Hot Solution :: Quasar Spa, Golf & Club Software

from Hotelier Indonesia Magazine

December 2014

www.hotelier-indonesia.com

full issue:  www.youblisher.com/p/1050681-081219781196

Spa, Club & Golf Management Software

Leisure Solutions for Indonesian Hoteliers

The Indonesian hospitality industry is fortunate to have a highly experienced, global software

Hotelier Indonesia Magazine
December 2014

developer placing a significant focus on Spa, Club & Golf systems within the country.  With offices and partners around Asia, Europe and the Americas, Quasar Group International is using it’s office in Bali as a distribution and support base for all of Indonesia.

With its corporate founders deeply committed to the leisure industry throughout the past 35+ years, Quasar has been able to leverage their experience to deliver a leading management solution.  The solutions have been scaled in a manner that allows properties of all sizes to benefit.

Special Introductory Pricing through June 2015

With the Q4 2014 release of their new browser-based solution, Quasar is offering Indonesian properties a very special pricing offer, well below the price they list in other countries.  This pricing is offered to spas, golf, membership clubs and golf clubs of all sizes and is valid for early adopters in the first six months of 2015.

Along with pricing considerations, a significant benefit to Indonesian users is the role they can play in the growth of the system.  Users will have an impact on the growing functionality of the system.  As your systems use grows, the software matures based on your direct input.

Special pricing will be provided to sites based on request.  Requests can be made to:  info@quasar-gi.com or info@quasargroupinternational.com

Multilingual

Recognizing the need to address system usability by both local staff and international managers, Quasar has provided the capability to use the system in more than 40 languages.   This includes both Bahasa Indonesia & English, along with other languages inclusive of Simplified Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Khmer, French, German, Russian, etc.

The use of the system becomes much easier for local staff when they can utilize the system in their native language.

Sizing for Any Screen

Quasar’s solutions are browser based, which provides access from any device ranging from smartphones to iPads and desktop computers.  The system’s design ensures the highest possible accessibility, allowing managers and directors access to data from anywhere in the world. 

Client Profiles

Quasar places your customer at the heart of the system.  Whether addressing the needs of your spa, golf course or membership club, the solution is customer-centric, where the needs of your guest come first.  It has been central to the system from its inception.

Quasar’s System allows extensive client profiles, with multiple addresses, membership types, phone & email contacts as well as social media details.  Additional details include education, professional details, spouse and children details.

The social media contacts can be customized by the user, where management can specify a client’s account with Facebook, Twitter, WeChat, WhatsApp, Weibo or other programs.  The system is flexible to allow you to change as the industry changes.

For properties with parking security, Quasar’s client profiles also maintain automobile information including brand, model and registration numbers.  The system will allow you to track which cars have valid permission to use the parking facilities.

System Feature - Lifestyle Preferences

Maintaining extensive data on client preferences and history will allow you to connect in a more manner with customers, and as a result, drive revenue.

What are your client’s lifestyle preferences and past history with the property?   Quasar’s Lifestyle Preferences module will allow you to customize data based on it’s value to operations and the bottom-line.

Interested in the client’s F&B preferences?  Travel preferences?    Therapist preferences?  Any details of interest can be tracked and used for future sales & marketing programs.   The system can also be used to track health and allergy information which is of value across all departments.

Spa Booking

Quasar’s spa booking system provides an at-a-glance overview of bookings by therapist and location.  These views display the status of each appointment, including which are checked-in, which are completed, and those that are due next.

Quasar’s Spa Booking module allows you to expand booking services throughout the property, providing an easy way to add guests, book treatments, and print itineraries from any workstation in the network.

Golf Bookings

Quasar’s Golf Booking system has been designed to meet the needs of resort, private and semi-private golf clubs around the world.   Recognizing that no two clubs operate the same way, Quasar’s system design allows a scalable tee sheet for use at clubs with any number of courses.

The system allows you to quickly create a player’s reservation along with the proper cart, caddy and greens fees.  The golfer’s check-in process is seamless, allowing golf reception to create individual or combined transactions and proceed directly through Point of Sale for payment.

