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The Magazine for spa and wellness in Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America​

Expert Panel: Q&A with Cheryl Sott

K Chung Headshot

The spa is located in the Dominican Republic. Our spa team’s primary language is Spanish and our guest’s primary language is English. As it pertains to retail sales, how can I bridge that language barrier into making home care recommendations to our guests? Our guests want expert therapists to personalize their experience but communication is necessary for this to occur.

Karina Chung, Spa and Wellness Manager
Amanera, Dominican Republic

Cheryl Sott Final

Cheryl Sott
Spa Consultant, Trinity Spa Advisors www.trinityspaadvisors.com

Your questions speak to many aspects of your spa’s business and before drilling down you may want to consider in the big picture if your offered products are aligned with the spa positioning and if the positioning is aligned with both available resources and target audience.

By way of example, if your guest is a middle/upper income, American, millennial that favors effective or natural products delivered in a unique manner then a high tech skincare line might not be the optimal choice. The product line might be a perfect match but without the required guest education, they are doomed to fail.

Consider instead products with a high degree of emotional appeal. From a sales perspective, these can incite passion from the providers, pique guest interest without a lot of guest education.

Verbal communication is a smaller part of sales compared to nonverbal cues that inspire trust and understanding. Nonverbal communication is the key that unlocks the wallet, starting with a genuine smile, knowledgeable and confident touch and ends with meaningful recommendations. None of this, including demonstrating products, takes perfect language skills.

Additional suggestions:
1. A short English/Spanish guest questionnaire to assist therapists.
2. Role-playing; hearing how others answer guest questions can inspire the team.
3. Retrain on existing products focusing on the emotional appeal.
4. Consider adding a concierge role with strong language and sales skills to communicate guest desires to the therapist, translate recommendations back to guests to close the sale.

Fabiola
Author: Fabiola