6 Ways to Keep Tanners Coming Back to Your Tanning Beds

Here are 6 key strategies that you can use to bring tanners back into your tanning beds more often. Remember, your repeat and returning clients are your business’s bread and butter, so use these strategies wisely to not only get them coming back, but also spending more at every visit.

1. Communicate with your customers.
Communicating with your customers doesn’t mean sending them a mass email, it means building a personal relationship with each of them.

Start by learning everyone’s name.
If a customer tries a new lotion, call them in a few days to see how they liked it.
If a customer upgrades to a new tanning bed , follow up with an email asking about the results.

Basically, start communicating with your customers on a truly personal level.

2. Acknowledge your customers and make them feel special.
Keep your tanning bed users coming back by acknowledging them and making them feel special. A great way to do this is to host a special event around the holidays, put on an open house or treat your best customers to free samples of lotions, tanning bed sessions, etc.

3. Create and sell long-term buying programs.
You should already have monthly membership scheme for your tanning beds, but do you have:

A Tanning Product of the Month Club?
Do you offer discounts on tanning package "refills" or multiple tanning lotion purchases?
What about varying tanning membership levels?

These are all programs you can create to get your customers buying more over the long term.

4. Use price incentives to lure clients into trying new services.
Let’s say you just got a new Velocity tanning bed in, but no one’s trying it (hard to believe that would happen, I know!). Instead of letting that new bed sit empty, try offering your clients one free upgrade or a discounted rate on the new bed. That kind of price incentive could convince a client to try the new tanning bed and stick with it at the higher price.

5. Develop a range of products you can sell.
Stop and ask yourself:

“What other services or products could I be offering my existing customers?”

The goal of this exercise isn’t to flood your business with non-applicable offerings, but to focus on what could fit into your existing product line.

For example, one tanning salon owner I know noticed that the bulk of her new clients came in because they were planning a vacation and wanted to get a base tan. So, she started stocking small travel accessories that were functional and chic. She saw a major return on her investment.

6. Promote other businesses.
We’ve talked about cross-promotion before, but it’s definitely worth mentioning again. Just as your own client list is valuable, so are those of fellow businesses. Develop a relationship with a complimentary business like a nail salon, cosmetic dentist or local gym and start trading referrals.