Spa Executive March-April

Dear Sal, how I can keep revenue coming in
during slower times?
Sal Capizzi, Marketing Director at Book4Time
and a former Director of Spa and Wellness
at NEXUS Luxury Collection, shares his expert
insight into your reader questions.
Send your queries about managing staff,
operations, and anything else you want to know
(challenge him!) to scapizzi@spaexecutive.com
Q. Dear Sal:
To be honest, I’m a bit scared about my
business weathering the turbulent economic
times. Do you have any suggestions on how
I can keep revenue coming in when business
seems to be a bit slower?
A. Great question!
There are several successful ways I’ve run a
business during slow times and new ideas
that are being talked about in a major way
throughout the industry as it stands right now.
My first rule of thumb is to always pre-book
as much as you can. I was leading a business
where it was almost a requirement to have
40% of the next month’s “goal” pre-booked
the month before. For example if my next
month’s goal was $70,000 – I would aim to
have $28,000 of that already booked.
Incentivize your practitioners. Your
practitioners don’t necessarily need to be the
ones telling clients about any pre-booking
discounts if they come back again, but if
clients know that their LMT or esthetician
is invested in their well-being, reviews a
solid treatment plan with them, and gives
them take-home care advice, you are sure
to see that client again. An incentive for a
practitioner could look like a cash bonus
on number of sessions performed or prebooked,
a self care treatment of their choice,
or even a promotion. In order for someone to
move up the ranks by tier in my business they
had to have at least a 30% pre-booking rate
for consecutive months.
Incentivize your guests. At checkout,
let your guests know of any benefits that
may come with pre-booking their next
appointment or buying a series/package of
services. Most times both of these come
with a small discount on each service, or
an add-on to a treatment that adds no
additional time to the service, costs pennies,
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