Attracting & Retaining Clients
August 24, 2024
Learning how to retain massage clients is crucial for a thriving massage therapy practice.
Retaining clients goes beyond providing excellent service; it involves strategic actions that foster loyalty and encourage repeat visits. This article will cover eight essential strategies to help you keep your massage clients coming back regularly.
In this article, you will learn:
Let's dive into these strategies and explore how you can enhance client retention in your massage practice.
Managing client relationships and building strong connections with clients is the cornerstone of retention. Beyond cultivating genuine connections, there are 8 strategies that get clients to rebook consistently:
The biggest thing you can do to retain massage clients is to make rebooking easy. Before your clients leave the clinic, offer to schedule their next appointment for them. Make a suggestion as to when that should be based on their goals. Your recommendation is a vital piece of customer service.
For those clients who prefer to book later, use client booking and scheduling software to allow clients to book online at their convenience. Clients are less likely to rebook if they have to make a phone - or worse, leave a message.
Giving your massage clients a variety of services to try gives them more reasons to come back. Creating massage add-ons, like aromatherapy or hot stones, can help increase revenue without booking more appointments.
Every client needs a little something different. Creating services for different needs and interests, or offering different types of massage modalities, can help meet the needs of a wider range of people, thus retaining more clients.
Staying in touch with your massage clients is a big part of building lasting relationships with them. Every month, send an email updating clients about what’s going on in the practice, massage industry trends, or self-care tips. Sending regular email newsletters is an effective way to stay in touch and prompt them to rebook without being salesy or pushy.
Don’t worry about bothering people, they want your insight. If they don’t, they can unsubscribe from your newsletter - no big deal. Keep a running list of email newsletter ideas so you can quickly put together a newsletter each month.
Start a referral program to get more new clients and build customer loyalty. Client referrals are one of the best ways to build your business. Your satisfied customers are your best marketing asset. Once you have a circle of friends and family talking about you, you might be surprised to find the frequency of their visits increase too.
Consider offering a small discount to new clients and a reward for the client who referred them to encourage referrals. Periodically, send an email to clients asking for their help by referring clients to the practice and reminding them of your referral program.
Getting clients to rebook is only the first part of the equation. Getting them to show up for their appointments is the second. It’s important to send appointment reminders to clients at least a day before their appointment, so they don’t forget. Most scheduling software can do this for you.
If you have a cancellation policy, make sure you send appointment reminders early enough for clients to reschedule without being penalized. If you need a way to enforce your cancellation policy, consider collecting payment information in advance and having clients sign a digital consent form at the time of booking.
If you have empty slots to fill, send an availability summary to your email list letting them know of upcoming openings. This is an excellent way to keep your schedule fully booked week after week.
Clients appreciate the ability to snag a last minute massage appointment when they really need it. Sometimes it’s hard to plan ahead, and receiving a list of upcoming availability can help clients get the care they need when they need it.
Creating individual massage therapy treatment plans helps clients reach their goals and prompts them to schedule their next appointment before they leave. This is a key element of the massage therapy job description, don’t skip it. This is how you get long-term clients.
Use a free SOAP note template or online SOAP notes to record your clients’ goals, your observations, treatment, and your plan for moving forward. This helps you make appropriate recommendations to each client and gives you something to reference at their next session. If you want to make sticking to a treatment plan more affordable, consider creating treatment packages that give clients a slight discount for committing to long-term care.
Clients with good intentions don’t always follow through. When clients don’t rebook before leaving your massage business, they’re at risk of forgetting to book an appointment later. If you haven’t seen or heard from them in a while, send a wellness check-in to see how they’re doing.
This email is a gentle nudge to get them to rebook. They’ll appreciate you thinking of them, and the subtle reminder of the benefits of massage and their own health and wellness goals is usually all they need to get something scheduled.
When you use massage therapy software, getting clients to rebook is easy. Clients can book online, reminders are sent automatically and all their files -including SOAP notes and treatment packages are stored in one place. Plus, you can easily schedule automated, yet personalized, wellness check-ins, availability summaries and referral requests.
When you use software, all the tips on this list can be executed in little to no time. If you’re struggling with how to retain massage clients, start with massage therapy software to streamline your efforts and boost client retention instantly.
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