Guest Blogger Kelly Straeter, Academy Director Poway Campus

Five star customer service is a standard that is known worldwide throughout the travel, entertainment, hospitality, and personal services industry as being the highest customer service standard achievable.
The outcome of Five star customer service is to “WOW” your customer with such delight that they can hardly believe how wonderfully you’ve treated them.

This “WOW” factor is far more than impeccable customer service. It’s about creating a feeling that the person giving the service has actually unobtrusively understood the needs of the customer on a personal and intimate level, to such a degree that they seamlessly adapt their level of service to mirror their understanding of the customer’s needs. It is an intuitive connection whereby the server “knows” the customer well enough to anticipate and fulfill their needs before the customer even has a chance to ask.

Exceptional customer service involves doing everything possible to delight the customer. It’s about exceeding customer expectations and providing genuine, personalized, non-intrusive service with extra attention to details. At the highest standards, the staff is anticipating the needs of the customer and fixing problems without any fuss.

In a Five Star environment, when a customer sees a staff member, they should be excited to see them, in expectation of being treated exceptionally well.

When a customer describes their overall customer service experience, these are words they will use:
Delightful, Amazing, Extraordinary, Blissful, Attentive, Remarkable, Respectful, Pleasing.

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Guest Blogger Stephanie Swinscoe, Lead Experience Coordinator Bellus Academy Poway

Do you find yourself inundated by the amount of projects you have that need to be accomplished at work or in your personal life each day? Do you continually feel that the days fly by and do not have the opportunity to devote your necessary attention to each task because other responsibilities keep coming up? With as busy and hectic as our lives can be it is hard to keep track of our daily assignments or allocating the proper time.  Effective time management will help you get more done each day and has important health benefits as well.

Time management is the ability to properly plan and exercise conscious control in the management of daily activities in order to increase efficiency and productivity.  Originally, time management referred to just business or work activities, but in time the term broadened to include personal activities as well. A time management system is a combination of processes, tools, techniques, and methods. Usually time management is essential in any plan as it determines the completion time and capacity.

But how do you get back on track when organizational skills don’t come naturally? To get started, select one of these approaches, try it for a couple of weeks and see if it helps. If it does, consider adding another one. If not, try a different one.

Plan each day. Planning your day can help you accomplish more and feel more in control of your life. Write a to-do list, putting the most important tasks at the top. Keep an agenda of your daily activities to diminish conflicts and last-minute duties.

Task list. A task list is a list of duties to be completed, such as chores or a guide toward completing a project. Task lists are used in self-management, grocery lists, business management, project management and developments. It may entail more than one list.

Prioritize your tasks. Time consuming but relatively minor tasks can consume a lot of your day. Prioritizing your responsibilities will guarantee that you spend your time and energy on those that are actually vital to you.
ABC analysis. The ABC system has been used in business management for a long time in which it organizes responsibilities into categories. These categories are often marked A, B, and C; hence the name. Actions are ranked upon these general criteria:
A – Tasks that are professed as urgent or important.
B – Tasks that are important but not urgent,
C – Tasks that are neither urgent nor important.

Each group is then ranked in order of priority.

With good time management skills you are in control of your time, your life, your stress and energy levels, as well as an overall increase in time. You make advancement at work. You are able to sustain stability between your work, personal, and family lives. You have enough flexibility to take action with new opportunities. By managing your time more wisely, you can diminish stress and improve your quality of life.

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Guest Blogger Khris Pool

Bellus Academy National City hosted their Ribbon Cutting Ceremony Wednesday October 19, 2011.  More than 40 guests and Bellus Academy students cheered with Lynelle Lynch President, of Bellus Academies when the ribbon was cut.  National City Mayor Jim Morrison attended with Council Member Luis Natividad and support from the National City Chamber of Commerce.  Members of the chamber donated prizes to quests of the event ranging from a series of print services to movie tickets and more.

Lynelle spoke of all of the wonderful things that Bellus Academies have to offer including: Corporate Wellness, Inclusive Health Program, support for the Military and the Beauty Changes Lives non-profit.  Mayor Morrison supported all of the wonderful changes that have taken place with the upgrades of not only the campus/facility but with the education that is being offered from Bellus Academy.

Diego Raviglione, Bellus Artist Director and Nick Berardi, both Wella Master Stylist presented haircut demonstrations for guests.  Showing what the students learn from the Bellus STAR, online cutting program.

Michelle from Creative Nail Design did shellac demonstrations in the Spa Nail room with Spa Nail students who were very busy with mini manicure, reflexology, and paraffin treatments.

Sonia Tabor and Chandra Wood did Makeup Designory, MUD demonstrations on special effects makeup and glamour looks, while makeup students demonstrate what the MUD class taught them.

Wella educator Liz hosted a class on product knowledge from the new Wella Care and Styling line for students and guests in attendance.

William Lynch has owned the academy formerly known as Bay Vista College of Beauty for 26 years.  Lynelle Lynch has the vision to “educate the future leaders in the industry”, with this vision Lynelle has upgraded all three San Diego campuses and unified the schools under one brand Bellus Academy.

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Hello my name is Cathy Chavez and I am the Career Services Director for Bellus Academy.  I have been doing Career Services for over 5 years and I thoroughly enjoy it!

Have you ever found that looking for a job can sometimes feel like finding a needle in a hay stack? The key to being successful on the job hunt is structure.

Everyone knows that looking for employment is a full time job. Here’s the breakdown:

•    You spend 5 hours a week researching companies for at least an hour a day
•    You tailor your resume for at least 20 companies a day totaling 10 hours a week  while researching and customizing your resume
•    You spend 20 hours a week on telephone calls and e-mails trying to make contact with employers.
•    You spend the last 5 hours in a week following-up with each employer you have spoken to or made contact with.

Remember, if you follow the formula and perform a targeted job search for a full-time 40 hours a week, you should receive 2 job offers a month.

If you only search for 10 hours a week, it may take up to 3 months to get 1 job offer!!!

Remember it comes down to you and your desire to get a job.

Cheers!

Cathy

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Guest Blogger Rafael Benitez, Academy Director El Cajon Campus

We are officially Bellus Academy!

On October 25th JE Boutique celebrated its official name change with a Ribbon Cutting event. We are very proud to be officially Bellus Academy – El Cajon!

The Ribbon Cutting event was a wonderful success. Among our guests we had representatives from The California Senate and delegates from California Congress as well as the CEO of the San Diego Chamber of Commerce -East County Chapter and a large contingency of Chamber Members. Even Miss Rancho San Diego was in attendance along other beauty pageant winners.

Students treated our guests to Mini Services and showed them the caliber of future professionals about to join our industry from Bellus Academy. We are continuing to upgrade our facility, curriculum and staff to exceed the industry’s standards and graduate the top 10% of Beauty and Wellness Professionals.

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