I recently participated in an American Spa webinar titled Industry Insider, in which American Spa’s Editor in Chief Julie Keller-Callaghan and I discussed many of the trends in marketing, retail, customer service, and more in the spa and wellness industry.
I think it’s worth sharing in this blog some of the things we discussed, because I realized that there are many spa and wellness businesses out there missing out on some amazing and very easy opportunities for revenue growth.
Among the pertinent discoveries American Spa made in their research for this webinar is that the average spend on IT technology in the spa and wellness sector is quite low. More than a third of businesses, 37% spent less than $1,000 on computers and technology in 2016! Thirty-eight per cent spent $1,000 – $5,000, 15% spent $5,000 – $10,000, and only 10% spent more than $10,000.
Meanwhile, 25% of spas are still manually tracking client appointments. That’s a big number. Fifty nine percent are using software, and 16% are using a mix of software and manual tracking.
All this suggests that spas and other wellness businesses are unaware of the value of Customer Relationship Management and other cost saving benefits of spa software. So, let’s take a look at the facts.
Implementing CRM and booking software is the number one way to improve your spa’s profitability.
Spa software is number one way to increase profitability. Research bears this out.
When asked “What technology has most effectively improved your spas profitability?” the #1 answer was “Spa software,” followed by social networking sites and email communications.
This is because software takes care of and streamlines so many things. It’s a game changer, and it’s virtually impossible for spas that aren’t using some kind of software to keep up with those that are.
At the end of the day, your software will pay for itself, and more. The initial investment is the single best thing you can do to improve your guest experience, your time management, and your bottom line.
There is literally nothing else that will have the same impact.
It’s amazing.
To learn more about CRM and about retail, customer service, and marketing trends check out American Spa’s Insider Industry Report.