Prepaid Services

Quasar’s Prepaid Services solution allows you to managing the advanced purchase of merchandise and services throughout the property.  Items and services can include anything from golf shop or spa merchandise to lessons, classes, rental items and spa treatments. Seamlessly integrated within Quasar’s full suite of products, the Prepaid Services solution ensures an accurate flow of information from purchase through redemption.

Client Prospecting (CRM)

Quasar’s CRM will help you attract and retain clients for your spa or sports club through the tracking of email campaigns, newsletters, membership fees and promotional events.

Designed as an integral part of the full Quasar management system, the CRM will allow you to easily run marketing campaigns to your members in order to increase sales through understanding your membership’s historical transactions and preferences.   This will also help increase cross selling by suggesting other club products and services.

Point of Sale

Allowing an unlimited number of items and services, Quasar’s Point Of Sale system is fully integrated to the full management solution.   The POS provides easy access to scheduled guest bookings from all departments including golf, spa and other activities.  Furthermore, the POS module connects to client preferences and Prepaid Services so that your staff can better service your valued guests.

  

Serving Indonesia and the World

Quasar Group International is a global leisure software company with a development base in Asia.  With a presence in Bali, the firm’s corporate directors have placed a significant focus on the Indonesian Spa & Golf market.

Hotelier Indonesia is very pleased to have had a lengthy relationship with the firm and it’s founders.   Contact them at info@quasar-gi.com or info@quasargroupinternational.com for further information on their management solutions for spa, golf and club.

Using Spa Management Systems to Enhance Profitability

SpaMantra India

www.spamantra.in

November 2011

The spa industry, like all business sectors, is continually monitoring performance to ensure they’re meeting revenue and profit targets.  Software tools have been available for more than a decade to assist directors in managing and enhancing the way they do business. 

The spa software market has matured, and some developers are providing leading-edge solutions that provide significant benefits -- from how the spa’s services are marketed to local clients and tourists, to how staff and transactions are tracked.  Some of the more recent software advances also involve significant reduction in up-front investment through adoption of cloud-based computing. 

A description of a few of the many potential benefits follows.  This is far from being a complete list.

Improved Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

“Technology in a spa provides a conduit for good customer feedback which, in turn, provides a clear synopsis of guest needs and preferences.  This vital data allows you to tailor spa treatments and marketing activities to focus attention on making your spa a more profitable enterprise.”  Warren Kok, Director of Marketing, China National Spa Association.

Perhaps one of the key benefits to employing advanced software is the depth of data they’re able to collect about their guests.  Utilizing software tools, the spa is able to enhance the ways in which they interact with their guests.   They’re able to:

• Build and maintain an extensive database of information on the spa’s guests.  This includes profiles, contacts, treatment history, retail purchases, inquiries and complaints.  The system should ensure that the spa captures and stores data on every interaction between the spa and the guest through all communications including email, telephone, fax, website and personal visits.

• Massage the data into usable, accessible management and marketing information. Ensure the data is up-to-date, allowing you to analyze historical data to identify trends.  Make the data accessible to management and marketing teams on a timely basis, allowing for corrections to stay in-line with preset CRM strategy.  Use the software to develop response and contact strategies that improve customer relationships, team productivity and profitability. 

• Share data across with proper management and marketing personnel to provide staff with a 360-degree view of the guest. This enables your team to provide a better service to the customer, and gives them the tools to identify sales opportunities based on the customer's history and preferences.  This access should be available at any time, 24/7.

A useful spa management system will allow you to improve the frequency and quality of customer contact by automating and personalize customer communications.  Use personal dates that are important to your clients.   There are important dates in every person’s life, such as his or her birthday, anniversary, child’s birth, graduation or job promotion.  Each of these events provide an opportunity to promote the spa’s services and products at a meaningful time to the client.

A personalized email wishing the client a happy birthday, or a special his & her service on their anniversary provides a much greater return on marketing initiatives.  Since these events are significant to the client, the spa has an opportunity to strengthen their relationship and increase future business. 

