Retail is an absolutely vital part of a successful spa operation. In many cases it can be the difference between generating a profit or sustaining a loss.

Today, spa retail revenue on average generates 5-25% of total spa revenue but represents 20-25% of total profit. Therefore, it is clear that by increasing retail revenue there can be a huge effect on overall spa profitability. Every spa operation today needs to evaluate their retail operations to ensure that they are fully maximizing their retail revenue/profitability potential.

SHOP COMMUNICATION is something we see will be the new “buzz” word for spa retail management – just becuase this is something that we can improve at drastically and it is not that hard to do.

Most buying decisions takes place in the actual shop. Therefore exposure and communication in the shop have significant impact on sales.

Shop communication purposes

• Communicating the retail range in an attractive manner
• Provide information on product characteristics
• Help the customer to make purchasing decisions on their own
• Controlling the sale of the goods with the highest profitability and turnover
• Inspiring add on buying
• Communicate the retail brand

HOW?

Exposure affects profitability. Products given more space and clear exposures will sell more. The products that you want to sell most of should have prominent positions at the entrance, near the checkout and the “main shopping street”.

Some tips…

Eye tracking– There have been numerous studies to show how our eye is tracking the retail item in terms of packaging design, placement, preferences and search behaviours. Studies have then shown that the eye perceives the most exclusive products to be on the top shelf, and budget/low cost products on the bottom shelf. Research has also shown that the most effective retail display is the ones that include a face and those products that are repeated in display and in an actual product sells better, as customers like to purchase products the feel familiar with.

Guest round – The way your customer “walks” the shop; studies shows that 80% of the customer walks clockwise and that they are most interested in the beginning in the “round”. Further that the customer best sees an item from knee height up to just above eye height. This gives you hints on how to strategically place retail products to encourage flow and minimize “cold” spaces.

First impression – Eye tracking has also shown the crucial importance of first impression, capturing the customer’s interest to explore the shop further. The goal is to inspire and simplify the first impression.

The McCann Group study “The truth about beauty” (great study BTW – you can download from http://www.globalspaandwellnesssummit.org/index.php/spa-industry-resource) showed that consumers desired in-store experience should include

1. That they can touch & feel the products
2. That products are easy to find
3. Beautifully displayed

So get going with making your spa shops shine!

//Anna

Ps. The above is part of our Retail chapter from our on-line spa management course. Ds.

Achieving Operational Excellence won’t happen overnight, but it won’t take years or decades either.  There are two major steps that, done correctly in the beginning, will enable us to “jump” to Operational Excellence.  These steps are:

1. Establishing a destination.
2. Building a roadmap to that destination.

We spoke about the destination in the last blog post last week, if you haven’t read it, probably a good idea to glance it through! No to the roadmap…

Once we’ve taught each employee to think the same way about continuous improvement and Operational Excellence, we can start on the more practical side of achieving Operational Excellence by building a roadmap.

Just think of it this way:  companies that know where they are going will simply get there faster, and companies that achieve Operational Excellence will grow their businesses by taking market share – most likely from those who don’t.

The basis for the road map is to obtain consistency, something that the spa business isn’t famous for. In all industries, it takes attention to detail, it takes a combined effort, it takes training, sometimes it takes inspection and testing, and it always takes a real commitment to Quality.

In the Spa industry all of these things are more difficult because we lock our customer in a room with our employee and hope all goes well and our client is happy. Once we have consistency – which is essential service, then we can build excellence.

The three main weapons we have to achieve consistency are:

1. Standard Operational Procedures
2. Training
3. Evaluating & Testing

The Research Institute of America, which conducted a study for the White House Office of Consumer Affairs, sheds some light on the devastating consequences of poor customer service:

• The average business will hear nothing from 96% of unhappy customers who receive rude or discourteous treatment.
• 90% of those who are dissatisfied with the service they receive will not come back or buy again.
• Each of those unhappy customers will tell their story to at least nine other people, and 13% will relate their tales of woe to over 20 people.
• For every complaint received, the average company has 26 customers with problems, six of which they consider serious problems.
• Only 4% of unhappy customers bother to complain. For every complaint you hear, 24 others go un-communicated to your company, but not un-communicated to other potential customers.

So get out there an achieve operational excellence!!!

//Anna

Achieving Operational Excellence won’t happen overnight, but it won’t take years or decades either.  There are two major steps that, done correctly in the beginning, will enable us to “jump” to Operational Excellence.  These steps are:

1. Establishing a destination.
2. Building a roadmap to that destination.

Today we will speak about the destination and the next blog post on Tuesday we will go over the roadmap. Stay tuned!

Establishing the destination of our efforts is key.  It lets everyone know we are not trying to just get better every day; we are trying to attain a level of performance in the operation where management is no longer needed to tell each employee what to do.  To achieve this, a good destination to set is Operational Excellence.

Operational excellence is when: “Each and every employee can see the flow of value to the customer, and fix that flow before it breaks down.”

This means we want to get our operation to a point where the flow of product has been made so visual that everyone in the operation can see if we are on time to the customer without asking any questions. We also want to make disruptions to the flow visual, too, and then create standard work for abnormal flow conditions that employees can enact when – or even before – flow breaks down.

There are nine questions about continuous improvement that do just this.  These questions are critical to achieving Operational Excellence because they show that there are many “opinions” on why we do continuous improvement instead of one straightforward, solid answer that each employee can understand.  Here are the nine questions.

