Handling a FULL schedule.... need advice from busy MT's

[caseyyyy :D]

I was unsure how to title this.....

The past month has been NUTS and the next few weeks are practically full. I have been telling clients to book ahead and make standing appointments and many have done so. I let them glance at my book to find an appointment and they can see how busy I am.

Problem is, I get phone calls from people who want an appointment within the next few days or week or so... especially between the hours of 330pm and 7pm, and I just cant get them in as soon as they want! They get a bit POed when told I dont have that time available for a month. Seriously, between the hours of 330pm and 7, I am booked ahead 100% full a week out, 90% two weeks out, 75% full 3 weeks out, and 50% full 4 weeks out. It will not get any better because my regulars are either making standing appointments or booking a second month out.

Tonight I convinced a client (who has been seeing me for about 14 months) to switch to a standing appointment. I showed my availability 4 weeks out and he asked, "that is 4 weeks out?!?!?" "Yes," I said, "now you know why I asked if you would like to either book another month out or have a standing appointment."

I offer new clients a steep discount (one time only) and then give them coupons (same offer) to pass out to their friends. I give referral credits as well. A large perceneforum.xxxe of my appointments... say 75 to 85% are rebookings. Do you think I should slow down or stop my new client coupons for a while??

What about gift certificate sales this December?? Does it look good to a new client with a gift certificate when they call and cant get in to see me for a number of weeks? Is it it good to sell a slew of gift certificates when my schedule is so darn full??

Question for those with a bustling practice: How do you handle it? Have you been in my shoes? What do you do? Any tips?

 

[Stephanie V]

Congratulations on your efforts working so well

Don't worry about gift certificates being annoyed you've nothing available - some of them will not be redeemed, some of them will not be redeem for a while. Not sure if you're in a state where you can have an expiry date on them, but make the expiry date in your slow period, does it slow down in the middle of summer or something like that? If you can't put expiry dates, include a "Please use by such and such a date" most people will assume it is an expiry date. I find most gift certificates are used around the expiry date, a few are used almost immediately (pregnancy massage ones are almost always straight away), and hardly any are used before the expiry date if they don't use them straight away, so figure a slow time for them to expire.

Do you think I should slow down or stop my new client coupons for a while??

yes - or at least change the coupons to be valid for appointments in the morning, or some time you have lots of availability still - that way you fill up the less booked times, and if they convert to regulars, they may stick to the time with less demand. It may cut down on some people calling because mornings won't suit them, but it doesn't sound like you need to be attracting clients that want 3:30-7pm appointments at the moment anyway. As always, reassess your needs in the future.

And remember to make time for yourself in that busy schedule! You don't want to burn out. NUTS doesn't sound good except for the financial side of things. Don't be guilty about not being able to fit everyone when they want, there are clients that can plan ahead, and there are those that can't. Concentrate on those that can plan ahead, and you'll be able to too.

Have you got some other MT you can recommend to people that call up wanting an appointment NOW? You might feel happier about it if you felt you could offer them someone else. Plus researching someone to pass your excess clients onto will mean you will need to get a massage or 2 yourself.

 

[Michael M]

I book appointments for a very busy acupuncture practice and we only see two to three new clients a week. So we go ahead in the book and block off specific new client slots, right now we're blocking new client sessions into January. Once we've actually booked a new client we go further ahead in the book and give them three more appointments with a question mark next to their name. When they come in for their first session we tell them that we've taken the liberty of putting them in for three more sessions and could they review the times and let us know if those will work for their schedule. Sometimes the times work, sometimes they don't, but at least we have a chance of getting them back into the office in a week or so without resorting to the cancellation list. And speaking of the cancellation list, we have a running cancellation list every week that has between two and twenty clients hoping to get an appointment during that week. When someone cancels we start calling the list and fill that open slot if possible.

