Handling Common Client Concerns: Claustrophobia – DSP 80

This is something pretty much every float center deals with on a regular basis. The first objection that a lot of people will say when they first hear about floating is “Oh, I’m too claustrophobic for that”. Which… feels like getting shut down straight out of the gate.

Graham and Ashkahn, as seasoned float center owners, have heard this all too often and are not only familiar with it, but have some excellent ideas as to why this is the first major objection people throw out there as well as good ways to combat this concern.

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Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)

Graham: Today’s question is “how do you address customers who are worried about being claustrophobic in the float tanks?”

Ashkahn: That is … It comes up all the time.

Graham: I was going to say it is probably one of the single most common questions that you are going to get as a float tank center owner when you start explaining this. People are like, “Oh that’s great. I hate small spaces though, so probably not for me.”

Ashkahn: I feel like one percent of the population has claustrophobia or something like that. Then you bring up float tanks, it’s like one out of three people.

Graham: I didn’t realize that one third of everyone on planet Earth is claustrophobic.

Ashkahn: They are diagnosed with serious levels of claustrophobia.

Graham: I guess we don’t go around announcing our most common fears.

Ashkahn: I do it.

Graham: And take advantage of you.

Ashkahn: Yeah. Spider hawks.

Graham: Okay.

Ashkahn: Really fighting those two will merge.

Graham: When someone brings up claustrophobia, I have my answer, but what is yours?

Ashkahn: Before we start giving answers.

Graham: We already have the question, what are we going to do besides answers?

Ashkahn: Let me say something else.

Graham: You spider hawk!

Ashkahn: I feel like we need to watch out for these spider hawks! We don’t know it’s a problem yet, but they are coming.

Graham: You keep it going.

Ashkahn: Here is what I think, I think people often use claustrophobia as a placeholder for other unnamed fears. I feel like they get, they hear the concept and they are like “oh that sounds both exciting and kind of crazy.” The first thing that comes to their mind is, oh well I don’t know if I can handle being in a small space like that. It’s almost like that is the first thing their brain labels out of a slightly uncomfortable feeling that they’re having. That is what ends up coming out what they are claiming is why they are feeling weird about it. I feel like for other people it could be … It might just be other things. It might not actually be that they are specifically feeling nervous about being claustrophobic. You following me? Are you picking up what I am putting down here?

Graham: I am following you. I guess I have never felt like people are hiding behind that. Like they are actually afraid of the dark or mind control going, or something like that.

Ashkahn: I don’t think they know that.

Graham: I see. You’re just hypothesizing below the conscious level that people are saying they are afraid of claustrophobia because of some deeper darker secret that they are not only sharing with us, but that they haven’t shared with themselves.

Ashkahn: I am just saying that if they hear the concept and they feel nervous at all, I think their brain labels that. The first thing they logically kind of label it as is often claustrophobia. That is why often we all of a sudden hear claustrophobia is such a common thing that comes up. When maybe it’s not actually that people are actually claustrophobic.

Graham: How does this theory influence your answer? What do you tell people as a result of that?

Ashkahn: I explain this to them. I say your subconscious mind is playing tricks on you.

Graham: Yeah. Does that go over well? Is that why our attendance has been low recently?

Ashkahn: It might be why we keep losing customers. The answer is a lot simpler, well my answer is a lot simpler, what I tell people.

Graham: Good thing you bring it up.

Ashkahn: We are among friends here. I wanted us to have this discussion. What I tell people, which usually works pretty well is that a ton of people come in that say they have claustrophobia. No one ever has a problem with it.

Graham: I usually say that claustrophobia is way more about a lack of control more than it is about actually being in a dark space, or being in something that is a little smaller than you’re used to. I am going to put this in two categories: There are people who have actually physically seen the float tanks, and people who have not physically seen float tanks. If people say, “I’d be claustrophobic,” taking them in and showing them the actual size of the float tank, even the smallest ones that are on the market. People are often shocked at how large they are. I actually do think they picture something that is coffin size, that fits you head-to-toe. You can’t even extend your arms outwards to the sides at all. You’re just closed in this MRI sized capsule.

