Pamela Hill Institute

Common sense methods to determine spa pricing for services will serve you well in coming up with prices that both make you the amount of money you need to have to keep the business a float, and competitive enough to keep your clients coming back for more.  

When determining pricing keep in mind all of your expenses for operating your spa business. Determine the amount of overhead you actually have per hour of every day. In other words, how much money do you have to bring in the door on average every hour just to pay the bills, not counting anything you need to take home as profit. Then determine how much you need personally as salary or wages in order to cover all of your personal bills and maintain a lifestyle that you would be comfortable with. Add the two together. Then determine the actual number of hours per day that you believe you can realistically be booked.  Come up with an approximate minimum per hour rate that way, but be sure to add a little bit to it to take into account coupons and discounts you may offer.  Then the next step is to do some comparison shopping. Check out the competition and see what they are charging. Make sure that you are in line with what the market will bear. You may be under pricing yourself. If that is the case, raise your base hourly rate a little bit, always remembering that it is easy to give a client a discount or temporary price reduction, but it is sometimes difficult to have a successful price increase.

When you determine your prices keep in mind the cost of acquiring clients. Marketing expenses can sometimes be the most expense part of operating a business. Come up with a marketing budget that includes all the advertising media you intend to use. That can be Yellow Pages, fliers, web site development and hosting, pay per click and search engine optimization, television commercials, radio spots, newspaper and magazine ads, and the cost of various events and open houses you may choose to sponsor.

Also don’t forget your taxes. When you meet with an accountant with your figures determine how much you will be paying in income taxes and FICA, and figure that in accordingly. Do your math carefully and you’ll have a very good idea of what you should be charging to keep both your clients and your self happy.  

Especially in the world of spas and aesthetics, an industry in which quality customer service is the cornerstone of success, client services is everything.

The reason for this is quite simple: quality customer service leads to repeat business and referrals. Marketing expenses to acquire customers are quite large, to loosing customers who could be repeat through poor customer service is financially stupid. So is looking a source of referrals, the lowest priced way of getting new customers. Word of mouth from happy, satisfied clients brings people to an aesthetician ready and willing, and in fact expecting to be pleased with the service. They are ready to become regulars and stay forever.

Causes of Poor Customer Service

The causes of poor customer service are varied, but all can be remedied. Some people in business simply don’t know any better. It is an unfortunate fact of our modern age that good manners are not taught as they once were. Various media promote lifestyle choices to young people that include low self-esteem and poor self image. Modes of dress are informal to an extreme and young people of both genders are not taught the art of polite conversation. The way to fix this mess if hiring younger aestheticians is simply to make sure that they are articulate, have some semblance of common sense and understand the ground rules of the business. A concise policies and procedures manual, or employee handbook can serve as an outline for employees and for managers as to how clients should be treated, what mode of dress or type of language is acceptable, and how to go about improving customer service.

The Masters of Human Relations

Also, an investment in a paperback version of one of the great books of human relations that could be given, or loaned to a new employee could be a sound investment. There are many good books on this subject. Dale Carnegie’s How To Win Friends and Influence People has been in print since the 1920’s and is still considered the standard by business people. Consider making a copy available and you may be quite pleased with the results.

Stay Aware of Your Environment

The next step is simply staying aware of your environment and communicating with the customers. The owner or manger of a spa should make an effort to visit with customer and make sure that they are happy with the service they received. If anyone gives a negative answer, investigate and assure them that you will be doing your best to solve any problem that may have come up. The manager is responsible for the business and ultimately for quality customer service, and the survival of the business.

When hiring new staff for your spa be sure that you properly and thoroughly check both certifications and references for clinicians, aestheticians, cosmetologists, aestheticians and other professionals you are considering hiring. Of course you are going to read a person’s resume and pay close attention to them during an interview, trying to determine if they will meet the professional criteria you have, and if their personalities will be conducive to good business and if they will be a good part of your time. But in this day and age don’t take anyone’s word for anything if you haven’t checked it out carefully yourself. You business depends on it, as does the livelihood of your other employees who count on you and your good judgment to make sure that they continue with a place to work.

If the applicant is in a field that requires a professional license, issued by your state or by a professional association, contact the state department or association and inquire as to whether or not the person actually has the license. Don’t assume because the applicant shows you a diploma or a physical license that it is accurate. People have been known to create fake credentials using computers and printing equipment. Make sure that your people are properly licensed. Then, if they are contractors or independent business people using or renting your space, make sure that they have any local, county or state licenses that are required to be in business or practice a profession. Bad publicity can result in negative exposure for your firm if you don’t take these precautions.

