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Tales from the Spa Internal Sales Prevention
Department—dumb things your staff do to stop your customers buying
stuff.
In your own spa, under your very own nose, your staff are
unconsciously sabotaging your business.
Maybe sometimes even consciously, but I’ll give ‘em the benefit of
the doubt and assume it’s just ‘cos they’re
• ignorant
• Untutored
• Unsupervised
• Disinterested.
Here’s what doesn’t happen often enough.
The other day I sat in a client’s reception room. Receptionist
smiled, addressed me by name, offered me a drink. Asked me to take a
seat while she got me a cup of tea, came back with it, and instead
of sitting down at her desk...sat down in the chair next to me and
engaged me in bright, interested conversation!
Here’s what happens more often. Two days later, I sat in another
client’s reception. Her receptionist had greeted me with an
unenthusiastic ‘hello’, made a perfunctory phone call to let my
client know I was waiting, and went back to her work, eyes glued
resolutely to the screen, and never uttered another word to me.
The difference between the two approaches couldn’t have been more
stark.
Listen up. In every area of your business, there are people doing
their level best to stop people giving you money.
Remember, as a Spa Owner you have only one responsibility that
matters a damn—getting past, present and future customers coming to
you with a pre-disposition to buy, and delivering to them what they
want.
There is nothing, but nothing more destructive to a business to have
customers walk through the door—and remember, if they’re coming to
you, rather than you going to them, they have a predisposition to
buy—and then have them ignored, put off, disappointed, frustrated or
thwarted in their mission to give you cash by staff who regard
customers as an annoying by-product of having a job.
Your receptionist is the most important person in your spa, by a
long shot.
This is not and never will be a politically correct web site , so
I’m going to refer to the receptionist as ‘she’ ‘cos that’s mostly
what they are, and hang the risk.
Here’s why she’s the most important, and why you should put an
enormous amount of sweat into finding right one, paying her
well...and a radical suggestion that’s bound to make most of you
choke...put her on a performance bonus scheme.
She is in most cases the very first point of contact between your
prospective customers and you.
She is certainly the most regular contact point between you and your
past and present customers
She can make or break a relationship with a client
She can...if she has the ‘mojo’...repair a damaged relationship with
a client. In fact, probably better than you can.
And dammit, I’m going to say something that’s bound to enrage the
femi-nazis, if she’s attractive and easy on the eye, all the better.
(Why do you think the TV networks seek out and employ the most
physically attractive on-air staff they can find? I’ll tell you.
Because people being people, they’d rather look at something that’s
attractive than something unattractive. That’s human nature. Build a
bridge and get over it.)
Other stuff you should be doing:
Spa Marketing and Sales training. I had a client ask me once to come
in an ‘give his staff an hour’s sales training.’ I said what, once a
month? Once a week would be better. ‘Hell no, just an hour...that
should do it.’
Every single one of your spa’s staff should be required to undertake
the basics of in spa sales training. Not just once, but as a regular
regime instituted by you in your office.
(Hint: Jill Groves In House Spa Marketing Expert of Worldwide Salon
Marketing actually tells me you should not call it sales training
for your spa staff, tell them they are “information givers”. Their
job is to give the client as much information about the products
they use on your clients as possible – she guarantees that will
increase sales three fold.)
That applies to anybody who ever has or might one day talk to a
customer, about anything at all. Because every single time your
business makes contact with a customer or potential customer, it’s
an opportunity to make a sale.
Eavesdropping. Listen in on conversations your spa staff are having
with customers. I did this once, tape recorded it, and played it
back to the owner. They were horrified, not only at the facts of
what the client was being told but the manner and tone of voice used
by his employee. Be vigilant.
A very successful businessman I know makes a habit of calling his
office randomly from his mobile phone or from home, putting on a
funny voice and pretending to be a customer. His staff knows he does
it, but never know when.
It’s a focusing experience for them, especially when they’re not
concentrating.
Indoctrination. Drum this into your staff if nothing else. You are
not an nail polishing firm, a waxing firm, a massage firm a spa. You
are a marketing organization that happens to market whatever you are
technically good at.
Ever word they utter, every tone and inflection in their voice,
every nuance of body language, can and will have an effect on the
bottom line of your business.
Get them involved. Incentivisation is one of those horrible buzz
words the author of which should be taken out and summarily executed
after being rightfully convicted of murdering the English language.
But there is nothing quite so motivating as your staff having a
vested interest in the company they work for.
Couple of months ago, I went shopping.
This is a rare experience for me, as I loathe and detest the entire
process, and avoid it to the point where my clothes are falling off
my back, my shoes have worn out, and the last pair of boxer shorts
are going raggedy in the crotch department.
But sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do, or your friends and
colleagues are looking at you kinda funny, and you start overhearing
whispers about them wanting to take up a collection for you.
Anyway, I went shopping for a pair of shoes.
Took myself to one of those enormous suburban shopping centres where
you burn half a tank of fuel just doing circuits of the carpark,
then when you find a place near the outer perimeter you just about
have to run out a string so you can find your way back.
I find a shoe shop.
I wait more than 5 minutes—5 minutes! - before a disinterested
assistant approaches me.
I know he’s disinterested because the only thing he says to me is
“Can I help you?”
To which, of course, there is only a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer, instantly
ensuring he has no more than a 50% chance of making a sale.
