Elements Massage

Background

To continually drive its success, Elements Massage follows three key performance factors in all of its studios: attracting new clients, growing membership clients and retaining loyal clients. All three factors rely on providing excellent client satisfaction, explains Kyle Gjersee, chief operating officer. “We know that satisfaction is critical for all clients, both new and long-time members,” says Gjersee. “So we wanted to understand what clients thought about Elements from their first point of contact.” In addition, Elements recognized that because much of the interaction between studio staff and clients is unobservable, the studios had no way to “hear” how clients felt about their treatment. “During a massage, it’s just the client and the therapist,” says Gjersee. “We needed a method for learning more about clients’ experiences.”

Solution

Elements piloted the Listen360 customer feedback system with 15 franchises, and it became so popular that 30 more locations came online in just 60 days. Today, Listen360 is part of every Elements franchise toolkit. “We had several thought-leaders in the first round, and they loved it!” recalls Gjersee. “Listen360 provides an unobtrusive way for us to learn what clients are saying. Without this insight, we couldn’t know how clients feel about their massage or the other points along the studio service path.”

Getting Social

Customer feedback only works if customers provide it, so Listen360 makes it easy, measuring client loyalty with just two questions: “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend?” and an open-ended request for clients to share more about how they feel. Listen360 then organizes Elements’ clients into three categories: “Promoters” are clients who would recommend Elements to friends; “Passives” are neutral; and “Detractors” are those with negative feedback.

MINDBODY Partnership

Next, Listen360’s powerful “Voice of the Customer” (VOC) text analytics automatically scans clients’ comments for key words about likes, dislikes and concerns, aggregates them into meaningful themes, then displays the results on dashboards accessible throughout an organization. Armed with VOC’s precise analysis and insights, Elements studios can proactively address clients’ concerns and take immediate action to resolve them. “When we see the details in clients’ feedback, that’s when we have our ‘a-ha’ moments,” says Gjersee. For example, Gjersee recalls when several long-term clients from one studio location provided “detractor” scores all on the same day. When studio managers viewed the details on the Listen360 dashboards, they saw that those clients had all received a massage from the same therapist, who usually scored high.

Results

“A staff member types a client’s relevant information into MINDBODY, and MINDBODY displays which therapists are good matches for the client, what days the therapists work, and what times are available,” explains Gjersee. “When a client comes in, the scheduled therapist has already looked at the online information and starts to understand his or her massage preferences.

“Now the entire process, including the massage therapy session, is observable by the franchise manager or owner”

“After the transaction, Listen360 automatically sends a feedback request to first-time clients, or quarterly to members. That automation and timeliness of the request are big benefits. We can immediately see how we’re doing from the clients’ perspective and look into any issues quickly,” adds Gjersee. The Elements studio service path includes a series of interactions between the staff and the client, from the first phone call or walk-in, to appointment scheduling, to the initial therapist meeting, and everything in between. “Now the entire process, including the massage therapy session, is observable by the franchise manager or owner,” says Gjersee. “There’s no way we could get all of this information without Listen360.”