On the applicant’s resume they will have listed previous employers. Call those employers and verify that the person was employed with them. Many former employers will not give you a reference for fear of legal reprisals if they give a negative reference. They will however confirm that a person was employed for a given period of time, and many will tell you if a person is available for rehire or not. Some people do lie on their resumes and if you catch them in a lie their honesty is in question and you probably do not want to hire them.

Also do a background check of criminal records. If a person has a criminal conviction that is not necessarily a reason not to hire them. It will depend on the charge, the disposition and when it is. Everyone deserves a second chance and if a person has had a clean record for at least five years and the charge was something resulting from a youthful mistake then you may want to consider them. If however it was a serious violent act, or a crime for which there is a bad recidivism rate then you may not want to take a chance on them.

Also be sure to ask for a list of personal and professional references. Call the people listed and have short conversations with them to determine a comfort level. You are responsible for the people working in your business, so take care when hiring new people.

Dealing effectively with difficult clients is a skill that all aestheticians should learn, and for that matter all business people should know. Anytime you deal with the public most people will be fairly easy to deal with and some will be a joy. Others, however, will be the type of people you would simply prefer not to spend time with if you had a choice.

The first thing to keep in mind is that an unhappy customer can do your business damage, so the difficult client is worth some effort. An unhappy, difficult client may tell her friends about her perceived problems and in that case the truth really does not matter: what is perceived is what matters. So, do your best to keep her happy if you can.  

Direct and polite communication is the best place to start. Explain to the client that you will do anything you can to give her a positive experience and simply ask her what. As long as the requests are reasonable it is probably worth your while to do so and simply making the effort can go a long way to making someone happy who otherwise would not be.

Was the client unhappy with a product you sold her? If so, offer a refund no questions asked. Was she unhappy with the results of a facial or some other procedure? Offer information. Sometimes a misunderstanding can arise with a client due to expectations the client may have had that were simply not reasonable. If that is the case educating the client could help with the problem.

As a business person who deals with the public you may benefit from human interaction training, or from reading some of the classic books on the subject. Dale Carnegie, the master of human relations, always said that the most pleasant sound to anyone’s ears is their own name.  Using the client’s name when speaking with them, whether it is Mrs. Jones or Miss Smith, or what have you, along with keeping your voice low and even and avoiding becoming offended by the client can help you retain control and perhaps win the client to your side and help them see things in a reasonable fashion. Reading the books by Carnegie and others in the field can help you, and getting advice  from your peers who are more experienced can assist as well.

Regardless, keep your head and do what you can. But, if the client leaves unhappy it isn’t the end of the world. Do what you can and then let it go. You’ll sleep well knowing that you’ve done everything you can and if the client can be swayed you will have done it.

The spa industry in the western world is growing rapidly, whether you are looking at day spas or medical spas, or even destination spas, those spa and resort combinations. Facials, massage, waxing, skin exfoliation, removal of unwanted hair, body wraps and related treatments and such previously thought of as exotic therapies like aromatherapy are commonly found in day spas.  Medical spas, operating under the supervision of medical professional, usually physicians, offer all of the other treatments plus some treatments that are more invasive such as deep chemical peels and intense pulsed light therapy.

Spas have been around for centuries. Homer and the ancient Greeks in fact wrote of hot air baths they called laconimca, and the ancient Roman Emperor Agrippa designed and opened a thermae, or large spa in the year 25 BCE. Across the ancient world from Britain to Africa spas existed. In the year 737 CE the first Japanese spa was opened. Saunas became a part of the culture of Finland in 1,000 CE and are much the same today ads they were then. The Ottoman Empire made Turkish baths popular. In Europe the Emperor Charlemagne opened spas in the Middle Ages and the natural thermal waters of Bath, England and Baden-Baden Germany became famous as spa locations.

In the United States spas came of age in the mid 1800’s and were made famous by Edgar Allan Poe and later Franklin D. Roosevelt. Medical spas began in the US in the late 1990’s based on the European model. Today women seeking weight loss, body improvement or just a chance to look good and feel good utilize spas across the country.

The ISPA, or International Spa Association provides statistics on the spa industry with a new study released every other year. They have found that there are about 13,757 spas in the US as of 2006, with is a growth rate of 16%.  About one fourth of these are n the southwest, which includes California, the largest state by population. About a fourth are in the Northeast including New York and New England. About 50% are dispersed throughout the rest of the country. Those who utilize spas are mainly women, and the numbers are growing. The spa industry has been around since civilization began and is becoming more popular than ever and is a wonderful career field for women and men to consider.