An interview with Ms. Lisa Starr, Spa, Salon & Wellness Business Consultant,
Trainer and Educator
COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the spa and wellness industry. There is a largely growing demand for wellness, while spas are facing many operational challenges. For example, how to meet customers’ demand in the post-pandemic era, how to meet the wellness expectations of the younger generation, and how to solve the recruitment difficulties? SpaChina interviewed Ms. Lisa Starr, a senior spa consultant and educator, on these issues.
Lisa has over 30 years of experience in the beauty industry, in all aspects from technician to regional manager. As a consultant and educator, she has been helping companies maximize operations performance in both front and back of house, and consulting on a variety of topics including finances & compensation, marketing, inventory management, retailing, human resource development, and business process improvement. Lisa is also a Contributing Editor at Dayspa Magazine, Task Force Chair for the Global Wellness Institute Consulting Initiative, a regular contributor to global trade publications, a highly-rated speaker at spa and beauty industry conferences, and offers spa management courses across the globe.
Spa and wellness consumers are getting younger these days. What are their major differences compared with the older generation? What kind of spa and wellness needs do they have?
As spas continue their evolution into more diverse, wellness-oriented menus, we are broadening our interest to a wider group of consumers. This is good news as it provides more opportunities to create sales, but many of these new prospective clients are from different generations than our traditional clientele. While the core consumer still tends to be a female between the ages of 35 and 55, spas are seeing clients from their late teens and early 20’s. These younger consumers approach their life and leisure activities in a very different manner than their parents. For example, they are not likely to make appointments for treatments a week or more in the future, preferring to plan at the last minute. They also appreciate more opportunities for social interaction; i.e. they would like to visit a spa/wellness center with 2 or 3 friends. Traditional spa businesses have a hard time accommodating these desires.
For many spas established 10 or 20 years ago, what kind of challenges do they face if they wish to transform themselves to suit the younger market?
For existing spas, it can be difficult to change up your business model to suit the times, but perhaps it can be accomplished with some creativity. Maybe you can utilize a treatment room that is not always booked, and turn it into a space for walk-up and group-oriented services, such as an oxygen bar or LED light face treatment counter. Or a lounge dedicated to small parties, and you charge for it, on top of the service fees. Another idea is to stay open later one night per week, or month, and offer lectures, workshops or group-oriented events that are both fun and informational, to attract a new group of clients.
The COVID-19 situation has resulted in a big increase in virtual and online business, along with a boost to social media. Business is growing fast in China (and of course worldwide). How do you see this? What kind of advice do you have for spas in relation to this?
COVID-19 will definitely leave a “before and after” marker on the way we operate spas and wellness centers as we move forward. But honestly, I think many of the changes were already on the horizon, and the pandemic just accelerated them. In particular, e-commerce and virtual options were an area that spas were lagging in. Obviously, we cannot deliver facials online, and that’s a good thing! But the situation has definitely forced spa businesses to become more creative with their online presence, and to amp up their online sales platform for beauty products. Beyond being active on social media platforms, spa businesses need to continue to interact with and educate guests in all available channels.
About the New Modalities, could you give some details to our readers? One of the biggest challenges in operations right now is another factor that was accelerated by the pandemic, and that has been the difficulty in finding staff. In many countries, therapy staff has decided that they like working less, or have just decided to work differently, some leaving the industry altogether. So right at the moment that we are seeing tremendous demand for personal wellness services, spas are having a difficult time staffing for optimal sales. Some U.S. resort spas are only able to offer 60% of their typical capacity as that is the most they can get covered by technical staff. As a result, spas are looking for different ways to create revenue. This could be as simple as a stronger focus on visual merchandising and retail sales, but we are also seeing spa facilities introducing more equipment that produces wellbeing effects without requiring a technician, such as Somadome meditation pods, LED light treatments, and treatment tables that provide acoustical and sensory effects and can be enjoyed without a therapist, such as the Gharieni Welnamis. As we move forward, spas will need to continue to be creative with how they create revenue in their space.
