Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
Graham and Ashkahn roll up their sleeves and get down and dirty dealing with objections to floating. To shake things up a bit, they’re ignoring claustrophobia and talking about some of the other things people bring up when they say they’re hesitant to try floating.
Show Resources
An Important Announcement from the Daily Solutions Podcast
If you’d like to sign up to ask a question on our two-hour call-in show, November 29th at 3 pm PST, go to floattanksolutions.com/dsplive.
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Graham: All right.
Ashkahn: Hey.
Graham: That one was via audience requests. Thanks for sending in that suggestion. I’m Graham.
Ashkahn: I am Ashkahn.
Graham: We are Daily Solutions Podcast.
Ashkahn: Ignite!
Graham: We are winding things down, but we got one last big episode. Well not one last, we have a few more episodes, but then also-
Ashkahn: But one last big one.
Graham: A big-
Ashkahn: The rest of these are going to be not so big.
Graham: Yeah. Pretty much our only big episode ever. We’re doing a two-hour live call in show, November 29th.
Ashkahn: 3:00 PM until 5:00 PM Pacific Time.
Graham: Yeah. Come join us. It’ll be a blast.
Ashkahn: There’ll be video.
Graham: Everyone that you know and care about is going to be there. So you’ll really be missing out if you’re the only one who’s not. In the meantime, we’ve got a question to answer for you today.
Ashkahn: Exciting.
Graham: It is-
Ashkahn: What is it?
Graham: “Other than claustrophobia, what are reasons that some people never get in to float?” So yeah, the-
Ashkahn: What they say. What are the things that people say they’re nervous about.
Graham: Or that they don’t say that we just know-
Ashkahn: That we can actually see it in their heads.
Graham: … about their inner psyches, yeah.
Ashkahn: Yeah. Claustrophobia-
Graham: Is one.
Ashkahn: Yeah.
Graham: Which I guess is why they excluded that in the question.
Ashkahn: So really common things people will say when they’re beginning this-
Graham: Water sanitation. I’m just going to say the next big one is water sanitation.
Ashkahn: Okay. Yep. Go ahead. Clearly you’re ready.
Graham: Anyway, do you want to go into more depth on that or?
Ashkahn: I think water sanitation is one that people bring up a lot. It’s just you get asked all sorts of-
Graham: “Wait, hopping in the same waters as the person before you or what’s going on there, huh?”
Ashkahn: Yeah. Just like that, and variations on that sort of theme.
Graham: “How do you know what people do in there?”
Ashkahn: I’ve found that while that is a concern that comes up a bunch, and even if people don’t bring it up, a lot of people think- I mean, if you look at our Yelp and Google reviews, cleanliness is mentioned nine out of 10 times or something.
Graham: Well, it’s obviously top of mind for them, for customers.
Ashkahn: What I found is that it’s really easier than it should be to put people’s fears at rest. You can pretty much answer them and if you have an answer and you sound confident, they’re cool, because I’ll just say like, “Yeah. It goes through this filtration process where the water is pumped through this entire crazy filter system with a UV and hydrogen peroxide being added as this.” I’ll go through it and make it sound kind of technical, and they’ll be like, “Yeah. It really sounds like you know what you’re doing.” I bet I could be saying anything. I bet I could be like, “Yeah. We use the reverse waterfall method to upend it through our crazy straw filtration system.”
Graham: “Crazy straw. That sounds great. Yeah, my fears are allayed.” People will often give you some form of like, “That’s cool.” Then some of them will still never come in to float, right? It’s weird to be like, “Cool. Well, I’m still concerned. So thanks for explaining that, but I’m not going to come in.” A lot of people say that even showing people tanks, they’re like, “Cool. That’s not as small as I thought,” and they still have claustrophobia and they’ll never come float.
It’s kind of like the more that you can get these answers out really steadily, and you’ll see this as we go over a few other objections, but in your literature, on your website, kind of pre-address these concerns and really make it so often for just human psychology. If we don’t hear something repeated a handful of times, we tend not to really internalize it or believe it as much. So the more you can expose people to these common concerns, and again, address them before they even come in to ask you about it in person or give you a call, is a really good strategy.
Ashkahn: Yeah, because it makes sense, right? They see it there, they were probably thinking about it, them seeing it lets them know that we obviously know and care about it. I honestly feel like sometimes people ask us about sanitation expecting us to be like, “I never thought about that. You’re right. How is the water being chemically …”
Graham: “You got me. You got me.”
Ashkahn: Just the fact that I’m like, “Yeah. We have realized that that’s a thing and we have a solution for it.” No matter what we’re saying, it makes people nod and go, “Okay. Cool.”
