Coyle recently released its new Global Spa Report, completed by 1,025 respondents in March 2011. The report reveals the trends and priorities of today’s spa consumers. Below is part one of six articles that will summarize and highlight key pieces and findings of the report.
Last year, Coyle Hospitality Group conducted exclusive market research within the spa industry to uncover the motivations behind spa consumer behavior. This year, as spa owners and consumers proactively evolved to combat the prolonged recession, Coyle reengineered its research strategies to reach a broader range of respondents and include more objective, relevant questions: Why do people go to spas? What spa deals are capturing their attention? What is the impact of deal websites like Groupon? And, most importantly, how do spas retain clients and get them to inform their social networks? The result is the 2011 Global Spa Report—a compilation of spa trends and spa consumer priorities that industry professionals should know about as they enter the second half of the year.
Coyle uncovered some big changes between 2010 and 2011, the most alarming being the increased dependence of spa consumers on technology and the internet to source deals and information. A major example of this is seen in the explosion of social commerce through deal websites, such as Groupon and Living Social. Groupon enjoyed a tremendous increase as a site to seek spa information, jumping from 22% in 2010 to 52% this year. Living Social, a site that was not even included in 2010, is now the fourth most-popular website for seeking spa information, tied with Facebook and beating out sites like Yelp, Citysearch, and SpaWeek. When asked about website usage, we saw a 9% increase in the usage of websites primarily for deal-seeking, compared to only a 2% increase in the usage of websites primarily to learn about a spa altogether.
Clearly, these trends call for a risk-analysis on deal-offerings versus retention, and fast. Other interesting findings include:
- 47% of spa consumers listed “improving appearance” as one reason they visit a spa
- 69% of those surveyed visited a spa based on word-of-mouth
- 66% of respondents have utilized online-deal sites to book a service
- 86% of respondents would feel comfortable receiving a follow-up correspondence post-visit
To download and view the full report, please visit Coyle’s website at www.coylehospitality.com/2011-global-spa-report/.
To find out about how Coyle can assist you with mystery shopping program design and implementation and improving the spa experience, please visit https://coylehospitality.com//mystery-shopping-services/spa-consulting/.
