For years, we had a department at Preston Wynne we called “housekeeping.” I don’t know why or how this name was chosen, because I remember that at first we called the folks who did this job “spa attendants.”
It was difficult to find Housekeepers, thought we did have one person who was with us in this position for almost ten years. She was, remarkably, the only one who really “stuck.” I’ll call her Jackie. Every time I saw Jackie and asked her how she was, she answered me exactly the same way, “Working hard,” she’d groan, sometimes with a rueful little smile.
Jackie systematically hazed every new housekeeper we hired. Invariably, the newbie would come crying to a member of management, describing her cruel treatment. Jackie was afraid that the energetic newcomer might show her up and prove to us that she wasn’t actually “working hard” after all.
Invariably, Jackie would be written up and disciplined. Over and over again. She was often successful in getting others to quit, and drove away virtually everyone we hired. Especially the energetic, upbeat ones. They were punished soundly.
When a new manager marveled that we tolerated her bad attitude and poor work, I explained, “It’s hard to find housekeepers!” Of the constant skirmishes with coworkers on the Housekeeping team, we’d say “they’re like children.” With this team, forget best practices–our management style was parental. “That’s just how they are,” we told ourselves.
Meanwhile, Jackie played up her victim status to our therapists. She also did special favors for the therapists she learned would give her tips. They were convinced that she was the hardest working, most underappreciated human being on the planet. Meanwhile, her personnel file grew fatter and fatter with the notes on meetings, coachings and interventions. It was ludicrous.
We wracked our brains wondering why Housekeeping had never risen to the level of the rest of the team. “No one has ever stayed except Jackie,” we marveled. “And look at her!”
But something happened. One of my dear friends and trusted vendor Mariah Giunta of AcquaCures, a brilliant marketer and “namer,” suggested that we rebrand the Housekeeping Team.
“Why don’t you call them the Hospitality Team?” she suggested. “They can be your Spa Hosts.”
At the time, the suggestion sounded more poetic than practical. It was true, they did much more than washing towels, cleaning restrooms and vacuuming. They were responsible for our spa refreshments, an area of the spa experience that is fraught with Moments of Truth. They worked hand in glove with our Spa Concierges to ensure that our guests had a great spa experience. At least, they should have.
Mariah had seen something that we had failed to notice for many years. By calling them Housekeepers, we were relegating potentially talented customer service professionals to a menial, behind-the-scenes role. The job title also turned off men, who by and large do not apply for Housekeeping positions. And by accepting Jackie as the “standard” of the team, we had scared off good people who knew darned well she was not a role model and had no interest in following in her footsteps.
Getting uniforms for our Spa Hosts was one of the first actions. Not surprisingly, this threw Jackie into a tizzy. She fussed over the shirt we asked her to wear to the point where we had to call in our HR rep, and he actually went to Macy’s and bought some alternatives for Jackie’s approval.
Around about this time Jackie had to take a medical leave. And in her absence, the team suddenly flourished. A sense of pride emerged among the Spa Hosts. They looked for more ways to add value to the customer experience. They were eager to learn. I only had to show Yajaira how to trim roses once; after that, she prepared our spa bouquets with a conscientiousness that I never could have dreamed of in the “Housekeeping” days.
Our first ever “World Class Customer Service” training for Spa Hosts (I know, shame on me!) took place a couple of months ago. I was stunned to find out how smart, motivated and happy this team was, and how appreciative they were of the time spent. Suddenly I had a connection with the team that had never been there when I thought of them simply as the folks who cleaned the spa and handled the laundry.
A couple of weeks back, we took staff photographs and I took a portrait of the Hospitality Team. Their esprit de corps is visible in this shot, which I wasted no time in posting on our Facebook fan page.
This week, Esteban, the youngest team member, brought in a cake he’d baked for Nandita’s birthday. She’s our director of operations. As I enjoyed a piece of his delicious red velvet and chocolate cake at the staff break table, I realized that I was witnessing something I never thought possible: our Spa Hosts were real members of our team, not second class citizens.
