What it MEaNs to coNNEct
(contInUED FRom PAgE 57)
“Habits are powerful influencers of human behavior.
Forty-five percent of the choices we make in any given day,
according to a Duke University study, are based on habits.”
to your customers. Ask them questions and pay attention to
their answers. Why did they come into the spa today? Why
did they choose this treatment? What else is going on in their
life at this time?
Habits work as a cycle. First, there’s a cue, the thing that
triggers the behavior. Then, there’s the routine, which is the
habitual behavior. Last, there’s a reward. Take for example a
customer who gets a massage on the first of every month.
They have a cue: the start of a new month. The routine is the
scheduling of the massage. The reward is the relaxation they
feel after their treatment.
The more you understand about what cues a customer to
visit the spa—stress at work, the time of month, graduation
from school, a promotion—the better you’ll be able to incen-
tivize them to come in again and again. Send that
hypothetical customer a promotional email on the first of
every month. Run a “graduation season” special and tell your
customers about it via an eblast. If a customer says they just
got a promotion, try to set up a second massage or add on
another treatment; people who are celebrating success are
more likely to splurge.
The same logic applies to boosting your retail sales. Once
your customer finds a product they like, they’ll tend to use it
for a long time; it becomes a habit. As a spa industry profes-
sional, try leveraging those few moments when customers are
actively looking to switch to a new product. If a customer