Create an On-Demand Massage Therapist App.

We often compare our bodies to machines and treat them the same. From the daily commute, the constant multitasking, sending emails, attending meetings, and catching up with everything else; our bodies do a great job of adapting to the daily grind. And very soon life gets a little too busy and takes over, and between making ends meet, we forget about ourselves, our wellness, and our body.
Once in a while, you need to put yourself first, and that’s where massage comes in.
But massages in today’s world? Who even has the time to keep appointments. This is where the on-demand markets save the world.

With everyone being insanely busy with their schedules and enormous workload, the people don’t have the time to keep appointments to a masseuse, that is where the concept of on-demand massage therapist app comes in. While people still like a long-spa day at a resort, there’s a certain appeal that comes with opening an app, choosing the best massage therapist as per your requirements and booking an appointment, and the masseuse coming straight to you. This was basically the highlights of any on-demand massage therapist app.

Business Considerations of an On-Demand Massage Therapist App.

In this section, we shall talk about the business considerations that will come into play when you set out to launch the next Uber For Massage app for the young generation. Because let’s face it, it’s not just about making an app with a slick interface or collecting a few massage therapists. It’s a bit entangled, just like every other business. Let’s discuss a few of them.

1. Hiring/OnBoarding the massage therapists.

There are two options in front of you, one is to hire the massage therapists and keep them on a payroll. The other option, however, is to just suitable therapists and professionals who will be available based on the appointments placed by your customer base. The hiring/onboarding decision will be solely based on the profitability in each of the appointments and the number of appointments rolling into your business.

2.  Engagement Model with the customers

There are a number of various engagement models which you can follow in your on-demand massage therapist app. The first one, keep it one appointment at a time. However, there will be clients which will be more interested in a subscription based model. Our product managers will help you strike the perfect balance into your customer engagement model.

3. Creating a customer-base.

Creating a customer-base for your on-demand massage therapist app is sure a challenge. And a lot of things need to be done right. First thing you need to do is create an alluring app, which we can help you with. Have a look at our on-demand app development recipe.

Now, marketing is crucial once you’ve got the app. Social Media platforms, along with online forums must be leveraged to the fullest by your marketing team. Another easy way of getting to the right customers easily will be to use the already built customer base of the massage therapists you are signing up for app. You can also run campaigns in which you can provide a complimentary service to the customer who orders, or a friend/family of them, this may land you repetitive appointments from the same clients.

THE ON-DEMAND ECONOMY.

People are looking for creative ways to take care of themselves in this high stress working environment and only 24 hours in a day. With the on-demand marketplace, flexibility in working arrangements for the therapists, and independence in scheduling the appointments makes this a very lucrative option to avail for the working people. As soon as someone gets some time off, they can use it to relax. An Uber for massages? How can that be bad.

A lot of examples like explained here by Bloomberg and many others have already proved that the on-demand massage therapist app is definitely a great business model in modern age. Now, let’s get over to the part where we discuss all the features that a great on-demand massage therapist app must have.

Our Tech Stack for on-demand massage therapist marketplace.

Although, the wide array of tech stack used in the creation of on-demand massage therapist is hard to cover in a blog due to a number of reasons including confidentiality, they are discussed at length in our engagement with the clients. I will try to discuss a few of them here since you’ve been kind enough to read this long. For the payment integrations, Stripe and Braintree are the most popular options depending upon a number of other governing factors. Realtime and live chats are implemented using tools such as Google Firebase and Socket I/O.   

Mapkit API and Google Map’s API can be used for creating navigation features into your on-demand massage therapist app, this can prove out to be handy for the therapists and masseuse you tie-up with. 

LET’S CREATE AN ONDEMAND Therapist MARKETPLACE APP.

1. Therapist Safety

Therapist safety is a top priority for massage-on-demand companies. There are various ways to handle the specifics pertaining to client screening and therapist security during appointments. New clients must be vetted fairly extensively. Sudden changes in addresses must have follow-ups.  Therapists should have options to check-in and out of appointments, and be tracked during appointments.

2. Frictionless Payments

Paying for a service can sometimes become the most taxing activity. Payments need to be quick, secure, and convenient. In an on-demand service, irritating payments can be a deal breaker which can have the client migrate to another service. The entire variety of options – credit cards, debit cards, cash, netbanking, and several digital wallets – should be incorporated in the design to ensure customer convenience.

3. Reasonable Price Points.

When people take to the online marketplace, the primary thing they look for is fair pricing. If your services are priced way higher than what the local masseuse would charge, you won’t have customers streaming in to use your service. There is only so much that you can charge for convenience. The sustenance of an on-demand service exists entirely because of its attractive price point.

4. Easy Cancellations

Oops, the client made a mistake. The fee was deducted from their account and now they want to cancel their appointment, and get their money back. Customer service in this scenario needs to be flawless. The refund should not take millenia to get processed back into the user’s account, or if the customer simply wants to reschedule, there should be provisions for that. At no point during the entire experience should the customer worry about losing their money. You can also have a look at our another blog where we discussed how to make a water delivery app development.

5. Comprehensive Review System

Reviews work as a system for the clients to judge their therapists and vice versa. An efficient and effective review system serves as a heads-up for what’s to expect for both sides of the market. The clients should be able to leave in-depth reviews, and any bad experiences should be followed up on. Similarly, the therapists should be able to review the client as well. This transparency encourages good behaviour all around.

THE CREATION PROCESS

Once you come up with a clean, sleek UI for both the client and therapist apps, the next biggest step is affiliating with therapists. Contacting prospective professionals, after screening them intensively, convincing them to associate themselves with your project is probably the most important part of the development process.

Developing the matching algorithm is the next step in the process. Matching can be automatic or manual, the preference is majorly restricted by the resources available, but it is recommended to start out with a small location in order to learn how the algorithm actually performs.

Our On-Demand Capabilties.

Our teams have been working with a number of apps in the on-demand economy which has made our product managers and designers specialists in the on-demand space. Be it creating the very first mock-ups for an app, or figuring out how to integrate the most crucial features like that of payment gateways, creating wishlist and cart in the app or even tiny things such as push notifications and realtime chats, our team has got you covered.

Are you looking to create an On-Demand massage therapist app? Feel free to get in touch with us.