As a former spa owner, I know how busy December can be...and how quiet January gets!

One part of me was delighted to have an end to the frenetic December spa bookings and sales but the other part of me knew I had cash flow responsibilities to stay on top of. 

Add to that, I felt the pressure as a spa leader to make sure my team members had decent bookings to keep their paychecks consistent during the natural seasonality that happens in our industry. 

So rather than waiting until January to deal with problematic slow months, I’ve got three ways for you to prepare for a busy January in December. But it will take a bit of preparation starting now!

Be Mindful of December Conversations

One of the most effective ways to ensure January isn’t crickets on your calendar is to be mindful of your client conversations in December and know when to cut out the personal chit chat that undermines recommendations and pre-booking. 

It’s far too easy for service providers to slip into personal conversations in the treatment room. I get it, we’re in the personal service industry and it’s natural to want to connect over shared personal interests. But allowing the convo’s to dominate with personal topics makes it awkward to bring up recommended treatments and products at the end of the service.

Give your team a list of December conversation starters! Draw upon specials or features you’re offering, common skin/hair/nails/body issues for this time of year, community events, or what’s happening pop culture in terms of spa services and commit to keeping spa conversations 80% on spa topics.

You and your team have SO MUCH interesting information to share, but you minimize your knowledge and forget to open up to clients about what you know. 

By being mindful and deliberate about your December conversations, you can increase your pre-bookings for January. 

Offer a Bounce Back to December Clients

If January’s are normally quite slow for your spa, consider creating a simple bounce back coupon to give to your December clients after they’ve cashed out. 

No need to get super complicated with this idea. Head over to your favorite graphics maker (our team loves using Canva) to create a simple coupon template to print out and give to clients on their way out of their December treatment. Make sure you include an expiry date for Jan 31st, 2020 to encourage booking urgency. 

Keep Gift Certificate Sales Simple + Follow Up 

Sometimes spa owners make the mistake of having too many specials for consumers to choose from. When you’re thinking about sales strategy, the key is to keep it SIMPLE because a confused mind says “no”. Think about how your shop - if you’re unsure, you usually walk away until you know more and often don’t return to the purchase for whatever reason - time, interest or ease. 

Every holiday season give givers stress out about what to buy their loved ones. Will they like it? Will they take offence if I buy them a personal service? Will they use it or will it sit in a drawer? Will I be wasting my time, effort and money if I buy this? 

I suggest you only offer one, maybe two specials/features, but actively promote dollar values gift certificates as an ideal option if they’re unsure of what the receiver wants. The key here is make it EASY for consumers to pop into the spa and purchase gift certificates. 

Then, at the end of December, create an email to welcome everyone to the New Year and remind anyone that received a gift certificate to book their appointment with an easy “Book Now” button. 

As spa owners, we often white-knuckle our way through Decembers busyness and don’t have time to mitigate January’s slower bookings. You have a few weeks left in November to get work on the above three strategies. Time to get on it!

If you’re a spa owner with a team that’s struggling with marketing, team sales and client retention, it’s time to get serious about what’s missing in your spa business. Book a time to talk with me about how I would organize, systematize and optimize your spas sales and team culture!