THE SECRET TO ENSURING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION FOR WELLNESS SERVICES

As a wellness business owner, you strive for excellence in customer service. You have to accept that satisfaction is defined differently by each customer, and so one customer journey may work well with one customer but be frowned upon by others.

For spas, it's especially important to understand what your customers want - not after the experience, but before a service is even recommended. This way, even though each customer's expectation is different, you can tailor and personalise their experience to fit their individual needs, and this would ensure each and everyone is satisfied with the type of service or products they receive.

This is where consultation forms come in.

A consultation form allows spa staff to gather accurate information, which can then be used to effectively plan the care and service they provide, thus ensuring clients leave feeling confident that their wellness goals have been thoroughly addressed. The information gathered through these consultation forms also helps inform decision-making around product purchasing and staffing, ensuring that spas operate efficiently while providing high-quality experiences for their customers.

Depending on the particulars of a spa's business model, consultations can take various forms and occur at different stages throughout the customer journey. Some spas may require relatively short consultation forms to be filled out prior to the appointment, while others may have longer, more comprehensive ones which are conducted during face-to-face meetings or phone conversations with customers. In any case, it is important for spa owners to ensure that their consultation forms are accurate and comprehensive enough to give them the details they need to recommend and safely implement their services or products.

Because aside from how a customer would prefer to receive a treatment or service, another important purpose of consultation forms is to acquire your customer's health information and product-use history. With this on hand, you can prevent accidents from happening like allergic reactions to certain oils or skin reactions from overlapping skin care products.

Finally, it's essential that spa staff use the information gathered from consultations to create an ongoing relationship with each customer based on trust and mutual understanding. Doing so will ensure that your customers feel comfortable with your wellness business and encourage them to come back again.

If you don't have a consultation form as of yet, we recommend taking a look at our Spa Consultation Form Template. This is a resource we developed through our years of working with spa business owners as we helped get their spa businesses from idea to open.

Blue skies,

Sam and Sonja

ARE YOU IN THE PROCUREMENT PHASE FOR YOUR WELLNESS BUSINESS?

Procurement is an important process for wellness business owners to understand when opening a new business.

The procurement process involves researching and finding supplier partners who can provide the products, goods, or services necessary for your wellness business to thrive.

Knowing where to shop for quality items or services can be tricky and time-consuming.

Identifying reliable suppliers who are trustworthy and have competitive prices can help you plan and save resources in the long term. It would be best to do your due diligence when researching potential suppliers and factor in how they will meet your expectations when making appropriate decisions.

You should also be aware of the different procurement methods available to you when purchasing items and services. Popular procurement methods include direct purchases, requests for quotes (RFQs), tenders, auctions, and catalogue orders.

Working with spa business owners as consultants, we find the procurement phase to be the most challenging. The products, supplies, and services need to be aligned with the spa's vision, mission, and overall design. And for us to be able to find the perfect supplier, we had to spend hundreds of hours browsing all possible options.

We finally compiled these suppliers into a comprehensive spreadsheet and added functions, so you can easily find suppliers based on the product or item that you're looking for. If you're in the procurement phase for operations and are looking for equipment and supplies in setting up your spa business, we highly recommend you look at our Supplier List - Operations - which we made available through our resource store.

If you’re looking for spa partners and retail brands, we also have a supplier list for you - Supplier List - Spa Partners & Retail Brands.

What are the primary things to look for when choosing your supplier?

1. Price - It's important to compare prices with other suppliers, as well as their terms and conditions.

2. Quality - Make sure that the products or services supplied meet your business's standards and expectations regarding quality.

3. Design - Be sure to look into the design of the products if relevant, and ensure it aligns with your business's aesthetic.

4. Delivery Time - This is especially important if you are expecting orders for a certain timeframe. Make sure that the delivery times match up with when you need them and that there are no hidden fees for rush orders.

5. Payment Duration - It's important to know how soon after ordering you are expected to make the payment and what forms of payment are accepted.

6. Customer Service - Check out reviews from past customers to get an idea of the customer service you will receive. If possible, ask questions to test out the level of responsiveness and support that a supplier offers.

With the right suppliers, you can ensure that your spa business runs smoothly and efficiently.

We hope this guide has been helpful in providing insight into the procurement process for wellness businesses!

Blue skies,

Sam and Sonja

5 TRIED-AND-TRUE TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL WELLNESS BUSINESS MARKETING

Marketing is an important part of running a business, especially in today's ever-connected digital world. It is the process of communicating the value of a wellness business to potential customers.

At its core, marketing is the practice of understanding customer needs, crafting persuasive messages to communicate with them, and delivering products or services that meet or exceed their expectations. It provides wellness businesses with a way to differentiate themselves from their competitors while also wanting to stay true to their core values and mission.

