Learning from Industry Professionals Week: Spa Management Techniques to Improve Business and Revenues

This  information is compliments of Institute of Spa Management

Sensible Ways to Increase Your Spa’s Bottom Line

In order to make the most of your spa business, you need to come up with creative and revenue producing ways to increase you spa’s bottom line. Adjusting and tweaking your overall plan as business ebbs and flows is the best way to stay profitable throughout the year.

The most important thing for your spa is to maintain a high level of rescheduled appointments. This can be done by creating a rewards program for returning clients. However, the rewards need to be something your clients actually want, such as free services or discounts on prepaid or bundled services.

Create programs that will bring clients back week after week rather than every other month. This can be done by offering special multi-week programs that focus on weight loss, body transformation, detoxification, or wedding day preparation where clients come in once a week for 4-8 weeks in order to reach a specific goal.

You also want to staff your spa with quality personnel in order to create an atmosphere focused on customer service and client satisfaction. Offer employee incentives to keep your turnover rates low and establish performance-based incentives to keep customer service high.

Proactive Spa Marketing: Maintain an Email List for Spa Clients and Use it Often!

Getting clients to return to the spa more than once or twice a year should be the main goal of any successful spa manager. It’s much easier to promote services and treatments to satisfied existing customers than it is to attract new ones, but you need to be proactive in your efforts to get those returning clients back into the spa on a regular basis.

Gathering demographic information, maintaining current email addresses, and keeping in contact with your current clients are essential elements to getting those clients to return to the spa more frequently. Creating a monthly electronic newsletter, promoting special for returning client only services, or sending out personalized notes and birthday greetings can keep your spa’s name in the forefront of your clients minds.

There is so much competition out there that it's more important than ever to keep a positive and continuous dialogue with your clients. However, there is such a thing as too much communication and promotion. Make sure you are only sending out promotional emails to those clients who want to receive them and don't overdo it by sending out unwanted daily emails. No one likes spam, so keep the emails short, infrequent, relevant, and informative.

 Spa Services to Attract New Customers and Convert them to Long Term Clients

When it comes to attracting new clients to the spa, the oldies, but goodies are always a great place to start. Massage is the number one service that attracts clients to the spa. The most popular massage is by far the Swedish massage. This is a good massage for the beginner and when performed by a well-trained therapist, your clients will want to return again and again. You can also offer other types of massage such as hot stone, aromatherapy, and Shiatsu for those who want to try something new and different.

Other popular spa services include facials and body treatments. Providing exfoliating facial masks and treatments that relax the face, stimulate the muscles, and target problem skin areas are the types of services that clients are looking for. Body treatments, such as salt scrubs or body wraps are great for beginners and leave them feeling rejuvenated and ready to make their next appointment!

You can also add indigenous treatments to your menu that combine ingredients popular in the spa’s local region with massages or other therapies. This might include using peach scrubs in Georgia, volcanic ash mud baths in Hawaii, or blueberry body wraps in Maine.