​HOW TO TURN A CLIENT INTO A RAVING FAN?

Remedial massage is a tough industry and finding clients that will be loyal to you when there are new remedial massage clinics popping up all over the place is even harder. So how do you turn a client into a lover?

First of all when we talk about 'massage lover's' I am certainly not talking about anything romantic! I am referring to clients who want to see you regularly before they even meet you, they will follow you anywhere, tell all their friends about you and you become their 'go to' person for everything musculoskeletal. They are your client for life!

SO HOW TO YOU CREATE A LOVER?

1. Identify who is your ideal client? 
   Who is the type of person that you know you can connect with? Before you can create lovers you need to have a clear picture of ideal client. What do they do for a living? How old are they? What are their interests? What are their spoken and unspoken desires and frustrations in life, its health and with massage? 
   
   
2. Filter your clients by using your marketing messages.
   A key to creating lovers is leveraging your marketing messages. It's all fine and good to find new clients and get busy. Yet if you are attracting the wrong type of clients they won't stay with you long term. Use your marketing channels to speak to your ideal massage clients desires and frustrations. That way they'll start to connect with you before they even meet you. 
   
   
3. Once their in, how are you connecting with them?
   Quickly identifying common ground is an easy way to build rapport and help you to turn them into lovers. Have a look through their New Patient form to see if they have any common interests. Have a list a 10 of so conversation starters which you can use  to start to build a connection. Obviously you still have to gauge how much chat a person wants to have in a massage, but if they seem up for it keep asking questions until clicks. If you find out information about them type if up in their notes so you can go back and remember how many kids they have, where they are going on holidays or what type of dog they have. It's a way of showing the you genuinely care, which is one of the principals of customer satisfaction that we spoke about in the previous blog. 
   
   
4. Leverage the 6 principals of customer satisfaction.
   The 6 principals of customer satisfaction are: Genuinely caring, being helpful, being friendly, following through, creating a resolution and being knowledgeable.  Communication is important here. How are you using communication in a treatment and afterward to show you massage clients that you embody the above principals? TO find out more about these principals see our previous blog. 
   
   
5. Setting up the rebook.
   If you've done your job in your marketing messages they'll be telling you they want ongoing care as they come in the door. However sometimes massage clients need a little more convincing. You want a client to be asking you when they should be coming back before you even have to say it. This is achieved through communication, treatment planning and educating your clients in the massage.
   
   Do an assessment so they get really connected to how their body is moving and just how tight they are. Create a treatment plan and communicate this to your client.  In the massage talk to them about their body, how it's releasing, what needs more work, what they can be doing themselves. Get them to start to understand why their body has gotten this way in the first place. The more they understand they more they see the picture that getting one session is never usually enough to resolve a long standing issue. 
   
   
6. 5 minute summary and using directly language for rebook 
   By the time you get to your 5 minute summary at the end of the massage you want you client to be on board to rebooking. Then it is as simple as summarising how the massage has gone. Tell them what has loosened off, what needs more work and if there is any home care. Essentially what is the plan from here. Because you've already set up the treatment plan at the start of the session it's as simple and continuing the plan. Use the reassessment to see what has improved and what still needs more work. If they are doing really well and you're trying to turn them into proactive clients who get regular treatment a really good way of getting a client to come back is to use the following language. 'It's starting to loosen off nicely, let's check back in a month to make sure it's still holding.'
   
   
7. Follow Up 
   Show you care by following up and checking in with your clients. If you've sent them to referral partners send them an email or give them a call to see how they went. If you say you're going to email their physio or PT make sure you do it. A good way is to keep a note book and write down who their other allied health team it. Set a reminder or set aside some time once a week to see who you need to contact and act on it. If a client hasn't been back in a while check in and see how they are doing. It's just a nice thing to do and again links into those principals of customer satisfaction by genuinely caring and being friendly. 

Good luck!  Remember that the phrase 'see how you go' is a killer when trying to turn a client into a lover.