is possible? Experience has taught us that most consumers prefer to tan in a professionally trained environment where they can trust their skin is being cared for by someone who knows what they’re doing, and with the best equipment and products available. Consumers trust tanning salons because they understand that we are professional UV providers.

So, how can we become the trusted provider of red light therapy? It’s simple. We need to follow the same path we’ve already taken with our suntanning services. We need to become sophisticated professional red light therapy providers the same way we’ve become the most trusted source for suntanning services.