Retaining your spa and salon clients.

Do you want to retain clients?

Well of course you do, you are after all in business and it's a business that depends upon clients.

Great spa and salon treatments can only go so far in setting you apart from everyone else.

If you want to go beyond the treatments, beyond the experience, you must connect on a personal level with your guests. Get to know them, and let them get to know you.

Practice the service of listening. I say service, because I mean active listening, not the zoning out variety. Service listening involves thinking on what's being said and then asking pertinent questions, watching the physical cues and demeanor of your spa guest.

Make them know that your time with them is important which means putting the cell phone away.

Be respectful. The client is putting themselves into a position of vulnerability.

All in all be the best servant you can be, because it is the heart of a servant that will impact those people the most and bring them back again.

And what does the heart of a servant look like? It is a heart that puts aside itself for another.

So how do you connect with the client after they leave the four walls? Well, come to MoreSpaTraffic where we can help with that.

What did your clients take with them when they left your spa?

I realize you probably have an immediate answer to that question but stop for a minute and get into your creative mind. Imagine yourself in the position of your client driving into the parking lot for your spa or whichever mode of transportation is used in your area. You, as the client, are probably stressed, perhaps muscles tight from being hunched over a computer keyboard or dealing with young children all day, and you walk through those spa doors which promise escape from that stress.

Then what? What's the check in like? The waiting room?

Mentally walk through the spa to where you as a client need to go for your appointment for your facial or massage, etc. What do you as a client observe, what do you hear? Music, voices, noises, smells?

Now, the appointment is over and you leave, what's that process like? You exit the doors of the spa, hopefully refreshed and cleansed, you pull out of the parking lot onto the busy road and head to your next destination.

Ask yourself, "What did you take with you from the spa?"

Did the client JUST receive a massage or an aromatherapy treatment? That memory and sensation won't last without some key ingredient attached to it.

Your client needs an experience. Is that experience one of thorough and enjoyable service?

Is there an element of your spa that rockets it above your competition? What is it that your clients journey out into the world with that makes them say, "You've got to go to my spa. You will be transported and the dust of the day will wash off your soul"?

Only you can figure out what that element is, but when you do you can strengthen that element thereby giving your clients the ability to become your cheerleaders, your cubicle/water-cooler preachers. We at MoreSpaTraffic.com can help you with that process with our proven technology that will increase your referrals and connect you with your clients beyond the life escaping walls of your spa which you love and into which you pour your passion.

Are you reaching your clients on a personal level?

In the spa business it is necessary for you to reach out and touch your clients. You must physically interact with them whether it's working out that knot pinching a nerve in their neck or giving a pedicure. So yes, you do interact with them.

The question though is, are you connecting with them on a personal level? Are you giving that extra little bit of effort that shows your client that, "Hey, I am so glad I know you"?

It's that extra little bits, whether it's asking about their family or giving them a foot massage before the pedicure, that connect them with you. And should in your conversations with your clients, you note something that you really want to remember so that you can ask them about it the next time you see them, make a note of it to reminder yourself, unless your blessed with an ironclad memory. It's definitely something you have to work and something that won't necessarily show immediate returns. Such things help to make your spa or salon more friendly and that is a step that opens up the doors to great client interaction and return business. You want and even need, after all things are said and done, clients who will tell their friends and family about you.

Which reminds me of something I came across a while ago. Though it doesn't deal with spas I think it is pertinent:

How Every Touch Counts

It gives a real world example of how, in this web enabled world, making a bad impression on a client can go a long way towards making business especially hard for a business owner.

Sure that might cause a bit of fear at first when you think about the negative possibilities of such connectedness. But, as the cliché goes, there is a flip side to that coin and the good thing is you have the power to flip the coin. Take advantage of the interconnectedness of the Internet. Set up a website and a blog for your Spa. Get a Twitter account running if you haven't gotten one yet. You don't have to update these things on a daily basis, though you may find yourself on Twitter quite a bit. Get your clients' email addresses.

You may even want to find out if they would like to hear from you occasionally via a Text on their cell phone. An easy way to find this out would be to give them your cell phone number so that they can text you if they want to check on an appointment or had any questions.

Make yourself available that way and I think it will lead to a growing business for you.

Remember desire to help you tap into and reward those loyal customers at MoreSpaTraffic.com.

Our progran will help you show them you appreciate them and will help you to discover new customers for your spa/salon.