It’s one of the most significant factors that differentiates your spa apart from others in your area…
A primary guiding element in your client’s choice to seek your services…
And one of the larger pieces of your brand that sets the tone for how you portray yourself to potential clients…
I’m talking about the experience you provide at your spa.
Naturally, we all strive to provide an excellent experience through top-notch customer service, a clean environment, and knowledgeable and highly-trained staff, but there’s so much more that goes into crafting a unique experience fit for our ideal clients.
Take for example a medical spa versus a day spa.
Medical spas by nature of their menu of services and staff (typically with a physician, or in some cases multiple physicians), tend to have a cold, bright, and more sterile environment.
On the other hand, a day spa, where there’s a greater emphasis on clients going with the intention of relaxing and pampering themselves, tends to have a more tranquil and soothing setting.
Both environments can be considered “luxury,” but the experiences a client would have in those locations are vastly different. Thankfully, this discrepancy in experiences between the medspa (and the physician’s office who provides aesthetic services) and a day spa, opens the door wide open for solo estheticians running their own businesses to strike a balance in the in-between, creating an experience today’s spa consumer is hungry for.
I.e., a spa that gives them a wide variety of services from medical to holistic and in a setting that allows them a calming escape and serene refuge from the outside world.
If that describes the route you’re hopeful or aiming to take in your spa, here are some key areas to emphasize when marketing and sharing the medical treatments you provide as well as finding the balance between both spa experiences:
Your Spa’s Comfort Level and Atmosphere
While some clients will always feel comforted with an M.D. in the building, the experience with a solo esthetician in their own space tends to have a more comfortable and personalized feel.
Clients can feel more like a name than a patient number, and the overall atmosphere tends to feel much more laid-back and relaxed, which can also significantly impact how your client experiences and tolerates the treatment you’re performing.
However, as the solo esthetician, it’s your job to put your potential client’s mind at ease by adequately displaying, communicating and positioning yourself as an expert who has received proper certification and training in these medical treatments potential clients are seeking.
By making it known that you’re appropriately qualified and skilled at these treatments while simultaneously sharing your personality and spa atmosphere, you’ll have a greater shot at attracting the client looking for high skill-level within a comfortable setting.
Mixing Services
Unlike a medspa where the service menu tends to solely cater to the treatment being performed, as an independent spa owner or licensed esthetician, you have the ability and freedom to infuse additional non-medical elements into your treatments.
And what client doesn’t want a little more pampering and beautifying?
Whether it’s incorporating LED light therapy, masking or other elements of your signature facial process, this additional level of service truly provides a unique experience that can’t be compared to a straightforward medspa or to a day spa that doesn’t have the staff licensed to perform medical aesthetic treatments.
The Added Accoutrements
Combining a bit of the philosophy behind my previous two points, as a solo esthetician that’s providing a comfortable, day-spa-esque experience and can combine medical treatments with additional elements of service, you can also blend in those extras that many clients look forward to at a day spa.
For example, aromatherapy, hot towels, hand/foot/shoulder massage, a hot tea assortment, or a grounding mat on the table, just to name a few.
These are added accoutrements medspas simply don’t provide because that’s not their brand or their aesthetic. They’re about providing the treatment and quality care.
But for the client who wants the best of both worlds, it’s the finer details that make all the difference.
As I previously mentioned, being a solo esthetician certainly provides a unique level of freedom, which is why many of us have decided to go the route of business ownership, but in that freedom also comes a great opportunity to find the balance between both ends of the industry.
Finding that balance might mean becoming trained in new services and treatments to continually uplevel your skillset and services you're able to provide, or it might mean revamping your existing menu to craft creative or bespoke treatments unique to your spa, or both.
In either case, it takes a lot of intention and hard work, and now it’s up to you to find the elements that you can leverage to create a spa experience that stands out from the rest.