The spa can also send automatic confirmations for upcoming appointments, which provides yet another opportunity to highlight products and services in a message the client is more likely to open.  These event-based, outbound messages are seen as being less intrusive since they are based on recent interactions.  Some have estimated that event-driven marketing efforts produce response rates five times greater than traditional outbound campaigns.

Consider enhancing your guest relationships further though the use of social media. Gartner Research addresses the growth in the use of social media to enhance customer service, forecasting that 30 percent of leading companies will increase use of this tactic by 2013.  Data from social communities can be used to enhance customer profiles, improving service and guest satisfaction.

Maximize Yield Per Treatment

A significant benefit of maintaining historical data within the system is the ability to use statistics to maximize yield per customer.   Most spa directors will recognize that the demand for treatments greatly exceeds the supply during certain parts of the week, or even certain parts of the day. Using historical transaction data the manager can recognize when demand is strong, when it is moderate and when it is weak.

Using this data, management can set pricing strategies to manage demand at each level.  In times when demand is strong, prices could be increased to bring demand more in-line with supply. For times when demand is weak, enticing local guests with lower priced treatments may be an effective measure to increase demand and boost profitability.

Analyzing demand and setting pricing models is difficult when maintained by pencil & paper, or on a standard spreadsheet.   Effective review of demand, and setting pricing structures, becomes a much simpler task when using an effective management system. 

Employee Productivity

Employee productivity can be positively affected by the installation of an integrated Spa Management System.  By electronically integrating the booking agenda with client profiles and sales data, spa managers can receive daily and monthly statistical reports at the press of a button. 

Of particular value is the ability to know when therapists may have down-time, or time not booked into treatments.  These staff can then be assigned to other tasks, such training for new treatments or cleaning and maintaining another part of the spa.   Analytic tools will inform management that the scheduled staff are working toward making the spa a better place to be.

Reduce Inventory Costs and Out-of-Stocks

Knowing more about the historical sales pattern at the spa’s retail shop, and keeping track of minimum stock levels will assist in lowering the cost of both retail and professional stock.

When inventory and sales records were kept manually, the only way a spa would be able to keep retail items in the boutique and professional items in the treatment rooms would be to maintain a very high level of stock.  Managing inventory turn times and restocking times is a very difficult task when manually maintained.

With a properly implemented retail and point-of-sale system, lower levels of inventory can be stored in both the boutique and treatment rooms.   Each item is given a value that alerts management when these low-inventory levels are met.  Further, the system provides re-stock levels to ensure spa management places an appropriate order with suppliers.

Reducing the Cost of Technology

 ”One of our goals in adopting a corporate standard IT solution is to keep up-front costs as low as possible, and to reduce our carbon footprint while saving on power costs.”  Christine Hays, Vice President, Spa Operations, Oberoi Group.

Historically, spas implementing management software required an up-front purchase of hardware, software and training .. to the tune of US$ 30,000 to US$ 50,000 or more.   This would be for each spa -- a very pricy option for both startups and multi-property organizations.

Economic factors have been pushing spas and small businesses toward cloud computing, an alternative to the costly client-server model.  In broad terms cloud computing is the use of software, platforms or infrastructure offered by web-based service providers.  By eliminating the need for costly servers, locally hosted software and extensive training, a site can realize a significant cost-savings.

Cloud computing service providers focus their operational expenses on IT at a higher level than a business with a dedicated IT department. Because of a sharing of infrastructure, cloud providers can achieve better economies of scale, particularly as their client base grows.   These savings are passed on to the end-users .. the spa. 

An added benefit to adopting cloud computing is the ease of access to the spa’s vital data -- anywhere, anytime.  Spa Directors are a very mobile group.  One day they’re at the Indian Spa & Wellness Association’s Summit in Mumbai, another day in Delhi and then off to Shanghai, Bali, Phuket, New York or elsewhere.  

