ETS Tanning Bed Blog

Last time, we discussed how to get members to upgrade to the next level of membership in your tanning salon by increasing the value of each level of membership , offering additional upgrades, additional passes, and even giving commissions or bonuses to your staffers who sell them.

So what are some other ideas to improve the value of membership, and get those revenue-generating upgrades?

When you get to Level 3 membership, the benefits should be about the prestige of being members, rather than saving/spending money. That is, when does a bigger discount on a bottle of lotion become just another gimmick? A tanner who has three different bottles of lotion won't be as jazzed by a fourth.

Customers who feel extra special will be extra loyal. They'll become raving fans who become your unpaid sales force because they're telling their friends about your salon. Your Level 2 and Level 3 members may end up being some of your best forms of advertising, so make them want to tell their friends about your salon. The best way to do that is to offer special benefits and programs that only the higher level members can get.

Improving the Value of Membership

Here are a few ideas other salon owners have used to add value to the upper levels of their membership. If you have any of your own, add them to the comments section.

• Offer a wine and cheese night for Level 3 members. Put a price on it. Let Level 1 and 2 members come, but they have to pay for the price.
• Offer a text club. Send texts about specials out in reverse order. Level 3 gets the first round, Level 2 gets the next, and so on.
• Open up during special hours that only Level 3 members can take advantage of.
• Create a referral program. Give rewards to people who refer new customers to your salon.
• Give extra gifts like iTunes or Starbucks gift cards.
• Offer free access to special equipment like the Rejuvasun bed.

Last time, we discussed how to get occasional customers to become members of your tanning salon by bundling services together, adding some discounts, and throwing in things like Free Friday Bed Upgrades or Free Friday Friends and Family passes. This will get the occasional customers to become members, and increase your cash flow.

But what do you do for the people who are already members, and you want to get them to bump up to the next level?

Getting Them to Move Up

In our last example, we were charging $20 a month for a customer to become a member. They were given unlimited tanning on the Level 1 beds, got discounts on tanning lotions, and one free upgrade and pass per month.

To get them to move to Level 2, $35 per month, give them unlimited tanning on the Level 1 and 2 beds. Give them bigger discounts -- say 15% -- on tanning lotions and teeth whitening services. Give them an extra Free Friday Friend & Family pass each month (remember, these are potential customers who are visiting your salon for the first time).

Level 3 could include unlimited tanning in any bed of their choice, a free bottle of lotion, a free teeth whitening session, and special Level 3 members-only events. (We'll discuss some of those next time.) Some salons even throw in free uses of their Rejuvasun beds . (We'll talk about the benefits of Rejuvasun beds for salon owners soon.)

Show Them the Money

After a while, explaining all of this can be rather difficult, and hard to keep straight. Build a menu board that shows the three or four different levels of membership. Divide it into as 3 or 4 columns, and show them what they get for each membership.

Your board can include number of visits, levels of beds available, lotion discounts, free passes, and even special events (more on that next time). Make sure you show them the value of each membership level, as well as the cost.

Finally, be sure to train your staff to sell the value of the membership to the customers, and the value of upgrades to your members. Offer your staff incentives and commissions for selling memberships and upgrades. Their success means success for you. Reward them accordingly.

Next time, we'll discuss some different bonuses you can add to your different membership levels.

Are you running a membership program now? What are some things you offer your members? Leave us a comment or ask a question. We might even turn it into a blog post.

Membership has its privileges.

Or so says the famous slogan. The question though is how to show the value of membership in your tanning salon to help you grow business and sales. And it's not as bad or difficult as it seems.

A tanning salon without members is like a Web site without visitors, a stadium without people, or a meatloaf without the meat: pointless. And having just a few dozen members, while nice, just won't do. To improve membership, you need to increase exposure, and do some work. It can be done without spending a lot of money on advertising or marketing. All it takes is some creativity and having a solid plan.

For the next three blog posts, we'll give you some ideas on increasing the value of your membership, including Getting Them to Join, Getting Them to Move Up, and Improving the Value of Salon Membership.

Getting Them to Join

Owning a tanning salon is no different than a country club, buying club, or movie theater. If you are going to give people a value, you need to offer them an incentive to join. Take some of your services and bundle a few of them. Sell this bundle to your customers as the membership so it becomes even more valuable.

For example, if you normally charge $7 for a single tanning session, and the customer only visits once a month, offer a membership of $20 per month for unlimited visits on Level 1 tanning beds. The client is now free to visit whenever they want. Not only are they getting an increased value for their membership (which comes in the savings after they visit that third time), they're going to keep coming back because they've paid for it. This gets them into the habit of coming, and continuing their membership, which increases cash flow. (Of course, this also means they're using more tanning lotion, which you'll also sell them.)

The benefit to you is that $20 per month will nearly triple your cash flow for that once-a-month tanner, and you'll turn a sometimes-tanner into a regular. The benefit to the customer is that they start seeing the extra benefits of tanning.

But don't just increase tanning frequency and call it a package. Create some more value. Add discounts on a couple items like a 10% discount on tanning lotion and teeth whitening. Give away a Free Friday upgrade per month to the next level bed, or a Free Friday pass for friends and family.

Now, instead of just getting extra tans, they're getting additional value, and the membership makes a lot more sense. The customer sees he or she will get all kinds of great benefits and will sign up to be a member, because for just three times their original amount ($7), they're getting more than three times the value.

Next time, we'll talk about how to move members up from Level 1 to Level 2 or Level 3 by increasing the value of each membership level.