Spas selling gifts online (that is, all spas) need to make sure their marketing system is up to scratch. Everyone wants a piece of the gift market, and your big online competitors are better at optimizing search, (Google “spa gift certificate, Yourtown” and see where you stand.)

If you’re like most spas, you probably have the ability to sell instant gift certificates online. If you don’t, that’s your first step. Vendors like Spa Boom make it easy, though they take a goodly chunk of the transaction.

The next stop is your website. Do you make gift buying easy and obvious? Some tweaks may be necessary. There’s a picture of a gift card right on our Preston Wynne Spa home page (it’s a link, of course.)

Need more ideas? The always edifying luxury expert Pam Danziger shares some impressive intelligence about today’s gift shopper in this informative blog.

Whatever happened to loyalty, you wonder?

Smart spas know that loyalty isn’t dead. They’re moving in the opposite direction. While their peers have been wantonly discounting, they’ve developed premium treatments and marketed them to clients who are searching for something special. Not gimmicky, overpriced stuff–like the silly-luxe services of the past that were the equivalent of a mobile phone encrusted with diamonds–gold leaf masks and such. No, these are serious treatments that offer a higher level of results and offer a platform for your top performers to shine (and earn.)

A terrific example is AvantGard spa in San Carlos, California. Blanca Caballero, entrepreneur extraordinaire, has never followed the herd. She’s a savvy yield manager, but she never let the recession drag her into the discount fray. Recently, she created the AvantGard Five Star Facial and Five Star Massage, and they’re one of her most successful new service launches ever, despite the $175 price tag.

Why are guests responding so well to expensive services during a down economy? One of the factors is the heightened awareness of celebrity beauty rituals. Videos such as this demonstration of the Tracy Martyn’s “Red Carpet” Facial–which includes advanced modalities of electro current, oxygen infusion and diamond tip microdermabrasion, to name a few–have whetted the appetites of Millenial and Boomer clients alike. Watching this video, shot in Martyn’s elegant Manhattan skin care studio, makes you crave, not just the treatment, but the experience of being special, a quasi-celebrity.

But skin care is not the only treatment that benefits from premium positioning. Massage therapy, which many mistakenly consider a commodity, is anything but to the educated consumer. Many affluent guests who travel the world and experience different bodywork modalities return to their hometown spa in search of something more sophisticated than a 50 minute Swedish session.

One of the greatest advantages of offering premium services is that they showcase the best that your team and your spa is capable of. When you constantly promote the “base model” service, which is harder to differentiate, you set yourself up for an “apples to apples” comparison to lesser competitors.

Instead, put your specialties, talents and capabilities in the spotlight. Bust out those triple axles. Give them an experience–and results–to remember. I know that if we send a client out to see a friend after a HydraFacial and Caviar Masque that friend, unprompted, is going to rave about how great their skin looks.

It’s time to put the magic back in your menu. As Apple has shown us, the reward for real creativity is real loyalty.

Taught by Peggy Wynne Borgman, Wynne Business Executive Consultant and Lisa M. Starr, Wynne Business Senior Consultant

If you own, manage or plan to invest in a spa, this program is a must.

If you’re already involved in spa operations, the Spa Director’s Management Intensive will help you tackle your toughest management challenges. If you’re planning to open or acquire a spa, you’ll leave this program with a clear understanding of the potential risks and rewards. If you’re considering a career change or advancement into spa management, the Spa Director’s Management Program will put you miles ahead of the competition.

Unlike most management training courses, the Spa Director’s Management Intensive is rigorously updated and relevant to the current business climate. Hot button-topics like yield management and recession-era employee morale issues are part of the curriculum. Unlike most other consulting/education firms, we actually own and operate a successful 28 year old day spa in California with fifty employees. We’re in the trenches with you in this difficult business climate–we have to walk our talk. We share what’s working now.

Class size is limited for maximum interaction with the instructor. Registration closes July 26.

