Ingredient #1: People whose core values nourish the service organization.

"Getting the right people on the bus" is essential to making any company successful. A spa, more than any other hospitality operation, must recruit and retain people with core values that support outstanding guest care. The potential for disappointment in the spa is greater than in any other aspect of a stay. The customer-care bar is set particularly high here because many guests are intimidated by spas.

Your company's core values must align with those of the employees you hire. Discussing your values frequently, and using them as a frame of reference for coaching, ensures that they are a living part of your service culture. (Verne Harnish, a business consultant and author, says that you should repeat your important themes so often that your team starts to poke fun at you!)

At Preston Wynne, our core values are:

Core values like mutual respect, a passion for delighting others, empathy, fairness and impeccable personal ethics are absolutely essential to ensuring that guests feel valued. But you can't teach this! Your employees' personal values are hard-wired into them.

Naturally, employment candidates will promote themselves as having highly desirable core values. Interview questions that include "scenarios" are important ...