What Flavor is Your Spa?
September 19th, 2007 • Posted by Stephany Toman • Permalink
Or, Where Form and Function Meet on Your Website
Spas and salons adopt the current feeling of their industry as a matter of course. You probably wouldn't choose to decorate with a retro interior if your audience clearly preferred a warmer and more nurturing look and feel–earth tones, sage green and lots of creamy colors would likely be your pick. Many of you have moved to more botanical-based products and away from the traditional higher-tech but less natural products of yore. Some of you have even ventured further into the organic realm, and offer only products that meet that standard.
You're sensitive to the needs of your clientele, and you adjust. You hone your professional skills with classes designed to update on new techniques and products, and as a result you stay ahead of clients' expectations. After all, you want to give them what they want, while practicing the arts of bodywork, esthetics and haircare with expertise and professionalism. The environments you've created reflect your passion and your hard-won knowledge of how best to relax and treat your lucky clients.
Your website should do the same.
Your style should extend to your website. I know, I know, we're always telling you about usability and conversion (of visitors to appointments or Instant GC buyers–and that's a constant), so you're probably a little skittish when it comes to extending your unique, and yes differentiating style, to your website. But this is where form and function can meet, and nicely coexist.
If you're using one of our Dynamic Websites you've already heard about how we've designed our sites to be customizable from a content, color palette and graphics standpoint, and how easy they are to update. We make sure the fundamentals are designed in for you, minimizing the effort you need to expend when you choose a new site.
If you're using an existing website that you've had created elsewhere, don't worry, but do consider some things.
First, be sure you keep your content fresh. If this means adding a new paragraph to your home page and shipping it over to your web master on a monthly basis, go ahead and make it part of your routine. Content needs to be fresh to be interesting to keep your clients coming back for more about you.
Second, consider changing out graphics on occasion. Have you updated your spa or salon look and feel lately? Maybe changed the color palette or brought in new furniture or a new product line? Be sure pictures of your changes show up on your website. People like pictures–they paint a thousand words about how you're working with your business.
Third, and admittedly I've repeated this tons of times during the last few years but here we go again, decide what makes you different and show that on your website. If it's a unique theme to bodywraps or massage style, a special product line that speaks to your overall esthetic philosophy, or a preference for a particular haircutting technique, be certain you've shown that on your site.
You need to stand out from the rest of the sites out there to be noticed anymore. Bamboo is beautiful, pictures of water are relaxing, photos of people receiving massages are nice, and while they convey the overall intended relaxing, nurturing experience, they're rather generic and may not tell what YOU do, and do so well.
It's possible to mix form and function, so get with it, take a look at your website as an outsider would (yes, we like you to play the role of the visitor, don't we?) and determine if it's serving your business best. If it's not, it may be time to adjust its look and feel to best reflect what you do better or differently than anyone else out there.
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September 20th, 2007 at 6:20 am
Hey just a quick comment of something that would really help us out with the online gift certificates. Many times when the certificate is brought in they have cut it out so that it shows just the certificate. They actually cut the barcode and number off from under the certificate, giving us a major challenge to find out how to ring the certificate. If you could move the barcode and issue number so that it is on the actual certificate then this problem would be alleviated. Going into the Holiday season this is always a big issue at the salon.
Thanks Leia
September 27th, 2007 at 5:13 am
Yes, that happens to us too. Thanks for mentioning it Leia.
Sandra K.