3 Simple Mistakes Your Spa Reception Makes that are Driving Away Guests and Profits

When was the last time you called a spa, and experienced their reception department? Too often many spa leaders overlook the impact of their reception and reservation on their bottom line. Spas are losing new guests and missing out on sales because their R&R are not delivering a great guest experience. Here are three simple spa reception mistakes that are so easy to make: 1. Your spa menu is your best-kept secret. One time, I decided to get a spa treatment on an extended trip. Surprise! My hotel room did not have a spa menu. Whether your spa is part of a hotel or not, your spa menu must be available where the guests are (hotel rooms, lobbies, etc.). Strike up an agreement with the hotel, and use your spa’s treatments and products as added value to their offerings. This way, you are broadening your reach. 2. Your on-hold message tells guests nothing. When you call most companies now, you get to listen to marketing spiels when you are on hold. For a few minutes, you hear about special offers, new products or services, or other promotional items. Whether you like it or not, you are a captive audience. The on-hold message is a simple but effective promotional tool that tells guests immediately what they can expect from you. Write a script today for your on-hold message, and when you finally speak with your guest, reinforce the offer. 3. Your reception department do not have scripts for guest interactions. Our coaching calls always hammer on having communication scripts written out and ready for every guest interaction—from talking over the phone, to welcoming a new guest, to probing guest concerns, to starting a treatment, to recommending an upgrade, or even to asking for a review. Everything! Scripts lend confidence to your front line people. Because they know the end they want for every guest interaction—and how to get there—your team can capitalize on every opportunity for a sale or recommendation. They do not pepper their guest dialogues with “um”, “like”, “ah”, and “you know” that make them appear clueless to your guests. Remember that quality guest experience—and better profits—begins with the first “Hello!” Have a friend or family member call your spa. Get them to listen to your reception and reservation department. How did you do? See where you stand and make adjustments where necessary. Have any thoughts, concerns, or spa reception success stories? Share them in the comments section below! Reinvent Your Business (Volume II ) Seminar from InSPAration Management   Join us for the upcoming Reinvent Your Business (Volume 2) teleseminar on June 2nd, at 4:00 PM Eastern. You will learn everything you need to know on how to transform your “Wow!” guest experience to glowing online reviews . Register now »  
In the last business blog, we talked about the first three best practices to turn your spa website into a revenue-generating website.Make Your Website Work for You today On this post, we will discuss the next three strategies so your spa website is a powerful tool to bring in new guests, increase your capacity and retention rates, and get to that level of success you will enjoy! 1. Focused on benefits Are the words on your website solving problems for your visitors? Is the web copy suggesting ways for them to look and feel better? People go online to find information—about spa treatments and spa products. What you can do, and how you solve problems. Are you answering their questions and offering solutions? This allows you to show credibility and position you as an expert, as well as builds trust in your consumer’s mind. 2. Generates revenues Is your website  generating revenue? Your copy may be compelling, but if it is not asking people to take action, then your website is nothing but an online brochure. Get them to sign up for offers, download free reports, buy gift cards and products, make reservations, share feedback and testimonials, or ask a question, to name a few. There are many ways have them take action and to “buy” from you! 3. Targets the right audience How will you know if you are reaching your target market? Google Analytics can help you measure how many visits you get on your site, how long they stayed, what pages they viewed, how they arrived at your site, and many more. Best of all, it is is free. It will show you where you need to improve, and what you are doing well, so you can leverage this in making more money. So, is your website generating income for your spa? At the end of the day, your spa website should be a profit center, not a costly burden to your bottom line. Have any thoughts about this topic? Share with us your comments!   Register for Make Your Spa Social Media Work for You teleseminar today Learn more about how to use landing pages on your spa website to attract more prospects and increase spa capacity levels. Join us today in the teleseminar on “How to Quickly and Easily Create Landing Pages” in the CoachMe Gold series, Make Your Spa Social Media Work For You on April 28, 2015 at 4:00 PM Eastern »      
Is your spa website getting you a piece of that $15+ billion US spa market? Do you know how much revenue it has brought you since launching it?Make Your Website Work for You today Here are three of the six spa website best practices to implement to turn your spa website into an income-generating tool: 1. More than an online brochure In the past, you can get away with a website that simply listed your products and services, address, and some graphics. Today, slapping your spa menu or brochure onto a website is the best way to turn away potential spa guests permanently. Your website has to engage their attention, hook them with benefits, and get them to connect with you. 2. Build relationships When people come to your site, are they compelled to start a conversation with you? Does the language say there is a real person behind  it? On your site, they should find rich, engaging content that appeals to their interests, provides solutions to their problems, solicits their opinions, or simply gets them to connect