Massage Therapy Center in Los Angeles Does it Right
27 Jul '09
Massage Therapy Center in West Los Angeles treats their customers how all business should treat their customers. I recently went there for a massage, had a mediocre experience and Yelped about it. I gave them what I thought was a fair review. The owner, Mark Chatow personally reached out to me about my review and has offered me a refund including gratuity or a credit including gratuity. He also offered to help me find a massuse at Massage Therapy Center that would fit my needs.
Dear Violet,
Thanks very much for your review about the Massage Therapy Center. While I was disappointed to see that your massage didn’t leave you feeling the way you expected it to, I am glad that you took the time to write about it, so we can hopefully make things better.
If you’d be willing to share a little more about your massage and your preferences I would be happy to match you with a therapist who might be a better fit for the style of massage you prefer. I’d also like to work something out with you on the massage you already paid for. Our policy is that if a client isn’t happy with their session, they don’t have to pay for it.
We can either refund your payment (including the tip), or I can give you a credit for another session including tip.
If you’d be willing to give us another chance please let me know. I look forward to the opportunity to welcome you back for the experience you should have had in the first place.
Best regards,
Mark ChatowOwner
The Massage Therapy Center
I review a lot of small businesses on Yelp. I don’t use Yelp strictly to vent about a bad experience; I talk about great experiences I’ve had and I review the good, the bad and the ugly. I can be ruthless with my reviews but if your business is great, I’m your biggest evangelist, fan, free marketing department etc. Mark’s message really surprised me as my review’s overall sentiment was neutral. I didn’t complain in my review but the fact that he took the time to go above and beyond really impressed me. I’ve accepted his offer and will go back to Massage Therapy Center one more time.
This is a great example of how to conduct customer service through social networks. I hope more business owners will understand how important it is to monitor their business, listen to their customers and respond accordingly. Stay tuned for my next post on how business owners can further use Yelp as a customer service strategy.





Thanks for the reference to Yelp. I’ll look for your posts, and use it for my consumer choices.
Hi Aliya,
I’m glad this post is helpful to you. I really like to see businesses reaching out to their customers and going the extra mile to please them. This is especially important given the economic crisis and the growth of businesses on the social web.
Violet,
Thanks again for giving us another try. I wanted to check in to see how your follow up session was– I heard good thing from our front desk after you checked out but wanted to follow up and make sure that everything was perfect.
Best wishes for a great holiday season and a Happy New Year.
-Mark