MONEY MATTERS
BY DR. MICHELA HENKE-CILENTI, CPLP
The Psychology of
Recommending Homecare
I HAVE SPENT MY CAREER HELPING TEAMS become
personally accountable for their psychology when rec-
ommending products, homecare or add-ons to clients; to
connect more deeply and authentically with the guest
every time. This article will share a few of those insights,
plus best practices on how you too can lead and coach
your teams to seamlessly recommending, every time.
There are two seismic changes I have experienced with
my spa clients this year that affect how teams view rec-
ommending. Firstly, a shortage of labor and talent con-
tinues to tip the power balance toward therapists,
allowing comfortable and convenient habits to prevail.
Secondly, fiscal pressures, more sophisticated technology
and survey techniques have led to hospitality executives
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weighing employee satisfaction scores and guest satisfac-
tion scores perhaps too heavily, especially since they
might not accurately depict reality. Teams subconsciously
pick up on the power held by the scores and use that
power to control the working environment. Structures,
processes and cultures are being shaped around the col-
lection of these scores, which is concerning.
There are two factors that seriously affect guest rec-
ommending. One is the huge increase in corporate vulner-
ability felt by spa directors due to the pressure of
maintaining the scores from the previous quarter or year
at all costs. The second is that the pursuit of high scores
can also be subconsciously used by a spa director to avoid
vigorously tackling the continuous conundrum of getting