Knowledge is power — use yours to maximize your medspa’s operational efficiency

Do you know how well your medspa is doing? Revenue is important, sure, but it only gives you a glimpse of how healthy and sustainable your business really is. For a complete picture of what you can do to get the most out of every dollar, you need to take a good, hard look at your reporting.

Making heads or tails of your medspa’s business report will give you critical insight into more than just how much money it's bringing in. It’ll guide you toward making decisions that optimize operational efficiency in all aspects of your business. Here are five reasons why you should make data analysis a priority.

1. Your business report will tell you what services people want — and what they will pay for them

Revenue is the most obvious place to start your business report investigation. Begin by looking at various timeline slices, as they’ll all give you different insights into how business fluctuates. A weekly revenue breakdown will show which days are most or least busy, while an annual business report will tell you how seasons create an ebb and flow of demand.

You should also be looking at total sales and revenue for individual products and services, as well as for the overall categories for everything you offer. This is the best way to learn about what your clients value most. For example, if you find that much of your revenue comes from laser hair removal, it may be worth looking into expanding your offerings or positioning your medspa as a specialist and expert. In an increasingly crowded and competitive market, any chance to find a differentiator and highlight your skills will help you stand out

You may also want to rethink the pricing for your most popular services and products. Clients may continue to pay for them at a higher price point if they feel they’re still getting value from them. Experiment with pricing beyond increases — you could create premium versions of popular services, then track sales data over time to see which service tiers clients respond to most.

Client behavior isn’t static, though, so be sure to continue tracking your revenue over time to see how their desires change. A new service offering may explode in popularity right out of the gate, while others may take time to reach the same heights but may offer more sustainable revenue. Continue to check in on your business report to stay informed.

2. You can dig up hidden revenue opportunities

Of course, that’s just the obvious stuff your business reports will tell you. If you know how to dig a little deeper, you might find hidden revenue opportunities that are just waiting for you.

Here’s one example. Maybe you’ve noticed that your repeat customer rate is below the medspa industry average (73%, according to AmSpa). If you can get that number higher, you’ll be able to drive revenue up along with it. You can then take another look at how clients respond to your current membership offerings — or, if you don’t have a membership program, you can start building some that create long-lasting relationships. Even offering free educational sessions or regular consultations can go a long way to keeping your medspa top of mind and encouraging repeat bookings.

You can also take a look at product inventory for opportunities to generate additional revenue. If certain products aren’t selling as quickly as others, ask yourself why this might be. Is it too expensive? Are people aware of its benefits? Simply educating clients about how specific products might be enough to clear your shelves. Otherwise, bundling it with services can be a good way to generate money from something that otherwise just takes up space.

3. You’ll find out if your staff is working at its fullest potential

Your business reports aren’t just for finding ways to sell more services. They’re an excellent opportunity to discover how to improve operational efficiency with your existing infrastructure and staff.

Your reports can give you a ton of insight into how your employees are doing — how many clients they see each day on average, how long they spend with clients, how much revenue they generate, how many upsells they land, how many repeat bookings they get, and so on. However, since daily performance is contingent on many factors, a single snapshot will only tell you so much. Looking at performance on a longer timeline will give you a better insight into whether those numbers are trending up or down, so you can take steps to remediate them

For example, if an employee’s upsell numbers are consistently lower than the medspa’s average, you can pull them aside to have a deeper chat about any issues they have and offer guidance to help them improve. On the other hand, if everyone on staff is experiencing too much downtime between clients, there may be more systemic issues with your scheduling processes that could benefit from deeper investigation.

4. You can maximize your marketing ROI

You’re advertising on every local marketing channel you can think of, and your social media strategy is locked in. Your business reports are the best way to find out if all of your hard work is actually paying off.

The easiest way to determine if your marketing is on the right track is to compare the dates you ran a campaign against revenue generated during the same period. If you’re seeing a spike in sales, chances are good that you’ve got a positive marketing return on investment (ROI).

You can go even deeper with your data, though. Add tracking tags to the CTA links used in your social media posts so you can keep tabs on exactly which one led to that new client. Any email and SMS marketing platform worth using will have similar tools available to track open and click-through rates so you can sharpen your marketing message mid-campaign. 

5. You’ll avoid unnecessary waste

Keeping costs low is just as important as boosting revenue. Your business reports will help you track how much money you spend on supplies and other necessities and alert you if you need to take action to bring those expenses down. Maybe a supplier has raised its rates over the past few quarters, and it’s time to find another one. Or maybe your employees aren’t as careful with how many disposable supplies they use during a client visit. Unless you’re paying close attention to the numbers, these details can fly under the radar.

It’s not just about keeping your supplies under control — it’s about labor costs, too. If you’re scheduling too many employees during slower times, you’re not being as efficient as possible with your budget. However, rather than laying off employees (who’d have to be brought back on when you’re busy again), consider investigating creative ways to fill scheduling gaps with dynamic pricing and priority VIP booking for your most dedicated clients.

There’s a ton of information waiting to be discovered in your business reports. Once you know what to look for, you’ll be on your way to maximizing your medspa’s operational efficiency — and bring some extra money back into its bank account.