I don't know if this will help you or not. The acupuncturist sees 26 to 30 clients a week so we've gotten pretty good at dealing with disgruntled new clients and regulars. She has a few regulars who refuse to book appointments into the future, they only ever call when something is bothering them 'my neck is killing me,' 'the sciatica is back', et cetera. But so many times we cannot squeeze them in for weeks. She's lost a few over her full schedule but there's not much you can do about that.

I agree with Melb - have another practitioner you can refer to, you might lose the client or you might gain their trust even more since you referred them to another good therapist when you couldn't squeeze them into your schedule.

 

[Shelbien]

Great advice already from Melb & Dragonflies. A cancellation list & being able to refer to other MT's has helped keep me sane with a very full schedule. I'm actually at the point where I don't accept new clients at all for 9 months of the year. I have a slow period in the middle of winter, and accept a few new clients then. The rest of the year, I only have a few appointments available each month outside of my standing appointments. These are snatched up by people who don't want a standing appointment, but like to get a massage about once/month. I do keep a waiting list, and if a week comes up where I have an appointment or two available, I call clients who haven't been to see me in a while, and offer the appointment to them. I always fill it easily. (Although sometimes I keep that time free for myself for a much-needed breather).

It takes practice to become comfortable with NOT being able to accommodate every client that calls. It does get easier with time. The people who get angry and/or don't want to book in advance may move onto another MT who has more availability. But they're not the clients you want anyway. You're just one person. You can't be the massage therapist for every person in your town. (Even if you're the best massage therapist in town. :? )

On another thread, you mentioned that you were considering upping your massage hours to 30 per week. Another thing you might consider is hiring another massage therapist to handle your overflow. That way, you don't burn out, but your income still increases.

Lastly, regarding gift certificates, I disagree with Melb. You might want to consider no longer selling them, unless winter's a slow time for your practice. A few years back, I chose to refund a couple of gift certificates because clients couldn't get an appointment with me at all. (These were people who worked during the day and needed a later time slot. However, all of my late appointments were filled with standing regulars.) Since then, I no longer sell a gift certificate unless it's attached to a specific appointment time in my book. I write the appointment on the gift certificate, and let the purchaser know that if the receiver reschedules the appointment, they need to know it might take months before another time becomes available. This obviously means you don't sell gift certificates that aren't redeemed (so no free money anymore) but 90% of my gift certificates always came in for an appointment anyway.

Hope this helps. Take a deep breath! Congratulations on your success!

 

[Angel Unaware]

Thanks for all the replies.

All good suggestions, now let me respond.

I am raising my rates November 1st. My business just turned 2 years old and this is the second time I am raising my rates. I grandfathered my current clients in at the old rate until March 31st, 2007.

At my current location, I have one room and cannot have someone working for me as a therapist. My landlady would charge me extra for that. I am not planning on being in this building forever, but plan on being here at least 2 more years.

I do have a waiting list, in fact this week I had 3 cancelations and was able to fill them very quickly. Having my mom working the phone has made me more busy because I dont have to play phone eforum.xxx and callers who do not want to leave a message reach her. She's practically always around to take the calls when they come in.

I have been telling clients to book 2 months ahead or make a standing appointment. Most of my clients are happy for me that I am doing so well. A few are a little miffed that they cant get in the same week.

Overall, I am happy with how my business is going. I just wish I could have the business of my dreams tomarrow instead of waiting.

 

[PBM seeking RWW]

Overall, I am happy with how my business is going. I just wish I could have the business of my dreams tomarrow instead of waiting.

What's the business of your dreams?

 

[Aamir Zaka Buttar]

The business of my dreams has a bigger building so I can have 2 or 3 practitioners (besides myself), a receptionist on site, beautiful waiting area, off street parking, showers, maybe a hot tup, perhaps a sauna...

I would just settle for a bigger building with more room for one more person to work for me!

 

[X. marK.]

Yes Pete, it is in my lease. I pay $350 for my room, if I want another person to work in there, we would have to draw up another lease. She would have to make another set of keys as well, and I can hear her complaining about that, we have had renters not locking up all the doors. Everyone else in the building is their own boss, no one has an employee.