massage therapy journal

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2. Make People Happy

This is an easy one for most of you because you do something that practically guarantees clients will leave your place of business happier than when they came in. You relieve stress and nurture bodies. But what could you do to take it a step further?

This is the fun part of the business, constantly looking for small and affordable ways to make your client's experience even better. (For more information on how to controlthe customer's total experience, see my Spring 2007 column, "Packaging Your Service.")

If you give a great massage, have great customer service and create a warm, comfortable, peaceful environment, then you are going a long way to ensuring you create happy clients.

3. Earn Trust and Respect

Always be honorable, always be ethical and always be good to your customers. You may already realize the importance of these attributes given the nature of your business, but you must extend it to the finer points of service. A seemingly obvious example is honoring your customer's time by being on time yourself. Keep your ethics at the highest level. I remember an incident when a highly respected massage businessperson mentioned during a lecture the name of a well-known celebrity she once had as a client. One of my students was appalled at her lack of ethics in not keeping the celebrity's name confidential. Sometimes it's the little things that slip us up.

4. Make it Easy

Look for ways to make the experience easy for your customers. One massage therapist offers her clients quarters for the parking meter if they need them-free of charge! She knows a parking ticket on the windshield could ruin clients' experience and leave them feeling more stressed than when they came in. Plus, the goodwill this pocket change creates is worth a hundred times its monetary worth in potential return business.

Look at your business hours. Ask your clients when they would like to come in and always look for the reasons why someone might not be using your service as often as you would like. Be creative. A perfect example of this kind of thinking is a movie theater operator who was considering closing the theater during the day hours for lack of business. Instead he invited parents to bring their children to special showings, and even made moms and dads with crying babies and sleeping toddlers welcome. Word of mouth among the community spread like butter on hot popcorn and soon new mothers' groups were making afternoon movies a part of their regular schedule. What could you do with this business model?

A final example of the "Make It Easy" rule is to ensure that the message you wish to communicate is easy to understand and easy to remember. The New School for Massage in Chicago, where I teach, has a simple line they use to get people into their student clinic: "The Best Gift a Body can Get." It's a great line and it's easy to remember. It also works well on the gift certificates they offer.

Where to Begin?

I recommend picking up Andy Sernovitz's book for all the ideas and creative ways it gives you to jumpstart your word-of-mouth marketing. But I can't end without again mentioning two things I've written about and which Sernovitz points out in his book. Always thank your clients in person, in writing or on the telephone-gratitude is great marketing. And finally, always, always, always ask your clients to tell other people about your service.

People like to feel important, and when you ask them to share their opinions with others you give those opinions credence and those clients a very real sense of importance, even empowerment.

Put it into action. Always look for new ways to be interesting, to make people happy and to earn your clients' trust and respect. Make the whole thing so easy they come back often and tell their friends about the incredible resource they've discovered in your special service. It's a jungle out there and the competition is fierce-so give your customers something to roar about.

some additional "doables" you may want to consider:

  • Let customers sign up for a private newsletter. You can start a q&a section where you can answer some of their health questions related to massage therapy.
  • Put a sign on your front door that reminds people to tell others about you and your services.
  • Keep surprising your customers with something new, be it an add-on service, a Himalayan salt light for the treatment room, or a sample of a great new product. Be creative!
  • Start a blog.
  • Put a "send to a friend" link on your website.
  • Realize new customers are the most likely to spread the word about you since you are new to them, and new is exciting.
  • Give your special clients coupons to pass out to their friends.
  • Offer to give your clients extra copies for friends of any informational material you may hand out, like articles about massage therapy and medical issues and the latest massage therapy research.
  • Last but not least: Have fun and roar!

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