Finding the Right Touch…

Recently a prospective client quizzed me on the phone about my massage therapy services. This is the type of call I used to be frustrated with – some people only ask about price and hang up.

          

I’ve never found a great way to turn the price-callers into appointments – I try to get a question in before they hang up after a pregnant pause that seems to indicate unhappiness with the bottom line – but they seem to be on a mission to find a price they like, not a service they need.

           

Money can be a source of consternation for massage therapists – we have to make a living but we also want to help people. Lots of my friends, including myself, have gone through periods of price accommodations that have left us very tired and unhappy with our income.

Price, it turns out, is a boundary, not a barrier.

People who ask questions about the massage, rather than the price, are the most likely to make an appointment. I try to answer as simply as I can and coax enough information to find out if I can be of help. That helps the prospective client understand and appreciate the value of the service.

The odd thing about price-shoppers, too, is the ones who have issues about price rarely have a true need for a lower rate. They are savvy shoppers.

Well, I’m a savvy shopper, too. But I know when I look at a shirt on the rack at a mega-discount store that I can see what I am buying, and I have to be OK with the presumed source of that wonderful discount – someone’s cheap, hard labor.

Massage, it turns out, can be like that too. I feel no “guilt” not booking a price-shopper because I know they will get what they pay for.

I find if I can communicate the value of my service – and there are ears to listen to that message, I can turn that call into an appointment.

Massage therapy is not a shirt.