Friday, June 29, 2007

The Top Ten Ways to Keep Spa Clients Happy and Loyal

Here are the Top Ten ways you can achieve spa success by keeping your clients happy and loyal.

  1. Respect: Customers want to feel respected and valued, so do this by being friendly, helpful, and understanding.
  2. Customer Service: Put on your “A Game” every time a client walks through the door by listening, providing great service, and offering solutions to problems.
  3. Cleanliness: Keeping a spotless and sanitary spa is a reflection of how much you care about your business and customers.
  4. Organization: You require clients to be prompt, so do the same by staying organized and making sure clients don’t feel rushed.
  5. Education: Hiring trained therapists and providing your staff continuing education will result in quality spa treatments and satisfied clients.
  6. Treatments: Keep on top of the latest spa trends and provide a variety of treatment options.
  7. Communication: Provide an open door policy for clients to communicate with you about services, products, or complaints.
  8. Frequent Buyers: Reward returning clients with perks to make clients feel appreciated and encourage repeat business.
  9. Reward Referrals: Offering clients a $25 bonus is the best advertising money you can spend rewarding word-of-mouth referrals.
  10. Online Presence: Provide online reservations, information, and products for client convenience and flexibility.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

The Various Stages of Spa Managment: Career Opportunities for Industry Professionals

Choosing a spa management career can be both fulfilling and exciting. As with any profession, working your way up the corporate ladder brings with it more responsibility, opportunities, and a successful future.

Assistant Spa Managers are part of the team and required to do everything from helping clients at the front desk to assisting the Spa Manager with paperwork.

Spa Managers are responsible for making sure the spa runs smoothly and remains competitive. The Spa Manager must keep customers happy, staff motivated, and business flowing.

Spa Directors must be able to manage a staff, maximize sales, prepare financial reports, develop budgets, create merchandising, and work with the media.

A Vice President of Spa Operations is responsible for running a high-end spa or chain of day spas while overseeing hundreds of employees and thousands of clients. Duties include project development, strategic planning, and dealing with millions of dollars in annual sales.

Regional or National Spa Directors run multiple spa locations across the state or the country. Responsibilities include all of the previously mentioned, but for dozens of spa locations.

Spa Owners make all their own decisions about running their spas, but it’s essential that they get the necessary skills needed to run a success spa first.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Finding a Happy Medium Between Making a Profit and Offering Competitive Spa Treatment Pricing

While offering spa clients a relaxing and enjoyable atmosphere is of the utmost priority for most spas, making a profit is the ultimate goal for any spa owner or spa manager. Making a profit, while also offering clients competitively priced spa treatments, is a challenge that most spa owners and managers face today.

In order to find a happy medium, you need to focus on offering the kinds of spa treatments that your clients want to invest in. Bundling your spa treatments together into spa packages or multi-visit treatment programs rather than just selling ala carte services is also an important marketing tool.

Keeping the spa filled with paying customers is essential to your overall profits as well, so establishing a rapport with clients is important to increasing repeat visits and word of mouth referrals. Some day spas offer manicures and hair salon services to get more customers in the door, but other day spas feel that these services take away from the overall spa experience.

It’s up to you as the spa owner or manager to determine which course of action will bring in the most profits by offering clients what they want and keeping prices low.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

The Most Popular Treatments in Day Spas Today

Day spas can offer a wide range of spa treatments from the common to the completely unexpected. That’s the beautiful thing about going to a day spa, you never know what kind of new treatments you might find.

Popular Treatments in Day SpasThere are, however, some tried and true popular day spa treatments that you can expect to find at just about any day spa. By far, the most popular spa treatment that day spas offer is the massage. People go to the day spa to relax and there’s nothing more relaxing than a full body Swedish massage. Another popular day spa treatment is the facial. Whether you want to treat unsightly acne or remove those subtle lines around the eyes, spa facial treatments are the way to go.

Body wraps or salt glows are popular body treatments that can soften and detoxify the skin. A body wrap coats you in a seaweed, mud, or clay mixture and then you are wrapped up for 30 minutes to relax and absorb the goodness. A salt glow involves massaging the skin with sea salts and aromatherapy oils and then you’re rinsed off with warm water. After both spa treatments, you’re coated in soothing, hydrating lotions. Refreshing!

