Being in the Spa Industry is more than people think it is. I know, you probably think that we Spa Therapists just sit around & play with oils, lotions, & every beauty potion that comes to mind. That we get to relax to the beautiful melodies of Enya or Yanni as it plays all day on the iPod & meditate in the zen of the aromatherapy infused room. Well just like everyone else, our job is hard work. Clients don’t realize all the body mechanics & hand movements that we use to make them feel relaxed. You have to constantly be smiling, leave your personal problems outside your treatment room, & sometimes you see or hear the craziest things & have to keep cool & calm about it. It’s not easy, especially if you’re having a bad day & the new age sappy music playing sounds like the score from the notebook. Lucky for me, my personal clients are all fun, full of life, & loving people, I feel like I have known them forever…some I actually have. The perks of having my own studio, I can keep the demanding diva bitches off my warm table. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job, as most of you know. I just don’t think people realize what goes on “behind the scenes”. Clients have expectations of the spa service they are receiving & the therapist giving it to them. We as service providers have expectations of our clients as well.
When you go to a spa to get a treatment, your therapist greets you and escorts you to the room of bliss…where you have been waiting to go all week…where all your stress & worries will be cleansed & massaged off your face & body in about 50 minutes. What you don’t know is what took place before you even parked your car in the spa parking lot. Your therapist gets to the spa about 30 minutes early, soaks 10-20 towels in hot water & essential oils, wrings them out, places them in a hot towel warmer, turns on the lotion warmers, refills any oils or product bottles, heats up the table, stocks up extra linens, gets the new age music going, sets up any facial brushes, body brushes, or loofahs, that will be needed for all the services. This is just the set up for the start of the day, appointments change all the time, meaning a whole different set up you got to do.
Ok, back to the expectations…One of the biggest pet peeves of the spa world is a late client. If your spa treatment is 50 minutes long and you show up to the spa 20 minutes into the treatment, guess what…your cheating yourself. You are not the only one that has an appointment that day. Treatments are timed for a reason, for service time & clean up time. When you’re late for your appointment, its not the next clients fault, therefore your service will be cut so theirs can start on time. I know things happen, but try to always arrive 15 minutes prior to your appointment. The spa table your laying on for your treatment is for relaxation, not for catching up with emails, returning phone calls, text messages, or surfing the net. Put all your electronic devices away, if you really need to do all those things, then maybe you should schedule your spa treatment when you have free time. Its very difficult to give someone a facial or massage & they are on their cell phone instructing their secretary what to do in the office while they’re away or on their ipad instant messaging someone…yes…this has happened to me, & its awful. How can I give someone a neck & shoulder massage when they are holding up an ipad right in front of their face…or waxing their eyebrows while they are texting…the result of that could end with the client getting wax on their phone or wax on their eyelashes…I don’t know which is worse.
As a client, your job is to RELAX, lay back, & enjoy receiving the art of spa. I know its easier said than done, but this why you are here…to let us gurus of the mind, body, & spirit make you feel like your floating on a cloud & make you look 10 years younger! A lot takes place to create this wonderful atmosphere; we veterans of the spa world take this very seriously. So next time you book a spa service, remember to be a good client, be on time, & leave all your toys behind.
