More than 150 professionals attended the first spa forum hosted by Hotelier Middle East in Dubai last month.
Retail key to revenue
The afternoon’s events kicked off with a panel of spa professionals analysing ‘the spa journey’, concluding that selling spa products is a crucial step of that journey in order to increase revenue.
The Product House founder and managing director Janette Gladstone-Watts, who moderated the panel, said: “Part of the spa journey is retail sales, taking the products home. This can extend the value and benefit of the treatment, and acts as a reminder for guests to come back to the spa”.
However, the panelists comprising Burj Al Arab director of spa and retail Gopal Kumar Dogra; Grosvenor House, Luxury collection, Le Royal Meridien Beach Resort and Spa complex director of spas Galina Antoniouk; Anantara Hotels, Resorts & Spas Zoe Wall and Esadore chief executive officer Ebrahim Malekzadeh said that therapists and clients needed more product education to sell.
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“If I’m not aware of what the product is and how to use it, there’s no point [trying to sell it to the guest]. Also the product training tends to be lost after a few months so it’s important to refresh the knowledge for the therapists,” said Burj Al Arab’s Dogra.
Gladstone-Watts said spa therapists, who typically spend at least an hour one-on-one with with the client are well placed to pitch the products.
“But we have to take into consideration the therapists look of shock and horror when you say ‘retail’. I come from a background where it’s drummed into you to sell products. The key to therapists is making them understand it’s not a hard sell, it’s a recommendation,” commented Anantara’s Wall.
“So when you give a sales target, show the therapist how to break it down and how they can achieve it each and every day and how to track their revenue - what are the sales figures for the month? Show them how it can be done step by step, that makes it a lot easier for the therapist,” she added.
However, Dogra said that it’s important to recognise that “at the end of the day they’re not sales people, they’re therapists so we need to empower them”.
Antoniouk revealed that Starwood Hotels & Resorts had introduced a system that is designed to incentivise retail sales across the Dubai spas she oversees.
“One great tool I’ve found is when we have a certain retail target that is achieved, they [the therapists] receives a product as a gift which they can use themselves and experience the benefits. This is one of the best tools for increasing the sales,” Antoniouk explained.
“It’s not only educating the staff, it’s educating the client on how to use the products so they see the results. We need to teach the guest it’s not enough just to come for a facial, you have to use the products as well and when they believe this they come back and buy the products,” she added.
The Hotelier Middle East Spa & Wellness Forum attendees took the opportunity to discuss the various issues raised further, and tackled other challenges such as ‘developing winning spa concepts’, ‘mastering the business of spa’, ‘staff needs’ and ‘spa marketing’ in the afternoon’s series of interactive workshops.
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