Visit our registration site

Details on location, schedule and what to bring follow this agenda, below:

THE AGENDA

Financial management skills for directors and managers

• Overcoming your “fear of financials”: financial literacy made easy

• Managing by the numbers: how to really use the information you get from your financial statements

• Budgeting basics: how to set financial goals that make sense

• Positive cash flow vs. profit: the critical difference

• Capture rate and its impact on the stay spa financial plan

• How to evaluate the effectiveness of your employee compensation plan

• Best practices in compensation design

• Performance incentives to motivate your team when you can’t give raises

• Plugging the profit “leaks” in your operation

• Understanding the impact of discounts and promotions

• Understanding the legal and accounting issues of gift card sales

Sales and Marketing

• The only three ways you can grow your sales

• Marketing modalities for spas: what works, what doesn’t

• Event marketing essentials

• Marketing trends: the good, the bad, the ugly

• Millenials vs. Boomers: understanding the next generation of spa goer

• Best practices in spa web presence

• Getting the most out of your printed marketing collateral

• The why and how of spa packages

• Social media: roles, responsibilities and ROI

• Advertising: where to spend your budget now

• Understanding yield management

• Crafting more compelling and less expensive marketing offers

• Understanding your real cost of customer acquisition

• What “retention” means in your spa (it’s different for day, stay and med spas)

• The role of the local market in hotel spas’ success

• Should your spa market with online coupons?

Successful Spa Programs

• Why the spa menu drives vendor selection–not the other way around

• The pros and cons of “branded” treatments

• Innovation vs. profit: keeping it simple

• Modular menu design

• Optimizing workflow while ensuring safety and customer satisfaction

• Best practices for managing back bar costs

Retail Management

• Ending the disconnect: making retail happen in a spa

• Creating a more profitable retail mix

• Best practices for optimizing your inventory turns

• Salesflow: redesigning internal processes to support sales success

• Effective recommendation tools that spa employees love to use

• Scripting that sells

• Best practices for partnering with vendors

Leadership

• Understanding social styles and their impact on interpersonal communication

• What your team needs from you and how to give it to them

• Recruitment: how to hire the best employees

• Why the customer actually comes “second” in a great spa

• Why you’re doing everything yourself and how to stop it

• Why you can’t motivate your staff and what to do about it

• How to produce great staff meetings

• Best practices in employee discipline

• Performance appraisals that improve performance

Quality Management

• Moments of Truth: why little things are a big deal to your guest

• The Experiential vs. Transactional spa

• How to manage quality in the “closed door” spa environment

• “We don’t need another hero”: how consistency creates great service

• The three essential ingredients of world class service

• How to instill a “quality” mindset in your entire team

• Spa Speak 101: helping your team communicate with quality

• Teaching your team to effectively resolve complaints and perform service recovery

• Comps, refunds and redos: how to use them wisely

• Inspection: the key to success

LOCATION:

The Inn at Saratoga in beautiful Saratoga, California.

CLASS SCHEDULE:

Sunday to Tuesday:

9:00 Continental Breakfast

9:30-5:30 Seminar

TUITION

$1599 per person

10% discount for more than one attendee (co workers, colleagues and friends are welcome to register, but one credit card will be required for the complete tuition payment)

10% discount for earlybird registration by July 1st.

Combine these discounts and multiple attendee/earlybirds and get 20% off

Registration closes Thursday, July 26th.

INCLUDES:

• Continental breakfasts
• Lunches
• Coffee Breaks
• All course materials, including our famous Spa Director’s Text
• One hour complimentary telephone consultation after you return to your business

WHAT TO BRING:

• Business cards to share with classmates
• Your current spa menu, if existing (copies if you’d like to trade with classmates)
• Your financial statements, for your reference during class
• Your floorplan, for your reference during class (if available)
• Your top three “learning takeaways” wish list for the course

Visit our registration site

The other day, one of our regular spa clients said to our spa director, “I received a gift certificate from (your competitor). I don’t really want to go there. Will you honor it?”

With super powers forged by the fires of recession, today’s SuperConsumers have thrown off the rusty old shackles of loyalty and fairness. Trailed by their golems, Groupon, Living Social and (really, Jeff?) AmazonLocal, they roam the land feasting on deals and discounts.