Monday, June 25, 2007

Spa Management is A Balancing Act that Takes Tact, Diplomacy and Assertiveness

Balancing ActBeing a successful spa manager means being able to handle the everyday pressures of working in a high-energy, fast-paced environment while still maintaining a calm, cool demeanor.

Juggling important business issues, managing the staff, and keeping customers happy are all part of the spa manager’s daily activities. It takes a special kind of person to successfully manage a busy spa and getting the right kind of training to handle every situation is essential.

Working with the public and managing a staff in the spa industry takes a fair amount of tact, diplomacy, and assertiveness to successfully handle the many requests, complaints, wants, and needs that the public and your employees will inevitably require.

The spa manager’s main duty in any size spa is to make sure customers get what they want, leave happy, and ultimately return to the spa again. This is within reason, of course, so a good spa manager also needs to know how to handle different personalities as tactfully, diplomatically, and assertively as possible. This applies to both demanding clients and dissatisfied employees, so make sure you get the right training necessary to learn how to handle these situations properly and become a truly great spa manager.

Friday, June 22, 2007

The Spa Industry in the US Topped $9.7 Billion in Revenues in 2005 & Is Still Growing...

In 2003, the spa industry reported $7 billion in revenues in the United States alone. In 2005, those revenues shot up to $9.7 billion. With an increase of nearly $3 billion, the spa industry is hot and it’s showing no signs of stopping. So, what does this mean for spa management employees? It means starting a career in the spa industry today, particularly in spa management, is going to provide lots of new job openings, plenty of career advancement, and exciting opportunities to work in some of the world’s most beautiful resort spas around the country.

Spa Management TrainingThere are thousands of new spas opening up every year and each one of them has an immediate need for well-trained spa managers. With the impressive growth that the spa industry has seen recently, there is an alarming lack of qualified spa management professionals available to fill these growing positions. Getting the proper training that is needed to fill these positions is crucial. Becoming a successful day spa manager can quickly and easily lead to exciting job, endless advancement, and glamorous travel opportunities! So, get the spa management training needed today and tomorrow you could be running your very own resort or destination spa...

Thursday, June 21, 2007

The Number of Spas Across America is Growing at an Unprecedented Rate

It used to be that visiting a day spa or going to a resort spa was reserved only for the rich and famous. Fortunately, those days are gone and today just about everyone is taking a well-deserved break from the stresses of everyday life by going to the local day spa for a quick fix or taking a long, romantic vacation at the resort spa. This is good news for the spa industry because due to this rapidly increasing demand for spa services, spa locations across America are growing at unprecedented rates.

Work at a Resort SpaAccording to the International Spa Association’s (ISPA) 2006 spa industry study of growth and revenues, the number of new spa locations opening up across America is exploding. In April 2004, there were 10,128 spa locations, but by August 2006 there were 13,757 spas. This shows an annual 16% increase in spas operating throughout the United States. That’s approximately 130 new spas opening up every single month over a 28 month period! Out of those total spas, 80% were day spas, 9% were resort spas, and 7% were medical spas. So, if you’ve been waiting to get into the spa business, don’t because now is the time to do it!

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Spa Management Careers Have a Bright Future According to ISPA

It’s a great time to get into the spa industry! According to the International Spa Association (ISPA), the spa business is looking good and only getting better. If you’re thinking about becoming a spa manager, spa director, or spa owner, here are just a few of the reasons why it’s a great time to do it!

The ISPA released its last spa business report in August 2006 and they found some very positive statistics. In the United States alone, there were nearly 14,000 spas doing business, up 16% since 2004. In 2005 the spa industry reported nearly $10 billion in annual revenues, up nearly $3 billion since 2003. In 2005 there were 131 million spa visits, up 22 million visits in two years!

So, what does this mean for you? It means that the spa business is doing great and rapidly increasing, making the need for spa management stronger than ever. In 2006 there were over 267,000 spa employees, an increase of more than 52,000 spa employees from 2004. That’s five hundred new spa jobs each week! That number is only going to grow, so now’s the time to get into spa management because the future looks very bright indeed!

