Spaboom, who uses it and is it working for you?

[Peek prays for all]

I heard about this website from Jill/Sagetherapist who posts on here. I am wondering if more of you use a website with Spaboom or AMTA and if you like the results, and if this is hard to use as I am not a techie. I do not have a website and am considering either AMTA or Spaboom, Spaboom seems to be better priced. Pros and cons of each would be appreciated. Thanks

LeContefairy

 

[Pompal 09.]

well, i'm an abmp member, not amta. i don't use the abmp website, it wasn't easy enough for me to figure out and besides, i had a client to trade with that came up with something for me.

i do use spaboom, on referral from jill. i have to say, i totally love the company and the concept. it's so cool to wake in the morning to $70 here or there.

i don't do nearly as much in sales as jill's spa - i'm a one - woman show, so it only costs about ... well, less than $4 per g/c that is sold online. to me it's worth it, not a problem at all because BEFORE i had spaboom, i had an insecure g/c purchasing option on my site and NO ONE used it. nada. lost out on lots of $ because i simply didn't know what else to do.

since spaboom, people that would normally be wary of it aren't. and my clients love the flexibility of purchasing their g/cs that way - especially since i'm by appointment only.

hope this hleps!
amanda

 

[sweetsupplies85]

This looks great! I pulled up the website and it's a really neat concept. Questions are, #1) would it work for someone who doesn't own a spa, per se, but is instead a sole private home-studio practitioner? and #2) since I don't have (and don't have an interest in) running manual credit-card transactions, do I sign up with PayPal then, and just do things online? (I'm sort of a newbie at that whole thing, as I'm cash-only right now and have only used PayPal for other things such as eBay.) lol

This sounds really sweeeet, tho.

 

[harvest]

Just so you guys know, I am a hair's breadth bigger than a one woman show. I am not a big spa owner. I rent a suite of offices that is a total of less than 1000sq feet of usable space. I don't have any employees, but contract work to some good people, since I have outgrown my own schedule. And I rent one room full out to a trusted friend and colleague - we all have our own one women shows in our little loft space. We are very small indeed.

The idea is perfectly customized for YOU. It would work for you whether you are a one person, part-time MT that carries another career too, or a big place with employees, etc.

I know I sound like I work for them, but I do not. I simply love them (the people Matt, Larry, etc) that ARE SpaBoom. They are very REAL, very available. It would not cost you a thing to call them and have a conversation about whether it would work for you. They are not high pressure sales people. Just tell Matt you want to talk about it to see if you are interested. That's all I did. Their small print and policies are so simple and clear. very easy to live with, and very simple to disengage if you wish.

A year and a half ago, renting a room at a full service salon, I sold about a dozen gift certs for Valentine's day. This year I sold about $3000 worth in the two week span of Feb 1-14. Mother's day was just about the same. No extra effort. I get charged the month after for the volume of success they afford me. The website was there, the SpaBoom folks only wrote my code for the gift certs and online appt requests. I optimized my own homemade web site from suggestions gleaned from melb, jeff and others here on MassagePlanet. If you don't have a web site, they can create one for you. I don't know what that charge is, but I imagine it is competitive. betty's bath site that was mentioned a couple of days ago is a SpaBoom Dynamic website, I believe.

As for the payPal thing - that is the easiest route to go. I still have to do that, but I have a history of bad experiences (just rotten luck & delays really, not anything lethal) with PayPal so I run my own. I definitely do that part the looong way and the hard way by my own accord. Matt has tried to get me to change, but I always get impatient with PayPal for some reason. I already had a debit/visa machine, etc, so I just do it myself. I don't recommend doing it that way at all. A commercial PayPal account is easier, simpler.

I try to tell everyone I know- the three most successful things I have done to grow my business are that I advertise with Spa Index and Spa Finder (those are just their business names, you do not have to be a spa to play), optimizing my website (and keeping it updated each month), and enterring into my love affair with Spa Boom. NO yellow page ad, glossy magazine ads, etc have matched any result I have seen from these three things. Seriously. I am in the future only going to go with things like this. No more yellow page renewals, no more advertising contracts with papers or mags.

I do hope anyone else will write about their experiences with things like this. I hate to be the only one singing along to a great tune!
jill/sagetherapist

 

[Tino {20}]

It sounds to me like lecontefairy wants to hear about the actual websites that Spaboom does. I don't have a website through Spaboom, but I do have their GC service on my website which is absolutely awesome and that was incredibly easy to set up.

 

[Mantis]

I don't have a website with them, I already had my website up when I heard about SpaBoom and started using their instant gift certificate services and online appointment requests. From my experience with them, I would definitely encourage you to work with them, if you want someone else to write your website. They have answered EVERY question I've had, promptly, efficiently and respectfully - even though I've been pretty sure some of them were "dumb questions" from a techie perspective. I'm no techie.

