I wish I would have written this post at the very moment that I thought of the idea because I was a lot more passionate about the situation while it was going on. Instead now I’m sitting here writing this on a beautiful cloudy day (EJ loves cloudy days), instead of being all annoyed and pissed off I have a giant smile on my face. I hope your smiling too, it’s good for you.
Anyway, those of you that don’t currently subscribe to my rss feed or connect with me via my Facebook Fan Page most likely don’t have a clue who I am or why I would be writing about indoor tanning salon software. Basically I am what many people would consider somewhat of a Blogging CEO, long before I started this blog my wife and I opened our first Extreme Tan and Smoothies indoor tanning salon location in Largo Florida. Extreme Tan and Smoothies is now a family owned and operated chain of six tanning salons in Florida, 750,000+ tanners consider Extreme Tan and Smoothies the best tanning salon, of course I do too.
Now that everyone is caught up to speed, let’s get down to the issue.
Salon Touch Tanning Salon Software
Salon Touch is a tanning salon software and POS provider that is widely used by tanning salon owners worldwide to process transactions, EFT transactions, track inventory and business. Honestly Salon Touch is packed with all kinds of excellent features, I haven’t used any other salon software programs so there’s really no way for me to compare Salon Touch features to another salon software companies features. Salon Touch gets the job done at all six of our locations when it comes to the reports we need operate and maintain multiple tanning salons.
I typically try to avoid writing reviews or in this case rants about experiences with tech support or any other phone support for that matter, it’s been played out time and time again on the internet. Everyone knows that calling for any kind of support from any widely used company it typically sucks, Salon Touch is no different.
One of the main reasons I decided to write about the tech support experiences with Salon Touch was the fact that the issue is a VERY consistent issue that you can count on pretty much every single time you call Salon Touch tech support. Now the tech support staff currently at Salon Touch is very good at resolving issues and getting things back in line when one of the salons goes down or there is a database error, the problem comes long before actually reaching tech support representatives.
The wait time when you call Salon Touch is unreal, and when I say unreal it really is just…. unreal. In recent months it seems like every time I walk in to one of our salon locations one of our associates is on hold with Salon Touch. Even worse, when I ask them how long they have been on hold for the answer is almost always the same, “Almost an hour, it shouldn’t be much longer now.” I’m sorry but that’s just ridiculous.
Two days ago when I requested the graphics for this post I was in the middle of working on some web promotions for our indoor tanning blog, for the entire 1hr and 40mins that I worked on that project I had the pleasure of listening to my business manager complain about being on hold. Yes, 1hr 45 mins. Now for the best part, she was at “Que position 1″!!! How the hell does it take an 1hr and 45 mins to get to someone sitting in Que position 1?
I know that this endless wait time for tech support at Salon Touch won’t work during the tanning season, not to mention if I am paying associates at six different locations to spend hours on the phone waiting for support help from Salon Touch then what the hell is the $999 monthly support bill for? Shouldn’t Salon Touch be paying the hefty payroll bill that comes along with paying associates to hang out on the phone for an hour every time they call?
If you currently own and operate indoor tanning salons I would be curious to see if you have the same frustrating tech support issues with Salon Touch or any other tanning salon POS provider that you might use, take a moment to leave a comment and share your thoughts.
P.s. Salon Touch really is a good software package, it would be nice if they could implement some new features for online integration through your company website and certainly it would be great if they would get some social networking and media features built in to the program as well. The fact is they need to fix the tech support issues FIRST.
Cole Stan (2)
KyAus @ Those.Tips (2)
SafariDave (2)
{ 38 comments… read them below or add one }
lol, in line as #1 for almost 2 hours? I guess somebody in tech support went for lunch and lost track of time
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@Klaus @ TechPatio, daily.
Thank you so much for writing this! Maybe someone will take notice and do something to fix the situation. It is seriously ridiculous how long you have to wait for assistance on something that usually takes about 5minutes for them to fix. Last Friday my combined total of time on the phone with them clocked at 2 hours. And that doesn’t include the time another associate spent on the phone in the a.m. trying to resolve it.
But you are right, once you get through, they are awesome. They fix things and go above and beyond. It’s just trying to get them…..
And yes, queue postion 1 does mean “your approx wait time will be 45 min”
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@Stiletto Sports Jen, it’s long over due.
Wow! $999 a MONTH? For that they should have someone come to your business in 20 minutes or less and fix the issue.
We were paying $450 a month for our tech support when I worked for the YMCA which I thought was a bit excessive, but they always responded much more quickly than I would have expected.
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@Anne, if the support was top notch get through right away, instantly fixed then I wouldn’t even mention the $999 it would be worth it to know everything is running the way it should all the time.
We have tremendous databases that need constant maintenance so I can understand the fee to a degree, just not when I’m throwing away thousands of dollars on payroll for someone to sit on the phone and listen to the same recording 80 times.
