Trust is the operative word, the cleaned-up version

This morning I was cruising on the website spas.about.com and came across an interesting posting that I want to share.

The topic was salt scrubs and how, because all clients aren’t always fully informed about the treatments they're about to receive, many enter not knowing exactly what scrubs are. Therefore, they sometimes make unusual requests. For those of you who have had a scrub know that it can be plenty painful. So when this person requested a “deep tissue” salt scrub the therapist was surprised—and quick to make clear that actually, they probably did not want to bring deep tissue anywhere near a scrub because, well, Ouch!

A click on another link posed this question, Are hot stone massages really worth it? Many respondents weighed in with a big no. They indicated that after their first hot-stone experience they had concluded that it was more of a marketing ploy than a true, satisfying treatment worth experiencing. They questioned the benefits because, Wasn’t the point of a massage that it be hands-on? Many said they felt disconnected from the experience because the stones were touching their body, not the therapist's hands and that got in the way. That last comment, by the way, also came from a therapist.

I don't know if I agree with that last comment, and many said they enjoyed the hands/stones combo. But imbedded somewhere in those posts are some core truths.

As many of you know by now, the focus of this blog is to bring some clarity to the spa experience so that you, the spa-goer, don’t walk in with one set of expectations and walk out disappointed.

Coincidentally, I had an interview set up with Geoffrey Gross, manager of Urban Oasis spa on Maple Street. (Their other location is also in Chicago, on North Avenue.) It was with these two anecdotes that I began our conversation. I’d wanted to talk to Geoffrey because I knew he was having ongoing dialogues with his team of therapists and receptionists--the receptionists being the very first contact a potential client has with the spa when they call to inquire about treatments. He was trying to find ways for the receptionists to describe, fully and accurately, the treatment about which the client was expressing interest—without taking too much phone time and without scaring clients off. Why would they be scared off? He went on to describe overhearing one receptionist describing the difference between Swedish and Deep Tissue being that the latter will likely cause you pain the next day. When you consider that between their two locations, Urban Oasis employs 16 receptionists, it's easy to understand how hard it is to get everyone on the same page, especially given that receptionists are just tha— not therapists, and there are call-time restrictions and considerations. I’ll wait to share details of what Geoffrey and his staff have come up with when I write the article for DAYSPA magazine. But in the meantime Geoffrey really opened my eyes.

We were talking about Urban Oasis’s well-established, 15-year-old brand for keeping their sole focus on body work only. They do not jump on every new treatment trend. Because of that consistency they’ve established a deep trust between client and therapist. Geoffrey says they hardly get any complaints, so it's a testament to their commitment to quality that these conversations (with the team) are occurring at all!

That was such an ah-ha moment for me, to quote Oprah. I’ve always had some concerns about most spas’ rush to keep up with all the exotic-sounding new treatments. The menu offerings may be long but how much do they really know about these fancy treatments? How skilled are the practitioners, how steeped in the history are they?

So if nothing else, remember to ask those questions when you’re thinking about signing up for, say, an Ayurvedic Indian Head Massage. Make sure the practitioner knows his or her stuff. Ask where his or her training came from. What makes them qualified to do it? Ayurvedic practices are thousands of year old and I dare say you don't want someone who read a manual or even took a day course to give you this or any other treatment unless they have the bonafides to do so. If you like what you hear and subsequently like what you get, you’ll go there again, happily That’s how trust gets developed.