Evaluating Customers’ Buying Habits

by Gary Henkin and Denise Marchisotto

A spa should consistently evaluate and monitor its customers’ buying habits. A spa manager can use this information to make appropriate decisions about what services and products to provide and how best to maximize and derive more revenue from each client. It is vital to assess what services and products have the most impact on revenue and drive a positive bottom line while accurately predicting what types of equipment and supplies will be required to bring about this result. A systematic approach should be developed to achieve this end, which begins with the determination of clients’ needs and expectations.

An effective system of evaluating buying habits consists of several parts. First, there must be a consumer-friendly buying environment that delivers exceptional customer service.

The client experience begins when the individual first calls to book an appointment. If the phone is answered in a warm, friendly and helpful way, a positive impression is created from the first moment of contact. This is crucial whether it is a first-time caller or a regular spa patron.

A visually warm and inviting retail display area also is a must if one expects the consumer to purchase goods consistently. Second, a viable system should be in place, which enhances the possibility of purchase by a client. Finally, there must be comprehensive data management available to consistently analyze and evaluate a customer’s existing buying habits to better predict future purchasing patterns.

Thus, spa management can achieve more revenue from each guest by evaluating his or her buying habits, offering an appropriate mix of retail products and matching this with a client demographic profile, creating viable price-points and developing a buying milieu.

Much has been written about how to create an environment that delivers exceptional customer service and produces an experience that encourages clientele to return time after time.

A spa manager needs to define the experience the spa wants to offer guests. One can create this experience with complementary decor and color choices, appropriate music and lighting, promotional items such as brochures and advertising that consistently promote the chosen theme, and consistent, exceptional customer service. Make certain that all elements are in support of this goal.

An exceptional customer-service ethic directly can affect customer attitudes toward purchasing. When clients feel positive in an upbeat environment, they are more likely to spend dollars—current and future— creating the desired business predictability. Customer-service standards should be determined right from the beginning. Establish a culture and clearly outline how it should be carried out. Staff training and retraining is a crucial element in helping to determine and evaluate the client’s purchasing habits. Spa management always must know whether staff are meeting expected service to retain sales-ratio goals.

Customer needs, wants and expectations can be assessed with periodic customer surveys. These can be mailed or given out once or twice a year to determine customer preferences. Clients also can be asked to fill out after-appointment cards at the conclusion of their services and specify their retail and service preferences. Leave space for comments to gain feedback such as: “I would like to have the aromatherapy stone massage” or “I am interested in an all-natural makeup line.” Such suggestions assist management to plan ahead and budget for popular services and products. Without such a system, there is no guarantee of any consistency in services or retail sales, and thus little, if any, predictability.

It is also vital to maintain communication with customers at both point of sale and periodically through direct mail, telephone and e-mail. Thus, the client should be in direct contact with the spa throughout the year, providing a stream of information and feedback regarding purchase preferences. This also can help the spa predict what types of new services and products are in the minds of its consumer base.

Client desire and future purchase patterns can be enhanced and predicted simply by increasing the frequency and specificity of questions posed and the communications process from spa management direct to the spa patron.

There must be a computerized data-management system to track consumer purchase patterns. This will provide a systematic approach to collect, assess and analyze current customer buying habits and to predict future patterns. The system must be established and monitored regularly and decisions made based on the data collected.

There are many spa-specific programs available with excellent industry support that will provide all of the relevant tracking information. A point-of-sale system that easily tracks purchases by customer and by product using a scanner and bar codes probably is the easiest. A well-managed, comprehensive system will be able to determine how much each client has spent on products and services, which products and services, and how often.

Hard facts through computerized inventory tracking will give the spa owner information to make important business decisions. Sales data from each customer should be averaged along with an evaluation as to which products and services customers are purchasing. The frequency of these purchases also must be taken into account to adequately predict and forecast future purchases. To assess what products are regularly moving off the shelves, it’s also critical to monitor inventory on a scheduled basis.

If a comprehensive system is not put into place, it is far less likely that customers will make current and future purchases, and they will not make them with any predictability. Business predictability and consistency lowers management stress and increases the likelihood of financial and operational success. A consumer-friendly buying environment, a system to encourage and increase purchase frequency and a computerized data-management system for collecting and evaluating purchase patterns can significantly help evaluate and forecast future customer buying habits.

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