iMessage for massage therapists

If you work for yourself, a no-show is not a lost slot — it is an hour of your day you cannot sell, spent waiting. That makes confirmation the single highest-value message in the practice, and it is worth being slightly firmer about it than a bigger business would be.

Confirm in a way that makes cancelling easy

Counter-intuitively, making it easy to cancel reduces no-shows. People who cannot face telling you simply do not turn up; people given a one-letter reply will use it, and you get the hour back with enough notice to fill it.

export const massage = {
  confirm: (c: Ctx) =>
    `${c.name} here — you're booked for ${c.dayDate} at ${c.time}. ` +
    `Reply C to confirm, or R if you need to move it. ` +
    `Plenty of notice is fine, I'd just rather know.`,
 
  dayBefore: (c: Ctx) =>
    `Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow at ${c.time}. ` +
    `${c.parkingNote}`,
 
  rebook: (c: Ctx) =>
    `Hope you're feeling looser. You mentioned ${c.issue} — ` +
    `worth another session in about ${c.weeks} weeks if it's still tight. ` +
    `Want me to pencil something in?`,
};

A cancellation policy you can actually enforce

Most solo therapists have a policy and never apply it, because the conversation is unpleasant. A thread makes it enforceable without confrontation: the policy was stated in writing at booking, and the reminder repeats it.

• State it at booking, once, plainly. Not in the small print of a website nobody read.
• Repeat it in the day-before message. That is the moment it matters.
• Apply it consistently or drop it. A policy enforced on some clients and not others is worse than none.
• Waive it out loud when you choose to. 'Not charging you for this one' buys more goodwill than never having a policy.

For the clinical-adjacent side — treatment plans, home exercises, when not to advise by text — see chiropractors and physio.