Today's SuperConsumer is happy to say "buh-bye" if you don't meet her demandsthe land feasting on deals and discounts.

In a country where half of the population is now considered low income or poor, a small, powerful percentage of the population is doing almost all of the discretionary consumer spending. This client’s request would have been outrageous ten years ago. But in a world where “free” has become an expectation, not a treat, it’s the cost of doing business. SuperConsumers know that they’re large and in charge. And I would be the first to declare that we are fortunate indeed to have this client.

What did we do? We honored that competitor’s gift certificate.  (It will be given to one of our team members as a perk; mystery-shopping other spas is terrific education, after all.) Effectively, our client’s gift certificate became my half-off coupon. One, of course, that I was not planning to buy.

In discussing the phenomenon of “gift leakage”, where clients are spirited away to competitors when they receive gift certificates, I used to say that I defined a loyal customer as someone who’d receive a gift certificate to another spa and simply re-gift it to someone else.

I guess I’d better update my definition. How does this sound? A loyal customer is someone who asks you what you’re willing to pay for their loyalty.

Here’s my fantasy of a perfect world: every consumer would be required to operate a small business for at least one year of their life. To function as a responsible member of a capitalist society, we all need a practical understanding of the “laws of  business gravity.” You know, stuff like “cost of goods sold” and “overhead expense.” (Try getting that onto the curriculum, folks!)

Eeeeeyeeew, that’s math.

Today’s SuperConsumer is proving to us that ignorance is bliss.

Taught by Peggy Wynne Borgman, Wynne Business Executive Consultant and Lisa M. Starr, Wynne Business Senior Consultant

The Spa Director’s Management Intensive has always been the most progressive management education program in the industry–continuously updated and full of fresh content. For spa directors, owners, investors and startups, SDMI delivers answers to some of the most vexing challenges faced by spa businesses. Though attending a live seminar with colleagues has unique and powerful benefits, not everyone who needs this program can take the time away from their businesses or lives.

In The Spa Director’s Management Intensive Online, you’ll acquire the knowledge we pack into our three-day program in an expanded, self-paced format designed to be completed in about twelve weeks. Each week, students watch a presentation, complete a reading assignment from the course text, and do exercises to help them master the content. Students receive instructor feedback weekly.

SDMI Online has another benefit: it is structured as a graded program. To receive our certificate of completion, participants

Complete our online spa management course online, at your own pace.

must receive an overall grade of 75%. If you’re considering sending your team members to the program, you’ll be able to see exactly how well they’ve performed. (CEU’s are coming soon as well.) Our online course also offers a multiple registrant discount of just $899 per person.

Hot button-topics like yield management, online discounters, and recession-era employee morale issues are part of the curriculum. Unlike most other consulting/education firms, we actually own and operate a successful 28 year old day spa in California with fifty employees. We’re in the trenches with you in this difficult business climate–we have to walk our talk. We share what’s working now.

Just as with our live seminar, this program is led by Peggy Wynne Borgman and Lisa M. Starr.

THE AGENDA

The program is presented in a series of modules:

Financial management skills for directors and managers

• Overcoming your “fear of financials”: financial literacy made easy

• Managing by the numbers: how to really use the information you get from your financial statements

• Budgeting basics: how to set financial goals that make sense

• Positive cash flow vs. profit: the critical difference

• Capture rate and its impact on the stay spa financial plan

• How to evaluate the effectiveness of your employee compensation plan

• Best practices in compensation design

• Performance incentives to motivate your team when you can’t give raises

• Plugging the profit “leaks” in your operation

• Understanding the impact of discounts and promotions

• Understanding the legal and accounting issues of gift card sales

Sales and Marketing

• The only three ways you can grow your sales

• Marketing modalities for spas: what works, what doesn’t

• Event marketing essentials

• Marketing trends: the good, the bad, the ugly

• Millenials vs. Boomers: understanding the next generation of spa goer

• Best practices in spa web presence

• Getting the most out of your printed marketing collateral

• The why and how of spa packages

• Social media: roles, responsibilities and ROI

• Advertising: where to spend your budget now

• Understanding yield management

• Crafting more compelling and less expensive marketing offers

• Understanding your real cost of customer acquisition

• What “retention” means in your spa (it’s different for day, stay and med spas)

• The role of the local market in hotel spas’ success

• Should your spa market with online coupons?

