Best Service Hack: Visit Your Spa Like a Tourist
Last week a beauty industry friend from Philadelphia arrived in Thailand. I’ve been here for several years now and even though there are still new sights, sounds and aromas to experience, the original wonderment of it all has passed.
We visited a night market that I’ve shopped at least 8 times before. But through her fresh eyes, I found new shops and things to try on that had somehow escaped me before.
It made me wonder:
Even though our jobs are centered around providing service, do we somehow begin to miss the nuances and details that are readily apparent to our guests?
Here’s what I mean – I recently did a secret shopper service for a Five-Star spa at one of the finest hotels in Bangkok. My consultation was performed by an assistant manager. The therapist was not in attendance. Their standard process is to relay the information from the initial consultation to the therapist while the guest changes in the locker room.
My treatment was acceptable but lacked the personalization I would expect from a spa of that caliber. None of the concerns that I expressed to the manager were mentioned. I wondered if the therapist was remiss or if the information had not been fully relayed. Was it possible that the assistant manager, who had been performing the same job for six years no longer saw the importance of her part of the process?
Had she forgotten that spa is theater and like a stage play, the audience/guest is having the experience for the first time?
If you are managing a spa, one of the best things you can do is try to view it with fresh eyes like a tourist. Create a hard core checklist for perfection. Then walk through the entire guest journey as though you’ve never been there before. I already know that you won’t get a perfect score. That’s OK. Because what we see, we can correct.
And that’s a good thing.
Linda Harding-Bond
