So, you have decided to manage your own spa. What comes next is crucial to the success of your business.

Customer satisfaction is paramount to long-term success in the beauty service industry. You need to have a solid business model and vision, which will be carried out by your team via customer service as a whole and effective promoting of the salon. As a result, you should see profitability within the first three to five years.

Business model and vision

How you see your business operating on a daily basis is how the structure of your operation will unfold. This includes how staff will follow protocol, how clients will experience your brand and services and ultimately sets forth the guidelines for a continually successful spa.

Determine whether you will have a cancellation or late policy to keep your spa running on schedule. This can help alleviate the stress of the daily schedule going awry if someone cancels last minute or arrives late.

Hold staff accountable for upholding your policies in order to create the culture you want to deal with 10-20 years from now. It is easier to provide a one-time courtesy for a client than to implement cancellation fees and stern policies after you have been in business for some time, especially if you have been lenient with such areas from inception.

Communicate to your staff the importance of teamwork, which includes staff attendance, meeting sales goals and client retention rates. Be fair, firm and consistent with each member of the team from custodial to administration to technicians

Customer service

The key to running a successful spa starts with a professional and courteous team. From the owner to the front desk to the technicians, customer retention is directly related to the experience clients have every time they deal with your staff. Satisfied clients lead to organic growth and retention through word of mouth, a phenomenal form of marketing your brand.

Remember, outstanding customer service should include every experience a person will have with your brand. This includes the first encounter with your front-desk staff, the easy navigation of your website, a perfect experience with your technicians, and positive visuals on any social media sites you may use to promote/advertise your brand.

The reason for this today stems from sites such as Google+ and Yelp, which allow clients to share the good and the bad (which we hope is never bad, but the customer is always right). Online reviews can have a positive or negative effect on your business, and you should be sure to address both in the most professional way possible.

Promote

Now that you have a solid team in place to provide outstanding service to your clients, you must consistently and effectively promote your business as a brand. Your website should be easy to locate and navigate, and it should allow for online booking.

Online booking lends itself to email concierge. By saving contact information, you can promote your services, specials, staff achievements in one place. Social media has many outlets for promotional advertising opportunities. Twitter and Instagram are great for sharing what you do, depending on your spa.

Social media deals are a way to attract new clients who are tethered to their mobile devices 24/7. Let's face it, between business hours, most people will look at their phone at least 10 times a day, if not more. It is your job to make them find you.

Once a new client comes in, gather contact information so you can send him/her your own in-house deals and watch the word of mouth spread. To ensure this type of success, clearly set forth your business model and vision, follow through with outstanding customer service for the entire experience and continue to promote your business to that client who now has had a personal experience with your spa brand.

Some salon software systems have a client retention tool that will promote your business to clients in your database who haven't been back in a while. This is a great way to get people walking through your doors again.

Profitability

Are you giving too many discounts? With a top-notch staff and excellent customer service from the front desk to the technician, know your worth.

Avoid comparing your pricing to the "competition." Remember, you hold the same license as the other professionals in your state. What is important is knowing what your fixed and variable costs associated with running the business are.

This will determine how much revenue you need to generate on a weekly basis, which will set forth how many dollars your spa should be bringing in per technician, per hour. It sounds complicated, but it is a necessary evil. There are many spas and salons who are just breaking even because they do not know their "numbers."

Truth is clients will always look for a deal. However, when you provide quality over quantity and educate each client as to what they are getting by coming to your establishment, it will be clear and the loyal clients will return. The bargain shoppers will continue to seek out deals elsewhere.

Just remember it is impossible to build a solid business on discounted services. When the 80/20 rule proves that 80 percent of your revenue will come from 20 percent of your clients, it is important to keep the top 20 percent returning to your business and keep them happy.

Well, there you have it! The key to a successful spa is to give clients what they appreciate the most and reward your staff for carrying out the vision as a team.