business
holiday CHAOS
KEEPING FOCUSED AND
GROUNDED DURING THIS SEASON
photo: Yuri Arcurs/Shutterstock.com
“2013 CRAZY COOL SPA TRENDS!” “Now is the time to start planning for next year’s cutting-edge spa treatments!” Whoa ... hold up! This sounds like a great article topic, but that headline was simply written to capture your attention. One of the biggest challenges we face this time of year is keeping ourselves and our staff motivated and focused. As we all know, the holidays are almost here once again, and we all have to work harder and smarter to rev up holiday sales numbers. With so many things going on to prepare for the holidays, how do we keep our eyes on the prize? How do we keep our colleagues laser focused as we strive to end the year on a high note? With the inevitable chaos of a busy holiday season, we must slow down for a minute and plan how to keep everyone on the same page. One of the best ways to do this is to make sure you have the “buy in” from your team. Make sure to gain the input of your spa leaders as you work with them to keep the team focused on finishing strong. It is important to gain agreement from the team on the sales goals for the holiday retail rush. Make sure to post your sales goals where everyone can see them and track your progress daily. A morning meet up with your team to go over the plan for the day lets them know you are still looking at everyone’s overall performance. Be creative and have some stellar sales incentives and prizes for top performers. This is a great time of year to reach out to your vendors to ask for gift cards, baskets and product line favorites that can be used to motivate your team. Keep your own budget in check while working with vendors to provide
some awesome incentives. Remember that your vendor partners have sales numbers to hit as well—what a great time to connect with them and create sales contests that provide a win-win for everyone! Also, work with your leadership team to define strong schedules to keep your therapists on task. Make sure you have plenty of staff on hand during your peak times, and always have well trained retail experts available to take care of anyone that happens to wander into your retail boutique. One way to do this is to extend lunch breaks by 30 minutes or even an hour; this allows people to catch up on holiday shopping and chores. When given this extra time, you can expect more staff to return from lunch on time. Also, giving folks a little extra time shows them that you are really invested in them, which results in more positive attitudes. Keeping morale up is very important at this time of year! Be sure to institute a “check it at the door” mentality for your team. With all the distractions happening around them, tell your team to leave all that holiday stress and anxiety at the door. While they may be thinking about the next holiday gift that has to be bought, it is most important to remember the reason we all do what we do—to be the good stewards of the spa industry, who focus on providing our clients with a memorable and beneficial wellness experience. Upon entering the threshold of the spa, it is time to focus on the client. Perhaps the best advice for a frenzied holiday season is indeed this very thing—focusing on the client. With a renewed sense of client focontinues
BY TEDDY LESTER
www.LNEONLINE.com • Page 87