Consulting Best Practices Initiative
2022 Trends
TREND 1: Shifting Treatment Menus
Many spa and wellness businesses have significantly streamlined their treatment menus, often due to either staffing or supply shortages, and many of these changes are becoming the norm. Menus are shifting to digital presentations through QR codes, providing for rapid editing of items and prices, and the option of presenting treatments specific to staff skill set and licensing. Dynamic availability, as well as dynamic pricing, will be seen more frequently at high-demand times in an effort to maximize returns.
TREND 2: Design Trends: Communal, Flexible & Outdoor
Communal spaces are definitely trending. Spa experiences with friends, the opportunity to meet new people, and educational experiences are becoming more important. Spaces that are robust and provide self-catered options can also warrant a facility fee, generating revenue and allowing the serving of guests even if treatment rooms are booked, which eases demand on staffing. In countries with favorable weather conditions, we see the continued trend of blending nature and therapy. This includes options such as outdoor aqua hydrotherapy experiences & vitality pools, rain showers, reflexology pebble paths, forest bathing, meditation decks and pause areas, and the incorporation of botanical elements. Treatment pods constructed outdoors can also help to increase occupancy when traditional rooms are at full capacity.
TREND 3: Energy Medicine
A very important trend that we see gaining traction in the wellness field is the use and implementation of energy medicine methodologies to improve health. Whether sound and vibration therapies, quantum healing, tuning fork balance, biofields reading, voice printing, or any other therapies, there is a merge with ancestral medicine energy therapies including reiki, shamanic healing and aura field cleansing, but from the bioenergetics and biofield perspective.
TREND 4: Transformational Wellness
A “transformational” treatment is regarded as “successful” if it at least ignites some kind of change in the consumer. In the best-case scenario, a guest would leave a wellness session (or length of stay) transformed in some way, which would be very personal and different for each person. Transformational wellness is more of a process, accomplished in increments, rather than a singular treatment or product.
TREND 5: Digital Literacy
Software innovations used in the pandemic to enable contactless interactions will become routine parts of doing business. Spa clients are being sent forms electronically ahead of their visit, and check-in, check-out and personal preferences can be collected via mobile device. Incident reports, treatment protocols, internal documentation, MSDS sheets and more will be stored in the cloud. Consultants must be prepared to provide guidance to clients in systematizing these continued shifts away from paper.
TREND 6: Consulting Expectations
One side-effect of a rapidly shifting business landscape is the sometime optimistic expectations clients have from consulting engagements, as well as from their business. Envisioned revenue targets may therefore lead to unrealistic goals or timelines of consulting engagement deliverables that are not practical. Additionally, the recent accelerated pace of change has resulted in some businesses moving into reactive modes, rather than sticking to well-thought-out business plans. We believe that when the dust settles there will be some sorting out and realignment work to regain focus and reexamine core company values.
