Almost everyone is waiting on something. For entrepreneurs with a product or service to sell, the waiting game can be tough. Actually it can be hell. Read More
Linda Harding-Bond
November 13, 2015
Tag service
Linda Harding-Bond
October 9, 2015
Six Soft Skills Your Spa Therapists Should Master
Tags: attention, beauty industry, customer, master, professional, retail, sales, selling, service, Soft Skills, spa, therapists Training
Tony is a veteran stylist who works in Philadelphia. He’s been in the beauty industry for over 20 years and consistently has the top retail sales in his salon. He’s tried to retire several times but his clients won’t let him. His client base, amazingly, ranges in age from 19-82! Read More
Linda Harding-Bond
July 14, 2015
You Can’t Put Lipstick On Declining Spa Sales
Tags: Bangkok, best, business, capital, CEO, coach, consulting, criteria, customer, Declining, employees, expectations, expenditures, future, growth, hours, index, Linda Harding-Bond, Lipstick, manager, outdated, owner, PBA, performance, Professional Beauty Association, retail, sales, Salon/Spa Performance Index, service, spa, SSPI, training, VP Training
Almost half of spa owners see no increase in their sales in the foreseeable future. Yes, according to the Professional Beauty Association (PBA) “60 percent of spa and salon owners are positive on growth, expecting to have higher retail sales in the next six months.” As for the other 40 percent — flat to declining.
What’s shocking to me is that 0.5% growth is now being called success. “Overall indicators and feedback from beauty professionals across the country continue to be positive and we remain optimistic that the beauty industry will continue this growth into 2015” says Steve Sleeper, Executive Director of the PBA.
Is retail sales a force of nature that can’t be controlled by man (or woman)?
Read More
Linda Harding-Bond
June 30, 2015
The Social Solution for Shabby Service
Tags: Bangkok, best, competitor, complaint, consumer, customer service, escalate, experience, feedback, GripeO, GripeO Outreach, hospitality, hotel, impact, industry, listening, management, Mike Klanac, platform, senior, service, social media, spa, Thailand, training, Twitter Writing
I’d never heard of GripeO. Then last week I received a direct message from @GripeO_Outreach on Twitter. They were following up on an article published on Huffington Post about my lousy spa experience. They wanted to know if I was interested in escalating my complaint to senior management. Because I constantly write about the impact of social media on the spa industry I wasn’t surprised. The fact that I had been tracked on Twitter by a consumer service company was prophetic and intriguing. I wanted to learn more about GripeO_Outreach so I spoke with the CEO, Mike Klanac.
Want to read more? Click Here>>>>http://linkd.in/1Nsss50
Linda Harding-Bond
May 27, 2015
Master Class-Ted Gibson, Hair Rockstar
Tags: all about eve, angelina jolie, anne hathaway, beauty industry, beauty school, best, Black, booking appointments, cosmetology, customer, environmentalist, hair design, hair school, interview, jason backe, kerry washington, killeen texas, Linda Harding-Bond, Lupita, manager, master, meditate, Milady, NYC, products, salins, salon owner, selling, service, sexy hair, skin, skin care, Stylist, ted gibson, tippi, zan ray Master Class
With a nod to Oprah Winfrey, Moontide Consulting will regularly present an interview with a hospitality, spa, beauty or customer service professional whose dedication to excellence has propelled them to the top of their industry. We begin with hair stylist and entrepreneur, Ted Gibson.
Ted Gibson is a critical force in the beauty industry. As a master hairdresser who coifs the heads of Hollywood glamour girls from Anne Hathaway to Kerry Washington to Angelina Jolie he is in high demand. Read More
Linda Harding-Bond
May 18, 2015
Ten Favorite 90’s Movies Every Fashion Girl Should Watch
Tags: Angela Bassett, Asia, Basic Instinct, bayou, Boomerang, customer, Debbie, Demi Moore, Disclosure, Eddie Murphy, Eves Bayou, fashion person, fashionb, favorite, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Janet Jackson, Lynne Whitfied, Mad Men, Matrix, Moontide Consulting, Morgan, movie Eve's, Narciso Rodriguez, Poetic Justice, Reginald Hudlin, retail, Robin givens, selling, service, Sharon Stone, spa, Ten, the Women, Unzipped Writing
Harper’s Bazaar just released their list of THE ’90S FILMS THAT EVERY FASHION GIRL SHOULD WATCH.
Now, I’ll admit that I’m not a “fashion person” per se, most of my free time is devoted to creating on-line training workshops for the spa industry. But as a beauty professional I’ve been influenced for my entire life by the cinema . Also because American cinema is not as readily available to me in Asia, I find that I now appreciate it more. Read More
Linda Harding-Bond
April 1, 2015
Why Aren’t Spas on TripAdvisor?
Tags: Asia, best, collective, consultant, consulting, customers, diversity, ethnic, experiences, fast, global, growing, guest, Harding-Bond, hotel, instruction, instructor, men, online, profitable, public, reservation, restaurant, reviews, senior management, service, spa, teacher, Thailand, therapists, tourism, trainer, training, treatment room, TripAdvisor, wellness, women, workshops Writing
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