As a society, we expect immediate results. All crimes and social blunders are solved in an hour. The guy gets the girl in 90 minutes. We get hot water on demand and popcorn in three minutes. And health practitioners call back within 45 minutes. Right?
Hmm … Maybe not.
As a single practitioner, you are not always able to call people back or return emails within the hour. Sometimes not until the end of the day. The idea of losing a booking or potential client has just got to stick in your craw.
The real beauty of today’s technology is that you now have a myriad of solutions for keeping your clients in the loop every hour of the day. You can continuously, seamlessly provide care and attention. And you never want to pass up a natural (and inexpensive) opportunity to provide a bit of special care to your clients and acknowledge their value to you.
Answering Machines
Keep them updated. Daily. Put the vital information first: “Thank you for calling Body Logic. I have a one hour session available today, July 24th, at 2 p.m. …” or “Thank you for calling Ahhh … Some Massage. I am on vacation until July 31st. Please leave a message and my assistant will call you back promptly to set up a session for when I return.” “Thanks for calling Natural Touch. I have some gorgeous new gift certificates in for Mother’s Day. You can see them on my website.”
Phone Service
How many calls do you get where no one leaves a message? Not having a person available to answer phones is an opportunity lost. Having a person pick up the phone, even just to take a message, puts you miles (MILES, I tell you) ahead of your colleagues.
If you are unable to answer your phone due to busy-ness or absence, send your calls onto somebody who can take or respond to messages. It’s fairly easy to set up a temporary service with your phone company to have your clients’ calls forwarded to another number.
If you haven’t looked into working with a virtual assistant or an off-site receptionist service, I recommend taking the time. Working with a business support company that is right for your practice will bring you more clients and the service will more than pay for itself. Don’t worry about committing. Ask for a trial rate for the first two weeks or month. See how it works for you.
My current bright idea: Single practitioners lose opportunities when they cannot respond to clients immediately. There are many massage therapists cutting back on their hours or retiring. Surely you can get together with 3-5 health practitioners and hire one former MT to be an off-site assistant for all of you. All your calls can be easily forwarded (you just punch a code into your phone) and your email inquiries, too.
Email
If you don’t have an automatic responder function in your email program, see about getting that set up. When your clients email you, they will promptly get a message back. Your message will say that you did receive their email. Their message is important. You will respond to them no later than [6:30 tonight]. If they are experiencing trouble, please call [your number] and leave a message. And, oh, by the way, here is a list of your next three available sessions. And your latest special/add-on/technique.
Your Website
You should be able to make text changes to the home page of your website yourself. If you cannot, don’t know how or aren’t “allowed” to, you need to change your situation. Posting fresh updates on your site allows potential clients to see your level of commitment to communication. It allows your regular clients to see or be reminded about what’s going on in your practice: Vacation dates, open sessions, road closure alerts, emergency absences.
Social Sites
Some people like them, some don’t. The nice thing is, they’re elective. If your practice has a Facebook page, or what-have-you, don’t be afraid to tell your clients about it. Link from your site to your [Facebook] page. You don’t want to inundate your clients with trivial thoughts but do let people know when a session opens up. Or, if you have a slow 3 minutes, send out a quick reminder to stretch or breathe. It really okay. Your clients elected to get your messages. They’re really glad you’re thinking of them.
Remember
Things like answering machines and email are standard, necessary tools for your practice. You can get so much more out of them if you think of them as marketing venues. Use them to broaden communication with your clients. Demonstrate your level of care and commitment.
If you are going to take advantage of what’s at hand, be sure you keep your updates fresh. Having an “expired” message on your machine or auto responder is not good and makes you look a little slapdash.
All my best,
Eileen
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7 users commented in " Refresh Daily: Keep marketing by keeping your massage clients in the loop "
Great post, Eileen.
You’re SO right about the phone service. We used to take holidays, shut the office down, and just have someone check messages. One year we did a test to compare the total number of callers versus the number of actual messages that were left over two weeks.
Only a third of callers left a message. It didn’t take much math after that to realize that it was worth having a real person answer the phone.
The trick, of course, is that it does cost money to do it. I love your shared assistant idea – what a great way to get over that initial no-receptionist hurdle!
Hi Dan!
It does cost some dollars, for sure. But an off-site service can be cheaper than an on-site receptionist. Depending, of course, on hours, etc.
Do you use a service? If so, would you be willing to share the name or what you like about it?
I love the shared assistant idea, too. That seems like a good way to keep everyone happy and employed. Anyone out there tried something like that?
Eileen
PS: Anyone out there who hasn’t yet perused Dan and Tara’s blog should take the time. http://alternativehealthpractice.com/
Awww…thanks, Eileen!
We’ve reached the point where we have full time help in the clinic, so no need for a daytime service, but I’ve been pondering whether an after hours one might be worthwhile.
I’m also curious about online booking. Anyone have any success with clients booking their own appointments using web-based programs? I know there are some great tools out there that can automate the whole website part of things.
Hi Eileen –
Just adding my balance of keeping clients up to date AND having my life resemble that which I teach clients.
I chose an answering and appointment booking service to free up my guilt and time of not being available for calls – sometimes because I am busy and sometimes because I just can’t answer calls.
However, I’ve also found the more I do social networking, blogging, emailing, newslettering and call response, the more I feel like I am tied now to updating 5 things where there used to be one. I don’t want to have an out of date blog, or website, or workshop calendar, or service pricing or voicemail. So, somedays, I wonder if it would be easier to go back to one voicemail that says “it usually takes me one or two business days to return calls but I WILL get back to you!”
It’s been an interesting transition to online world. I love it and I struggle with it. I feel like I’m shouting my business into a vacuum, yet I’ve been getting some new clients, too. Strange world!
Yeah, Heather, I can feel it.
I wrote the entry because I was appalled (APPALLED, I tell you) that several of our customers still have their Valentine’s/Mothers’ Day messages on their answering machines.
Then I started thinking about how to maximize basic office tools — or office-y stuff — so you can do some simple marketing while also communicating with your clients more fully.
Then it got out of control and turned into a rather convoluted blog entry.
*Sigh*
So my parting words are, “Make sure your voice message isn’t six months old, for goodness sake.”
There. I feel better now.
Eileen
I use an online booking setup and love it! The best part is, my clients also love it. It was very easy to add to my website and I added the info to my voicemail message. I receive at least 15 appointments for my 5 person practice each week through online appointments. It’s great! http://www.genbook.com
Hi Eileen,
I use an online booking service as well. It had made a difference! Many clients find us through a website search. Having the option for them to book their own appointment right away has gotten us good feedback. My repeat clients also love the ability to book at home with their work/personal calendar in front of them. I use timedriver. It was fairly easy to set up and easy for the client to use. When i get a booking from a new client I send an extra email (the booking system sends a confirmation and a reminder) giving directions to the clinic, where to park etc and my phone number in case they have extra questions.
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