with you. 3. Grow client list Your spa website is not a flyer. It is a way for you to capture your prospects’ information—their name and email address. This process is the core of your marketing efforts. Over time, your website should build on it. Your spa list is a ready-made audience for your products, treatments, and offers! In part two, we will discuss three more spa website best practices. Stay tuned! Share your concerns with your website and let us help you! Done for Me! Marketing InSPAration Management can help you connect with your guests and clients to increase retention rates and attract new clients. Done for Me! Spa Marketing is a time-saving, revenue generating program that gives you more time to focus on your spa. Click here to learn more »   Make Your Spa Social Media Work for You Want to know more how you can generate more revenues from your spa website? Join us for the upcoming teleseminar on “How to Quickly and Easily Create Landing Pages” in the CoachMe Gold series, Make Your Spa Social Media Work For You on April 28, 2015 at 4:00 PM Eastern to know more »    
How to Establish Trust at First Sight with Your Spa Guests photoHave you ever wondered what kind of impression your spa is making when a new guest enters your doors? Consider this: your spa reception is a major profit center, and the receptionist is going to be the first person that a guest will encounter. Is that person going to help increase your revenue or harm your bottom line? Trust is a critical aspect of every spa business. If you have been delivering results through your treatments and therapists, your guests should be lapping up the recommendations you make for products and treatment upgrades. You do not need a hard sell; all you need is recommend, and the sale follows. This is why, as a spa leader, you always have to check how your front line team is doing. How effective are they at projecting a competent, professional image? Do not be like an experienced I’ve had. The receptionist had bright pink hair, a plunging neckline showing lip-shaped tattoos, and an unapproachable demeanor. She did not even bother to greet me! I hightailed it out of there. You will never get a second chance to make a good first impression. Follow these image-enhancing tips to put your best foot forward:
  1. Adopt a uniform or professional attire for your front liners and therapists.
  2. Create your own communication script, from meeting first-time guests to talking with them on the phone to every possible guest interaction there is, using carefully selected words that convey your image, values and culture.
  3. For that matter, make sure your receptionists and therapists have superior communication skills. Clean up language, even when talking to each other.
  4. Train your team in effective listening, helping them to understand sub-text and zeroing in on guest concerns. That’s where opportunities for retail sales and upgrades are found.
  5. The telephone is also a major part of your leads generation—craft scripts for responding to inquiries, customer complaints, etc., that will project a helpful, supportive image over the wire. (Make sure your team answers calls with a smile, which shows over the line.)
  6. Create a problem-solving and guest satisfaction culture, training your team to be swift in anticipating and addressing guest problems.
  7. Make sure that your team has exceptional knowledge of every product and treatment that you have, so they can recommend at-home maintenance and upgrades where needed.
  8. Stay organized, including all work space.
Your spa cannot afford to turn away guests with a bad first impression. You’ll fight an uphill battle getting more new clients that way. As you continually improve on your image, watch your guest number and revenue climb up. To do: assess what new guests see when they first call you or come in, and update accordingly. Any thoughts or advice you want to add? Share it in the comments below. Thanks! Reinvent Your Business (Volume II ) Seminar from InSPAration Management   Trust is an important aspect of spa-guest relations. Join us to learn more about trust-based selling in the Reinvent Your Business teleseminar on April 7th, 4:00 PM Eastern ?      
When your spa team thinks of sales, something terrible comes to mind. Let’s face it: No one really likes to sell. Your team would rather provide a great spa experiespa sales dollars photonce. Selling is for the brave. If you want stellar spa growth rates year after year, you need to focus on sales. No sales means no profits, and no profits means you might as well close your spa now. Seasoned salespeople have plans—dollar goals and strategies on how to acquire leads and how to turn them into buying clients. They have a sales model. 1. Spa professionals must have a Spa Sales Model—the blueprint of your sales efforts. Without it you’re operating your spa business with the Hit-and-Miss Sales Model—if you hit at something often enough, you may not miss your revenue goals this time. (Good luck with that!) 2. Your spa sales blueprint must include a plan on creating new sales streams. It is true that you should do more of what works, and throw away those that failed. It is equally true that you should always have new ways to make more money. 3. So, revisit your programs—new members, loyalty programs, referrals, joint ventures—and revitalize them. Add offers to existing programs, or introduce new ones if you do not have them yet. 4. Link compensation to performance. Reward your team MVP—the top producer—for contributing to increased sales through higher product or treatment upgrade recommendations. Learn about the VPG Volume Per Guest compensation model and boost your profits. Reinvent Your Business (Volume II ) Seminar from InSPAration ManagementThere are many ways to invigorate your sales efforts and achieve phenomenal growth. Discover how you can train your team to become better at generating revenue through recommendations. Join the Reinvent Your Business (Volume II) seminar on Tuesday, April 7th, at 4:00 PM Eastern ?  
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