Urban Oasis is an upscale spa offering a wide array of different massage styles including: Swedish Massage, Hot Stone Massage, Shiatsu, Prenatal and many others. They have been in business for 25 years with two locations in Chicago and over 60 employees. As of November 2017 the accumulative rating on Yelp was 4.5.

The ask: "How might we increase bookings during the day Monday through Friday".

The Primary target market is wealthy women

We broke this down to 3 primary target markets:

  • young seniors (50-70 years old)
  • expectant moms
  • stay at home moms

First thing we looked into was how the offerings of Urban Oasis fit into what customers need. We went over the value proposition and focused on one market segment for now: young seniors. As we went though the Value Proposition Canvas exercise, the pain points 'fear of death' and 'isolation' and the customer job of 'finding a purpose' stood out.

UO-value-proposition-canvas.png

Journey Mapping

Next we mapped out the journey from when the customer first walks into Urban Oasis, through the massage session, and to the check out process at the front desk. The yellow post-it boxes outline the steps the customer experiences from his/her point of view. The pink and blue boxes represent the range of possible positive and negative emotions that could be experienced during the visit. The green boxes represent areas for opportunites. Since consistent communication is an important part of this business we also inlcuded a lane for current verbal scripts used, which are the bubble boxes.

We discovered a few areas that if improved could lead to an increase of rebooking rates.

  • One area is an occasional lack of communication between the therapist and customer. This affected mostly newer massage therapists but also seaoned therapists that were focusing on the massage, assuming that the customer was fine and neglecting to ask how he/she was feeling.
  • Another area is not all therapists provide a consultation after the massage. These consultations include suggestions for exercises, diet changes, and further treatments.
  • The after treatment handoff from the massage therapist to the front desk is an untapped opportunity for a rebooking appointment. If the massge therapist would like to recommned another appointment there no set process in place to notify the front desk. As is common with other spas an Urban Oasis massage therapist usually can not accompany the customer to the front desk. Since Urban Osis offers an option for a private dressing room with a shower customers take longer to get dressed. By the time they are ready the massage thearapist is with the next customer.

Recommendations

  1. Bring about a shift in the Urban Oaiss culture where 'WOWING' customers becomes a priorty.
    • Hold empathy building exercises for all employees followed up with periodic reviews to serve as a reminder.
    • Implement a system that recognizes and honors individual staff members for instances of excellence in service as motivation and learning moments.
  2. Currently the after massage consultation is an add-on service that could be standard core service. Since Urban Oasis massage therapists are well trained and at the forefront of wellness and the latest techniques in massage therapy, it would be of little cost (time, training and effort) and could be a differentiator amoungst other local spas. Based on what is best for the customer and easiest for the massage therapists and front desk, there are several ways this could be implemented.

Next Steps

  • Look at the Value Proposition Canvas and Journey Map as starting points in understanding the Urban Oasis customer.
  • Perform additional customer research to verify assumptions used in the value propostion and journey mapping exercises.
  • Run through the value propostion exercise with other target markets and complete journey mapping exercse for same populations.
  • Verify that customers in target market find value in the after massage consulation.
  • Try various prototypes for the front desk handoff and evaluate which is best before implementing company wide.
  • Choose a couple of empathy building exercises to implemenet during training workshops and the annual meeting.

Related article:

What can you learn from creating a journey map?