With clients watching their pocketbooks closely, it is imperative for spa owners to do the same. This is the time to be aggressive in your marketing and detailed in your education and client service experiences. Invest in retail, networking, and sales dialogue training. These are the tools that can empower and alter your bottom line. It is not the time to switch out entire product lines or spend additional resources on un-traceable advertising.
Now is a good time to take a good hard look at your business structure and systems to ensure that every opportunity is being maximized. It is time to get back to the basics by connecting and networking with new clients and business associates. Dedicate efforts towards effective networking and you will set your salon or spa up properly to remain profitable thru this supposedly economically lean time. How many members of your team belong to a productive networking group such as BNI or LeTip and actually go on a regular basis? People who belong to at least one group make on average 20% more than their counterparts who don’t.
The services you offer your clients are a part of their wellness experience. Get them thinking services not only help them look and feel better, they help them to reduce stress and be able to give more to their work and the important people within their lives. On average, during a downturn in the economy, the first things to be excluded from an individual’s budget are “perceived” luxury services and products such as massages, aesthetic services and hair care. We want most clients to consider our services a necessity, not a luxury. However, one must agree that clients are pushing appointments out further than normal, attempting to maximize their dollar. Instead of visiting the salon or spa every four to five weeks, we are seeing clients returning six to eight weeks, which translates to one less visit per year per client. When we do the math, this can add up to a considerable drop in profitability at the end of the year, not only for the overall business as a whole but also to the practitioners and technicians. You can counteract this with the right type of training. Having a discussion around this reality early in the year allows opportunities to be maximized. Now is the time to plan and brain storm with the staff.
Everyone is affected by the economic slowdown, so it is everyone’s responsibility to come up with solutions. Do not fall into the trap of your staff chanting “You need to do more.” The truth is everyone needs to do more. Everyone needs to market more. Everyone needs to network more. It needs to be a collaborative effort working towards common goal of procuring more business for everyone. There is NO magic bus of clients that will drive into your parking lot for services.
Now is a good time to take a good hard look at your business structure and systems to ensure that every opportunity is being maximized. It is time to get back to the basics by connecting and networking with new clients and business associates. Dedicate efforts towards effective networking and you will set your salon or spa up properly to remain profitable thru this supposedly economically lean time. How many members of your team belong to a productive networking group such as BNI or LeTip and actually go on a regular basis? People who belong to at least one group make on average 20% more than their counterparts who don’t.
The services you offer your clients are a part of their wellness experience. Get them thinking services not only help them look and feel better, they help them to reduce stress and be able to give more to their work and the important people within their lives. On average, during a downturn in the economy, the first things to be excluded from an individual’s budget are “perceived” luxury services and products such as massages, aesthetic services and hair care. We want most clients to consider our services a necessity, not a luxury. However, one must agree that clients are pushing appointments out further than normal, attempting to maximize their dollar. Instead of visiting the salon or spa every four to five weeks, we are seeing clients returning six to eight weeks, which translates to one less visit per year per client. When we do the math, this can add up to a considerable drop in profitability at the end of the year, not only for the overall business as a whole but also to the practitioners and technicians. You can counteract this with the right type of training. Having a discussion around this reality early in the year allows opportunities to be maximized. Now is the time to plan and brain storm with the staff.
Everyone is affected by the economic slowdown, so it is everyone’s responsibility to come up with solutions. Do not fall into the trap of your staff chanting “You need to do more.” The truth is everyone needs to do more. Everyone needs to market more. Everyone needs to network more. It needs to be a collaborative effort working towards common goal of procuring more business for everyone. There is NO magic bus of clients that will drive into your parking lot for services.