Disappointing Bliss Spa, Sephora ION Orchard

I have heard lots about Bliss Spa and its products long before before it made its way into Singapore. The scent is always clean, fresh and refreshing, with none of the cloying sweetness or alcoholic sting which seemed to be common in many other body/skincare products.

I was thrilled to see Bliss products when Sephora opened in Singapore, and even more excited when I learnt that Bliss Spa would be opening its door on our shores. I finally tried a "quickie" service last week when I happened to be at Bliss Spa inside Sephora at ION Orchard.

I was blown away by the service and place and the little touches (lemonade and brownie, anyone?) they did. The therapist was good and knew her products well. So I decided to make an appointment for a facial for today then.

Since it is the New Year Eve long weekend, I have scheduled various appointments and activities for the 4-day. Imagine my utmost disappointment when I turned up for my appointment today and was told it was not in the system.

To say I was upset would be an understatement. It was a 2:45pm appointment and we arrived there 5 minutes early. The front desk person checked the system and discovered my appointment was for 1 January 2010 at 2:45pm and appeared to doubt my word.

It was a good thing I kept the text message with the appointment time/date for today, and only after I showed it to her, then she checked further and saw that my appointment was for today originally and someone moved it to tomorrow on 1 January.

The best she could do was for my requested therapist to give up her lunch break (at 3pm), and even then she could only fit in one person. My appointment was for 2 persons. And then she said she would give a further discount for my treatment if I come in tomorrow.

Is that the best one can do in such circumstances? How do you keep your customers happy?

I was super upset as I already had my day and the next few days all planned out and tomorrow would not work at all. I was psyched to try their facial which they boast so much about, and it was such a let down when I was told, "sorry we cannot fit you in now because there are no therapists available".

My question would be, what happened to the original 2:45pm slots which were given to us? If you took in new customers at that timing, I would jolly well expect you to call those people up and apologize to them for the mix-up since I had the original appointment time, and not to me who turned up at the spa in good faith that I was even early for my facial appointment.

So the 50% discount she offered for my next service with them just did not cut it, nor did it go far in easing the disappointment. What was 50% discount when you factor in the fact that I was already at the spa, and I was even early, and the computer showed that yes, my appointment was (originally) for today.

Bliss Spa staff did not factor in the time and transport cost I took to travel to town, plus the mental preparation and other things I could be doing. Since it was NYE, I did not really want to kick up a big fuss and insist on having my treatment and make both parties have a lousy day for the rest (or whatever is left) of the year.

What would other people have done? What would you do?

Thinking of what would help in dealing with the disappointment and frustration in such situation, maybe they could have done these:

1. Apologize and ask the customer to sit at the lounge while they try to find out what happened exactly. You DO NOT keep them standing at the counter and have an impasse.
(This happened to me as I was so unwilling to just leave based on what she said, and she just kept repeating sorry but no slots and will give a bigger discount for next appointment ~ I told her who cares about the discount when I just want my appointment for today - it IS NYE after all.)

2. Offer a glass of champagne or bubbly or wine and chocolates to the customer.
Whether they drink or eat it is another issue, you have to show you are sincerely apologetic and want to do little things to help ease the problem.

3. If really you cannot fit the customer in, then offer alternative treatment or give priority to their next booking, and it should be complimentary.
50% discount is usually a good deal, but when your spa has made a mistake, it should be a free treatment as why would the affected customer come back again? 50% off a $185 service is still quite a lot of money.

Your main purpose is to try to retain the customer, not to alienate them that they will tell everyone they know about the bad service they had. (Kinda like what I am doing now, but I am still seriously pissed about it that I don't know if I will want to go back again and give them another chance).

Like I said, either way they will have to piss off the customers (the one who booked first or the subsequent ones who took the appointments).

So instead of a glowing report on Bliss Spa as I did like the 15mins quickie experience, I now have a bad taste of Bliss Spa.

I still have a free 15 mins treatment with them (voucher given since I bought the products last week) which will expire on 2 Jan 2010 and I seriously doubt I want to go back again so soon.

All I can say about Bliss Spa for now is that they do not really try to resolve the problem. I was not happy and they did not try to make me feel better at all. I left as I did not want to make a scene but it really should not be the way at all.

Edited to add:
Why I think it should be a complimentary treatment instead of 50% is because they required a credit card to secure the booking. In the event you did not turn up for the appointment, the full amount is charged.

So isn't it fair that the customer gets a free treatment as the customer showed up, but the spa is a "no-show" by not having enough therapist/room to accommodate the confirmed booking? (even though the screw-up happened because of their incompetent staff/system).