What’s in a name? Quite possibly, everything.
Back in 2007, we were all Yelp haters. Now most of us, to paraphrase Dr. Strangelove, “have learned to stop worrying and love the Bomb.” We understand that this is simply the brave new world of customer service: performed while stark naked, on a high wire, over a flaming pit. Otherwise, exactly the same principles apply. Listen when people complain. Take them seriously. Don’t get defensive. Do what it takes to restore the relationship and their faith in you.
But please, don’t ask a Yelper to amend their review. That’s not just gauche, it could get you re-flamed.
I still meet spa owners that don’t realize they can actually message Yelpers who’ve eviscerated them. This isn’t a feature you have to pay for, folks. You can set up a free Yelp for Business Owners account and message away. They even offer some messaging guidelines to assist the panicky (or ticked off) business owner.
We tried Yelp’s first paid advertising program back in 2008 and were unimpressed. Per their own metrics, page views didn’t improve. We left the program. But we’re thinking about getting back in–and I’ll tell you all what happens if we do.
Here’s an interesting piece on how Yelp crushed Citysearch. Remember Citysearch? What a dinosaur. I noticed the other day that Citysearch still has a six year old, vicious review of my business posted by some angry customers I’d had to “fire” for chronically disrupting our operations. Six years ago!! When I wrote and asked why an ancient review was still lingering, posing as relevant and timely “content”, someone from Citisearch “explained” that there wasn’t any new content. Now that’s just sad.
The wonderful world of technology is ever-changing, and Yelp may end up being crushed by Google Reviews, though Google is a company that hasn’t had too many home runs lately, mostly due to missing every opportunity to get in on “This Social Media Thing.”
For now, Yelp is the industry standard. If you haven’t learned to love the Bomb yet, you might want to take it out on a date.
The spa industry is no longer in its infancy; we’re not even still adolescents. The spa industry is maturing. And yet, contrary to the predictions I heard ten and even five years ago, no spa brand has emerged as our market leader.
In the airline industry, the most admired and most profitable company is Southwest. I’m a fan, for all the reasons you’d expect. On time performance. Simplicity. No gouging on checked baggage. Yeah, the safety presentations are rarely funny any more (unless you happen to luck out) and those teeny bags of peanuts have gotten teenier, but the company delivers the goods.
Southwest’s “secret sauce” is no secret, yet no one has been able to successfully replicate their results. And amazingly, it seems to scale. Hopefully the acquisition of AirTran will not change the company’s recipe.
In celebration of its 40th anniversary, this article was published in Southwest’s Spirit magazine. It has distilled into 40 points some of the best business wisdom that Southwest has practiced during its lifetime.
Great lessons here for anyone in business. Enjoy!
Do you think it’s fair that you have to pay FICA tax on tip income paid to your employees, revenue that doesn’t benefit you or your business in any way? Neither do we. Fortunately there’s legislation afoot to fix this problem. The restaurant industry already has this–so should we.
Send a letter to Congress in support of the Small Business Tax Equalization and Compliance Act. This legislation, which has been languishing since 2007, is sponsored by senator Olympia Snowe. It will provide a dollar for dollar tax credit on the employer’s share of FICA taxes paid on a “cosmetologist’s” tip income, allow spa and salon owners to reinvest funding into their salons for training, education, and the hiring of additional staff, and promotes tax fairness.
The language in the bill (it’s a mere 9 pages and you can scan it quickly) specifically mentions “cosmetology” and by that refers to hairdressing, hair cutting, esthetic services and nail treatments. My concern is that it does not include massage therapy, though it doesn’t explicitly exclude it, as long as you consider massage therapy a “beauty related service” when performed in a facility where the “majority of the gross revenue” is comprised by aforementioned beauty treatments. I wonder if the Professional Beauty Association and the National Cosmetology Association ever tried to get together with the AMTA to lobby on this bill. Excluding massage therapy and massage businesses seems like an enormous oversight.
