Spa Front Desk Receptionist

What is a Spa Front Desk Receptionist?

The Spa Front Desk Receptionist’s responsibilities include the greeting of all guests, answering phone calls, assisting guests with questions regarding spa services and products, booking all appointments, checking the guest into the computer system and charging for services performed. 

What are the skills needed to be a qualified spa front desk receptionist?

A qualified and effective spa front desk will need to have excellent customer service skills. When hiring for this position, the personality of this individual will be an important aspect to consider, as you cannot train someone to have the right type of personality. Another key factor to evaluate for this position is their ability to multitask. Reception can be a very busy environment to work: clients walking in to purchase products or booking appointments, checking in and out guests, monitoring emails and phone calls, shipping out orders, laundry, and much more. This individual must be able to handle multiple tasks at the same time, or they will not be able to thrive in this position and ultimately negatively impact the spa’s operations. It’s important to ensure that the spa front desk receptionist has a welcoming personality to make all clients feel “taken care of” as soon as they walk in the spa doors. 

How do you pay a Spa Front Desk?

This position will be paid hourly, and some incentive can be added to motivate the individual, such as flat rate bonus on membership sold, commission on retail sales, team monthly bonus pay, etc. As this is a support position and not a revenue generation position, it’s important to utilize them with tasks that you want to “take off your shelf” such as administrative tasks. In terms of schedule, depending if you follow the “split shift” schedule, some spas will have a 2 alternating front desk which will do 9am to 3pm, and 3pm to 9pm. Some other spas will only have one receptionist and they will cover shifts 5 days a week. The beauty of this position is that it can be customized to what your spa needs and you can create a custom task list that includes a little bit of everything: administrative, customer service, support for the turnover of treatment rooms, etc!

How do you know if you need a front desk?

A solo esthetician will come to a point in their career where they are completely overwhelmed with answering emails, phone calls and booking their clients in for their appointments. This is where they are spending too much of their much requested time on administrative tasks. This is a key moment to understand the following: how much money are you losing because you are spending too much time doing these tasks that can easily be passed over to a front desk receptionist? Most solos will allow 30 min turnover time in between their clients to check them out, reschedule appointments and clean their treatment rooms. This valuable time has to be utilized in revenue generating activities in order to help the spa grow. This is where this valuable support position can help you see more clients and get more money in your spa!

Daily operational tasks a spa front desk receptionist will do:

The front desk will ensure consistent opening and closing procedures for the spa. This means coming in at the same starting time and performing the same routine to prep the spa prior to clients arriving:

• Unlocking doors, alarm system, opening lights
• Turning on computer systems, wax pots and music 
• Starting a load of laundry if needed
• Check emails and phone messages, and return those inquiries 
• Prep any product pick up orders of the day

This would be a typical opening routine of a spa front desk receptionist. During the day, their routine will look similar to the following:

• Answering phone calls and emails
• Prepping client files for service providers
• Checking in and out clients
• Greeting clients and welcoming them to the spa
• Shipping out product orders
• Scheduling appointments
• Write follow up emails that estheticians requests for their clients
• Performing ongoing laundry services during the day 

Every spa daily tasks will vary, but generally this is the typical routine a front desk receptionist will have during a working shift. Closing procedures will also vary but can look similar to the following:

• Cash out and print settlements for the day
• Type in KPI metrics of revenue
• Close down lights, computer system and wax pots
• Lock doors and turn on alarm system

Can this position be done virtually?

Yes! It is possible to have all these things done virtually. Evidently, you will need physical staff to turn on lights and such, but the other administrative tasks can 100% be done virtually.