money back guarantee.

[suwatte]

What is the point of offering a money back guarantee if a client fails to quit smoking? I should think that it is now common knowledge that the smoker has to be motivated in order to quit. Surley if they fail to quit one of the reasons could be that they weren't motivated enough. Why should the therapist have to give money back? I think it much better to offer a free repeat session in order for the client to get themselves motivated.

In the UK we have groups that travel around the country giving hypnosis to large groups and offering money back guarantees if people haven't quit by the end of the session. However, it turns out that this is minus a booking fee of 10%. So if one hundred people show up, each paying £60, and none of them quit, the hypnotist has still made £600. This, to me, seems like a scam and a money making exercise.

Surely a money back guarantee tells the client that they have nothing to lose
and will attract people who aren't really wanting to quit smoking.

Also, if they don't quit it will leave them with the idea that hypnosis doesn't work or that they can't be hypnotised.

No other profession involved in health care offers a money back guarantee, not osteopaths, chiropractors, doctors, surgeons.

Any opinions?

[Jack]

Hello Su,

People very rarely ask for money back which is why it is offered - part of the percentage game played by these travelling roadshows.

I do not have concrete figures but apocryphal information tells me that less than 20% of the audience in these shows actually give up and stay stopped.

So why don't they ask for money back?

Because they blame themselves.

After all if you pay a good sum of money out for something it must be ok mustn't it?

What sort of people go to these shows? People who want a quick, easy, anonymous fix without having to bare their souls or interact with anybody. Many don't actuallywant to give up, they want to be fprced to give up using the weird and scary powers of hypnosis. Will these people complain, or will they chalk it up to their own lack of ability, as the man on the stage has told them to if they fail - when they fail...

Of course it's a scam. I don't offer money back for anything, but I will do my very best to help them leave my premises without the monkey they were backpacking when they entered. But we all have failures and it is wise to let clients know that hypnotherapy isn't a magic bullet, in the same way that surgery is not.

Jack

[thackaray]

My personal take is that you are being paid for something to help them. If they still need that little extra help after the sessions, I offer a free session if they need it.

Usually you can tell if they are been forced into trying hypnotherapy, Seconday Gain. If they are there on their own accord, it's your job as the therapist to work out the best way for them to overcome the smoking addiction or any other issues that are stopping them from quitting.

I've never seen these roadshows, but I guess that they use the 1 size fits all model/treatment, whereas as a therapist, you need the ability to structure the treatment to the client, not the client to the treatment. You should get all the info you need from the initial phone call and consultation session about the best way to proceed.

[Poodle]

Yes, this game is played in a lot of countries except many of them offer no money back. You pay a huge price to go sit in the audience, not go into trance as you have no idea of what trance is and when you go home you light up a cigarette. Hypnosis is not a group affair and people should learn that. Every individual on this earth is different so one size fits all does not work! Smoking cessation is a hard issue to deal with as it has so many components. I will not even take a client for this unless they sign a written pledge that they will do everything under their power to quit and I fully expect them to honor that pledge. I don't know if hypnosis alone is always enough to fully get someone to quit. I've seen that it only has a 80%-85% success rate but add in NLP and you really get somewhere if the client really desires the change. Had one client that was at the last ditch. He had been told by one of these kind of people that he was unhypnotisable. Well, a little NLP took that idea right out of his head and he was a hypnotists dream to work with. Unethical people do a lot of damage in this profession.