When people visit spa, they do so with the expectation of experiencing relaxation. Clients have wants and needs that they expect to be satiated when they visit your spa.
Running a successful spa depends on your ability to cater to those needs through the products and services you render. Although every client is different, in this article, we have provided everything you need to know about what customers want in spas and how to implement them into your services.
In a world filled with people who regularly crave relaxation to escape the hustle of their daily life, it is easy to see why spas have become extremely popular.
From being present in high-end hotels to being executed as a stand-alone establishment, spas provide various services designed to aid health, wellness and total relaxation. The term ‘spa’ can be used to address small salons with nothing more than a massage room and nail services to expensive destinations structured to full-body pampering.
A trip to a spa is often used as an alternative to unwind and ease the body of stress. Since many spas also provide services such as steam baths, body scrubs, and facial treatments, people often visit spas for beauty services as a way to cater to their bodies.
The rise of spa popularity is a slow yet steady one that undeniably took a hit during the 2020 pandemic. With the restrictions put in place, spa appointments suffered, and the lack of demand greatly impacted the revenues. However, following the relaxation of these restrictions and the personal increase in a need for physical and mental well-being that followed the lockdown, spas are once again experiencing an increase in requests for their services.
The spa industry, a sector in the wellness economy, is a competitive space that rakes in billions of dollars in revenue. Worth $68 billion in 2020, the multi-billion dollar spa industry market is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate or CAGR of 12.1% from 2021 to 2028.
This growth can be attributed to an increased rate of tourism for people seeking wellness, the negative impact of urban stress that leads people to seek refreshing services that will pull the plug on their stress, or both.
Regardless of the reason for this growth, the Spa market revenue is expected to increase greatly in the coming years. As a spa owner, it is vital to take advantage of this foreseen growth and ensure your establishment remains a top choice to benefit from the industry's growing popularity.
Taking advantage means ensuring your store meets recent spa trends and customer demands. This means implementing several practices, products, services, and other essentials to create the ultimate spa experience that every customer craves.
What type of person is interested in a spa experience? Wellyx has broken the average spa customer into 7 great categories:
The ultimate customer experience is what a customer expects to obtain maximum satisfaction. This experience is a total of all the service details a client enjoys when they schedule services in your spa.
Knowing what your customers want is not only an excellent way to meet up with spa trends but will also ensure you satisfy your clients. Satisfied clients are the backbone of any successful spa, and paying attention to the details that can help keep your clients satisfied is vital to your establishment.
Knowing what your clients want and expect from your spa can be a challenging detail to figure out. However, we have summarized a total overview of what clients expect from spa services to help you better your customer experience.
As with any business, a client’s first impression of your spa matters. You will often only have one shot at impressing a potential or first-time client, and this impression will go a long way in determining if they want to go through with your services and if they will return for more services in the future.
Customers want spas where they can feel welcomed even on their first visit. Since the first impression of a business is often a taste of the services that lay in wait for your customers, they can always tell if they want to stick around to enjoy your services or run out the door the first few minutes they spend in your establishment.
Making the first impression goes past providing impressively beautiful decorations. It is the quality of service your clients experience as they are ushered in through the front doors.
It is essential to welcome all your clients warmly without discriminating. This will require you to train your staff properly to ensure they perform all procedures well. Small actions like offering snacks and drinks and offering other warm gestures are significant in impressing customers and helping them relax.
Offering first-time discounts are the icing on the cake and breed immediate fondness for your brand. Everybody likes freebies, and your clients are not left out.
Clients want a seamless spa service without friction and inconvenience. From start to finish, they want to enjoy excellent service.
When creating a successful spa, it isn't enough to have quality products and the latest facilities- although these are equally significant. It is important to provide unmatched services that help customers achieve maximum customer experience.
You can achieve this by training your staff to execute their roles perfectly. From the receptionists to spa therapists, your staff members should be highly-skilled and trained to deliver excellent service through independent roles and teamwork.
It is also important to ensure all phases in your spa are effortless. Design your spa system operation to be streamlined. From making it easier for clients to make appointments using efficient software to providing dynamic ways to ensure your clients enjoy a personalized experience that suits their needs.
One vital detail many spas miss in their operations is how important a personalized experience is to their client.
When clients visit spas, they do so with a priority to relax and be taken care of. They want to feel seen, valued, and doted on, and a mediocre service just doesn’t cut it.
Personalization of the customer experience is often underestimated in many spa centers. These centers focus on generalizing their services and adopting an identical approach to their operations in dealing with their clients.
Although generalized processes might save time and resources, their effects cannot be compared to the impact of adopting a more personalized approach. Personalization in wellness centers is ideal as it helps clients feel that their needs are being taken care of, making them feel like they are getting value for their money.
Research shows that 71% of customers feel frustrated when a shopping experience is impersonal. This is due to the effect of personalization on making an experience more memorable and breeding a connection between clients and a brand.
