Advice on wording please!

lesbian 4life · Feb 27, 2012

Hi There,

Recently I have been having a run of male clients phoning me up on a Friday and asking if I offer more than a massage... [

]they say they came across my website. It really baffles me as to why they assume I do this sort of thing [sm=confused-smiley-012.gif] if you look at my websiteit states that I am anITEC qualified professional massage therapist. I need to put something on the home page to try and stop these male callers contacting me about offering extra's,I findthis so distastefull andits really getting on my nerves. Please can some of you helpful HP'ers kindly advice me on what sort of wording I could use to prevent these pervey callers, will be much appreciated.

Pompal 09. · Feb 27, 2012

Hi Jill,

I had a phone call from a man last week (number withheld of course) who told me his WIFE had picked up one of my leaflets from the clinic I where I work, and he was reading the leaflet about Massage Therapy, and wondered, "Did I offer sexual relief?"

Where do they get the idea from?? Who knows. I also state that I am a qualified and insured Massage Therapist, nothing in my leaflet is in any way ambigous, and it is from a Chiropractic clinic. Maybe some people just think they will ask just in case?

I think somebody on another similar thread has suggested actually adding on the leaflet/website that there is nothing sexual about Massage Therapy, or something of that kind. I have considered removing my mobile number from my work leaflets, but on consideration, I have decided to just educate the weirdos!!

Good luck

Karen

CloudTheMan · Feb 27, 2012

I think that was a good suggestion kpuk made, to add a little something that states that massage isn't a sexual thing... or at least yours aren't. Maybe you can write out the benifits of massage, and add a sentence about how it isn't sexual to the end.

Shahnn · Feb 27, 2012

Hi Kpuk,
Like I say Im completely baffled [&:]and you work in a chiropractic clinic?? I think I read somewhere on here that even therapists that do baby massage still get unsavoury callers.... im lost for words really[sm=scratchchin.gif]thanks x

Any other helpfull comments please???

Blue Disc Fairy · Feb 27, 2012

Hi Guys!

I added this on to my website Home Page:

Notice To Male Inquirers: No requests of a sexual nature please!

Do you think that will do the trick? does it sound ok?

ErrortNet · Feb 27, 2012

not sure I would like to read that if I was a genuine male client, what does the male members of HP think?

I was the one re: baby massage, I had a spate of calls.

I state on my contact page that my home number has been removed due to a spate of late night unwanted calls.

I also state that due to safety reasons I do not treat male clients for home visits but they are welcome to make an appointment at the clinic.

It really is a tricky one this and it doesn't help when you trawl free ad sites on the internet and ads for sexual massage are next to genuine massage therapists. I can spot the genuine therapists a mile off as a therapist myself but Joe Bloggs probably doesn't.

Its strange that the spate of calls resulted in one of my ads going live on the net.

misserinbabey · Feb 27, 2012

Personally myself, I wouldn't put"Notice To Male Inquirers: No requests of a sexual nature please!" on the Homepage, I'd place that inside one of the pages relating to massage. I would then re-word it to "Notice ToAll Inquirers: No requests of a sexual nature please!"

JDHolistic, I thought that if you add this statementbgproperties="fixed" to your <BODY> TAG, it would be a lil better for viewers/visitors to your site. Abackground that moves when you scroll the page is not always ideal for most websites.

Example:
<BODY BGCOLOR="####" BACKGROUND="####.jpg" TEXT="####" LINK="####" VLINK="####" ALINK="####" OnLoad="window.defaultStatus='####'" bgproperties="fixed">

#### = your own information.

XY GTHO · Feb 27, 2012

Leaving the techie stuff to others, I have to say that I don't think that looks at all good, and it's way down the homepage anyway.

In the meantime, there is some other wording there which, IMHO, could be changed so that your red notice may not be so necessary.

May I therefore respectfully suggest that:

could be misinterpreted by seekers of 'extras'. I would suggest you reword in a way whichmight perhapsinclude words like "professional", "qualified", "therapeutic", to suggest a different image.

Further down you say:

Yeah, like somewhere away from my wife!

