When Melburnians feel the need for a tan top up, it doesn’t matter what time it is, Bare Bronze Studio’s 24/7 contactless spray tan booths have got their back. A 24/7 contactless tanning service wasn’t a brand-new concept for Melbourne, but nobody’s doing it as well, or marketing it as hard as Bare Bronze.
Owner Ardy Eldib recalls, “There were a couple of places in Melbourne offering contactless tans, but when we entered the market it was more common in the Gold Coast and Queensland. And it’s hard to believe, but the Melbourne players weren't very strong with marketing. So, no one really knew about contactless tans here until we came along and started making a noise.
“Then contactless tanning took off. Because people don't want that awkwardness anymore of standing there in front of someone naked being sprayed. Our tanning booths are all automatic. The system prompts you to do some moves and hold some poses, it covers your whole body within four to five minutes, and you're all done, a beautiful contactless tan.”
Access all hours of the day and night
The Bare Bronze crew needed a scheduling system to handle bookings and give customers access all hours of the day and night. Ardy explains why they chose GymMaster.
“We were looking for a scheduling system that would meet our needs for 24/7 bookings and secure access. So, we wanted an easy to use system for our team and customers, that could be integrated into our website. But also, because our tanning salon is contactless 24/7, we needed anyone to be able to just jump online, book and go have a tan, even at three in the morning. So, 24/7 automated access is very important for us.”
“GymMaster had everything we needed, a booking system, a CRM, and lots of accessories all on one system, like pin readers to access each door, along with other cool features like a camera so we can see if someone’s tailgating to get in without paying. We looked at Mindbody as well, but it didn't have the bells and whistles GymMaster has.”
“Where GymMaster is so great for us, is that people get a pin code once they've booked and paid. That code allows customers to enter the premises 30 minutes before their appointment, so they can get ready, apply barrier cream, and all that … and then the pin code gives them access to the tanning room exactly on their appointment time.”
Regular one-on-one training to help configure GymMaster
Ardy explains what it was like getting to grips with GymMaster. “Learning to use the system was pretty straightforward. We got to grips with the backend pretty much instantly. The only thing we needed assistance with was configuring the setting to suit our business. When we signed up, part of the package was regular weekly training for myself and my business partner Raamy to understand GymMaster and get the system how we wanted it to be.”
“Our trainer Holly helped us configure the system to suit our business. It was great working with one person throughout that onboarding period because we didn't have to explain everything again to someone new each week. Holly helped us for many weeks. There was no limit on her support time either which was good because we worked with her a fair few times. Also, Holly was flexible with times. We booked training sessions at eight at night because we own other businesses. Bare Bronze is more of a side thing for us, although it's becoming big.”
“The trickiest thing for us was setting up the system to allow customers to come into the salon half an hour before their appointment while making sure they’re only able to access the tanning room at the time they’ve booked and not one minute before. We need access to be precise, because the tanning rooms are booked out in 20-minute blocks and if someone enters too early, the previous person could be still in there doing their tan. Bit awkward. Don’t want that.”
“But nothing was too tricky because we always knew we had weekly support coming up, and anything we were unsure of we could check in with Holly then. Holly always said, ‘Just play with all the settings, familiarise yourself with the system and have a muck around, because you can't break it. If you do something wrong, we can just undo it when we go through it together’.”
From troubleshooting bookings to an affordable members app
Ardy says, “One great thing about GymMaster is it’s very user friendly. It’s quick and easy to look up a member or troubleshoot bookings for our customers. So, if customers run into an issue at one of the salons, they call us, and it’s easy for us to jump online and sort it out.”
“Something that’s happened a few times is that a customer means to book for 8:00pm, but accidentally books 8:00am. So, they show up at the door and their pin’s not working. They call us, we jump online, have a quick look, and we can see what the issue is there and then.”
“We use our home screen to check on how the business is going. It gives us a lot of info, from current membership numbers to what type of people are signing up, to how many bookings we’ve got coming up, projected revenue and money received. We can view a monthly or weekly breakdown and we can edit the dashboard to customise what data we can view. And we have four salons, so it's easy to toggle through the different sites, and check their numbers.”
“We also use the GymMaster membership app, which a lot of our members use to book. If we were to build an app from scratch, the cost to build and manage that app would be more than we want to spend right now. But GymMaster charged a reasonable one-off fee to rebrand the app Bare Bronze, then an ongoing monthly fee to maintain it, so it makes sense.”
Support that’s spot on whenever you need it
Ardy’s a fan of GymMaster service. “The GymMaster team are very helpful. Even at night their tech support team are on the case. For example, a couple of weeks back, a faulty gatekeeper power cord turned off two of our doors at midnight. So, we called GymMaster tech support and they jumped right on it, troubleshooting with us till they found the error. They narrowed it down to the gatekeeper and then to the actual power cord itself and they put a new power cord in the post for us. We received it two days later, plugged it in and it worked.”
“In summary, GymMaster just really works for our business. From the pin readers to precision scheduling, to 24/7 access, it’s a massive tick for us. And GymMaster have been great with us. The whole team's so friendly and helpful, and everything from the aftersales training to tech support when we need it has been spot on.”
“Finally, despite the name GymMaster, a great thing about the system is that it can cater for many businesses, not just gyms. So, it works for salons or yoga studios or hairdressers, anywhere that takes appointments really, because it’s a powerful scheduling system that’s flexible enough to be configured for almost any business’s needs.”
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