November 18th, 2009 by CarolA
Last week, I had the honor of going to Blackberry Farm outside of Knoxville, Tennessee where I met with Brian Lee, the Director of Guest Relations. Blackberry Farm is a resort located on 9500 acres in the Smoky Mountains that represents sustainability at its finest. The Soil to Table philosophy is seen everywhere from the dairy, the winery, the organic garden, the sheep and cattle farm, chickens, etc. Can you imagine the vision and commitment that it takes to live that philosophy? Blackberry Farm has grown from 100 to 300 employees and 44 cottages/guest rooms to 63 cottages/guest rooms and from 1100 acres to 9500 acres since 1994.
I’ve never experienced such a commitment to excellence and the guest experience as I did at Blackberry Farm. It takes a very strong recruiting and training program to be able to run a business that has that high commitment to excellence and that is what Brian will be teaching in his breakout session at Serious Business. A couple of key points that I picked up on is: 1. Every decision is based on how it will affect the culture 2. To keep evolving as the guests evolve. Their philosophy on customer service is that it is Humble, Genuine, and Simple. Brian’s recruiting and training is a 9-step process that every prospective employee goes through once hired.
- Recruitment
- Interview
- Selection
- Orientation
- 1st day of work
- Training plan
- 45 day review
- 6 month review
- Annual review
I know that you are going to gain a lot of knowledge on recruiting the right people to support your vision and how to train them to deliver your commitment to excellence in Brian’s breakout session in January. Hope to see you there!
www.blackberryfarm.com
November 10th, 2009 by Stacey Soble
Guest author Stacey Soble is the editor of Salon Today.
I am buried in paperwork! While it’s not all that unusual that I feel that way as the editor of SALON TODAY, right now it’s literally true as my entire floor is covered by stacks and stacks of SALON TODAY 200 applications. Yes, that feeling can be quite overwhelming, but it’s also thrilling to know that so many salon and spa owners are willing and excited to share their success stories with us.
For the past dozen years, the SALON TODAY 200 has honored the fastest-growing salons in North America and provided readers of this special January issue with tangible benchmarks for measuring their own businesses. By focusing the spotlight on salon business and celebrating salon leaders, this competition always strives to raise the bar for our industry.
But as times change, the way the business world perceives success also is changing. While growth is still a good barometer for a healthy business, and we’ll continue to recognize fast-growing salons, we realize it’s not the only measurement of success. For that reason, for 2010, we’re taking the ST200 one step further by analyzing the best practices that result in success and recognize the salons who lead the way in other important areas, including customer service; environmental sustainability; retention and referral programs; marketing; technology; recruiting and training; advanced education; retailing; compensation and benefits; and inventory control.
We admit, reshaping the popular ST200 competition in its 13th year was a bit risky. When we announced our intentions we got a lot of positive feedback from the industry, but we knew true test come when it was time for owners to begin filling out the new application forms. We had taken what was a fairly straightforward competition based on sales growth and revamped it to also focus on 10 other best practice categories. This changed our application form from a three-page, fill-in-the-blank submission to nearly eight pages of questions and essays. Even though owners could pick and choose the number of categories that they wanted to compete within, we were concerned that the now cumbersome-looking form would turn people off from competing altogether. I was keeping my fingers crossed that we’d get enough entrants to profile in our special January issue.
Our readers didn’t disappoint—our offices were flooded with applications, resulting in 1,440 category submissions. As a result, I had to round up the entire MODERN SALON Media editorial team to help me organize and judge the submissions. It continues to be a work in progress, but we hope to let honorees know in early December.
But I know the extra work and effort on both our parts will pay off. Each day, we’re reading through applications filled with pearls of salon business wisdom. I’m already envisioning the exciting editorial possibilities for January and beyond. And, I’m looking forward to meeting several ST200 honorees and celebrating their success at Serious Business in New Orleans, January 24-26.
But for now, it’s back to those stacks!
For more information about SALON TODAY, or to sign up for our weekly complimentary Business Builders e-newsletters, visit salontoday.com.
