I hope this article takes the mystery out of planning a chair massage event for your staff, employees, group, etc.
There are a few questions you need to have answered before you place an order or start reaching out for quotes:
1) How many people in your group want to receive a chair massage?
2) Do you want the massages Scheduled by appointment or Non-Scheduled; a first-come, first served, tag-team approach?
3) What is your budget?
4) How long a massage can each person in your group receive?
5) What is your window of time within which the massages can take place?
1) How many people in your group want to receive a chair massage?
Not everyone in your group will want a chair massage. I know it’s a shocker to realize that not everyone wants to be touched; and that’s OK. I’m sure you are already aware that there people in your group who like some perks more than others. There is no way to guestimate how many people will want massage. There is no formula. Therefore, the best way to find out is to simply ask them, “If we offer free chair massage in the near future, will you sign up?” Or, if you have a rather large organization, you may want to run an in-house survey. Either way, you are going to get a realistic number of participants when you ask.
Perhaps you don’t want to ask because you are wanting the massages to be a surprise. Chair massage should never be a surprise. That never seems to go over very well. Fewer people participate when it’s a surprise. People need to have some advanced notice (even if it is announced just one day before the event). This gives them enough time to psychologically prepare; anticipate around what time they will receive the massage within their work schedules, dress appropriately in order to comfortably straddle the chair, AND, anticipating that they may put their face in the cradle of the massage chair, decide how much make-up they are going to put on that day. So, asking in advance, “Who wants chair massage?”, will actually increase participation.
2) Do you want Scheduled-by-Appointment massages or Non-Scheduled massages?
The answer to this question is based on the organization/company culture of your group and on the type of event you are planning. We recommend massages be scheduled by appointment whenever possible. But it’s only possible if your company work climate is predictable. If your people can’t commit to specific appointment times, then you need to go with the non-scheduled, first-come, first serve, tag-team approach. Also, health fairs, conventions, parties & promotions, by their very nature, are almost always Non-Scheduled events. NOTE: When calculating the approximate amount of time/labor it will take to do a certain number non-scheduled massages, we assume 5 minutes of turn-around time between every massage, giving the therapist enough time to dis-infect the chair, wait for the next participant to get in the chair and acclimate each participant to the chair massage experience (i.e. insure informed consent).
3) What is your budget?
Only you know the answer to that question.
4) How long a massage can each person in your group receive?
Knowing your budget (as well as how many poeple want the massages) will help you determine how long the massages can be.
5) What is your window of time within which the massages can take place?
Most on-site chair massage companies require a 2-hour minimum. And we are no exception. However, please note that we charge the lowest rate per hour per therapist when you have each therapist work 4 or more consecutive hours. Knowing your budget, how many, how long, and your window of time, will also help you determine how many massage therapists it will take to provide the anticipated number massages within your window of time.
Once you have a good idea as to the answers to the above questions, it’s time for you to start shopping around.
We’ve made it very easy for you to figure out all the possible arrangements and prices, given your known parameters, with our Quick Quote / Order Form page at https://orders.seizethedaymassage.com/
You can “play with” our Quick Quote Feature all you want; you’re not committing to anything. You aren’t even commtting to anything when you fill out our on-line order form (though you do need to do that to get the ball rolling). Nothing is official until you sign an agreement. And we’ll do that the easy way with Docusign.