Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
Every float center owner has to deal with customers who get, maybe, a little overenthusiastic about the float experience. What is the best way to deal with customers who say things that are just patently false about the benefits of floating? Do you just let it slide? Do you correct them and potentially offend your customer? It’s not their fault, they’re just excited. It doesn’t seem right to punish them.
This is definitely a tightrope walk type of conversation and it can have an impact on your customers and your reputation as a business, as well as the whole industry. As stewards of the tank, Graham and Ashkahn offer their advice on how best to have this difficult conversation and offer some resources to help with it as well.
Show Resources
FTS Blog – A Skeptic’s Guide to Floating
FTS Product – About Float Tanks Guide (Free)
FTS Product – Scientific Research List (Free)
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Graham: Today’s question is, ”what do you do when your customers say blatantly wrong things about the benefits of floating?”
Ashkahn: Yeah, this happens. It’s not fun, it’s not a fun situation. I wouldn’t put this in the category of good times, you know.
Graham: Yeah, yep, yep. So there’s many situations this can arise actually. The one that I find the most uncomfortable is when someone is bringing in their friend to the float center, and they’re describing to their friend some kind of false benefit of floating and I’m overhearing.
Ashkahn: Uh-huh.
Graham: Have to figure out what to do, and we’ll get to that. Someone comes in and is like, “Yeah man, two hours in this tank will give you a full nights sleep. So if you’re doing a two hour float tonight, don’t even bother going back to bed” and you’re like “Ohhh! Kablooey”.
Ashkahn: Yeah, it’s just so embarrassing. Are you gonna go and embarrass your customer, or are you going to just sit idly by and let misinformation spread through the world?
Graham: It’s tough, it’s a tough life being a float center owner. So, for me, I find the need to correct it in the most inoffensive way possible. It’s pretty much the goal there.
Ashkahn: You have to correct, I can’t, you can’t just have people keep thinking things that are wrong. You feel like we’re stewards of-
Graham: “That has 80,000 pounds of salt in there!”
Ashkahn: Yeah, so what I do is I get a big buzzer, as soon as they say something.
Graham: I get like a shepherd’s crook that I can just like pull them off to the side with it and then fill in their part of the conversation.
Ashkahn: Yeah, use that telescoping rescue pole. The one hung up on our wall.
Graham: So I usually just try to figure out, for me the least offensive way to get people right is to agree with them, and then start just shifting what I was agreeing about.
Ashkahn: Usually in kind of a high pitched voice, it’s like, “Yeah, yeah, exactly but not exactly like that.”
Graham: Then you lower the voice as it gets toward real facts.
Ashkahn: Yeah.
Graham: It just seems more natural.
Ashkahn: It’s my tactic as well, yeah.
Graham: So if someone comes in and they say, “Ah he had two hours in here and it was eight hours of sleep.” You’re like, “Yeah float tanks are incredibly restful. They rejuvenate you, they rejuvenate you a lot. We don’t actually have data about exactly how much time in a float tank equals exactly how much sleep, but definitely a really common response that we get is that people feel like they’re way more rested than coming in. Or almost like they’re fresh in the morning or something like that.”
Ashkahn: Yeah, I feel good now.
Graham: So again, it’s like the agreeing and then sort of spreading out actual facts. The thing that you don’t want to do in my mind is be like, “Oh that’s wrong. Your friend’s an idiot. Both of you leave, you think you’re allowed to float.”
Okay, another scenario is someone just starts bragging to you about the benefits of floating, right?
Ashkahn: Well here is there any scenario where you wouldn’t correct it?
Graham: Me, personally?
Ashkahn: Yeah.
Graham: I guess there’s like wishy washy stuff. People get out and they’re just like, “Oh man, I totally astral projected in there.”
Ashkahn: Okay, uh-huh. Sure.
Graham: I mean, they totally could have. I don’t know.
Ashkahn: I’m not going to correct stuff like that.
Graham: Right? And also, and I guess it’s not wrong, so they totally could have, I don’t know if you can astral project or whatever, who knows?
Ashkahn: Yeah. I guess I’m not going to impose my belief of reality onto them at that moment.
Graham: Yep, yep. So here’s another common example too that I get. Is people saying that the salt water will just suck all of the toxins out of your body.
Ashkahn: Detoxifying effects.
Graham: Which have definitely not been proven. I don’t even know exactly what that means, or what toxins they’re talking about, that’s a whole ripe subject even not in the float world.
Ashkahn: But it’s a weird one because it’s a hard one to lightly refute. You know what I mean?
Graham: Yep.
Ashkahn: You can’t just be like, “Oh yeah, totally.” The thing is, “I don’t know what you’re talking about and those words don’t make sense.”
Graham: Yeah, and so again, I’ll say something like, “A lot of people come out of the float tank feeling really nice and they’ve almost released some stuff that was making them feel bad. We don’t really have any studies exactly on this idea of detoxification in the float tank, or whether magnesium is actually sucking things out of your body, but certainly the reports of users are right in line with feeling great afterwards like that.”
