Taneesa Williamson For clients seeking new skincare recommendations, a brief skin review, or a comprehensive treatment plan.
Offering multiple types of skin consultation options for new or existing clients is a great way to create a bespoke experience. However, for a client who is wanting just a simple new skincare routine, sitting through a 45-minute detailed discussion of recommended treatments alongside health and wellbeing recommendations before even reaching the point of discussing recommended skincare products can leave the client feeling overwhelmed, especially those with certain budget and time considerations.
With the understanding that skin requires both an approach of a quality home-care regime and professional treatments, there is a suggestion from leading industry professionals to offer different types of skin consultations, that can vary in timing and pricing, to help individualise each appointment to each client. Ultimately, this can also help guide your team of therapists to enter a consultation with an understanding of the client’s goal of the appointment, leading to stronger engagement and a reduction in unconverted consults.
The benefits of a strong client experience is something Timely Head of Partnerships Tamara Reid knows all too well, with the two-time startup founder of both Beaute Industrie and the Aesthetic and Beauty Industry Council (ABIC) having first hand experience of previously conducting ‘mystery shops’ on day-spas, beauty salons and skin clinics. With an initial background in the industry from her Diploma in Beauty Therapy, Tamara believes in the strength of a strong consultation and how offering a triad of consultation types on your treatment menu can lead to better KPI’s and clearer communication.
Why is tailoring skin consultations so important?
Tamara: “No two skins are the same, we know this to be true, and is prime reason as to why your skin consultations need to be tailored according to the person you’re consulting.
Often as therapists performing the same treatments multiple times a day, our consultation risk falling into default mode and become robotic with the questions we ask.
To ensure that you’re truly deducing the correct information from your client so that you can address their skin concerns, asking probing questions that start with ‘tell me’, ‘explain for me’ and ‘describe for me’ will allow your client to answer more openly and you’ll get to the source of their problem soon enough.”
What makes an initial skin consultation so exceptional?
Tamara: “The initial skin consultation is the best way for a business to showcase their client experience. It’s the moment where you set expectations for the client as to the level of professionalism, standard of service and ability to educate them.
A digital consultation form sent prior to the appointment via email shows the client that you take their treatment seriously, while also assists therapists to prepare and plan technically for the skin they’re about to treat, prior to seeing it.”
“Having spent 15 years in industry enjoying treatments through mystery shopping, one element of the service that always fell flat was the consultation. Therapists would either skim over the consultation, or not perform them at all, which led me to discover the opportunity a thorough consultation can provide for both the client and their concern, the therapist and their passion, as well as the business and their profitability.”
Tamara Reid
Head of Partnerships at Timely
Why should businesses offer multiple types of skin consultations with different timings & pricing?
Tamara: “If your business is serious about skin then you should house a menu of sorts when it comes to your consultations. The options on this menu could vary in length of time and price depending on the level of expertise the treating therapist processes, or the depth of consultation you’ll have to explore to uncover the root cause of the skin concern.
Often businesses don’t charge their worth during consultations, however in a service industry where you’re trading time for money, the consultation should be the most important time you trade of them all.”
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