Setting up Yesoma for a massage therapy business

Massage therapy is appointment-based, chair-time-dependent, and built on a level of trust most service businesses never have to earn — clients are partially undressed, in a quiet room, with a stranger. This guide walks you through what the Yesoma massage therapist playbook seeds into your workspace and how each piece supports the way a real practice or day spa runs.

1. Apply the massage therapist playbook during onboarding

When you reach the "Tell us about your business" step in onboarding, select Massage therapist / day spa from the industry picker. Yesoma will pre-load your workspace with services, prices, policies, reply templates, and follow-up timing that reflect how a massage practice actually operates.

You do not have to accept everything as-is. After onboarding completes, every service price, policy line, and template body is editable from Settings. Think of the playbook as a strong first draft — it covers the common ground so you are not starting from a blank screen.

If you have already completed onboarding with a different industry selection, you can reapply a playbook from Settings → Business Brain → Reapply playbook. This will not delete data you have already added, but it will overwrite services and templates with the new playbook content.

2. What services and prices get seeded

The playbook seeds nine service entries covering the full massage menu:

Individual sessions

• Swedish massage (60 min) — $90, $25 deposit for first-time clients
• Swedish massage (90 min) — $130, $25 deposit for first-time clients
• Deep tissue massage (60 min) — $110, $25 deposit for first-time clients
• Prenatal massage (60 min) — $115, $25 deposit; physician note required in first trimester
• Hot stone massage (90 min) — $150, $25 deposit for first-time clients
• Couples massage (60 min) — $200, 50% deposit ($100) required at booking

Prepaid packages

• 5-session package — $400 (saves $50 vs individual bookings), valid 6 months from purchase
• 10-session package — $750 (saves $150 vs individual bookings), valid 12 months from purchase

Custom work

• Sports massage, reflexology, lymphatic drainage, myofascial release, and multi-modality sessions — custom quote after a brief consult call

These are US-dollar baseline prices. If you are based outside the US, update the amounts in Settings → Services after onboarding. The prices auto-populate your pricing reply templates, so change them once and the templates update everywhere.

Each service also comes with required customer information (target areas, pressure preference, medical conditions) and a step-by-step booking guide. These feed the "before you message" section of your Marketplace profile and help Yesoma's AI ask the right intake questions when a new inquiry comes in.

3. Deposit and cancellation policies that protect your chair time

A no-show on a 90-minute hot stone session is not a minor inconvenience — it can be 90 minutes of earned revenue that disappears with no warning and no time to fill the slot. The playbook seeds interlocking policies designed to address this without making your booking process feel clinical or transactional.

First-time client deposit. New clients pay $25 at booking, applied toward the session total. This is a light ask that weeds out casual inquiries and covers partial cost if the slot goes unfilled. Returning clients hold with a card on file.

Couples massage deposit is larger. Couples massage requires a 50% deposit ($100) because two therapists are scheduled simultaneously. A no-show or same-day cancellation does not just cost one slot — it costs two therapists a significant block of time that is nearly impossible to fill on short notice. The policy language in the playbook explains this directly to clients, which reduces friction when the deposit is requested.

24-hour cancellation window. Cancellations or reschedules made more than 24 hours ahead are free. Inside 24 hours, the deposit is forfeited. Couples massage follows the same rule; the full 50% deposit is forfeited inside 24 hours.

15-minute late arrival grace. The session may be shortened to protect the next client's appointment, but the full price still applies. The policy encourages clients to message ahead if they know they will be late, which gives you a chance to adjust.

No-shows charged in full. If a client does not arrive and cannot be reached, the full session price is charged to the card on file.

All five policies auto-populate the policies section of your Business Brain and appear in the booking confirmation template. Edit any policy language from Settings → Policies.

4. The session-package upsell flow

Session packages are the primary retention mechanism in a massage practice. A client who prepays for 5 or 10 sessions has already committed to a regular cadence — the question of whether to come back is settled. The economics are also clear: the 5-pack saves $50 versus booking individually; the 10-pack saves $150.

The playbook includes a dedicated Session package upsell template designed to surface after a client's second or third individual session. The timing matters: after two sessions, the client has experienced the benefit and is thinking about whether to make massage a regular habit. That is exactly the moment to show them the math.

The template does not pressure. It is written as a straightforward mention — "you've been coming in regularly, which makes a real difference when the work builds on itself, and there's a package option if that makes sense for you." It lets the client decide.

To trigger this manually, open the client's thread after their third session and tap Send template → Session package upsell. You can also set up a follow-up automation in Settings → Follow-up cadence to fire this template automatically after a client completes a set number of individual sessions.

