{"version":"1.0","provider_name":"Smart Tan News","provider_url":"https:\/\/news.smarttan.com","title":"Knowledge is Power: Study client and sales data to learn how to grow your business - Smart Tan News","type":"rich","width":600,"height":338,"html":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"ooGyOLfZYD\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.smarttan.com\/index.php\/knowledge-power\/\">Knowledge is Power: Study client and sales data to learn how to grow your business<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/news.smarttan.com\/index.php\/knowledge-power\/embed\/#?secret=ooGyOLfZYD\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" title=\"&#8220;Knowledge is Power: Study client and sales data to learn how to grow your business&#8221; &#8212; Smart Tan News\" data-secret=\"ooGyOLfZYD\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\"><\/iframe><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n\/* <![CDATA[ *\/\n\/*! This file is auto-generated *\/\n!function(d,l){\"use strict\";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&\"undefined\"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!\/[^a-zA-Z0-9]\/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),c=new RegExp(\"^https?:$\",\"i\"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display=\"none\";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute(\"style\"),\"height\"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):\"link\"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute(\"src\")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener(\"message\",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll(\"iframe.wp-embedded-content\"),r=0;r<s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute(\"data-secret\"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+=\"#?secret=\"+t,e.setAttribute(\"data-secret\",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:\"ready\",secret:t},\"*\")},!1)))}(window,document);\n\/\/# sourceURL=https:\/\/news.smarttan.com\/wp-includes\/js\/wp-embed.min.js\n\/* ]]> *\/\n<\/script>\n","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/news.smarttan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Data-7-9-21.jpg","thumbnail_width":1360,"thumbnail_height":1000,"description":"One of the greatest assets small businesses possess is adaptability \u2013 the capacity to make beneficial adjustments at a moment\u2019s notice. There are countless ways you can modify your pricing, promotions or sales techniques to make your business more profitable. It\u2019s a lot to think about but, if you\u2019re equipped with the right information, the notion should be more exciting than overwhelming.  By analyzing data on your customers, sales, marketing efforts and more, you can pinpoint the areas where changes are needed and increase the likelihood of your efforts paying off. With the salon management software the majority of salons already have, it\u2019s all right in front of you. If you know what to look for, the data will tell you the whole story of where your business is headed and what you need to do to improve the trajectory.  Basing your decisions on facts, rather than just relying on a hunch or something you expect to work, is the best way to improve your success rate and keep your business continually growing. \u201cSpending the time to analyze transactions, customers, promotions, and packages allows for deployment of new products, promotions, and service offerings without the guesswork of, \u2018Will this work?\u2019\u201d says Fierce Tanning owner Claytin Williams.  When you\u2019re caught up in the hustle and bustle of busy season, there\u2019s not much time to step back and think about the big picture, so now is the time to dig into the data and formulate your strategic plans for the future.  \u201cThe most important thing to do after the season is to review and upgrade the technology your business runs on,\u201d says Tan-Link Account Manager John Toston. \u201cHaving a firm grip on your numbers is the single best thing you can do to get a significant boost in business. You are almost guaranteeing a better return on your investment over any other upgrade you could make.\u201d  You know your business better than anybody, but when you commit to gathering and reviewing data, you will almost certainly pick up on trends and opportunities that you may have missed otherwise.  \u201cThere is so much you can learn from your data\u201d says Jeff Oakes, President of Nichesoft, the developer of TanTrack software. \u201cIt is also very important to collect as much data as possible. The quality of what you get out of your reports is determined by the quality of what you put into the data. If you see a box on a screen, fill it out. There is always a reason for that bit of data that you may not be aware of at that moment.\"  The data these salon software systems provide you on a daily basis is immense, but in searching for the most impactful adjustments you can make, start by considering what the numbers tell you about marketing, pricing and buying options, equipment, products and employee sales performance.  