Successful Spa Programs

• Why the spa menu drives vendor selection–not the other way around

• The pros and cons of “branded” treatments

• Innovation vs. profit: keeping it simple

• Modular menu design

• Optimizing workflow while ensuring safety and customer satisfaction

• Best practices for managing back bar costs

Retail Management

• Ending the disconnect: making retail happen in a spa

• Creating a more profitable retail mix

• Best practices for optimizing your inventory turns

• Salesflow: redesigning internal processes to support sales success

• Effective recommendation tools that spa employees love to use

• Scripting that sells

• Best practices for partnering with vendors

Leadership and Communication

• Understanding social styles and their impact on interpersonal communication

• What your team needs from you and how to give it to them

• Recruitment: how to hire the best employees

• Why the customer actually comes “second” in a great spa

• Why you’re doing everything yourself and how to stop it

• Why you can’t motivate your staff and what to do about it

• How to produce great staff meetings

• Best practices in employee discipline

• Performance appraisals that improve performance

Quality Management

• Moments of Truth: why little things are a big deal to your guest

• The Experiential vs. Transactional spa

• How to manage quality in the “closed door” spa environment

• “We don’t need another hero”: how consistency creates great service

• The three essential ingredients of world class service

• How to instill a “quality” mindset in your entire team

• Spa Speak 101: helping your team communicate with quality

• Teaching your team to effectively resolve complaints and perform service recovery

• Comps, refunds and redos: how to use them wisely

• Inspection: the key to success

INCLUDES:

• Our proprietary Spa Director’s e-Text
• Assignments, online discussions and tests
• One hour private business coaching session

TUITION

$1299 per person, $899 per person for two or more participants from the same organization

Visit our registration site

Bad things happen to good customer care professionals, which means that your service isn’t measured by how good you are on a good day–it’s about how good you are on a bad day. A chef friend who possesses two Michelin stars told

Every interaction with a team member is a chance to model excellent customer service.

me once that 3% of his guests, on any given night, would not be happy.

“Service Recovery” is the friendly term we use to describe the process of trying to fix things when we screw up. Training hospitality professionals to “recover” gracefully and skillfully is essential, but it’s hard. Simply reminding your team to employ the Golden Rule is not going to do it. As well, even the best techniques and tactics, scripts and procedures will often fail unless you and your team have mastered the mindset of World Class Service.

In many spas, when something goes wrong, the owner or director rides in on a white horse to save the day. While it’s essential for your team to see the right behavior and approach “modeled” in order to learn what to do, this can reinforce the belief that saving the day is the leader’s responsibility. What happens when the gal in the white hat isn’t there? No one wants to deal with an unhappy customer, and if this is perceived to be your job, no one will. They will send you one of those gut-churning e mails. You know the one: “Call Diane Jones. Very upset about massage.”

Meanwhile, Ms. Jones stews in her juices, getting angrier for every hour that passes without some sort of resolution to her issue, when there is a whole team of people who could have taken care of the issue, or simply initiated the service recovery process and given the client a sense that Something was Being Done.

You read the message and shake your head. Why does it always come down to me, you wonder.

What creates the mindset of World Class Service? First and foremost, stellar service is a product of your core values. Not the ones printed on that first page in the employee manual, but the ones expressed by your actions every day.

Great customer service begins with providing great customer service to your employees. Spa employees will choose a positive and supportive working environment over one in which they’re paid top scale and abused, ignored or undervalued. They’ll have a hard time creating an authentic customer service experience when they’re spoken to rudely, harshly or imperiously behind the scenes, or when their requests and needs are ignored or brushed aside.

Just as with your guests, the real test of your internal customer service happens when something doesn’t go right. You “model” customer service behavior every time you interact with a staff member.

