Stanton Champion

Imagine that after you’ve been skiing or snowboarding for a week, you stop by a nice warm spa to relax and take it easy. You’ve booked a room in advance and made a reservation to spend some quality time in some volcanically fed springs. You arrive expectantly and walk up to the check-in desk where the clerk starts the conversation by rudely thrusting a very long, ugly, and complicated release in front of you. “You have to sign this before checking in.”

After a nice ski trip, this actually happened to us. I won’t say where (let’s just say “somewhere in New Mexico”), but that’s not what’s important. The issue here is about managing the complex relationship between your brand image and your legal obligations. Let’s reexamine the details. What’s important to a spa’s image?

• Treating the guests to the best possible time.
• Promoting complete guest relaxation.
• Taking away all their cares in the world.

What do the lawyers want?

• For their clients not to get sued.

The United States is a pretty litigious society and lawyers serve a valuable purpose, however from a marketing point of view, a spa should never lose the image of a warm and caring place where the world is lost in soothing mineral waters. So how should a customer feel when they arrive to read things like this:

2. …… Bathing in hot water can lower blood sugar and cause dehydration, especially due to high elevation. If many hours have passed since the last meal, or consumption of water, a person from a lower altitude may experience a loss of consciousness.

3. THE NATURAL MINERAL WATER THROUGHOUT THE FACILITY IS NON-POTABLE. WE STRONGLY DISCOURAGE INGESTION OF THE MINERAL WATER.

4. No residual disinfectant, such as chlorine or bromine, is applied to our pools or waters as a means of prevention against contamination.

8. XXXXX assumes no responsibility for damage or theft of personal property or for the offensive, tortuous, or criminal acts of third parties.

9. Patron desires to use the facilities of XXXXX with full knowledge of the inherent risks and dangers and the physical and emotional injuries that could result and hereby agrees to assume the risk of any such injury.

(Emphasis added.)

Loss of consciousness? Non-potable? Contaminated? Torture? Physical and emotional injury? I just want to relax in a freaking spa. This kind of language has no place in a spa setting, and certainly not when it’s rudely jammed under a patron’s nose first thing at check-in.

Obviously the spa has certain concerns the patron must know: don’t drink the water, don’t use the spa if you have a health condition, lock up your belongings, etc. However, a release from liability is a terrible way to communicate these things. Most people don’t read them, and quite honestly we would have ignored this particular one as well if it wasn’t so abruptly given to us in the very beginning. What’s worse, all of this was printed in a very legal way on a single sheet of paper with a small font and signature lines at the bottom. This was the work of a lawyer with no business direction.

So how could a spa manager have handled this better? Scrap the legal agreement and put together a highly professional looking sheet of paper with “Important Spa Information for Your Comfort.” Get a graphics artist to do the layout, and make sure the spa brand is heavily emphasized. Beneath, list a series of “spa tips” for getting the most out of your trip. Mix in both important information and helpful tips. For example:

• Remember, fresh towels can be found at both the front entrance and in the locker rooms. If you would like your towel warmed, please ask!
• The water here at XXXXX is all natural. For your well being, we do not treat our water with any chemicals. Soak all you like, but please don’t drink the spa water. Bottles of fresh water are available at the front desk.
• If you have a health condition, like a heart problem, please ask the spa attendant before using the spa.

At the bottom, the sheet could include “Rules” like “No running,” “Lock up your belongings,” and “Don’t drink the water.” A really paranoid manager could even get the guest to sign a sheet saying they’ve read the rules and agree to abide by them.

Remember, even with legal agreements it’s possible to align them to your brand image and make the guest feel at home while still communicating the key messages. A good lawyer should actually be aware of this, but even if they’re not, a good manager should guide all guest interactions to be on message and aligned with the brand.

What do you think?

Added 1/14/2008: I would be remiss not to point out that marketing guru Seth Godin has written extensively about making every customer interaction a marketing interaction. His most recent post on the subject is titled What’s the point of this interaction?

Every time you interact with a customer, you’re engaging in marketing. Doesn’t matter if you’re instituting a policy, gaining some data, delivering an invoice… it’s a marketing interaction.

Every customer-facing legal agreement should keep this in mind. Legalese can be marketing, too.