By Scott Nichols

Busy season is in full swing and before you know, it’s over! All our efforts right now are on the taking care of the customer and maximizing every dollar that comes into the salon, and there is nothing wrong with that, but don’t forget to take every opportunity right now to keep your business strong during the off season.

I want you to take a different look at the busy season – just briefly. I want you to imagine that you are in the month of October, and while in this month, come up with a list you would have done differently this past busy season that would help you now. I know that doing this in April can be a buzz kill and somewhat depressing, but making small changes in your business today could have big impacts later.

If I had to create a list here is what it would look like:

1. Take care of my EFT members. Find ways to have them stay active with you during all twelve months of the year. Once they decided to cancel, it can be difficult to try and save them. I suggest that you look for any type of benefit you can offer them today, when they are still excited about tanning. If you keep them excited, you will keep them tanning, and that is a win-win for both you and your customer. Every member that is kept active is another payment coming in during the off-season.
2. During the back end of the busy season we understand that summer is upon us and it can be difficult to enroll new members. Create a special that makes it almost impossible to turn down. This does not mean you are giving away the store, but it does mean that it is a fair financial arrangement between you and your customer. Free upgrades work great during these times.
3. You must have what I call a rescue program. A rescue program is intended to keep customers loyal to you while not tanning with you. The goal of this is when the customer is ready to start tanning again, they won’t be shopping around and will continue their tanning with you. If they are going to stop tanning with you during the slow season, make sure they come back to you during the busy season.

This list can be important to a salon that is trying to build a successful EFT business during and after the busy season. I would ask that you take the time now to start building your list. After building your list, you will need to have your team on board. Communicate with your managers and/or employees to ensure that they understand what goals you are setting forth (since they are the ones that will be promoting these). Just like your employees promote and educate your customers, you need to do the same when you are presenting these ideas to your staff. They need to understand “why” you want this promoted along with “how” you want this promoted.

Lastly, I would make sure that you follow up with each employee to ensure they are focusing on what you want them to focus on. You may see that you are making progress but always follow through to ensure you are getting the progress you want.

I encourage you to make your list and start working on it today. Work hard at making each item on your list successful, because when busy season is over and slow season is upon us you will be thanking yourself for doing so.