Technology To Advance Your Spa
Selecting The Right Software Solution

by Frank Pitsikalis

While every spa operation is unique, there are several key business processes that must be supported by a software solution. When selecting spa-management software, the following core features should be evaluated:

• Guest profiling.
• Service scheduling.
• Staff management.
• Product management.
• Operational controls.
• Solution reliability.

A spa’s No. 1 asset is its clientele, because guest loyalty is the primary factor influencing the overall success of a spa. Guests are loyal to spas that know and cater to their specific needs. To provide guests with a unique experience at each and every visit, a spa must have an automated way to capture and track important facts relating to its individual clients, including products and services purchased, preferences, and medical conditions.

A “guest-centric” solution also will give a spa the flexibility to determine what guest profile data is necessary to its unique operation. In turn, this guest profile information would support the development of effective marketing promotions aimed at specific segments of the guest database, creating a complete marketing loop within the operation.

Spa operations have complicated and multidimensional scheduling requirements. Expecting a front-desk clerk to book appointments by “panning and scanning” the reservation schedule simply does not suffice in today’s environment. The challenge for a software provider is to design a system with highly adaptable and efficient scheduling options.

The three-dimensional requirements of a spa booking—treatment, capable/available room, capable/scheduled/available staff— cause an extremely complex and time-consuming booking process. The system must offer the ability to perform a fast, automated appointment search within pre-defined parameters (e.g., capable staff and available rooms for a requested treatment). It also must provide the functionality to book single or multiple packages efficiently. These features greatly minimize the time and effort required to book an appointment, reduce the opportunity for error, and maximize the utilization of a spa’s resources. A multi-location spa operation should only evaluate software solutions that support centralized booking for all locations.

Staff management is another important part of operating a successful spa. By design, a software solution should provide the necessary tools to create and manage dynamic staff schedules, track activities and maintain sales history. It also must handle commission calculations and support multiple compensation methods, including complex commission strategies such as fixed fees, commission ladders, team-based and combination strategies. A litmus test for spa software is if it can automatically generate gross pay for employees based on a spa’s compensation strategy. If it cannot, then a spa can expect a significant amount of management time spent reconciling payroll issues.

For most spas, retail sales are a vital source of revenue. Therefore, a spa must carefully evaluate the product-management area of a potential solution. The ideal system will provide complete inventory controls, including manual reconciliation, automated reorder points and real-time inventory counts. Vendor management and purchase-order generation also must be incorporated. If multilocation support is required, each spa location should have its own separate inventory management within the system.

A software solution’s operational controls must enable operators to obtain a real-time, bird’s-eye view of their business’ performance. Daily activity should be viewable on-screen as well as through comprehensive reports. A key indicator of the quality of a solution’s design is the richness and accuracy of the reports provided. How thorough and flexible are the reports generated by a system? Can the metrics needed to run the operation be viewed easily without significant manual intervention?

A software solution that restricts the ability to bypass audit controls also is pivotal to maintaining the financial and operational integrity of a spa. All transactions should be user- and time-stamped, detailing any manipulations made to the system. This audit trail alleviates any possible issues that could arise when tracking appointment, payment, inventory and schedule adjustments. Selecting a solution that offers grades of security limiting staff access and functionality based on a user’s role also provides optimal control for the spa.

The overall reliability of a solution probably is the most overlooked aspect when evaluating spa software, and yet it causes the most frustration for spa operators. System crashes, lost information, inaccurate reporting and locked systems all are indicative of an unstable architecture. The solution chosen should be built on modern, industry-standard technology. Spas should be wary of products built on older databases or technologies not designed for complex applications. These types of legacy systems require repair utilities to be run periodically to clean up the data and, overall, become very unreliable over time. Conversely, a reliable solution will utilize an industry-standard database.

Besides the underlying technology, the behavior of the system also must be evaluated closely. Well-designed solutions offer some degree of flexibility during the configuration process. Operators and managers are given options from which to choose that address the requirements of their spa and can avoid requesting costly and timely custom programming that will adapt the program to their individual needs. For instance, if a spa would like to allow certain services to be overbooked, that option should be available; if overbooking is unacceptable, the system should accommodate that rule as well.

The quality of ongoing support and maintenance also is very important. At a minimum, a vendor must provide live telephone support during business hours. Ideally, the company would provide 24-7 assistance and timely program updates as part of its support.

With so many alternative products from which to choose, selecting a solution that is cost-effective, developed by a reliable vendor and user-friendly yet sophisticated enough to meet the needs of a spa operation can be a daunting task. Before beginning the evaluation process, a spa should create a list of specific requirements and utilize the guidelines above to rate each system considered. This will help narrow the choices, leading a spa to the solution that will ensure the long-term success of its business.

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