December 2010 - Wynne Business | Spa Consulting and Education

Spa Business Planning Made Easy

Registration for this webinar has closed. Below are the topics which were discussed. Please check the Events and Learning Academy pages for our offered trainings.

“A vision without a plan is a hallucination.”

Join us on Tuesday, January 18, for our first management webinar of the New Year, Spa Business Planning Made Easy.

Planning is one of the most misunderstood business processes, and one of the most essential. Yet most plans don’t survive more than a few months.

If your spa doesn’t yet have a 2011 Strategic Plan in place, you’re not alone, and it’s not too late to create one. This session will give you a fresh understanding of the planning process, and the tools to build a simple and resilient strategic plan than can be continuously renewed, even when conditions change.

Would you like to tackle the New Year with a simple, executable Strategic Plan? Would you like to have a way to move from 30,000 feet vision to tactical, practical “sea level” and back again with ease?

This webinar will share with you the secrets of:

• Identifying your most important priorities

• Understanding what planning can (and cannot!) do

• Setting actionable goals

• Setting the optimum planning “time horizon” (it will surprise you)

• Getting your team to buy into your plan

• Techniques to ensure that you stay on plan, every day

• Ensuring that your Strategic Plan translates into your company’s Daily Plan

• Not getting sidetracked by the “tyranny of the immediate,” the daily crises that erupt in every company

Happy New Year? Customer Service Fundamentals

2011 is just a few days away. The happy delirium of gift card sales will be over, and the reality of the toughest quarter of the year will arrive.

Most spa owners and spa directors that I know are moderately optimistic about 2011. Optimism is all relative, of course. I don’t know any spa that’s budgeting for growth. Most of us are setting our budgets around “actual” from 2010. We wouldn’t mind exceeding our revenue budget–that’s never a problem.

Most spas are continuing with “just in time” pay increases, not across the board raises. We created a bonusing plan for our service providers that enable them to leapfrog up one or more seniority levels, payroll by payroll, when they are highly productive. Hit the goals this payroll, get a raise for the next payroll period. If you can sustain that level of productivity, you can keep that raise going. If you miss it, you’ll drop back to your basic level. Remember, your top producers should receive appropriate compensation, even if you aren’t officially offering raises.

If you’re concerned that your current comp plan may not be delivering the best results for your business, you’re not alone. That’s why we spend so much time on the topic in our Spa Director’s Management Intensive.

Marketing budgets continue to shrink as social media plays a bigger and bigger role in growing the customer base. Traditional media is hurting, and that’s brought down the price of advertising across the board. We’re still not tempted by much.

One evolutionary change: spas are having to designate someone to mind the social media part of the business, and to pay them. The days of “Hey, Brandi loves to post on Facebook” are starting to disappear. (Just like the days of “Hey, Brandi knows how to do websites” did.) Facebook and other forms of social media are rapidly becoming more sophisticated and complex. Facebook advertising, like Google Adwords, can suck up a lot of money fast if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Most spas are having to think hard about taking their enterprise management software “to the cloud.” 2011 will see spas who are ready to update their systems making this jump. Spas need software that really supports and amplifies their online marketing efforts. No one is closer to delivering this than SpaBooker; it will be interesting to see if any large competitor will emerge.

Followers of Chinese astrology know that 2011 is the year of the Rabbit, a considerably nicer character than the Tiger who just departed. That doesn’t mean you can breathe a sigh of relief. This is no soft and fuzzy bunny, it’s a Metal Rabbit, which apparently means that 2011 will be about executing with precision and finesse. The confrontational Tiger is gone; in contrast, Rabbits are diplomats. Sounds like the perfect year to create some strategic alliances with other businesses who are doing business with the clients you want. Fitness studios are chockablock with new customers in the first months of the year–the perfect place to make some new friends.

