Some salons and clinics are the dictionary definition of luxury. Chandeliers, art on the walls, and treatments that use ingredients so rare you’re not entirely sure what they are.
But a luxury clinic doesn’t need to be expensive. It just needs to be an escape from life.
Here are our top tips for creating a luxury salon experience, by making tiny changes:
Personalise Everything
A personalised treatment makes us feel special, but obviously, it’s often impractical and sometimes impossible to tailor-make a treatment for every client. Laser hair removal and LED light therapy doesn’t lend itself to adaptation.
However, you can personalise the experience. Start by using the person’s name when they come into the clinic. “Oh, you must be…” Goes a long way to making someone feel valued.
Ask them what they would like to drink. Sometimes, just being able to make some kind of personal choice is enough.
Talk to them about other treatments, learn about their history, and ask about their frustrations when it comes to their skin and appearance. Then, you can talk about a treatment plan that is truly theirs.
Create an Oasis
Mindfulness meditation helps people gain perspective on their problems by focusing their attention on something repetitive or predictable. This could involve focusing on breathing, paying attention to certain parts of the body or listening to the wind through the trees. The point is, for many of us, perspective and distraction are both luxuries.
Think about how you can either focus your client or distract from their problems. Pay close attention to all the senses – what do they see? What can they smell? What can they hear? Do they taste anything? How does everything feel?
Each one of the senses has the ability to entirely distract your client. It’s like when you’re walking down the road and you smell a perfume or cologne from someone you used to know. Or when you taste a drink that you haven’t had since you were a child. For a few moments you are transported back in time, and your mind is entirely focused on something separate to your current existence.
Bring people into the moment by analysing their total experience of your clinic.
Be Unpredictable
The best hotels in the world pay a small fortune to attract the best concierges. These service professionals are not only valuable for their contacts (concierges foster relationships in all the right places to give guests access to the famously inaccessible) but also their ability to amaze people who are used to experiencing the best of the best.
Average concierges give the guests exceptional service. They will surpass anyone’s expectations and even the most demanding guests will leave satisfied.
Exceptional concierges offer guests service that is unexpected. Rather than simply pandering to the wishes of someone seeking tickets to a sold-out play, they will entirely shift their expectations.
“You don’t want to see that, the cast has changed significantly since the original performance, and besides, I have found you tickets to this…”
The very best concierges demonstrate their knowledge and expertise. They present options that are unexpected because that is what is best for the guest.
Being unpredictable through demonstrating knowledge based on what you consider to be best for your client is the pinnacle of luxury. The most extraordinary facial treatment will pale in comparison to having someone you can ask questions of and rely on. In other words, to be able to ask “my expert.”
Luxury is defined as such because someone has paid close attention to small details. Luxury without substance is just “fancy” but substance on its own is more than enough.
