The spa industry is a high-stake one and is no short than a rollercoaster ride. The fact that it is a highly competitive space doesn’t make it any better. It is an industry where things are constantly shifting and are relative to time. What is in and sought after today, can easily fall out of favor tomorrow. Thus, taking the mantra, “Change is the only constant”, to their heart, spa owners or managers are constantly looking at ways to improvise their spa business operations. In this guide, we talk about techniques you can deploy to improve your spa business.
Leverage Technology
With lives becoming busier than ever, the 21st century is all about efficiency and one of the easiest ways to achieve it by deploying an all-in-one spa software. Designed to eliminate the multiple pain points of spa business operations, a cloud-based spa software streamlines the process flow to improve the operational efficiency and frees you and your team from handling the repetitive tasks such as managing appointments & scheduling, handling payments, running inventory checks, computing compensation, and running reports. By automating all these tasks, the software not only saves you time but also ensures that you save precious man hours, which can be deployed in nurturing guest relationships, curating marketing strategies, and increasing revenue.
The cloud-based spa software market today has come of age and offers multiple products such as Zenoti, Phorest, MindBody, Rosy etc. Want to know more what all a spa software can do for your business? Read our post on “All You need to Know About Cloud Based Spa Software”
Enhance Client Experience
Your clients are your bread and butter. You exist because of them. Thus, one of the key focus areas of your spa business management strategy should be to focus on constantly elevating the client experience. An easy way to accomplish this is to take a hard look at your business processes from the eyes of an outsider and evaluate each and every step where clients interact with your business. Stick with the rule, if it is cumbersome or long, it needs to be replaced with something smoother and efficient. One of the easy ways to ensure a smooth and modern client experience is to let spa software automate and drive the interaction between your clients and your business. From offering simple online booking procedures to one touch payments, the software should be intuitive enough to work with them and for them. Zenoti cloud-based software empowers guests to make appointments in just about four clicks and offers them a host of ways to settle their invoices. Advanced features such as personalization optimizes the process further to allow returning guests to book services and products with single sign on and one touch.
Value your Employees
Often considered as one of the trickiest areas to navigate, employee management is a subject which has direct consequence on your spa business operations. Unhappy employees will lead to poor client experience levels and seriously damage your reputation. Thus, as a part of spa business management strategy it is important that you engage with your team in a constructive manner. While this doesn’t mean that you throw discipline and decorum out of the window, it does mean that you implement a robust employee management program. This means that in an industry characterized by long working hours that are not necessarily productive, you can deploy smart schedule management to ensure that they don’t miss out on potential earnings. It also means that as a mentor you lead by example, set clear and open communication systems, encourage them share their experience and ideas to improve process outcomes, and invest in their career growth. By doing this, not only would you create loyal employees, who would be more than willing to outstep their role to walk the extra mile but also ensure that their enthusiasm is reflected in client experience.
Offer Value Packs
Change the narrative for the clients by offering them value packs. Show them that your business isn’t only about making money but caring about their overall wellbeing. Plan these as a combination of both paid and complimentary add-ons. For instance, when you see a guest book for a massage session, consider offering them a steal deal for access to hot tub. Have clients, who have small kids? Offer them non-service perks such as child-care. Let them know that while they relax at your spa, their kids will be in good care. Not only would this improve your reputation but also encourage clients to visit often as you are offering them opportunities to relax beyond their mind and body.
Update your offerings
In an industry that is ever evolving, it is important that you periodically update your menu offerings. While this doesn’t mean that you throw out your best sellers without any caution, it does mean that you must keep yourself abreast with the trends and ascertain whether your guests would like to see such offerings. An easy way to do it is to create online surveys and send it as an email or a push notification link to your entire client base and let them vote. A spa software can easily let you create such surveys, share it across and also evaluate results. The occasional switch of menu offerings sends the message that you keep yourself updated.
Study your numbers
Finally, study your business data. Consider the process as grade card of you and your team’s efforts and the right spa management software will help you in this process. By collecting and recording all vital business data it will help you understand where the business is going and how effective is your strategy.