While making edits, youmight also change your banner heading, which is grammatically incorrect:

"For Treatments of Complementary Therapies." should be "with Complementary Therapies", rather than 'of'. Because you don't treat a therapy, you treat a client.

As it's a heading, remove the full stop. Spelling errors also detract from a professional image, viz:

benifits. = benefits
occaisionally = occasionally
helpfull – helpful (one L)

If you still feel a red notice of some sort is necessary, then I'd agree with not discriminating in print against male clients, but perhaps making it a little less bald, while still getting the message across, eg:

"Please note that, as stated above, I am a professional, qualified massage therapist, and sexual services are not on offer.Ever. So please don't even ask."

Hope this helps.

Holistic

Gorgious · Feb 27, 2012

I would say it sounds ok as long as you offer sexual services to women... Although I haven't had any women ask for sexual services, I do know a female MT that has. I like Holistic's suggestion above.

TerraL · Feb 27, 2012

Hi guys,

Thanks for your helpful comments. I will make a few adjustments with regards to Holistics suggestions, thanks for pointing out the spelling errors btw. I think your suggestion sounded better than what Iwrotein red bold. I really had no ideawhat sort of wording I could have in place without upsetting geniune men.
trow, I dont offer sexual services to women either... ha ha!

Sorry Dazsnake, Im not much good when it comes to putting in codes, they never seem to work for me [&:][sm=angry-smiley-035.gif]
I would welcome a bit more help with this if you dont mind that is. Thanks.

insider · Feb 27, 2012

I would never include a word like sexual on a webpage - people use search engines to find websites so they type in sexual massage, if your site includes therapeutic massage ... no sexual services it will appear in the search results, unfortunately words like release also get searched for. They don't bother reading the context of the word they are searching for eg release those tight muscles or even a release form from your doctor they just know release is on there somewhere and make the call.

Printed material it's not such an issue, search engines aren't a concern, people have to be reading the page so they will see the context it is used in. Search results, many people think that the results are for what they are thinking of and don't bother reading past the phone number.

With unknown callers, I don't engage them in conversation, pretty much before they say anything, I will ask, "when would you like an appointment?" quite often they reply today or tomorrow, and I reply "sorry, I've nothing until 2 or 3 days time", they'll mutter something about not knowing their schedule and that's the end of the phone call. I know I am missing out on some genuine callers that did too much gardening over the wekend and need a treatment asap on Monday, but I know I am not getting into conversations with people looking for extras hoping for an appointment today, and unfortunately I've experienced more of those than the anxious weekend gardner calls. Virtually talking over the top of them at the start of the calls means no-one is wasting much time. A while ago I thought maybe I was being a bit too abrupt, so for a week I didn't start the call with "when would you like an appointment?" I let them talk - ALL of them lead into discussions about draping, what exactly is massaged, how they're not shy, they wanted a massage that day, they didn't know their schedule to be able to book in advance, in various combinations.I like seeing clients that are happy to rebook when when they see me, I don't want a client base of people that don't know their schedules that will justmake an appointment when they feel like it. Not giving same day appointments, I'm eliminating some of those type of clients I don't want even before I see them. On top of that, people looking for extras are usually looking for something sooner rather than planning a fewdays in advance. There are exceptions to this rule, but the average person looking for extras, wants some extras asap.

I used to have polite conversations and try and educate them, but I think people looking for extras, are looking for extras, they're not looking for education, they've got extras on their mind and that's what they want to organise, education that massage can be a professional non-sexual service isn't going to be absorbed, their brain is thinking of something else.

If you get no appointments available for at least 48hrs into the call asap, that ends any discussion about what they can expect. Get the name of a sports massage clinic near you and offer them that number if they are in pain. No-one has ever died because they didn't get a massage today or tomorrow, people can wait, or go to a clinical sports massage facility if they can't wait.

I just view people looking for extras as people looking for a service I don't provide, there are a lot of people that do provide extras and they aren't difficult to find.

buy levitra on-line · Feb 27, 2012

It's fairly easy to change the code for the Body Tag.

