massage therapy journal

keeping you in touch.

  

Providing a Personal Touch

Lorrie Garcia, of Evergreen Yoga in Memphis, Tennessee, ensures her spa and yoga studio a sound repeat business by providing the kind of personalized attention that Bell advocates.

“One simple thing I do that keeps clients coming in,” says Garcia, “is to keep in touch with handwritten postcards. I send new clients a welcome note after their visit, and send reminders to ‘regulars’ to schedule their next appointment if they hadn’t already rebooked. If my ‘semi-regulars’ haven’t been in for a month or two, I send them a note to let them know I’m thinking of them.”

Clients tell Garcia how much they appreciate the postcards, and that the personal contact keeps them coming back.

Another touch that has worked for Garcia is offering a six-massage package, whereby the customer ends up saving 15 percent on each massage, and has six months before the package expires. “I always mention that spouses can share the package, so I often end up gaining an additional client that way,” says Garcia. “I find that clients who buy the packages tend to come in more frequently.”

“Remember,” says Bell, “customers don’t compare you to other businesses like yours. They compare you to everybody creating customer experiences.”

If you sold your business to a major corporation, Bell asks hypothetically, how would things change? Would your refund policy change? “Walk into [an athletic or outdoors outlet store] and look at your business through their eyes,” he says. “What can you do with sight, sound, smell, touch and taste?”

For example, employees at the spa at Cap Juluca, a famed resort on the Caribbean island of Anguilla, not only put a special fragrant plant—bougainvillea petals, for example—in the bath before a massage, they blend the same scent into the massage oil used and put a sprig in the bottom of guests’ lockers. This way, the special fragrance is “worn” by guests after they leave the spa.

The goal, says Bell, is looking for unique actions that would be valued by your customers and set you apart.

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