Graham: Yeah. So don’t take advantage of that. It’s a superpower that you must use for good and not evil.
Ashkahn: Yeah, and it’s going to be the case with a lot of these. At the end of the day, in their eyes, you are like the grand float expert and-
Graham: Grand float Poobah.
Ashkahn: Yeah, and everything you’re saying is extremely authoritative information.
Graham: What other concerns?
Ashkahn: The other one I hear all the time is, “I don’t know if I could be alone with myself for that long.”
Graham: Yeah, for sure. Actually, it’s a very small percentage of people, but some of the small percentage that get out early and didn’t really enjoy the float and probably won’t come back, have said, “My mind was just going, ‘I’m the kind of go, go, go person,’ and I just couldn’t relax,” which I think is the perfect candidate for someone who should absolutely try floating more until they can calm down. Some of those fears are legitimate and they get in the tank and their brain is going too fast, but it’s such a small percentage. Way more people who are afraid of that are actually in desperate need of a float and their whole system will probably celebrate when they’re actually thrown in the tank, you know?
Ashkahn: Yeah, and I think people. It’s just the concept of it sounds freaky to be in nothingness, and they think it’s going to be like a drug trip where they’re totally not in control and have no ability to whatever. So I often find just explaining the setup even a little bit helps people in those situations. I’m like, “Yeah. It’s in a private room. The doors just open and close. There are light buttons on the inside.”
Graham: “You can get out any time.”
Ashkahn: Yeah, just painting a better picture than probably what they’re imagining in their head is often pretty great.
Graham: That ties into also that just that sound scary, or “weren’t those used for torture” kind of objection for why some people unless they actually get educated or seek out more information themselves, will probably continue to think. I’m just being like, “No. Do you think that laying down in a warm bath by yourself with dim lights is scary? Because if so, you should absolutely not hop in a float tank. This is way too intense for you.”
Ashkahn: Another thing I’ve found that seems to help is I’ll mention to people that … I think this goes in the same world as like do people ever freak out in there, is kind of along the same vein, right? I usually mention to people that everything that’s going on in there is telling your body to chill out. This is just an environment that is literally convincing your brain that this is the chillest you should definitely be. So it’s actually almost chemically difficult to have a freaky experience in there. You’re not even primed with what’s happening in your body to be able to have freaky panicked experiences for the most part.
Graham: Yeah, and they do, again, they’re extremely, extremely rare. They happen and certainly not to the level that people should be concerned about it. We’re talking about one in 10,000 floats, or maybe a little less, but still in the thousands.
Ashkahn: I found that to make people go like, “Yeah. Interesting,” and that changes their objections a little bit.
Graham: Yeah, for sure. Another one is just, “I don’t have enough time.” I definitely hear that, and that’s an objection to not just floating, but a lot of things for personal care that people probably should have in their life. My favorite answer to that came from the yoga industry but adapted to floating. It’s “if you don’t have an hour or an hour and a half to float, you should probably float for two or three hours”.
Ashkahn: They definitely are the people who need it the most. For us, we have specifically a really great response which is that we’re open 24 hours a day. It’s just such a good comeback. People are like, “Man, yeah, I’ve been really busy. I don’t know if I’d have time for that.” I’m like, “We’re open 24 hours a day.”
Graham: “This is on you buddy.”
Ashkahn: Yeah, “There has to be a time that fits into your schedule. We’re literally open around the clock.”
I’ve gotten “My grandmother was betrayed by a float tank and our family has taken a vow to adventure and as a result, we’ve disbanded from all float activity for generations”.
Graham: In which case, point out that vengeance is a circular cycle and the float tanks will strike back probably in greater force than before. Perhaps making peace is the better option.
Ashkahn: So check, that one usually solves it.
Graham: I’d say once a week for something like that if we’re talking about common objections. Honestly, there’s more and there’s little ones, and the answers sometimes differ, but basically fall into this category of people can come up for all sorts of reasons not to do something that they’re kind of nervous about. So your goal with all of these-
Ashkahn: It’s usually fueled by that.
Graham: Yeah, your goal with all of these is really to make them understand that floating is not scary or intimidating. It’s actually way more similar to other things they’ve done. Like get a massage, or be in a warm bath, or be in a hot tub, even though we’re at neutral temperature, and just making it more relatable and accessible. I think often, even though that’s not what they’re telling you, often takes care of whatever concerns they are bringing up. It’s kind of like trying to get to the root cause rather than just addressing the symptoms.
