In today’s highly competitive markets, customer experience remains a differential for businesses. Consumers favor businesses that deliver a memorable experience.
The vital question is: how can you create the ultimate spa or salon customer experience?
Deliver top-notch customer service every time. Yes, it’s that straightforward.
Great customer service involves prioritizing the needs of your customers and forming meaningful relationships with them.
Customers should be at the center of all planning and decision-making efforts. You must consider them at all stages, from optimizing the construction of your spa or salon business to your final service delivery.
What are the Business Benefits of Delivering Great Customer Service?
When properly implemented, customer service brings a ton of benefits. Your salon or spa can rely on loyal clientele, and they, in turn, get products and services that suit their needs.
Approach each interaction to exceed expectations by offering a unique experience. Leaving a good impression means customers are more likely to return to your spa or salon for their next fix.
Satisfied customers are the best marketing strategy.
Nothing beats a customer who is willing to rave about your spa treatment or hair styling. These are the real heroes who promote your brand through word-of-mouth and draw attention to your products and services.
How do you foster that loyalty?
You must understand them and anticipate their needs. Develop meaningful relationships by showing respect and going the extra mile. Customers want to feel valued.
If you need more convincing, here’s something you might not know.
It’s much more costly to invest resources in getting new customers than it is to keep old ones. That should give you an idea of how valuable your customers are to the growth of your business.
What Qualifies as Great Customer Service?
Customer service sums up all the efforts put into serving existing, new, and prospective customers. You should aim to deliver quality customer service at every stage of your service delivery.
Customers should feel appreciated from the initial engagement to the final purchase.
A memorable experience all but guarantees a follow up visit.
Smart business owners take it one step further by considering the relationship between AI and customer service. AI tools like chatbots can make a huge difference in providing real-time support and converting prospects into paying customers.
Remember that while great customer service creates loyal customers, negative experiences do the opposite.
How Can You Improve Customer Experience With Great Customer Service?
Now you know why your salon or spa needs to give your customers an exceptional experience.
Where do you start?
It’s easy if you take the right approach, but a lot of effort is required to find that approach. So, here are some juicy nuggets to get you started.
Put these customer service tips to good use and your customers will be hooked for life:
1. Keep to Appointments
An appointment is a sacred bond between you and your customers.
This scheduled commitment must be prioritized above all else. You should only break it under unavoidable circumstances.
Better still, don’t break it at all.
Your ability to respect customer appointments affects their willingness to trust you. Public perception of your spa or salon business depends on your professionalism and credibility in customer dealings.
An apology message or phone call can ease some of the disappointment. Be open and honest. Make sure they understand why you are unavailable and encourage them to reschedule.
The best apologies in this scenario will include some form of compensation.
Offer them a discount for their purchase or provide something extra at no additional cost. Show them that their opinion matters.
2. Start a Membership Scheme
Membership schemes can be a game-changer for your spa or salon. Loyal customers get rewarded for their commitment with discounted deals on your products and services.
Offering special membership benefits is a fantastic way of showing appreciation to your loyal soldiers. Membership programs promote a sense of community and members are sure to recommend your services to others.
These programs also provide a patronage guarantee. Members tend to use your services more often because of the added incentives. It’s a real wallet-opener.
Regular visits mean that your customers get reliable services and you can forecast funds for supply and staffing needs.
Everybody wins.
3. Be Transparent and Authentic
We’ve all been burned at least once.
Trust issues are an unavoidable side-effect. With so many options available in the market, it’s hard for customers to decide who to trust.
More so if you are new to the industry.
For clients to trust you and make you their go-to choice, you need to cultivate their trust. This is the basis of any successful enterprise.
One proven way to build trust is by practicing transparency in all your dealings.
Customers must be kept in the loop at all times. Provide regular info and updates about your business and policies to keep them informed.
Use these transparency tips to boost customer engagement:
Provide a price list in a visible location on your premises
Give customers a heads-up well ahead of time of price changes
Use a simple refund policy
Use personalized responses for customer interaction online or in public spaces
Never react to negative feedback. Listen patiently and offer solutions
Encourage customers to write reviews about their experience on your website, business listing pages, and social media. This is an excellent technique for measuring customer satisfaction
Accept responsibility when you’re wrong.
