An interview with Ms. Amy Liu, the Founder of green SPA Management and Consultancy
In 2001, the first green massage opened at Shanghai Xintiandi. In 2021, Ms. Amy Liu, the Founder of green SPA Management and Consultancy, launched Urban Retreat, presenting green SPA to the international stage by joining hands with luxury hotels. Then in 2016, green essence was born. It’s a new concept wellness complex that integrates spa, fitness and lifestyles. With the three affiliated brands, green SPA aims to deliver professional and bespoke wellness services to modern consumers and meet their needs for a healthier life. SpaChina interviewed Amy about the growth path of green SPA and her insights into the trends of China’s spa market.
Please introduce green SPA to us, including your concept, affiliated brands, signature programs and services.
green SPA is specialized in spa, wellness and health management and consulting. It is a leading spa brand in China with high standard services and elegant design. Founded in 2001, green SPA has introduced in China cutting-edge international spa concepts and has served numerous customers who pursue life quality.
The group’s affiliated brands include green massage, Urban Retreat and green essence. Labelling“Serene Lifestyle”, green massage integrates traditional Chinese healing with Western spa concepts, inviting guests to immerse in a chorus of wellness, culture, art and philosophy. Urban Retreat entered the Portman Ritz-Carlton Shanghai in 2012, presenting the charm of oriental spa to the international stage. Housed in InterContinental Beijing Sanlitun, green essence delivers holistic health concept and lifestyles with the latest innovative products.
We have exclusively developed a therapy to regulate qi and blood circulation. More than 30 kinds of traditional Chinese medicinal materials including American ginseng, matsutake, and lucid ganoderma are used to regulate qi and blood, remove stasis and detox, combined with saussurea involucrate moxa-moxibustion to stimulate the acupoints, dispel cold, and smooth the meridian channels. Another signature treatment is Muscle Arousal Treatment. Based on traditional Chinese massage, the therapist applies the essential oil on the main meridian channels of the body with her elbow and palm so as to relax the mind, firm the skin and stimulate blood circulation. Combined with stretching movements, the experience can effectively alleviate muscle soreness and shoulder and back stiffness, improve the flexibility of ligament and joints, enhance the coordinate ability between the muscles, improve the neural functions, promote metabolism and improve immunity.
We continue to deliver guests personalized services. We respect the distinctive needs of individuals and adjust our offerings according to different requirements, so as to make everyone achieve an absolute balance of body, heart and soul.
What are your guidelines for developing new treatments?
We are very careful while developing new treatments. Firstly, we observe market requirements, general trends, other popular products and the changes in customer preferences. After noting the overall development trends of the industry, we then make proper strategies and develop products fit for the market.
Secondly, according to our observations over the years, we believe that customers’ feelings have the final say. So we always probe into our customers’ true needs, analyze their feelings towards products, observe their physical status and thus keep positive communications with them. We attach particular importance to the advice and suggestions from our loyal customers who have been with us for years.
Finally, the core of treatment development is the benefit to the body, namely how to make customers healthier. This is also what customers focus on most in addition to comfort. The right treatments and products can solve body’s certain problems and restore the body to healthy and comfortable conditions. This demands us to have a full understanding of customers’ physical status. This is our biggest competitive power.
Continual development is closely related to staff education and training. How does green SPA handle it?
green SPA is my second home and every member of staff is family. Ambience reveals the cultural connotations of an enterprise, so I attach much importance to the creation of good ambience. Now it’s been 20 years of green SPA and I strongly feel that there are two pillars that mutually affect each other: the family ambience and the staff sense of belonging.
Our staff love to share with me their daily work and life, so that I can better understand their working and living conditions, and the company operations. I encourage every employee to be the spokesman of green SPA. Their efforts in daily work and expression of their understanding to the brand culture are the best presentations of green SPA’s philosophy.
During the induction training, every staff is required to sign a working ethics commitment, showing their responsibilities to themselves and the job. I firmly believe in self-excellence and mutual respect. They grow up step by step with the brand and share their experiences with newcomers of the big family so that they not only offer help to others but also make improvement of their own.
What does green SPA consider when choosing product and equipment brand as partners?
First, meet the needs. The products and equipment we choose must be able to meet the exact trends of the market and needs of our guests.
Second, quality. green SPA is dedicated to creating a high quality lifestyle to guests. So likewise, our products must be of excellent quality, which are proved to be effective by the market.
Third, personalization. The products we choose are not only of high quality, but also should be in accordance with the style and concept of green SPA.
What business innovations have you introduced during the past years? Why do you have these trials?
The core vision of green SPA is “health”. All of our offerings are around this goal – to make guests healthier. So we not only help guests to feel relaxed both in body and mind, we also try to improve their overall health from inside. That’s why we have recruited a team of professional TCM doctors and launched a range of TCM treatments based on TCM and meridian channel theories to effectively regulate and improve the qi and blood circulation, the functions of internal organs and the conditions of craniosacral vertebrae and thus solve the sub-health conditions from the root.
Has the business of green SPA been influenced by the pandemic? How did you deal with the crisis? What about your present performance? Do guests give you support and trust during the process?
Yes, the business of green SPA was also influenced by the pandemic. But we also experience many comforting moments during the process.
The pandemic has exerted a huge blow to the service industry. Many middle and small scale companies have been in great crisis. To green SPA, however, the pandemic drove us to have another breakthrough and transformation, and also let us experience the love and support from every team member and our guests. During the most severe time, our spas were closed for two months. But our staff took the chance to learn professional knowledge and techniques, and think more deeply of how to serve guests better. So in unity, we tided over the crisis together. Meanwhile, I am also very grateful for the trust and support from our customers. Even before the pandemic was over, many customers visited our spas because they trusted us and our prevention measures. After all, this pandemic awakens people’s awareness to the importance of health and more than before, they seek ways to improve their health. So we now reap an even more satisfactory business performance.
What trends do you see in China’s spa market in the post-pandemic era? Do you have plans to open more spas in the near future? How will you adjust to meet the new market needs?
At present, the government is greatly supporting TCM, which also is greatly related to the spa market. So during the past years, green SPA has deeply studied on this aspect in order to better equip ourselves for the market in the next 10 years. Yes, we will launch 4 more spas this year respectively in Lujiazui, Xintiandi, the Bund and Gubei area.
Now the customers of spa and wellness services are becoming younger and younger. So we will accordingly make our brand image younger so as to bring a new breath to the whole industry.
