How to Give Your Clients the Best Spa Experience Ever

When you’re thinking about how to create the best spa experience for clients, it starts with one thing: customer service.

As a spa owner, you know customer service is everything. It’s at the heart of a great spa experience for your clients, and it’s what keeps them coming back again and again.

But how do you ensure clients have a memorable spa experience every. dang. time?

While your service menu (deep tissue, couples massage, Swedish, etc.) is an important part of a great spa day, the full spa experience involves everything from booking to massage to checkout.

To help enhance your client’s spa experience from top to bottom, we’re taking a look at five ways you can ensure the perfect spa day for your clients.

Make Booking (and Rebooking) Super Easy

The first experience a client has with your spa or massage studio is likely to be your booking page, so you want to make sure all your info is presented in a neat and tidy manner, ensuring the booking process is as smooth and simple as possible for them.

When looking at your booking page or scheduling app, ask yourself the following questions:

Are all my services listed?
Do I have full descriptions of what I offer?
How is my business represented on the page?

Try to think through questions clients might have before booking, then make sure your booking page answers those questions.

Plus, with online booking apps like Vagaro, clients can easily rebook appointments right from their own phone or computer.

Pro Tip: On the hunt for a scheduling software that has it all? On top of full control of your calendar, services, and policies, Vagaro also has everything you need for marketing your spa and accepting client payments.

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Crush the First Impression

For spa owners, there’s no doubt first impressions mean a lot. They can literally be the difference between a one-time client and a life-long fan, so you want to do everything you can to make the best impression on new clients.

Provide a Relaxing Environment

The environment you create for clients is a big part of the experience, and there are three key areas to think about when setting up your space.

Lighting: Think soft, calming light to help set the mood and relax your clients.
Scent: Steer clear of artificial scents. Instead use scented candles with natural essential oils. (You can also try essential oil burners or fresh flowers to help lift your client’s mood!)
Ambiance: Pay attention to the ambiance of your space. In other words, what’s the atmosphere like? Is it relaxing? Calming?

Personalize the Waiting Time

Personalizing a visit means taking the time to get to know your clients.

It’s going beyond offering them a cup of coffee or a glass of water. What did they drink last time? Was there anything they were looking for? A hot towel? A juice?

To personalize your space, you have to understand what your clients like and what would complete their spa experience.

Take Special Occasions to the Next Level

Maybe you know your client is coming in for a hot stone massage for her birthday.

Or maybe you know Jan and Frank booked a couples massage for next week because it’s their 20th wedding anniversary.

These are the details to keep tabs on. And even if you’re not offering discounts on birthdays or anniversaries, a small gesture like a glass of champagne or flowers will make their experience even more special.

Pro Tip: Are you starting your own spa and need help setting it up in a way your clients will love? Check out our Beginner’s Guide to Designing the Most Zen Massage Studio of All Time.

Offer a Variety of Services

When it comes to client experience, variety is the name of the game.

Whether your clients are looking for a rejuvenating facial or a Swedish massage, you want to be able to offer what they’re looking for.

Think about the variety of clients you see in a week, then lay out your spa menu accordingly. (Again, be sure you have detailed descriptions of each service.)

Reward Repeat Clients

Do you offer a reward program for repeat clients?

Or maybe you incentivize rebookings by offering deals on second (or third or fourth) appointments?

Even if you already have a rewards program, take a closer look at it and see where you could improve and offer clients even more. Consider giving deals on follow-up treatments or maybe a “Book 5 Appointments, Get 1 Free” package.

This way, your clients get a deal for booking, and you’re guaranteed additional revenue. Win win!

Don’t Forget About Checkout

Before clients leave the spa is the perfect time to connect and get to know them, while also collecting payment. It’s also a good time to offer up a chance to rebook or add a product to their ticket. But the tough part is… How can you help clients maintain that “zen” feeling after their appointment when it’s time to pay?

Here are three pro tips for a smooth checkout experience:

Support Their Payment Preference

One way to make checkout feel as relaxing as your services feel is to give clients plenty of options to pay however they prefer. For most spa owners, that means offering the following payment methods:

Cash or check
Online prepayments
Standard credit card transactions for all major credit cards
Contactless methods (“tap” functionality and/or payment by text/QR code)
Auto-billing, package deals, and/or monthly memberships for the people who want to set-it-and-forget-it

Simplify Tips

Tipping can be awkward sometimes — especially after such a relaxing spa day. By using a payment system that auto-calculates tips at checkout, clients won’t have to awkwardly multiply in their heads with you standing there.

Upsell (to Help Clients)

The art of the upsell is difficult to master. But it doesn’t have to be. By changing how you look at upselling, you can help your client, while also bringing in more revenue.

A lot of times, you won’t even need to make a hard sell at checkout. You can prime clients to ask for the products during their appointment. For example, if you’re a facialist, you can offer up advice on how they can take care of skin concerns at home between appointments, mentioning any products you’d recommend.

Then, when it comes time to pay, they’ll likely ask you to add something you mentioned to their total!