At the moment, your BODY TAG, near the top of the Document, reads as:
<body id="homepage">

Simply replace that line with:
<BODY id="homepage" bgproperties="fixed" OnLoad="window.defaultStatus='Harmony Mind & Body - Massage Therapist In Essex'">

I also noticed your TITLE TAG has a little error (TITLE TAG is directly above BODY TAG on the page):
<title>Harmony Mind & Body - MassageTherapist In Essex</title>

You need to add a space between Message & Therapist
<title>Harmony Mind & Body - Massage Therapist In Essex</title>

Ahsan · Feb 27, 2012

You are quite right cola, thank you for your helpful reply.
I have now removed the red notice to male inquirers, and to be honest I didnt really like using the word sexual on my website anyway. So instead I will heed your advice when answeringcalls.
Its been very helpful to me as always asking for advice on here. Thanks guys x

Tshilidzi · Feb 27, 2012

Hi Jill
Looking at your home page, you state that you work both earlyand late. I think this could be reworded to early evening, working late is often interpreted wrongly :-)

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mamma.austin · Feb 27, 2012

Thanks to Daisychain for pointing me to this thread, as I posted something similar in Indian Head Massage last night after one of "those" calls! I was surprised to receive such an enquiry when I only advertise IHM and reflexology. I will recheck my wording in my adverts and website, but don't think there was anything too misleading..............

It seems that it may just be an occupational hazard (which I naively wan't expecting with IHM!) and it was interesting to read that this is even a problem with baby massage. It was also interesting to read that male therapists get similar calls. I guess these people have tunnel vision and only see the word massage, but there has been useful discussion here on how innocuous statements can be misconstrued.

Joonks · Feb 27, 2012

My wife was a bit fed-up yesterday after receiving another call in which, when she said she would take a message for her husband, the caller said: "0h! Is it a man? I'm not interested then..."
She was asking what it was about my (actually our) website that was ambiguous. Of course, the answer is nothing. It's quite clear that I am a man (there's a picture!). I think, though, that this is irrelevant. People like that find numbers through web searches and won't waste time checking personal websites. I'm on a number of reputable directories that give me a good show on the internet, but I've decided to stop advertising on free sites such as vivastreet, as I'm pretty convinced that they are the source of these calls.

Barbara · Feb 27, 2012

it is amazing how many spam emails I have been getting offering me viagra

didnt think to much of it until a collegue said she had been getting them to since she started advertising massage on her website

mine is still in progress but I am on the embody website and that comes up with google

hemelgirl

qhkvujuf · Feb 27, 2012

The amount of calls I get asking how much a treatment costs ... they look at the site, but don't bother to read most of it!

I can usually guess when the new Yellow Pages is out ... the call volume jumps up for dodgy calls for a week or two.

Mat

Expecting First Child · Feb 27, 2012

It does appearto happen alot for massage therapists, going by all the replies here. The downside is I guess we will have to live with it, and as you say sparkie its bit of an "occupational hazard".

I will re-word some of the text on my website, but I still dont think it will stop those calls, cos obviously just the word massage gets misconstrued doesnt it?

I had another one of those calls yesterday, number was withheld and he sounded a bit iffy, he asked ...you do a full body massage and all that do you? I replied...yes, a full body massage,without extra's! he said ....oh ok, and put the phone down.

MissAnnMai · Feb 27, 2012

That's just because you have an email address on a website - there programs that go visit every website and just make a list of anything with something@something particularly if it is an active link where the code behind it says "mailto", which is how 99% of email address on a website show up.
2 ways to avoid it - a contact form on your website rather than showing your email, they have to use a submit button OR disguise your email (either as javascript, though the scrapers are getting more savvy to that, decode some letters (m as the m in mailto helps), or just put somewhere at somewhere and let people type the @ in)
The other thing you need to do, which seems to defeat the purpose of having an email, is not list your email on websites where it is not disguised, only include your website, no email address, unless the site uses a contact form rather than displaying your email address (check other listings to see how the contacts work), this means don't put your email address in any text on a message board (this is why many message boards no longer display email addresses) You can put your email address on any printed material, it's just you don't want it undisguised on websites (and many directory listings are undisguised)

If you're already getting spam, you're probably better of giving up on the email address, it is out there on spam lists already, get another email address and keep it clean - use info@something or contact@something, or whatever...

Advice on wording please!

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