4. Optimize Online Appointments
Scheduling spa or salon appointments on a face-to-face basis is a great chance to get some facetime with customers. However, you should consider creating an option for customers to make appointments online.
The idea is to provide the same options they would get from a physical interaction – without the physical part.
Customers should be able to choose the exact time, service, and even products that suit their needs. For example, your booking page could have live updates on availability or a virtual receptionist to offer customer support.
The virtual receptionist can perform several functions including providing parking directions.
This can be critical because some customers could prefer online bookings. Tech-savvy customers tend to base their purchase decisions on their experience with your digital platforms.
Online scheduling saves you valuable time and helps you process appointments faster.
Encourage your customers to try making their appointments online. They can browse through your style catalog or treatments with ease wherever they are.
It’s a great way for them to get information about your services without having to visit a physical location.
5. Offer Home Care
Salons and spas tend to focus on on-site product and service delivery. Offering home care services to your customers can be a huge differential and put your spa or salon ahead of the curve.
There are tons of benefits to building a meaningful relationship with customers beyond their time on-site.
Your customers already love the excellent services you provide for them at your salon or spa. Imagine how much more enjoyable that would be in the comfort of their homes.
6. Personalize Your Services with CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
CRM – not to be confused with PRM in marketing strategies – is the corner piece in the customer service puzzle.
It gives you access to a range of invaluable tools for managing customer relationships.
You can create individual profiles for customers with information such as birthdays and treatment preferences. This information allows you to tailor the customer’s experience to needs, from offering them discounts on special days to predicting hairstyle changes.
Keeping records of previous visits offers insight into a customer’s life and habits.
Offering personalized spa or salon services is a great way to make new customers feel welcome. They are more likely to become regulars when they see the dedication you put into understanding their needs.
With CRM in place, you can review your no-shows or regulars who no longer come in. You can reach out to them and provide solutions to get them through the doors again.
These customer surveys can help you to improve your conversion rate.
It helps you identify your loyal customers and prioritize their needs. The fact that it’s all done online and eco-friendly is the icing on the cake.
7. Deal With Complaints Professionally
Customers are, by nature, never satisfied.
It remains your job, however, to strive towards the impossible. Complaints will come, but you must adopt the proper attitude to turn them around.
Remember that not all complaints would be face-to-face. You must recognize the importance of online reviews and how to manage unsatisfied customers.
No matter who is at fault, you should always maintain your professionalism.
8. Consider Offering Complimentary Services
Complimentary services could be anything from a cup of tea in the waiting room to a makeover. Even having an apprentice chat up customers while they wait is a great idea.
The aim is to make the experience pleasurable and measurable to the customer. It can help you secure repeat business for your salon or spa.
Give clients important updates on your products and services to show them how much you care. For example, you can provide health-conscious tips about your products and services that customers might not know.
Share the benefits of a new spa treatment or introduce new body-safe hair styling products.
Pass out handbills or ask customers to follow your social media pages/blog to share these useful tips with them.
Give Your Customers the Adventure of a Lifetime
The ideal customer experience extends beyond what happens inside the store or salon. It covers what the customer thinks about your business even when they’re not with you.
Use the tips you’ve read to improve customer engagement.
Put in the effort to make customers feel respected and appreciated. From the moment they step through your door or click on your website, be prepared to give them the adventure of a lifetime.
Bio:
Jessica Day – Senior Director, Marketing Strategy, Dialpad
Jessica Day is the Senior Director for Marketing Strategy at Dialpad, a modern business communications platform that takes every kind of conversation to the next level—turning conversations into opportunities. Jessica is an expert in collaborating with multifunctional teams to execute and optimize marketing efforts, for both company and client campaigns. Here is her LinkedIn. Jessica has written for such domains as Kustomer and Send Pulse.