The next time you cringe at the way someone handled a customer complaint, think about how you handled that employee’s last complaint to you. Did Jason interrupt you in your office doing e mail to talk about a minor schedule problem that you treated as petty and exasperating? Did Jennifer complain that her treatment room had been left in shambles by a notoriously messy coworker and you avoided dealing with the issue because the mess-maker was a sales superstar?

There may be a striking resemblance. If you’re tired of wondering why no one else can “save the day” like you can, try showing them how, rather than telling them how.

Every spa wants to believe it gives outstanding service, and many claim to offer “world class” and “five star” customer care. But do you really? Does the massage therapist you just hired, who’s never patronized a world class spa, know how to deliver that level of service for a guest? How about your spa concierges?

Good news. It’s important to hire for aptitude and attitude; the rest you can teach. This foundation webinar is designed to help spa employees in every position, and at every level of experience, work closely as a team to create a stellar spa experience.

We’ll help your team understand how world class service is created, from the ground up. We’ll explain the vital importance of each of the three “ingredients” of legendary service: values, systems, and art. When these three ingredients are properly integrated by your team, guests have the sort of experiences that convert them to raving fans.

Your team will learn about:

• What customers value most
• The guest expectation of a five star spa experience
• The power of consistency, or why Systems drive all world class service
• How right-brained spa professionals can learn to love the “sacred geometry” of Systems, Rules, and Processes
• Process improvement and quality management skills for everyone in the spa
• Communication skills and easy, low-stress problem solving
• Understanding Social Styles
• Why “going above and beyond” starts with “mastering the basics”
• Unleashing the “Service Artist” within
• The magic of Deep Teamwork

This session includes an hour presentation and lecture followed by a question and answer session.

Click here to register.

Let’s say he’s paying a 25% effective tax rate (because he’s blending capital gains at 15% and his ordinary income tax rate of 45%.) His secretary is paying 35%. His income is in the millions. Let’s call it $10 million (it’s much more). Her income is probably south of $100,000 (he’s famously cheap), but let’s assume it’s exactly that.

Who’s writing the bigger check? Uncle Warren, of course. Miss Cathcart pays $35,000 in taxes. Uncle Warren pays $2,500,000 in taxes. Does that sound fair? When you look at it in dollars in cents, it probably does.

The notion of percentages haunts the spa industry, too. You’re interviewing Mona, a new and promising massage therapist and you ask her what she would like to make working at your spa.

“50%,” says Mona without hesitation.

“But how much money would you like to make?” you ask.

“50%,” replies Mona, a bit more slowly (poor thing, you probably didn’t understand her the first time.)

“Why 50%?” you finally ask.

“I think that’s fair,” she says.

Ah, there’s that word again: fair. (To be frank, “fair” and “unfair” are two of my red-flag words in a job interview.)

“But you don’t know what we charge for our services and how busy our schedule is,” you say.

“Yeah…um…I want 50%,” says Mona, aware now that you are obviously trying to pull the wool over her eyes. “That’s what they pay at Spa Ajax.”

“But 50% of nothing is nothing,” you point out helpfully, aware that Spa Ajax is about to close its doors.

She blinks.

The spa industry is not dominated by math majors and financial whizzes. But we share something with a large chunk of the American public, including the media (“Communications” majors, they were called when I was in college.) And that something is a spectacular lack of understanding about the way that basic accounting works. This is why we confuse percentages with actual numbers.

To wit: the esthetician who, when hearing that she receives 40% commission on services but “only” 10% commission on retail sales, tells herself that the latter is not worth her time. Despite the fact that it takes virtually no time compared to performing a service.

While I was having a manicure yesterday, one of my nail care specialists, when I mentioned that I was working on securing financing for our expansion, informed me that I was rich. It was sort of cute. Her explanation: “You’ve been doing this for 28 years. You must be very rich.” In her mind, everything that she doesn’t get goes to me.

To free ourselves from the shackles of the past, spa employees must learn how businesses actually work, instead of feeling that it’s “fair” to simply divide everything in half. We learned that from our mom when we were battling with our kid sister over who got the cookies. Business literacy can only be accomplished by something many spa owners are loathe to do, which is open our books periodically and share the real numbers (not just the percentages) with our employees. Believe it or not, this really works.

