Spa Management: How to Determine Spa Hours of Business

As you know, your spa’s business can ebb and flow from one week to the next. This is especially noticeable after the busy holiday rush. This rollercoaster of high business times and low business times can also fluctuate throughout the week and even hour by hour, so determining the best hours of operation for your spa business can be a tricky task.

Depending on where your spa is located and what the lifestyles of your surrounding client base are can dictate what your spa hours should be. Perhaps you are located in a middleclass neighborhood where most people work during the day. You will probably find that most of your spa business takes place in the evenings or on the weekends. Or you might be in an upper-class area where your business spikes in the morning and during the week due to more flexible client schedules.

You need to keep track of these trends in order to understand who your clients are and what their lifestyles are as related to your spa business. Once you determine your high times and your low times, you can set your spa hours based on these trends in order to increase your profitability.

Spa Industry News: Prominent Spas Work Hard to Go Green

The spa industry is becoming an important leader in the fight against global warming by making changes to the way spas are run in order to help save the environment. The idea of going green is one that fits perfectly with the vision that spas around the world have had for centuries.

In order to spread the word of green spa living, several prominent spas around the country have formed the Green Spa Network. This grassroots, not-for-profit trade organization has started out by creating seed spas, ones that are committed to developing and sustaining environmentally friendly business practices. To date there are nine spas in the seed program and their main focus is to find the greenest ways to run their spas while also remaining profitable and providing their clients with the best services available.

In addition the Green Spa Network is gathering as much information as they can for their Green Spa Toolkit, which will provide other spa owners the tools and information they need to turn their spas green too. They are also putting together an annual green spa conference that will serve as a networking and information exchange opportunity for those interested in going green.

ISM Flooded with Applications for Spa Management Program: The Need is Real

The Institute of Spa Management (ISM) is as hot as the spa industry is right now! This is evident with the flood of applications that ISM has received since they opened their doors less than three months ago. The spa industry is severely lacking quality trained spa managers, but fortunately ISM is now providing this well needed training to highly motivated and career oriented individuals who want to make the spa industry better than it has ever been before.

More than 200 applications have been received for the 12 full tuition and 25 partial tuition scholarships being offered by ISM to qualified spa management candidates each year. The competition is tough, but even if you don’t get one of those scholarships that doesn’t mean you can’t study at ISM. With their easy payment plans and study at your own pace scheduling, ISM is the perfect fit for any budget or busy schedule.

Soon, these students will be entering the spa workforce as qualified and trained spa management experts, so if you’re looking to get into this ever-expanding field, now is the time to start! So, what are you waiting for?

Unique Ways to Keep in Touch with your Spa Clients Between Visits

One of the most difficult things you have to deal with as a spa manager is keeping the lines of communication open between your spa and your clients between visits. Attracting and maintaining returning customers should be your ultimate goal if you want to remain successful. However, this can be a challenge and coming up with new and exciting ways to get your clients back into the spa can be difficult.

One simple thing you can do is to send out birthday, anniversary, holiday, or thank you cards to your clients throughout the year. Along with a handwritten note from the spa manager or owner, include a coupon for free products or discounts on their next visit. Customers like to feel appreciated, so personally reaching out to them on special days will get you noticed and will keep you in their minds.

You can also have special customer appreciation days several times throughout the year and invite special clients in for complimentary massages, prizes, food, and drinks. Rather than just mailing out advertisements that get tossed in the trash immediately, give your clients incentives to open your mail by offering special discounts that make your clients feel valued.

Compensation for Spa Staff: A Look at Different Options for Therapists and Aestheticians

Deciding how to pay your spa employees in order to best benefit the spa while also keeping your staff satisfied can be a difficult balancing act. While you want to make the spa as much money as possible, you also need to remember that your employees are there to make money too and if you are not fulfilling their needs then you will create a negative atmosphere and a continuously revolving door.

There are different ways to pay your staff, including hourly, salary, commission, performance-based, or even team-based profit sharing. All these methods have positives and negatives, so choose what works best for your spa.

In order to keep your employees vested in your spa’s ultimate goals you might want to invest into theirs. Offering health insurance, paid vacations, and a retirement plan can go a long way. You might want to offer other benefits, such as education assistance, credit union affiliation, or daycare assistance.

You can also offer bonuses such as free spa treatments, appreciation parties, performance awards, or weekly training sessions to improve their skills and knowledge. All of these efforts will benefit both the spa and the employees by creating a positive, motivating, and empowering work environment.

