As funny as it sounds, there was a time that online booking software wasn’t as prevalent as it is today. In fact, while I’m not certain of this, I believe That’s the Rub was the first “spa” to have a full online booking package in Bloomington (we’re really not a spa, we prefer “massage center”). But, online booking software is not good at everything, and one of the things it really struggles with is room allocations. This is why, to this day if you look at your emails confirming appointments you’ll often see you are in one room only to arrive at The Rub and end up in a different room entirely.
Enter The Booking Board. When we opened The Center, we had three treatment rooms, but those rooms were shared by as many as seven therapists at any one time. In order to keep track of who was where and when we purchased this whiteboard (which really was white at the time) and the closing front desk person the night before would organize the therapists for the following day into the rooms based on preference, seniority, the needs of the client (some rooms are better for hot stone or pregnancy massage, for example) and post it for the morning shift to coordinate the rooms.
Your therapists would come in every single shift, check this board to know where they would be working, sometimes they would have to “jump rooms” in the middle of a shift, and this simple board is what made it possible as we grew from 3 rooms to 4, to 5, to 7…and beyond!
This humble board has been our silent partner every single day of That’s the Rub’s existence–over 5000 days, in fact–which explains why it looks very used, very loved, and has now, just last week been retired.
I’m sorry to say the retirement plan for such an important piece of equipment is less than ideal. There’s no gold watch, no grand vacation plans, just a heartfelt goodbye as it moves on to the local landfill. However, it has honestly been such a big part of all of our lives for so long, it would have been a shame not to eulogize it for you here.
I am happy to report its replacement is young and shiny, and while it is not the same friend we have all known for nearly 15 years, I believe it will be excellent in its new role and in time will find a place in our hearts as well.
That’s the Rub,
Jim
