September 17th, 2006 Julie Onofrio
The biggest thing I had to get over when I started doing massage was to stop taking things so personally. It is hard not to take anything a client says or does personally because the business of massage is so personal.
This comes up when you start thinking that there is competition out there that is trying to take your clients away or when clients want to go to someone else. You can’t solve all of the problems that everyone has. It is healthy for people to try other therapists and it is ok if people stop going to you. It isn’t about you. It is about them. Nothing is really about you. It also comes up when you start thinking things like “It’s the economy”.
You can tell when you are taking something personally as it usually causes you to react rather than to act. You react in anger if you think someone is taking away your clients. Blaming others doesn’t do anything except make you feel better and it keeps you from looking at yourself and taking responsibility for your feelings and actions.
Taking things personally makes you start not hearing what the other person is really saying or requesting and limits your opportunity for communication. When someone goes to another therapist for whatever reason and you take it personally, it is really setting you up to fail at what you are trying to do.
When we are children we believe the universe revolves around our existence, and when we are adults the system we use to interpret the actions and words of others is based on this same belief.
See more on taking things personally.
The Four Agreements (link to amazon.com)by Don Miguel Ruiz
“Nothing other people do is because of you. It is because of themselves. All people live in their own dream, in their own mind; they are in a completely different world from the one we live in. When we take something personally, we make the assumption that they know what is in our world, and we try to impose our world on their world.”
“When you take things personally, then you feel offended, and your reaction is to defend your beliefs and create conflicts. You make something big out of something so little, because you have the need to be right and make everyone else wrong”.
Further along the toltec path
“We take things personally when we forget that each person has his own perception of a situation. People do things based on their own needs and desires. Their belief system directs their actions and interpretations of those actions. We can never make another person feel a certain way even if we say something mean or hurtful. ”
Posted in Peer Supervision, Recommended Reading, The Code of the Caretaker | 1 Comment »
September 17th, 2006 Julie Onofrio
The biggest reason why businesses fail is that people don’t know how to take actions.
Our beliefs, values and thoughts are what stimulate action.
What is it that you believe about yourself that keeps you from taking action. We are afraid to fail or are afraid of what might happen if we do- what will the consequences be.
Marketing is nothing more than telling people what you do and keep telling people until you have what it is that you want. I often hear massage therapists saying they just want to do massage and don’t want to have to sell themselves. People think of marketing as something that is bad or unprofessional and often get it confused with selling. People resist selling tactics. There are people who have created an image of selling that makes people think you will have to be conniving to sell. It is unfortunate that this has created an image of selling.
What if you started thinking of marketing as something different? If marketing is just telling people what you do then what is it that you are afraid to tell others about your service. Do you fear that no one will come? Do you think you will be perceived badly?
These fears are really coming from the thoughts that we have about ourselves that constantly criticize ourselves - which is usually just what your parents did. You somehow learned to think that you were not good enough or valuable enough.
When you start to question your thoughts and get to the truth behind the thoughts like Byron Katie teaches in her books “Loving what is” (link to amazon.com). When you can come to know that your thoughts about yourself aren’t true, it will help you get unstuck and start taking the actions that you need to take to be successful and create the practice of your desire.
Posted in Building Your Practice, Massage Marketing | No Comments »
September 15th, 2006 Julie Onofrio
A Great business depends on great customer service.
Being able to handle all sorts of situations -from people who are shy and don’t know a thing about massage to someone who is assertive/aggressive requires a degree of professionalism.
I know I really hate sitting on hold with a recording saying “your call is important to us” or waiting weeks to hear from someone regarding an order I placed and have already paid for.
People are always interesting to deal with. When ever someone calls, you never really know who you are talking to. I worked in customer service for about 10 years before becoming a massage therapist and part of our training was to treat everyone with the same respect that you would want to be treated with. Keeping your cool and remaining professional and really listening to people is what can lead to converting someone who is just ‘interested’ into a regular customer. And because you don’t know who anyone is to begin with -assume that they all have hundreds of people and friends that they will refer to you. If you keep that in mind, you can even turn a difficult situation around.
For example: I once had a client come in for just a half hour massage. Her husband had given her a gift certificate. She for some reason - did not want to be there. I am not sure if she was afraid of something, didn’t like being touched or had never had a massage. She was defensive from the moment I met her at the desk. She didn’t want to fill out the intake form so I didn’t make her even though I knew it would be better having her do it and sign the release. I just asked her a few questions about her health which she was also reluctant to answer and proceeded to give her a massage. After the massage she came out and said something like “Wow that was the greatest thing I have ever experienced!” She went away happy and became a regular customer who I have sen for 10 years now on a weekly basis and she has sent me so many clients through the years I can’t even count them! I at first was caught off guard by her being so unco-operative - If I had become defensive back we would have gotten nowhere.
There is a great article called 8 rules for good customer service from about.com says
“The essence of good customer service is forming a relationship with customers – a relationship that that individual customer feels that he would like to pursue.
How do you go about forming such a relationship? By remembering the one true secret of good customer service and acting accordingly; You will be judged by what you do, not what you say.”
They also cover the basic things everyone should know but may take for granted like answering your phone, take the extra step and do even more than what you say you are going to do (overdeliver), and listening to your customer.
Listening is really difficult to do but it really helps to listen to find out what the client is needing. Underneath everything a person does or says is a need. It is also the most important part of the therapeutic relationship that is developed with your client. It starts the first moment of contact.
Customer service is not what you think it is but what the customer thinks!
Posted in Building Your Practice, Massage Marketing, Starting Your Practice | 1 Comment »
September 11th, 2006 Julie Onofrio
Do you need a blog for your website?
It depends on if you have the time to update, manage and post to your blog.
Blogs are online journals that others can post too. I get about 1-2 legitimate posts a day and about 10 spams that I have to delete.
The object of blogging is to develop a following to get people coming back to your blog and reading your posts. If you are trying to build your practice, this can be a good way to build trust with potential clients.
We also need more writing by massage therapists about what they really do. So many set up websites that just have their rates and the same old benefits of massage.
Blogs are a great way to start communicating with potential clients and the world about what massage can really do. Imagine people who have just had a massage from you posting to your blog and hearing what it is that they really felt during and after the massage.
When we as a profession really start talking about what it is that massage does besides increasing circulation and relaxing tight muscles, more people will respect us as a profession.
Technorati Profile
Posted in Websites for Massage therapists | No Comments »
September 5th, 2006 Julie Onofrio
You don’t need any software to bill insurance companies
now that there is www.officeally.com.
You can bill any insurance company online using this great service without
needing any software. All you do is sign up and create an account and fill out
your HCFA online. They even will tell you if you missed something filling out the form and keep track of the bills and clients so the next time you can just login and enter the dates of service!
If the company you are billing doesn’t accept electronic bills, they will print a HCFA and mail it for a really low cost!!
You can’t beat this service.
Posted in Building Your Practice | No Comments »
