the Massage Envy of Chair Massage?

[Cam]

We do 20X the wellness volume in appreciation events.Partly because that is what we target. We can do 20 - 60 hours in a single appreciation event, which is 6-12 months of wellness work at a single client.You have to find someone willing to own this aspect of the wellness initiative. They have to want to spend the time sending out emails, making up a schedule, collecting payment,  reserving the room, escorting you to the room, cancelling everyone if you are sick, etc.Not many people want to do that much work for a relatively small part of their job.And if you are sick, that takes a lot of steam out of the initiative. People won't sign up until they see you are there. We had one client who could never book the first hour of a visit because on three straight occasions three different therapists could not get there on time with a week's notice of the event. Most corporate types can't and won't re-arrange their schedule last minute, but they are perfectly happy to No Show on you without paying.Also, we have yet to have a wellness client whose employees are as enthusiastic about our program as the HR contact is. Everyone of our wellness clients said "We do this now, and the therapist is booked four hours solid everytime the come" (they called us because their current provider is leaving for some reason)Not one of them has come close to fulfiling that hype.Wellness work is the best way for a sole practioner to operate, but it is the hardest chair work there is.

 

[MummyToBe-5th.April.2010]

the Massage Envy of Chair Massage?

But because Infinite Massage and their ilk are too timid to charge what is it worth, Fortune 500 companies think it should be $1/minute everywhere by every practitioner.

Relaxandrejuvenate - You really have some nerve "bad-mouthing" Infinite Massage on this topic.  I'm not sure why you targeted Infinite, except that you're a competitor and you're trying to compromise our standing in the massage community.

I'm a co-founder of Infinite Massage and to the best of my knowledge we pay some of the highest rates to our Massage Therapists among national chair massage companies.  There are many other companies out there who pay much less than we do - so maybe you should direct your remarks somewhere else.

Pricing of chair massage (or any service for that matter) is a tricky business.  Two factors have to be considered: (1) It has to be worth the provider's time  (2) It has to affordable to the consumer.  Regional cost of living variations also have to be taken into account.  It's much more expensive to live in San Francisco than Houston, for example - and the price of chair massage reflects that difference.

The fact is, cost is frequently a "make or break" factor in whether or not companies will decide to provide chair massage at all.  This is a free market and the market determines the cost.  If we're able to charge more for a job, we pass that on directly to the therapists.  But very often, corporate budgets are tight and even small adjustments can make the difference between an expenditure being approved or not. We would much rather be able to offer our therapists the work than to lose it because the expense could not be approved by management.

Relaxandrejuvinate, my suspicion is that you're trying to lead individual practitioners into an unrealistic appraisal of the chair massage market.   The truth is - one of the best ways solo practitioners can get their "foot in the door" is by offering a better rate than the competition. Advising individual massage therapists to charge more than the market will bear only serves your interest as owner of a chair massage company.