You do want to be more profitable, don’t you? When I work with spa owners and managers to help them achieve greater success in their spas, I frequently point out that what they are selling is time: the time they spend with spa guests providing treatments and selling home care products.
A key aspect of profitability is getting the maximum revenue for the time a guest spends in the spa.
How can you increase that revenue for the same amount of time? There are several ways it can be done, and everyone will benefit—the guest, the service provider, and all other team members as well.
Time to Offer Upgrades
Before arrival, a guest has typically decided on a specific treatment. When a consultation is done by a knowledgeable team member, it is often apparent that the result the guest wants to achieve requires an upgraded treatment. Explain the benefits of that upgrade, and hopefully the guest will understand the added benefit and agree to the service. When a guest is pleased with the result, they will likely request the upgraded treatment for future visits.
Sometimes an upgrade does require additional time—such as when a Salon guest upgrades from a cut to a cut & colour. Although it involves more time, it increases productivity all around.
As a result of an upgrade, the guest will feel that they have been given the best option for them. The service provider will earn more for that treatment, and the spa will add to its bottom line. When a spa is more profitable, it is able to invest more back into the business and the people who work there. Everybody wins. Every time.
Time to Offer Add-Ons
Add-on services can usually be done at the same as the treatment that was initially booked. Adding, for example, an eye treatment, a lip treatment, or a collagen mask is a way for more revenue to be earned in the same amount of time. Not only does the guest get more benefit from the time spent in your spa, they will leave looking and feeling their best, feel more loyalty to the spa, and have greater appreciation for the talents and skills of the team.
Once again, more is earned by the service provider and the spa generates more profit.
If a reception team member has good knowledge of the services and treatments offered, they may be able to sell an upgrade or add-on when the appointment is scheduled by phone, or when the guest arrives. Offering incentives is a good strategy to encourage your team members to offer upgrades.
Time for More Efficient Booking
Booking software designed for spas is an indispensable tool. Nothing pleases a spa owner or manager more than a full appointment book!
Software alone isn’t enough. Team members must know how to use the software to maximize time. There must be policies and training that covers efficient, effective booking.
Appointments and treatments must be scheduled and performed according to set guidelines so that a guest receives their service and the room is cleaned and prepared in time for the next guest. If that time is too short, turnaround will be rushed. If that time is too long, the team member will have excessive unproductive, non-earning down-time.
Online booking can help fill those empty time slots if the system is well-managed and kept up-to-date so that only a currently available time can be selected by the guest.
Time to Re-Examine Staff Scheduling
Time is money in your spa. Business is profitable (or more profitable) when services are generating revenue and service providers are engaged with guests—not just standing around idle.
Team members must be scheduled for when there are guests booked, not simply scheduled to be there at a set time of day. If the last guest has left, then staff should leave early. All team members share the responsibility of keeping busy.
Once again, team members will benefit by using their own time efficiently: maximizing the amount they earn per hour.
Time to Sell Products!
The home care products you sell in your spa are high-quality products you believe in and want your guests to use.
The service provider should be recommending home care products during the guest’s treatment. Don’t you want your guests to continue benefiting from excellent products once they leave?
When a treatment is finished, make sure the guest is reminded and encouraged to purchase home care products. This can be done by either the service provider or a member of the reception team. Find out if they need to re-buy products they’ve purchased before. Show them new products also.
Don’t forget gift cards! Ask the guest if they would like to purchase a gift for someone’s upcoming birthday or special occasion.
Time to Add it All Up!
So many factors can increase your spa’s revenue per hour: upgrades, add-ons, efficient booking, strategic scheduling, home care product and gift card sales.
And everybody wins. The guest is better taken care of, team members earn more per hour, and the spa is more profitable. Every time.
Contact Robert Cass from Spaformation at www.spaformation.com
or reach out to [email protected]