Other SE Titles

• Spa Menu Makeover / Spa Menu Builder
• Treatments for the Successful Spa
• Taking Spa Treamtments to the Next Leve
• Who Will Work for You. Hiring your Spa Team
• Finding Spa Clients Everywhere
• Easiliy Increase Your Revenue
• Fine-Tuning your Spa Profits
• Spa Marketing for Success Traditional and New Media
• The Secrets of Spa Service and Retail Sales
• How to Green your Spa Introducing Sustainability
• Software for your Spa Appropriate Software
• Spa Staff Management Leadership Manual
• Successful Spa Business Management

THE SPA ESSENTIALS EBOOK SERIES

 

 

SE 100 - Spa Menu Makeover / Spa Menu Builder
Creating and Designing Spa Menus that Sell

Special Release Offer TODAY ONLY $27.00 $14.90
Click here for Table of Contents

This ebook guides you through the process of creating your Spa Menu – one of your most important and effective selling tools!

Starting with choosing the right spa services – the ones that customers will pay top dollar for again and again - all the way from content creation through to the printing process.

This ebook is full of tips and tricks that will make creating or remaking your menu easy and effective. You will use this reference book for years. Guaranteed or your money back. By Spa College Author Nicolay H. Kreidler

+ Free Bonus Material: A guide to all the collateral (printed material) you will really need (besides your menu), including those you but might forget to order as well as those you really don't need but might be temted to order!

 

++ Free Reader-Only Access to Internet resource page. Categorized list of vendors and contact information to help you get started. You will receive your username and password with your purchase.

Choosing our spa services is one of the most important and complex decisions we will make during our spa creation. Now and in the future!

At some point early on in the time-line in the creation process of a new spa we need to sit down and finalize the services that we are going to offer our customers. It is important to do this soon because so much depends on the choices we make. From the layout and furnishing of the treatment rooms to the equipment choices - many irreversible and/or costly decisions are based on the selection of services.

And although we might have spent a lot of time and energy on this process in the beginning, we still need to revisit our choices time and time again as the years progress to keep our business lively and reflective of our clients’ evolving needs. It is highly recommended to consider changing your menu at least once a year if you have a static list of services. If you are adding services that change with the seasons or other events, a menu makeover is less necessary since the perception will be one of freshness and vitality.

Our spa service menu reflects the spirit and philosophy of our spa in a very tangible way. Color scheme, layout, content, wording, typeface, borders, icons, material, binding, format, and size all work together to communicate authentically and attractively the nature of our offer. It is a testimonial of how our spa is unlike the competition and it tells the story of who we are and why we are here.

Our menu of services is a core piece of our communication strategy. It has the function of informing the prospective client of the services and conditions we offer, but it also serves as a map to guide the client searching for ideal combinations and ultimately it promotes the sale of services and encourages the kind of sale we want to advance. It is our main sales tool!

What we sell has everything to do with how we present it. Our menu should be a comprehensive guide to what we want to sell. It should be able to close a sale in itself which means it must contain all pertinent information the buyer needs and it has to be a usable selling tool for your reception staff and therapists.

How we organize our menu, the words we choose, the choice of font and the paper we print on, the pricing and the type of services we include - all have a significant impact on the purchase process.

The menu therefore needs to be tantalizing without being confusing, informative without being too technical, simple without being simplistic and comprehensive, legible and inviting.

Clients will want to see professionalism, expertise and grace. Spelling mistakes and grammatical errors are especially out of place. Dog-eared, dirty, scratched out, corrected, ripped and torn are also taboo.

Remember that our menu will not only be needed in printed form and is not only presented when the client has already made up their mind to have a treatment but appears on our website, is mailed, faxed and emailed to prospective clients, might be included in a hotel-room portfolio, hung in a display outside the facility, shown on the display of a mobile phone or be included in a simple version with gift certificates that are purchased.

There are a few different widespread approaches to generating spa menu content. Many adapt suggestions for treatments from their skin care vendors or distributors that of course are also designed to sell the vendor’s product. Some vendors extend a significant amount of support depending on account size and expected revenue ranging from creating a customized menu to brochures and other sales support.