Ashkahn: There’s certainly a certain amount of social proof that helps in all these situations. I found quoting how many floats we’ve done in almost any of these answers, like if someone’s nervous about claustrophobia, which I guess we’re not supposed to be talking about in this episode, but I’ll say something like, “We’ve done 90,000 floats, and we just don’t get people coming out and saying they felt claustrophobic,” or just throwing those big numbers out there, it makes people go like, “This is not just some little thing. Clearly, lots of people are doing this,” or even just having a shop that’s on a busy retail foot traffic street. We pay more for that because we felt like it felt more like we were a real business and that gave us this inherent credibility that made people more trustworthy of thinking that these things were legitimate.
Graham: Use that power for good and not evil, but yeah.
Ashkahn: Having a nice looking website, all this stuff is making people realize like, “Hey, if this is a successful business, that must mean people are coming in to do this, which must mean it’s an enjoyable experience,” right? There’s this inherent logic that exists there, that I found is really helpful. So especially if you’re hitting a lot of resistance before you’ve opened your business, this is one of those things that gets easier once your business is open, because just existing as a business is proof that you’re not crazy to be telling people to go in to float. That’s another thing that’s really nice. It gets easier over … We’ve been open eight years now and that alone lets people know that obviously, this is not some sort of crazy thing.
Graham: An alternate source of income coming in somewhere. All right. That was a good one. Good question. Getting down to the final few episodes and then our big live show.
Ashkahn: Yeah, a few final episodes, big liver.
Graham: Thanks for the contribution over there. Tune in the 29th, 3:00 to 5:00 PM.
Ashkahn: Pacific Time.
Graham: Yeah, you got it. We’ll see you there.
Ashkahn: All right. Bye.
Graham: Bye everyone.
Recent Podcast Episodes
Is there a “Best” Float Position? – DSP 224
Ashkahn and Graham thoroughly debunk the myth of a “best” float position. The Float On boys explicate their philosophy that there is no right way to float and instead talk about all the different positions they enjoy floating in. They learn more about each other than they expected to in the process.
What to Look for When Hiring a Float Center Employee – DSP 223
What makes a good float center employee? What does Float On look for when trying to find someone to take care of their salt monster tanks and their blissed out customers at the same time?
Ashkahn and Graham break down the qualities they look for when hiring, and what makes the people at Float On so special.
How Do you Incentivize Return Floaters without Memberships or Packages? – DSP 222
How many times has a float center owner had a first time floater come out of the tank and said something along the lines of “that was amazing! I need to do this every week!” and then they never see that person again? How do you get them to come back without committing to a membership or a high ticket package of floats?
Ashkahn and Graham share their thoughts on this exact problems and some of the creative solutions they’ve implemented at Float On to combat it. The key, for them, has been keeping it simple and making it accessible.
How to Schedule Your Float Center During the Slow Season – DSP 221
For most float centers, the summer months drastically change how busy it gets. It seems that zenning out to nothingness is moderately less appealing when there’s a lot of outdoor activities to enjoy.
Graham and Ashkahn share their thoughts on a reduced schedule. Float On runs 24 hours almost every day throughout the year. so reducing their schedule is typically against their philosophies. They explain some of the reasons people might consider it, what are some good ways to go about it, as well as explain some practices to consider avoiding when cutting hours.
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.
Latest Blog Posts
Float Quarterly – January 2016
It’s been our pleasure to be actively involved in the float industry for over five years now. In 2016, we’re already on track to have more new centers opening, more press covering floating, and more resources for people just entering our salty world than ever before.
With so much action, we’ve decided to send out brief, quarterly updates on our industry to keep people posted on the all the latest happenings. Welcome to our first installment!
Training to Become a Certified Pool/Spa Operator
Each year at the Float Conference, we put on a Certified Pool/Spa Operator (CPO) training course. At first, that might strike you as an odd thing to have as part of a float tank conference. This post will explain what CPO training is and why we think it can be a really useful certification to have on your belt.
Increase Sales by Offering Retail in Your Float Center
On their own, float tanks have a limit to their profits. Retailing has the potential to bring extra money into your shop, but it also requires a lot of work and attention on your part to really be successful at it. At Float On, our retail contributes 6.5% towards our overall sales and 3% of total profit. While this might not seem like a large contribution, depending on your sales, it could end up paying the wages of a whole extra employee.
The Health Department and Float Tanks… How to get Approved!
If you’re working on starting a float center, chances are you’re nervously anticipating having to call the health department. We’ve all heard horror stories of people being asked to follow pool rules that don’t make sense for them, or having to do costly changes to their pump systems.
float tanks not regulatedBelow is our best advice for working with your health department to get your float center approved, but before we dive into that, it’s important to get a bit of an understanding as to how the health department works.
