Aloha Massage Kauai

December 30, 2013:

When hiring massage therapists, you want employees who are professional, reliable, and exceptionally skilled, with the kind of touch that makes clients just keep coming back for more. Massage therapists like that breed customer loyalty and good word-of-mouth advertising. A massage therapist who constantly rebooks their clients is making you profit over and over again, not just the one time that your marketing first got that client in the door. Plus their clients are recommending friends to your business. So how do you hire such therapists? And how do you keep them once they've got a big local clientele... the kind they could take away with them if they decided to quit and go into private practice?

Spas are fundamentally different from most other businesses in that customer loyalty is usually to an individual massage therapist rather than the spa itself. A high-quality massage therapist generates a lot of clientele. A low-quality therapist generates a lot of client turnover. Therefore, your therapists are one of your greatest assets.

At most spas, therapists are only paid for the actual time they spend working, usually on a percentage (or commission) basis. They are usually expected to commit large blocks of their time (shifts) to the spa regardless of whether they will actually be working, have clients, and get paid during those hours. Also, at many spas, massage therapists are expected to provide free labor to the spa in between the clients they are getting paid to massage. This typically consists of answering phones, doing laundry, cleaning the bathroom, and that sort of thing.

In my neighborhood, spas typically charge $149+/50-min massage & pay 30% commission (+ tips) to the therapists that do all of this work for them. It is not uncommon for a massage therapist working a 7-hour shift to do only one massage on a slow day. Which means that for their 7 hours of labor (answering phones, booking appointments, manning the front desk & washing yesterday's laundry), they might take home only $50 (which is $7/hr). No wonder employee dissatisfaction & turnover is so high at spas that work this way!

Let's try reframing our relationship with our therapists for a few minutes. Instead of thinking of them as employees, is it possible to think of them as Customers? How would that work? Well, essentially, in that frame of reference, as a business owner we are providing them with clients. We are also providing them (probably) with linens, a room to work in, and supplies such as oils and music. In return, they pay us a percentage of the cost of a massage with them.

So using that frame of reference, if David is a massage therapist, are the services that we are providing to him (clients, location, supplies) worth the 65% commission that he is paying us for every client he works on?

Okay, so that requires a different mindset, but let's explore it for a moment - we can always go back to our normal way of thinking. Are the services that we are providing to our massage therapists worth the commission that they are paying us for each client? Immediately the mind wants to justify "Well, yes, because rent is expensive and I have to cover utility bills and marketing and make a profit and there are plenty of therapists available - if he doesn't like it, he can just quit." But thinking about it from David's perspective, is the location and marketing really worth $65 per client he serves? Is it still worth it if he also has to commit to 7-hour shifts, with no guarantee of having clients and performing free labor in between clients? Probably not. Hence the high employee turnover and the strong tendency for really good massage therapists to eventually leave those environments and set up their own private practice.

Is there a different way? One that would create low employee turnover and attract really good therapists? Yes, there is!

Suppose you run a spa that provides 10 massages / day (@ $100/each) and keeps 60% of the commission for those massages (a standard California rate). That spa's income is $60/massage * 10 = $600. What if that same spa provided 20 massages / day and only kept 30% of the commission for those massages. Well, its income would be $30/massage * 20 = $600 still. Okay, so the numbers work, but how do you double your clientele? By having exceptionally good massage therapists. And how do you attract exceptionally good massage therapists? By doubling their pay.

Presto! Magic! The numbers work, the therapists are well paid, and you are still making as much money as you used to (remember, your expenses change very little based on daily volume - rent is the main overhead).

Does this work? Yes, it does. I pay 70% to my massage therapists in an area where most spas pay 30%. My staff is chock-full of master therapists, massage instructors, and seasoned professionals with decades of experience. In an area disproportionately populated by massage therapists, my business is in a position to choose who I want to have working for me, and I individually recruit those therapists based on their skill and reputation.

To succeed in attracting truly expert massage therapists who already have strong local clienteles and decades of experience, I have had to address a few additional issues that really just boil down to respect: One is that (as someone once observed), organizing massage therapists can be like herding cats. Understandably, most massage therapists do not want to dedicate their time to your business (on call or otherwise) when they are not actually massaging clients and being paid to do so. Therefore, my business does not employ "shifts". All therapists are always on call and free to accept or turn down any work that comes in according to their actual availability.

This allows them to continue serving their existing clients while accepting mine during slow periods. It also allows them to take vacations, holidays, or "I just don't feel like working today" days whenever they feel like it without having to ask my permission. For them, it is essentially a "win-win" situation. If they want to serve one of their regular clients, they can book according to their schedule. If they've got a slow week, they can take clients from me. With two dozen massage therapists on my "call list", I don't really care. If my first choice therapist for a particular client is not available, the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th probably is.

It's also a win-win for the clients. Normally, in a spa every massage therapist is expected to be adept at every style of massage offered (because they may have to perform it during their shift). But we all know that some therapists are much better at Deep Tissue massage than others, that not everyone can really do a good Pregnancy (or Lomi Lomi) Massage, and that every massage therapist tends to have a style they really relate to and do best. I individually match each client with a massage therapist who is highly skilled in the modality they have requested. In my therapist list I keep a chart of who is expert in which modalities. When a client requests a particular modality, they get someone who is expert in their preferred modality, not someone random.

I even have some specialists on staff. For example, I have the best Carniosacral therapist in the island on staff, and that's all she does. Meanwhile, her local clientele keeps her busy - my bookings are just gravy. Similarly, I have quite a few doulas on staff who I mostly reserve for pregnancy massages. But my expert Rolfer also does a great Sports Massage, Deep Tissue Massage, Deep Lomi Lomi, and Structural Integration. So being able to match the massage therapist's expertise to the client's needs generates excellent customer satisfaction with our business.

Thus I have found that being maximally flexible with our therapist's schedules has actually created better customer service. I find that my success rate fulfilling same-day bookings is about the same as if the therapists were working shifts because I have so many massage therapists willing to be "potential available" at all times.

Also, because I do not require massage therapists to work shifts or otherwise reserve their time to my business (unless they've committed to a specific appointment), they tend to regard income from my business as "supplemental" rather than crucial to their livelihood, so they do not attach expectations of a certain volume of clients being booked to them (which is important given the seasonal nature of massage in a tourist economy). But most importantly, they have their freedom to choose (or decline) individual clients, appointments, and bookings, which is what an expert massage therapist with a strong local clientele really needs to be interested in working for someone else's business.

In summary, this alternate business model creates a win-win-win for clients, massage therapists, and the business in general. The business gets the best massage therapists on-island and a stellar reputation, the clients get expert massage therapists who are highly skilled in their preferred modality, and the therapists get top pay and completely flexible work opportunities.

I regard my business as actually having two classes of customers - massage clients, and therapists. My business model is to serve both of them expertly by connecting the best massage therapists on island with outstanding clients. So the therapists can focus on doing what they do best (massage) and the clients can receive truly expert massage therapy.

I hope this article was helpful and contributes to the wellbeing of massage therapists and clients everywhere. Have a great day!

Debbie
Aloha Massage Kaua'i
Kauai's Premier Massage Service
(808) 635-2789(808) 635-2789