Are you doing what you promise?
March 5th, 2009 • Posted by Spa Kat • Permalink
Every day spas communicate their promise to clients by their collective action. The consistency of all those actions conveys who and what your business represents. Any discrepancy between what is communicated and the actual spa experience will create doubt and diminish trust with clients.
A spa’s website is a direct reflection of its promise. A spa that promotes a dedication to pampering and customer service but maintains a website that is difficult to navigate, requires multiple steps to make reservations or gift purchases and contains outdated information is corroding its message.
Actions speak louder than words. Is your spa living up to its promise?
• Trackback • Posted in Creating Customers, General, Spa Business Management, Spa Website Design
Interesting time with this because just recently I had a therapist that was going to go home early because our couples massage was late. The receptionist had told them (the couple) it was ok, don't worry about it, yet the therapist was trying to tell the receptionist "that's not our policy" if they are late 15 minutes we get to go home. What? Who is in control when I am not there? Luckily I was called and told them all to stay and just chill and that we committed to the customers and we should honor that. My therapist was having a bad day. We talked the next day. She apologized, but I still worry a bit when I am not there. Sounds like it might be meeting time for us all! Let's review how we operate perhaps? Thanks for the reminder!
I have had problems with our aestheticians. They complain about small pay checks, but we have to practically beg them to come in. As a result we are changing our packages to include facial massage instead of "facials." I'm going to start by offering the facial massage as an alternative if we can't find someone to come in to fulfill that part of a package. Then I plan to slowly phase out the "facials" entirely. I don't want to compromise on quality of care and would rather not offer a service at all if we will have to worry about the quality of work being done. We have had multiple meetings with the Aestheticians about this problem with no change in behavior. Soon they will be gone and I will be looking for someone reliable to come in full-time and rebuild that side of the spa to a quality service we can offer again. I hope this doesn't create doubt and distrust for us and I hope our clients will understand?!
I can also identify with Janet Sanders with regard to wondering how things go when I'm not there. Our massage therapists are really great, but we do have days when they just don't want to be there. We all have bad days from time to time, so I wonder sometimes if the phones are being answered in a friendly manner or if clients are treated with respect when they come in? I do make frequent unannounced visits to the spa, but have been told that people act very differently when I'm there than they do when I'm not! How can we affect change there when meetings and discussion don't seem to work? I think it may be time for another meeting for us also. Everyone can use a reminder now and then about what is acceptable behavior. Maybe a little role-playing will help?