Are you thinking of offering a new treatment to your menu for sports injuries? Are some of your retail offerings failing to attract buyers? And most important, are you filling up your weekly schedule with enough clients to meet your profitability goals? These are just some of the questions you may be asking as the new year unfolds.
In trying to determine next steps to meet goals and help expand your spa or massage therapy business go straight to the source. Ask clients for input before you make any changes. You gain valuable insight when you engage with clients to find out what they want now and how their needs may be changing over time.
While you can pose some some questions to clients while they are “in your hands,” you do not want to disturb clients too much during a treatment. A better option is conducting an online survey to get client input. You can email or text them a link to your questionnaire. You might even reward participation with a free neck or foot massage provided at their convenience.
Set Goals
Before you begin compiling your survey, ask yourself what you want to accomplish. Your survey can help your improve customer service, attract new clients, or get more business from current clients. Define your goals and then consider what questions will help you get the specific input you seek.
Survey Questions
Create questions to get the input you want based on the goals you establish. Make sure there is no ambiguity in your questions. Keep the following in mind:
- Do not ask leading questions: Ask “how would you rate our customer service” instead of “clients say they value our customer service, how do you rate us.”
- Make questions simple. Ask for just one piece of information. Ask “do you find our prices competitive” versus “do you find the treatments thorough and prices competitive.” The latter is two questions.
- Be specific: “How often do you exfoliate at home” is a specific question. “Do you regularly exfoliate at home” is vague.
- Determine what types of responses you want. If your survey is multiple choice, be sure to provide all options. Other options could be sliding scales or comment boxes.
- Limit your questions: Between five and 10 questions is sufficient. Clients will stop participating if the survey is too long.
Select A Survey Template
You can find online survey templates, often for free, that you can customize with your own spa or massage practice logo.
Create An Engaging Invite
Your invitation to participate in the survey should be written so that it encourages respondents to engage. The more responses you get gives you more data to use in making changes at your spa or massage practice. The survey invitation, which includes the link to the survey, should explain your goals and why you would like them to participate. Make sure to include an attention-getting subject head in your email or text.
Test Survey
Pretest your survey with a small group such as your team or a few business associates or even family and friends. Pretesting ensures the questionnaire is user friendly and the questions are unambiguous.
Surveying clients to ensure you are meeting their expectations and needs sends a powerful message that you care about them. The feedback will help you make improvements, so clients get the best possible experience.