Personalizing your spa operation is a customer-centric approach that will set you apart from other spa businesses. Targeting your services to suit your client's needs will create an authentic customer experience that not only infuses a sense of gratitude in your clients but also make your brand more memorable.
Implementing personalization in your spa begins with knowing individual clients, their needs, and how your services can help them achieve those needs. It involves creating a guest profile that contains comprehensive reports on personal client details that include not only appointment details but other data like health concerns, allergies, and even food preferences for your snack bar.
A simple gesture like remembering a client’s name is a basic act of personalization that goes a long way. This simple act will make any client feel you are paying attention to them.
In addition, being aware of a client’s health concerns, sensitivities, allergies, or other necessary health information will enable you to tailor your services to adjust to these conditions and allow your customer to attain maximum satisfaction. It will also show your clients that you care about them and will provide services suitable for them, not a one-size-fits-all approach they will encounter in other spas.
Essentially, customers want a customer-focused spa that pays attention to the small fragments of details that make up their personalities as individuals and strives to put them first in all aspects of the services they provide. This breeds attachment and loyalty, which is the foundation of customer retention and success.
Clients don’t want to have wellness facilities where they can secure services. They want expert opinions to help them make the most of their visit to your spa.
Think about it. A client makes an appointment at your spa because they have been feeling soreness in their joints all week and need a massage to alleviate the pain in their joints.
However, when they do arrive, they realize there are different types of massages on your menu, and they have no idea which one is best for their predicament. To make things worse, you do not provide professional advice to help them make the best option to get the result they are looking for.
Providing advice is a part of running a successful spa establishment. It helps clients receive optimal results, creating satisfaction and increasing the value of their experience in your spa.
Make it easier for clients to make physical and virtual consultations. This will help you guide them towards achieving the results that best suit their needs.
When it comes to what a client needs from your spa, exceptional service is a no-brainer.
Clients do not like to settle for mediocrity. They want valuable services that provide excellent experiences and satisfy them, beginning from how they are treated in your establishment.
There are various ways to foster great customer relations. Some include:
Imagine having an Asia-themed spa that does not offer a Thai massage or other rituals and traditions unique to the Asian concept.
Customers want a spa that provides unique concepts for a specific audience like themselves. The concept is a part of the experience they enjoy in your spa and a major part of your brand design.
Clients today go after spas that offer unique spa treatments and services. If your spa has a unique concept to support your sophisticated brand image, it is vital to meet up to your end of the deal your image shows.
If you solely depend on tourists to visit your establishment for a unique experience, you promise to deliver on these experiences, so they do not feel cheated.
The onset of the pandemic brought with its regulations and restraints necessary to ensure safety. With the lockdown restrictions loosened, people are looking to patronize businesses that continue to uphold safety measures to ensure client safety. One of these measures is the use of low or no-contact business operations.
No-contact operations are services put in place to limit the implementation of physical contact. Although the spa business is anchored in the use of physical touch to serve its clients, spa-owners are taking an inward look at their services and shaving off areas of unnecessary physical rooms.
This trend is directed towards guaranteeing and ensuring client safety even as they seek services in your spa establishment. Clients are looking to patronize these spas that make it a point to minimize contact in their services until when necessary.
One major way customers expect spas to limit or alleviate unnecessary physical interactions in favor of contactless services is by removing a waiting room from the establishment. Without a waiting room, clients have no cause to be kept waiting together in a room.
This safety measure proved essential following the relaxation of the strict movement restrictions and implementation of the six-foot rule in public spaces. Additionally, clients expect spas to make provision for virtual check-in to make it easier to schedule appointments without being physically present. This is not only a safety measure, but convenient solution clients want to experience.
Clients also choose to make appointments at spas that offer contact-free payment options. By eradicating the over-the-register payment option, your hotel can keep clients safe, make payment convenient, and encourage more clients to patronize them.
Clients like to feel special. They want to feel like they are enjoying services not every customer is privy to.
Clients want spas with membership plans that offer preferential treatment different from other basic offers. These membership plans also incentivize clients to spend a little more money in exchange for something beneficial to them.
You should provide membership plans that give clients access to your facilities, special events, seminars, product discounts, and service coupons. This will not only increase customer services by increasing value but also provide free public exposure and encourage more clients to check out your services and membership plans.
Clients expect nothing short of excellent services in spas. While being perfect in your spa practices might be next to impossible, it is possible to meet your clients’ expectations and provide the ultimate customer experience.
In addition, Loop TV provides spas with the chance to offer a great experience using sophisticated entertainment and digital signage features.
Loop TV is a business entertainment and digital signage that offers more than 145 entertainment channels and unique digital signage options. With music, news, and funny fail channels- to name a few- and digital signage solutions, you can create a brand experience to match your audience.
To enjoy unlimited entertainment, sign up on the official Loop TV website.
