Skin Care Resolutions

This time of the year, all of us are in a zone of renewal, new goal setting, new ambition, new inspiration, new motivation. It is a beautiful time of the year to have conversations with clients about what their skincare goals actually are and re-engage with your clients.

For those of you who are in lockdown, it’s a perfect opportunity to reach out to your clients just to check in. What conversations are we having with our clients? How are we engaging? And how do we carry on carrying on, especially in these strange times we find ourselves?

Here are some examples of how I’m going to re-engage this time of year (and how you can too!).

For myself…

  1. This year, I really want to update my own regime to bring in a seasonal serum in these strange times. (We are under a modified lockdown here.) Since I don’t really have to show up anywhere except for work, some of the basics have slipped a little bit.
  2. I have resolved to be more proactive with my weekly mask regime, which typically involves an exfoliation. Fun fact: I get my boys involved (my youngest in particular loves facial day.) We make a little bit of an event out of it every Friday!
  3. Also, I want to re-engage in my own regular personal services. My goal is to have six collagen induction therapy treatments this year. I need to get on that so I can practice what I preach.

Now thinking about clients…

If clients can’t come in person, what are the things that you can do to empower them to facilitate something to substitute at home what they would have been doing in the clinic with you? Does that mean like home facials? Are you showing up for them to accommodate that?

  1. A few ideas that we’ve had for people who are closed is we have rolled out at-home facial kits. Consider doing something like an online facial party on a Friday night. Invite any of your clients who want to join you for a facial hour on Zoom, where you take them through it, and you all do it together. Doing things together as a community is really missing at the moment. So, think outside the box.
  2. Especially if you are locked down and literally cannot do anything else, why not reach out to clients? See where they’re at, what the goals are, and modify if need be. Get them on the same page, get them excited about what the future is going to look like, perhaps explain to them what your protocols are going to be when you are able to open. I’m a big fan of sharing some behind the scenes to show them what the new normal looks like.

What do you look like when they come in? Are you wearing gloves, a mask, a shield, an apron, all these things? Let them see what they can expect when they walk in through the door. What is expected from them every step of the way? For example, do they have to enter through the door with a mask on, do they keep the mask on until they’re on the bed and only remove it when you’re ready to proceed with a facial or clinical treatment? What does that look like? Take out the mystery and uncertainty for clients and help them recalibrate to the new normal.

  1. Something I do every year for clients is to reassess and design their plans for the next 12 months.

For those of you who have followed me for a while, you know that I’m a great advocate of a very comprehensive initial consultation, and advanced skin analysis, in which I discuss everything about the client: genetic history, medicine, previous skin care, marital status, how many children they have, what are they obsessed with, what they hate, what they love, who is frustrating them… we discuss everything. I want to know it all in that hour consultation. (And I use the Pastiche Method of Advanced Skin Analysis for those that don’t know.)

Discuss everything. If I see anything pertinent that I can either refer the client for, or that I have the power to do in my own facility, I am going to be talking to the client about that, even if it is not directly related to skin. So that might be relaxation, hair removal, Botox, maybe there is a weight loss or nutritional program, maybe they need to have hormones examined, do they have a naturopathic doctor they’re working with? Make it all-encompassing and lay out the entire plan.

The annual plan that I lay out for clients is annual from whenever they come in, even though my brain likes to think about it in the calendar year. For example: “Hi, Mrs. Smith, in the next year, what we would love to do is to repair the skin barrier of your skin, this is what it’s going to look like at home…” They’re going to have the homecare regime, the clinical regime, and then we mention all the other nice-to-have to-do’s.

Discuss all the services that you can offer a client to treat them as a whole individual, and also refer out to people that you have reference lines with that have skill sets that you don’t have.

The beginning of the year is a great place to revisit that, even if the last time you did it was only six months ago.

  1. I want to share a resource that I use with clients. You can make a rack card or you can do it virtually.

We have all our products listed on one side, as well as a spot for notes where we note if it’s something that we don’t offer or something you may not carry such as makeup, relaxation treatments, massage therapists, chiropractors, naturopaths, and so on, along with a referral for where they can get it.

On the back, write out exactly how you want them to use the products and in which order. I break it up into a daily regime, and a weekly regime. Then I also have a space where we write down recommended treatments, even if they might not be directly related to skin, but are in line with achieving their skin care goals.

Allow a few extra minutes with each client in the new year to review their goals. It’s really powerful. You can do this on the phone with your clients as well.

If you’re in lockdown right now, you really want to internalize and focus on clients who are already in your realm, and not stress too much about trying to build your clientele. Serve the life out of those clients who are already supporting you. If I have ever had a time that is a little bit tumultuous in business, for whatever reason, I’ve always made sure that my focus is on my existing clients and not on gaining new clients in times of uncertainty. That has always served me well, because they’re always there. A lot of my clients have been with me for eight to 10 years. (February is actually my 10-year anniversary in business!) So they’re fundamentally far more important to me, at this point in time, then a new person might be. So, give them a call, they will appreciate it.

And for those of you who are open, and things are a little bit more back to normal, this process really, really maintains engagement of your clients. If you’re not engaging with them, this is when they trade you in for the person next door.

  1. And lastly, what you should do with clients even if they cannot come in in-person, is a quick review. Ask them to send a photo of all their products, whether they got it from you or elsewhere, and line them up in the order of how they use it. This helps you to see if they’re using things in the correct order that you want them to be using it, and it opens up that opportunity to touch base to move to the next phase of your treatment plan with them.

So, this is what I wanted to share with you today: be proactive, re-engage with your clients, revisit their regimes, take the time to check in with them and their annual goals, and they will keep coming back.

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This blog was originally posted on reneserbon.com.

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