Rescue Repair combines advanced technology with proven age-defying ingredients to replenish the essential antioxidants and peptides your body needs for younger skin. Rescue Repair is designed to restore and renew areas of the hands, feet, knees, elbows and décolletage troubled with age spots, extreme dryness, loose skin and calluses. Our powerful formulation will ensure that even the most problematic of skin conditions will be alleviated.
The popularity of medical spas continues to increase over the years among both men and women. These spas combine traditional spas and a medical clinic, blending the two and giving you a unique experience. However, you might question if a medical spa is a good fit for getting specific procedures done. This is a list of the most common questions asked about medical spas.
How Are Medical Spas Different
One of the significant differences between traditional and medical spas is their procedures. This is because traditional spas do not have access to the specific techniques that medical spas offer. Also, medical spas must have medical doctors residing over the operation. With that said, doctors will not always be the person performing the procedures, but they must preside over any medical process done.
There are varying degrees of medical spas depending on where you live. Some spas are luxurious, first-class establishments with any accommodation you could possibly want. While other spas strictly keep to the medical side of things. But, no matter where you go, most of the time, these spas are driven by results.
For staff working in your spa, you want to keep their outfits comfortable and functional. Medical scrubs are a popular choice since they are cozy, professional and washable. Any collection of men’s or womens scrubs is a perfect fit for the job.
How To Benefit From Medical Spas
With a wide range of options available to improve health, some treatments help keep your body running the way it should. Take a look at these health improvements and decide what you think:
Body massages are excellent for improving circulation and minimizing the risk of hypertension.
Mineral baths relieve chronic pain in your back or from arthritis.
Foot massages relieve headaches when the correct pressure point is pressed.
Aromatherapy is proven to help reduce insomnia.
Some treatments are seen as a way to receive relaxation; many people come to spas for their healing properties.
What Treatment do They Offer
Most spas offer you a menu listing all services provided. While this may vary from place to place, the more typical treatments will still be available to you, such as clearing acne, lasering hair and improving aging skin. Be mindful that while most medical spas still offer massages and facials, they mostly accommodate those needing to see a dermatologist. While chemical peels and botox are among the most sought-after treatments, these spas have pretty much any procedure helping to improve your skin’s appearance.
Who Will Perform the Treatments
Estheticians typically perform the day-to-day treatments, but the medical doctor overseeing the spa is in charge of procedures deemed medical. Therefore, you can plan on your esthetician to do any non-medical treatments. This includes simple cosmetic procedures like body scrubs and wraps, but they can perform non-invasive procedures as well.
Several other medical specialists are employed at these spas to perform treatments. Registered Nurses can do non-surgical cosmetic procedures and assist the acting doctor. A cosmetologist can perform facials, massages, and other non-medical treatments. Also, an LPN, Nurse Practitioner, and other professionals all collaborate, making up a network of trained professionals.
Every state has its specific regulations but, in general, expect a physician to perform all medical procedures. This is anything from injectables and skin-tightening to microdermabrasion and medical facials.
Conclusion
If you want non-invasive ways to improve your self-esteem, giving a medical spa a chance is wise. Medical spas are rising for their services combining comfort, science and technology. When visiting a spa, choose one that has exceptional medical staff supervised by a medical doctor, making sure to follow state recommendations.
All spas should have a relaxing and cheerful atmosphere and be pleasing to the senses – the spa should look nice, smell good, and be tranquil and comfortable. In today’s spa industry, the emphasis is on wellness. It tends to be a treat for us here and there. However, wouldn’t it be nice to have that treat more regularly? Attending a spa regularly isn’t always possible for one reason or another. So, what if we could recreate the same atmosphere at home? Today we will look at one aspect that should set you on your way to creating that atmosphere, and it’s to do with natural bath salts.
Submerging our bodies in a bath of warm water and salt is one of the most effective ways to relax after a busy day. This healthy routine relaxes the muscles, moisturizes the skin, detoxifies the body, and reduces internal edema. In addition, the macro and trace minerals contained in salts are essential for human health and can be absorbed into the bloodstream during a warm bath, helping to balance out the entire body. With this in mind, let us look at the best natural bath salts to recreate a day at the spa in your own home.
