In this month’s column I want to offer simple corrections for what I consider to be some of the most routine but unrecognized customer service mistakes found in day spas. Whether the spa spends lavishly or neglectfully on customer service training I discover these costly oversights at virtually every one I call, consult to, or visit. The fact is that spa businesses lose their profit potential more through numerous small failures in building customer rapport and sales than to large management errors. Yet many spa owners and directors are simply too busy, overconfident, or unaware to recognize the steady losses generated by company policy and protocol.
So, here’s a chance to identify and plug up those hidden leaks in your company’s income by polishing your customer service performance!
Thanks for calling, whoever you are… I am calling your spa to inquire about services and, just maybe, spend a wad of cash. You take my call, thank me for calling, maybe even tell me your name but, do you ever ask me what my name is unless I’m actually making an appointment? No, not ever. That seems to be because, unless I am actually prepared to buy something from you, you don’t particularly care who I am. I’m just a caller, an anonymous voice, possibly even a nuisance in your busy day-and I feel like one, too. If you want your business to stand out among all the others out there you’re trying to outshine please tell the caller your name and say the following:
Caller: Hi, I’d like to hear about your services.
You: Of course! And whom am I speaking with?
Caller: This is Sarah.
You: Well, Hi Sarah. Let me tell you about some of our wonderful spa treatments!
Wouldn’t you like it if the spa concierge actually cared to know your name? Sure you would! Remember, this is a personal services business.
Nice to meet you and turn my back on you, too. Over and over again the same thing happens: I fill out my new client form, wait for “my therapist” (unnamed) to come and get me, and then am asked to follow him or her back to the treatment area. So there I am, following someone back to a massage or facial room, still waiting for something truly personal to happen. You see, I’m a stranger in this spa, by myself, and feeling nervous and out-of-place. I’m dying for someone, anyone, to make me feel at home, like I belong here. Yet, even up to this point it hasn’t happened yet. Sure, people have been friendly, just not personal. It’s just plain bad manners and the neglect of the client.
Now, instead of asking the client to follow you back to the treatment room ask them to come back with you. Walk beside them, smile, ask questions and begin to build a little warmth and familiarity. Maybe you’ve been working in that spa for six years but remember your first day, how nervous and awkward you were, and realize that your customer is feeling that way, too. The sooner you help them to feel at home the more they’ll want to return!
I want to tell you all about a wonderful product we’ll be out of today! I must have been pinned with the, “Oh, we’re out of that,” curse when visiting restaurants. If anyone can pick the one thing on the menu the place won’t have, it’s me. And it’s the most annoying thing in the world that servers who know what they’re out of won’t tell the customer until they’ve read about it, looked forward to it and requested it! It’s absolutely maddening and extremely common. This happens in the spa, too, for the simple reason that therapists fail to take stock of the available retail inventory before making product recommendations to clients. And, while it’s true that management needs to keep retail stock levels at sufficient levels, it’s still up to you to know what’s on the shelves so you don’t disappoint your client or yourself. Take a quick tally of what the spa has available and sell accordingly. Hint: if you know you’re going to sell that last serum to your next customer then set it aside before you finish the treatment so it will be there for you later!
Sure, I can show you that moisturizer but don’t blame me when you see the price. In a Vancouver, BC home accessories store I spotted intriguing roll of wallpaper mounted high above a sales counter. When I asked the sales clerk to bring it down for me to inspect he sternly warned, “It’s a very expensive item-I just want you to know that.” Well, sorry…I didn’t realize that my poverty status was so obvious to everyone else! What an insult! And what a terrible disservice he offered both his potential customer and employer under the guise of helpful information.
Maybe one can’t or wouldn’t afford the products and services they’re selling but it isn’t correct or courteous to impose those facts on customers. We’re not blamed for prices others don’t want to pay nor do customers want to be economically evaluated. Just show the products, describe the benefits, offer the price and then let the customer decide what they want to do. Guilt and fear are harmful and expensive traits in a professional!
I’ll be doing your facial today while telling you what I’d rather be doing. Over and over I’ve heard this story by my spa professional: “Yeah, I really enjoy doing facials buy I’ll be going back to school to become a real estate agent.” Or, “I’m just doing this part-time until my husband gets hired as an attorney, then I’ll stay at home and start a family.” And my all-time favorite, “I don’t really know if I want to do this as a career or try something else.” Imagine your dentist or OB/GYN telling you that as they work on your body! What kind of confidence, trust, or even service quality does this sort of disclosure instill in a paying customer? It’s one of the more dreadful and deadly of customer service sins, and one you can find almost anywhere you buy a facial, massage, or pedicure.
Tip for correction: don’t ever do this!
Please fill out this client intake form so your therapist can ignore it. Okay, you are greeted at the spa, handed the client intake form (so often unexplained by the concierge) only to have the information totally disregarded during the treatment. You indicated that you have a sprained toe? Your therapist will discover this by pulling on it. Have a glycolic sensitivity? The rash you get later will let us know that. Can’t tolerate the smell of geranium? We’ll just see about that… Again and again customers fill out these forms, provide key personal information, only to have it disregarded or unread. Therapists running behind schedule don’t have time to read them, client arrived too late, or the concierge didn’t give the form to the aesthetician-excuses, excuses. The fact is that the formality of filling out client profile forms is not always matched by a therapist’s examination of it. This oversight is demonstrated either by asking the client the same questions they answered on the form or by overlooking critical information altogether, creating either a physical reaction or personal disappointment. And it’s just plain wrong.
Managers, therapists, and concierge have a moral obligation to obtain important client background information and then refer to it before and during the performance of a treatment. Don’t we expect the same professional follow-through when we’re the clients? Of course we do!
If we both had the same facial treatment why didn’t we get the same product help? Two friends, each having a relaxing aromatherapy facial at a spa before a fun lunch together. The appointments were scheduled for 11:00 a.m. and ended at noon. Both treatments were enjoyable and relaxing, and both friends were back in the spa lobby at the same time. However, while one friend was bid goodbye by her therapist with no additional information the other friend was given product recommendations and written instructions by hers. And how does the friend feel about not “having product pushed on her” as her therapist believes such suggestions are perceived as? She feels overlooked, neglected and cheated. Her friend received additional value for her time and money while she wasn’t worth the trouble to the one that served her. This routine shortcut produced by the sales fears of a spa therapist is a cause of ire in many a spa customer and the source of business and income loss for those that are responsible for it.
Even the solitary client that witnesses better treatment offered to someone else will be left with a feeling of diminished importance and resentment. Never let this happen to your customers! Always be aware of the sensitivities of your clients and, as the old rule goes, try seeing your actions from their eyes. You’ll know exactly what to do!