• Why do we do continuous improvement?
• What is the best way to improve?
• How do we know where to improve?
• Why do we strive to create flow?
• What causes the death of flow?
• What would the spa floor look like if we did everything right?
• What would the office look like if we did everything right?
• What would the supply chain look like if we did everything right?
• Where will our continuous improvement journey take us?

You need to set the destination with your team, there is no pre-set universal destination, each spa is different and the best way to decide upon where you want to go, is to do this together with your team.

Once we’ve set our destination as Operational Excellence and understand what it is, we then need to create the roadmap that will get us there.

Until next time!

//Anna

I often geet asked which are the best spas in the world I have been to. Of course it all depends on what you want to get out of them and the below list is a mixture of destination, city and resort spas, and what they all have in common is that they ambience and energy of the spa is special and transformational combined with excellent well-trained treatments.

Today you will find 3 of the top 6 spas and on Tuesday the remaining 3. Cliffhanger!

AMANPURI, THAILAND

Amanpuri was the first Amanhotel built and the spa opened 2001 and just as the rest of the resort, it has that magical feeling. Each treatment room is a villa overlooking the valley and part of the ocean. After your treatment you have a private sala where you can relax and enhance the treatment. Treatments are of course top quality.

JIVA GRANDE SPA, TAJ WELLINGTON MEWS MUMBAI

Ayurveda is a way of life and a powerful healer, not to be taken lightly as done in many spas. At Jiva spas it is true Ayurveda supervised by a certified Ayurveda Doctor, providing their guests with actual health results. Jiva’s spa concept is 100% Indian, and even the more pampering treatments are true to Indian and rare experience in the spa world.

MANDARIN ORIENTAL NEW YORK

I love this spa for its cosmopolitan feel, great service, very high quality therapists and great design. To sit and wait for your treatment overlooking all of New York, then experience a personalized treatment in their amazing spa suite and using their superb wet areas to conclude the experience is one way to spend a great day in New York.

Saty tunded for the next 3!

//Anna

During a conversation with some yoginis sitting on a lawn in the middle of Stockholm some reflections surfaced. During the summer there are many Yoga workshops taking place in Sweden and we were talking about the different messages and interpretations of Yoga. How one takes on the practice – do I Yoga to live or do I live to Yoga?

Is my practice serving me or do I get injured? Do I use the practice to become more aware of my body and energy level and can adapt my practice according to the received information? Or do I bring my competitive mind to the mat and race towards achieving the asanas no matter what?

There, on the lawn in the afternoon sun, one of the Yoginis spoke about doing the mountain pose (starting ones practice) with integrity, those words stayed with me during my own practice that evening. To stay soft, focused on my own needs and accomplishments rather than going into achieving and comparing with my status yesterday or my aspirations on tomorrows practice or comparing myself to someone else’s practice in the room.

So I am trying to stay in tune with my breath, here and now, what is needed in the moment and the community in the room.

Shanti shanti

Isabella

Today I read from EWG newsletter (Einvornmental Working Grouop) http://www.ewg.org/ about cleaning products from the President Ken Cook, and I though we would just publish the letter on our blog, as one of our goals is to make everyone question and be more aware what we get exposed to every day through food, products and environment.

Happy Reading!

//Anna

Dear Friend,

Did you know that on average we’re exposed to 126 chemicals through personal care products every day?

This alarming fact made me wonder: what about the cleaning products I use? If my shampoo and deodorant contain that many chemicals, what the heck is in my laundry detergent?

Turns out, most cleaning products don’t even list their ingredients on the label. I had to jump through hoops – going to the website, calling the company – and even then I couldn’t get the full story. So I talked to the research team
at EWG. And they went to work for me – and for you. Next month we’re releasing a new database with more than 2,000 household cleaners ranked on how hazardous their ingredients are and how much information is on their labels.

Our analysis found some startling facts. Many products contain ingredients known to cause asthma or are contaminated with carcinogens. And, maybe even worse than that, lots of products provide little to no ingredient information – leaving you in the dark about what you think is cleaning your home.

“Green” products aren’t necessarily any better. Many of them boast of using ingredients made from plants rather than petroleum – but there’s little or no safety data for some plant-based ingredients. A truly green product should pose few risks to your health and to the environment – and be transparent about what’s in it.

We know that indoor air is sometimes more polluted than outdoor air, so it’s important to know what’s in your cleaning products. Labeling cleaning products isn’t mandatory – as it is for food, personal care products and drugs – but as a consumer, you ought to have that right. You shouldn’t be left in the dark about products you buy and use every day.
I’ve been working to protect consumers from harmful products for almost 20 years now, but what I’ve learned about cleaners shocked me. I hope you’ll take some time to learn the truth about the products you use so you can continue to keep your family safe.

Sincerely,

Ken Cook

President, Environmental Working Group

Scanning the program and the content of the Key note speech at the “ Inner IDEAS Conference” coming up this October in California, I am stricken of how far we have come since introducing the concept of Body-Mind in the middle of the nineties, the lectures and classes are all about wellbeing and how to find peace of mind and workout routines that enhances body awareness and reduces stress.

Classes available on the conference (http://www.ideafit.com/fitness-conferences/inner-idea-conference/sessions):

Different variations of Yoga and Pilates, an array of breath and meditations sessions.

As I wrote in an earlier blog this summer, body mind related and functional training are really on high demand.

I think one of the main reasons for this is that people want to integrate movement and workout regimes that promote and facilitate closeness to self. Enabling them to recognize needs and ways to monitor and be in charge of their own wellbeing.

//Isabella