Zen and the Art of Massage

Sorry for the long silence, but my ‘busy season’ has now started and I have less free time at the office these days. No complaints about that, but it does mean I don’t write here as often.

My clinic recently hired another therapist. We needed someone to cover the evenings that I’m not working, and we have enough new client traffic that having another RMT in the office is workable. Anyhow, the new therapist has joined in with our advertising and promotion methods, in an effort to get more new clients in the door.

Years ago, the very best way to get new clients in your door was to do a ‘meet and greet’ — take part in some event and hand out business cards, shake hands with people, and allow them to get to know you a little bit. Because they’ve met you, they will remember you next time they need a massage therapist, or they might pass your business information on to a friend, coworker, or family member. I have spoken to many RMTs who have been in practice much longer than I have, and they all say this was the number one way they got people in their doors.

However, times really have changed.

My clinic has taken part in a variety of ‘meet and greet’ events since we opened our doors in April 2007, including sporting events, a midwifery information session, and an open house we hosted. All the therapists in my office have also handed out business cards at various social functions. Now, have we had a lot of new clients call our office because of these events? Not really. A few have called, sure, but not nearly the number we were expecting. However, we do have a good number of new clients calling our clinic every week. Where did the vast majority of those people find out about our clinic? By searching online for a massage therapy clinic in their area and finding our website!

Why do I think our website has been such a success? First, because it contains good information about our clinic, including details on the types of massage we provide, our fee schedule, and some clinic pictures so people can see if the environment is one they might like to receive treatments in. Second, because it provides online booking, a very convenient method in today’s computerized and wireless world. People don’t need to attend health fairs, golf tournaments and marathons in order to meet local health professionals. They can just ‘meet’ them through their websites, and then book an appointment online without ever having to pick up a phone!

I do want to be clear, however: websites are very useful for meeting potential new clients, but the best way to bring in clients is still through word-of-mouth. Our new therapist used to work at a local gym, and has been getting a few people sent to her through old colleagues from that job. I also have had success with this, as a few of my own clients have sent friends and family to me for treatment. It probably seems logical, but if you keep your current clients happy, they will be more likely to talk about your services and send others over to see you too!

So yes, times have changed a great deal, but personal referrals/word-of-mouth is still key to building a thriving massage practice.

So, the official one-year of professional practice mark has come and gone for me, with little fan fare. However, the one-year mark is a great time for me to re-assess where I am now and where I would like to be, professionally speaking, over the next while.

As I’ve mentioned before, my first RMT position was taking over the practice of another therapist who was moving out of town. This meant that I had the chance to retain some of her client list as my own clients. As is to be expected, some stuck with me, and some chose not to for a variety of reasons; any therapist taking over someone else’s client list will experience the same thing. I have also gained a good number of new clients who were not part of the other therapist’s practice, and the number of new clients on my list is growing by the week. All this adds up to mean that I have a good base to my practice. I never have a week with no bookings, and I have a decent stream of regulars in my schedule. For this I am very thankful, and I appreciate all the wonderful people I have met over the last year.

However, something didn’t seem quite right. I’d have a few weeks where I’d be booked quite solidly, and then several weeks where bookings dropped off to only 1 or 2 per day. I’ve always known that is the ebb and flow of a massage therapy business, and that it is to be expected. But something still didn’t add up for me. If I have a steady number of clients coming in, why are my bookings all over the place?

This past week I sat down with my client list and looked at how people are booking. I looked at two major things: how often people are booking, and what time of day they are booking.

With the time of day, I found what I had already known: I get a lot more bookings between 4 and 7 pm, although I do have a number who book when they have a day off or who work an irregular schedule. So I do have some who book in the morning or early afternoon, but they are certainly in the minority. Not surprising in a town where government and high tech are two key employers, which means there are a lot of ‘9-5′ workers.

As for how often people book, I found that the vast majority of my clients either book in to see me once per month or book when they feel like a massage, not with any regular pattern. Now, both of these situations are very typical of massage therapy clients. Many would like to come more often, but either they have no insurance coverage, or their coverage only allows for one ‘maintenance massage’ each month. Of course I completely understand that people need to do what is affordable for them, and I’m always happy to do my best to work my treatment plan around that. But what I didn’t realize is that I had very few bi-weekly or weekly client bookings!

I can now look at my books a bit more critically and look at ways to attract more people who can have massages more often, or people who are able to come during the day. For those of you wondering how to get more clients in the door, I recommend doing a client list assessment of your own practice. You will probably learn something you didn’t realize about your own clients’ pattern of rebooking, which will help you plan where to focus your marketing efforts. I know I did!

I don’t know about the rest of the massage therapists reading this, but I’m certainly not capable of doing kneading and flapping at the same time. Also, I’m pretty sure kocking is way out of my scope of practice. ;)

I had originally planned to have my home study done by the end of July. However, life interrupted (as it tends to do!) and while I’d completed the reading and the test, I hadn’t completed any of the 5 required ‘practice massages’ until a few weeks ago.

Verdict? Learning this technique on your own is doable for sure, but I do agree that you need a bit of practice before unleashing your technique on the general public. I had no problems with the actual massage part, but I do have to practice getting the stones in and out of the heater quickly and efficiently, and also keeping it at a good temperature so the stones don’t cool off too much on you. Otherwise I’m having fun with the technique and would recommend learning it to others. It’s different than my usual massage style (if I can call it that), which is part of the reason I like it.

If you’re in Ontario, there are a few companies that offer home study Hot Stone Massage courses, including The Stone Massage Company (where I got my own course materials) and Stone Waters.

When I was still a student, our instructors used to tell us that the day we graduate is the day we will know the most about massage therapy, at least as far as applied theory and professional jargon are concerned. Once we graduate, we were warned, we’d start to only use a portion of this knowledge, and the parts we don’t use every day will soon slip away. We were told to keep our books as an excellent reference to look up details for items we can no longer easily remember.

On Monday, I had a client come in with a specific complaint. I had a suspicion as to what had happened to her, based on the location of her pain and a few other factors. After asking her a variety of questions, I did a number of tests on her and found the likely source of her pain and limited range of motion.

When I went to finish my charting after she’d left for the day, I realized I could not remember the name of the tests I had done! I could only remember what the tests were for and why they were useful in this situation.

I think that makes me ‘officially’ an RMT now. Ha!