Dave McKinnon, Sunbreak Tanning

Founded on the principles of a luxury experience, excellent customer service and convenience, Sunbreak Tanning has enjoyed over seven years of success in Ancaster, Ontario. Dave’s attention to consistency and sales have created an enjoyable environment for employees and customers alike.

Q: How do you motivate your employees?

A: Most of it is just through common sense rules. They have to earn their privileges here. Employees don’t get free tanning automatically — after a three-month probationary period, whether or not they get free tanning is based on their sales average. Otherwise it is half-price for employees, since it is important that they are tan. I also have our employees mystery shopped. Mystery shoppers go through a checklist, and I meet with the staff afterward to discuss their performance. It ensures that they remember processes; it’s easy to get complacent.

Q: What does your salon do to ensure the comfort of customers?

A: We establish value through proper salon tours that make our clients feel at home. In those two minutes before we talk about prices, we can show them that we have superbeds that reduce tan time by 40 per cent, putting more value in their minute package. If I walk clients through the salon, seeing is believing, so they know what they are getting when we ask for their money.

People have busy schedules, and not everyone has money for an extravagant holiday. Some people come in for the vitamin D, the colour or some other reason. We have to be aware of those reasons and not just throw a service at them.

We also took candy out of the service rooms. Once, we heard someone choking on it and it’s not easy to get into a locked room!