My mother-in-law (whom I adore) is a disaster magnet. It’s nothing she does. Stuff just happens.
Whiteouts. Wildland fires. Elk.
After seventy years she has her disaster management down to a science. She can throw her stuff into the car and be down the road in under 25 minutes. In addition to her essentials, she is always sure to pack her address book, a phone book, and her cell phone with an extra battery.
In other words, she is well-prepared to maintain contact with people who care about her and also with people she needs.
If you don’t have a plan for keeping your clients in the loop if and when your practice experiences a disaster, now is the time.
Soon we’ll be in the season of burst pipes and collapsed roofs. Never mind the high flammability of things in the Pacific Northwest right now.
If you have to close down your practice for even a week, how will you keep your clients in the loop? How will you care for them while you’re repairing your place — or looking for a new one? And how will you bring your clients back to you when your practice is up and running again?
What’s your massage practice marketing plan for disaster recovery?
Basic Steps for Right Now
- Get all your clients’ current emails and addresses.
- Check periodically to make sure the contact information is still good. Send an email to check that they can receive emails from you. Or send a postcard mailing with 1st Class postage so if their address has changed, you’ll get the postcard back with the corrected address.
- Keep a copy of your client contact lists in a place other than your studio — at home, in a safety deposit box — and be sure to update it weekly.
- Think about how you will keep in contact with clients if disaster befalls your practice. Start a blog? Will you email them all? Can you email them all? Some email accounts won’t let you send emails to more than 25 people at a time. Know these things before you are under serious stress.
- Make at least a minimal effort to maintain a rapport with local news media — whether it’s radio, newspaper, health issues blogger with a decent following. Whomever. If you suffer a disaster, you will need someone with a bigger voice who is willing to readily support you.
- Be a friendly neighbor. If your practice has smoke damage, will the salon down the block give you a “friends and family” deal on a temporary room? Look in your neighborhood for places that would be okay in a pinch. Bring over a couple lattés once a month and have a little chin wag. Can’t hurt.
Marketing After the Disaster
- Contact your clients. Tell them what happened, your current plans and how you are going to keep in contact with them.
- Keep in contact. Blogs, emails, twitter, phone trees, whatever works. Do it. Do it regularly. Make people part of the process.
- Get the story out. Disaster is newsworthy. When you get your story on the radio/newspaper/newsletter, make every effort to ensure the story includes ways for your clients (current and potential) to be updated on your progress.
- Don’t whine about frustrations to your clients. That’s what your friends and forums are for.
- If you’re down for a long time (a month+) create ways so your clients can still see you and still get a taste of your healing services and so you can continue to market your massage practice. Set up a chair at a coffee house or gym or park. Be adopted by an other practice that has a free room on odd days. Anything to keep yourself on your clients’ radar.
- When you reopen (even if it’s only been two weeks) make it a big deal. Make it newsworthy. You overcame challenges and you want to celebrate and thank everyone for their support. Right? Have a BBQ or potluck or outdoor movie night. Invite your clients and everyone else who helped: city employees, the fire department, the plumber, other therapists.
As I wrote this entry it was very hard to stick to just marketing topics for disaster preparedness. Of course, you need to think about your practice and insurance and customer care and all that kind of stuff.
I did a little searching and found three relevant entries on my new favorite blog. They are Planning for the train wreck before it happens, How your top 10 clients can impact your disaster recovery, and What can you learn from a business disaster.
All my best,
Eileen
