Report on the 2009 ISPA Conference & Expo
in Austin, Texas
Part 3 of 3
by Julie Register
I,
along with over 1,800 spa professionals and over 150 exhibiters, attended the
19th annual ISPA
Conference & Expo October 5-8, 2009 at the Austin Convention Center in
Austin, Texas. This year the theme "simplicity" was woven throughout
the outstanding keynote speeches and valuable educational sessions. This report
is divided into three parts. The following chart shows the highlights of the event.
This is Part 3 of 3.
Part
1 - Oct 5 | Part 2
- Oct 6 | Part
3 - Oct 7 |
General
Session: Educational
Sessions: Expo Highlights: | General
Session: Educational
Sessions: Expo
Highlights: | General
Session: Educational
Sessions: Expo
Highlights: |
General Session:
Tony Hsieh, Jeremy Gutsche and Guy Kawasaki
I
had never heard of Tony Hsieh or Zappos. In this session, I learned that while
Zappos sells shoes online, their business, according to Tony, is about delivering
the very best customer service and customer experience. Under his leadership,
Zappos has grown gross sales from $1.6M in 2000 to over $1 billion in 2008 by
focusing relentlessly on customer service. According to Tony, Zappos will expand
eventually. "Whatever you think you're in, think bigger." He said every
enduring brand is about human emotion - gravitating to positive emotion or avoiding
negative emotion. He recommended crafting the customer experience around the emotion
you want to address. This must be in place before the customer gets there. People
don't buy luxury. People buy enchanting experiences. What is the emotion behind
it? Happiness? Recognition? Try to own those emotions. Tony said if you get the
telephone right, you can make a personal relationship with your customer. He said
your business must have a strong culture and core values as well as a vision and
purpose beyond money and profits. You can inspire your employees with these. Hire
and fire per your core values. Live by your core values. Tony said to focus on
leading. If you focus on managing, you have no time. You can see slides
from a presentation he made earlier this year to learn more.
Jeremy
Gutsche said that what spas do is no less interesting to consumers now than it
was before the bad economy. Consumers will return. He asked what are the things
we can do to make our spas irresistible and delight people so they have
to tell someone about it? He told a cereal story to illustrate opportunities in
a bad economy. Grape Nuts was the largest selling cereal before the Great Depression.
During the Depression, Kelloggs ramped up and doubled their marketing contrary
to the behavior of most companies of the time. They emerged the market leader.
Guy Kawasaki suggested spas be responsive and
adaptive to their clients. He also said you can't ask them and get a good answer.
He said market research is overrated. "If you're right, you're right. If
you're wrong, fix it!" He said not to apologize for luxury. Don't hide it.
Even in these times, people deserve luxurious experiences. He said "Don't
run your business to address the "1/2% of pain in the ass people. Develop
a thick skin. Today if ten people are pissed off, there are 1,000 that are happy.
Life is too short to deal with assholes." (personal note - I sincerely hope
I never run across this attitude in a spa. ~Julie) Guy suggested using
Twitter.
You can watch the presentation
HERE.
Diane
There
are 280,000 people employed in the spa industry. About 30% are in management.
The
health of your team determines how healthy your guest loyalty is.
Where
do you cut back?
Angie
Her spa is a membership club that partners
with local hotels. Her clients need new things from time to time to keep things
from getting old and to keep interest.
Assess what the need is vs. the want.
Denise
Her clientele expects perfection. The Spa staff is creative. When they
want something new, they must address the ROI, facts and data that will speak
the language of the controllers. She uses language such as, "This is what
I want to introduce…" not that they need or want it.
You must know
how to play the game. Ask for a little more than you need and settle for less.
Ask for 24 things, settle for 15.
Angie
Controllers are the people who
manage the money and cash flow. The controller has to make the calls. It's not
easy. They are the ones that get the calls for invoices that haven't been paid.
Explain
your needs in business terms and be willing to take something away in exchange.
Tammy
In
her case, she works with owners, and they want everything. She has to find a way
to make the owner happy and have everything still work financially. She has to
tell the owners it's not the time to add tooth whitener. She suggests they wait
until next summer for when the economy is better.
Denise
Where to cut
costs? Wages, salaries. Anyone can cut. When you do it, you kill morale. They
cut in March and in October.
It gets to a point where you can't get below a
certain point without impacting guests. You must have a skeleton crew.
You
must start at the top and have it be a group effort. Involve everyone - equally
cutting all the way around. Fight for the towel attendants. Instead of getting
rid of three bodies, let everyone take a 10% pay cut across the board. That way
they feel they are all in it together.
Diane
Look at it from the other
person's point of view.
If this is what we need to survive, if we all take
a cut, we will all get through it.
Some will leave.
Some will really appreciate
being part of a special team.
Tammy
5 star have a certain level of service.
She does not have the same requirements. She hired a skeleton crew for a new spa
at a resort. The owner wanted to be fully staffed but there were only 1-5 appointments
on the books.
Get very involved with the property's day to day booking. Know
if the hotel is at 20, 30 or 40%. Look at who is in the hotel.
If there is
only 1 appointment booked, send people home.
Denise
Branding - what
you truly represent. Her hotel has been there 7 years and has local clients. They
have cut operating costs. For instance, one of their standards is to serve guests
bottled water. They used Fiji at $.79 per bottle. She did a cost competitive analysis
of high end bottled water and now they provide bottled water at $.39 per bottle.
It is an acceptable and less expensive substitute. The quality will still be there.
You must understand what your brand requires.
Diane
It also affects line
staff. Engage your staff so they understand why you are doing something or making
a change.
