Just like every successful business, no matter what size, your salon/day spa not only needs systems, but counts on them every day. Let’s take the mystery out of systems development. After all, a system is just a string of subsystems connected together to get a result.

Simply put, everything in your day spa connects to everything else. Just as real life is a complex world system, salon day/spa systems operate within systems and there is system overlap.

Too often owners/managers too often deal with a system or subsystem in isolation, as if it didn’t connect with anything else. What happens is that working this way usually backfires because the other systems/subsystems respond in ways you hadn’t anticipated.

Problems in the salon/day spa are a result of system failure and to fix the problem you’ll want to get to the root cause of it all.

Here’s a simple system to use that’ll help you find the root cause of whatever problem you have. It’s called the “5 Whys.”

This system, first developed by Sakichi Toyoda, then later adopted by Toyota, the automaker.

It revolves around the simple question, “Why is that?” Although it may take you more than 5 Whys to get to the root cause (see our example), sometimes it may take less.

Example (the problem): “Our spa is not productive enough.”

Why is that?: Not enough clients.
Why is that?: There are not enough new clients coming into the door.
Why is that?: The ones who are coming in are not recommending friends and family.
Why is that?: The stylists are not asking them to recommend friends and family.
Why is that?: The stylists don’t know how to ask for a referral.
Why is that?: We don’t have a referral system.
Root Cause: I don’t know how to build a referral system.

Remember, the easiest way out is the fastest way back in. So don’t just grab for a solution prematurely without considering the root cause underlying it. In other words, do a little digging with the 5 Whys tool.

By Andrew Finkelstein, CEO The Beauty Resource www.thebeautyresource.com