Why Your Massage Therapists Don’t Want to Sell
For many therapists in the spa industry, retail selling has negative connotations. Some massage therapists consider their vocation to have roots based in spirituality. They don’t think that commerce should enter into the process. “Render under to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s….” Others have expressed discomfort with the idea that as health care providers making a product recommendation may be crossing their line of authority.
In either case nothing could be further from the truth. From the times of the Pharaohs (and probably before) healers have sold products for home use. Perhaps the currency was different. But the concept remained the same.
For all service providers in the spa industry, the focus should always be to deliver the best customer experience possible.
This means that spa managers must stop laying the responsibility for selling solely on their estheticians. In order to build strong client retention rates, everyone needs to sell.
Client retention is built upon two fundamental strategies: Customer engagement and retail sales.
Engagement means that massage therapists broaden their in-room chat beyond questions about room temperature, lighting, music and head rest position. It means having a real conversation and using the customer’s intake form as a guide rather than a script. It means really listening to ensure that the correct service is being performed to begin with.
Retail sales are critical because:
Two products purchased by a customer=60% return rate to your spa
One product purchased by a customer=40% return rate to your spa
Zero product =10% return rate.
Selling is an area that massage therapists are not particularly comfortable with. But like many other disciplines, it’s a skill set that can be learned.
Increasing customer retention rates by just 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%. That sounds like an initiative worth starting.
Linda Harding-Bond