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Great Day Spa Managers Are Few and Far Between: The Best Are Rising to the Top of the Industry

There is literally unlimited potential for career-minded professionals to thrive within the booming spa industry. Great day spa managers can work in the most glamorous and upscale spas in such exotic locations as Hawaii, Arizona, Las Vegas, New York, Hong Kong, Paris, or even Australia. With a lot of hard work and determination, they can quickly become a senior spa director or or even a spa owner. The opportunities are limitless!

Unfortunately, there just aren’t enough truly great spa managers available today to fill these ever increasing spa industry opportunities.

The main reason for this is the lack of proper training for spa managers when they initially get into the day spa business. Without fully understanding what it takes to run a day spa successfully, it’s difficult to become a good spa manager, let alone a great one.

Learning the tricks of the trade, while also gaining valuable experience by working hands-on with clients, is essential for any spa management position.

With the right tools, a positive attitude, and the desire to succeed, you too can become the next rising star in the wonderful world of spa management!

Monday, June 18, 2007

What Makes a Day Spa Memorable & How a Spa Director Can Make it Happen

The day spa’s bread-and-butter is repeat business from returning customers. So, in order to be successful, spa directors need to make sure that their clients’ day spa experience is so relaxing, enjoyable, and memorable that they’ll keep coming back for more, throughout the year. Otherwise, the day spa will experience some unwanted rest and relaxation in the form of no business!

To keep the day spa’s doors swinging, spa directors need to keep their spa’s open, inviting, and friendly at all times. This can be achieved by creating a welcoming atmosphere using warm color schemes, soothing music, aromatherapy candles, comfortable chairs, clean towels, and cozy spa robes.

The services offered should appeal to a wide range of tastes, including both the old standbys and the newest trends in the industry.

Above all, the day spa staff and technicians should be properly trained, educated in the latest spa techniques, and always courteous and professional.

While it’s true that the spa director has a full plate of responsibilities when it comes to running a successful day spa, focusing on these smaller details will create a satisfying and memorable experience for the spa’s clients and keep them coming back for more!

Friday, June 15, 2007

Hiring Spa Staff: The Critical Components of Building a Winning Team

You’re only as good as the people who work for you, so it’s critical that you surround yourself with people who take pride in their work and strive to provide quality services to your clients.

In order to do this, you need to look for certain personality traits when hiring your spa staff and able to focus on their strengths while also helping them with their weaknesses through training and incentive programs.

From the receptionist to the therapists to your management staff, having a team that works well together towards a common goal is the key to success.

While spa experience, appropriate certification and spa education are certainly important, they are only a small part of what you should look for when hiring your staff.

Experience and education will grow over time, so it’s important to find people who truly have the desire to provide clients with a positive spa experience. Things like attitude, pride, motivation, and a willingness to learn are all qualities you should look for in potential spa employees.

Of course, many of these traits will develop depending on the type of working atmosphere you create, so remember that you’re an important part of the winning team too!

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Great Spa Managers Keep an Eye on the Future: Monitoring Trends in Services & Treatments

The spa industry is always changing and evolving to meet the needs and desires of its clients. What was a popular treatment last year may not necessarily still be hot this year. So, it’s crucial for spa managers to pay attention to industry trends in order to provide their clients with the latest services and treatments if they want to remain competitive and become successful within the spa community.

People’s tastes and interests are constantly changing, so making sure you know what’s going on in the spa industry is essential.

Whether your spa is in New York City or Des Moines, trends have a way of making their way around the world quickly, so keeping an eye on current and future trends will keep you one step ahead of your clients and you’ll be able to offer them the latest spa treatments and services before they even know to ask for them.

The best way to do this is to educate yourself by constantly monitoring spa industry news by going to seminars, continuing your education, reading industry publications, and maintaining relationships with other spa professionals.

Doing this will transform you from a good spa manager to an indispensable GREAT spa director!

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Do you Have What it Takes to Open and Run a Day Spa?

Do you love the idea of being your own boss, working in a relaxing environment, bringing joy to people on a daily basis, and having access to a whirlpool and masseuse at a moments notice? Well, who doesn’t, right?

There’s no doubt that the spa industry is a very exciting, and rewarding career choice, but do you really have what it takes to open and run a day spa yourself?

As with any small business, you must have an entrepreneurial spirit, which means you need to be a self-starter, decision maker, hard worker, well organized, like challenges, enjoy working with people, and a risk taker.

