Learn best practices for starting and running a float center:
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Something in the world of floating have you stumped?

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Show Highlights

In this episode, Graham goes solo again to answer a particularly loquacious listener who sent in a question about how to logistically handle your changeover when a floater comes out early.

It can be tempting to start your changeover as soon as possible, especially if you have a few of them to get to, but Graham lays out some helpful things to remember before flipping that switch and running your pumps before the allotted time.

Listen to Just the Audio

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

Graham: All right, hello everybody. I am Graham, once again holding down the fort here alone in the studio. I guess not alone, Jordan is also here, but he’s just not in front of the mic, he’s behind the mic. He’s actually making some really animated faces right now. What’s that? You’re giving every listener $10? That’s really generous of you. Just go to floattanksolutions.com/jordanowesmemoney.

Getting back to the actual episode, boy is there a question today. It’s a really long one, and it takes a little explanation too, at the very beginning. So, it’s a long question with a footnote. Let’s just go ahead with it.

“Hi”, first of all. Hello. “What do you encourage your tacos and taco supremes to do when someone wakes and starts showering in a time of limbo?”

First of all, instead of managers and regular level employees, we call them taco supremes and tacos, is the background there. Time of limbo, I assume he means that time after you die but before you’re actually in your assigned afterlife. So, when you’re actually in this beyond living and death state, or just maybe a transition between floats. Not exactly sure.

“By that, I mean five to ten minutes before the scheduled time to start playing the music.” Okay, so I guess it was time between floats. “I understand that short floats can be good, and I’ve found that, especially for the first time, a 50 minute float can be the norm, as people’s minds start wondering about the wake up music. Thinking they are done with their floats, I wish to start their pumps so that the water can filter and thus start getting the room ready for the next client. However, my concern is that they are showering for excessive salt in the face or they just wanted to check their phone and intend on hopping back in until they hear the music. Just trying to find the balance for myself and recommendations for staff between being efficient in the workspace while not being totally invasive to the person and their session”

That was a big one. Basically, it’s just coming down to someone gets out of their float early, before the scheduled wake up music to come on to actually end their float, what do you do? Do you turn on the music early? Do you assume they’re getting out and run the pump so that you can actually get the next person in, maybe with a little more time? What is the right ethical and moral answer? I’m not too divided, and I’m the only one here so that’s really all that matters. I would say just don’t turn on the music initially. Turn it on at the scheduled time. Don’t turn on the pump early. If they come out of the room and they say yes, I’m totally done with my float, I’m not going back in that room, for sure turn on the pump or anything else, assuming that it doesn’t interfere with anyone who’s still in the tanks. At Float On this is another level to this problem. Even if people get out early at our shop and we know that they’re out of the room, our rooms are still right next to other rooms that usually have other people floating in them, so we can’t really turn on our pump equipment anyway, just because it would pass right into the tanks next door.

So, in our case it’s not a bonus even if we know that they have come out, but again, the customer is paying money to come in, or even if it’s a free float, it’s a free full length float, whatever that means for you, an hour or an hour and a half. So, if someone is out and showering, especially if it’s just 10 minutes beforehand and you think that they’re getting out anyway, don’t assume anything. It’s way better to, yourself, just have to rush a little bit more during transitions or again, get the next customer in on time as opposed to early. Way better to do that than to anger a customer by assuming that they’re done with the float. If you weren’t actually done with the float but the pump turns on while you’re in the shower, just getting salt out of your eyes, I’d feel a little bit rushed or almost that my calming experience was being pushed on a little bit excessively from the outside.

In things like this, I think, especially as a business owner, it’s important to really think of the needs of the customer ahead of just your own, or even the customer who’s coming in next. In this case, again, don’t worry too much about whether they’re coming out early or not. Your reaction should just be the same, which is assume that they’re staying in there full time. Turn on the music once they’re actually out, or turn on the pump again if you are able to run it, once you know for sure they’re out of the room. That’s it. Good, I hope that was satisfying.

If you have your own short or lengthy questions to send our way, cruise on over to floattanksolutions.com/podcast and I’ll be joined back in the studio in just a couple days with my co-host Ashkahn. Have that to look forward to. All right everyone, have a good one out there. Talk to you tomorrow.

Recent Podcast Episodes

Using Ozone in Float Tanks – DSP 340

Ashkahn and Graham talk about Ozone in this episode. Everything from different types of ozonators to the efficacy of it as a water treatment system compared to other systems. 

Ozone is very effective, but there are concerns about its use that aren’t present in other types of water treatment, and fortunately the guys give us a lot of information on what to consider when putting together our own systems.

Credit Card Processing – DSP 339

Graham and Ashkahn delve into the wild world of credit card processing. There’s a massive industry of businesses that exist between when your customer swipes their credit card and when it goes into your bank account. The industry seems to be designed to be confusing and some companies only perform certain tasks, making it very difficult to compare services. 

The guys give their advice on how to handle finding the right credit card processor for float centers and what to look out for when you’re on the hunt.

Floating While Pregnant – DSP 338

There are tons of anecdotal stories about pregnant people having great experiences with floating, but what are some of the things you should consider if you’re going to encourage floating while pregnant.

Graham and Ashkahn share what they’ve heard about it and how to frame the conversation with an expecting parent while still covering your bases from a liability standpoint. 

Giving Shares of Your Company – DSP 337

A lot of small businesses have a romanticized idea of what “shares” in a business actually mean. Float On did, once upon a time. What does it mean to give shares of your company to someone? Is it a good way to reward a valuable and dedicated employee? Are there other, more appropriate rewards that you can offer instead? 

Graham and Ashkahn review this question in detail, sharing many questions that any float center owner should consider before offering an employee ownership of your company.

Latest Blog Posts

Beginner’s Guides from Everywhere!

Beginner’s Guides from Everywhere!

If you’re not familiar with the Beginner’s Guide, it’s basically our intro brochure at Float On. About 5 years ago now we made the creation files easily available so folks could edit it as they pleased and sent it out to everyone with an open invitation to do with it as they pleased for their own centers. We know most centers don’t have graphic designers on staff so it seemed like a nice way to help others have reliable, easy to access information for their clients and also serve as a way to save them time and money from having to create their own.

The result of this is that years later, dozens and dozens of centers have a version of these brochures, some of them not even realizing where they originated from. Naturally, we’ve taken a copy from all the centers we’ve visited and we thought we’d share some of them with the rest of you.

Float Success Story – Float Los Alamos

Float Success Story – Float Los Alamos

At the Float Conference every year we hear inspirational stories from float center owners who have carved a piece of the industry out in their salty image. Everyone defines "success" in their own way, and we thought it would be cool to share what that meant to some of...