massage and bodywork professionals

a community of practitioners

What would you say is one of the biggest challenges of being a successful Massage Therapist? How did you over come it?

I am a student and I enjoy having different body types to practice on. I work it as if I have a business already, but without pay. I have found that many don't take our profession as serious as if it was another health profession. I say this because I have had some who forgot their appointments, or call 10 minutes before appointment time and say they have something else to do. I am sure I am not the only one who experience this. I would like to find ways to make recieving a "MASSAGE" as important as having a annaul medical or dental check up and this is my mission as a Therapist. Please share your expereinces as we are here to help one another.

Views: 130

Replies to This Discussion

at school ( an in my practice) they viewed Massage as important and our time as important. If the client was more than 15 minutes late then they would be re-scheduled. They were allowed one No Show and had to cancel 4 hours before the appointment to NOT be a No Show- My rule is 24 hours in advance, I am not busy enough to fill in 4 hours.  AFTER ONE No Show they were charged for missed appointments.  90% of people were respectful and followed the policy and of course if they had the flu or a one time emergency- exceptions were made.

I handled clients, including friends, setting up the expectation that they respect my time and my time was valuable. I didn't rebook clients (even friends) who didn't respect my time.  I had 2 no shows (not previous clients) and never had to worry about my appointments being filled. I actually had to move things around at the end so that I could fit a few clients in before I graduated.

I found respecting myself led to the respect of my clients.

Cassie

one more thing:

I ALWAYS kept my appointments, The ONLY time I had to cancel or move appointments was 1- during 2 snowstorms when the school closed and 2- the week I got the Flu& my Stepmom died so I had to go out of town for a 3 days.

In order to gain the respect I never asked students to take a filled appointment and NEVER canceled on a client without a GOOD reason, (above) the school, front desk, director, my clients, KNEW my Yes meant Yes. and that that also garnered there respect.

Cassie

Elizabeth (Cassie) Christensen said:

at school ( an in my practice) they viewed Massage as important and our time as important. If the client was more than 15 minutes late then they would be re-scheduled. They were allowed one No Show and had to cancel 4 hours before the appointment to NOT be a No Show- My rule is 24 hours in advance, I am not busy enough to fill in 4 hours.  AFTER ONE No Show they were charged for missed appointments.  90% of people were respectful and followed the policy and of course if they had the flu or a one time emergency- exceptions were made.

I handled clients, including friends, setting up the expectation that they respect my time and my time was valuable. I didn't rebook clients (even friends) who didn't respect my time.  I had 2 no shows (not previous clients) and never had to worry about my appointments being filled. I actually had to move things around at the end so that I could fit a few clients in before I graduated.

I found respecting myself led to the respect of my clients.

Cassie

Biggest challenge is having customers, clients, (and no so much the loyal clients) understand that it's not bad business if you have a medical need that you have to attend to as a professional. I have epilepsy. When I do have it, sometimes I can not contact them until later in the day and sometimes as soon as I can (following day)! I can only simply reschedule them. But understand that I am not being unprofessional, disrespectful or do bad business. I deserve the same respect as if the client had some ailment or problem. I also cannot give the massage for free and/or issue a refund as some expect this after the fact. It's really tricky because I cannot plan on having a episode.

RSS

© 2024   Created by ABMP.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service