Package terms are also seeded as a policy: 5-pack expires in 6 months, 10-pack in 12 months, non-transferable. Yesoma will remind clients when they have one session remaining and when the package is 30 days from expiry.

5. Medical disclosure and intake messaging

Massage therapy touches areas where medical history genuinely matters — pregnancy, blood-thinning medications, recent surgery, cardiovascular conditions, cancer treatment. The playbook is written with this in mind throughout.

The first-reply template asks three things before anything else: what area is bothering them or what they want to address, their pressure preference (light / medium / firm / deep), and whether they have been to you before. These three questions are not just polite — they are the minimum intake a therapist needs to prepare for a session and, in some cases, to decide whether additional information is required before booking.

The prenatal service entry includes physician note requirements for first-trimester clients and a required-info field that surfaces the right questions automatically. The FAQ answer on pregnancy safety explains the second-and-third-trimester baseline while being direct about when a physician note is needed.

The medical conditions policy tells clients plainly: disclose at booking, not at the door. It lists the categories that require extra attention (blood thinners, cardiovascular conditions, recent surgery, pregnancy complications) and explains that the request is there to protect them. The tone is matter-of-fact, not alarmist — most clients will have nothing to disclose, and the policy should not make them feel interrogated.

If you require intake forms before first appointments, connect them to the booking confirmation template using the [intake form link] placeholder. Yesoma can capture form responses as case notes so they are in the client thread when you need them.

6. What your reply templates look like in action

The playbook seeds eight reply templates, each mapped to a stage in the client journey.

First reply fires when a new inquiry arrives. It asks about the client's focus area and what is bothering them, their pressure preference, and whether they are a new or returning client. These three data points determine the right service, the right session length, and whether a medical disclosure conversation needs to happen before booking. Without them, the booking conversation takes more back-and-forth than it should.

Pricing reply is a pre-written response you can send with one tap once you know what the client wants. It includes the service name, price, and deposit ask, and closes with an offer to send available slots.

Booking confirmation goes out once the deposit is received. It confirms the date, time, and address, and includes a plain-language note about draping and comfort — that the client will be professionally covered throughout, that only the area being worked is uncovered, and that they are in control of the session at all times. This paragraph is present in the playbook because wellness clients often have anxiety about the logistics of a first session that they would not voice directly. Addressing it in the confirmation reduces no-shows and makes the first session go more smoothly.

Deposit reminder fires 48 hours before the appointment for any booking where the deposit is still outstanding. It includes a direct payment link.

Day-after thank you + review request fires 24 hours after the appointment. Post-massage satisfaction peaks in the first 24 hours — clients are rested, their body feels different, and they are in exactly the right frame of mind to write a genuine review. The template is brief and does not oversell: a short thank you, a single review link, and an open door for the next booking.

Session package upsell is described in section 4 above. It is in the template library and can be sent manually or triggered by automation.

Quote follow-up (3 days) fires three days after a custom session quote is sent. It is written to be low-key — a check-in that acknowledges there is no rush and offers to answer questions.

No-availability reply offers two alternate dates when the client's preferred time is full, and offers a waitlist spot.

All templates use the {{customer_first_name}} token and bracketed placeholders like [date], [time], [address], [price], and {{review_link}}. Yesoma fills in the token from the customer record automatically. You fill in the brackets before sending, or set up automations to pull from the case data.

Common questions

I only do Swedish — do I need all nine services? No. After onboarding, go to Settings → Services and delete or hide any services you do not offer. The playbook gives you the full menu as a starting point; your actual service list is yours to shape.

My prices are different from the playbook defaults. Update them in Settings → Services. Change the price on any service entry and the change propagates to your pricing reply templates automatically. Change them once and you are done.

Can I require deposits for returning clients too, not just new ones? Yes. Edit any service in Settings → Services, toggle Require deposit on, and set the amount. The deposit reminder template will fire for all bookings of that service going forward.

How do I set up the package upsell to fire automatically? Go to Settings → Follow-up cadence → Add rule. Set the trigger to a completed appointment event and the condition to a specific number of completed sessions. Map it to the Session package upsell template. The exact configuration depends on how you track repeat sessions; the Yesoma support team can help you set this up if you are unsure.

A client has a condition I am not sure about. What do I do? Reply through Yesoma and ask them to share the relevant medical information or a physician note before you confirm the booking. You can use the quote-follow-up template as a starting point and edit the body. Document what you receive in the case notes so it is on file.

The package terms do not match mine — my 5-pack expires in 3 months. Edit the Session package service entries in Settings → Services and update the deposit notes field with your actual terms. Also update the Package validity policy in Settings → Policies so both are consistent.