Let Go of the Past: The Spa Industry Changes So Fast - Managers Must Keep Up or Get out of the Way

The spa industry is a fast-paced, exciting, and ever-changing business. Spas are rapidly moving from being considered the occasional luxury to a necessary part of everyday life for a wider range of clients. No longer are spas reserved just for the elite. Today the spa client includes the working class, the stay-at-home mom, the blue-collar dad, and the stressed-out teen, so you need to come up with new ways to accommodate this new and diverse clientele.

However, many spa managers don’t understand that with this new acceptance of the spa lifestyle they need to keep up with the latest trends and treatments in order to meet the demands of evolving attitudes. Spa managers should let go of past assumptions about clients and services and keep up with the hot products and services or else they will be left alone in the dust.

It’s more important than ever to keep up on the latest spa trends and truly understand what the client wants and expects from their spa because if they don’t they will find that their competition will be more than happy to accommodate their potential and current clients’ needs.

Keeping up with Competitors Calls for an Educated, Informed and Intuitive Management Team

Knowing what your competition is up to is one of the best tools you have in keeping informed of what services and specials your competitors are offering. This is why it is so important for your management team to keep updated and continuous records of what the other spas in your area are doing by simply making regular calls to your competition.

If you are not making these calls then you are going to fall behind when it comes to offering the newest services and latest products at competitive prices because you won’t know what your competitors are offering. More than likely, your competitors are calling you to find out the very same things, so fight fire with fire by making sure you know what they are up to as well.

Another great way to find out exactly what your competitors are doing is to visit them for yourself or send one of your employees or a friend for an “undercover” site visit. Have them take a tour or even provide the money to get a treatment or two done. This is money well spent that will give you greater insight and information into what your competition is up to.

A Spa Manager's Worst Nightmare: A Dishonest Employee that Steals

One of the worst things that any business has to deal with is dishonest employees. No matter how honest people might seem, employee theft is a huge problem in every industry. As the spa manager, always be aware of what’s going on in your spa by staying organized, alert, and remove the opportunities that can tempt dishonest employees.

Most employees steal because they feel unappreciated, underpaid, or overworked, so they justify theft by convincing themselves that they are owed something. If you notice unusual activity, strange sales transactions, or suspicious behavior, don’t just look the other way. Keeping a close eye on your staff and their activities is the best way to prevent employee theft.

You should also maintain a good inventory system of all your products, supplies, and materials. This means keeping track of everything from lotions to gift certificates to the dressing room towels. Balance the inventory with your sales receipts on a weekly basis and track any irregularities.

To protect your clients from theft, ensure that you have lockers for them to store their valuables and personal belongings and give the client responsibility for the key at all times.

While you don’t need to be suspicious to the point of paranoia, you do need to make sure that you are aware of what’s going on in the spa and keep temptation low by making it difficult to steal

Spa Employee Dress Code: Clinical VS Upscale - Which is Best?

When it comes to deciding what your spa employees should wear, it really depends upon the image you want to portray, the type of spa you are running, and your employee’s positions. A client’s first impression of your spa is formulated within the first five seconds they walk through the door, so you really should think about what you want that impression to be.

The dress code for a medical spa that provides liposuction and chemical peels is very different from a resort spa in Hawaii that offers mud baths and coconut massages. Clients who come for plastic surgery want to feel as if they are being treated by medical professionals who know what they are doing, but those who come for a relaxing retreat want to feel at ease and pampered.

You might consider setting your spa’s dress code based on the job the employee is performing. Supervisors and front desk personnel will probably look best in professional attire, while therapists and housecleaning personnel might look best in uniforms. There really is no one answer to the dress code question, but you do need to focus on your spa’s image and what kind of impression you want to make.

Large City Spa Management: Effective Marketing Tips To Avoid Getting Lost in the Crowd

Marketing your big city spa can be a challenge and make you feel like a small fish in a large pond. However, you can stand out from the crowd by focusing on your target audience and determining what makes your spa different.

It is essential that you have a website! If you don’t, many potential clients will never find you because most people today search for spa services online. You also need to focus on your search engine ranking so that your spa’s website appears at the top of the search list or else potential clients will end up going to the spa next door simply because their website popped up above yours.

With so much competition, you must differentiate yourself from the other spas in your advertising. Visit your competition and compare your spa’s atmosphere, customer service, treatments, prices, and marketing to theirs. Make a list of what sets you apart and focus on this in your advertising.

Whether you choose a print, television, radio, or direct mail advertising strategy, make sure you stay with it for the long haul. Long-term advertising will establish a sense of stability and keep your spa’s name in the minds of potential clients.