But then again, that might have taken another four years.
The bill’s language is at times quaint–it actually references “mud packs.” (I’m guessing no-nonsense Yankee Ms. Snowe hasn’t been to a spa in awhile; she’s been doing the People’s Business.)
Here’s a quick and convenient way to tell your representatives to support this legislation and get their hand out of your pocket (well, it’s still in the other one, but hey, it’s a start.).
by Erin Hackett, Wynne Business Client Services Coordinator
When was the last time you “shopped” your store? When you visit, keep in mind the things that matter to the customer:
- Is it easy to navigate? Can they find what they are looking for?
- Does it feel “bolted on” or does it express your spa brand?
- Are there product reviews?
- Is it integrated with your Facebook Fan Page and other social media?
- Is the shopping cart and checkout process fast, smooth and secure?
If it’s time to revamp your store, keep in mind:
- This is not an overnight process. Even with the new, simpler templatized solutions, it may make sense to hire someone with experience in that platform to set it up and train you in its use. After that, you can update and maintain the store in house, or with minimal assistance.
- You’ll need to customize the store template to ensure that it reflects your spa’s colors, images, branding, etc. Preston Wynne Spa worked with a programmer experienced in the Big Commerce platform to refine the look of its store template.
- You can’t get all the bells and whistles on your wish list with a templatized store solution. Be prepared to compromise here and there; you save a lot of money. As the store’s sales grow, invest more to customize and improve it.
- Product pictures must be consistent in appearance. Do the backgrounds match? Are they clean? Use a “drop out” white background and you’ll find that many of the product images you need can be provided by the vendor. The rest should be done by a photographer (unless you are one.) Freelance product photographers are inexpensive, consistent and fast.
Need help starting? I’m part of the project team that can remodel your web store, and even update your website (on an platform that you can maintain yourself.) We also assist spas with their social media programs. For more information, contact Wynne Business. Or if you have a question about your web store, drop me a line at erin@prestonwynnebusiness.com.
The “online coupon” phenomenon is creating tremendous chaos in the business world. Small businesses have a love/hate relationship with companies like Groupon and Living Social, but consumers are besotted. To the harried small business owner, it seems as if deep discounting has become the only way to market (it is, if you listen to Groupon reps.) Consumers’ e mail boxes are stuffed with a steadily mounting heap of “daily deals.”
But there’s one unintended consequence of all this discounting that doesn’t seem to be on the radar yet: inflation.
Money, like water, finds its level. If dizzydizcounts.com grabs 50% of my 50% off service, and I’ve gone down that coupon road, ultimately I’ll be raising my suggested prices to enable constant discounting. Department stores have done this for years, knowing that a substantial percentage of their fashion inventory will have to be sold at discount.
As well, as small businesses turn to mindless, cattle call extreme discount marketing, their profits will drop. What do you do when you’re staring at a P & L and the bottom line has dropped out? Hey, let’s raise prices and sell more coupons! In the ecosystem that is the free market, endless discounting will just lead to endless price increases.
We’re already seeing “discount fatigue.” Discounts are sexy when they’re deep…and rare. When they’re deep and common as dirt, they lose their cachet for more affluent consumers. Once tickled by the novelty of a shocking discount, even the customers from the Affluent demographic recognize that the spas who pimp themselves this way are not the ones you take home to mother.
Churn is very hard on a quality spa, and discounting can turn your facility into a churn-factory. It’s hard on employee morale to work with demographically unqualified customers, people you can’t retain no matter how happy they are with your service. It’s hard on employee morale to have your compensation discounted for the promise of future business.
If you’re going to go down that road, any deeply discounted offer you concoct should still be at the net price point of a full-price treatment, i.e., if you’re giving 50% off, it should be on two treatments, not one. And for heaven sakes, unless you just opened your doors, you have a database full of inactive clients who’d love to receive your very own 50% off coupon, and share it with a Friend. They are far more likely to be retained than Newbie McNotip.
