In my usual prowl of industry blogs I came across the following on the Day Spa Association's blog. Spa owner and DSA board member, Rosemary Weiner, discussed the importance of knowing what your clients think and experience when they are in your business. Like her, I think that this is incredibly important when it comes to the spa industry as so much of what clients purchase from us is intangible.

In her article she asks, "How do you listen to your clients? Don’t wait until a magazine visits your spa. We survey every new client. We ask them to simply rate their experience with our professional & support staff. The choices are simple; (1)on par with other salons or spas (2) met or exceeded your expectations (3) did not meet or exceed your expectations….if not why?"

Like a meal in a restaurant, where every course, drink and encounter with a waiter provides an opportunity for dissatisfaction or delight, every spa visit provides clients with numerous chances to love or hate their experience. And just as a diner who found a fly in his soup would forget the rest of the meal due to the insect's unexpected appearance, clients in the spa can have one negative moment during their visit and forget all of the wonderful treats and treatments they had before and after that occured.

Thus it is imperative to stay in touch with your clients in as many ways as possible, always being sure that you listen to their requests and feedback. Then of course it is imperative to be responsive and do what you can to take steps to make them happy and make improvements that need to be made.

Click here to visit the Day Spa Association's blog and read the whole article by Rosemary. My comments are below.

Thanks for that insightful article Rosemary. It really shows that your spa is great at taking care of the details from the practices you mentioned and the comments your clients made for the article. Funny though how so many of us get caught up in the daily grind of running the business that we lose sight of how the clients perceive and experience things.

The truth is that the day spa experience is more than just one experience. The client has many small experiences within each and every visit to your business. From before they walk in the door to the moment they leave and beyond, there are at least 25 different moments or “touches” that your spa has to impress or disappoint them. It is important for every spa to have a handle on these details, to see things from the client point of view, and to do everything possible to have all contacts with the client be positive ones.

Congratulations on making your spa a success. I hope other spa owners will take your advice and be successful as well.