was the best trained, and over the
course of her lifetime, she opened every
new location personally. Today, the
quality and consistency of Red Door’s
people remains our most important competitive advantage,” Walter of Red Door
Spas says. Today, the company marks
over 100 years in business. It has also
opened over 30 day spas and resort locations nationwide.
As for Blue Giraffe Day Spa, overcompensation, which almost resulted in
losing the business, proved to be their
biggest challenge in the early part of
their operations. “Initially, we had a ‘spa
consultant’ who led us in the wrong
direction,” Kolker says. “[We] had to
start all over with new staff and new
compensation programs a few years in.”
Aside from disastrous fabric choices
(like a fleece fabric that shrunk 30
percent!), budgetary restriction was one
of be present’s early challenges. “We
had little advertising budget in the
beginning, so we launched our initial
season organically through word-ofmouth,” says Dobrin. During these early
stages, we wore many hats, including
tying hang tags on to clothes individually and doing backyard photo shoots
with friends and family,” she says.
“Today, the
quality and
consistency of
Red Door’s
people remains
our most
important
competitive
advantage.”
guest experiences measured through
their Guest Experience Survey and the
Net Promoter Score and, 2) how well
they have found and kept the “right”
people by measuring voluntary turnover
each month.
“Without question, our implementation of Guest Experience Surveys and the
Net Promoter Score (NPS) has been our
most impactful initiative,” says Walter.
“Every week, for the past three years, we
have received over 2,000 surveys (that’s
over 300,000 actual guest surveys in
total) that tell us what we are doing
well, and more important, where we can
improve.”
Red Door Spas shares the positive
feedback with their associates and
applaud them for a job well done. “The
constructive feedback is used to identify
and eliminate root-cause issues, and
every guest who was dissatisfied for any
reason is contacted by our spa general
manager within 48 hours to better
understand and resolve the issue,”
he says.
According to Walter, Red Door’s NPS
has risen from the mid-60’s, when they
first launched it, to the mid-80’s today.
“More important than the absolute
number is the evidence we see of continuous improvement and delivering
exceptional experiences to each and
every one of our guests,” he says. ■
WANT MORE ADVICE on how to build a successful spa business? Visit digital Pulse on
experienceispa.com to read more.
Success and Failure
Success and failure mean different things
to different people. To Soy Delicious
owners Maceiras and Hoyo, success
means being able to put their family and
motherhood roles first, and the role of
business owners second.
To the Kolkers who focused on the
fact that they own a community-based
day spa, success means having a positive impact to the community through
the service and employment opportunities they provide.
As a global company, Red Door Spas
defines and measures success against
their brand philosophy in two ways: 1)
how well they have delivered exceptional
November 2012
■
PULSE 37