Seriously–if you’re gonna get naked, do you really need to pay Groupon to take off your clothes for you?
Discounts encourage a mentality that is the exact opposite of what a clientele-based business wants to cultivate. Discounts train customers to want more discounts, not to be loyal to that kind and generous business that offered them a discount last year.
My last conversation with a Groupon rep lasted for about an hour, an entertaining bit of gladiator combat that I initiated. I was impressed by his passion and we had a fun and lively debate. Here’s what I told him the Groupon promise boils down to: “We’re going to fill your spa with a giant Caterpillar tractor scoop full of dirt. In that huge scoop of dirt is some gold, and it’s your job, Ms. Spa Owner, to find it. If you don’t find it, it’s because you’re blind, not because it was, in fact, nearly 100% dirt.”
In other words, the only reason our discount lovin’ Groupies won’t toss away that next 50% off coupon for Trollop Spa, and offer to stay with you and love you forever, is that you didn’t provide them with a quality service. Groupon, a company that’s blessedly virtual, unsullied by the bricks-and-mortar, blood sweat and tears work of delighting actual clients in the real world, would have you believe that if their customers don’t return to your spa at full price, it’s because you suck.
Groupon is the fastest growing company in history, and it’s not surprising. Parasites usually grow faster than the hosts on which they feed.
Most companies today recognize the need to articulate their core values. Core values provide the compass that guides the business. While business strategies should constantly be evolving, core values, like true North, don’t change. In stormy times of stress and change (hello!) Core Values provide a secure anchor. They can remind us of who we are when we are considering compromising our principles. They can help us focus on what’s truly important. They can help us make decisions and set priorities. They can be used as a touchstone when coaching an employee and a measuring stick when hiring a new team member.
But where do Core Values come from? Jim Collins is one of the world’s experts on the importance of core values in organizations, having researched them extensively for his books “Good to Great” and “Built to Last.” He writes
“… you cannot “set” organizational values, you can only discover them. Nor can you “install” new core values into people. Core values are not something people “buy in” to. People must be predisposed to holding them. Executives often ask me, “How do we get people to share our core values?” You don’t. Instead, the task is to find people who are already predisposed to sharing your core values. You must attract and then retain these people and let those who aren’t predisposed to sharing your core values go elsewhere.
I’ve never encountered an organization, even a global organization composed of people from widely diverse cultures, that could not identify a set of shared values. The key is to start with the individual and proceed to the organization…”
Who should create your core values?
Management teams or owners usually initiate the process of clarifying and identifying values, but as Collins points out, this can’t be a top-down activity. If Core Values are simply handed out to the team, they are often ignored or even ridiculed as more silly management-speak, or worse. (As the cynical Dilbert proclaims, “values are a type of emotional illusion common to children, idiots and non-engineers.”)
Identifying Core Values is a process of discovery, and for that process to be relevant and resonant in the lives of your team members, it needs to involve as many of them as possible. Agreeing upon your most cherished Core Values is a ritual that, when properly facilitated, can bring all an organization’s members closer together. Articulating core values is not simply an exercise in word-smithing. Word-smithing is important, but it actually comes last.
How do you identify core values?
We like to compare the process of identifying and articulating an organization’s values to diamond mining:
- We collect a lot of ore, filled with rough diamonds
- Together, we sift through the ore and carefully select the best gems
- We polish and cut the best gems
- We proudly set and “wear” our gems
How many Core Values are enough?
Good management is a lot like parenting, according to business “growth guru” Verne Harnish of Gazelles (gazelles.com). He says, “have a handful of rules and repeat yourself a lot.” That “handful of rules” are your Core Values. Because it’s difficult to retain more than three concepts, we strongly recommend limiting your Core Values to three—a handful, if you will.
Some companies use single words, others prefer to use phrases that explain the behavior expected. For example, at Preston Wynne Spa, our Core Values are
- WOW our customers 100% of the time
- Build and protect a fun and harmonious work environment
- Achieve our goals and keep our commitments
What if I don’t like the Values my team comes up with?