@Extreme John, They should implement a system like some companies [I can't remember who does this] where they take your information and give you estimated time to expect a call back. This saves your person from being on the phone, but still keeps you in line for support.
@Anne, that sounds good in theory but even when you leave a message….. which we did today. Never received a call back.
WOW
Did they provide a tube of
lubrication jelly
with the invoice each month.
Is this a case of a Monopoly or why aren’t
you switching to another software program.
@safaridave, I can probably put together a list of 10 reasons we haven’t switched yet. If things don’t improve and another tanning salon software/pos system has the same features and more options I would imagine the switch wouldn’t come long after season.
Another big factor would be the ability to port the databases and then of course there is the training factor, 35-50 associates in six different locations. No small task for any small business.
Sounds like Mild John is in full effect. Extreme John would’ve dropped them like a bad habit a long time ago.
@Mike @DailyShotOfCoffee, more like wise John. Six years of data is a tremendous amount to consider moving, especially before any tanning season.
just curious? do you use the fingerprint system with salon touch as well? We use them and ALWAYS have long wait times on the tech support as well.
@Charity, we used the fingerprint system for a short period of time, overall it annoyed customers and created more issues and privacy concerns then anything else.
Just curious, but do you use their fingerprint system as well? We have salon touch and have the same problems with their tech support as well, you always know you are going to be on the phone waiting for atleast an hour.
WOW awesome post. I really could not agree with you more on this issue. Anytime there is a technical issue at work and the issue has to be resolved by calling salon touch tech, i dread it. I know that I will have to sit on hold (with no music so i don’t even know I am still on hold every few minutes a recording says thanking you for calling the next available tech support moment will be with you in the order they recieved calls) for AT LEAST 25 min. It’s very frustrating to be on hold for such a long time!! Once I finally get through and off hold, the problem has been in my experience a very quick, fast, and easy process to fix! If problems are fixed so quickly (which is a good thing, NOT COMPLAINING ON THAT!) then WHY do we have to sit on hold for anywhere from 25 min to an hour each time?!
@Nicole, that’s the real kicker is the fact that the issue is usually resolved within minutes, all though I might have a follow up post to this in regards to another issue.
im very glad to see someone got quick service!
one thing that has deffinatly annoyed me is that i def. have not had very quick nice service nine times out of ten its always an issue. quick story…..
so my salon touch has been down since last sat. hmm (because theres no weekend support!) which i believe they never really had in the first place so im glad they dont pretend to any more.good thing ive been working on salon touch for 4 years now so i dug threw the computer found a way to bring up salon touch live and set it up to get us threw the weekend which sucked because ity completely backed us up anytime we tried to ring some up anything it booted us off along with many other things i dont want to rant about at the moment that was wrong with the system but it was a huge hassel which it has always been. which is why i never used it i hate it! monday morning i called n waited and waited the man who awensered the phone was completly rude gave me this run around for about a freakin hour i told him “I DO NOT WANT SALON TOUCH LIVE ON MY COMPUTER !”told him about all the problems i had been experiencing with it and that the only reason we werent using salon touch batch was because it wouldnt connect sooooo what does he do?deletes salon tough batch from my system and runs me on live again so i gave him the benfit of the doubt and said fine you obvesusly know what your doing did you fix this this and this that i was talking to you about? the response igot was “WELL I DONT SEE ANYTHING WRONG WITH IT!) still experiencing the same problems I HAD TO CALL BACK AGAIN……. HOURS LATER! i had to have my assistant manager the phone to call again! same guy awensers she tells him all the same problems that i had mentioned thaT MORNING NOW GIVE WEVE BEEN CALLING ALL DAY ITS NOW NIGHT TIME DO YOU KNOW WHAT HE SAYS AFTER CLICKING AROUND FOR 60 SEC I DONT SEE ANYTHING WRONG WITH IT! i love how people dont listen to you when their job is to resolve their customers issues!go threw the same thing on tuesday! my assistant is calling calling calling i go in early afternoon to make sure it gets comp. resloved get ahold of a nice man this time he tries to resolve our issue tell him the same story well im guessng the the first guy i talked to must have really messed up our stuff because this man couldnt do anyting because he needed to know exactly what the first guy did but he was out to lunch. waited and waited no call so im calling calling again leave a message in the mean time we cant ring up anything clients are sitting up front waiting becase our salontouch live that supposedly HAD NOTHING WRONG WITH IT~!was kicking us off with every click we made.i had 2 new clients the sat for 2 hrs while i was treying to put them in the system our wait list was on a piecew of note book paper finely rah called me back THANK YOU! finally someone i recignize i have talked to him quite a few times threw out the years the mans knows what hes doing hes always polite and dose evrything that he can listens to whats going on and resolves the problem and and handels it while explaing what hes doing luv it. so hes clicking away trying to undue what ever the first guy on monday did till very late at