Target Marketing  Some changes will take longer to pay off than others, but right now, the best way to make more money is communicating with your current customer base with targeted promotions. By categorizing your customers based on their purchasing habits, you can improve your text and email marketing by personalizing messaging and offering something you know they\u2019ll be interested in. And, you can also elevate your social and search marketing by breaking down habits by demographics and to refine your targeting for different offers on Facebook, Instagram and Google.  \u201cYour marketing segments and subsequent marketing can be as creative as you are. The simplest ones are segments such as age groups, gender, last visit date, or birthday. Once you have your segments, you can really test out some very targeted marketing campaigns to get people coming in the door. Many of these can be created once and automated,\u201d Oakes says.  To make an immediate impact and build up your off-season sales, the first thing you should do is break your customer list down based on buying habits and identify offers that will drive people into the salon. Texting or emailing offers to specific segments will not only increase your redemption rate, but also allow you to promote more options without overwhelming your entire customer base with too many offers that aren\u2019t likely to interest them or give discounts to people who would be purchasing anyway.  \u201cWe separate into multiple categories: Members, non-members, spray tan customers, UV customers, product customers, etc. We mark accounts ourselves when we think they fit into one specific or multiple categories, and Tan-Link\u2019s filtering allows us to create specific lists of client data quickly,\u201d Williams says. \u201cWhen we are running promotions, we\u2019ll target market the clients that purchased a $10 spray tan over the last 30 days. I might run a three-pack spray tan promo and end a text blast to those customers specifically because it\u2019s a deal they can\u2019t refuse. I can target market my \u2018bargain\u2019 shoppers with promos while still capitalizing on full price sales inside the salon.\u201d  To lock in more recurring revenue, analyze the appropriate reports to tell you how much new memberships and membership upgrades are worth in the long run and consider what you can afford to offer to achieve these results. When you look at the big picture, the long-term value of those conversions probably justifies getting more aggressive with one-time sign-up or upgrade incentives like a free bottle of lotion, free first month with commitment or \u201cbonus bucks\u201d they can use to buy additional upgrades or products.  \u201cFor tanning salons using a tiered membership model, one way is to segment and entice members on the lower level plan to upgrade into the higher membership plan for more value. Also, members who just purchased single sessions or just a package can be segmented and targeted to promote the membership benefits and upsells available only to that segment of customers. The messaging is also more personal, 1-1 than a mass marketing campaign,\u201d Toston says.  For all of your marketing efforts, analyzing the results of your campaigns and adjusting accordingly is the most important factor for long-term success. Most salons report utilizing primarily digital marketing options today, and that\u2019s great for this conversation because those efforts are easiest to track. If you\u2019re paying to promote ads on Facebook, Instagram and Google, you receive detailed analytics that tell you everything you need to know, including how many views, clicks and other interactions you generated. Then, you just need to follow through on the back end and track how many times each ad produced the desired result in the salon.  \u201cAnalytics provide the data necessary for running promotions. Prior to running any type of promotion, I research the history of the salon in the reports to see how our previous promos have gone. Did they sell well? Did the customer see the value in the promo? Did it retain the customer longer? Did the customer ultimately spend more than they would have without the promo?\u201d Williams says.  Your salon software also makes it easy to track redemptions of product or service offers you promoted.  \u201cBesides tracking customers when their account is created and how they heard about the business, Tan-Link also allows coupon codes that can be used in the built-in online store. Those coupon codes are easily trackable to see how many were redeemed to evaluate the success of targeted marketing campaigns.\u201d Toston says.  Since new customers always have to fill out forms on their first visit, it makes it natural and convenient to ask them how they heard about your business. Then, to really make use of that information, you have to consider not just that first sale, but how much you will make from that new client in the future. By looking at the amount the average customer spends per year, you will get the general picture. To get an even better estimate, track your new customers only for a year to see how much they spent. That number will be much lower than the average customer overall but will give you an accurate picture of whether your customer acquisition efforts are paying off.  