Spa-tential Unlocked: Hand & Stone Levels Up Guest Safety

Thousands of massage therapists, no visibility

The stakes couldn’t be higher. Maintaining stringent levels of safety across hundreds of franchise locations was a daunting task before adopting Woven. Manual compliance audits left blind spots during which therapists at a given location could be hired or let go posing serious potential risks. Hand & Stone, a brand built on trust and wellness, identified additional opportunities to improve visibility.

Meanwhile, Hand & Stone’s Field Operations Consultants (FOCs) were spending large amounts of their spa visits manually performing audits, leaving little time for their support role of helping franchisees with their businesses. The manual system was inefficient and insufficient.

Hand & Stone wanted to improve their compliance efforts by eliminating blind spots and ensuring compliance at every location. That meant they needed a compliance partner who understood the unique challenges of the spa industry.

Real time insights for next-level guest safety

Enter Woven, a lifeline for spa compliance. Most platforms treat every business the same, but Woven understood the unique regulatory landscape and high-stakes compliance challenges that spas face. It stood out for its industry-specific intelligence and ability to deliver the kinds of real-time insights that spa franchisors dream of. 

Woven does more than track compliance. It creates a shield of safety around every guest, every day, in every location with spa-specific features, like:

• Automated license tracking specific to massage therapists and estheticians

• Background check integrations tailored for service professionals

• Integrations with POS and employment verification systems designed for high-turnover environments

Onboarding 600 spas might seem intimidating, but it was a breeze thanks to Woven’s dedication to customer success and personalized onboarding. Going above and beyond industry standards, Woven jumped in with tailor-made documentation, webinars, and training videos, as well as hands-on customer support. Both the Hand & Stone team and their franchisees praised the Woven team throughout onboarding. 

From paper files to zero blind spots

With Woven in place, Hand & Stone has transformed its compliance processes from reactive to proactive. The platform provides real-time insights into every location’s compliance status, eliminating blind spots entirely. Now,the Compliance Team can see at a glance whether background checks are missing or licenses are expired, and address issues before they ever become problems. 

“From a corporate level, the reporting is great,” noted Director of Compliance John Gorman. “You can take a snapshot of the current standing of any spa at any time. You can see if they have missing or expired documents and, prior to the audit, make sure those issues are addressed. Before, we would show up on site and look through files during the precious time that we had to help our franchisees drive their businesses. Now, everything is addressed in advance.”

“The time it saves us is ridiculous”

The time savings from Woven have been another major change. Hand & Stone reports that Woven saves their team 4 hours per field visit on audits, which Field Operations Consultants  can now use for business growth. The corporate compliance team easily does 5 compliance checks (via Woven’s audit feature) each day from their central offices– no paper files required.

“The time it saves us is ridiculous,” says Patty Corbet, Senior Compliance Manager. “We’re doing the audits right from here! There’s no travel involved, and we can verify whatever we need to.”

Beyond compliance: a strategic franchise enablement tool

Woven has fundamentally changed how Hand & Stone protects its guests while empowering franchisees to succeed. New locations are now fully audited before they ever open their doors to clients—every license checked, every background verified, and the confidence that every Hand & Stone guest and franchisee is protected. 

“Just to give you an idea,” said Cindy, “we've acquired two brands over the past year, at about 30 spas at a time. If we didn't have Woven to do all of the compliance checks virtually, it would have been a whole different experience.”

Franchisees have also embraced the change. With automated reminders for expiring licenses and streamlined policy acknowledgments, they no longer feel bogged down by clerical tasks. Instead, they can focus on delivering exceptional guest experiences.

“People are genuinely moving towards being more compliant,” Patty noted. “At our recent conference, franchise owners were telling me how much easier things are now. The compliance tools are making such a difference in the time that they need to put towards these clerical duties.” 

Spa franchisors: prioritize guest safety

The biggest change Woven has brought to Hand & Stone is a metric that can’t be quantified: knowability. In franchise businesses– especially in the spa industry– visibility into any given franchise location can make or break a business. The confidence of knowing that customers are safe behind closed doors is transformative. 

“10/10, we absolutely would recommend Woven to other multi-location salons and spas,” said Cindy Meiskin. “A franchisor’s responsibility is to help their franchisees grow their businesses. The compliance side should be seamless and not a pain point, and using Woven has allowed us to be that way.” 

For spa franchises, guest safety is everything. Can your spa afford to offer anything less?