Ashkahn: Think tanning bed MRI machine is what I think people are first picturing.

Graham: In the dark. Yeah. That is really easy. It’s come check these things out is what it is usually.

Ashkahn: I describe it as the size of a full size bed, or a queen size bed. That usually gives people some great perspective.

Graham: A great description for sure.

Ashkahn: I also find explaining that when people haven’t seen it, saying things like oh, “well, the door doesn’t have a lock or a latch, you just push it open. You can get in and out whenever you want. There is a light button on the inside that you can turn on and off. It’s in its own private room.” I paint the picture for them of how it is actually super easy and not a concern. That usually seems to help a lot too.

Graham: Then there are people that see our big cabin style room, or even a big open room that we have. They’re still like I don’t think I can get in there. That is a little more interesting. That is people I think that actually, back to your seeded non claustrophobia versus people who are actually claustrophobic, I think the ones who are claustrophobic, if your theory is true, are the ones who tell me when they see the big rooms that they don’t think they could handle it. I’ve had people tell me they’re like, “Hey my brother locked me in a closet when I was a kid for hours. I couldn’t get out. As a result I don’t like being in these small spaces kind of thing.”

My response is just letting people, it’s like social validation. We really have had the most claustrophobic people that I can imagine come into float, and it has not been an issue for them. Sometimes what they have done, I just walk them through it. Hey, like I said, like the doors don’t lock or latch, or anything. You can even leave the lights on. You can sit in the tank, and not even lay down, and get familiar with the space until you feel like laying down with the lights on and the door open if you want to, you can decide to shut the door, turn the lights off, or something like that. Usually when I explain it like that, they’re like oh I could probably just lay down. I don’t need to sit in the water. It’s like they are talking themselves into it a bit. Then they come out, and I’m like, “Oh, how did it go?” They’re like “great, and they turn the lights off within ten minutes.”

Ashkahn: Yeah. Sometimes I will tell how many floats we have done too, seems to help. I am like you know we have done 75,000 floats, and we don’t have people coming out saying they have been claustrophobic. That sort of social validation seems to help a lot.

Graham: Yeah. For sure.

Ashkahn: That’s what I said before. I usually start with that because most of the time that is all people need. They’re like “oh okay.” I don’t have to go into much beyond that. It seems to kind of answer the question for them. I don’t even have to go into the whole subconscious thing and try to figure out what their real fear is.

Graham: That’s good because you would have to charge a lot more if you did. All right. There you have it. That is pretty much our best answers for claustrophobia. Honestly if you haven’t been dealing with a lot of these questions already just know it will come up constantly. It is actually pretty easy to convince people that they are not going to feel claustrophobic, and a lot of it is also to do with your tone and confidence going into it. I almost laugh at people who are like, “Am I going to be claustrophobic in there?” I’m like, “no. No not at all. That’s almost silly to think that you will be claustrophobic.”

Ashkahn: The only thing I will say is that the float tanks are basically machines made to relax you and make you feel calm. It is a very difficult place to freak out in or anything like that. That seems to help people too.

Graham: Another thing that I will say that is being in the float tank feels a lot more, it’s like being in a vast open expanse, then it does you’re actually closed into a box. Once you are actually in there the walls actually disappear and it’s a lot more like floating in outer space sometimes is one of my lines.

Ashkahn: Sometimes I will say-

Graham: Yes. You need to delve deeper. Look inward before you ask me.

Ashkahn: Sit down on the couch for a minute. I’ll tell people sometimes too that if you reach your arm up, you won’t actually touch the ceiling, and I think that gives people a little visual idea of how big the things actually are. Because I think that is actually what people are nervous about. More than the width or the length. The idea of the ceiling being so close to you, makes people sounds like a tanning bed, or an MRI machine, or something like that.

Graham: And I will also mention that only about 20 people die in our float tanks a year.

Ashkahn: From severe claustrophobia.

Graham: Yeah. It usually helps calm them right down.

Ashkahn: Only 20. That’s not bad. All right.

Graham: Okay.

Ashkahn: I think we thoroughly covered that one. If you guys have other questions that you want us to answer you can head over to floattanksolutions.com/podcast. We will answer them just like we did this.

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