Therapists
Goodmorning Louisa
I am a Reflexologist and am just beginning to feel established in my practice. Up until now I have offered a course of 6 treatements for the price of 5. This has worked ok for me BUT now I am more or less able to choose when I book clients and so am thinking about closing this offer to new clients. I have found that this offer is not the reason clients choose to come to me!
Do you think this is a good ideas and should I continue to offer it to existing clients only?
Many thanks
Claire
Reply from Louisa
Many thanks for your question. It sounds like things are going really well for you in your practice, which is great to hear.
From what you're saying it seems clear that your clients value you for the level of service you offer, and with that in mind I'd like to offer a few thoughts for you to consider relating to your question, then you can pick which options are right for you.
As you suggest, I would definitely consider only offering the 6 for 5 to regular clients as a kind of loyalty bonus. Using special offers as a tool to get new clients in the door can be a tricky endeavour with very small businesses as it can sometimes tend to attract people who are making their buying decision based primarily on price. Generally speaking that type of customer is less likely to become a regular client. And of course regular clients are really the ones you should be focussing on attracting. As you say that it isn’t the special offer that is actually getting new clients through the door, it may be that the offer may not be appropriate for your new clients or indeed congruent with you and the service you offer in any case.
A great reason to continue the 6 for 5 offer might be to increase your positive cashflow, as you can make paying for all five sessions in advance a condition of the offer (not sure from your query if you're already doing this). However, you might want to consider running the offer only for limited periods, e.g. well before the summer holiday period kicks in when things might otherwise be a little quiet. Again, if you made advance payment a condition of the offer you might be able to create a bit of ‘cashflow buffer’ before the quiet period begins.
Again, as price does not appear to be the deciding factor when people choose you as their therapist, consider raising your prices to reflect the quality of service that you are clearly providing. A less painful way of doing this might be to set a higher price for new clients to come into force on a specific date, but hold your existing price for longer for regular clients, for example, but notifying them of the future change.
Finally, as an alternative or additional option, consider offering a free session as a ‘thank you’ when clients recommend other people to you who subsequently also become clients.
I hope these thoughts are useful – do let us know what you decide to do and how you get on.
Happy marketing! Louisa