How To Create A Wellness Experience That Keeps Customers Coming Back

You’ve built a successful spa that ticks all the right boxes.

A calm and serene setting? Check.

Expert aestheticians and skilled massage therapists? You bet.

An amazing marketing strategy? You’ve got that as well.

Your spa is running smoothly, and your customers seem very pleased with your services.

…but what if you can do even better?

Here’s the thing: the wellness industry is expected to enjoy 5.7% growth from 2018 to 2023, states Mordor Intelligence.

Clients today have more money to spend on luxuries and wellness services. These well-heeled customers like to indulge themselves with health, beauty, and self-care — putting spas and similar businesses in a good position.

And, let’s not discount the increased number of senior consumers, who often have the means to partake in services with higher price points.

All this is great news for spas, but it also means that the market will be more competitive. And ultimately, the businesses that will thrive are the ones that can provide unparalleled wellness experiences.

In this article, we’ll look at some tips, trends, and examples to help you do just that.

Check them out!

1. Design a Multi-Service Wellness Experience 

If your facility’s layout permits, consider creating a multi-service wellness center that combines several stand-alone components.

At Naturopathica Chelsea in New York City, customers benefit from a holistic approach to skincare. Inside the spa’s six treatment rooms, aestheticians pamper their customers using the spa’s signature line of natural products. Nearby, a juice bar and separate sensory and meditation lounge help customers to refocus after their treatments.

Plus, each Naturopathica client receives a custom facial consultation with an aesthetician. After the treatment, the customer receives a seven-day supply of a follow-up concentrate that maximizes the facial benefits. The package also includes a skincare guide, along with herbal remedies and diet tips to address the customer’s specific skincare needs.

See if you can offer the same well-rounded approach in your business. Rather than just providing services in silos, combine various offerings to create a holistic experience.

2. Tap into Trends to Offer New Wellness Services

Keep your spa growing and thriving by revising your wellness experience menu to reflect changing spa trends.

Here are 5 increasingly popular (or emerging) trends that may position you to offer unique services. If you play your cards right, you might be one of the first spas in your neighborhood or market to offer them!

Salt Therapy: If you’ve ever taken a dip in the ocean, you know that saltwater is wonderfully invigorating, and salt air can be a great mood lifter.

Forward-thinking spas have embraced salt’s benefits by adding salt lamps, salt beds, and salt rooms to their treatment settings. Salt manicures and pedicures are also popular, and pure mineral salt treatments can promote healthy-looking skin.

Light Therapy: If you’ve ever had that “blah” feeling on a cloudy winter day, you could have a touch of “Seasonal Affective Disorder.” To help counteract this lack of natural sunlight, the use of light therapy has become increasingly popular.

Light therapy treatments use a type of “lightbox” that simulates the natural outdoor light your body craves. Some spas feature full-body light therapy treatments, designed to lift your mood and reduce fatigue.

This isn’t just for spas, by the way. Other wellness-centric businesses have started recommending various light therapy services in addition to their core offerings.

Newport Float Therapy, in Costa Mesa, CA, for example, primarily provides floatation and sensory deprivation experience sessions, also offer light therapy to compliment clients’ float sessions.

Cryotherapy: With most people focused on staying warm in cold weather, stepping into a full-body cryotherapy chamber seems a bit counterintuitive. However, spas are increasingly adding these standalone chambers, which can blast air that’s 200 degrees below freezing, to provide customers with one-to-three-minute cryotherapy treatments.

Often used to speed recovery from strenuous physical exercise, cryotherapy is also reported to help with toxin removal and cell rejuvenation. In addition, some spas are offering cryo facials as an alternative to Botox treatments.

CBD-Based Services: CBD, which stands for cannabidiol is an active ingredient in cannabis (marijuana). Unlike tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is another active ingredient in cannabis, CBD is non-psychoactive so it won’t get you high.

CBD is touted for its multiple health benefits, such as reducing anxiety and treating chronic pain. As such, more and more spas are offering CBD-based services.

At the Spa at St. Julien in Boulder, Colorado, customers can experience a full range of CBD-focused services. For example, the spa offers a CBD Fall Facial, CBD Classic Massage, and a CBD Deep Tissue Massage. Clients with deeper pockets (and more time) will enjoy The Ultimate Colorado Bliss CBD Experience. This gold-level services package includes a sugar scrub, CBD-infused wrap, and full-body massage with CBD-infused massage oil.

Precious Metals Treatments: If you have a fondness for silver, gold, and diamonds, consider blending these precious metals into your spa’s creams, masks, massages, and wraps. Aestheticians typically apply these treatments after skin exfoliation that removes dead cells and prepares the skin to receive the high-end minerals. Next, a gold-based lotion wrap helps to hydrate the skin and give it a special sheen. A relaxing massage completes this high-end treatment.

O Skin Medspa, for instance, sells  masks infused with gold powder that “locks in moisture for ultra-hydrated skin with a tightening effect.”

3. Add Exceptional Finishing Touches

Adding distinctive finishing touches to your spa services will help to set you apart from your competitors. Keep the cost down if possible, but always focus on providing extra value to each customer’s wellness experience.

Here are a few ideas:

A “Take Home” Experience: Let your clients take home a piece of the wellness experience they had at your spa.

At the Laniwai Spa inside Disney’s Hawaii-based Aulani Resort, each customer is invited to make their own custom body polish. A spa assistant helps the customer to select an exfoliant with authentic Hawaiian herbs and fragrances.

Then before the client leaves, a staff member hands them a small container of their body polish, so they can enjoy it at home.

Spa Swag Bag: After a customer receives a higher-level service, gift them with a small “swag bag” of new products or vendor samples. This encourages the customer to purchase those products or book a spa service that uses them. To further engage the customer, show her how to correctly use the product, and mention any complementary products that might enhance the wellness experience.

4. Deliver Superb Customer Service

Providing exemplary customer service is an often-overlooked art. In fact, many otherwise-viable businesses suffer (and some die) because of substandard customer service practices. Avoid this undesirable fate by educating your staff about the value of platinum-class service during all aspects of each customer’s wellness experience.

Here are some specifics:

Top-level front desk staff: Your front desk associate is the first (and last) person each customer sees during their wellness experience. So, hire naturally friendly and well-spoken people who are terrific with name recognition.

Encourage them to ask open-ended questions, which will help them to learn more about each customer’s needs. If necessary, role-play different scenarios until each associate is comfortable handling them.

Dedicated customer concierge: Although giving customers a brief spa tour is always useful, providing support for multi-service customers is especially important. Offer assistance from a dedicated concierge who furnishes necessary supplies for each service, helps the customer navigate from one wellness center area to another, and generally serves as their caring “support staff” while they’re onsite.

Customer involvement: If customers repeatedly sing the praises of a specific spa service, showcase that offering by scheduling a well-publicized demonstration. Afterward, encourage customers to share the benefits they’ve received from that service, and thank them for their contribution. Ideally, those appreciative customers will have the credibility that could convince other customers to book their own treatment.

5. Don’t Forget About the Booking Experience

Exceptional services are a must, but let’s not forget about the experience that your clients have before they even step foot in your spa.

See to it that your customers are able to schedule their appointments with ease. In doing so, you’ll make a great first impression and pave the way for an excellent wellness experience.

Optimizing the booking process starts with having a solid appointment scheduling software that lets your clients book appointments online.

Booksy is one example of a solution that lets you do just that. In addition to scheduling, Booksy also automates appointment confirmations and reminders, to ensure that your clients make it to their appointment — that way, they won’t miss out on the amazing wellness experience you have in store for them!