The school year may be winding down, but the next month brings us a number of top-flight educational events for spa business owners. You know that compensation, operations, or marketing issue you’ve been meaning to deal with? The next month offers a slew of events featuring lectures, demonstrations, panels and classes with industry experts in a number of fields, all geared to making spa owners more successful. Attend just one of these events, use the summer months to refine your ideas, and you’ll be ready to roll them out before September gets underway.

New York– the New York Spa Alliance brings you the 9th annual New York Spa Symposium, an all-day event on May 24 at the Desmond Tutu Center. The terrific speaker lineup includes panel presentations on Growing the Spa Business as the Economy Grows; Why Research Matters; Why Aren’t Americans Healthier; a panel updating the status of hotel spa development; and a keynote presentation by Starwood’s Jeremy McCarthy entitled “What Happiness Research Means to Spa Development.”

Aspen – the 6th Global Spa & Wellness Summit takes place June 3-6, and while you may not be able to attend this invitation-only event, you’ll want to stay tuned via blogs and twitter for the amazing amount of research that is released. The Summit hosts high-level spa business owners and managers from 40+ countries in a format that includes panel-led discussions, general sessions, small group breakout sessions, and hosted dining conversations. This year’s theme is “Innovation Through Imagination,” and we’ll certainly be ready for great new ideas to implement.

Las Vegas – June 9-11 IECSC Las Vegas is one of the biggest spa shows in the country, with over 600 vendors, almost 20k attendees, and top-flight spa business and wellness courses, all for one ticket price, and for an additional fee, Advanced Education Workshops, Advanced Business Seminars, and CIDESCO and ASTECC courses. Plus you know you love a trip to Las Vegas!

New York – June 19 & 20th, The Spa and Resort Medical Aesthetics Conference at the Javits Center presents a wide array of vendors and educators, with a strong orientation to the med-spa side of the business. Attendees will enjoy industry relevant education sessions, manufacturer workshops and live demonstrations, and benefit from a productive and efficient buying environment. This event is co-located with the 20th edition of the HBA Global Expo, June 19-21, at which exhibitors from over 28 countries who specialize in the manufacturing and packaging of beauty products show their latest products, ingredients, technologies and solutions in beauty and personal care product development.

Washington D.C. – June 19, the Washington Spa Alliance hosts their second annual symposium at the National Press Club. The mandate of this group is “connecting spa professionals in the nation’s greater capital region, promoting the exchange of education and innovation in the field, and ensuring that the highest ideals of spa are met through policy and action.” The all-day event includes lunch.

Head to the Customers tab within your Booker account and select the Find Duplicates section. Simply type in the customer’s name and check the box of the duplicate profiles. Click to Merge Selected Customers, determine which items from each profile you would like to copy over and hit Merge.

You now have one profile!

If an order consists of returnable items such as, products, gift certificates/cards, series or packages, a “Print Gift Receipt” link will appear to the left of “Email Receipt” on the order page after an order is completed.

The Gift Receipt excludes prices and payment information, which is great for your customers who worry about picking exactly the right gift.

The Male Customer – The NRF survey of almost 5000 consumers forecasts that men will spend an average of $189.74, or 61% more than women, on Mother’s Day gifts, so as always, have the red carpet ready for them.  Male customers are interested in ease and speed; make the selections obvious and compelling, and get them in and out in a hurry, and they’ll be back next time they need a gift.  Men are likely spending more than normal, often buying for two women (wife and mom), so look for opportunities to meet that need.  Perhaps for every guy that buys two gift cards with a particular value, say over $200, you can throw in a voucher for $35 towards a service for the purchaser.  Make sure the voucher has an expiration of 6-8 weeks, and is good for a weekday and evening, not weekend, visit.

Revenue Strategies – As with the above example, rewarding purchasers can increase the average ticket spend.  Discounts or vouchers for the purchaser that can be redeemed within a shorter time frame (not a gift card that never expires) are perfect for this purpose.  Mother’s Day is an ideal holiday to create promotions made for two, especially mother/daughter, bringing in two clients instead of one.  You may even want to consider a promotion for clients who redeem their Mother’s Day gift cards quickly, say within 8 weeks, that gives them a service upgrade or discount voucher towards a subsequent visit, especially if they’re a new client.  Once the client has visited your spa two or three times, your chances of retaining them increase greatly.

Make It Easy – Early next week is an ideal time for a last e-blast for Mother’s Day laggards. Make it short and sweet and quickly describe your current promotions with “click here to purchase” hot links embedded in the email.  Instant print gift certificates in a few templates will also be a must, especially once mid-week passes.  Also, as I mentioned last week, make sure you have prepackaged baskets and gift cards ready to go for last-minute shoppers.