Wellness businesses can use marketing efficiently to spread awareness of their services, build relationships with customers, and make growth for their business possible. It requires careful planning and research into your target audience in order to get the desired outcomes.

If you're a spa business owner still finding your way through marketing, we highly recommend taking a look at our Spa Marketing Handbook.

Here are 5 tried-and-true tips for successful wellness business marketing:

Harness the power of branding. Make sure your branding is consistent, recognizable, and memorable.

Create content that adds value to customers’ lives. Share health tips and tricks, success stories, testimonials, and more. Make use of social media platforms to create engaging posts, use relevant hashtags appropriately, and interact with potential customers often.

Invest in understanding your unique target audience. Gather demographic info about your potential customers to craft specific messages for them. Understand the customer journey and discover where your potential customers are on their journey and what messaging is necessary to move them through the process of becoming loyal customers.

Understand the value of networking. Connect with thought leaders and influencers in within the wellness industry and reach out to potential customers in a meaningful way.

Focus on customer service and satisfaction. Ensure that your services meet or exceed customer expectations, keep communication lines open, and provide feedback opportunities for customers to help you improve your business.

As most consultants would say, customer service is the key to success. Good customer service can turn first-time customers into regulars and word-of-mouth advocates for the business, allowing it to reach new heights of success and longevity.

By taking care of individual customers, wellness businesses create a positive reputation for their services; this helps build trust and loyalty between them and their clients. Moreover, providing an exceptional customer experience is a powerful form of marketing that costs nothing but yields great results - from return visits to improved online reviews.

Embrace good customer service, and you'll be able to guarantee quality services and excellent experiences that lead to lasting relationships with your wellness clientele.

Blue skies,

Sam and Sonja

UNDERSTANDING HOW YOUR CUSTOMERS PERCEIVE YOUR WELLNESS BUSINESS

One of the most important aspects of running a successful wellness business - no matter how big or small - is understanding how customers perceive your services.

Outside perspectives can help respond to changing demands in the industry and open up new opportunities for your business, as well as provide invaluable insights into what drives customer satisfaction levels. It will help you identify areas for improvement and growth, uphold quality assurance, and build better relationships with your customers.

Different ways to get customer feedback

Surveys or Feedback Forms are one of the most effective ways to gather customer feedback, as they allow you to ask customers directly about their experiences with your business immediately after a service or product has been rendered. With these forms, you can also ask specific questions about your service, so it's a great way to get insight into aspects of your wellness business that customers wouldn't normally provide feedback on.

Whether you choose to acquire responses to your surveys digitally or manually by a physical form depends on your business structure, the services you offer, and your customers. Online forms or surveys offer a great way to export the results easily and are geared towards a customer base that is more tech-savvy. And while physical forms would require additional time to collate, it may be the easier way for wellness businesses that have physical stores to get the responses they need. It won't require any device to fill up and can simply be handed to the customer after the service has been rendered.

From our experience as spa consultants, spa business owners mostly opt for physical forms because it allows them to get immediate responses and is generally easier for their customers. Another thing they consider is whether asking their patrons to pull out their phones or providing them with a computer station to acquire feedback digitally can potentially work against their purpose of providing a conducive environment for relaxation

If you're a spa business owner or you're in your planning phase of bringing your spa business idea to life - we highly recommend taking a look at our Spa Feedback Form Template. It's a professionally designed feedback form we've developed through our years of consulting for spa business owners. We also left there a video introduction of the resource so you can better understand how it applies to your business.

Online Reviews such as those provided through your website, a site mainly for reviews like productreview.com.au, or your Google Business Profile account allow customers to voluntarily leave reviews and comments on their experiences with your business.

Going through these reviews will give you information about gaps you may need to fill and services you can improve on. These reviews are also publicly visible, which is a great way for other potential customers to understand your services or products better and encourage them to try them out for themselves.

Social media can be invaluable for gathering customer feedback from your followers. Keep an eye out for mentions, comments and reviews and use them as opportunities to engage in meaningful conversations with your customers. Aside from the ability to actively engage with your customers, another great value of social media reviews for your wellness business is that it allows you to reach an extended audience through your followers.

No matter which method you choose, customer feedback is essential for the growth and success of your wellness business. It encourages better customer service, helps you improve and develop new services, and ultimately leads to a stronger relationship with your customers. With the right tools in place, gathering customer feedback can be an easy process that will help you stay on top of trends and ensure satisfaction for your patrons.

Continue providing excellent services as well as customer-focused initiatives to ensure that customers are happy with the experience they get in your wellness business. You can also set up reminders and notifications on your management tools so you won't forget to contact customers for feedback and surveys, or better yet, include feedback gathering in your customer journey process!

Blue Skies,

Sam and Sonja