Imprinting

Much like ducklings or goslings, who imprint on the first thing they see after they've finished hatching out of the egg, newbie massage clients tend to stick with their first therapist if at all possible. This can be advantageous, naturally...if YOU are their very first massage experience. Unfortunately, it's much more likely that you'll get stuck with someone who is constantly comparing the massage you're giving them with the massage they've become accustomed to, always to your detriment.

Yesterday, however, the unexpected happened.

I did an 80-minute deep-tissue massage on a client who's been coming here since we opened last fall, who received her very first massage EVER from one of my colleagues, and who has been faithful to this other therapist since. She was not thrilled at all to have a different therapist, but I did my thing, and she seemed happy when we were finished, and tipped well.

Later I heard she went up to the front desk to check out and, with a grave expression on her face, stated to the receptionist, "We have a big problem..."

She liked MY massage better! She said she wanted to see me from now on, and was worried about hurting the other therapist's feelings.

Hopefully my colleague won't notice her defection, otherwise it could be awkward between us. Honestly, though, every therapist does his or her massage differently, and there are always going to be clients who prefer one over the other, it's the nature of the business and HUMAN nature, to boot.

So I'm never going to mention this to anyone at work, and hope I can keep flying under the radar, since I'm the low (wo)man on the totem pole at the spa...intentionally poaching clients is a serious no-no, and I don't want folks to get the wrong impression of me.

Hey, I can't help it if I'm good. ;)