Training in the spa includes working with your staff who may answer the phone to put on their spa phone voice.  No matter how you answer the phone, the tone of voice, the manner of the voice, and the speed of the voice will indicate to the caller your intentions.  Fast or slow, the caller will immediately identify with the voice.  High pitched or low pitched, the caller will respond accordingly. 

Work with your staff to answer the phone with a pleasant happy tone.  Then test your staff.  Call the spa not once or twice, call 2-3 times per day.  Call at peak call times to see how the phone is being answered.   Call at dead times to see how the phone is being answered.  In training any staff that answer the phone, it is a very delicate task to train someone on telephone voice.  Someone with a very abrasive voice has difficulty communicating on the phone, while squeak voices are never able to really communicate with clients. 

Training on telephone voice is critical to booking appointments and future business.  As Rick Segal says, we are not in the “retail” or “spa” business, we are in the experience and entertainment business.  How did your future client experience the spa?  Was she entertained?  Did she feel rushed?  Was the person on the other end nice?  Did they understand them?

Long before there were spas in the U.S., there were people buying from store owners.  You knew all of your customers.  Not until the big retailers started reaching out with catalogues like Sears, did you not really see the faces of your clients.  Today with the Internet and on-line shopping, we have stepped back to creating a one-on-one relationship with our clients, both on-line and in the spa.

When someone purchases from you, they are demonstrating several actions:

1. They trust you.
2. They trust your recommendation.
3. They expressed a need or desire.
4. They like what you are selling.
5. They have a lot of money to spend and too little time.

Now all of the above could be true, but how does it build loyalty?  That is easy. 

Just imagine you are the client.  You have just had an incredible and memorable “spa experience”.  Now it is time to go back and run to the grocery store, pick up the dry cleaning, pick up the kids, fix dinner, do homework, vacuum the house, and fold the laundry.  Whew, you walk into your bathroom and pull out the relaxing herbal pillow that you bought at the spa today…you pop it into the microwave and there you have it…a sensory re-enactment of your day at the spa-sans massage of course.  Your client is reminded of the massage because of the herbal pillow?  Yes….and not once or twice, but over and over.

Retail builds loyalty if you truly and genuinely care and want to build a trusting relationship with your client.  The key is in the relationship…maybe it is not the retail, but maybe it is the trust that builds loyalty? –but the retail triggers the great spa experience and the memory of a great massage.