Placing spa data on the cloud allows managers to access corporate data from their iPhone, iPad or other mobile device.  The manager may be in Paris, but have a need (or simple curiosity) to see how the spa in Delhi is performing.  Cloud computing allows them the simple ability to query spa performance from anywhere.  An interesting bit about the cloud solutions – it can make initial investment much lower while providing easier access to data from anywhere, 24/7.

After a decade or more of various spa software options, the industry has matured and now provides a very robust and reliable set of tools to make a spa more profitable.   Following general market advancements, utilization of spa software has also allowed broader access to vital data allowing the spa to enhance customer service, increase revenues and minimize up-front investment.

Benefits of a Proper Spa Management System

From Spa China Magazine

July - August 2009

There are many benefits to using a proper Spa Management System, from how the management markets the spa’s services to local clients and tourists, to how staff and transactions are tracked within the system.  A description of a few of the many potential benefits follows.  This is far from being a complete list.

Benefit:  Improving Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

In an article I wrote in 2004, I mentioned that researchers estimated the average consumer received roughly one million marketing messages a year across all media.  These include print and television advertisements, roadside billboards, postal fliers, email solicitations and even internet pop-ups.  With new web-based communication and networking tools like Facebook, My Space, Twitter, Linked-In and many more, I’d venture to say the average consumer now receives much closer to two million marketing messages a year.

Trying to get marketing messages across to your clients has become a very difficult task.  CRM cannot be just about collecting, processing and reporting client information; it is about serving clients in an essentially enhanced way.  Though some of these ideas are rather basic, here are a few considerations in further reaching your clients:

Use personal dates that are important to your clients.   There are important dates in every person’s life, such as his or her birthday, anniversary, child’s birth, graduation or job promotion.  Each of these events provides an opportunity to promote the spa’s services and products at a meaningful time to the client.

A personalized email wishing the client a happy birthday, or a special his & her service on their anniversary provides a much greater return on marketing initiatives.  Since these events are significant to the client, the spa has an opportunity to strengthen their relationship and increase future business. 

The spa can also send automatic confirmations for upcoming appointments, which provides yet another opportunity to highlight products and services in a message the client is more likely to open.  These event-based outbound messages are seen as being less intrusive since they are based on recent interactions.  Some have estimated that event-driven marketing efforts produce response rates five times greater than traditional outbound campaigns.

Further client interaction can be based around client interests, conveniently managed within your system.  Know what types of products, music and treatments your clients like.  Then on occasion, send out a promotion highlighting specials for those who share a common interest.  Again, reaching out to clients based on information of value to them.

Benefit:  Maximize Yield Per Customer

A significant benefit of maintaining historical data within the system is the ability to use statistics to maximize yield per customer.   Most spa directors will recognize that the demand for treatments greatly exceeds the supply during certain parts of the week, or even certain parts of the day. Using historical data, they can recognize when demand is strong, when it is moderate and when it is weak. 

Using this data, management can set pricing strategies to manage demand at each level. In times when demand is strong, prices could be increased to bring demand more in-line with supply. For times when demand is weak, enticing local residents with lower priced treatments will be an effective measure to increase demand and boost revenues. 

Benefit:  Employee Productivity

Employee productivity can be positively affected by the installation of an integrated Spa Management System.  By electronically integrating the booking agenda with client profiles and sales data, spa managers can receive daily and monthly statistical reports at the press of a button.  No longer is there a need for long hours of manual data entry to retrieve required management information.

The time saved in properly managing the data and reporting statistics, allows staff to be more productive serving clients.  The increased employee productivity results in improved customer service, better utilization of available times, better matching treatments with therapists and client requests, etc.

Benefit:  Reduce Inventory Costs and Out-of-Stocks

Knowing more about the historical sales pattern at the spa’s boutique, and keeping track of minimum stock levels can assist in lowering the cost of both retail and professional stock.

When inventory and sales records were kept manually, the only way a spa would be able to keep retail items in the boutique and professional items in the treatment rooms would be to maintain a very high level of stock.  Managing inventory turn times and restocking times was a very difficult task.