Nothing intelligent, that would indicate he had undergone even the
most basic of sales training, such as “Good morning sir, I haven’t
seen you in here before, what kind of shoe are you looking for
today?”
To which, of course, there is no ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer, and the
prospective customer is forced to answer in such a way that leaves
at least an opening for the sales person to actually make a sale.
But I humour this guy. “Yes, you can help me, I actually want to buy
a pair of shoes. I hope I’ve come to the right place.”
So we do the shoe dance for a while, and finally I settle on a pair
of black slip-ons with a squared off toe, because I am such a trendy
guy.
So we troop off to the checkout, and I get ready to hand over my
card, and the guy says “Oh dear.”
My heart sinks. What’s the problem?
“Sorry sir, but I can’t put the sale through, the computer seems to
be down.”
Why don’t I just give you cash? You know, real, folding money.
“Mmm, I can’t do that sir, you see, I have to scan the sale so it’s
recorded...for stocktaking, I think….can you come back a little
later? Hopefully the computer will be back up then….”
Now, today was this guy’s lucky day. Against my better judgement—I
wanted the damn shoes! - I actually wandered around the shops for
half an hour while they got their act together.
But here’s the lesson—okay, I’m sounding like a broken record—for
anybody who owns a spa business and employs staff:
Everywhere in your business, there are people and the systems they
implement that are determined to leap out from behind a tree and
sabotage your ability to make profits.
This Shoe Sales Prevention Department was brought home to me by a
book I read recently with the title WAYMISH—’Why are you making it
so hard’ for me to give you my money—a title I neatly stole for the
headline for this little whinge.
Written by sales speaker Ray Considine several years ago, WAYMISH is
a must-have for anybody running a business that deals with
customers.
You got it, EVERY business.
Everybody has their own sales prevention story, but I include here
some typical examples from the book:
A man attends the opening of an art gallery and spots a stack of
beautifully printed full-color flyers featuring the gallery show
items. He politely asks, "May I have one?"
"No!" snaps the dim-witted guardian, "these are only for our
clients!" The man thinks for a moment, then asks, "Well, then...how
do you get new clients?
A woman calls up the telephone company to get an unlisted number.
The operator takes the order and gives her the number 784-2668.
The woman asks if the new number can be used immediately, and the
operator answers "Yes."
She then asks the operator to repeat the number so she can write it
down. "Sorry, Ma'am, I can't. That number is unlisted."
A Yogurt company wants to reassure their customers.
On their package, they say - If you’re not satisfied, please let us
know, and we will send you a free one.
What are they expecting people to write? "Dear Yogurt company, I’m
not satisfied with your product. I don’t like it. Please send me
more."
The book discusses Jan Carlzon, CEO of Scandinavian Airlines. When
Carlzon looked around at his competition, he was appalled at the
inferior service and poor attitudes most airlines offered their
customers.
Carlzon carefully reviewed every step of the customer contact
process, and identified 5 critical times when the airline interacted
with the customer.
He called these 5 points of contact "the Moments of Truth," and they
work for any business.
For airlines, they are: making a reservation; getting tickets;
boarding; flying; and retrieving baggage.
Demanding Excellence.
Carlzon recognized that at any one of these crucial moments, the
airline could either strengthen their relationship with a customer,
or risk losing them. And he personally checked up on how the airline
was meeting them.
For example, if an SAS plane arrived late in Paris, the first thing
the pilot had to do was to call the Chairman and explain why.
Do you think SAS usually runs on schedule?
WAYMISH recommends that you apply the same methodology to your
business.
What are your "Moments of Truth?" What is your customer contact
process?
What are the opportunities you have to delight or disappoint a
customer?
But WAYMISH isn’t all about Dumb and Dumber. How’s this for pure
class, good training and perfect execution?
A guest in the Hotel Carlyle in New York is dining with three
friends in the hotel restaurant. He asks the waiter to please speed
up the order because he wants to catch a television show starting at
10:00.
As the hour of the TV show arrives an assistant manager of the hotel
approaches and says quietly, "Excuse me, Sir, I've taken the liberty
of inserting a blank tape in the VCR in your room and set it to
record the show, so you can dine at your leisure."
This is the kind of book every business owner should make required
reading for spa’s staff staff.
“SpaMarketing
- Why Are You Making It So Hard For Me to Give You My Money?” was
bought to you buy Spa Marketing Guru Greg Milner of Worldwide Salon
Marketing.
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About the
Author...
For nearly 19 years,
Greg was Executive Producer of News for Channels 7 & 9. Since 1996
he's advised and coached large and small companies on their public
relations and marketing strategies. In 2004, one of those clients
was a salon owner who complained there were no 'off-the-shelf' tools
for the salon and spa industry to help them get more clients, and
increase their average client spend. Later that year, Greg and salon
sales specialist Jill Groves launched the Essential Salon Owner's
Marketing Toolkit. By mid-2006, these simple tools were being
used profitably by 587 salons and spas in 14 countries.
Click for more information
Jill Groves, author of
'Selling with Energy' coaching salon & spa owners on how to increase
sales...and get staff to 'like crazy'...without them even realizing
it.
Click for
more information
Salon owners listen
intently as Greg Milner reveals the myths - and truth - about what
actually works in salon & spa marketing
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more information |
