Creative Thinking Around Pricing (Part One)
An exercise in finding the pricing strategy that serves both you and your clients
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Pricing in complementary healthcare is a topic that comes up in my conversations with practitioners a lot. How do you know what to charge, how do you get comfortable with charging what you’d like to charge, and what might happen if you change what you charge? So today I bring you part one of a two-part series on the theme of pricing, it’ll be added to the Your Modern Practice Guide selection of articles. My intention is to give you new insights on this subject, some food for thought on being creative with your treatment prices and the confidence to try out different approaches to discover what works for you! This two-part series will cover general pricing strategies, insights from the behavioural economics perspective and examples of live(d) experiences from a handful of practitioners - including discounted pricing, sliding scale pricing, membership pricing, and a clinic offering low cost pricing.
If you’re in a position where you can set your own prices, the basic business approach would be to calculate your costs of running your practice, making sure those are covered and leaving a margin for your own salary. But when it comes to finding the right price beyond that exercise, there’s no one way to go or guideline to follow in complementary healthcare treatments. It’s as personal as the medicine you practice. Pricing is not just a matter of numbers, costs and profits. It is also a psychological exercise that affects how customers perceive and value your services, and it can be a potential barrier for people to access your services. Plus, in (complementary) healthcare, as well as the wider wellness space, there’s the added layer of monetising the basic human need of wellbeing.
Finding the right pricing strategy for your particular goals is key when running a sustainable practice that serves both you and your clients in the long term. And there’s creativity to be found in pricing your services for the audience that you’d like to attract. So I’ve asked our community for some interesting and perhaps unique experiences that practitioners were willing to share.
I spoke to an osteopath who offers discounted prices, and their experience with clients is that clients do appreciate discounts but naturally people do want to pay in some shape or from - which might even be homemade cakes or knitted scarves.
Massage Therapist Emilie Charlesworth operates on an income-based sliding scale structure, based on The Green Bottle framework which is designed by Alexis J. Cunningfolk and developed by embracingequity.org. She works at different locations across clinics and charities, and her motivation to adopt this structure was firstly so that patients are able to access affordable care. She shared that the secondary benefit is that “it gets you the think about your financial circumstances in relation to that of other people. It opens up the conversation.” Other practitioners were worried that a sliding scale structure would mean they’d take a financial hit, but Emilie’s experience has been the opposite as the majority of her clients continue to opt for the higher rate. Over a 12 month period, 48% of her clients paid tier 3 (the higher rate), 42% paid tier 2, and 10% tier 1). “Clients respond really positively to having the option to choose what suits them. And offering lower prices for those who need it also means that more people can afford to come back to see me for regular sessions.”
If your intention is to offer affordable pricing, the success lies in testing out ways for you to do so while also building a sustainable business that supports your financial needs. It’s a process to go through and I hope these stories encourage to get creative with your pricing structures too.
Acupuncturist Jack Jewell generously shared his reasoning behind the membership packages he offers, and how he discovered a way of working and pricing that is aligned with his approach. Jack started his career charging clients £30 per session, with the goal to treat a certain number of clients per week. But he quickly noticed that these longer working hours weren’t sustainable for him and so he had to increase his pricing to match his shorter work days. But he experienced a real downside to this:
“I never felt comfortable charging £60.00 p/h. The reason for this was because I learned quickly that the real gift of acupuncture is that it greatly benefits people who come regularly, by which I mean weekly, if not daily, and that because of this price, most clients weren’t able to commit to anything more than bi-weekly. I strongly feel that acupuncture is strongly misunderstood in the west, in that it is used to treat western medical symptoms as a western medical intervention. It can, of course, successfully do this, but the real magic is something that is much subtler and unfortunately less valued in our society, which is cultivation focused preventative care. I’m talking evolving consciously, rather than just healing. So, to reflect my personal beliefs about treatment, I sought to offer sessions as one would offer a gym or yoga membership, where the club was one where a client came to share what was going on in their world, and have acupuncture and guidance in order to facilitate the desired change. I now offer clients weekly sessions at £35.00 p/h, bi-weekly at £45.00 p/h, and single one off sessions in the month at £60.00 p/h. I now usually work 4 hours a day, Tuesday to Friday, and leave Monday’s open for new clients who want to have their first three hour session with me. It works.
As I still treat from home, I am not paying for a room rental, or have to adhere to an awkward timetable, I’m totally free to schedule clients when I like and be flexible around cancellations and re-scheduling. I have no idea how other practitioners are able to live.”
On the financial challenges that both practitioners and clients face, Jack adds:
“I understand that people need to make money (from room hire), but a £20.00 p/h increase in fees makes the consumer suffer, as well as cuts opportunities for practitioners to see clients regularly. In this way, I am really grossed out by the commercialisation of the wellness industry, where practitioners are forced to see clients as their meal ticket, and clients feel pinched just to receive care, something that should be more universally available anyway.”
In light of this changing landscape, cost of living crisis and new practitioners coming into the industry facing financial hurdles; Jack plans to open a charity in future with donation-based treatments and rooms to rent for free.
Another example of a low-cost clinic is E5.Acupuncture in Clapton, run by Sean Cleere who I had the joy to speak to about his career journey and motivation to treat clients in a multi-bed setting for £35 per session:
The motivation was based on my experience working in India and Sri Lanka and that, selfishly, it was a style and rhythm of practice that I enjoy, it suits me as a person and a practitioner. On returning from India I slipped back into the more common one-on-one pattern of treatment but it really didn’t suit me or my idea of the accessibility of acupuncture to a wider audience. In London I was inspired by people and businesses shaped around very simple and clear cut missions. An authenticity. That’s what I wanted, to work in a way that suited me, that served the patient at a much reduced rate and paid me enough. I explored the models that were in existence, groups in one room, in chairs etc., sliding scales, the POCA model I guess. But this didn’t sit quite right with me. I decided I wanted to have a confidently accessible fixed price and structure. Availability across the week, rather than the odd day and something between communal and private room model.
That’s it for today’s coverage on creative pricing, next week I’ll bring you a deep dive into the most common pricing strategies in business, so you can see where you fit on the scale. And we’ll look at pricing from the behavioural economics lens too. Let me know what you think in the comments!
Love this article it has made me think about what I wan to do with my practice