Mobile Therapists

[*Rachie*]

Hello ladies,

I wondered if any of you have the same issues as I do with regards to being mobile, and how you've managed to overcome the situation?

I have been a mobile beauty therapist for approx 1 year now and really love my job!
However, do any of you ever find that you turn up to a client's house, you've set everything up & are good to go waiting for your client to sit or lie down, and then they say 'ohh I've just got to put my dinner on / get changed out of my work clothes / feed the cat / start texting my friends / Do my washing'....
This seems to happen to me A LOT! I wonder if people realise it's your time they're wasting while you're sat in their house really late at night wanting to get home to your family or eat some dinner! Haha.

If any of the above does happen to you, how do you deal with that situation!? Because I feel really awkward and always just end up saying 'ok!'

Thank you in advance geeks

XxX

 

[caxtonsarah]

Hi, I don't have this problem but thought i'd reply anyway.

Normally when I get in the front door I just say "right, it'll just take me a few minutes to set" and that then acts as a reminder to people that they have a few minutes to do what they need to do. Normally by the time i'm ready, they're ready.

It must be a pain, esp as it's happening to you alot.

 

[Faylizzie]

I say yeah that's fine however it'll have to come out of your treatment time as my next appointment is at xyz, tends to get them on the bed very quickly
I also state in my T&Cs that for every 15 minutes the appointment runs over due to them keeping me waiting they will be charged an extra £5.00 on top of their treatment total. Xxxxx

 

[*Rachie*]

Thanks for the advice ladies!
It's usually my late appointments that do it more than most as they probably expect that I don't have any other appointments to go to after 8pm at night.

I will try that next time though (the 'right i'll only be a couple of minutes' line) and mention that if their appointment overruns I will have to charge them extra.

I arrived at my 8:20pm appointment last night & didn't start until 8:50pm! By the time she'd got up in-between me prepping her nails etc I didn't finish until 11pm

 

[Belle Vie]

Thanks for the advice ladies!
It's usually my late appointments that do it more than most as they probably expect that I don't have any other appointments to go to after 8pm at night.

I will try that next time though (the 'right i'll only be a couple of minutes' line) and mention that if their appointment overruns I will have to charge them extra.

I arrived at my 8:20pm appointment last night & didn't start until 8:50pm! By the time she'd got up in-between me prepping her nails etc I didn't finish until 11pm

Oh my goodness, 11pm finish for a 8.20pm appointment, that's really not on, poor you! I think it might be helpful to try to work out why a client might not be valuing your time as they should.

What is your pricing like? Do you give guide times at the time of booking? ('ok xyz, so that's your booking confirmed for x date x time for a x treatment, that should take no longer than x minutes....).

How are you communicating with your clients? Are you quite casual in texts/facebook etc or are you alway being as professional as you could be?

If you have repeat offenders are there any ways to prevent it? e.g. if you have a client who has to keep putting a child back to bed, could you say something when booking next appointment in along the lines of 'is there a better time for you when you can have an extra pair of hands to help out with the kids' or for persistent texters something like 'sorry, I'm going to need that hand now but you can have then back in a few minutes to once we're finished' sometimes just addressing it is enough to make them realise.

Are you a little bit too much of a 'people pleaser' so that people think they can get away with anything because you'll just say 'oh that's ok' ?

Do you reconfirm appointments or give them a quick call/text when you are on your way? Could that help?

Just a few ideas to get you thinking

 

[Lissylou]

I had a client once tootling up the road after finishing work. Then when I set up she said I will just have to walk to the shop to get some cash whilst I stood waiting . Then when she got back she then said she won't be long getting ready but needed a quick shower. Was so annoyed I was in shock. I try and tell them to be ready but it must have slipped my mind on this occasion. Then to top it off I couldn't get my tent down! One of them days.lol x