The customer’s soliloquy
What every spa needs to remember about its clients
“I am your loyal customer who needs to be cared for every bit as much as the flowers in your garden.
I have opinions about everything – including my experiences with your business, which I will be sharing freely with family and friends.
I may seem hardy and easy-going, but your taking me for granted is at the peril of your P and L statements.
I am constant, committed and compassionate. What I am not is complacent. Do not confuse these terms.
When I ask you a question, remember that I can easily tell if I’m being fobbed off with a generic answer or being taken seriously and answered accordingly.
I am curious, savvy and a keen reader on matters close to my heart. Yet I feel you often brush off my need to know about my treatments – ingredients, application methods, frequency of use, etc. – instead referring me to the package instructions. This leaves me cold and frustrated.
I am the customer who spends countless $$$ at your establishment every year, but hear and see all the inconsistencies of your operation as I sit waiting for you, wondering if I am actually valued.
I admit I sometimes look elsewhere – yet am loyal enough to at least try to regain faith in you.
I need you to hear me and hear my questions.
I need you to seek answers from another source when you can’t answer them yourself.
How come I get a follow-up call whenever I get my car serviced – yet you who touch my heart and soul rarely offer an expression of your interest and collaborative commitment to my therapeutic objectives?
I would love to hear and understand what you see – to engage me and to make sure my homecare is consistent with the professional treatments I’ve been receiving.
I have every one of your prescribed products in my bathroom. They are gathering dust because I can’t remember how and when to use them.
Oh, how I would love a follow-up call to ask how I am doing – even if you think I have it all figured out. Why do you never ask if I need a refill? Behind my mask is a woman who wonders if you really care.
Are you even a little curious to know if I saw or felt an improvement?”
OK, you get the idea.
But seriously, why look outside to build your business when there’s so much potential from your existing client base? Why not check with each of your clients and see how they are doing? Are they happy with the results they are achieving?
Print off a list of products from your spa software, or use your customers’ chart files to (assuming you’re organized) see which products they’ve purchased.
In a world where I believe many men and women are suffering from chronic touch deprivation, we provide clear pathways for care and self-nurturing.
We have the tools, the knowledge and the materials to bridge between spa experiences and effective homecare – to fortify the value of the experience for our valued clients and guests.
We are limited only by our own perceptions of our ability and vision. Instead of bridges of progressive revitalization, we build walls of resistance.
If I have one wish for this incredible industry, it’s to liberate ourselves from the mental shackles we put on the limits to the power and possibilities of what we do every day.
I wish we all could be conscious and present with each precious person we come into contact with, whether at the front desk, on your treatment table, or in your retail boutique. For if we were truly present, we would truly understand the sincerity of customers’ questions and the thoughtfulness of the feedback they provide.
The relationships would surely become long-term.
“I am your customer. All I really need is for you to show professional empathy for my needs and to educate me on how to achieve them. Don’t hold back making recommendations. I will tell you when I have reached my limit.”
By Vivienne O’Keeffe
Photo by Maximilien T’Scharner on Unsplash