Renew Magazine - July/August 2008 - (Page 38)

ultimate spa business boosters building your brand 1 Be known as unique. “Before I bought a spa,” says Susie Galvez, the former owner of Face Works Day Spa in Richmond, Virginia, and now founder of her own skin care line, “I went undercover to ﬁnd out what everyone else was doing.” That is, she visited the spas in her area to research her own options. To diﬀerentiate her business from the established ones, she carried product lines that no one else did and developed services that no one else oﬀered. “When you’re unique, clients think you have the latest and greatest.” If it’s too diﬃcult to oﬀer specialized treatments, she suggests you create a seasonal service menu that is available two to four times per year. “Make it relevant and make it fun, like a facial smoothie.” Your special services don’t have to be gimmicky: For example, chocolate body treatments might be trendy, but says Galvez, the antioxidants in cocoa are actually great for the skin. Even after you’ve set yourself apart, keep innovating. Your long-term clients will look forward to experiencing something new every now and again. Market yourself as the expert you are. Don’t be afraid to market yourself as you want to be known, says Galvez. If you want to be known for great antiaging treatments, write a press release on your oﬀerings and send it to local media. If reﬂexology massage is your thing, teach a class at a community event. Over time, you’ll become the “go-to” person for these services. If you have no speciﬁc area of interest, Galvez recommends you put “beauty expert” on your business card. “But you can only do that if that’s what you truly are!” Incorporate small touches as your “signature.” Every spa believes they oﬀer great customer service. But what’s going to make a client really remember you and come back? It’s the small things, say our experts, like warm and friendly service. Hot towel service on the neck during nail treatments. Personal phone calls to conﬁrm appointments. And at Sunshrine Day Spa and Salon in Lakeﬁeld, Ontario, one special touch that clients never forget—the spa’s signature homemade raspberry lemonade. It may seem minor, but “everyone who tries it remembers it,” says owner Tammy Blair. 2 3 Be top of the (virtual) heap. If you’ve ever Googled something on the web, you know that the simplest search can yield thousands of results. How do you ensure that clients searching for spas in your area will ﬁnd you? The answer, as Roxanne Vbinden, owner of Cielo Spa Boutique in Santa Barbara, California, discovered, is to hire an internet web optimizer. “If your spa is 10 pages back in search results, no one is going to ﬁnd you,” says Vbinden. “Our goal was to have our website show up within the ﬁrst few results.” Web optimizers work by sifting through key search words within your industry and attaching certain phrases to your website so it shows up in more search results, and higher up the list. Vbinden found her web-optimizer professional though an ad in a local publication and says that, within two weeks, “we had 10 new clients who said they found us on the web. One found us when she was searching for eyelash tinting, and said that we didn’t show up in her search just a month ago. So I know that it is working for us.” 4 management and operations 5 Open communication lines with your staff. Nicole Grossi, owner of Spa Ni’joli + Salon in Methuen, Massachusetts, says great customer service starts with consistency. When staﬀ know the steps to take in any given situation—whether booking an appointment over the phone, handling an unhappy client or fulﬁlling a special request––they can do their jobs with more conﬁdence and clients will sense they are being taken care of. But how to get your staﬀ on the same page? “That is the hardest thing to manage,” admits Grossi. But she and her staﬀ of 41 have found biweekly team meetings are a big help. There, 38 renewprofessional.com july/august 2008 http://renewprofessional.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Renew Magazine - July/August 2008

Renew- July/August 2008 Contents Editor's Letter Renew Face/Body/Mind/Spirit Reflect Editor's Picks Your Business Spa Spotlight Decor Ultimate Business Boosters Role Models Secrets of the Solo Esthetician Green Science Solutions Inside Ingredients

Renew Magazine - July/August 2008

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