Tammy
Talk to your staff. They know what the guests are saying.
Denise
If
you listen to your staff and guests, you may find you have to adjust your hours.
Angie
Don't
fire personality. You may not personally like someone that works for you, but
your guests may love them. Remember to do what is best for the business.
Don't
eliminate by hourly rate. It could end up as age discrimination. Longer term employees
who make more have earned it.
Review plans with your lawyer or HR department.
Don't
eliminate benefits and incentives. The staff still needs it for motivation.
Denise
Don't
eliminate marketing. They are the people who help get people through the door.
This may mean going to the same events but at a smaller scale. Partner with vendors
to reduce costs.
Other than word of mouth, how else will you get people through
the door?
There are opportunities out there.
Pay attention to who is walking
through the door.
Tammy
The spa couldn't go to media events this year.
They started focusing on local business. They try to grow local and regional business
not as much national.
Partner with charities (works very well)
Partner
with women's groups
Have after hours chamber of commerce business meetings
Be
creative
Do post card mailings with another business.
Angie
Payrolls
and salaries are affected by discounting.
With discounting, the number of treatments
increases but not the revenue. Everyone works harder for less. Everyone must understand
that they need to share the loss. We're just trying to survive…to have the
business break even.
You must look at the model of discounting and how it affects
compensation.
Angie
% off on supplemental rate limited
14 treatment
rooms
They offered a significant discount but defined the parameters. Only
two slots open per hour. They couldn't fill the book with discounted treatments.
The treatment price was discounted 25%. The therapist had a 5% reduction in pay
for performing those services. Guests never knew the treatments had limited availability.
Denise
It's
under your control.
Don't over discount. You will lose your position in the
market.
Sometimes you drive rate, sometimes you drive volume.
How
to keep staff motivated
Tammy
Listen better. When staff believes
we're all in it together, it makes a big difference. Mutual appreciation.
Diane
When
working harder but getting less..if staff is not happy, the guests will be the
first to know.
Denise
Staff morale is everything. As leaders, we must
be injectors of energy. In the end, our staff are the ones who make our guests
happy.
When you hide from problems, they will blow up eventually.
How do
you relate to them? She uses humor. She has a broomstick a staff member gave her.
Be real, honest. Don't be mean. If she holds the broomstick, everyone gets the
message that it's serious. "We manage energy. If it's off, shut the door."
Tammy
"I
tell my staff what I appreciate about them. This motivates each individual."
Angie
Uses
humor also, but she's a project person.
When there's lots of down time, you
may regret having an open door policy.
Listen a little better.
When there
is a complaint, turn it around. Ask for ideas of how it can be done.
While
still having to manage staff's time, she gives them projects.
If they complain
about something, they own it. It cuts down on the complaints but also creates
solutions.
Diane
Set boundaries so you can deal and have time outs.
When
in a tizzy, pick up the phone and call a colleague.
You own your own energy.
Denise
You
can share things with colleagues that you cannot share with friends or family.
A
3 minute phone call can really help. You hear one up stories, you laugh.
It
resets us.
We're human, too, and need a way to relieve stress.
Maintain
guest loyalty
Spend time reinventing the role of therapists.
Engage
guests outside the treatment room.
Outside the spa, the staff should be ambassadors
for the spa - in their social lives.
It must be controlled, however.
Denise
Engage
the staff. Keep the staff happy and the guests will be happy.
Bring in continual
education.
When it's free, it's not as valued.
Staff under 6 months pay
50%.
Give homework to guests beyond just suggesting retail.
Ask staff to
write 3-4 cards to guests every week. Not emails.
Tammy
Resort spa -
working with more charities and local businesses. Did one charity event and gained
72 new clients.
Chair massage for group meetings. They may walk down to the
spa and get a full service.
There are more 25-minute services than 50-minute
or 80-minute services.
Neck/back/shoulder gets them in the door
Free make
up - "doing eyes today" - when they come in for a neck/back/shoulder
massage.
Diane
Send staff out to bring guests in.
Denise
At
the Four Seasons, massage therapists go out to the pool voluntarily to do chair
massages to drum up more business.
4 - 10 hour days in a work week made staff
happier.
Email a rain check for $25 to only be used while it's raining - really
successful.
Tammy
Got 9 area hotels that didn't have spas to put up a
landing page for her spa on their web site.
Partner with businesses that don't
see your spa as a threat.
How has the economy affected guests?
Angie
Now
is the time you have to be better.
People are looking for signs of problems.
One
day, an area was overlooked by housekeeping, 5 guests asked if it was a result
of cutbacks.
Denise
Some people come in knowing they will walk away with
something.
Guests have thanked them for keeping things up.
Instead of the
scheduled floor replacement, they refinished the floor. It still looked new but
cost a lot less.
Tammy
Get guest feedback.
Offer a sweepstakes entry
if they fill it out.
Identify what is done right.
Identify what can be better.
Now
she's more concerned about feedback on a daily basis.
Denise
A handwritten
letter means more.
A quick email blast is not as effective.
Personalization
is key.
Staff Appreciation
Denise
Have out-of-spa appreciation
events for staff - volleyball games, pot luck, etc. It's good for morale.
Close
early on a Sunday or run at slow time with a skeleton crew
There is a kick
in their step the next day.
Tammy
Exchange gift cards with local businesses
and give staff $25 restaraunt gift cards
This
presentation is available on CD MobileTape
30+
Tools, Tips, and Techniques for Hiring and Retaining Top Talent in Today's Turbulent
Times
by Mel Kleiman, CSP
Mel gave at least 30 tips to hire
more effectively. Here are some of them:
After
having such a great massage with 
