How to Create an Exceptional Customer Experience

“Customer Experience”, or CX, has been on the lips of every designer and marketing professional for a few years now. Most people think of it as providing great service in a memorable atmosphere. This is true, however, it’s more than that. It starts with digital platform design, moves on to storefront design, is carried throughout the business’s interior, and can even be evident in parking areas. CX touches everything.

Let’s start by conducting an audit. Below is a list of items that “touch” all customers in some way. You can rate how you do with each item on a scale of one to five, five being great.

CX Audit Questions

Digital

• Do all your digital platforms (website, FB, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok) showcase your brand - colors, logo, graphic, tagline?
• Does your website show photos of your spa’s storefront, and the “wow” spots inside your spa?
• Do your digital platforms promote the “wow” of your business at least once a week?

Exterior

• Does something on your spa’s storefront, or in your parking lot (if you have one), or on the sidewalk outside your business, capture people’s attention while they’re driving by, or stop them in their tracks when they’re walking by, or parking?

Whether it’s the window displays, the signage, the color of your building or entrance door, the entrance door handle, lighting, messaging, or outdoor amenities (benches, planters, banners, sculptures, etc.), there should be several items that stand out and become iconic to your business. Items that the community residents and visitors alike, talk about in a positive way

Interior

• When your customers/clients enter your spa, do they feel like they have walked into another dimension of wonderfulness? Do all their senses come alive via aroma, music, lighting, and texture?
• Are your clients immediately welcomed by a friendly receptionist or staff person who walks around the counter, introduces themselves and greets the client by their first name?
• Do they offer him/her a beverage from an extensive beverage list, while handing them a small gift? Do your clients want to tell all their close friends and family about this initial experience?

Related: 3 Ways to Create a Great Customer Experience

Waiting Area

• Are your clients seated in remarkable chairs with yummy fabric that feels great to the touch? Are there unique testers of a new product line on a coffee or side table, just begging to be tried out? Are there discount or reward cards placed with the testers for first-time buyers?
• Are your retail products easily accessible and merchandised in such a way that they lure waiting clients over to shop? Are the fixtures unique and display props fun? Are the products well curated, including some unexpected items that your target market can’t live without? Are the items that key staff love, noted as such, and why they love them?
• Is there a unique piece of artwork somewhere in the waiting room that becomes a conversation piece? Is your seasonal décor subtle, unique, and brand-oriented? Or is it the usual garland, tree, and/or wreaths?
• Are there signs or messaging about your services portrayed in a way that make your clients think about them in a different way – planting seeds for future appointments?
• Is the wait time so enjoyable that your clients are surprised to have to leave the room when their name is called for their appointment to begin?

Services

• Is the walk down the hall to their service room, filled with subtle scents, soft music, and beautiful visuals on the walls, floor, and ceiling? (No dropped acoustical tiled ceilings!)
• When walking into the treatment room, does the atmosphere fit the service provided, and include branded furniture, fixtures, robes/gowns, slippers, towels, and beautiful wall art? Can your client select the music they want to listen to, and the aroma they want to smell?
• Does every staff person greet your clients by their first names? Is every staff person wearing clean, branded apparel?
• Are beautifully framed mirrors integrated thoughtfully throughout the spaces?
• Do your restrooms feel like they belong in the Four Seasons?

It doesn’t matter what kind of business you have, if your clients use your restrooms, they have to be beautiful, well-branded, and a visual surprise. They should “wow” your clients. Again, small tokens of appreciation could be offered as free take-aways, ie: small, branded bottles of essential-oil air-spritzers.

• If you have rooms for “post-service relaxation”, are they super special?

Whether it’s comfy chairs by a fireplace, or lounge chairs on a private open-air patio, with more refreshments offered, the space needs to pamper the mind, body, and spirit. Perhaps a flat screen showing the latest NYC fashion show, or whatever your target market would like to watch, is visible for some of the patrons.

Check Out – Last(ing) Impressions

Finally, the exit experience should also be memorable. Think about all the ways your business can stand out when your clients are preparing to leave. 

• How do you showcase your new product lines or impulse items at checkout?
• Do your staff provide an incentive on a product line if the client books another appointment within so many days?
• What sort of packaging do the purchases go in?
• Does it make your client feel like they just bought something extra special? What’s the last thing your clients see before they exit your spa? Is it remarkable, memorable? Will it make them smile?
• And when your clients come back in a month or so, what will you have changed up? What will they remark on this time around? What will they tell others? Will the color of the sidewalk have changed? Will your window displays be upside down? Will you have switched up the product offerings? Will you have put crazy wallcovering on a wall that used to be painted an accent color? Will you have created your own brew of tea? Will you exchange the sculpture on the floor with 100 makeup brushes hanging from the ceiling?

Audit Results

So how did you do? Is your CX where it should be? Or does it need some tweaking here and there? Regardless of where you stand, be sure to audit your spa bi-annually to make sure nothing is slipping or getting stale. CX is not a static state, but a moving, transitional one. It needs to be constantly changing, and out-of-the box. This will keep your spa at least two steps ahead of the competition.

When you have successfully created a memorable CX, and continue to update it, you automatically increase the perceived value of your products and services. The sum is truly greater than the parts when it comes to CX. And in the end, all will be aware that your spa is not an ordinary spa experience, but an exceptional one

Author, award-winning designer and international speaker, Lyn Falk, has earned praise for her holistic, innovative, results-driven design philosophy. She has devoted over 35 years to helping retailers and business owners across the country define their brand, tell their story, and create memorable customer experiences. Her designs are founded upon consumer behavior, environmental psychology and neuromarketing research. Falk started Retailworks, Inc. in1995 and continues to serve as President and Senior Designer. To reach Lyn, email her at: [email protected].