It’s extremely rare to have the Core Values process deliver Values that are different from yours. Why?
The people in your company ultimately reflect and agree with your true Core Values—that’s why they’re there.
One important reason to work with a facilitator in this exercise is to ensure healthy balance in the Values. For example, when you talk about Core Values with your team, especially teams from hospitality and helping professions, expect the conversation to get fairly animated. Teams that deliver intensive customer service are highly interdependent. Positive interpersonal relationships are crucial to their happiness. Their values tend to focus on interpersonal relationships with one another.
The facilitator ensures that all stakeholders are strongly supported by at least one of the Core Values: employees, customers, and ownership all have slightly different needs and agendas. The “kumbaya” values of your team may not acknowledge the necessity of making money, for example.
An easy way to describe this is to think about the “three relationships” each team member experiences in the organization:
- Relationships with co-workers
- Relationships with customers
- Relationship with the business
Rather than establish these limitations at the beginning, we try to encourage a very unstructured discovery of personal values as they relate to work. Too many rules early in the process can restrict the free flow of conversation and ideas. Instead ask,
- What’s important to you at work?
- Why do you work here?
- What do you like most about your coworkers?
- What do you like most/least about the organization?
- What behavior do you think expresses a true professional?
Engaging people to talk about what’s bothering them also helps uncover core values. For example, the “A Player” individual who feels she is burdened by teammates’ lack of responsibility will help articulate the need for teamwork.
Core values are aspirational, too. In other words, you don’t have to be perfect at “living” your Values, 100%, to claim them as yours. You can all agree on what’s important and essential and use this to move in that direction. The purpose of Core Values is not to simply say “this is who we are,” it’s also to say, “this is who we all want to be.”
How long does it take and what happens?
While a traditional Core Values process can take a long time, we’ve developed an approach that is surprisingly quick and remarkably effective. By effective, we mean that participants feel heard and respect the outcomes.
A Wynne Business Core Values retreat is a process that usually takes one day. We’re able to work with even large groups because of the process we use.
AGENDA
9:00 a.m. to 10 a.m. What are Core Values and why do we need them?
This introduces everyone to the purpose and importance of Core Values and helps everyone to understand their role.
10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Core Values “Mining”
Individual and group exercises. For the group exercises, employees are divided into cross-functional teams of about six persons
11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Core Values “gem selection”
Through a fun and interactive “Post it Vote” process that effortlessly creates consensus, we narrow down the gems to three value concepts.
12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Core Values Polishing, first phase
A facilitated discussion to ensure that our three “rough gem” concepts work for the team. Adjourn general session
1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Lunch break
2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Core Values Polishing, final
Following the final polish, we discuss the publication, use and reinforcement of the Values through the company’s systems. For example, will team members be evaluated against the Values during performance appraisal? How can management employees make Core Values come alive? What methods will be used to publish and share the final polished Core Values? How can we coach using them?
5 p.m. Adjourn with your new Core Values!
Spa directors speak the word “Groupon” with the same distaste that they once reserved for “Yelp.”
I don’t think the barrage of social media discount ideas will stop anytime soon. And, as ever, there are great ideas to be gleaned from companies that we love to hate.
First of all, the Groupon “concept” is much too easy to rip off, so competitors are pecking away at Groupon, and dissapating the marketing energy across a zillion little discount operations. I think that’s a good thing–there’s potentially some “discount fatigue” happening out there.
We know the hardcore discount shopper will never tire of Groupon and its ilk. And your core, loyal customer of a spa may wander…once…and return after they experience the hot mess that spas become when they’re inundated with hardcore coupon action.
It’s not just customers who experience offer fatigue. The employees of spas that are accepting coupons are requiring their teams to accept discounted compensation. That might work once in awhile, but as a lifestyle, it drives away good staff. Even when employees are allowed to opt out, a spa that’s groveling to Groupon is not a paragon of team spirit.
