Our Valentine's Day Promotion: Behind the Scenes

Before today, we had a very simple online gift certificate sales system. It looks like this: CLICK HERE. Our gift cards are made from Vistaprint business cards with the appointment reminder back side changed up to look more like a gift card. (250 for $3.99 versus paying $1+ per gift certificate elsewhere on the same site).

Marble Falls Massage Therapy Center Gift Cards

Being the size of a business card makes for really cool gift presentations (in flower arrangements, greeting cards, stuffed animals, etc). Plus smaller size also makes it easy to keep in your wallet, which clients report they appreciate.

Our system is very simple. Our website has a main page dedicated to purchasing gift certificates. This page shows an image of each gift certificate with a PayPal button underneath with a simple form for the purchaser to complete "To & From" prior to check out. Once we received the e-mail of their payment we mailed the appropriate gift certificate and new client brochure to the recipient specified during check out. This gave us contact information for both purchaser and recipient that went into our database for future marketing promotions.

It works okay. What we found is that people like to wait until the last minute to purchase gift certificates for Holidays and 90% of the time a gift certificate purchased online and put in the mail will miss it's intended deadline. So we end up needing someone in the office for clients to swing by and pick up the gift certificates they purchased online. Online gift certificates sales are supposed to be more convenient than in-store gift certificate sales. That's the whole point.

A lot of massage businesses take advantage of printable gift certificates on their websites. And I started to look into this more and more. So we are trying something new today and tomorrow. Sticking to what I know and understand (very little on the interwebs), I stuck with my handy dandy PayPal buttons. I created a new internal page on my website for a special Two Day Couples Massage Sale with a PayPal button for the offer amount. In the programming of the PayPal button code I have it written to redirect to a hidden page on my website upon completion. This hidden page has a large image of a blank Gift Certificate partially completed with the item on sale (in this case a One Hour Couples Massage), the expiration (one year from Valentine's Day), and my authorizing signature.

After the purchaser prints their gift certificate they can personalize the card with the To: and From: sections. Going from buying to printing to gifting in seconds! Now, there is nothing unique about the gift certificate image on this page and nothing stopping someone from printing a million of them. To ensure a gift certificate coming in for redemption has actually been paid for I have included a line on the gift certificate image that says "Email Used At Check-Out". If a gift certificate is missing this line it can not be redeemed.

We've promoted this new concept on our facebook and to our email contact list. I'll post a follow up blog to let everyone know if it was successful. 

Their is also a note about how I would like for them to schedule and our cancellation policy on the gift certificate image.

Spanish & English Intake Forms!

A big huge gigantic thank you to Martha McDermott of the Aromatherapy Shoppe in Virginia Beach, VA for proofing my Google Translated intake forms. She found quite a few context errors for me. Below you will find two images. One of our newly revised (and hopefully error free!) Spanish intake form and the other one our new English intake form. All of the information all matches up for quick and easy reference.

You are welcome to use this to create your own Spanish intake forms with your company's information. But please, if you plan on using any of the translations in the following images please go to Martha's Facebook page and give her company a "Like" as a thank you. They are a brand new business and she was so kind to take time out of her busy schedule to correct my translations on her cell phone!!!

 So here you go:

Spanish Intake Form

English Intake Form

Spanish for Massage Therapists: Part 1

Being that our office is in Texas, the next chapter of our Center's development is the addition of Spanish health intake forms and brochures to offer our services to a wider population pool. We are also planning on creating a Spanish version of our website down the road. 

Our Progress So Far:
I took a few years of Spanish in high school. I have tried several "teach yourself Spanish" systems. But I am by no means fluent in the language. So, God bless Google Translate for the majority of our work so far. I translated our existing English intake form, word-for-word and phrase-for-phrase when necessary, and then emailed a proof to my Spanish speaking friend who is also a massage therapist for review. When we hear back from her we will create matching intake forms in both languages for easy comparison.

We have taken extra precaution to see that both forms meet the Texas Department of State Health Services Consultation Checklist as required by law.


Next Steps:
When asked if they would feel comfortable communicating with clients who spoke a different language, both of my therapists responded "Absolutely! I mostly talk with my hands anyways!" But for added convenience, I will be posting a series of blog posts to teach our staff (and anyone else who reads these) some common phrases and terminology that may help us better communicate with Spanish speaking clients. Google Translate is a great thing. You can push a button and it will pronounce the word for you. [Please note we are still learning and there may be errors below. If you spot an error please let everyone know in the comment section so we don't perpetuate false information]

Very Basic Phrases:
Hello! My name is _________________                      
Hola! Mi nombre es __________________

Pardon my Spanish. I am learning.
Perdonen mi español. Estoy aprendiendo.

Good morning!

¡Buenos días!

 

Good afternoon!

¡Buenas tardes!

 

Good evening!

¡Buenas noches!

 

Thank you.

Muchas gracias.

You are welcome.

De nada.

 

Who: ¿Quién?

What: ¿Que?

When: ¿Cuándo?
Where: ¿Donde?

Why: ¿Por qué?

How: ¿Cómo?

 

Intake Questions & Possible Responses

How can I help you?

¿Cómo puedo ayudarle?

 

I need a massage.

Necesito un masaje.

 

Half hour: medio hora

Hour: hora

Hour & a half: hora y un medio

 

Please complete this form.

Por favor completa este formulario.

 

 Where do you have pain?

¿Dónde tiene el dolor?

 

Head: cabeza
Neck: cuello
Back: espalda
Shoulder: hombro

Arm: brazo
Elbow: codo

Hand: mano

Abdomen: abdomen

Hips: caderas

Leg: pierna

Knee: rodilla

Feet: pies

For how long?

¿Por cuánto tiempo? 

 

1: uno

2: dos

3: tres

4: cuatro

5: cinco

6: seis

7: siete

8: ocho

9: nueve

10: diez

days: días

weeks: semanas

months: meses

years: años

 

Do you have any allergies?

¿Tiene alergias? 

 

Peanuts: cacahuates

Fragrance: fragancia 

Pollen: polen

Seasonal: estacional

Cats: los gatos

   

Are you pregnant?

¿Está embarazada?

 

Yes: Sí

No: No

 

How many months?

¿Cuántos meses? 

 

1: uno

2: dos

3: tres

4: cuatro

5: cinco

6: seis

7: siete

8: ocho

9: nueve

10: diez

 

I anticipate a fair amount of confusion in the beginning. If I do not understand a word they are saying I can ask that they write down a response so I may enter it into Google Translate. So the following phrase may be the most important:

Please, write it down.

Anótelo por favor.

My initial thinking is that medications will be a brand name that we may recognize, but we won't really know until we start seeing more Spanish speaking clients come in. If you have any suggestions or comments please leave them below.

In the next post we will learn more about possible client/therapist dialogue.