Some examples of good premiums and upgrades:

Pay for a 60 minute massage and receive a 90 minute session. A $48 value, with our compliments. (Anyone who experiences a 90 minute massage has a very hard time going back to a 60 minute session. Happily, we offer a 75 minute session, which now becomes an easy upgrade.)

Enjoy any full session facial and receive a stress-dissolving complimentary fifteen minute upgrade--a Lavender Scalp Tension Tamer, our UnThai the Knots neck and shoulder massage, a Warm Stone Foot Release. A $30 value, with our compliments.

Experience our new Bamboo Massage and take home our addictive Balinese Bamboo Sugar Scrub. A $24 value.

For every $150 in gift card purchases you make, receive a gift certificate for an hour-long Exotic Pedicure. Yours to keep or give! A $68 value.

What do you notice about these offers?

1. They showcase the other wonderful products and services that your spa has to offer.

2. They help guests understand new ways to improve and enhance their visit (this one, but future visits too)

3. They excite the imagination rather than just appeal to the basic impulse to spend less money.

4. They enable our team to perform more advanced and premium services, making it easier for them to suggest these treatments to other clients.

5. They fill our team's schedule, leveraging our greatest asset: time. Stabilizing demand enables you to retain better employees.

When creating incentives, it's important to "change it up." Discounts are notorious for training customers to just wait for the next price cut.

Never say always. Any promotion must be offered for a "limited time only," and "Supplies are limited." Put expiration dates on your offers.

Special offers and incentives are not an all-you-can-eat buffet. Make sure you include language that says, "may not be combined with any other offers or promotions, including series discounts."

Premiums and upgrades enable you to test different offers. Perhaps you'll repeat certain successful offers that work well for you. For example, our gift card/pedicure promotion has become a holiday standby at Preston Wynne. Clients love it, and it works very well for our spa.

By Peggy Wynne Borgman, CEO Wynne Business www.wynnebusiness.com