Other vendors offer generic cookie-cutter menus that basically get your logo stamped into them. Some spa operators travel or have traveled and collect menus from their favorites spas from which they then create a mélange of the different menus. Yet others rely on consultants or employees to help to write their menu. And finally there are those who go through with the process of analyzing their client’s needs and their resources and then create a menu that truly reflects their vision and purpose after which they sit down and design a presentation that is most pleasurable and enticing to read. It is clear here where we are heading. The more you plan the more likely you will create exactly what you want, attract your ideal client and thrive personally and financially.

When it comes to the description and design of our spa treatments, we must always keep in mind what we want it to convey to our client. Creating a menu is a prime time to create new opportunities, and re-assess the traditional spa menu. Yours does not have to be the same as your neighboring spa!

Failing to recognize the importance of proper menu planning can mean loss of opportunity and business as well as difficulties in attracting talented staff and ideal clients. Ultimately it can also mean a costly redesign and reprint if there are enough financial reserves to do this once the first attempt has misfired. Failure to plan thoroughly will with all likelihood reflect negatively on your profitability. Considering the typically low profit margins this can mean that your business might not be able to generate the revenue needed to survive.

In order to plan properly, it is absolutely necessary to understand your customer, and how their predisposition affects your business, drives opportunities and increases the probability of the success of your spa or practice.

A proper spa menu and opportunity work together synergistically. Your choices should take the full spectrum of presentations into consideration: online menus, in-house menus, brochure menus, etc. but also other forms of communication that you will be recognized for. Business cards, newspaper adds, flyers, your website, logo, interior decorative motifs and more. All measures should drive potential and existing clients your way.   

A menu should be functional, attractive, and easy to read and make “ordering” a breeze. To facilitate an easy and inviting menu, choose a typeface and size of font that not only represents the nature of your services and products but also is also readable by most clients. We will discuss this in detail further on.

Not only is the optical and tangible appeal important, the wording is equally essential to a positive experience. Using foreign words that are hard to pronounce, often misspelled and have no meaning to us are inviting avoidance and embarrassment.

Different options within a treatment should be clear and easy to understand. Upgrades and enhancements should be readily available and attractive. All pertinent information regarding a treatment should be in one place. Pricing should be transparent. Any unusual charges should be clearly stated as well as policies that might be unexpected and affect the experience.

Layout, color, organization and the amount of information contained are also of utmost importance. Each medium might require different parameters so that for example an online menu has a completely different layout and content than a printed menu. (Make sure your online menu can be printed out). Consider the environment in which the menu will be read and your client profile. Not everyone has the eyes of a cat or speaks 5 foreign languages.

Any visual presentations ought to represent and communicate the spirit and nature of your services and products, presenting the value to your targeted existing and future clients in a visual and contextual manner that they can easily understand, is appealing and inviting, draws them in and makes taking action simple.

With graphic design programs readily available on most computers, many feel called to do their own design work. But design is an art that requires insight and experience into many facets of communication that often only an experienced and trained graphic designer can bring together. With a good idea of the look and feel you want to create, a professional will be able to design a menu and marketing material that will convey the full extent of your message using color, font, layout, format, graphic elements, logo design, paper quality, sheen, size and more.

While spa menus usually contain the spa “staples”, like massage, facials and body scrubs, you should include what suits your location, clientele and resource situation. More and more clients also expect to have full lifestyle options available to them. This includes fitness, home care, dietary consulting, yoga, healthy cuisine, hair and nail-care - all part of what a spa can offer.

Once you decide on certain guidelines and an outline for your menu, it will be easier to finish construction planning, furnishing and operational details as well as marketing strategies.

If you already have a menu you are not completely happy with, consider a conscious redesign. In the restaurant industry where menu psychology has been around for quite some time, a new menu can increase business up to 10%. In the spa world where we are just starting to think about these details, there might even be more to gain.

Throughout the book you will find examples of attractive menus as well as pictures to illustrate individual topics. Use them to inspire you. This is also possibly the most fun and creative part of spa creation.

Enjoy the process!

 

 

 

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