Say Munich and people think of a white sausage breakfast, Oktoberfest and, of course, football. More than 100 years ago (in 1900, to be exact), FC Bayern Munich was founded here. The team has played in the German Bundesliga since 1965 (in first place since 2012). With 291,000 members, the club is also considered the largest football club in the world. Pretty much every football fan there knows the names of the current players, and the coach (currently Nico Kovac) too, naturally. It’s a different story with Oliver Schmidtlein, whom not everyone may have known. Between 2002 and 2009, he worked as a physiotherapist and rehab trainer for FC Bayern Munich, looking after the professional players around the clock. Today he has left football behind and runs his own physio practice in Munich. At OSPHYSIO in Munich, he now puts his expertise (which includes several years as a trainer in the USA) to work for everyone. And, by the way, he scents his successful business with Aromea scent marketing. So we simply asked this likeable man for an interview.
Mr Schmidtlein, football is yesterday’s news. Today, with OSPHYSIO, you offer comprehensive services in physiotherapy, rehabilitation, sport and training. What exactly do you offer?
Schmidtlein: OSPHYSIO is a physiotherapy and rehab practice. We treat people from the moment of their injury and stay with them until they’re discharged back into everyday life or their sport. Different parameters matter at the start of a course of therapy than towards the end - with very different options for training, movement and therapy. From measures to reduce swelling and relieve pain, to manual mobilisation to restore natural movement patterns, right through to tough strength or endurance training, at OSPHYSIO we support our clients’ regeneration with lasting success. Depending on how complex the injury is and on your own ability to regenerate, that can often take months.
Professional athletes naturally come almost every day during this time. Working patients, on the other hand, come only two to four times a month. Learning the right movement patterns is another important point: we show people exercises and draw up step-by-step exercise plans. People with chronic problems don’t leave our premises without a plan either. There’s almost always something you can do yourself. Ideally every day! When it comes to training, consistency is simply the best recipe for success. Some people then stay on with us and keep training even once they’re healthy again - because they want to stay that way. Professional athletes in particular visit us in the off-season with exactly this (training) goal in mind.
You use Airdesign by Aromea in your OSPHYSIO practice in Munich - since when, and why, exactly?
Schmidtlein: We’ve been using the smart Aromea aroma towers for about three years now. We really did spend a long time looking for a suitable way to give our premises a somewhat fresher “base smell”. My own sense of smell is very sensitive, so neutralising unpleasant odours was probably a bit of a personal concern for me too. With Aromea, we found the ideal scent solution for our requirements. You automatically feel comfortable and welcome in pleasantly scented surroundings. That’s especially important in our line of work, since most of our clients already arrive in pain or with some kind of complaint. We want to create a good feeling the moment they walk in.
Which Aromea premium fragrances do you use at OSPHYSIO, and what effect are you aiming for?
Schmidtlein: We like fresh scent notes. Preferably mint or citrus fragrances. A direct therapeutic effect wasn’t actually important when we chose our fragrances, though - that’s where expertise and experience come in. (laughs) We simply want patients, clients and staff to feel comfortable. Of course that helps the therapy somewhere along the line, but it wasn’t the main deciding factor in our choice of scent. Subjectively, I’d say our fresh scent notes do make you a little more awake and alert. I like coming into the practice in the morning when it already smells “healthy”. I don’t think it’s any different for our clients. (grins)
Cleanliness and hygiene matter in medical settings. Aromea offers tailored scent solutions for the highest standards of hygiene - which Scentmaker did OSPHYSIO choose, and why?
Schmidtlein: We’ve been using Aromea’s powerful aroma towers for many years. As for the hygiene aspect, there are clear instructions on how to handle, look after, clean and operate the diffusers - as long as you stick to them, all is well. (grins) I was also won over by the individual control of times and scent intervals, and by the attractive design too. The way I see it, if something’s going to be standing around, it may as well look good! Or at least not get in the way. An Aromea aroma tower can actually do both! (laughs)
What kind of feedback do you get on the scent from staff and clients? And why would you recommend Aromea?
Schmidtlein: All our staff are on board with the scent marketing. That’s very important, because the team has to feel comfortable in their daily working environment as well. First impressions count, last impressions stay. With us, that’s always the scent, and our professional care happens in between. Our patients aren’t always consciously aware of the scent experience - and that’s just as it should be. We humans have a powerful scent memory, where olfactory impressions are stored subconsciously. You then automatically associate the scent with your impressions of the place. Our patients find our ambience pleasant and “just right”. Some of them think it’s our therapy products, our oils and creams, that smell so nice. That’s surely the best example of perfect scent marketing: unobtrusive but effective!
So true! Thank you very much for the interview and this revealing look behind the scenes of professional physiotherapy! One last little football question to finish: do you still run into the lads from FC Bayern Munich these days?
Schmidtlein: Yes, of course we still see football players at our OSPHYSIO practice from time to time. Relatively rarely from the big Munich clubs, though - they have their own physiotherapists on site, after all. (grins)
Oliver Schmidtlein on the perfect scent solution at OSPHYSIO in Munich.
