2 Secrets To Client Retention That Are Not The Treatment

Are you trying to grow your massage therapy business? If so, don’t overlook the incredible power of customer experience to increase your revenue. Building a base of loyal customers is a cost-effective and professionally rewarding way to maximize your time and your business’s profitability. 

Loyal clients book more appointments, are more likely to recommend you to their family and friends, and will often post positive online reviews about you. Plus, when you have a steady base of loyal clients, you can spend less time seeking and onboarding new clients and more time doing what you do best--helping people feel better. 

Building loyalty requires delivering an extraordinary experience for your customers at every step in their journey. It begins before the first visit. 

Delivering a positive customer experience before your client’s first visit

Today’s consumers want both convenience and a personal connection. Before their first visit, your clients are already judging their experience based on how much effort it costs them to see you and how interacting with you and your business makes them feel. 

Make a great first impression with convenient booking options

Today’s consumers demand convenience and accessibility and will quickly abandon businesses that don’t deliver. This is true of both retail customers and healthcare consumers. To exceed client expectations, your booking and client intake systems should be as frictionless as possible. 

For many clients, convenience means the availability of online and mobile appointment booking. More than one-third of Millennial and Gen Xer healthcare consumers reported a preference for self-service, online booking over calling in a 2019 patient access survey. 

This easy to implement technology is a customer-experience win for your massage therapy business. Online booking enables your clients to conveniently view your availability and choose the appointment time that works best for them while also saving your time. No waiting for a call, no missed messages--it’s a win for you and your clients.

Some of your clients may still prefer the personal connection that comes from booking their visits over the phone. However, that doesn’t mean they are willing to wait to make an appointment. According to a report by Doctor.com, 63.6% of healthcare consumers will abandon their efforts to book an appointment with you if they have difficulty reaching your office.

Delivering an excellent customer experience to your clients means being accessible.

If you don’t have dedicated staff to answer your phone, set aside time throughout your day to check your messages and return calls as soon as possible. Also, explain in your voicemail message how and when you’ll return calls and include instructions for making an appointment via your website.  

Maintain a positive customer experience by forging personal connections

Even though today’s healthcare consumer places a premium on convenience, they still value personal connections. Emotion strongly influences customers’ impressions of a brand. Several studies have found that businesses that are able to forge emotional connections with their customers consistently outperform those that do not. One report found that developing brand intimacy--that emotional connection with your customers--can increase sales by as much as 20%.

Of course, as a massage therapist, you are invested in your clients’ physical well-being. But your connection to them doesn’t have to be limited to the treatment you provide. According to Adobe, customers prefer brands that not only delight them but also know and respect them. Quite simply, you’ll improve your customers’ loyalty if you take the time to show them that you care about them as individuals.

How?

Use your before-treatment moments to engage in small talk with your clients and learn about their lives and interests. Then, set aside a few moments each day to make notes about your clients to help you remember what they care about when they next visit you. Spending a few minutes to talk and listen to your clients is an easy way to invest in your business.

Make a small investment in customer experience and watch your business grow

When you offer a unique customer experience that your customers can’t get elsewhere, they will keep coming back to you. And, the more returning customers you have, the less time you have to spend marketing your business and onboarding new clients. Instead, that time can be spent providing billable services. This is your ROX--your return on customer experience--and it has the power to transform your business. 

Improving your pre-visit experience is just the beginning.