UpClose & Personal - Richard Eidson

Spa owners, spa managers and spa therapists are always searching for the best spa treatments. Great spa treatments make for a great spa! And you can find an almost endless variety of spa treatments at spa trade shows, in spa magazines and other sources. The search for new spa treatments is a constant part of being in the spa business.

As mentioned in the first article, the Spa Treatment Formula can be a useful tool to analyze any spa treatment. The formula is: Spa Treatment = Product + Equipment + Technique (or S.T.=P.E.T.).

The "Spa Treatment Promise"

Every spa treatment being offered makes a direct or implied promise to the client to produce specific results/benefits. Some examples of the benefits promised by a variety of spa treatments are a reduction in cellulite, fewer wrinkles, a natural face lift, stress reduction, anti-aging, etc. How do we evaluate if the "spa promise" is true. If all of the spa treatments being offered produced all of the benefits they claim to make, clients getting these spa treatments would all look twenty years younger, have perfect bodies and a constant bubbly personality. But as we all know, not all spa treatments being offered produce the results they claim, at least not completely nor for every client.

Companies selling the education, products and equipment to do spa treatments are biased towards making a sale to you, so you must use caution. Perhaps the best way to evaluate any spa treatment is to speak with spa owners and clients who are using the spa treatments and see what they report. Ask for references from the company for spas offering their spa treatments and do some research. Also, ask others that you know in the spa business to see if there is additional information about how good these treatments are. You are only going to offer a few spa treatments at your spa, so it is a good idea to really research which spa treatments you want to offer. You are the one that the clients are going to hold responsible for the benefits or lack of benefits of a particular spa treatment. Also, most spas depend upon a loyal client base returning for more treatments, so you must offer spa treatments that please your clients.

Even if a certain spa treatment produces the benefits that it promises, you must still evaluate the spa treatment to see if it is suitable for your spa. Here we can use the Spa Treatment Formula: Spa Treatment = Product + Equipment + Technique. Do you feel comfortable with products being used in the spa treatment? Do they meet your standards for quality, price, etc. Is the equipment necessary to do the spa treatment something that you feel you can use properly and is the cost reasonable? Is the education necessary to have the technical skills to perform the treatment something that seems reasonable and cost effective? All of these have to be considered to choose spa treatments that are right for your spa. As you know, this is not an easy task when there a numerous spa companies all trying to convince you that their spa treatments and the products, equipment and education needed to do the spa treatments are the best for you.

One practice example would be to open a spa trade magazine such as "Day Spa" or "Skin, Inc.". In the first ten pages there are ads from major product companies including Pevonia, Set-N-Me-Free, Avance, Yon Ka, Jan Marini, Repechage, etc. These companies all make specific "spa treatment promises" from everything to full-body skin care, cellulite reduction, sun damage improvement, total skin health and more. Why not test some of the ideas mentioned in this article to evaluate the claims of some of these companies! Maybe you'll find a spa treatment you like.

In our next article, we will look at using the Spa Treatment Formula to see if once we choose a particular spa treatment to offer to our clients, if we have the necessary materials, knowledge and support from the companies offering the spa treatment to market the spa treatment to our clients. If we choose spa treatments to offer to our clients but cannot interest them to take the treatment, our efforts will be wasted and will reduce our spa revenues. Also we will look at ways to evaluate the financial projections as to the profitability of the spa treatment given to us by the company and see if they are accurate or misleading.

innospa@lisco.com