Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
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.
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Still no Ashkahn today. He’s taking a couple of post-conference days to himself.
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Construction to Make Your Life Easier – DSP 268
Graham and Jake cover a wide range of construction tips to make running a float center easier. Everything from making sure you have extra storage to installing mop closets with sinks in them for dealing with heavy duty chemicals.
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The Difference Between STC and Decibels – DSP 266
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Latest Blog Posts
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #28
Home sweet home! After so many months on the road, it was strange being back here in Portland. We were exhausted, excited, and a little travel weary. The first night back, I slept in my own bed for the first time in three months and the world just melted away.
Having travelled across the United States, I’m reminded of how insular Portland is. We are aggressively fixated on keeping things local. Local beer, ketchup, bikes, pet food, pillows, phone cases… it’s part of our charm. We want to reward people for living here and being a part of the community. It’s so pervasive that, after living here for so long, I kind of forgot that Secret Aardvark hot-sauce isn’t available everywhere, and that most cities don’t even recycle, let alone compost.
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #27
Our northern neighbor – a sister city, of sorts – Seattle is the largest metropolitan area in the Pacific Northwest. It’s the land of Microsoft and Kurt Cobain, and the culture here embraces both simultaneously. It’s tech business professional in the front and rock n’ roll grunge in the back. This blend creates a perfect storm of high energy business life and high energy nightlife, making relaxation a valuable commodity. Floating helps fill the void left by nightmarish traffic and overcrowded restaurants.
Given that it’s so close to home, the float centers in Seattle are a lot more familiar to us. Our visits here were more like a high school reunion than they were like the first day of school. During some of our visits, we were picking up conversations right where we left them.
The Float Tour Blog Issue #26
Vancouver is the largest metropolitan area in Canada, and third largest on the West Coast. It’s a major hub for international trade, with one of the largest ports in the world, giving it a large migrant population, mainly from Asia, the Middle East, and Australia. It’s also been a long-time home to the Canadian film industry, and has even been nicknamed “North Hollywood.” Dozens of film and television productions from major studios film here every year.
Vancouver is very much an international city. It has large boroughs dedicated to varying cultures, including one of the largest Chinatowns in the world. The society here is more receptive to new ideas, always looking for the next big thing; it’s not surprising that floating has blown up in Vancouver as much as it has.
In the last 3 years, 10 float centers have opened up, most of them being larger 4–6 tank centers. The really interesting thing is how they all opened within the same short amount of time about 1 ½ to 2 years ago, within months of each other.
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #25
We finally made it back to the West Coast! We went through the Canadian Rockies and were overwhelmed by the beauty of it all. We drove through hours and hours of winding mountain roads, fertile valleys, and tiny towns so picturesque they looked like movie sets. It was so captivating, in fact, I suspect Graham and Ashkahn may have secretly replaced themselves with robotic doppelgängers to hike throughout Banff.
This post will focus on the smaller communities in B.C. that are bringing floating to new people every day. We also get to visit Canadian manufacturer Pro Float. They’re relatively new to the scene, just opening up earlier this year – another exciting sign of the growth in the industry.