2011 will continue to test your business. Many of the weaker players have fallen, but there will be a bit more contraction. It’s all about unemployment. While the number of new jobless claims is dropping, they’re still new claims. Without income, there’s no discretionary income, and that’s the lifeblood of our industry. Happily, more affluent folks with jobs have figured out that they can spend some money without the world ending.

When one of these rare and precious creatures enters your spa, treat them like royalty. There’s plenty of bad customer service out there, being sullenly dished out by a disaffected, demoralized part time work force. I saw lots of that while Christmas shopping this year.

2011 should be a year to revisit customer service fundamentals with your entire team. One of my favorite books on this topic is Janelle Barlow’s Branded Customer Service. One thing is certain: the spas that have a Happy New Year will be the ones who have great people with great skills and great attitudes.

You don’t even need a Metal Rabbit to know that.

Keeping your Gift Card Clients

Hopefully, your gift card selling season is well underway by now. According to forecasts by the National Retail Federation, 77% of shoppers are expected to purchase at least one gift card this holiday season, and many reasons are cited for their popularity, including convenience for the purchaser, and the option of choice for the recipient. The average American will spend $145 on gift cards, up from $139, or a 4% increase, which is corresponds to the holiday sales forecasts of increases of 3-4% over 2009. Traditionally, the spa gift card average has been between $100 and $125, although that range doesn’t account for some of the aggressive discounting and giveaways that were used in 2009.

However, as we often say at Wynne Business, gift card sales bring in prospects, not customers. Now is the time to think about how, when those gift cards are redeemed, you will turn those prospects into return clients. For the plan to be effective, stand back and give your business the 30,000 foot view. The strategy for keeping gift card clients is not the same as when we cover a not-so-great Christmas present with a beautiful wrapping paper and bow. Your fundamental business procedures need to be solid, clear, and communicated to everyone on your staff, or spending money and energy on marketing efforts becomes a lottery game; will the client experience your spa at its best, or will they visit on a not-so-good day? We’re talking about the usual fun stuff; employee handbooks, position descriptions, operating standards, service protocols, the policies and procedures that are not much fun to create but are the backbone of a business with smooth operating flow. Without these tools in place, your staff will be forced to make it up as they go along, which is not a consistent way to build your business, and doesn’t often lead to a spa visit that meets or exceeds client expectations. If you are missing some, or all, of these pieces, don’t despair; with a little help, you can pull it together by Q2 of 2011 and be ready to move on to a marketing plan.

Once those essential building blocks are in place, then you can focus on creating some offers specific to your gift card recipients, such as value adds, service vouchers or upgrades, or loyalty plan points, that can be used on their subsequent visits. Let’s plan to bring back those prospects for a second and third visit and turn them into clients, expanding your reach for future seasonal sales opportunities. Valentines Day is only 8 weeks away!

Live Spa Director’s Management Intensive Training

If you own, manage, or plan to invest in a spa, this program is a must.

If you’re already involved in spa operations, this seminar will help you tackle your toughest management challenges. If you’re planning to open or acquire a spa, you’ll leave this program with a clear understanding of the requirements for business success. If you’re considering a career change or advancement into spa management, the Spa Director’s Management Program will put you miles ahead of the competition.

You’ll have a chance to meet other spa industry professionals, a diverse group of people, and often an international one. Participants typically represent a variety of industries and greatly enrich the program with their input. You’ll create a support network that will prove invaluable as your business or career grows. The small size of the class ensures individual attention and maximum interaction.

Attendees return to the workplace with new tactics and new understanding the fundamentals that underly spa success. Our enormous take-home course text becomes an invaluable everyday reference for busy directors who need ideas and help fast. (How do we know? Whenever we visit our graduates at their spas, we see the textbook open on their desktop!) Attendees enjoy an Industry Discount at adjacent Preston Wynne Spa during their stay.