Himalayan Bath Salts
Ancient sea salt deposits were stored and shielded from contaminants by layers of sediment from volcanic eruptions some 50 million years ago during the building of today’s great mountain ranges. Careful, sustainable harvesting now yields some of the best, most healthy bath salts available anywhere globally. Himalayan Bath Salts contain up to 84 essential trace minerals and have a gorgeous, natural pink color, making them an excellent choice for the occasion.
Epsom Bath Salts
They have the appearance of tiny crystals similar to table salt, but they have a distinct chemical composition that contains magnesium, oxygen, and sulfur. These salts are particularly effective for eliminating unwanted body toxins, exfoliating the skin, relieving stress, and managing muscle pain. People who enjoy sports love Epsom salt baths. However, this is not a good option for persons sensitive to sulfur.
Magnesium Bath Salts
This is an excellent bath for persons who experience restlessness, irritability, poor sleep quality, anxiety, or depression as a result of Magnesium insufficiency, as it is a mild means of boosting magnesium that is also well retained by the body, offering a longer-lasting benefit than some other salts.
Table Bath Salts
Bath salt can be made with any salt. Even the salt you use in your cooking is an option. While not the most appealing option, table salt is popular among bath salt enthusiasts who choose more accessible and affordable alternatives to the more expensive but enticing Himalayan salt. It is also available in various grain sizes, giving you more options for adorning your bath salt.
Sea Bath Salts
Sea salt is derived straight from seawater and contains trace minerals found naturally in the ocean. It is available in various grain sizes and is usually free from additives. Because of the local clay, algae, and other deposits found in the water where the salt is obtained, the color and texture of sea salt vary greatly. Some sea salts are pinkish-gray in color, while others are black.
Dead Sea Bath Salts
The Dead Sea, located between Jordan, Israel, and Palestine, is a massive salt lake that developed more than fifteen million years ago. For thousands of years, its salt has been mined and used in medicinal, natural beauty cures, and, more recently, cooking. Its crumbling moist consistency distinguishes it from Epsom salts’ clear, smooth crystals.
If you want to relieve tension, relax achy muscles, and soothe inflamed skin, you should consider taking a salt bath. While bathing in a tub is a relaxing method to unwind after a long day, adding bath salts is supposed to enhance the benefits to your skin, muscles, and joints. So now every day can be a spa day!
Photo by Mareefe: https://www.pexels.com/photo/blue-and-yellow-rock-salts-1298624/
No Worries* – Herb & Jujube Seed Infusion from Good Pharma
Usher your body and mind into a blanketed state of calm. Savor a plant infusion of Ayurvedic herbs of Holy Basil & Ashwagandha + Rooibos, all tastefully crafted and boosted with a Traditional Chinese Medicinal formula. What’s it taste like? Think notes of mango and passionfruit!
Highlights:
-Supports Stress -Regulates the nervous system for a healthier mood.* -Caffeine-Free
Ingredients:
Traditional Chinese Medicinal Extracts –
Jujube seed 20:1 extract, Poria Mushroom, Mother of Pearl and a formula of supportive roots helps regulate the nervous system for a healthier mood.*
Organic Rooibos Leaves
Supports healthy stress reduction by supporting cortisol levels and immune system.*
Holy Basil and Ashwagandha
Ayurvedic adaptogens support healthy stress reduction and immune system.*
Organic Lemon Balm
A botanical revered to support healthy stress reduction.*
ALLERGENS: avoid use if you are allergic to any ingredients Processed on shared equipment with soy and tree nuts Please consult your healthcare practitioner if pregnant or nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition. Combining this product with any sleep medication is not recommended. Not intended for children under the age of 12.
See more about No Worries™ Herb & Jujube Seed Infusion by CLICKING HERE
Clients may come to your spa initially because of your great online reviews, information in their social media feeds, a referral from friends or family, a direct mail piece you sent out, or your convenient location on their way home from work. But what keeps them coming back is their experience once they’ve stepped through your doors and a feeling of personal connection with your staff—the building blocks of client loyalty.
