The importance of communication in charging for additional services

I personally charge the same for everything I do at my office. I’ve never thought that anyone should have to pay more because their body needed a different kind of work (ie. charging more for deep tissue massage). I add on aromatherapy sometimes, and sometimes there’s…whatever I come up with. That’s my gig.

Adding on services or a modality to your massage is totally fine, but if you charge, you better let your client know ahead of time it will cost more.

(Heck yeah, I’d pay extra for an Aroma-nap after a massage. As long as I knew there was a fee first. Putting on your menu or online would be a fab idea.)

I worked on a client today who had just come back from vacation. As I work on him every week, he got a massage while he was gone. It was hands-on, but that was all that was available.

The therapist told him that it wouldn’t be as deep as barefoot massage, and he was ok with that. Because he told her he sees someone who’s been a massage therapist for 20 years and has been teaching for ages, she got a little worried about what he was expecting.

Telling him she was going to do myofascial work, she pulled out her tools and started scraping (Gua Sha or Graston).

You know we’re all pretty much a little mentally slow relaxed after a massage, right?

Imagine his surprise when he looked at his receipt later to discover that she had charged him an additional fee for scraping.

It reminded me of a time when I was on vacation and went to get a massage. I normally don’t tell massage therapists what I do for a living, because it tends to make newer therapists nervous. But if they ask, I do tell them. (As a brand new therapist, I was a Nervous Nellie when I worked on massage therapists, so I totally understand where that comes from.)

This particular therapist had been an aesthetician for a long time but had only recently gotten her massage license and was much more comfortable giving facials to a massage therapist than giving massage.

When she offered to give me a facial too, she did not mention an add-on fee. I assumed that she was doing in instead of massage. Yet she tacked on a fee, which I discovered when she charged me.

I was really upset, which ruined the whole session and since I was not about to confront her after the massage, I let it slide.  (But 15 years I’m still mad about it. LOL.)

Is that the impression you want to leave on your clients? I’d rather them remember my massage 15 years later because I gave them the best doggone massage they’d ever had.

That bad press is something I can do without. You know people tell their friends ALL the bad experiences, right?

Don’t ruin your client’s session by adding on fees and not asking them first that it’s ok.

Respect their time. Respect their money.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Find out what it means to me
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Take care, TCB
Oh (sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me)
-Otis Redding & Aretha Franklin


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2 thoughts on “The importance of communication in charging for additional services

  1. Yes, My AromaNap and herbal steam bath add-on services also add time to the service so I definitely have them listed on my website and online booking site to clearly communicate. I wouldn’t want to make clients late for other obligations either! So much to consider in order to give exceptional client/customer service.

  2. Great post!
    One thing that I do is to include in my email reminders that they can upgrade their session by adding aromatouch or a steam treatment and include the rates for those add-ons.