night way past closing time for salon touch thank you rah he got salon touch batch back on my system got it so that it was tolerable to deal with for the rest of the night with only minor problems but told me to give him a call in the morning and left his ext. because i explained how un comfortable i was with anyone else touching it ! great that was tuesday calling leaving messgaes callling and calling it is now friday….. went in this morning on my day off to call salon touch again to resolve the minor issues that are not so minor if you has them for days packages not saving when you ring them up randome clients not showing up that weve kept as customers for years anyone who signed up with us on live from saturday till tuesday night not showing up in the systems “can you see how this is and issue”! was on hold for about an hour finally got ahold of a guy named tony this is the only other employee who has been polite and listened to what i had to SAY WROTE DOWN ALL MY PROBLEMS AND HAS BEEN WORKING ON MY COMPUTER ISSUES EXPLAING THEM TO ME AND HAS BEEN TRYING TO RESOLVE THEM SINCE ABOUT 11:30 THIS MORNING IT IS NOW 2:30
turns out the only issuse or salon touch batch had was that our memory had reached it maximum compasity so while it sounds simple it takes a while to resolve hmm i have a feeling that if someone that i talked to on monday morning would have actually takin the time to try and resolve our issue insted of just saying theirs nothing wrong with it his coworkers who actually gave their customers the time of day wouldnt have had to waste all this time undoing what he did in the first place before they could actually figure out what our problems were overall………
SALON TOUCH TECH SUPPORT FAIL!
@extrememelba,
Wow. This story doesn’t seem to be getting any better.
sorry that my rant was so long but i had a week long experience to rant about i just believe that mabey salon touch tech support needs more comunication among stuff overall i love the system when its working correctly but it seems theirs always on constant issue and that the employees obviously are not on the same page when it comes to training and resloving customer issues
@extrememelba, you obviously had a crappy experience or you wouldn’t be as passionate as you are about it. I can feel your frustration just reading it.
I feel for you melbbba…well thats not true, i cant imagine running a salon as efficient as u do, in such a busy atmosphere…with NO COMPUTER software working???? your BLOODLINE of getting customers in and out of beds…holy crap and be forced to wait on hold for Tech support???
i did for for 1 hour and 42 minutes the other day..how can such a HUGE company have such poor tech support? I do have to say that from Extreme Tan and Smoothies home office…i have NEVER expierenced any issues with connecting to Salon Touch, whatsoever. so..i was amazed at the time needed to spent on the phone… in front of the computer waiting for someone to answer. Thank God for speaker phone and multi-tasking..mondays already suck…waiting on hold for 92 MINUTES…priceless. i eventually hung up with hope (haha) that the salon was able to get the support they needed to get the computers running.
On monday evening….after hearing the salons were having computer issues STILL…i called …Shannon from the billing department and our original sale rep … who was able to get a support tech to call the Clearwater North salon ASAP, in order to resolve the issue…. to get them through the rest of the evening. AWESOME
NoBody had to wait on the phone…the suppoort tech CALLED US….yah!!!!
Tuesday morning…Shannon had called me, i had asked her WHY in the world does their customer support department suck??? we need help with software support…weekends included…24/7…she basically said that …support answers and solves issues..in one shot…GREAT!!! I LOVE that idea………BUT….PLEASE..more than ONE customer service rep on at a time does NOT work.
So its gets boil down to this…Salon Touch is a great software with the worst tech support service.
I hope Salon Touch is reading this so they can replace their employees or maybe add some more.
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Oh yes, Salon Touch..
Like MK said, our bloodline of our everyday business..getting customer in and out of the tanning beds…We should not have these kind of issues with paying $999 in SUPPORT. Where is our support for holding on the line for 45 minutes when your in que position 1. That SHOULD mean, you are next up to have your call answered. Well, you better be prepared to wait on hold because it takes forever. Especially when you have customer’s you are trying to attend to as well!! The cute little recording will come on say “They are giving the same attention to other customer that we would like to receive” ….What about the customer’s that WE can’t give OUR full attention to because we have a phone hanging off our ear to get someone from Salon Touch Support to answer the phone. The kicker..we haved used this company for 6 years. Where’s the love? All they deal with is tanning salons, correct? It is a fantastic software system ..if all the functions work properly and we can get the support we always pay for every month. Hire more Employee’s to maybe answer the phone?
OMG. I am so glad that you wrote this blog…. It is so true. It is extremely frustrating when your system crashes and no one is there to help!
Hello All SalonTouch clients,
We have recently converted over to a new system and changed our protocols in an effort to bring quality technical support to all of our clients faster. In an effort to reduce hold times we are now attempting to quickly answer the phones and return calls in the order that they were received. Instead of holding for a long periods of time please leave a message, if your salon is having problems starting or running the SalonTouch program your call will be prioritized and the most important issues will be given immediate attention.