According to the Harvard Business Review, a business that increases its client retention rates by 5 percent sees a boost in profits of anywhere from 25 to 95 percent.1 And that’s just 5 percent—imagine what an even greater increase could do for your spa! Here are some strategies to help strengthen your clients’ bond to your team and your business.
1. Offer a friendly greeting upon entering.
A warm welcome within the first few moments after a client enters your spa is essential to getting the visit off to a good start. It may seem basic, but a cheerful smile and direct eye contact have a huge impact on customer perceptions of friendliness, says communication coach Carmine Gallo.2 But if a client spends more than 10 seconds waiting for someone to greet them, customer satisfaction plummets. Make sure all your employees—not just front counter staff—know the importance of greeting clients upon entering.
2. Know details about clients’ personal lives.
Here’s a great way to amaze clients with your client engagement wizardry: take notes. During any client visit, a few details will likely emerge about kids, vacations, birthdays, and so on. Train your team to spend a few minutes noting a couple of these details in your client profile records. Next time that client comes in for a service, ask how Lily’s ballet recital went or what that California trip was like. They’ll think you’re a genius—and feel exceptionally special.
3. Offer surprise goodies and gift bags.
Free gifts can also help clients remain loyal to your spa, especially if you offer them randomly, when customers don’t expect them. (It may seem counterintuitive, but behavioral psychologists say intermittent rewards create stronger positive associations than consistent rewards.3) Rather than using giveaways as a strategy to attract new clients, offer a free product sample or complimentary service enhancement as a “thank you” to regular clients. (Learn how retail products can help increase revenue.) Not only does this help strengthen loyalty, it also eliminates those who only want the freebie and have no intention of coming back.
4. Follow up after the first visit and periodically afterward.
When you have a first-time client, especially someone who spends a significant amount of money at your spa, follow up with a phone call to ask how the visit went. This sends a strong message that you care about the client experience at your spa and also helps you identify client service problems that may need to be addressed. With existing clients, utilize periodic online surveys. According to experience-management company Qualtrics, this type of survey monitors the general “health” of your spa and can be used to provide tracking benchmarks.4
5. Promote gifting of spa services.
When clients give a gift, they become more deeply connected to the gifted brand, according to a study published in the Journal of Marketing.5 In fact, researchers found that these gift buyers spent 63 percent more the year following a gift purchase than customers who purchase the brand for their personal use, and the effect is even stronger when clients receive assistance during the gift purchase process and branded gift wrapping is used. You know that spa services and products make great gifts—make sure your clients know that too.
6. Ask clients how they prefer to receive communications.
Your clients’ age demographic and individual preferences may strongly influence how they prefer to hear from you—and whether they respond to your outreach efforts. Ask your clients if they would prefer direct mail, phone calls, email, text messaging, or social media to learn about spa specials, receive reminders for services, and so on. Many spa management software systems let you customize and automate these communication preferences. Your clients will appreciate the personal touch, and you’ll be more likely to connect with them as a result.
7. Offer payment options.
Your spa clients may be unaware of—but open to—financing options for spa services. In a recent study, relatively few skincare clients (29 percent) were aware of options to finance related expenses, but 49 percent said they would consider it if it meant they could receive treatment right away.5 Offering the CareCredit health, wellness, and personal care credit card could help differentiate your spa from others, help increase satisfaction and loyalty among current clients, and even help attract new clients. Your clients receive the services that help them feel refreshed and pampered when they want to receive them, and your spa reaps the benefits of client satisfaction—a perfect marriage between financial health and client loyalty.
5Eggert A, Steinhoff L, Witte C. “Gift Purchases as Catalysts for Strengthening Customer–Brand Relationships,” Journal of Marketing, July 9, 2019, journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022242919860802.
6CareCredit Path To Purchase — Cosmetic, 2018.
Great job! You’ve completed the course.
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With the CareCredit health, wellness and personal care credit card, you can help build client loyalty and help your clients accept your full recommendation of services and retail products. Simply start accepting CareCredit as a payment solution and let every client know it’s available.