Groupon’s simplistic nature makes it an easy target for another competitor: you and me. A colleague forwarded me this brilliant promotion from the Intercontinental Spa in San Francisco. Sexy: a 55% discount on Valentines gift certificates.The actual offer is $20 for $45 worth of spa services.
Of course, an entry level hour massage at this very nice hotel spa is going to run $120. That $45 gift certificate can only be used once, and you can only buy one. (And actually, you have to be new, or having a service for the first time.)
So the come-hither 55% discount is there in the e mail subject line, and the offer is irresistible, but to get a $120 spa treatment, you’re going to spend some serious coin: $95. The $20 you paid for your $45 certificate, plus the $75 balance after that $45 is deducted.
But wait, there’s more!
The Intercontinental didn’t have to pay a company to sell its services at a discount, so in the end they’ve simply discounted by 21%–provided the guest only enjoys one hour long service on that visit. If the same guest enjoyed two services the effective discount drops further.
No, they probably don’t have thousands and thousands of discount-mad people on their e mail list to send this offer to. But I’m guessing they have more than enough to accomplish their marketing goal.
Happy Valentine’s Day, indeed.
Ask most spas if they’re planning a price increase for the New Year and they’ll look at you as though you were crazy. But there’s an easy way to do it, and it won’t require so much as a new menu.
Think about what you’ve been doing for the past two years: discounting, adding premiums, and offering free upgrades. You’ve been temporarily reducing your prices. We did an analysis at our spa and it appears that when we add these goodies up, we’ve been selling our services at roughly 10% off our “rack rate” over the past year.
So how do you raise prices? Don’t lower them.
Dial back the discounts. Stop throwing around incentives.
The beautiful thing is that you don’t have to announce this, as you would a price increase. You don’t have to inform your guests that they will probably pay more for your services this year. Some of them may not–the ones who have the flexibility to respond to last minute offers, for example. Yield management will still be an important part of your spa’s business strategy. But it’s time for spas to stop rewarding customers for what they intend to do anyway.
If you stop giving away the spa, your top-line revenues may decline slightly. Let’s say you reduce your effective “aggregate” discounting by 5%. But even if you lose 5% of your volume as a result, and your overhead remains the same, you’ll actually generate more profit.
A reduction in discounting will never be perceived the same way as a price increase. That’s good for your image. But a reduction in discounting has the same effect as a price increase. And that’s good for your bottom line.
That’s a direct quote from my friend Holly Stiel, who has been a guru in the world of hotel and spa concierges for years. Far from being just good advice for “hospitalitarians,” these are words to live by.
In Santa Barbara last Sunday night, I arrived at a restaurant. The host was all smiles until it was revealed that our party of six did not have a reservation. It was a cold, post-holiday evening but the little cafe on State Street was busy.
He explained with a weird, tense smile, that we would be fortunate indeed if there was a way to fit us in. Could he recommend another restaurant for us, I asked, not wanting to participate in the song-and-dance.
Turns out there was a way to get us in! A miracle.
So as he seated us, he made sure we knew how lucky we were. He told us exactly that, with the same taut smile.
This restaurant owner won the Booby Prize. By making sure we knew we were “wrong” (assuming there would be a table for us as walk-ins) he had hoped to school us (my restaurant is very popular, and you, Ms. would-be Guest, are being incredibly presumptuous sashaying in here with your party of six!) Instead, he lost my future business.
Being Right is something most of us aspire to and we pursue it, instinctively. His response is one of the most common hospitality “being rights” I see. Hosts and hostesses at restaurants do it all the time. But the gentleman could have acted more like an “agent” rather than a “gatekeeper.” These are expressions coined by Danny Meyer, the great restauranteur, in his book Setting the Table, the Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business. (Yes, you’ve heard me recommend it before.)
What if he’d simply welcomed us with, “We’d love to get you in. Thank you for coming tonight. Give me a moment and I’ll see what I can do.”
I would have continued my twenty-year tradition of dining there.
