The spa industry has typically focused on training its teams in two areas; product knowledge/sales and treatment delivery.

However, there is a third equally important skill that is being missed: soft skills or the “ability to get on with people”.

John D. Rockefeller once said that “the ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee” and that he would “pay more for that ability than for any other under the sun”. This remains as true today as it was when he said it over 100 years ago.

Consider that most of today's new entrants into the job market are from Gen Z, the world’s first digitally native generation. They grew up communicating through devices but meanwhile, their 40+ year old clients still value traditional in-person communication.

How can we expect our spa teams to maximise their potential if they can’t build relationships fast?

To address this need in the spa industry, training company Evolution-U which is owned by spa entrepreneur Neil Orvay, founder and owner of Sense of Touch day spas in Hong Kong, has developed fully online, on-demand soft skills spa training courses for spa managers, therapists and receptionists.

Orvay explained: “These trainings leverage more than 20 years of success and failure in building a spa group that has won over 100 industry awards during that time.

“The course content focuses on the psychology underlying communication and relationship building and brings the principles that Evolution-U teaches globally to its corporate clients into the spa and salon space.”

The training is available in English, French, Spanish and now Portuguese.

To date, spas in the UK, US, Hong Kong, India, Dubai, Mexico and Panama have started to benefit from the training, with a first pilot in Portugal imminent.

For further information, please email [email protected].