Build Your Massage Practice Faster With Essential Rebooking and Referral Skills - Skill No 1

Key Rebooking Skill No. 1: Meeting client expectations

No matter how successful our marketing and advertising is at getting new clients through the door, we just aren't making the most of all the time, money and effort we spend on these promotional activities if these new clients don't rebook with us, and refer new clients to us as well.

A key rebooking skill is managing client expectations. If we can successfully do this we are much more likely to end up with a highly satisfied client who will want to rebook with us, and send us referrals too.

Client expectations can be broadly broken down into these 4 categories:

• the entire massage appointment 'experience'


• the hands-on treatment


• how they will feel immediately after the treatment (short term)


• how they will feel the next day, and beyond (medium and long term)

These expectations are largely based on a clients' previous massage experiences or, if it's their first massage, what they've heard or been told, or images they've seen of massage. What we are dealing with here are clients beliefs and assumptions, such as "no pain, no gain", or "a 30 minute appointment means 30 minutes on the massage table", or "if she's any good she can fix it in one session".

It can often be the case that we're being compared with other therapists that the client has seen in the past. These therapists may well work very differently to us. It's human nature to think that what is familiar to us is 'right', so if we then experience something different, it's easy to label it as 'wrong'.

There are many ways of giving an effective massage, and part of our job is to educate the client about this. It's important that we don't dismiss their previous experiences, or label what other therapists do as 'wrong' - diplomacy and professionalism at all times are essential. Finding out as much as possible about a client's previous massage experiences will help us enormously here, as well as explaining to the client how we ourselves work - and why.

Another crucial factor in meeting client expectations is to find out exactly why they have booked the appointment, and what their expectations are for the outcome of the session. Discussing and agreeing a treatment plan, including which body parts will be worked on, and even for how long, will ensure that the client isn't disappointed, for example, not to get their usual face massage, or help them to understand that the best approach for their shoulder pain is to focus entirely on the problem area(s).

We need to be constantly alert for any signals (obvious or subtle) that the client is in any way uncomfortable, uncertain, or unhappy. Trust your instincts and remember that, even when asked, clients are quite likely to say that they perfectly happy whilst actually feeling quite the opposite.

Expert communication coupled with client education will help you meet - and manage - client expectations and satisfied clients means increased re-bookings and referrals.