With a properly implemented retail and point-of-sale system, lower levels of inventory can be maintained in both the boutique and treatment rooms.   Each item is given a PAR value that alerts management when these low-inventory levels are met.  Further, the system provides re-stock levels to ensure spa management places an appropriate order with suppliers.

Benefit:  Integration between Spa and the Resort PMS

Imagine, your reception team is waiting for a two hotel guests to arrive for their afternoon treatment – a husband and wife who booked a three hour, couples signature treatment - and they never show up.   Curious, the spa’s staff calls to the hotel to connect to the guest’s room to see if they’re coming in. 

Upon inquiry, the hotel staff mentions that guests by that name aren’t staying at the hotel.   Further query indicates the guests canceled their stay several weeks back.  What should have been a three hour couples signature treatment has turned into a deluxe treatment room going vacant for several hours, and two therapists with nothing to do.   A loss that could have been avoided with full integration between the Hotel & Spa systems.

With full integration between the two systems, hotel reservations staff will be informed that a guest canceling their booking also has a reservation in the spa.  The reservation agent will then be prompted to ask if the guest would like to keep the spa booking, or cancel it along with the room.    If the guest cancels the spa booking too, the space and therapist are made available for other bookings.

It is quite important that a full-link exist between the resort’s PMS and the Spa booking system.   This will improve relations with clients and will reduce revenues lost through missed cancellations.   An enhanced link between the Spa System and the resort’s PMS is often overlooked when reviewing systems.  It is however, an important feature for hotel and resort properties to consider.

Summary

Most spa solutions should be capable of adding some value to the spa, particularly in providing a booking engine for spa treatments.   These systems should be quite capable in providing advanced reporting to help spa and resort management in analyzing data.  These alone should provide some return on investment.

Aside from the financial investment the spa makes to purchase the system, they should also be prepared to invest time into a) researching the best solution for their facility, and b) ensuring proper onsite implementation of the system.    It’s through proper research and training that a spa will be able to fully utilize their system and realize a proper return on investment.

การประยุกต์ใช้เกคโบโลยีใบธุรกิจลปา ใหัไคัประโยชน์ลูงลุค (ตอบกี่1)

From Thai Spa Association Magazine

          August 2008

Transforming the Spa & Leisure Market - Dynamics in CRM

The Spa and Leisure market, like most other industries, is one in which the firm’s directors and managers are in an ongoing struggle to achieve and increase spa profitability.  The common methods to increased profitability are generally 1) through higher revenues achieved through an increased level of sales to existing clients, and 2) an increase in size of the spa’s current client base.

Spa managers can meet these needs through Customer Relationship Management (CRM), a tool that must be about business strategy, supported by technology -- not simply an IT solution imposed on staff to reform the spa-client relationship.  CRM isn’t just about collecting, processing and reporting client information, it is about serving clients in an essentially enhanced way.

One of the leading corporate marketing mandates of the 1980s and 1990s had been a focus on “customer satisfaction”.   The belief was that an elevated level of client satisfaction would lead to a higher client retention level.  Corporate directors however, mistook satisfaction with quality and loyalty.

Studies have shown that more than half of the customers who have claimed to be satisfied have switched providers without hesitation.  A Harvard Business Review report had indicated that over 65 percent of customers who chose a new supplier mentioned they were satisfied or very satisfied with their previous supplier.  Simply maintaining a satisfied client is no guarantee that they’ll stay with the organization.

Successful spa marketing directors must recognize the shifting paradigm, and should differentiate their practices to stay ahead of the market.  The proliferation of technology in marketing, and changing consumer habits has been driving a transformation in marketing, as we know it.    Well-crafted CRM systems within the spa can help achieve higher goals, as they are becoming major competitive tools for successful organizations.

For an industry known for pampering and serving it’s clients, the Spa and Leisure market hasn’t been very successful in implementing CRM Systems. Generally the failures come from poor management and in difficulties collecting and standardizing data. Given enough resources however, these failures can be overcome. 