Ashkahn: The situations like that can be tricky I’ve noticed, because it seems like the customers really want you to agree with what they’re saying.
Graham: They’re like pausing after they say it.
Ashkahn: Yeah, they say something and they pause. They’re like, “You know what I’m talking about.” You’re like, “Oh.” Yeah, you do have to kind of like gently steer. I don’t know, I’ve never been in the situation where I’ve just outright said something that I didn’t believe. I’ve never felt a need to do that.
Graham: No, and honestly there’s so many people who like all kinds of different types of floats, that it’s really easy to point to your other customers as well when people come in with kind of crazy claims or things like that as well. Again, even saying things that are more in line with personal problems that they’re suffering with or something like that. Like, “This helped me through my childhood emotional trauma.” It’s like, “Great,” other people have also had that experience, or something. We don’t have to go into the fact that there’s no research done on that specifically. And similarly I guess I always go back to research, because claims can be made about anything that’s going on. And it’s a really easy thing to say, “Hey there’s not any published peer reviewed research on that, that I know of. But a lot of people report that the impact of that is similar to what you are saying.” It’s kind of my soft go-to I guess.
Ashkahn: So yeah, it’s kind of gentle like bringing people back into your opinion.
Graham: And keep in mind this is just our opinion as well.
Ashkahn: You see how we’re like soothing you into agreeing with us?
Graham: “I know we all thought in the past agreeing with Graham and Ashkahn was a bad idea, but now that we know the facts, I think we can get on to similar terms here.” That’s all I got. It’s an awkward conversation, it’s going to come up. And I just think it’s our duty as people who are actually running these things and are more well informed to spread a little bit of knowledge and truth out there and not just go along with what people say because it’ll make the conversation easier.
Ashkahn: Definitely.
Graham: And if you have anymore awkward questions that you want to ask us, go to floattanksolutions.com/podcast and send them on in.
Recent Podcast Episodes
Slip Proofing Your Float Tanks and Float Rooms – DSP 220
The solution inside float tanks is slippery. Really really slippery. What is the best way to make sure that float customers aren’t slipping and falling before or after their floats.
Ashkahn and Graham break down the various steps needed for slip proofing for inside the float tank, the first step out of the tank, the rest of the float room, your hallways, or inside your workrooms.
Should You Install Shower Screens in your Float Rooms? – DSP 219
Float centers, it has been said, are nearly in the shower business as much as they are in the float business. In fact, float centers run twice as many showers as floats. No doubt about it, they are an important part of the float experience, as is designing them.
So do you include shower screens or doors? Graham and Ashkahn weigh in and share why the think it’s better to skip the door altogether, and dispel any sort of benefit that it may appear to have for a float center.
Flushing Salt Crystals out of your Filtration System with Hot Water – DSP 218
In the Daily Solutions Podcast episode #137 Cause and Solutions for a Crystallized Pump, Ashkahn and Graham discussed what causes this, how to avoid it, and some tips for fixing it.
Today, the guys share a more in depth solution on the problem, and specifically talk about the step by step process of desolidifying your pump system by flushing it with hot water.
5½ of the Most Common Construction Mistakes Float Centers Make – DSP 217
Graham and Ashkahn have been around the proverbial float block. They’ve visited centers all over the world, consulted with them, and trained them on how to make their centers as good as possible. It’s tempting to ask them, specifically, what are some of the most common mistakes they’ve seen in this time.
Fortunately, someone did. The duo hash out exactly what they think of when it comes to both “common” and “expensive” construction mistakes for float centers, especially where those two points intersect on the float center Venn diagram of unhappiness.
What Post-Float Music do you Wake Up Floaters With? – DSP 216
There’s a lot of options for floaty music out there. Some are free with a creative commons license, some are built into tanks by manufacturers, some float centers will use meditation tracks to pull people out of it, or self compose music on occasion.
How does Float On pick their post-float music? Ashkahn and Graham explain their thoughts on post-float music, why they maintain a minimalist approach, and explain the formation of Theta State Records.
Latest Blog Posts
Announcing: The 2015 State of the Industry Report
The results are in, and 88 existing centers and 185 aspiring float center owners have responded to create the 2015 State of the Float Industry Report.
What Happens When the Media Doesn’t Give a Shit
Float tanks have been getting a lot of media love recently, which is unsurprising given how beneficial people seem to find them, and how crazy they sound when you’re explaining them for the first time. Most of the press has been very positive, and coverage like the Nightline piece still bring a giant smile to my face whenever I watch them.
Media Reporters and EditorsUnfortunately, not everyone has taken the time to do the appropriate level of research into floating before writing about it.
Permits: Planning for your Planning Department
Construction permits differ from state to state, and even from county to county. Keep in mind that everywhere has its own quirks, and, more than likely, it’s own unexpected fees that can cost several thousand additional dollars…
#WhyWeFloat – An Industry Wide Social Media Campaign
One of the best ways to tell someone the benefits of floating is through stories and testimonials from others who have floated. To make gathering these powerful stories even easier, join the industry wide social media campaign called #WhyWeFloat.
