Proven spa management strategies that help you win customers and sales
Salon and spa management can often be just a run-by-default operation. Open the doors to the shop and wait for customers to come in and let the business run itself. Often too, we expect our staff to work their magic and expect them to “run” the business as you think they should.
In the many years that we have been in business and the many awards won, most recently for Rene, winning the 2019 Australian Beauty Industry Awards (ABIA) Spa of the Year Australia (4 rooms and under) for four years in a row, we have proven business knowledge that works to build a successful business.
What many of our fellow business owners forget is that the concept of if-you-build-it-they-will-come is not really a business plan. To help along with moving forward into a winning spa management strategy, here are five of the most important:
1. Have a Vision
Everything starts with a vision — be clear about what your business is about and where you want your business to be. The company vision is not something that you have to stick onto a wall in the salon or spa. Smart management means that it has to be clearly communicated to your team and they are completely on board.
This will help you and your staff to understand how to run your business the way you would like it to run. As frontliners, your staff also has a very important role as ambassadors of your brand or business. It is therefore easy to see that your company values go hand in hand with your vision. This is a set of behavioural guidelines you and your team follow to ensure you all ooze what your brand represents.
2. Train Your Staff
When you hire staff members, take into account that while they may have the skills to be the best stylist, therapist, aesthetician or receptionist, they may need more guidance in skills like customer service, sales and consultations.
Note that customer service is NOT something you do to calm down a disgruntled or dissatisfied customer. The goal is to prevent these issues. Make clear to your team how to treat customers from when they enquire about your services, to booking an appointment, to when they go in for their treatments, all the way to when they leave your salon or spa.
Awesome customer service is a dying skill, even in the service industry that we are in. Be the business that people choose because of excellent customer service and because you have left them feeling valued and appreciated.
3. Be the reason of CHOICE
Word-of-mouth referrals is an amazing sales booster. To achieve this, strategy must account for the EXPERIENCE that each customer will have.
The scent of the room, the clean sheets, the noise, is the floor clean? All this and more make for an environment that stimulates (or in some cases, intentionally deprive) the senses to add value to the facial, massage, or haircut for your customer. Doing so, inevitably adds mileage for your business for better sales and revenue. There’s a saying that a person will forget what you say and do but they won’t forget the way you make them feel… so make it an unforgettable experience and they will come back.
4. Have simple spa management systems to follow
In our industry, systems, processes and procedures are vastly underestimated. Imagine you start your business as a one or two man band, then because you are amazing and truely care about your business and your clients, they leave raving and hence your business grows. Imagine 4 years down the track, now you have a team of 8 and you only work on the floor 2 days a week. What are your clients saying now? How are they leaving feeling? Is it the same experience that YOU personally gave them 4 years prior?
If the answer is yes then I imagine you have been smart and implemented, documented and trained you team with clear defined systems and processes. This is vital to ensure quality control over your brand reputation and client experience when you grow.
These are some of the salon or spa management systems you should think about:
- What is your service system policy?
- What is your hiring, induction and training process?
- What are your brands Signature WOW factors?
- How do you want the team to consult and prescribe?
- What regular team meetings will you have and what is the agenda?
- How will you ensure growth in yourself, your team and your business?
5. Learning is key to success and growth
In a service based industry like ours, we find that most salons and spas spend lots of time and money, learning about their craft and the brands they stock. Clearly this is important. However learning the art of business, leadership, cash flow, marketing, systems and sales are just some of the other things we, as professional business owners, are meant to learn. Many people accidentally fall into being business owners of a salon or spa because they are great at their craft. However those of you who have been in business more than 3 years now, will understand there is a huge difference between being an amazing therapist or stylist, and being an amazing business owner. To have a long term successful and profitable business you MUST learn the skills of business.
6. Salon or spa management is about accountability
To learn and grow is greatly important. However if you are not implementing what you are learning in business, then you are wasting time. Accountability is why I need a personal trainer at the gym and why I need regular meetings with my accountant. Accountability in business helps you to stay on track and moving in a forward momentum of growth, rather than spending years going around in circles and doing business by default rather than deliberate growth. You should be keeping your team accountable to their KPIs and productivity. You should be keeping yourself accountable with your business KPIs, development and growth. Have an action plan to get to your vision and have a mentor to keep you learning and accountable.
There are two mindsets, you are either Green and Growing or Ripe and Rotting… which one are you? A green and growing mindset those who are feeding their brains and learning all the time, a ripe and rotting mindset are those who are stale and stagnant. Change is inescapable so don’t be left behind to rot like rotten fruit. Get fired up, grow your team and most importantly grow your mind by learning from someone who has done it better than you.
Business Beyond Beauty Mentors
We are committed mentors who can walk you through winning salon or spa management strategies step-by-step. The advice above is not even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the wealth of knowledge and experience we have under our belts, and are willing to share to you.
All of us in business know that valuable and intelligent insight can grow your salon or spa to where you want it to be when you started. Often an objective and a critical (read: helpful) eye that can customise an actionable plan for success is an investment for a winning business. We would love to guide you on the path of green and growing and assist you in achieving the success that you dreamt of when you started your salon or spa.
Whether it is in financials, staff training, marketing, leadership, sales, systems or customer service, call Rene or Justin Herald at +61 414 743 929 for a consultation.