I had an interesting conversation with a colleague recently about how difficult it is to convince senior management to add retail training to their budget. I’ve heard this story more times than I can say. Most often the decision maker is male, over 65 with a background in hospitality but not spa. Read More
Can you believe it’s the end of summer? Had I been in the states, my family would have been discussing the disruption of our post Labor Day vacation in the Outer Banks. (My prayers go out to the flood victims.) Read More
I’ve always been into watching sports. My Dad is head official for the Penn Relays, a national tournament held annually in Philadelphia so track and field is an event that I’m very familiar with.
The great thing about sports is that with the right coach, athletes who might be considered just average can rise to great heights of excellence.
As I watch what’s happening in the spa industry today with retail selling and the lack of therapist training it makes me think about Olympic high jumper Dick Fosbury. (Hang in there with me for a moment and you’ll see where I’m going with this.)
Last week I had a very interesting conversation with the senior manager of a massage club company. I’d experienced great massages from one therapist in particular who works for his company and I told him so. I also mentioned that although stress relieving products are in-house, in two years she had never suggested one to me. I trusted her so I would have purchased almost anything she recommended. I wondered if he might be open to try a new method of training that’s been very effective with therapists. He responded:
“We track metrics and invoke and promote strategies for LEs to improve and drive retail sales in line with our partners’ X and Y. We have instituted a National Director of Esthetics and National Esthetics Trainer to drive this facet of our business from a franchisor level and I’m pleased with the results to date. We significantly outpace our competition X and Y in revenue. I think we have the appropriate vision of what we can do, what we are doing, and are capable of doing.”
I think we have the appropriate vision of what we can do, what we are doing, and are capable of doing.”
I am certain that prior to 1968, world class coaches around the globe held the same conviction about their method of teaching the high jump. And then an athlete named Dick Fosbury showed them something quirky and different.
New methods can often spur your team to levels of achievement that you never imagined.
Always be open.
Linda Harding-Bond is the creator of Increasing Your Retail Selling an Online Training Class for Spa Managers. It is the first retail sales and engagement training designed for how introverts learn.
Is this the unspoken message delivered by many companies with products or services to offer?
I ask because although these companies employ both introverts and extroverts, the sales training that they deliver is invariably designed for the strengths of one personality type only; extrovert. Read More
As a spa trainer and consultant I do a lot of information gathering. Two of my sources are LinkedIn’s Pulse magazine and articles on Twitter. Twitter’s information is in real time, fast moving and can be customized to appeal to specific demographics. It makes me wonder why more C-Suite executives from the hospitality industry aren’t using Twitter to reach a broader audience.
According to Leslie Gaines-Ross of Weber Shandwick, a recent analysis in Harvard Business Review, found that 80% of the chief executive officers of the world’s largest 50 companies are engaged online and on social media.
None of those companies include hotel groups. Indeed when trying to find CEO’s from that sector who tweet, I was able to locate only three; Greg Marcus of Marcus Hotels, Mark Hoplamazian of Hyatt Hotels and of course Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Hotels.
Want to read more? Click here>>>http://huff.to/1IlBUU9
Moontide Consulting (MC) caught up with Norm Bond (NB) in Bangkok, Thailand and asked for his insights on the global spa industry and social media. We wanted to see if he could give us three social media facts that managers in the global spa industry need to know. Bond is widely recognized as an international authority on marketing. He’s also the author of “Web Traffic Decoded” and a frequent media guest having appeared on CNN, Reuters, FOX News, National Public Radio (NPR), Business Week, and Black Enterprise Magazine.
So give a read and enjoy our exchange below.
MC: Social media (SM) is all I read about now. It’s everywhere. But if I’m a spa manager do I need to be concerned? Isn’t this a senior management area?
NB: Social media is an integral part of an entire organization. From the senior manager to the entry level employee to the front desk person. Because the nature of social media today is that everybody can be touched by it.
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Update: I was contacted by TripAdvisor’s Senior Manager of Public Relations who informed me that they do have a section on their website under the category of Spa & Wellness. There you can post your reviews for day spas. They do not have a platform specifically for hotel or resort spas. Thank you to TripAdvisor for their responsiveness to their social media audience and willingness to discuss this issue further.
I’m a huge fan of TripAdvisor. It would never cross my mind to make a reservation for a hotel or restaurant without first checking my favorite source of information. And I write reviews as well; I figure that’s the least I can do for my fellow travelers. I was informed by TripAdvisor that I’m in the top 4% of their reviewers with over 19,012 readers. That’s a lot of people.
n 2013 “global wellness tourism” generated 494 billion dollars and “spa” singularly generated 94 billion dollars in revenue. In the U.S. alone from 2008-2013, 124 million people visited a spa. It is one of the fastest growing and most profitable industries in the world. Why is the service paying public not being asked to weigh in on their collective experiences?….
This article was published on Huffington Post. Want to read more? Click here>>> http://huff.to/1NIGG25