|
8/6/2022 0 Comments Differentiating Serviceswritten by Pallas Hutchison
This week, we updated how we organize our services in our booking software. This has already spurred a lot of discussion among the staff as well as clients. Yes, I just created hours of work for myself to update the backend of our software. Yes, I expect some confusion and maybe even some pushback. This will take some time to get used to. New clients will probably find it easier to adjust than existing clients. Why did we bother doing this?
0 Comments
8/2/2022 0 Comments Changes to Our Online BookingChanges to Our Online Booking
Our website is set up with services organized by client goal: for Relaxation, for Athletes, for Pain Management. We have received a lot of positive feedback about our website’s goal-focused organizational system. It allows clients to find information on the services that they want more easily. Unfortunately, when we first set up our online booking software, we organized it by category. As we have expanded our knowledge and service types, a lot of different types of massage and manual therapies got lumped together under the “Massage” category. Client feedback indicates that this large grouping provides too many choices and client aren’t sure which service is the best option for them. We don’t expect clients to know which modality falls into massage and which falls into manual therapy. As we add more fitness related services, things begin to overlap and the category system makes even less sense. To make it more consistent and user friendly, we will begin transitioning the online booking to match our website. This will create some temporary confusion as we update everything but we feel that it will ultimately be more intuitive for our clients to find the services that meet their needs more quickly. Human errors happen. If you have any difficulty, please let us know so we can fix any mistakes. Thank you for your patience while we work on this. So… What goes where? for Athletes
Why bother becoming a CPT when she is already busy as a massage therapist?
Pallas initially began the Certified Personal Trainer (CPT) course through the National Academy for Sports’ Medicine (NASM) during the March 2020 shut down as a way to provide remote services to clients. As a business owner, the pandemic shut down was terrifying. Pallas invested all of her energy into a narrow professional field. She needed a back-up plan to augment the existing business, especially since no one knew how long before in-person services would be allowed again. When Oasis Massage reopened in June 2020, the CPT course got pushed to the back burner while Pallas focused on rebuilding and restructuring the business. She didn't return to the CPT course again until the business felt financially stable. In July 2022, Pallas completed the course and passed her CPT exam, making her officially a Certified Personal Trainer. What does this mean for clients? The short and long term goals are expanding the service offerings at Oasis Massage. Short term, we plan to offer postural analysis, either in-person or remotely. This will identify muscle imbalances and offer clients specific ways to address them using self-care strategies, stretching, and strengthening exercises. These new skills will also enhance services we already provide. As a CPT, Pallas has expanded her scope of practice, allowing her to incorporate more stretching into her sports massages and to recommend specific exercises to clients as homework. This should give clients more tools to increase and prolong the benefits of massage services received. Long term, once we have a larger facility, we can add individual or group fitness classes. These types of fitness services could happen sooner in a virtual format or as outcalls. This option requires some technical skills that Pallas does not current have. When will these new services be available? The goal is to begin incorporating these new services in September. The delay between certification and offering new services to clients serves two specific purposes. First, Pallas needs to create a schedule that balances her time between clients’ needs and the business’s needs. She will have designated time blocks to provide massage and fitness services, as well as time to handle her managerial responsibilities. Second, we have a myriad of housekeeping items to complete. Lots of little things need to happen, such as verification of state licensing requirements (or lack of) for personal trainers, adequate liability insurance coverage, equipment purchases, and drafting required documentation. While a complementary industry to massage, the business itself has slightly different set up requirements that will take time to accomplish. We want to ensure everything is done properly prior to offering any fitness services and will update clients as we continue to develop a fitness department for Oasis Massage. New Staff!
Melissa joins Oasis Massage after two years in the insurance industry, and several years of customer service and retail management experience. A Cape native, Melissa grew up in Harwich. She now has two kids; a daughter 11, and a son, just over a year. Melissa’s free time is spent with family and/or friends at the beach or on trail walks. She is obsessed with “Friend’s” & “Grey’s Anatomy." We hired another massage therapist yesterday! Once the paperwork is finalized and he's officially on the schedule, we will send an email introducing him to everyone. Seasonal Reminders for Summer What happens when you combine a massage with a sunburn? Or sand from the beach? Or a spray tan? Take a minute to read this blog post: Three Things to Consider for Summer Massages to find out! While this was written several years ago, it is still relevant. I tested positive, what do I do about my appointment? We've gotten this questions a lot as case numbers increase. Please call us if you test positive and (1) you have a massage scheduled or (2) you had a massage within the last 5 days. For clients that have an upcoming appointment, we ask clients to wait 10 days from a positive test date to reschedule, provided they have no symptoms. If they still have symptoms after 10 days, we'd wait for those to go away completely before rescheduling the appointment. We can reschedule them sooner if they test negative. For clients that just had an appointment, please let us know so we can deep clean the office and test our staff. If staff test positive, they follow the same protocol as clients - no appointments for 10 days or until they get a negative test. We will notify any clients exposed, specifically any scheduled between a known exposure date or 5 days prior to the staff member's positive test (if exposure date is unknown). We Are Hiring! Word of mouth gives us better candidates than online job sites. If you know someone that would be a good fit for our team, please send them to our website for information about employment opportunities at Oasis Massage. Summer Scheduling
Last summer, we were booked 3-4 weeks out, starting Memorial Day weekend. We encourage clients to book ahead for June, July and August, if possible. This is especially important for clients that have tight schedules or limited flexibility. If booking ahead isn't an option, we do keep an active waitlist to fill any cancellations. If consistency in appointment times helps you, recurring appointments are an option! Our software lets us book clients every 1-12 weeks at the same time with the same LMT. (We try hard not to change our schedule but things happen. If we need to adjust a future appointment, we give as much notice as possible.) Continuing Education We haven't bragged about our staff in a while. All of our staff have spent their downtime between appointments taking different classes to help them work smarter and add new skills to give clients better results. Here's what each of our LMTs have been up to so far this year... Feel free to ask us about for more information about any of our classes. Sara
We Are Hiring But... We've focused our energy on our restructure and expanding benefits for our current staff. We are officially an S Corps. In addition to PTO and paid sick time, we now offer a retirement plan with employer matching (effective May 15th, 2022)! Word of mouth gives us better candidates than online job sites. If you know someone that would be a good fit for our team, please send them to our website for information about employment opportunities at Oasis Massage. |
CategoriesAll Anecdote Continuing Education Essential Oils Exercise Lifestyle Changes Massage Parenting Reiki/Energy Healing Small Business Decisions Archives
August 2022
|
Payment is due upon receipt of services. See Company Policies for information on refunds or fees.
Pricing current as of Jan 1, 2022 ; subject to change without notice. Price increases due to inflation go to staff.
Pricing current as of Jan 1, 2022 ; subject to change without notice. Price increases due to inflation go to staff.