ETS Tanning Bed Blog

Looking Fit tanning community manager Karen Butler writes in her Editor's Blog that a discussion among salon owners on TanToday.com recently revealed that most tanning salon owners are not enamored with the concept of using Twitter as a business tool. There was only a mild interest in linking a salon’s Twitter page to its Facebook account since the latter can be set to automatically update the Twitter feed and thus, kill two birds with one stone.

Are these salon owners missing out on all Twitter has to offer – or is their assessment right on the money, Butler asks? She's looking for your take here by commenting on her blog. You can also visit and engage TanTalk.com's forum on the topic.

For 10 years starting in the mid-1990s, Don Olevnik owned a chain of video rental stores in New York state. A developer approached him to open a new store in a planned strip mall but things didn’t work out as the site was too close to an established Blockbuster.

“So I asked, ‘What about a tanning salon?” Olevnik said. And in 2005, Dark Tan was born.

Today, Dark Tan has five salons with a sixth set to open soon. The first opened in Horseheads in 2005, followed by salons in Geneva that same year, Canandaigua in 2006, Elmira in 2008, Waterloo a year later and Corning earlier this year. The new salon is being built in Watkins Glen.

Entrepreneur Charles Slone started out in the tanning business in 1991 when he bought a failing combination tanning salon-clothing store in Cleveland.

He replaced its existing tanning beds with ETS Tan beds, embarked on a new marketing campaign and quickly turned things around to make things profitable.

Soon, Slone added a second Four Seasons Tanning location.

Today, he owns three Cleveland-area salons and recently finished a major remodeling of his Four Seasons Clifton salon at 11006 Clifton Blvd. The remodeling project included installing 12 new ETS Tan beds, including seven of our new e3 line of tanning beds.

Actions speak louder than words. As a successful tanning salon owner, you value your existing customers and are focused on bringing more customers in your doors. So let your customers know they’re important to you by doing things for them.

Customer appreciation is important to win the hearts of current and new customers. Showing customers that you appreciate them is a much more effective and powerful tool than sending them a letter, e-mail blast or direct-mail piece. A focus on face-to-face, meaningful interchanges between you, your staff and customers can create long-lasting relationships, fun times, great memories and, something important to you, customer retention and growth.

It’s easy to get stuck in the day-to-day business operations of your tanning salon and lose focus on effective customer appreciation strategies. That’s probably not too much fun for you, either. So take a look at these simple customer appreciation tactics that can help you reward your customers, show them that you care about them past the sale and bring a little fun to their lives – and yours.

New from the Federal Register’s June 15 publication: Final and temporary rules and regulations from the Department of the Treasury regarding indoor tanning services, cosmetic services and excise taxes. Read the report at http://www.TanTaxInfo.com.

By Doug Fleener One of the differences between good and extraordinary retail associates is that extraordinary associates use assumptive language. Extraordinary retail associates know that their store is full of wonderful products and that a customer who walks in the door is likely there to shop, not just kill a few minutes. They're not cocky or obnoxious or out to unload products on people who don't need them, they're confident.

Another difference between good and extraordinary is the ability to help the customer visualize owning the product. Visualizing helps the customer to make a purchase, which is one of our primary responsibilities. And last but not least, assumptive language increases their conversion rate. Here are some examples of how to use assumptive language.

On their second of four vacations to Las Vegas last year, Kevin and Shannon Fleming noticed that for such a large city with a huge population, it was odd that no tanning salons were open around the clock.

Back home in Texas, the couple had a membership to a 24-hour gym that had two tanning beds in the back. Due to her work schedule, some days Shannon Fleming couldn’t get to the gym or tan until late at night. “That was such a convenience,” Shannon Fleming said. “We love Las Vegas and knew we wanted to move here, so we put our heads together to develop a good business plan and here we are today.”

Open nearly three weeks, Super Star 24-Hour Tanning is a 1,750-square-foot salon located about four miles off the Vegas strip. Its customer base has grown substantially week by week due to several factors, including special pricing packages offered on Facebook and its uniqueness in offering tanning 24 hours a day. But the biggest lure that has drawn new clients to Super Star 24-Hour Tanning has been the new tanning technology offered inside.

The salon offers 10 new-to-market tanning beds by ETS Tan, the world’s largest manufacturer of tanning beds and tanning equipment. The new e3™ line of beds feature the latest in energy-saving science, ergonomic design principles and eco-friendly lamp configurations. No other salon in Las Vegas offers the new e3 line of tanning beds.