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by
Linda Bankoski
Managing Director, Education and Assessment
SpaQuality
LLC
The
International Standards of SpaExcellenceSM is structured around
the 5 main elements of a spa quality system. These include Intention and Strategy,
Leadership, Guest Experience, Operations Support and Improvement. Each section
includes a section regarding evaluation.
Two of the sections
in particular, Intentions and Strategy and Leadership include specifics that will
help the executive management team evaluate the spa quality system health. The
Intentions and Strategy section describe what needs to be periodically evaluated
(for example, quarterly and annually), to ensure that the spa is meeting its intention
and on track to fulfill the strategy that was chosen. The Leadership section includes
a list of measures that spa leaders will want to use to evaluate the spa's performance
more frequently (for example, daily, weekly and monthly). We
are often asked what the best and simplest measures are to easily evaluate all
aspects of the spa quality system. There is a tool that is commonly used in other
industries called the balanced scorecard. The name,
the balanced scorecard, sounds like it was designed for spa managers. Like spa
Guests, spa managers can use more balance in their role as spa leaders. They are
responsible for ensuring that the spa operates according to plans. They must also
evaluate how well the spa system is performing and make informed decisions. A
very simple start to reaching the balance spa leaders seek is to define general
categories for information that they need to make more informed decisions. Four
categories that can be used are financial measures, internal performance measures,
Guest and industry measures, and human resource measures. These measures provide
very different types of information and have very different impact on short-,
medium-, and long -term success. 
Financial
measures
Financial measures are important because they represent the immediate
survival of the spa. They drive short term decisions and actions. Typically this
information is known by accounting and spa management and often evaluated very
frequently. Financials measures are the starting point for a spa balanced scorecard.
Internal performance measures
Internal
performance measures are important because they represent how well the internal
processes of the spa are managed. They include both Guest service performance
as well as operations support performance such as inventory turnover, effectiveness
in booking and scheduling and cleaning and stocking. They drive achievement in
the medium term because they take longer to show results. Typically department
leads, scheduling, purchasing and "back of the house" staff and spa
management have a "feel" for the internal performance and may have some
measures from available software. Reliable measures needed to manage the internal
processes. Their measurement needs to be consistent and results evaluated regularly
as part of the spa Leadership system review. Success on these measures has a direct,
positive effect on financial measures but the effect may take a number of months
to show up.
Guest, customer and marketplace
measures
These measures indicate success over the medium to long term because
the actions taken in response to these indicators might take months or years to
show impact in financial results. Examples of these measures include Guest perceptions,
loyalty, referrals and market position in the competitive market. True Guest,
customer and marketplace measures look at success through the eyes of customers,
a point of view that can often be ignored or minimized. Typically department leads,
receptionists and spa management have a "feel" for this information
however; data is not often obtained or tracked consistently. Because these directly
affect financial measures and the shift is so gradual, it is critically important
to have strong grasp on what Guests and customers really think. Again, using a
regularly scheduled leadership review, the management team can make informed decisions
to guide what the spa plans to do about Guest perceptions. Once Guests and customer
perceptions begin to move, their momentum is hard to control.
Human
resource measures
These measures predict success over the long term because
decisions and actions might take years to show up in the other key results. Part
of the periodic system evaluation during the leadership reviews should include
spa staff measures such as training time per staff member, staff opinion survey
results and staff retention rates. These measures are often seen as the furthest
removed from financial measures because they're often difficult to trace back
to bottom-line numbers. But make no mistake---how well a spa manages its staff
certainly affects financial success. Because the connection between human resource
policies and decisions is largely indirect good, reliable data and information
is not commonly measured and monitored. In an effort to make a closer correlation,
individual staff are often held responsible in the short term without consideration
of the impact on the long term or the spa quality system issues.
Without
accurate measures in all four categories the evaluations of the spa quality system
will not be balanced and most likely the spa managers won't be either.
Spa
leaders should manage the spa systems to produce effective results not just for
next month but also next year and next decade. Actions taken to improve medium-
to long-term measures are investments in the spa's future. Using a balanced
scorecard to evaluate performance can help spa management teams identify how their
policies, decisions and actions impact their success. Overemphasis on any measure
can result in a loss of balance and may take a very long time to remedy. Using
only financials usually leads to shortsighted decisions and mistakes. Good performance
in financials is the ultimate result of good internal performance, Guest perception
and human resource performance. A well designed and implemented evaluation process
including the balanced scorecard can be instrumental in forecasting the spa's
future.
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© 2010 SpaQuality LLC
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