Vanessa Gay, Spa and Hotel Operations Manager for The Lyall Hotel and Spa in Melbourne, Australia stresses that “educating staff and developing standard practices for data input has dramatically increased the value of our IT investment.  We’re better able to analyze membership data and service our clients, which has had a positive impact on our yield.  It is vital that set procedures are established and properly managed.”  Ms. Gay, who is also the President of the Australasian Spa Association, has used a couple spa systems and had been significantly involved in the design and development of the system currently in place at The Lyall.

To ensure the spa fully realizes the value of its IT system, the vital paradigm change must be with management.  The Spa’s directors should have a clear CRM business philosophy and the drive to bring a fundamental change to their corporate practices.

Traditional outbound marketing methods

Some researchers have estimated that the average US consumer receives roughly 1 million marketing messages a year across all media.  These include print and television advertisements, roadside billboards, postal fliers, email solicitations and even internet pop-ups.

This advertising onslaught has overwhelmed potential clients, leading to diminishing returns on direct marketing initiatives.  The deluge of advertisements in postal boxes and email in-boxes has rendered campaigns to retain and acquire clients as ineffective.

Since these traditional direct marketing channels are becoming less effective, successful Spa marketing directors are changing from reactive to proactive by putting CRM to better use in several ways. 

Event-Driven Client Interaction

There are important dates in every person’s life, such as his or her birthday, anniversary, child’s birth, graduation or promotion.  Each of these events provides an opportunity to promote the spa’s services and products at a meaningful time to the client.

A personalized email wishing the client a happy birthday, or a special his & her service on their anniversary provides a much greater return on marketing initiatives.  Since certain events are so significant to the client, the spa has an opportunity to strengthen their relationship and increase future business.

The spa can also send automatic confirmations for upcoming appointments, which provides yet another opportunity to highlight products and services in a message the client is more likely to open.  These event-based outbound messages are seen as being less intrusive since they are based on recent interactions.  Some have estimated that event-driven marketing efforts produce response rates five times greater than traditionally general outbound campaigns.

Ford Malmin, an owner in the Anushka Spa and Sanctuary with locations in the Palm Beaches, New York and Boca Raton feels that “a significant benefit provided by our system is the waitlist feature.  In the event that one client cancels an appointment, our system notifies us immediately – allowing us to contact one of our waitlisted clients.   The immediacy of our being informed allows us to provide adequate notice to our clients, helping us keep that appointment filled.  We’re able to maintain our revenue, and our client’s level of satisfaction remains high.”

Enhanced use of Outbound Channels

Though the traditional outbound marketing campaigns (direct mail and telemarketing) have experienced diminishing returns, they can still be relevant marketing avenues. This will depend significantly on the organization’s CRM philosophy, data segmentation and the cleanliness of the data. 

Experience has shown that a more detailed breakdown of client data will lead to a better overall telemarketing response – as the telemarketer will have a better idea of what data to focus on when speaking with a current or perspective client.  The value of this data however will be of most value when it is current and highly defined.

Ms. Gay states that at The Lyall, “we record everything.  We track their treatments, therapists and preferred products.  We track their physical and emotional conditions.  We also track whether or not they’ve purchased gift vouchers for others.  The more specific data we have on the clients, the better we can service them.”

She adds that “this detailed and specific client information allows us to target marketing campaigns directly to our client’s needs.  It is important that the data be well organized.  The more uniform the data, the more successful the marketing campaign.”

It is also very beneficial for the staff to report all comments of the spa’s guests, both positive and negative.  Those guest comments can provide a reason for future contact – perhaps announcing a new product line or as a response to recent criticism.

Building Inbound Marketing Channels

A significant benefit to an inbound request is that the client initiates it, at a time that is most convenient to him or her.  When the client makes a service request, product inquiry, and/or order placement, they are willing to provide their time and attention as well as their permission to engage in a discussion with spa staff.

These interactions can be face-to-face at the spa, over the telephone or even over the web, and provide significant opportunity for staff to modify the dialogue to reflect the client’s current preferences and priorities.  This more personalized approach allows the staff to cross-sell, up-sell, or make loyalty offers at the moment of contact.