As Crystal Billings, owner of Island Globe Tan told us: \u201cWe put it on our waiver how they found out about us. If they don\u2019t fill it out, we ask. Every month we pull a list of new clients and how much they spent, and we track them for a year in order to get our final results, average value of a new client, client retention, and return on investment for our marketing dollars spent. What most businesses fail to realize is a new client isn\u2019t just about that first time they come in; it\u2019s the lifetime. We track that for a year so I can have an amount and make smart marketing decisions. I can take those numbers and allocate how much we made off each media source.\u201d  Targeted marketing will make you more money right now, but you should also be using your extra time this summer and fall to consult the appropriate data and formulate your marketing plans for the future.  \u201cThe off-season is also the best time to plan your on-season marketing.\u00a0 Each season you should already be planning and constructing your marketing materials for the next season. It should be locked in and ready to go so you don\u2019t have to think about it last minute,\u201d Oakes says. \u201cThink about every holiday, or local event that might draw customers and be ready to market for it. Even just a monthly marketing e-mail will go a long way.\u201d  Price and Purchasing  Taking time to analyze your overall sales analytics and how you can adjust pricing and purchasing options to benefit both strong and weak points of your business is another vital consideration.  \u201cThere are over 100 reports any owner can run. There\u2019s a lot to look at and analyze to determine whether I\u2019m doing a good job as an owner. The most important ones for me are: memberships approved each month, memberships declined each month, new customers each month and their average spend rate on the first transaction, and average monthly product sales \u2013 how we compare to previous years and what is the total percentage of product sales compared to services. At a minimum, I try to keep product sales around 30 percent of our revenue. If I\u2019m below that mark, then I look at running promotions and targeting clients that haven\u2019t purchased in a while,\u201d Williams says.  By keeping a close eye on his membership data, Williams was able to identify a new option that gave Fierce Tan a major boost in retention and overall membership numbers.  \u201cWhile reporting and daily sales are an important thing to keep an eye on, looking at the bigger picture is where I have been able to capitalize for my salon. The last three years I\u2019ve focused heavily on my customers\u2019 average spend rate per year. I took it a step further last year and looked at our average membership spend rate. I noticed that our memberships weren\u2019t active as many months each year as I had thought they were and that I wanted to figure out how to squeeze a few more dollars out of each one somehow,\u201d Williams says.  \u201cI structured our \u201cflex plan\u201d for just this \u2013 a membership that can\u2019t be frozen but the tans rollover on the customers\u2019 accounts if they aren\u2019t used each month. Now, the customer has value on their account which is why they are less likely to cancel. The $25 price tag was structured around the customers\u2019 average spend rate. While my average EFT transaction each month is over $25, I knew if I could get a customer on a flex plan, their yearly customer spend average was going to be higher than my previous year. The customer is \u2018saving money\u2019 by spending less per month, but in the long run, they are spending more per year on their tanning.\u201d  Memberships are the most important factor for most tanning businesses today, but it\u2019s certainly worth digging into every type of sale, including, sessions, packages and even upgrades. Those little add-on sales might add up to more than you think, and there\u2019s a good chance that you could actually make more by selling more at a lower price.  \u201cI always recommend taking a look at your upgrade pricing and really thinking it through.\u00a0 Sometimes the incremental upgrade pricing is just too broad. Think about the movie theater pricing system. For just $0.50 more you can upgrade to a large. I\u2019m not suggesting you sell upgrades for fifty cents but don\u2019t make the upgrades a large jump either. The data shows that more people will upgrade if the fee is nominal and you\u2019ll end up profiting more in the long run,\u201d Oakes says  Equipment and Products  Another way to identify your most valuable assets as well as areas where you need improvement is by looking at each segment of equipment or products, or even each one individually.  Starting with equipment, you need to know your revenue per room to make important investment and pricing decisions. Before making a major investment, first try to determine if any levels that are struggling could be fixed with adjustments to pricing, marketing or sales strategies. But, in today\u2019s modern tanning market, many successful operators are making the vast majority of their money off their best equipment and most expensive memberships, they\u2019re finding that their base level units are taking up more space than they\u2019re worth and replacing them with premium tanning options.  \u201cTracking the revenue per bed\/room allows you to see deeper in the numbers. Being able to see which beds\/levels are bringing in the most revenue per session allows me to adjust what equipment will be swapped out next,\u201d Williams says  \u201cAfter 12 to 18 months of a decline, it\u2019s probably safe to say that bed or service needs to be modified or adjusted in some way. I run these reports monthly to evaluate if there\u2019s an equipment issue that needs to be modified. Sometimes, and more often than not, it\u2019s a sales factor. I realize that we need to run different promotions or adjust pricing on a package a bit to make it more of an appealing offer. Either way, without the revenue per room reports, I wouldn\u2019t be able to see into these numbers as deeply.\u201d  Moving on to products, examine analytics based on price points as well as individual products. Also look side at the customer side: Segment your customers by how much they spend on individual products as well as product spending for the whole year and also look at preferences between demographics. But if you\u2019re not happy with your product sales overall, the problem is most likely rooted in issues with marketing, sales approach or staff motivation.  \u201cWhen it comes to lotion sales, we always aim to sell them the next step up from where they previously purchased. If you purchased a $80 lotion last week\/year\/month, our goal is to sell you a $90 lotion this time at a minimum,\u201d Williams says. \u201cDiversifying our product promos has been a huge key to increasing our customers\u2019 average spend rate. Customers that don\u2019t average high enough bottle purchases we target with multiple smaller offers: BOGO, half off, packet bundles, or bundles of lotion.  \u201cI evaluate customers\u2019 average spend per year rate, and their average transaction. Each quarter I update these numbers to see how the store is performing. If we are performing well and are above goal, my staff usually gets a hefty bonus. If they are underperforming, I have them focus on the basics: lotion facts, key selling points, and I might look at the promos we have been offering to see if I\u2019ve \u2018shot myself in the foot\u2019 somehow so that I can make adjustments and not do the same thing again.  If you still feel like your underperforming with product sales and just can\u2019t figure out why, keep digging. If your average profitability from product sales members, while considering any product discounts only members receive, is vastly greater than profitability from non-members, your problem is less about products and more about memberships. Focus on selling more memberships and your product sales will increase accordingly. You might even find that discounting memberships or adding incentives will not only lead to more membership, but the product sales you\u2019ll gain alone will more than offset the associated costs.  \u201cTanning salons can quickly evaluate their pricing for product sales by simply looking at the sales volume and the net profit for each product. Product sales are typically a tiny percentage for salons if they are focusing on overall growth. As the main focus for salons should be on membership growth, and the products are just a tool to obtain more memberships and generate additional revenue at the same time,\u201d Toston says.  Staff and Sales  You can also make an instant impact on the bottom line by improving your staff\u2019s sales skills and success. Easier said than done, right? But you know from experience how much better some of your employees are at selling and how much of a difference there can be between the top and bottom performers. You\u2019ll still have to identify the right ways to train and motivate them to succeed, but the first step is to understand if there\u2019s something wrong with your overall approach so you can make pricing or purchasing option changes and communicate with your entire staff about strategic adjustments.  \u201cLooking at just a sliver of data through occasional reports leads to an incomplete understanding of your business's complete sales strategy and results in poor decision making. You cannot monitor a handful of numbers occasionally and expect to see lasting results. You must also see the numbers in the context of previous numbers for a proper comparison and trend,\u201d Toston says.  Next, start to consider each employee individually. You surely have a good idea who\u2019s performing well and who\u2019s not but take a closer look to try to identify how you can help the stragglers. Coaching each staff members individually to improve their problem areas should be more effective than just conveying general sales techniques alone.  \u201cOne of the most commonly used analytics is the Lotions Per Person Average (PPA or LPPA) report. Essentially it will show you how your employees are performing from a sales standpoint that is fair. An employee who works 40 hours per week may sell more than an employee who works just 10 hours per week. But that doesn\u2019t make them the better salesperson. This report will show you how much the employee sales per opportunity. This is a much more accurate way to determine the quality and effort an employee is providing,\u201d Oakes says.  If your employees aren\u2019t steadily improving over time, something needs to change, and the same goes for your business as a whole. If you\u2019re struggling to find new ideas to keep getting better, start digging into the data and you might be surprised what you can learn and accomplish!  &nbsp;  &nbsp;  &nbsp;"}