Dream Job Spa Management: Myth or Reality?
I often were told by people that spa management must be truly a dream job, incomparable with all the other management jobs in companies and corporations.
I guess such statements must have something to do with the in general relaxing and beautiful environment of a spa, where spherical sounds are only interrupted by whispering, angel-like smiling staff members and in thankfulness drowning clients because of the elusive pampering they just happened to experience.
In case you should fully agree with those people, it will come to you as a harsh shock, when I tell you now that exactly the opposite was my reality as a health spa manager, dealing with fifty employees and casual staff on a 4 acres destination spa. You probably won’t believe me when saying that I was more than once longing for the times, when I was the director of an IT company, being in charge of more than ten times of subordinates. That said, I feel that I now owe you a proper explanation to dissolve the confusion, which I may have just caused!
Let me start by listing the essential elements of the job description of a spa manager, which apply to a holistic destination spa as well as a day spa:
- human resources management
- guest relations
- budgetary/financial control
- spa treatments/packages supervision
- spa management software
- quality control
- maintenance
- marketing/PR
- media relations
This list of tasks as such is not unusual in the hospitality industry. Every hotel manager is well familiar with most of it’s elements. Yet, there are two particular challenges a spa manager has to deal with, which are irrelevant to hotel managers or any other manager in whatever industry.
Challenge number one is linked to the highly sensitive, intimate interaction between therapist and client, which lies in the nature of a spa. Although the rules of engagement in a cubicle are pretty well established and known to all staff, mishaps, misunderstandings and transgressions occur, and then it will be the managers job to provide damage control. This can be sometimes quite a tricky task as staff and client present their own version of truth to the manager. Obviously, in general the client will officially be granted absolution in spite of murky circumstances, with often negative financial consequences for the spa owner, in a worst case scenario resulting in a loss of client.
The second challenge a spa manager has to face is the fact that some therapists like to take advantage from the provided free of charge training opportunities and at the same time start building up their own, future spa or salon business with selected spa’s clients, a process known in the industry as “moonlighting”. The manager may realize the “client transfer”, when formerly happy customers suddenly stay away and when the product consumption of a therapist excedes the average significantly. Understandably, the ex-client likes to be spoiled with the same skin care range as before, even if the environment is slightly less posh now and can’t afford the expense of a top skin care brand!
Anybody volunteering for a dream job, e.g. in spa management?
