Loyal, business minded staff? NO… Let’s change their mind set!

The two main things my clients ask me daily are:

• How can they increase turnover?
•  How can they improve staff retention?

It is amazing how closely linked these two topics are and how often they are not seen to directly impact each other. The long term health of your business largely depends on staff loyalty and how long the stay and grow within your business. They play such a fundamental role in your daily revenue; but how do we get them to stay and how do we get them to sell themselves as well as their services and products?

Customer satisfaction and products sales rely heavily on your regular clients seeing their regular therapist; but our spas and salons staff turnover, is so high that it is directly impacting on our business’ turnover. We need to make a concerted effort to ensure our therapists remain in our employ and we develop them as much as we can. We have to get them “business” focused and teach them how much they impact our bottom line.

So how do we change their mind set? Most of the time, we have to start with ourselves! There are simple things that can be implemented into any spa or salon business to ensure triumph in this regard. All it takes is a slight shift in thinking, time and drive and we can tune our therapists up to be money making machines. Why? Because they will feel empowered, involved and can see how they fit into the bigger picture.

These “ways and means” have been around forever and I never understand why business owners do not take the time to implement them in order to ensure the success of their spas and salons. All the busiest, most profitable ones are doing them – because they work and they yield the desired results.

So where do I start?

Here are several ideas on how to change your therapists mind set!

Transparency

This is always a debatable topic but an absolute must when getting everyone on the same page. Just ask the average therapist what “cost of sale” is and see the blank look on their faces. This is because they do not understand firstly; what it costs to run a spa / salon and secondly, why things are priced the way they are.  You have to explain this to them otherwise why should they bother to care how much product they waste; or how important it is that they turn off a light when they leave a treatment room.  You have to be transparent with your staff; explain to them the difference between turnover and profit and how different the two are. We have to teach them how to think like business people or else how can we ever expect them to learn to run their columns like their own businesses.

Morning Huddles and Staff Meetings

60 seconds to success! Our days are so fast paced and our staff are coming and going at different times; it is often hard to keep track of what is going on. We have to take the time and see each of them, even if it is for one minute, every day. As we all know by now, it is vital that our therapists are reaching a ratio of 40% retail to turnover in order for them to be taking home the salaries they want and for your businesses to be seeing a decent profit. We must use this “huddle” to get them focused on revenue first thing in the morning so they have a game plan for the day and they are always set up to hit target. Break their figures down for them on a daily basis, a small target per day is so much easier to achieve than one large one for the month. Keeping your eye on what they are doing day to day; means you constantly have your finger on the pulse of your business. So if there is an irregular heartbeat it can be taken care of sooner rather than later.

Use your quiet times for monthly meetings. Discuss the past months revenue – negatives and positives! Reward your top achievers and revere them in front of their colleges. This inspires them to keep pushing and others to be more like them.  Plot your game plan for the coming month together and take their ideas into account. They are the life force of the business, they know what the clients want – listen!

Standards and structure

No-one really likes rules and regulations but they have to exist in order for a business to operate optimally. Just as it is imperative that our children have boundaries, it is of utmost importance that our spas and salons run to a strict code of conduct. Each and every procedure must be trained and documented to ensure order and discipline. These must be followed and enforced fairly and across the board so there are never any grey areas.  Contracts, handbooks, lookbooks and SOP manuals must be in place so that no one is ever in the dark. Everyone then knows what is expected of them and what their deliverables are.

Incentives

Set Incentives every month! Therapist can get very bored with the day to day tasks of the operation of the spa/salon. Understand what motivates your staff members and tailor the rewards according to them. This encourages healthy competition and gives them something special to work towards. You can choose daily incentives to boost quiet days or maximise on busy days. If you have a large team divide them up into smaller groups and let them compete against each other.  This builds camaraderie and teaches them to be team players in every aspect of their working days. They are inspired and have tangible goals to work towards other than just their salaries.  Don’t forget your front office team when setting incentives. They are the driving force behind the scenes and they should also be rewarded for increasing sales and maximising on bookings.

Keep your staff excited

Our industry moves and grows on a daily basis, don’t be left behind. I am not saying that you have to run out and buy a new machine every month but at least mix things up a bit. Their jobs can become mundane if they are not stimulated with new things; and if they are bored I can almost guarantee your clients are bored too. Add on treatments or small new lines of add on products will keep them interested and excited about their jobs; as well as their clients homecare results. This will have such a positive impact on your business and the attitude of your staff.

Teach your staff to think of themselves as professionals

This is by far the most important and the most forgotten piece of the puzzle. The therapists must see themselves as “Spa Pros”. If they do not believe they are how will your customers?  So many of the pains involved in running a spa or a salon can be attributed to our therapists not believing that they are the professionals.

The way a therapist presents herself and her treatment area; is directly linked to what she thinks of herself. They are selling themselves to their clients before they sell any service or product. If they lead by example they will have a much more fruitful outcome and income. Imagine a world where you don’t have to reiterate the importance of your therapists wearing enough makeup? Well if they just saw themselves in a more professional light they would know that this is a must; without you having to tell them. Clean treatment rooms and stations would not have to be the topic of every staff meeting if they considered themselves to be the skilled individuals they are. They would just clean up after themselves because they took pride of their own space.

Training and development programs

Continuous training is key, not only in developing your staff professionally with product training and new treatments but personal development. They need to be self-actualised experts in order for your clients to view them as such. Spend time on developing each of their individual skill sets and you will see how your team flourishes. We have access to so many brilliant business and life coaches; use them! Not to mention the amount of free inspirational media available to us; use it all!

Research

Allow your staff to research and learn. Ensure they have access to what is going on in the industry. Trade shows, launches and conferences should always be attended as a team! Their involvement in these events makes them feel like professional and helps them realise not only how big the industry is that they are a part of; but how wonderful it is to be a part of it!