Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/72121
nature to Rigby. But the postmassage conversations continued to trouble her. "I sort of felt like, 'If you like my work, you'll come back.' And I left it at that," she says. "If they came back, I'd check in with them and ask how things worked last time, and what they wanted to do this time. But I wouldn't do anything in between." With McCuistion's urging, she began calling clients, following up on areas of concern they'd expressed, and doing research into potential strategies for addressing chronic problems. "I got in a pattern of sitting down with my list of clients once or twice a week, and just calling them. Ninety percent of them said 'Wow! Nobody ever called me like this. Thank you!'" She began keeping more detailed notes on clients. She made note of when runners or cyclists had events coming up, and she checked in with them afterward to see if they were suffering soreness or cramping. She also made note of those who were struggling with other issues, not necessarily physical. "I've been working to find ways to make those phone calls really express genuine care, not just seem like I'm calling for business," Rigby says. As a result, her practice has grown much more steadily in the past year. "It's made me realize that people generally do want that sense of connection," Rigby says. "They spend an hour or an hour and a half with me at a time. They probably don't spend that long in a whole year with their physician. It's made me realize that, as part of the health profession, we're probably the most contact many people have with someone who genuinely cares about their health. We're the people they can talk to about all the stuff that's contributing to their stresses. It doesn't just end in that hour or hour- and-a-half session. You really should continue that communication." Oliver Fisk, a veteran massage therapist in the Denver MassageSpecialists.com studio, has been among the most successful in the company at converting one-time clients into monthly regulars. But he, too, balked at first when he saw McCuistion's communication flowchart. "A communication model like that is almost always dry," he says. "That makes it hard to swallow. If you followed this flowchart word for word, it would be boring. People don't want you to recite something by rote, like a computerized message. But if you simply view it as a framework for the information you need to get out of your client, then it's not." Dawn Adkins, another of the high- performing therapists in the Denver office, had similar feelings. "At first, I struggled," she admits. "This was way outside my comfort zone. And I'm still working toward being successful with this. But I realized that before I started really communicating with my clients, I was in automatic mode a lot of the time. This has breathed new life into my practice. Dirk has created an atmosphere where I'm responsible for growing my own practice." LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT Unlike many of his coworkers, Boulder massage therapist Ryan Stevens took one look at McCuistion's communications flowchart and fell in love. "I'm all about anything systematized," he says. "I thought it was the most brilliant communications thing I'd ever seen as far as engaging with clients. I was fully on board." But Stevens soon discovered how demanding possession of so much knowledge about a client's needs and desires can be. Total clarity, he learned, is not for the faint of heart. "Do you really want to find out what the heart of a client's issue is if you have no idea how to approach that problem?" Stevens asks. "Dirk dumped this thing in my lap that's genius, but I had to ask myself, do I really have enough of a skill base to deal with the stuff that will be clarified for me? That's been the consistent struggle for me. It's not enough to teach someone impeccable communication skills if they don't know where to go from there." Stevens, a massage therapist for 14 years, says he's driven to see his clients get results. In order to get those results, he's constantly learning new skills, and honing old ones, so he can better deal with the array of problems presented to him. "I'll lay it all out for my clients," he says. "I'll say, 'For your pain to diminish, it could take this long,' and give them a general outline of a plan. And we'll have check-in points where we're constantly revising. From moment one, we're setting up the possibility of something that's so much more than just a drop-in session for a relaxing massage. That's retention for the sake of service, not for the sake of propping myself up as a practitioner. That's service at the highest level." Rebecca Jones is a tenured Massage & Bodywork freelance writer. She lives and writes in Denver, Colorado. Contact her at killarneyrose@comcast.net. Celebrate ABMP's 25th anniversary and you may win a refund on your membership. ABMP.com. 63