How to handle floaters getting out early – DSP 134

Sometimes… floaters get out early. That’s just what they do. But how often should that be happening? And how early? Well… it certainly depends on the length of your floats. If it is happening a lot and you run hour long floats, maybe there’s a common issue that people aren’t telling you. This is where those soft skills come in really handy. It doesn’t hurt to ask, but it also might not be anything to worry about.

Graham and Ashkahn share their experiences with this and what they see as regular floater behavior and what might be a little suspicious, along with some tips to suss out exactly what’s going on if you think it’s happening too frequently.

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

Graham: Today’s question is, “It feels bad when I see thirty minutes left on the timer, and I hear the shower. Is this normal? I just opened, so it seems to happen maybe one out of ten floats.”

Ashkahn: Hmm mm. Well, I wonder how long their float are, I guess, is my first question.

Graham: Oh, that is a good question. Yeah. ‘Cause if they’re thirty minute floats, then, man … Well, I guess that’s just totally normal, right? Like, thirty minutes before the end, they need to shower off to get in, so…

Ashkahn: So let’s assume … I mean, sixty or ninety, something like that.

Graham: Mm-hmm.

Ashkahn: Right?

Graham: Yup. And let’s also … I mean, so, I assume they’re talking about people getting out early.

Ashkahn: Yeah. Getting out early in general.

Graham: Yup.

Ashkahn: That’s what their question is.

Graham: As opposed to just showering off because they got salt in their eye and they’re getting back in the tank or something like that, because that happens too with showers kicking on.

Ashkahn: So, yeah, should you feel bad about people getting out early? It definitely happens. People get out early. I mean, we were on ninety minutes floats and people will get out, sometimes, around the sixty minute mark. I’m not sure I’d say one out of ten.

Graham: Yeah, I think a little less frequently.

Ashkahn: A little less frequently than that, but it still happens with some amount of regularity. And I guess I don’t personally find that that always means they had a bad experience or anything. Sometimes, you just feel like you’re done, you know? Like you got a good float and you’re feeling good, and you kind of came to the point where you’re ready to get out, and that point maybe doesn’t line up with the music or the exact length of the float.

Graham: In fact, I’d say almost more often than not, if they’re … I mean, so let’s take a ninety minute float, for example, and just assume that that’s the question.

Ashkahn: Right.

Graham: If they’re floating ninety minutes and they get sixty minutes in, and then they kind of leave, I think that more often than not, it’s because they had a pretty good experience and they just sort of feel like they’re done in there or something like that, you know? Or they got cold and then there’s kind of all of those other common complaints and stuff like that.  

Ashkahn: Right. Sometimes there’s a small inconvenience that just kind of … They’re just kind of like, “you know, I’m kind of done trying to sit here and be cold.”

Graham: But there’s a shocking number of times when we’ve checked in with people who get out early, which, I guess, to speak to that too, is those are great candidates for really finding out why they got out of the tank early and what happened. So, any time someone’s coming out when it’s not when you turned on the music, you definitely want to be catching them and politely asking, just sort of checking in to make sure everything’s okay. But again, when we’ve done that at Float On, I think, honestly, more often than not, a lot of people just say, “no, there was nothing wrong, I just felt like it was my time to get out of the tank.” Even Derek Wyatt was just telling me recently he goes through phases, and recently it’s almost every float, he gets out after sixty minutes because he just feels like he’s done.

Ashkahn: Yeah, I’ve had that. You hit that spot.

Graham: And we’ve had members who do that. And they don’t feel bad or anything. We’ll often ask if people want half off or if something went wrong or something. And a lot of our members are just like, “no, no, it just felt like it was a sixty minute float day.”

Ashkahn: And, you know, sometimes it is, ’cause people just, they weren’t quite getting there, and they were a little tired of sitting in there. And for those people, I often … I guess the most common thing I find is that they were just really having trouble letting go and relaxing into it. And I’ll often recommend trying to float at a different time to them.

If they’re real high-strung, or constantly in their own head and stuff like that, sometimes I find people floating in the middle of the afternoon, when they have trouble unwinding in the first place, is kind of a tough time for them to float. Because their brain’s still really active and they’re really gung-ho about everything. And I’ll recommend they try coming in at, like, 9 p.m. or something later in the night, when their body is more in the kind of wind down sort of mode. And that seems to make a difference. You know, when people come in all of a sudden, it’s a little bit easier for them to let go and get into it, and they will stay in that entire time. They’ll actually kind of get that float experience that they didn’t maybe quite hit during their previous float.

Graham: There’s something else that’s weird, too, which is: I feel like if people get out early, it’s really … It’s important to let them know that it’s not their fault. Or that they didn’t do something wrong.

Ashkahn: Yeah, it’s kind of like they are embarrassed, usually. Right?

Graham: It’s amazing how guilty people feel.

Ashkahn: Mm-hmm.

Graham: Or like they …

Ashkahn: Like they couldn’t handle it.

Graham: Yeah. Like, I’ve known people who get out early and sit in their room because they’re too embarrassed to come out of the room, and let the staff member know that they didn’t make it the entire time. Or they almost feel like they failed at floating.

Ashkahn: Yeah. So you gotta let people know that they’re weak when they do that. And that they should feel ashamed, and they’re not real floaters.

Graham: Put a note on their account, they’re never allowed back in.

Ashkahn: Yeah.

Graham: But, no, so make ’em understand that … Just even saying that there’s a number of other clients who just find that after certain floats, that sixty minutes is enough time or that even half an hour is just all they needed that day, and put them at ease, is an important part of that customer service.

Ashkahn: Half an hour’s a little … Like, if you’re running sixty minute floats, and people are getting out at the thirty minute mark, I feel like that’s a little …

Graham: One out of every ten?

Ashkahn: It’s hard, in thirty minutes, to get to the spot where you’re like, great, good float! I feel like … You know what I mean? With that amount of frequency?

Graham: Yeah. I mean, I guess I’d agree with that.

Ashkahn: That actually does feel a little bit unusual to me. If you have one out of ten people getting out after thirty minutes, that’s not quite in line with what I’ve experienced or …

Graham: Sizing people up is just so important, right? Like, if they’re getting out and they’re yelling at you because they had a miserable float, and things were too noisy, and the temperature wasn’t right, then obviously something needs to change and they’re not having a good experience, right?

Ashkahn: Yeah. I bet temperature has a lot to do with it. It can be distracting and it can stop people from really getting into the zone, if they’re feeling really cold or something.

Graham: Noise can be a lot of it. Yeah, just, again, personal things that people had going on can be a lot of it too, so … Yeah, I mean, be prepared. I think letting people know that there’s nothing wrong with getting out early, making sure that everything was okay with the float, and being ready to give a half off or full free float or refund if something was wrong, to kind of appease the situation. And just winging it from there. But certainly checking in is probably the best protocol.

Ashkahn: Yeah. Let us know. Get back to us. Tell us what people say, when you ask them.

Graham: Yeah, tell us whether you’re talking about sixty minutes or ninety minutes. ‘Cause that definitely affects the answer here.

Ashkahn: Mm-hmm.

Graham: But thanks for the question. And, for you listeners who didn’t ask that question, which I think is a majority, you can go to floattanksolutions.com/podcast. Don’t be shy. Don’t be shy. You go on over there and you send us in a question.

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