1. to attract new clients
2. to fill the books of treatment providers that had only partial shifts scheduled on certain days

It achieved both goals to a certain extent. The second goal was more successful than the second. The treatment providers, while happy they had clients, noted how much less they made for the same amount of work. Their commission was lower and they were being tipped on the reduced price (if at all). The discounts did attract some new clients, but not as many as hoped for. The new clients may have been people who normally could/would not afford to go to this spa and, therefore, won't return. Time will tell.

The overall effect of this discounting was devastating, however. Loyal clients stopped booking in advance. Instead, they waited for the newsletter to come out and booked for the following week - at a 20% discount. If the discounted services were all taken, they'd wait for the next week's discounts instead of scheduling a regularly-priced service this week.

The spa owner has reduced the discount to 10% but is afraid to stop it altogether for fear of angering the spa's clients. The owner believes the spa is in far worse shape financially after the discounting than if it had never been started.

I asked about the gift certificates. The owner said they stopped accepting the national gift certificates for the weekly discounted services. That angered a number of clients, so they decided to accept them again. These certificates are, in general, loss leaders.

You know what they say about unhappy customers - They tell their friends, who tell their friends, who tell their friends and so on. Bad word-of-mouth is the polar opposite of what a spa business wants and needs. I believe that the practice of discounting can lead to great customer dissatisfaction. In the above example, clients have gotten used to the discounts and won't be happy when they are discontinued (and weren't happy when they were reduced from 20% to 10%). If clients buy a national spa gift certificate and can't use it for everything the spa offers, they will be unhappy. That has happened to me.

Gift Certificates

A number of months before the events at the spa in the first example, I was given a national spa gift certificate that was accepted at a local day spa. I made an appointment for a pedicure and used the gift certificate. A few weeks later, I saw these national spa gift certificates at a big discount store. It offered a $100 gift certificate for $80 - a 20% savings. I got some for the specific purpose of using them at that local day spa for pedicures. The next time I had a pedicure at that spa, they told me I couldn't use the gift certificate for pedicures - only for facials, massages and body treatments. This new "policy" was not written anywhere for the spa clients to see. After a little discussion, I paid and left. I am pretty sure if I had a massage there, they would have said gift certificates could only be used for facials. I haven't been back.

Promotions

In general, I find coupons annoying. I don't think I am alone. If you had a coupon and left it at home, you lose. If you didn't know there was a coupon to be had, you lose. The key word here is "lose." Spas, where a huge part of what they do has to do with how their guests feel, should not set their guests up to feel like losers. The following is a bad experience I had with a coupon/promotion.

I had such a great time at one spa, the next day I decided to browse through the menu on their web site to see what service I might like to have the next time I visit there. That's when I saw a link to a page titled "Current Promotions." When I clicked on it, I saw the following:

Save 30% On any Massage
Save 30% on any Facial (excluding Express services)
Save 15% On any Manicure and/or Pedicure
Save 10% on any Waxing
Save 20% On any first time Haircut and/or Haircolor service (some stylists excluded) plus 25% off on Brazilian Keratin Treatment

Hmmmm. Why didn't the person I talked to on the phone when I made my reservation the day before offer this promotion to me? I would have loved to have paid $86 for my facial instead of $123. In fact, had I been offered this discount, I probably would have gotten a massage as well. I felt cheated. Surely she just forgot to mention it...I could feel my blood pressure rising. I called and asked. The young woman who answered asked me to hold for a few minutes - to check with her supervisor, no doubt. She came back and said I would have had to mention this to the person who took my reservation and specifically ask for this promotion. The reservationists don't (proactively) tell customers about it. Excuse me?? Is this a promotion or a secret?? I feel like I was penalized because I was not in front of my computer when I made my reservation. Is that any way to treat a new customer (or any customer for that matter)? Frankly, it made me angry. I asked if I could get the discount now. She said "no," but I could next time. I told her I was a new customer, and even though I loved my spa experience, I wasn't sure I would be coming back for a "next time" because of this.

As I've said before, spas should NEVER do ANYTHING that makes their customers feel bad. Having a "secret" promotion is bound to make customers feel bad when they find out they didn't know the secret when they needed to.

My annoyance may fade, and I may go back to this spa. After all, it wasn't the actual spa that ticked me off, it was the corporate reservations (that is part of the spa experience, however). And, of course, I'll know to check for promotions before I call and ask if there are any other promotions I should know about before making a reservation at any spa.

New Customers vs. Loyal Customers

One last thing I've observed is that some spas offer special deals for new customers while never offering anything for their loyal customers. That is simply annoying for loyal customers. It's important for spas to reward and recognize their loyal customers (not necessarily with discounts), but that's another topic.

More Opinions

For some other opinions on discounting, SpaBoom offers a couple of interesting discussions on the subject:

• Are Deal Days a good deal for you? and
• Don't Sell Your Soul to the Discount Devil.

That's my opinion of The Discount. Thanks for "listening." I am interested in your opinion. Share it with me at jar@DiscoverSpas.com.

~Julie

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