How Book4Time can help you upgrade your menu for 2018
As we move into 2018, a time of new beginnings and a fresh new year, will you be thinking about freshening up your spa menu? You might want to consider doing so. Wellness seekers are interested in new trends and offerings, and are almost always grateful for the opportunity to enjoy a new experience.
This isn’t to say that you need to reinvent the wheel and overhaul your entire list of offerings. After all, your valued guests come to you for what they know you already do well. Nor should you buy into flash-in-the-pan fads that are going to disappear as fast as you can add them to the menu.
But spa, salon and wellness is a world in which change is constant, and innovation will keep you on top of the game.
Need help? Book4Time software can help you increase your revenue with a fresh menu overhaul.
The first step is understanding your business through reporting. With over 200 reports that provide you with deep functional business insights and easy-to-read dashboards that tell you, at a glance, literally everything you need to know about your spa operations. These include:
Sales reports
Understanding what works and what doesn’t is simple. Your reporting will quickly confirm this for you. A treatment that nobody is buying will stand out like a sore thumb. This should lead you to asking questions such as, can you make it more enticing, would adding something new help or does it need replacing altogether?
Occupancy rate
Know your peak times and understand when you need to bring more clients into your spa. You can also learn which treatments are most popular, when they are most in demand, and what you could add to the mix to increase occupancy during down times. For example, perhaps get more locals in during weekdays with special package treatments, or offer trials on new treatments during quieter times to understand how they will work at full capacity.
Retail sales
It’s so easy to use our inventory report to know what products are flying off the shelves and what is just sitting there. If a product that you use in a treatment is not moving, that could mean the product is not popular and is, therefore, affecting the popularity of the treatment itself. Similarly, if you offer a choice of a product during treatment, and one of those is not moving, it might be time to replace that offering with another option.
Bundles and add-ons can have a significant impact on your menu items that aren’t selling. Small additions can go a long way towards making something feel exclusive and luxurious — like adding sparkling wine and a product gift to with an underperforming couples massage, or the opportunity for the client to make their own take-away aromatherapy gift with a massage.
Reporting can also help you understand pricing and if it is a factor in your treatments and timing. And be cautious with discounts. Remember, it is easy to discount, but much more difficult to bring that price point back to where it was – so understand why you are discounting and discount with a purpose — not just because you want more clients.
After that, it’s a matter of looking at and understanding industry trends, and trying things out for yourself. Spa directors should test everything before adding it to the menu. Take the meditation class, get the manicure, try the massage (poor you, right?). How can you sell a product that you don’t love and believe in? In an interview with Spa Executive, Julia Sutton of Exhale discussed the value of trying everything yourself and living the lifestyle you promote.
Take a look at your menu and ask yourself if you truly love everything on it. If not, you should probably take a second look.
Need help with your reporting insights? Contact Book4Time and our customer service team will be happy to help you get everything you can out of them.