My massage client had gone to a fancy resort spa with an extraordinary view of the ocean. The spa was world-class. The services were expensive, the atmosphere somewhat reminiscent of a place where Roman emperors might have gone for a holiday.
How was your massage? I asked him when the holiday was over.
I had the guy they said was the best there, my client said, and I probably had the worst massage of my life.
Okay, I was not-so-secretly delighted that the fancy place didn’t measure up. But what was wrong with the massage? Shouldn’t it be pretty good if not better than average?
My client thought so. His masseuse didn’t ask any questions and spent 80 minutes gliding his hands and forearms over his body, impersonal and disconnected. I asked him afterwards why he didn’t work more on my bad spots, my client said. The guy told me oh, you wanted a therapeutic massage. Remind me next time.
Yowza. Great moments in customer service. Of course there would be no next time. I felt bad for my client, worse for my profession. What had gone wrong here? Why would a supposed deep-tissue massage turn into an oil basting? Even more important, why would there be a difference if my client had spoken up and asked for a “therapeutic” massage?
Unimpressed, yes, but it gave us both a moment to consider what a therapeutic massage means. I have been doing massage for 21 years. My client is a connoisseur, having had two to three massages a week for a good 40-plus years.
The person we couldn’t quiz was the spa therapist. Don’t know if he was hung over, injured, overworked or just uncaring. Maybe he didn’t like working on old guys. Maybe he was a Johnny-one-note with a recipe for conserving energy. The great unknown.
Either way, he had insured that my client would never get a massage from this guy ever again. And my client was soured on the resort, too.
To my way of thinking, all massages are therapeutic, he said.
I could not agree with him more. I’ve had great massages from experts to the humble, self-taught therapists. The names of the massages did not matter. The caring connection matters most.
Therapeutic Massage?
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