Whether you’re new to the spa industry or have been working in it for years, educating yourself in all aspects of owning and running a spa is crucial. This means making sure you get plenty of quality spa training and practical spa experience before you ever open the doors to your own spa. This includes understanding the business aspects of the spa industry, knowing how to staff your spa with qualified employees, creating an atmosphere that people want to go to, and developing a positive relationship with clients and the community.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Spa Management: Leading Your Team Through Exemplary Client Services

The main goal of any spa is to make a profit and the best way to reach this goal is to provide a wide range of quality spa services as well as the highest levels of customer service available. This should always be the spa management team’s main goal and the success of the spa itself will ultimately depend upon how happy and satisfied your clients are before, during, and after their spa experience.

It’s the spa manager’s responsibility to set the bar high for exemplary client services throughout the spa. These standards must trickle down to every member of the team in order for the spa to be successful. This means providing the highest levels of service from the moment the client makes the appointment to the moment they leave the spa.

While it’s easy to get bogged down in the business aspects of running a successful spa, it’s imperative that your team understands the importance of quality client services and should take pride in achieving total customer satisfaction for each and every client.

A spa’s success is a direct reflection of its management and staffing team, so make sure yours is the best it can be!

Monday, June 11, 2007

The Major Differences Between a Day Spa and a Stay (Resort) Spa

Day Spa

Day spas and stay spas may seem similar, but are quite different in many ways. Day spas focus on selling “clients” a “series” of spa services that encourage return visits and a habitual spa lifestyle. The goal of the day spa is to attract clients who will return multiple times over several months or years. Most day spa clients are looking for specific results rather than relaxation.

The typical day spa client visits the spa alone and spends one to two hours per visit. Successful day spas offer their clients a limited set of services which target specific results.

Stay or Resort Spa

Stay spas focus on selling “guests” a “package” of spa services to be used during a limited period of time. Stay spas offer their guests more unique services that appeal to customers who will most likely never return to the spa again. The goal of the stay spa is to provide their guests with a spa experience focused on relaxation rather than results.

The typical stay spa guests are single professional women, couples or groups who want to experience something new and different while also relaxing. Successful stay spas offer their guests a wider variety of specialty services which create a relaxing vacation experience.

Friday, June 8, 2007

As a Spa Manager, Your Customer Service Skills are Critical to Business Success

You know how they’re always saying the customer’s always right? Well, that’s certainly not always the case, but as the spa manager it’s your job to make the customer feel like they’re right, even when they’re wrong. Having proper and effective customer service skills is not something that comes naturally to most people. It takes a little bit of training, a whole lot of patience, and the ability to think on your feet to become a skillful customer service master!

What people really want more than anything is for someone to really listen to them. Whether they’re complaining about a particular incident, inquiring about your services, or just want to chat with you about things that are completely unrelated to the spa business, your customers want to feel like you really care about their problems and are there to help.

If you learn how to listen to and communicate with your spa clients effectively, you’ll find that they’re going to keep coming back simply because you showed them a little respect and gave them a little bit of your precious time. In the end, improving your customer service skills will translate into better spa business success!

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

The Daily Functions of a Day Spa Director

The day spa industry is a very exciting and fulfilling business to be in these days. More people are enjoying the benefits of a little rest and relaxation in the middle of their complicated lives and the day spa industry is literally booming. Being a day spa director (or manager) is very much like being the captain of a very tightly run ship. It requires discipline, organization, patience, and the ability to adapt to a fast-paced and ever-changing environment.

Every day the director is responsible for making sure the spa’s customers get exactly what they came there for, a little well needed rest and rejuvenation. This is not easy to do when there are a million different things that can go wrong, but a well-trained day spa director makes it happen day after day.

The director’s daily activities might include developing policies and procedures, keeping the staff organized and motivated, analyzing and balancing the budget, developing a successful marketing campaign, improving client retention, increasing sales, or creating new activities that appeal to a wide range of tastes.

In other words, the day spa director is directly responsible for the smooth operation and increasing success of the spa on a daily basis.