Another technique we’ve used is to translate the profit and loss statement into a play, “Mrs. Hunnert Goes to the Spa.” Mrs. Hunnert (so named for the ‘hunnert’ dollars she has in her purse) walks through an entire spa service experience, handing out dimes and dollars as she goes along, for various expenses. For example, at check in, Mrs. Hunnert is asked by the helpful receptionist to proffer ten dollars for her wages. During her facial, she is asked to proffer four dollars and sixty cents for the supplies used on her (which equates to 4.6% of total revenues on your P & L). She is asked for money for rent, utilities, etc. and at the end, usually has little, if anything to spare. It’s a comic way of demonstrating “where the money goes.” In Mona’s mind, that other 50%, minus rent and utilities, has gone right into your pocket.

As to whether it is “fair” to tax the fruits of investing your money at a lower rate than the fruits of your labor, I’m sure we’ll hear a lot more about that before this November.

If you own, manage or plan to invest in a spa, this program is a must.

If you’re already involved in spa operations, the Spa Director’s Management Intensive will help you tackle your toughest management challenges. If you’re planning to open or acquire a spa, you’ll leave this program with a clear understanding of the potential risks and rewards. If you’re considering a career change or advancement into spa management, the Spa Director’s Management Program will put you miles ahead of the competition.

Unlike most management training courses, the Spa Director’s Management Intensive is rigorously updated and relevant to the current business climate. Hot button-topics like yield management and recession-era employee morale issues are part of the curriculum. Unlike most other consulting/education firms, we actually own and operate a successful 27 year old day spa in California with fifty employees. We’re in the trenches with you in this difficult business climate–we have to walk our talk. We share what’s working now.

Class size is limited for maximum interaction with the instructor. Registration closes March 8.

Visit our registration site

Details on location, schedule and what to bring follow this agenda, below:

THE AGENDA

Financial management skills for directors and managers

• Overcoming your “fear of financials”: financial literacy made easy

• Managing by the numbers: how to really use the information you get from your financial statements

• Budgeting basics: how to set financial goals that make sense

• Positive cash flow vs. profit: the critical difference

• Capture rate and its impact on the stay spa financial plan

• How to evaluate the effectiveness of your employee compensation plan

• Best practices in compensation design

• Performance incentives to motivate your team when you can’t give raises

• Plugging the profit “leaks” in your operation

• Understanding the impact of discounts and promotions

• Understanding the legal and accounting issues of gift card sales

Sales and Marketing

• The only three ways you can grow your sales

• Marketing modalities for spas: what works, what doesn’t

• Event marketing essentials

• Marketing trends: the good, the bad, the ugly

• Millenials vs. Boomers: understanding the next generation of spa goer

• Best practices in spa web presence

• Getting the most out of your printed marketing collateral

• The why and how of spa packages

• Social media: roles, responsibilities and ROI

• Advertising: where to spend your budget now

• Understanding yield management

• Crafting more compelling and less expensive marketing offers

• Understanding your real cost of customer acquisition

• What “retention” means in your spa (it’s different for day, stay and med spas)

• The role of the local market in hotel spas’ success

• Should your spa market with online coupons?

Successful Spa Programs

• Why the spa menu drives vendor selection–not the other way around

• The pros and cons of “branded” treatments

• Innovation vs. profit: keeping it simple

• Modular menu design

• Optimizing workflow while ensuring safety and customer satisfaction

• Best practices for managing back bar costs

Retail Management

• Ending the disconnect: making retail happen in a spa

• Creating a more profitable retail mix

• Best practices for optimizing your inventory turns

• Salesflow: redesigning internal processes to support sales success

• Effective recommendation tools that spa employees love to use

• Scripting that sells

• Best practices for partnering with vendors

Leadership

• Understanding social styles and their impact on interpersonal communication

• What your team needs from you and how to give it to them

• Recruitment: how to hire the best employees

• Why the customer actually comes “second” in a great spa

• Why you’re doing everything yourself and how to stop it

• Why you can’t motivate your staff and what to do about it

• How to produce great staff meetings

• Best practices in employee discipline

• Performance appraisals that improve performance

Quality Management

• Moments of Truth: why little things are a big deal to your guest

• The Experiential vs. Transactional spa

• How to manage quality in the “closed door” spa environment

• “We don’t need another hero”: how consistency creates great service

• The three essential ingredients of world class service

• How to instill a “quality” mindset in your entire team

• Spa Speak 101: helping your team communicate with quality

• Teaching your team to effectively resolve complaints and perform service recovery

