Erban Spa franchise is growing fast with Timely

Erban Spa franchise is growing fast with Timely

Before starting her business, Jess lived and travelled extensively overseas with her husband Matt. They sailed their way around the world working in the luxury yacht industry. Throughout her travels, Jess saw that the spa industry was really booming and knew it was only a matter of time before this trend hit New Zealand.

So when she returned home in 2011 and wanted to start a business, she knew the spa industry was a great opportunity because she’d seen its explosive growth overseas. The goal with Erban Spa initially was to bring something new to the local market of Dunedin and provide guests with a feeling of relaxation, or as Jess puts it, ‘an oasis of calm’.

Jess was right! The trend soon hit New Zealand and the Erban Spa model worked so well that before long, she was being asked if she would open up in other locations. She started expanding by opening up another location under a franchise model in Christchurch. She applied what she’d learnt to the Christchurch franchise, and before long it was a successful spa in its own right.

After validating her business model with two locations, Jess quickly grew the business with two more spas in Wellington and Auckland. She “absolutely” recommends Timely to other franchise owners as it has allowed her to quickly scale the business.

Timely is the right choice for a multi-location salon

Timely is the business tool of choice for Erban Spa for many reasons. Having used both Kitomba and BeautyWare in the past, Jess thinks that Timely offers many advantages.

Staff can check in on their phone, allowing for better time management. With Timely the staff, spa manager and business owner are all on the same page, with less effort!

Jess previously found it difficult with the other systems to have access to all of the locations. Being able to manage multiple locations makes Timely’s pricing very competitive compared to other salon software solutions.

“Multiple site costings is a massive cost saving for us. If we were trying to do the same with other systems, the costs would have been far greater.”

Timely was implemented in Erban Spa’s newer Wellington and Auckland locations right from the start, which is something she attributes their success to. Jess easily has an overview of each operation, which has only fueled Erban Spa’s fast growth.

Timely has improved time and staff management

Time management is important to any business owner, and Jess has found that Timely has a significant impact on her own time management and availability. She simply can’t be in each of the four locations in order to work with staff. Timely allows her to work remotely and understand what is happening at each location in terms of client bookings, finances, and staff performance.

While each franchise manager is involved in the day to day management, Timely gives Jess the transparency she needs to keep an eye on the business.

Good reports are the basis for any good business to grow

When you’re not in each business every day, you need a tool that can track changes and monitor improvements over time. You don’t always get a chance to sit down and do this, so being able to quickly run a report is essential.

The ability to see what is happening in real time is vital for Jess. Using the reporting in Timely she can see what’s changed in an afternoon compared to how things were looking in the morning.

“It’s the immediacy – things can fall through the gaps if you’re not able to see it, book it. From a multi-site ownership perspective, being able to see events in real time regardless of where I am, is a great management tool.”

Operating in multiple markets presents the business with some unique challenges. Although the spas are all located within New Zealand, each of the centres are quite different in terms of market behaviour which quickly becomes clear when looking at the reports. Jess can get an insight into trends in the different centres over time, which has a number of advantages. With these insights, any marketing activity can be targeted to suit a specific audience and their behaviours. It also allows the staff to schedule their own time better, as well as build their own client base.

Accessing Timely on any device is important

Having four branches of Erban Spa in four different cities, it’s no surprise that Jess is often on the road. Whether at home or away, having the ability to use Timely regardless of where she is, is key!

“Someone rang me at 8pm to book in a hens party event. I was able to give her pricing and a time slot right then and there on the phone. Without Timely, I would have had to send an email to one of the staff and then reply back to them the following day.”

Being able to access Timely on any device also means that each and every staff member is a walking sales machine! Jess sent one of her therapists along to a fundraising massage event, and she returned having made more bookings on her mobile. You just can’t beat that!

“We sent one of our girls to do some massages at a fundraiser event, and she came back with bookings on her phone – that would never been doable before.”

There is more to Timely than the software

As a business owner, Jess has found other benefits from being part of the Timely family. Besides the actual software itself, she values the marketing and business resources provided by Timely and finds them accessible, frequent and at a higher standard compared to other options. With the Timely tips and short videos, her managers and staff get their head around the system a lot faster.

“It’s added value for us in terms of resources – blogs, business tips, knowledge base and also the support you receive.”

Ultimately, Jess feels like Timely really listens to their customers and unlike most systems, she knows that she has a say over new features and developments.