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

A Spa Manager Must be a Savvy Business Professional (but not necessarily an Aesthetician)

As with any business, having a strong management team to motivate and lead a staff team is the key to success. This is especially important for the spa industry because it’s a people business that depends heavily upon customer satisfaction. The ultimate success for any business comes down to the leadership and for the spa industry that means the spa manager is the star of the show. A spa manager must be a savvy business professional in order to build and maintain a successful spa, be it a day spa, stay spa, or medical spa.

While the best spa managers know the ins and outs of the spa industry, from understanding what’s involved in each spa treatment to attracting new clients to understanding proper health and nutrition, this doesn’t mean that the spa manager has to be a registered aesthetician to be successful in the spa industry. However, being educated in knowing what aestheticians and other spa therapists do through continued education is essential to a spa manager’s overall success. Education in any field doesn’t end once the final exams are over, so continually educating yourself in spa treatments and trends will add to your spa’s continued success and help you succeed in the industry!

Monday, June 4, 2007

Severe Shortage of Online Education Courses for Future Day Spa Managers/Directors

With the booming success of the day spa industry, you’d think that the spa education field would expand with it. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case and there is a severe shortage of online education courses available for day spa managers and directors (as well as entrepreneurs looking to open their own day spa). The day spa industry is a people industry and having a well-educated management staff in any spa is essential to its continued success.

While it’s true that much of the training for spa therapists and aestheticians requires hands-on instruction, training for spa managers and directors can easily be taught online because these individuals generally deal with the day-to-day business aspects of the spa rather than the physical therapy aspects. Of course, it’s important for any spa manager to understand the overall concept of each spa treatment, however the spa manager needs to excel behind the scenes and must possess strong business skills, such as strategic decision making, staff organization, financial analysis, marketing and advertising, nutrition and health, and effective communication.

These types of skills can easily and effectively be taught to aspiring spa managers and directors through online courses, yet there are very few programs that provide such a needed online curriculum.

Future of the Spa Industry: A Spa Manager’s Perspective

According to a recent Spa Industry research study, spas will continue to be a thriving business sector despite the downtown in our current economic climate. Given the increasing (and correct) perception that spa services contribute to overall health and the fact that the stresses of modern life don’t appear to be going away anytime soon, this is hardly surprising.

However, not all spas and spa services are equal. Those spas that make a point of remaining aware of consumers’ changing preferences and marketing their services accordingly are the ones that will grow and prosper the most.

The study reports that the most successful spas will focus on fulfilling these new consumer wants:

Customization

Increased publicity, especially publicity that links spa services to overall health, has boosted consumers’ expectations. No longer are spa-goers content to choose from half a dozen or so generic sounding services. Today’s customers want choices, and choices explicitly targeted to remediate their specific problems.

Treatments for Men

23% of all spa visits are now made by men, and more of these are for facials and manicures than ever before.

Series Pricing and Financing Plans

Frequently more than one treatment is necessary for clients to receive the full value of a service. For example, it may take several massage treatments to fully ameliorate soft tissue injuries sustained in a car accident, and acne-prone skin usually requires more than one treatment facial.

Making series pricing and financing plans available to clients increases their ability to afford the treatments they need and boosts the possibility that they will refer their friends as well. Financing arrangements and credit card payments make it affordable for even lower income customers who might not have enough ready cash.

Growth in teen market

Teens have more disposable income today than they have ever had, and many are electing to spend a portion of it on spa services. Marketing specifically to teens should include brochures and other printed materials that describe the results they seek in language they will find comfortable.

Chair massage

Chair massage is frequently a most effective way to introduce new clients to spa services. One of the best ways to offer chair massage services is to take a chair massage into office buildings and offer low-cost 15-minute chair massages office workers can enjoy during their breaks. They’ll go back to their computers feeling relaxed and refreshed—and most likely wanting a longer massage as well!

Client Service

The days when spa workers could hand clients a locker key and towel and expect them to return for additional treatments are long gone. Today’s spa clients expect personalized service that include smiles, solicitousness for their individual needs and touches like a choice of complimentary hot and cold drinks. The more pampered they feel, the faster they will return.

Branded Product Lines
Offering your spa clients the opportunity to purchase the skin care and other products they experience at your spa is a great way to boost spa receipts. Though most spas have traditionally sold nationally known product lines, the trend is to sell these as spa-branded products, which carries the added benefit of getting the spa’s name known.