Ask Clients What They Think
One of the best ways to build and maintain a successful massage therapy or bodywork practice that continues to thrive throughout the years is by learning how to elicit feedback from your clients—and putting that feedback into action. Of course, developing the type of relationship where a client can be totally honest with his or her opinions does not always come easily.
Here are a few guidelines for getting clients to give you their thoughts on one of your most important session-room staples: massage cream.
Why Is Client Feedback Important?
Receiving client feedback on your massage cream can be a great thing for you and your practice, because massage cream is the one item in your session room that comes into even closer contact with your clients than your own healing hands. Also, when clients leave your practice, they walk away with a layer of the massage cream on their skin.
Therefore, the massage cream you use not only plays a vital role in applying your massage therapy or bodywork techniques, but also in the client experience as a whole.
Make a List
As you begin to think about gathering client opinions on your current massage cream, you may want to start by making a list of those clients you know best. For example, you might have a client you have been seeing for many years, and due to the long relationship with this client, you might feel comfortable letting her know you are trying to get some honest opinions about your massage cream.
Get Creative
However, you do not want to turn your client’s massage therapy or bodywork session into a time where she needs to be mentally making notes on the massage cream to report to you at the end of the session, as this could take away from the quality of the session for that client. So, this is where you may need to get creative to gather honest opinions about your massage cream.
One idea might be to let your closest and most consistent clients know what you are trying to do, perhaps as they are on the way out the door after a session. Then, tell them you will be sending out an email in the next few weeks with a few questions that will allow them to rate various aspects of the massage cream and make suggestions for improvement. This way, the client is not on the spot to offer his or her opinion right after a relaxing massage or bodywork session.
You could also post your massage cream survey on the internet, if you have a site where you could direct your clients. If you choose to go this route, you might just hand certain clients a small slip of paper as they leave your practice, letting them know where to find the survey online.
Offer an Incentive
To further encourage your clients to offer their opinions, so you get even more feedback, you may want to provide an incentive for filling out the survey, such as 15-percent off their next session.