Happy Selling!

Head to the Online Booking portion of your System Settings and select to edit eCommerce. From there you’ll see an option to set up/modify your return policy. Set the number of days that a return is still allowed, write out your business’s return policy text and determine if a customer is required to agree to the return policy or not, before making a purchase.

Can you believe how fast the year is going? Somehow we’re only a few weeks away from the second-busiest gift card selling season of the year for spas, Mother’s Day. The National Retail Federation Mother’s Day Spending Survey predicts that the average person will spend $152.52 on gifts this year, an increase of 8% over 2011, and total Mother’s Day spending is expected to reach $18.6b. That’s right, billions, not millions. Therefore, you should now firm up your plan to optimize sales of gift cards, services and products, and get May off to a great start by getting your share of this opportunity.

While half of consumers surveyed plan to take mom to brunch or dinner, spending on gift cards is expected to total $1.8b, and personal services, such as spa services, are forecast to total $1.3b. Many spas will generate as much as 30% of their total annual gift card volume from this one holiday, so it’s worth ensuring that you position your business to make the most of each sale. A person who physically visits your spa to pick up a gift card moves quickly and you only have a few moments to impress them with any sales messages. You can maximize your revenue with these tips:

Service Spotlight

• Many gift card purchasers will not be regular clients, and therefore won’t know your menu very well. Make it easy for them by creating a few groupings of popular services into Mother’s Day collections – just don’t discount or call them packages! An $84 facial, $18 manicure and $32 makeup application can become a “Polished Look” for $134. The gift giver can purchase a $134 gift card, but they’re more likely to spend $150 to give mom some room to upgrade or pick up a retail product as well.
• Create a one-page listing or menu insert featuring these special groupings, and include single services that are top sellers to make it easy for shoppers to make a selection. But make sure to package your gift card with your entire service menu, so that the pictures and descriptions of all of your services and facility can engage the recipient and hopefully hasten their booking.

Retailing Tips

• As mentioned earlier, clients today are in a hurry. Picking up a gift card is just something to scratch off the list, not an enjoyable experience. So slow them down a bit by creating a “speed bump” display inside your front door. Fill a table and risers with Mother’s Day-oriented products and gift baskets, and catchy signage. Even an 8.5 x 11 brightly printed “Mother’s Day Gifts” mounted on foamcore will do.
• Many people like to give a little something along with a gift card, so make sure that your gift table has a wide selection of items across price points. Displaying gifts from $15 to $125 is a good range. Have some that are pre-wrapped and ready to grab and go. You might even consider creating a few gift baskets with a $40-$75 gift card already included, to speed your clients on their way.

Next week we’ll look at some digital strategies for last-minute shoppers.

Found in your Booker account, under the customer emails section of your marketing tab, is the new We Miss You email. Select to enable this particular template and set the number of days, since a last appointment, that you would like to pass before the email is sent to a customer.

Easily edit the email’s message, leave it as is and never let a customer think you’ve forgotten about them (or let them forget about you)!

Watch our video and learn more about this great automated email:

“We Miss You” Email from GramercyOne on Vimeo.

P.S. Keep your eyes peeled for Booker team members walking the floor! We’ll be handing out fliers with a chance to win a new iPad that works great with the SpaBooker software. You won’t want to miss out on this big Apple!

Found within the Marketing tab of Booker, you’ll find a new section called Surveys. We’ve added a ready-made Customer Satisfaction Survey with questions we’ve found to be helpful in gaining an overall understanding of how your business is operating in the eyes of a customer. Use the survey as is or go-ahead and tweak it to your liking.

Create your own surveys and promote as you see fit. Decide to send it to your general audience through social networks such as Facebook, direct email a link to the survey to a specific group or select to have it displayed in the auto-delivered Thank You email a customer receives after their service is performed.

Please note that Lite accounts can only use the ready-made survey and cannot edit or create their own.

Watch this fun video and learn more about post service surveys:

Post Service Survey from GramercyOne on Vimeo.

We’ll also be attending ISBN in Ranchos Palos Verdes, California, from April 15 – 17th. If you want to learn more about SalonBooker, come say hello to Dan Chandre and Tracey Solanas at booth #7 in the Link-Up Lounge. They’ll have lots of great things to share about SalonBooker! From online booking to social media to credit card processing, SalonBooker has the tools to help you effectively manage your business.

If you’re attending either of these shows but already use either SpaBooker or SalonBooker, come visit us and share your experience! We’d love to hear how the software works for your business, plus if you have any suggestions for features you’d like to see, we’re all ears. Got friends who need software? Bring them over, too! Our Booker software has a great referral program we would like to tell you about.