• Comps, refunds and redos: how to use them wisely

• Inspection: the key to success

LOCATION:

Historic Independence Park Hotel, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

CLASS SCHEDULE:

Sunday to Tuesday:

9:00 Continental Breakfast

9:30-5:30 Seminar

TUITION

$1599 per person

10% discount for more than one attendee (co workers, colleagues and friends are welcome to register, but one credit card will be required for the complete tuition payment)

10% discount for earlybird registration by February 10

Combine these discounts and multiple attendee/earlybirds and get 20% off

Registration closes March 8th

INCLUDES:

• Continental breakfasts
• Lunches
• Coffee Breaks
• All course materials, including our famous Spa Director’s Text
• One hour complimentary telephone consultation after you return to your business

WHAT TO BRING:

• Business cards to share with classmates
• Your current spa menu, if existing (copies if you’d like to trade with classmates)
• Your financial statements, for your reference during class
• Your floorplan, for your reference during class (if available)
• Your top three “learning takeaways” wish list for the course

Visit our registration site

As letter grade, 80% gets you an A-. Anything in the A family is considered good performance (unless you’re trying to get into Stanford. Sorry.)

In a five star rating system like Yelp, 80% translates into four stars. Yaaawn.

If you’re trying to pick a doctor, a car dealer, a restaurant, an esthetician or a massage therapist, four stars is merely the price of entry. An A- player is not a solid A player or an A+ player. It’s not likely that an A- esthetician will get a client excited enough to make a personal endorsement. That privilege belongs to the solid A or A+ esthetician.

If you’re a spa that’s trying to achieve a solid A, you need solid A Players on your team. A Players do what it takes to be successful. They make sure that they make their contribution–not to make their spa director or owner, happy–but because it’s who they are.

If being an A Player means they need to show up for 80% of the staff meetings (an attendance standard used in most successful spas, as well as our own) they do it. Because that’s who they are as a professional.

A Players want to be surrounded by other A Players. To be an employee in Good Standing in our spa means respecting the contributions of others, too. If you are an A Player, you don’t just show up to a staff meeting to learn, or participate. You show up to respect the others who are showing up, including team mates, vendors, educators.

There are a thousand reasons why it’s inconvenient to attend a staff meeting. And everyone who attends a staff meeting has overcome at least one or two of those reasons to get there. An A Player, facing inconvenience, distraction, minor emergencies, car trouble, will find a way to be there. Because that’s who they are. They don’t want to be left out. They don’t want to miss something that they may need to know.

When a new employee begins their job at Preston Wynne, we have a discussion about the responsibilities of the job. One of those is attending our meetings. We take our meetings seriously, larding them heavily with education and avoiding the tedious scolding that characterize so many spa staff meetings.

A Players who come to our spa from other companies often mention how positive, useful, and (yes) even fun our staff meetings are. We make some attendance exceptions for students and very part time or on-call employees. But there’s a tradeoff: their opportunities may be limited too.

In an industry where fair play is a real, living value, I’m always surprised that an employee would believe it is fair to give someone who has not met the attendance standard that they agreed to the same rights and privileges of an employee who has made the effort and met the standard.

More often that not, when I hear an employee say, “No one ever told me that,” it is someone who missed the meeting in which we Told Them That. Likewise the person who grouses, “No one knows what’s going on around here.”

Success is not simply about your attitude. It’s about your actions. It’s not about shooting for 80%, which guarantees you’ll miss even that goal, but shooting for 100% and nearly succeeding.

That’s what makes Preston Wynne Spa special, different and better.