Every spa operator knows (and every soon-to-open spa should) that spa gift certificates sales represent a critical source of annual revenue and new customers. Depending on the age and client market of a spa, these important sales can account from anywhere between 10-25% of total sales, a particularly crucial life preserver for new cash-hungry but client-poor businesses. For many spas, just like the holiday rush for retailers, seasonal gift certificate sales (Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Christmas) provide a powerful boost to flagging service appointments and bank reserves. Yet all spas, regardless of their years in business, need this steady flow of ready income and new customer potential to drive the wheels of growth forward. Conversely, it is tempting to take these sales for granted — windfall that they appear to be — instead of planning an optimal strategy for this lush opportunity.

Here’s some advice that you can use in your company right away to make more money while reducing the potential hardships and hazards brisk gift certificate sales can pose:

Individual services and/or specified dollar amounts

• Make gift certificates easier to sell! While we love this upfront cash, the transaction can be time consuming for front desk staff and a chore for the purchaser. You may want to consider adding a sales feature on your company website to handle the job for you. Companies like SpaBoom help you set up your site with the tools needed to make online gift certificate sales simple and fast. They charge a small fee per transaction and relieve employees of having to work every sale — a real blessing during a holiday crunch!
• Selling gift certificates for cash credit is the ideal way to go if you want to avoid the unpleasant task of having to book packages out many weeks in advance. When a customer has a gift certificate for, say, $200, the spa is only obligated to redeem it for its full value, not guarantee the availability of a specific package. Many clients will prefer to use the credit in small increments, and these several visits help establish them with your spa and often lead to retail purchases. In any event it helps eliminate pressure on your schedule and personnel.

Spa packages

By now you know that most spa service packages are sold as gift certificates and redeemed by persons for whom the spa is a rare experience. And while the welcome of this gift by the recipient can range from ecstatic to dread, even the most enthusiastic individual may require weeks, if not years, to get the thing scheduled. Now, that’s fine for them but if it’s your too-busy spa that’s causing the scheduling delay then you’ve got a real problem on your hands, namely, a miffed buyer and user. And since most package customers prefer prime time appointments (those precious evening and weekend hours) you may suddenly be forced to schedule these folks out many weeks into the future. This may inspire some to believe that they’re a low-priority to you, and that you’re making it deliberately difficult for them to use their gift. Worse, high concentrations of gift certificate appointments during peak hours can make it challenging for your loyal regular clients to schedule, leaving you with the terrible trade-off of top-value customers for the infrequent visitor. This isn’t a good deal for spas that depend on local trade for survival.

Solutions:

• Offer a maximum of 3 or 4 spa packages, all under 4 hours in length. Reduced-length packages are easier to schedule, are less damaging when cancelled late, consume less schedule time, and minimize the chances for something to go wrong over long hours of service that could cause you to redo or comp. the services… Ouch! Shorter packages are also easier to train employees on, and are more flexible when clients want to rearrange its order or substitute services.
• When customers call to schedule a gift certificate service be sure to offer your lowest demand appointment hours first! Never permit your concierge to voluntarily utter the deadly words, “When did you want to come in?” You’ll be amazed how positively people will respond to your time suggestions so don’t paint yourself into a scheduling corner needlessly!
• Never discount your spa packages!!! Considering the cost of scheduling them, then rescheduling them, poor retail sales after them, and the potential displacement of regular customers because of them you can scarcely afford to shave the price. Here’s how to sell your spa service packages above the combined services value:
1. Create a package that contains specially named and designed face and body services that are available only in the package: meaning, they are not sold or seen a la carte on the service menu. These “special” facials, massages, etc. should take no longer to perform, nor cost any more than a regular service would. There’s no need to lengthen or to make any significant changes in them they’ll be largely unfamiliar to both purchaser and recipient.
2. Charge roughly 20% more for this package than you would if those services were sold individually. This is a gift, and gifts aren’t as price sensitive as practical purchases.
3. Always schedule a package with the facial as the last service, if possible. This is the service that’s most likely to generate a retail purchase with this customer.
4. If you have some difficult-to-sell services at the spa then stuff them into your packages! After all, you have plenty of openings for those…
• Always direct gift certificate purchasers to the packages that you most want to sell! Instead of the passive and incorrect “Did you have something in mind?” ask the purchaser who the gift is for and then offer a suggestion: “That’s great! Would you like to know what everyone loves as a gift from our spa?” Then, describe the package that you’d like to sell, and do it in feeling terms, not technical. “It’s the most incredible and relaxing thing she’ll probably ever experience! She’ll love it — I would!” That’s about all it takes to get the card swiped and the envelope sealed.
• While the retail sales that follow spa package appointments are often dismal, and those gift baskets haven’t flown off the shelves, you can build products into the packages by designing it thus:



South Pacific Holiday

Our most popular package gives busy, working moms some needed time-out and a personal experience she won’t forget! She begins her visit with a wonderful tropical hand and foot exfoliation and massage using real papaya and natural loofah. Next, her tense muscles are soothed away by the hands of a specially trained therapist using the ancient Hawaiian Lomi Lomi technique, finally mom is carried away to the soft breezes of the islands with during our unique Tradewinds Aromatherapy facial.

As a special treat the package comes complete with an enchanting scented candle and skin smoothing body lotion for her enjoyment before we greet her here at Spa Leilani. Aloha!

• The package is only sold inclusive of the retail products that you place into a gift bag with the gift certificate. This is an excellent way to move slower selling stock while guaranteeing some commission-free retail sales!

Some final advice: do everything in your power to convert your gift certificate customer into a loyal, long-term client! With all the emerging competition in the spa market you cannot count forever on this fat flow of nearly passive income. It’s the clients you keep that ultimately represent your spa’s foundational business. If that gift river should run dry you’ll be glad you have a well of reliable supporters beneath you!