Unlike most management training courses, the Spa Director’s Management Intensive is rigorously updated and relevant to the current business climate. Hot button-topics like yield management and mid-recession employee morale issue are part of the curriculum. Unlike most other consulting/education firms, we actually own and operate a successful 27 year old day spa with fifty employees. We’re in the trenches with you in this difficult business climate–we have to walk our talk. We share what’s working now.

THE AGENDA

Financial management skills for directors and managers

• Overcoming your “fear of financials: financial literacy made easy

• Managing by the numbers: how to really use the information you get from your financial statements

• Budgeting basics: how to set financial goals that make sense

• Positive cash flow vs. profit: the critical difference

• Capture rate and its impact on the stay spa financial plan

• How to evaluate the effectiveness of your employee compensation plan

• Best practices in compensation design

• Performance incentives to motivate your team when you can’t give raises

• Plugging the profit “leaks” in your operation

• Understanding the impact of discounts and promotions

• Understanding the legal and accounting issues of gift card sales

Sales and Marketing

• The only three ways you can grow your sales

• Marketing modalities for spas: what works, what doesn’t

• Event marketing essentials

• Marketing trends: the good, the bad, the ugly

• Millenials vs. Boomers: understanding the next generation of spa goer

• Best practices in spa web presence

• Getting the most out of your printed marketing collateral

• The why and how of spa packages

• Social media: roles, responsibilities and ROI

• Advertising: where to spend your budget now

• Understanding yield management

• Crafting more compelling and less expensive marketing offers

• Understanding your real cost of customer acquisition

• What “retention” means in your spa (it’s different for day, stay and med spas)

• The role of the local market in hotel spas’ success

• Introduction to Selvice: seven steps to better customer service and higher sales

Successful Spa Programs

• Establishing your Therapeutic Vision

• Why the spa menu drives vendor selection–not the other way around

• The pros and cons of “branded” treatments

• Innovation vs. profit: keeping it simple

• Trends in menu and program design

• Modular menu design

• Customization vs. chaos: how to offer one without getting the other

• Understanding the real cost/benefit of a new service

• Optimizing workflow while ensuring safety and customer satisfaction

• Best practices for managing back bar costs

Retail Management

• Ending the disconnect: making retail happen in a spa

• How to use a Home Care Consultant

• Creating a more profitable retail mix

• Best practices for optimizing your inventory turns

• Ending the sales leaks in your store

• Salesflow: redesigning internal processes to support sales success

• Effective recommendation tools that spa employees love to use

• Scripting that sells

• Best practices for partnering with vendors

• Basics of visual merchandising and display

Leadership

• Understanding social styles and their impact on interpersonal communication

• What your team needs from you and how to give it to them

• Recruitment: how to hire the best employees

• Why the customer actually comes “second” in a great spa

• Why you’re doing everything yourself and how to stop it

• Why you can’t motivate your staff and what to do about it

• How to produce great staff meetings

• Best practices in employee discipline

• Performance appraisals that improve performance

Quality Management

• Moments of Truth: why little things are a big deal to your guest

• The Experiential vs. Transactional spa

• How to manage quality in the “closed door” spa environment

• “We don’t need another hero”: how consistency creates great service

• The three essential ingredients of world class service

• How to instill a “quality” mindset in your entire team

• Spa Speak 101: helping your team communicate with quality

• Process improvement 101: how to make things better, faster

• Teaching your team to effectively resolve complaints and perform service recovery

• Comps, refunds and redos: how to use them wisely

• Inspection: the key to success

Taught by Lisa M. Starr of Wynne Business Spa Consulting and Education.

Please check the Events and Learning Academy pages for our offered trainings.

American Spa Magazine Spa Consultant Of The Year

Thank you! American Spa Magazine 2010 Professionals Choice Awards

A resounding thank you to the readers of American Spa magazine, for naming me as one of your Favorite Spa Consultants for 2010! It’s been an privilege to be part of this industry for over 26 years. I join some marvelous company in this honor. A great way to end the year!

See the article here