Massage therapists don't need to be in the field for long before they realize how important the telephone is to our profession. It is a vital link to scheduling appointments. Yet many therapists are faced with the problem of missing incoming telephone calls. Often callers will reach an answering machine and hang up without leaving a message. The caller may be in pain, or simply in need of information, and will thumb through the yellow pages, calling every therapist in town, until they reach a human voice. The situation can be frustrating, to say the least, because the massage therapist simply cannot give a massage and answer the telephone at the same time. How many times have you heard the telephone ring just as you began a massage, and knew that it would be at least one hour before you could return the call, providing you were lucky enough to have a message waiting for you after the massage? By not answering the telephone, the therapist misses out on scheduling potential new clients, and regular clients who may be in pain and in need of immediate care. So what options are there for using the telephone to gain more appointments?

One option would be to hire someone to answer your telephone. However, this option can be expensive for the self-employed therapist, and often not financially possible. Hiring an employee involves interviewing, training, payroll, taxes, and more headaches. In addition, you will need to find someone with a pleasant, helpful voice, who is dependable and can schedule appointments efficiently.

If you are considering this option, I would recommend hiring the employee part-time to start, during peak telephone times only, and then record how many calls were received during the time the phone was answered, and how many appointments resulted from those calls. This will give you a good idea as to whether or not having an employee answer your telephone will increase your business. If, for example, you hire an employee to work 10 hours per week, for $10 per hour, costing you $100 (plus taxes), and the employee schedules eight new clients per week at $55 each appointment ($440 revenue), than it is worth paying the employee to answer your telephone.

If you don't want to bother with hiring an employee for your business, a second option would be to utilize a telephone answering service. This, too, can be expensive for the self-employed therapist, but is certainly worth investigating. Although you can find one in your local telephone directory, I recommend looking for a telephone answering service that caters to the massage field. One company, called My Receptionist, offers this service. The costs entails a $30 monthly basic service charge, plus between .40-.70 cents for each incoming and outgoing call, fax or email. The highlights of this service are that your telephone is answered, using your business name, whenever you want it to be, appointments are scheduled for you, questions about your business are answered (such as your hours, location, and fees), and you can even have the service sell your gift certificates for an additional fee. My Receptionist offers a free trial period, if you want to explore this option.

A third option for gaining more appointments via your telephone, is an option that doesn't cost you anything other than a few minutes of your time, a pleasant voice, and an answering machine with mailbox options, or a voicemail system.

An answering machine with mailboxes, or a voicemail system, allows you to give the caller various amounts of information that they may be calling for in the first place. A large number of callers want to know basic information, such as if you are open, if you have appointments available for that day, what your hours are, where you are located, and what your fees are. By using mailboxes, you can direct the caller to a specific mailbox where they can obtain the information they need and then leave you a message.

Here's an example of an answering machine, or voicemail message: “Thank you for calling Professional Massage Associates. Today is Monday, November 5th. We are open and we do have appointments available for today, however we are currently assisting clients at this time. If you would like information regarding office hours and directions, press 1; for information regarding our services and rates, press 2; or you may leave a message after the tone and we will call you back shortly. Thank you.”

After pressing 1, the message is: “We are conveniently located at 7 Wells Street in Saratoga Springs. From the north end of Broadway at the Sheraton Hotel, turn left onto Van Dam Street, go six blocks and turn right onto Wells Street. We are the third building on the left. Our office hours are Monday through Friday, 9 am to 7 pm, and Saturdays 9 am to 2 pm. If you would like to leave a message now, we will call you back shortly. Thank you”. (It is important that you create simple directions).

After pressing 2, the message is: “Our services include Professional Massages at $35 per half hour and $55 per hour; Foot Reflexology Treatments at $55 per one hour; Cranio-Sacral Therapy at $65 for 75 minutes; Hot Stone Massage at $75 for one hour and $100 for 90 minutes; European Facials at $55; Chinese Herbal Consultations at $50, and Acupuncture Treatments at $60 each. We offer gift certificates and accept master card and visa. If you would like to leave a message now, we will call you back shortly. Thank you”.

Note that I stated the current date at the beginning of the message, (which you will naturally change every day) because it immediately told the caller that we were open, checking messages, and had appointments available that day. By adding this information to your answering machine or voicemail system (I use Verizon), you should see an immediate increase in the number of messages left on your machine.