Jacques McKnight
Customer Service Manager
@Jacques McKnight, I have to be honest Jacques, I appreciate and respect you taking the time to come here and comment on the Salon Touch issues, however the problem is no better today than it was when I wrote this post.
The fact is I am actually in the process of writing a more detailed account of what has gone on since the time that this original post was done, because honestly things are’nt getting any better. I have associates waiting for days to hear back about major and real issues that have been going on for weeks, it’s beyond being sad at this time. It’s honestly been over 8 weeks of dealing with Salon Touch Fail after Fail after fail.
I have all but given up any hope that we will be forced to move from an excellent software solution to another excellent software system that has a better support system in place that can resolve issues quickly. I blame 95% of this on the management behind Salon Touch, it’s a simple fix to an issue they know exists yet they continue to ignore it. It’s simple, HIRE MORE TECHS to resolve issues and offer phone support as it should be offered.
@Extreme John,
John, I am right there with you on all your issues as I have a dump truck full of issues. I now have a pop-up telling me that my software will expire on 4/17/2010 without a software key? What is that? Do you have this pop-up?
@Stephanie, I have experienced the pop-up from Salon Touch in the past, along with many other pop-ups over the last 4 months. I don’t have that pop-up at the moment, have you tried calling your original sales rep? Every once in a while when I reach my snapping point I call my sales rep, it soothes me for a little bit and in the past has helped get issues resolved. The current issues that I wrote about here is STILL going on, has to be about 4 months now.
@Jacques McKnight,
Are you kidding me with this comment – the support that Salon Touch say’s they provide is not support at all – I can’t run my business like this. This software was in no way cheap – I even upgraded my entire computer so over all I spent about $2500.00 to provide better service to my customers & I cannot even do that – this software is jam packed with issues – Now I have a pop-up with a message telling my software is going to expire on 4/17/2010 Are kidding me!
I upgraded to Salon Touch with the promise of great things to help me run my business better. With this economy and all of the bad press about tanning I need to make sure we can provide the best coustomer service possible. I am so unhappy and pissed off with this software that I have decided to close my doors on June 30th. My staff has non stop problems with the software freezing, shutting down, double charging credit cards, adding more then one package or not adding the package at all. The latest after returning from Easter weekend, I have a pop up alerting me that the software will expire on 4/17/2010 without a software key. I am beyond mad to the point I am num. I have called & emailed support and I get absolutely no response, or I am on hold for so long I want to cry. Now I am fearful I have to spend yet more money to override this pop-up expiration in order to simply close down my business. The only reason I remain open at this point is for my customers, to allow them to use up tanning package and gift certificates and now after the 17th, I won’t be able to do even that!
@Stephanie, I would be willing to bet that you won’t have to pay anything to get rid of that pop-up Stephanie, in the past it’s safe to say that 99.9% of the time’s I have had that pop-up it’s been a Salon Touch issue or problem. Of course the “Sorry” is always nice but that crap gets old, I will say I wouldn’t mind trading with you at this stage of the game.
I will be reviewing some tanning salon software brands at some point or at least making a decision on which one I would like to move to. Sadly it’s my opinion that Salon Touch might have out grown themselves again, too bad I don’t have the patience, time, or money to continue paying my staff to work around the salon touch schedule… It’s a joke. I had a salon down Thursday – Monday due to one of their techs having no clue what-so-ever about what was actually going on. Something that he could have easily fixed or helped with, instead he took the time to belittle my associate instead. Fed up doesn’t put it into words.
HELP! My software has a pop-up when I go into the program to this effect “Salon Touch is set to expire on 4/17/2010 call support for a software key before 4/17/2010″
I CALL SUPPORT MORE THEN I CALL MY OWN MOTHER! I can’t get support – I have so many problems with this software and now this!
@Stephanie, ahhh I have seen that message many of times, as a matter of fact on Thursday while one of the techs was talking to one of my associates like she was a piece of crap it was in reference to a message just like this.
I would suggest calling your sales rep or trying to reach sales as opposed to tech, that way MAYBE and thats a BIG MAYBE, your Salon Touch Software rep can help you out.
Where is Jacques and Salon Touch’s great big help now?? … because of them..a lady may have to close her doors because she can’t get “SUPPORT” from her software company!!! Help this lady out, Salon Touch! grrrrrrr
You should be lucky that you were only on hold 1 1/2 hours. I actually think I hold the record 3 hours and 45 minutes on the phone…on hold.
I asked how many techs they have and I believe they said FOUR. THATS IT AT ANY GIVEN TIME.
I would NEVER advise anyone to purchase their software. EVER!!
ANGIE
@Angie, it sounds like a lot of your experience has been like our experience, as for that record you are patient but I think there might be a few Salon Touch owners that can rival you on that.