Researchers have suggested that inbound marketing generates response rates 10 times higher than those associated with outbound batch campaigns.  One reason for that is rather than being interrupted, the client decides when the interaction takes place and is prepared to consider the message.

Some have estimated that up to 50 percent of a client’s decision-making happens in real-time. That is, when the staff member has a client engaged in a discussion initiated by the client, there is a very good chance a decision can be reached at that time.  Some staff will bring clients to a decision more than 50 percent of the time; other staff will be well short of that.  The level of success will depend on 1) what client information is readily available to the staff member, and 2) how well the staff is coached on cross-selling and up-selling.

Anushka’s Malmin feels that a couple of the best marketing features of their Spa System are the level of data they’re able to maintain and the filters they can use to retrieve that data.  He states “because of the sophistication of the system we’ve implemented, we’re able to put our finger on any data we desire – to the n’th degree.   We know who bought what, when the purchase was made, and more.  It allows us to better serve the client, as well as provides them advice on new products.  The flexibility and availability of the data has definitely been a benefit to us.”

Information that would be of value to the staff member can include; what products should be recommended while the client is on the phone?  How a complaint from a high-value client should be handled?  By chance does the client have an upcoming special event such as a birthday or anniversary?

It would be a welcome, yet unanticipated surprise, for the client to be given a birthday or anniversary greeting when welcomed by a staff member.  This data should be available to all spa staff to enhance the guest experience and boost the chance of an inbound cross-sell and up-sell.

Spas that can build proper inbound marketing channels have a powerful resource for driving revenue growth.  They also have the basis from which to enhance customer loyalty, a significant factor in creating and sustaining profitability.

Enterprise-wide CRM data system

Customer Relationship Management has been a buzzword since the last decade, as CRM features made their way into Spa Management Systems.  The simple addition of these features into IT solutions doesn’t provide the organization a better return on marketing campaigns.  Often technical and human factors hamper the success of installed CRM systems.

A common complexity that is difficult to overcome is the sharing of data between divergent systems.   It has not been uncommon to see a hotel PMS system installed at a large resort, with a Spa System provided by a different vendor, and the golf system provided by yet another.

In these scenarios, it is common that each system managing a given functional area (i.e. the Spa, Golf, Lodging) will collect important client data.  Unfortunately this data is specific only to that functional area and not commonly shared with the full enterprise.  Traditionally the extent of an interface between these divergent systems is simply to share account name and number data, followed by transmission of transaction billing details.  Interoperability of all systems, and sharing of extensive client data is vital for the enterprise to properly service their clients and increase their guest’s experience.

No person within the enterprise should be surprised by client requests, demands or special events.  For instance, a common client database should exist throughout the enterprise so that when a client moves from the hotel to the spa and to the golf course, all staff members are aware of special requests as well as the guest’s birthday or other special events.

The marketing paradigm has been rapidly shifting through this young millennium.  Successful organizations will continue to monitor and modify their marketing techniques, utilizing all tools available to them.  Properly managed, Customer Relationship Management is a valuable tool spas can use to, 1) increase return on marketing campaigns, 2) increase client satisfaction and the total guest experience and, 3) increase spa revenues and profitability.

Proper CRM is as much to do with business philosophy and management as it is about the software system.  It is also about giving the client more than an expected level of service -- giving unanticipated value that a well-implemented and managed CRM system can deliver.

IT강국으로 알려진 한국에서 스파 경영은 아직도 운영 효율성과 수익성이 과제다.

from Spa Life Korea

July/August 2009

IT강국으로 알려진 한국에서 스파 경영은 아직도 운영 효율성과 수익성이 과제다. 적절한 소프트웨어 솔루션을 선택해 사용하면 시간과, 비용 면에서 놀라운 효과를 볼 수 있다고 한다. 스파 경영관리 프로그램 개발 27년 베테랑으로 세계 50여 국가에서 프로젝트를 수행한 Bill Healey 컨셉소프트웨어 기술책임자를 만나 IT와 스파 경영 효율화에 관해 대화를 나누었다.