 

[Vani Priya]

This is a great thread. I've been considering their instant GC service for my site. It's nice to hear that people have had great experiences with them.

So people really buy GC's for friends/family online without coming to you first and knowing what they are in for?

 

[morriss]

This is a great thread. I've been considering their instant GC service for my site. It's nice to hear that people have had great experiences with them.

So people really buy GC's for friends/family online without coming to you first and knowing what they are in for?

Mine have been clients or their friends. It's not totally cold call new clients, but I have had new clients book through gift certificates bought through spa boom. I haven't yet had anyone book an appointment through it, though.

 

[Chris L]

Sounds like a good idea, I think this would solve my problems about taking credit cards... that way I can just have them purchase gift certificates prior to their session. I would have liked if they processed the credit card as well... it is another step to have to sign up for paypal or authorize.com which of course takes another perceneforum.xxxe.

 

[california_love]

i think spaboom is great too. i recently added their instant gift cert's to my website. i've had several people make purchases and yes, even total strangers unfamiliar with who i am. actually had a woman call to schedule one of her appointments that her daughters had purchased her for mother's day. session went great and she rebooked for next week.

i'd suggest this service to any MT who has a website. it's a smart thing to add. and it doesn't even cost you any $$ until someone actually uses it! gotta love that!

 

[deteragram]

Would like to add something. Lots of our instant gc purchases are from out of state people buying for those that live nearby. I would venture that about only 1-15% of our online sales or online appt requests are from repeat clients. Its great to see that new people, even from another coast are finding us & using the service. Another way to get that to happen for you is to sign up with SpaFinder.com. Their gift cards are everywhere & you get listed in their online and hardcopy (magazine type) directories. If somebody gets one of these gift cards, they can find you as a new customer. The drawback for that particular hit is that they reimburse you only 83% of the value of the card, but at least they are timely & have a pretty good reputation, etc. It all adds up & costs less than some yellow page ads!
jill/sagetherapist

 

[maxiumus]

The best thing about SpaBoom is it only costs you any money when someone actually purchases a certificate, it is only costing you the therapist any money when you get results, unlike yellow pages and print ads where you cross your fingers and hope that someone that is actually interested in your treatment sees the ad. It costs nothing until it works. (Spa Finder certificates work like that, I think the listing may cost something?)

The only "advertising" I have no qualms paying for in advance is my website hosting - I know that works and that people will find me in the search engine results looking for treatments I offer (I'm pretty good with optimizing my website for search engine results if anyone wants comments on their web site relating to optimizing for search engines, post it in the website section of the board)

I sell many gift certificates to people overseas for their friend/relative in my area - without a website, they'd have no way of finding me

 

[SEO]

Hey y'all,

Just getting my website up and running and wanted to add the Spaboom to it. When you sign up, do they just email you some code to connect to a link on your site? I will definitely be checking them out.

I think adding this type of feature to a website is a really good idea.

 

[Acquiescent]

Thank you all for the replies. I do not have a website and was wondering about their dynamic websites. With the replies about the people who are Spa Boom I believe I will just call them and ask all the questions I have. It is scary moving my business to a different level. I keep wondering if I will have the time to effectively run and monitor a website. I do love this process though and am enjoying the business journey. Jill/Sagetherapist, again thank you for your input you are invaluable to this board!

LeContefairy

 

[RoBb]

LeContefairy,
I don't think you'll have any problems at all keeping up. They will explain all to you, and they are 'available' when you need help. So, if you change your prices or add a service, etc, it will be very easy to either do it yourself, or contact them and they'll walk you through it.

They write all the code, by the way cosmictouch, and spend the time over the telephone with you to introduce you to the product & get you started. I think my 'walk-through/set-up' lasted under 20 minutes.

LeContefairy: honestly if I hadn't already had my website made & optimized to work for us, I would use their dynamic website product in a heartbeat. Let us know when we can preview it! And tell Matt & Larry all your friends at MassagePlanet say hi!

jill/sagetherapist

 

[little big mama]

well, I'm convinced. I contacted Matt and heard back from him already. I'll probably be setting this up within the week. t045

 

[IDNSFG818]

BreatheBodywork:

I really like your site. Do you have a recommendation for a merchant account/credit card provider to go with?

I'd like to have the instant GC feature on my site but I don't currently accept CCs and the paypal option seems more complicated and potentially expensive.

 

[sciencegeek+]

Here's a thread for Merchant Accounts

 

[justme]

Thanks akb, I think I have it whittled down to cellcharge.com and chargeamerica.com.

 

[Pompal 09.]

I think I understand the fee structure for adding the instant GC's to an existing site, but what is the fee for adding the online appointment scheduling? I didn't see info on that on the spaboom site.