Massage Santa Barbara

To all professional massage therapists: "Do you have a gift certificate campaign?  If you don't, you're crazy."

I'm continually shocked at how many therapists don't have a gift certificate program in place.  It's one of the best pieces of the marketing puzzle for us.  Think about it.  Some therapists have a referral program - if your friend books a massage, you get 50% off your next session, for example.  So isn't a gift certificate like a referral program that you don't actually need to pay for?  Someone is actually paying you to refer a new client to you.

Some therapists don't like it when a client shows up to use their certificate after it has expired.  If it's only a week or so past the expiration date, I personally like to honor the certificate.  The new client usually appreciates it and you become the "nice guy", who can be flexible.  You may have just gotten a regular client.

And of course, any therapist will tell you that many certificate recipients never show up to use them.  Well, you just got paid for nothing.  I personally prefer for them to show up.  It gives you the possibility of gaining a new regular client and it does feel kind of weird to get paid for nothing.

Another point:  Have you ever squeezed a new client into an already too-busy day just because you thought that if you didn't, he would go elsewhere?  I have.  And I've regretted it the next day, when my body hurt from the overwork.  Well that kind of pressure is minimized when the client has a gift certificate.  Of course, we want to give all our clients their ideal day and time for an appointment, but the client is already our client.  They're not going to call another therapist is you tell them there's a one-week wait for an appointment.

There's one more reason to start a gift certificate program.  If you have a web site, you can take payments right online with paypal or other services.  It doesn't have to be fancy.  Some web sites are coded to automatically produce and email the certificate as soon as the purchase has gone through.  I have my web site set with paypal buttons.  When the payment comes through, I simply open my certificate template, whip one up for the client and email it manually, with a personal message.  There have been times when I've checked my email in the morning only to find that I sold a gift certificate (rather, my web site has sold a gift certificate) over the course of the night.  Now that's a nice thing to find in your inbox, first thing in the morning!

Lia Suzuki

LiaSuzuki.com