Give your clients a dedicated, flexible way to pay over time for additional services, treatments and retail products.* Clients can choose the No Interest if Paid in Full within 6 Months financing option on purchases of $200 or more.
If approved, clients can use their CareCredit credit card again and again at your spa.
Join the CareCredit network today. Call (800) 300-3046 Option 5 or click here to learn more.
*Subject to credit approval. Minimum monthly payments required. See carecredit.com for details.
Therabody has acquired leading sound therapy company So Sound, and rebranded to TheraSound, a new line of sound therapy products and services.
As the pioneer in wellness technology, this next innovation in vibration therapy is an important development for Therabody. The first application of proprietary TheraSound Technology is the Therabody Lounger, a zero gravity lounger that shifts your mind and body into a deep state of relaxation, focus, or sleep. We are currently taking preorders for the Therabody Lounger, which will be available in Fall 2022 and will retail for $2,999.
Features of the Therabody Lounger include:
When you sit on the Therabody Lounger, you will feel the sound – like a musical massage – as rhythmic vibrations pulsate through your body from head to toe. This is the only lounger on the market that incorporates TheraSound’s proprietary hardware and content via an app.
TheraSound Technology leverages vibroacoustic sound therapy, a form of music therapy that uses speakers embedded inside a surface (like furniture or equipment) to transmit sound waves through the body that we feel as vibration. When these vibrations resonate with the central nervous system, the effect can be deeply calming and restorative for the mind and body – transitioning you into a meditative state.
Benefits of TheraSound Technology:
Decreased stress and increased relaxation
Increased circulation
Decreased pain
Increased mobility (ROM)
Decreased muscle tension
The vibrational sensation is delivered to the body through SoundHearts, our proprietary hardware that is built into the Lounger and creates sound waves that enable sound to be felt and heard.
The zero gravity recliner position of the Therabody Lounger helps reduce stress on the lower back and increase blood circulation with the knees and feet slightly above the heart.
TheraSound Technology can be integrated into a variety of products, from massage tables to reclining chairs to mattresses and beyond. We are working with a number of manufacturers across industries to integrate TheraSound hardware and content into products that are often found in spas, hotels and gyms, and even in consumers’ homes. We are proud to announce that our first partner is Sunlighten, a spa industry leader whose infrared saunas offer an enhanced heat therapy experience. The added benefit of TheraSound technology will elevate any Sunlighten treatment making each session more relaxing and transformative. We are excited to take this next step toward becoming a full-service partner with our ecosystem of mind and body solutions, and plan to announce additional partners in the coming months.
If you are interested in learning more about partnering with Therabody to incorporate the Therabody Lounger into your business or integrate TheraSound Technology into your own products, please contact hospitalitysupport@therabody.com.
Experience our Easy Day Slides crafted for the casual life! Featuring premium cushioning, comfort woven straps, and recycled materials our new slides are designed for effortless all-day comfort and relaxed style. Plus, each pair supports artisan communities across the globe.
Ultra-soft yoga mat cushioning and natural rubber foot bed
Natural rubber outsole with recycled rice husks for enhanced traction and wear-resistance
Textured insole with raised toe bar for easy wear
Artisan woven strap with vegan lining
Supports global weavers, rice farmers, and rubber farmers
Clodagh’s clean lines combine with Oakworks functionality to create this incredibly versatile addition to the treatment room. Versatile and compact, the furniture-grade Clodagh Trolley features space for an 18 qt hot stone warmer, a drawer with a lowered work shelf, and a full sized hot towel cabi! The innovative use of light and space is a hallmark of Clodagh’s designs, often considered one of the many attributes that distinguish her work from others in her field. The Clodagh Trolley is a stunning example of this principle, saving valuable room space. And with its slide open top, pull out work area and rolling casters, this versatile and compact piece of spa furniture is as functional as it is beautiful.
Our mantra is Connect the Community, which is why membership in our associations has no charge for those actively practicing the pursuit of Wellness. Nationally and Internationally, all are welcome to join.
