Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/68185
BUSINESS SIDE way to the office or so sick that they're hospitalized. Use compassion and common sense when making exceptions. Your policy may be to charge them for the first missed appointment, or to require a credit card to guarantee the next one; this is just an example of one way to handle it. Whatever you feel comfortable with, create a policy and enforce it. Put your cancellation policy on your intake form. Put it on a sign on the desk, in your newsletter and brochures, and in a place of prominence on your website. Print it on the back of your business cards. Along the same vein are clients who show up late for appointments. In my clinic, appointments are scheduled to allow the therapist at least 30 minutes between appointments, or more if they choose; my staff members put their own appointment times in the book. If clients show up late, that cuts into their scheduled time—not the next client's. We're not going to make the next client wait because the person scheduled first couldn't be on time. EXAMPLE: CLIENTS ARRIVING LATE Policy. All therapists should start and end sessions at the appointed time. Clients who arrive less than 15 minutes late will receive the remainder of their session, which will end at the scheduled time, and will pay full price for the appointment. It is at the therapist's discretion whether or not to accept a client who arrives more than 15 minutes late. Procedure. If clients are more than five minutes late, give them a call to see if they are coming. If you are unable to reach them, wait until 15 minutes past the appointment time before leaving the premises. Script. Mr. Smith, we'll still have to end your appointment at noon. We can't cut into the next client's time. Or: Mr. Smith, your appointment was supposed to start at 11:00 a.m. Your therapist tried to contact you without success, and our policy is that after waiting 15 minutes, WHAT IFS Here are some what ifs that illustrate the need for policies and procedures: • What if a client comes in for the appointment and is obviously sick? • What if a client brings a very disruptive child to the appointment? • What if a client claims that he or she lost something valuable at your office? • What if a client makes no complaints during the massage, but afterward says she isn't satisfied and wants a discount? • What if a client has paid up front for a package of massages and then wants a refund? she is free to go home. (If this happens, then use the script above with regard to paying for the missed appointment.) THERAPISTS WHO SHARE SPACE If you share space with another therapist who is not your business partner, your employee, or an independent contractor, that person is of course not expected to abide by your policies and procedures. However, it could be a good thing for you to share your manual and to suggest that you might want to voluntarily get on the same wavelength. I know of a number of practitioners who operate in this manner, and more often than not, resentment festers and/or trouble arises when everybody in the same space is doing their own thing. For example, three therapists who are all sole proprietors each rent a room upstairs in a large, former home and have a shared reception area; the downstairs is inhabited by the chiropractor who owns the property. Although they have assisted each other at times in doing couple's massage, even that has caused dissent, because one of those therapists charges $60 an hour and another charges $30 an hour. The one in the middle charges $50. The chiropractor isn't referring to any of them specifically—he just tells people that there are massage therapists upstairs—and a lot of them gravitate toward the $30 an hour therapist, which of course the other two feel is undercutting their prices in a deliberate attempt to get all the business for herself. It's a recipe for disharmony. And in reality, even though they are not in business together, since they all inhabit the same space, in the eyes of the public they are appearing to be in business together. Asking for a meeting and coming to an agreement on some policies and procedures could potentially improve the experience for all of them. connect with your colleagues on massageprofessionals.com 23