A Lesson Learned the Hard Way
Posted on April 19, 2009 by Ching under Life.
I have experienced a tanking. Though unintentional, it was a tanking nonetheless.
Tanking is a reference from My Best Friend’s Girl
, a hilariously funny movie starring Dane Cook, Kate Hudson and Jason Biggs (of American Pie fame). Get the unrated version. It is funny.
But I digress… Tanking is when you go out on a horrible date with miserable jerk of guy and have the worst time of your life. As a result you realize how great you had it with your ex-boyfriend and come running back to him. I’m not sure if my explanation did it justice. Dane Cook has a much more eloquent way of saying it. You just have to watch the movie.
So anyway, I’m your typical fickle consumer. I am always looking out for the best deals. I have never really been loyal to anyone except Carrabba’s (You’re the best, Joe!) and Highlands (Shane is their resident stud muffin/Fabio – LOL!) and Patricia at Beau Monde (the spa with an incredibly long domain name). I have been with Patrica for almost ten years now, almost as long as Brian and I have been together.
I used to go to Healing Waters for waxings, but decided that their prices were too high so I started to check around for other places. A coworker had recommended her aesthetician Renee at Individually Yours. I was pleased with both the cost and quality so I said goodbye to occasional (because I couldn’t afford to go all the time) waxings Healing Waters began going to Individually Yours for waxings regularly. With the lower prices at Individually Yours, I was able to go more frequently and began to get accustomed to my new hairlessness.
I experienced Patricia for the first time when Renee went on maternity leave. Patricia was equally as good, if not better. Anyway, Renee decided against returning to work after her child was born so I have been with Patricia ever since. A couple of years ago, Patricia left Individually Yours and transferred to Beau Monde. As a loyal client, I naturally followed.
The move was good for Patricia, but it proved beneficial for me as well. Beau Monde is closer to our house, since it’s just at Comotara, and it is a full-fledged spa so I have access to more products and services there than at Individually Yours. About the only disadvantage that I’ve noticed is that the rates are higher. With inflation, the prices just keeping going up. I love being hairless and all, but I’m going to have to serious cost-benefit analysis on this soon because the visits sum up to significant amount at the end of the year.
So I began to wonder, how different can waxings be? What if I found a less expensive place with their very own Patricia? A couple of months ago, I received an email offer from another spa. They advertised “waxless waxing” and offered a 50% discount. I’m a sucker for deals, so I had to try it.
They use a Nufree “No-Wax” system, which I found was just like regular waxing except it is more organic or something like that. It wasn’t any less painful, at least not for me. The aesthetician was not as experienced as Patricia, who can complete my Brazillian in half a dozen strokes. She was very messy and had to go over the same spots several times, which is a no-no. Patricia never goes over the same spot more than twice, if at all. I felt like I was being tortured and the crazy part is I was paying for it, discounted or not.
The girl was very nice and, to her credit, did a good job on my facial (which I wouldn’t have scheduled there had I not been lured in by the 50% discount on the “waxless waxing” email). She is a wonderful person who I’m sure is a great aesthetician. She just happened to give me the worst bikini wax of my entire life. Maybe bikini waxings aren’t her forte (not everyone can be good at it), so I didn’t hold that against her. Brian and I left a decent tip: $20 for my aesthetician and $20 for his massage therapist. Yes, Brian ended up getting a massage out of this because I didn’t want him to be bored waiting for me to get done.
I didn’t go running back to Patricia or anything. I didn’t have to because I’m already in her books for the rest of the year (I usually pre-schedule all my waxing appointments in November for the following year). Sure we have to reschedule some appointments when she goes on vacation and stuff, but I find so much easier and less complicated having all my appointments pre-set because then after each visit all I have to do is ask when my next one is — I don’t have to spend a few minutes scheduling it. I’ve been doing it this way since Individually Yours and it has worked great so I continue to do it.
Anyway, I learned an important lesson that day: never cheat on your regular wax technician. You can cheat on your nail tech and you can cheat on your hair styles, but cheating on your waxer is a very, very bad idea. From now on, no one else but Patricia gets to wax my chacha.
P.S. I purposely left the name of that other spa off this post because their marketing person is really savvy. I noticed that she is always online scouring the web for business intelligence and ideas and stuff. She is probably the best marketing rep in Wichita. I think she is fabulous and I don’t want her to find this.
Also Brian and I have had massages at this place so we are in their book. They’ll know it’s us based on the services the services I mentioned and the time frame. We might go back for a massage there sometime in the near future so I don’t really want to make them mad.
And just for the record, it was only the waxing that I hated. The facial was good and they give great massage there. It is one of our favorite places to go (since it is also in NE Wichita and close by) for massages. It’s not as cheap as Innovative Bodyworks, though. Brian wasn’t as impressed with IB so he still likes this other place. I think he likes this other place better than Beau Monde for massages, but really there is only the one massage therapist we don’t like at BM. Everyone else is great.
P.P.S. My waxing with Patricia yesterday made me think of sharing this story. She did my face and Brazillian in 30 minutes (the other place wanted to spend almost three hours). Yes, she is THAT good!
Alright, that’s it. Don’t cheat on your waxer!
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Replies to "A Lesson Learned the Hard Way"
Massage Business Marketing on September 24, 2009
Sometimes you can find someone you love like this though.
My regular technician was away and I’d left it too late to book another one, so I tried someone else and found I they were actually better!
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Massage Marketing on April 25, 2009
Haha Sometimes this happens. Once I tried to get a haircut from somebody other than my regular hair stylist and it turned out to be a complete disaster!