A useful first step for spa and wellness owners planning a redesign: hand your website to someone who has never visited your business and ask them to plan a first appointment on their phone.
Don't explain where to tap. Watch where they hesitate. These are the six things I'd check before choosing colors or layouts.
- Can they understand the service?
A beautiful treatment name still needs a plain-language explanation. Where appropriate, show duration, price or a clear starting price, what's included, and whether the first step is an appointment or a consultation. Let your qualified team review treatment descriptions.
- Can they picture the visit?
Show the actual space and people. Make location, hours, parking, and arrival instructions easy to find. A first-time guest should be able to answer basic practical questions without hunting through Instagram.
- Do they know what to book?
A long menu can be difficult to navigate. Give new guests a clearly labeled starting point and an easy way to ask the team for help if they're unsure. The website should make the next step clear without making clinical decisions for them.
- Does the booking handoff work?
Follow the main booking button into your scheduling system. Does it open the relevant service, or drop everyone into a generic menu? Check small-screen text, back buttons, available appointments, and whether the guest can tell they've submitted a request or confirmed a booking. Use a staff-approved test so you don't accidentally reserve a real appointment.
- Can your team keep it accurate?
Try changing a service price, updating a staff bio, and adjusting holiday hours. Decide who owns each update and where it must be changed. Conflicting information between the website and booking system creates avoidable questions.
- Will a redesign preserve what's useful?
Make a list of your current service pages and the pages people already find through search. If addresses change, plan redirects to the closest relevant new pages. Confirm that your business controls the domain, website access, and booking account.
Turn the hesitations into a short priority list: fix the issue that blocks booking first, then the questions that keep coming up. A redesign brief becomes much more useful when it describes an actual guest problem.
I'm Moriah, owner of Reverie Green, a web design and SEO studio in Columbia, Maryland. We work with service businesses, including spas and wellness studios: https://reverie.green/
Spa owners: which part causes the most questions for your guests—choosing a service, understanding pricing, or completing a booking?
Source: r/reveriegreendesign · by /u/reveriegreendesign