Skip to content

Customer Experience

Learning the Art  of Providing the CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
In addition to providing a great massage here are a few hallmarks that makes Simple Wellness Massage Stand out, and are incorporated by our team at Simple Wellness. We pay attention to the small things, and these are the things that really make a massage therapist stand out. This service path has been proven to work over the years. Learning and incorporating these touch points in to how you operate will not only make you more successful at SWM but wherever you choose to practice massage in the future.

Much of the customer experience revolves around removing uncertainty and creating positivity. Uncertainty can be the cause of anxiety, stress, confusion, all the things that we don’t want in a massage therapy session. The most difficult part of communication is the assumption that it has taken place, we focus on communication and clarifying communication, which helps remove anxiety, remove stress, remove uncertainty and make the experience for the customer better in many aspects.

What Causes uncertainty especially in the massage office setting…

  • Customer wondering if they are in right place at the right time and someone is there to greet them.
  • Customer is not sure if they “ordered” the correct massage
  • How does the customer Communicate complaints clearly to the massage therapist that they will understand?
  •  Customer wondering, do I have to remove my clothes?
  • Uncertainty from customer on how to position themselves on the table 
  •  Customer wondering, should I tip? 
  • …and many more

The list goes on and on,  but I have a pretty good feeling if you work on implementing the pillars of success as we refer to them not only will you find yourself busier as a massage therapist, but you’ll probably enjoy it a lot better, and I would even bet your results will improve. 

GREET CUSTOMERS WHEN THEY WALK IN – (especially NEW Customers)

We want to create the best experience for all customers who walk through the doors. If it is a customer’s first experience with us, please make sure to greet them as they walk in. This means waiting in the lobby for them. We want them to know they are in the right place, make them feel comfortable from the start to put them at ease.  Greet them with a smile and shake the customer’s hand and smile as you introduce yourself and use the customer’s name. 

One of the most beautiful words in the English language is hearing your own name.

INTERVIEW

If the client has not already filled out the intake form online review a verbal intake to cover the basics. Any recent accidents or injuries or any contraindications to massage. Use intake to gather information to set goals for the massage session and longer term treatment goals. These goals can be written in your notes on whatever notes system you prefer to keep. Time constraints will affect how much time your intake will last, new customers will take more time write notes. We do our best to provide 60 minutes of hands on time. If someone is late for their appointment we still must end the appointment at the scheduled time (or up to 5 minutes later to account for the intake). It is important to establish expectations when it comes to the session and communicate to a customer that we still must end their appointment as scheduled when they are late. We must owe it to the next client to start their appointment on time. This is setting the expectation that we respect our customers’ time and they need to respect our time in return.

A professional interview establishes yourself as an expert and continues to remove uncertainty about the session with the client. 

  • LISTEN – Listen to what the customer says as if you were going to repeat back to them what you heard.
  • IDENTIFY – what a customer is looking for in their massage treatment
  • REPEAT – what they have asked for back to them. This may sound like something like, “Ok, Mrs. Jones. I hear you said that you would like a deep tissue massage with extra attention to your feet and hands, is that correct?”  “What is happening with the feet and hands?  Are these areas that feel good and help you relax or do you have pain?  If pain occurs there, let’s talk about when you are in the most pain, when you are in the least pain.”
  • AGREEMENT – You should hear a statement back from the client stating something similar to , “Yes that’s exactly what I’m looking for” or “Yes that’s what I want”, if not this is your opportunity to explore options and make sure you’re both clear on expectations before you begin the massage work.
  • DELIVER on the AGREEMENT
    The #1 complaint from massage customers is that they did not receive the massage they asked for. With about 10-25 minutes left in the massage and/or near the end of the massage with about 10 minutes left, ask the customer, “are there any areas you feel need more attention, or places we missed?” Asking this questions helps make sure the customer receives the massage they asked for and that you DELIVER the massage they asked for.

THERAPEUTIC BUBBLE–
Massage and Bodywork is a Conversation between two intelligent systems. – Tom Myers 

PRESENCE – Intention, Attention and Focus should be your guide while in the massage room, along with creating a therapeutic bubble. Think about a time when you have had a massage from a massage therapist who wasn’t present, what did that feel like? 

POSITIVITY

COMMUNICATION

  • Communication VS Conversation (talking) – Helping get customers into their therapeutic zone. Invite customers to participate in the massage by asking them – Would you like more pressure, less pressure or about the same? Does it feel like this work is helpful? Should we continue to work on this area, or do we need to move on?
  • Ask yourself this before communicating with a client, “Am I saying this for my benefit or my CUSTOMER’s benefit?”
  • EDUCATE, EDUCATE, EDUCATE – Educate during the intake, educate during the session, educate at departure.

PROFESSIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS

After establishing yourself as the expert in the field of massage, it is your responsibility to make a professional recommendation on how often your client should receive massage in order to gain the most benefit. This is not always going to be an exact time or duration and your recommendation should reflect that.

“Regular Massage can help with EASE of motion, RANGE of motion and QUALITY of motion. The most benefit comes from working with soft tissues several times in a shorter amount of time. Ideally, it would be best to work with you 3 times in the next two weeks and reassess after that. It has been my experience that on average, people start to see a difference between three to five visits.”

ASK the CUSTOMER TO RESCHEDULE – After showing the customer the value of massage and explaining how regular schedule of massage can help with ease, quality and range of motion, EVERY customer should be asked when they would like to reschedule.

TAKE NOTES – They do not have to be detailed every time, but it will help you remember things about your customer. Soap note format is not required, but is very helpful.

Appendix

Click this link to download a self check in form to help you recognize the things you do well and things that may need attention. The goal of this checklist is not to have 100% on everything, the goal is to create awareness on how you are handling the customer experience. Use the comments section to write down anything you become aware of when looking back at your day/week.

Self Checklist .PDF

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE CHECKLIST – here is a quick list of the things everyone at SWM does to keep us consistent

  • GREET the customer at the door with a smile and use their name
  • REMOVE UNCERTAINTY with a professional intake that addresses
    • LISTENING to the reason For Visit
    • REPEATING or MIRRORING customer request
    • AGREEMENT on what the session will consist of
    • DELIVER on that agreement
  •  CREATE and MAINTAIN THERAPEUTIC PRESENCE
    • Check in about comfort
    • Check in with pressure – How does the pressure feel, would you like MORE, LESS or keep the same pressure?
    • Check in about delivering on the agreement – Do you feel that we addressed the areas you wanted worked on, or are there any area you feel need more work or that we missed anything?
    • COMMUNICATION – Educate before, during and after that session
    • POSITIVITY – We radiate positivity in our communication with our customers. 
  • PROFESSIONAL RECOMMENDATION
    • Provide a professional recommendation for when to return
    • Provide 1 piece of homework
  • ASK for the customer to reschedule – Based on what we did today, I would recommend another appointment in X days/weeks. When would you like to make your next appointment?
  • NOTES – take notes that make sense to you.

For more info or to set up some personal or group training sessions, contact Ben.