BEST PRACTICES TO
ELEVATE YOUR SPA’S
WELLNESS PROGRAMS
Know your guests’ deep aspirations. Beyond their immediate expectations for the treatments
they have booked, what are your guests’ underlying aspirations? Is it purely physical, such as to look
their best and fine-tune imperfections? Are they looking for emotional safety so they can refuel before
going back to the realities of home or the workplace? Is it self-love and a sense of belonging? Is it
rebuilding self-esteem , perhaps after a traumatic experience? Is it self-actualization to be the spa
expert and influencer among their group of friends? Make sure your team knows how to look for these aspirations. A good tip is to have a resource on hand, such as Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group Director of Spa Jeremy
McCarthy’s blog, Psychology of Spas & Wellbeing.
Instill a culture of wellness in your staff. Help your staff realize that guests are well-informed
about spa and beauty trends from magazines or from browsing the web for the latest innovations. The
new frontier is to encourage therapists to become wellness therapists with a deeper sense of the
transformational component of their craft. Your guest does not simply want to look or feel good, they
want to become better people.
It is essential that in 2017, you provide on-going information and education to your staff with refresher courses
in anatomy, physiology, energy, positive psychology and complimentary modalities. Help them experience firsthand the “wow” factor (i.e., wonders of wellness), so they can start conversations with guests and eventually grow
a positive influence on them.
Connect with a network of wellness experts to partner within your city or district. To
become the wellness hub in your city or district, there’s no need to add experts on your payroll right
away. Start by identifying like-minded professionals in your area, with similar values whom you can
partner with and cross-promote, such as doctors, nurses, nutritionists, osteopaths, chiropractors,
shiatsu /Tui na/Thai treatment masters, fitness clubs, yoga/Pilates studios, dance schools,
organic/vegan restaurants and farmers’ markets. If you share the same values, then building bridges across
mutual clients will become a goldmine for success.
Create a calendar of wellness events throughout the year. Each month, organize an event
that is educational, inspirational and fun. Tell your story to spark interest among local or regional
media. For instance, organize a talk on the first Thursday of the month or celebrate each full moon
with a workshop. Create a club or membership scheme with benefits in which points can be redeemed
by guests.
Document your results. Do not simply compute the number of treatments performed in your key
performance indicators, but also the number of lives touched or maybe changed by your programs.
How many guests had their breath taken away by their experience at your salon/spa last week? How
many wrote a mind-blowing comment on your Facebook or TripAdvisor page? How many had an “a-ha”
moment? How many returned with a colleague or friend?
December 2016
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