Pamela Hill Institute

Selling your clients the benefits of long term anti-aging treatments is a good thing that you can do for your client and a good thing that you can do for yourself and for your business. The reason  for this is simple. Your clients will benefit because they will look good, feel good and put off the visible effects of the sands of time for a good long time, helping them. You and your business will benefit from increased business, increased profit by selling the necessary products to the client and also benefit long term because your client will be happier than ever before with the results and this will undoubtedly lead the client to refer friends, neighbors, relatives and acquaintances to you for treatment in the future.  It is a win-win situation all the way around.

Our culture is obsessed with anti-aging and the process of  reversing the aging process, slowing it down, and using the latest and best anti aging treatments available. To seek the anti aging treatments means sometime to erase the scars we have from our life. While some would rather keep these scars of time, most spa customers would rather erase them and have shiny hair, white teeth and vibrant, youthful appearing skin. This is accomplished through many different treatments. Fillers like collagen help many, as do microdermabrasion and alphahydroxy chemical peels, which remove the dried older skin and bring the healthy skin to the surface.Despite our anti aging treatment and fixation, we as people continue to age. Fortunately we can slow it down.

Healthy eating habits, moderate exercise and the treatments available at spas – both traditional day spas and medical spas contribute to improving the outer appearance and for many people that is enough to make them continue, improving the inner person as well.

Learning to avoid causing damage to the body through good nutrition, drinking plenty of water, and eating fruits, vegetables, berries and teas will help to keep the skin hydrated. Carrots, cucumber, spinach, celery, blue berries, strawberries, water melon and other natural fruits and veggies improve the skin and additionally control stress, reducing the visible effects of aging. Also avoiding smoking, excessive drinking of alcohol and other harmful things will help.

Encourage your clients to take care of themselves as well as using the products and services that your spa or clinic offers, and you’ll see them have great results, making them all the happier with you and your business.

Once you are aware, you can share these important benefits with your clients - they will thank you for it! 

Most clients who get high end facials expect the works.  They usually want a high quality facial, a light massage, great ambiance and excellent service.  This full feature treatment relaxes the body and improves the skin while nurturing the soul.  And that is what the  high end spa is all about, making the client look good and feel good.

Offer All of the Facial Services To Please The Client

A facial, or cosmetic face treatment providing grooming steps and deep cleansing utilizing exfoliation, extraction creams, lotions, peels, masks, and massage is in the minds of many almost hedonistic, but that is really what clients want—to be treated like royalty.  And that is what you and the spa are there for.  Treat the clients well, make them look good and feel good and they will be back, and will bring their friends.

Exceptional Service To Your Client Is Expected And Should Be Delivered

Providing exceptional service is something that you should do for every client, but those who get facials expect it.  Adding a little aromatherapy to the mix, and making sure that linens, towels and pillows used, as well as robes and slippers the client may wear are of the highest quality that you or the business can afford, soft to the touch with a pleasing texture, will pay off in the long run. They are part of the total experience that the client expects. So is the lighting. It should be soft and not harsh.  Make sure that wall paintings and other decorations are pleasing to the eye, that the colors of the treatment room are light, pastel and easy to look at, adding warms and good feelings.

Pay Attention to the Facility’s Cleanliness

Also pay attention to cleanliness.  Everything in the treatment room must be clean.  If a client goes into a treatment room and sees an area that has not been cleaned, or linens that have not been properly laundered they will be immediately turned off and the pleasant experience they expected will not arrive no matter how hard you try.  Pay attention to the little things and the big things will take care of themselves.

Think About Adding Music

Think about adding music to the mix.  Ear pleasing sounds such as ocean waves, desert sounds, very light and neutral classical music without vocals, or light new age music can relax a client even more and enhance the total overall experience.

There are several methods the aesthetician may take in treating a client with sun damaged skin.  They include intense pulsed light (or IPL), microdermabrasion and chemical peels.  

Intense pulsed light treatment these days often takes the form of the foto facial.  This procedure takes about thirty minutes on average, and causes reconstruction of collagen and blood vessels beneath the skin.  The result is a reduction in lines and wrinkles, many of which have been caused by sun exposure over the years.    This is a popular, non-invasive treatment.  While the skin may be pink for a time after the treatment, no recovery time is needed. This is a treatment that a qualified, professional aesthetician can perform if they obtain the proper training and equipment.

The best candidates for this treatment are those clients who have early stage skin damage.  Settings on the light device are altered for each client to cover their particular skin conditions. Results seen will include a gradual decrease in redness, flushing and dilated capillaries.  Age spots, blemishes, fine lines, scars, hyper pigmentation, rosaga and spider veins will disappear.  Intense pulsed light emits over a variety of wavelengths, as opposed to a laser which emits over only one wavelength.
 
Chemical peels also provide solutions to sun induced skin damage.  A chemical peel requires use of a chemical solution to remove the outer layer of skin, the damaged layer, which allows new skin to take its place.  The chemicals used are adjusted for the individual patient of course, and their unique skin makeup.  Personal appearance enhancement and getting rid of skin imperfections that bother a client are common reasons for having a chemical peel.  

While some of your clients may have concerns over the strength of the chemicals used, as a practitioner, there are many chemicals available of different strength levels.  Milder agents like alphahydroxy acids are commonly utilized in light (surface) chemical peels.  These agents produce brighter looking and smoother skin and can include fruit acid, glycolic acid and lactic acid.  There is a very short recovery time required with these light treatment chemical peels.

Microdermabrasion is much like chemical peels in that it removes the outer skin layer, promoting the growth of collagen and new skin.  In addition microdermabrasion is helpful for acne scaring, wrinkles and other signs of aging.  Microdermabrasion exfoliates the outer layers of skin and brings out the new, clean skin layer that lies below.  Then much like a vacuum cleaner, the layer is removed by the esthetician.

Your clients know that too much sun exposure can be damaging, but most people continue to lie out in the sun anyway, especially younger clients.  As an aesthetician, part of your job is educating clients about the dangers of sun exposure and also recommend appropriate at home treatment systems, using the correct products suitable for a particular client’s condition. A result of that sun exposure in later life will be blemishes and imperfections in the skin.  By connecting with aesthetician, clients are able to choose from a variety of approaches to resolve problems, as per your recommendations, and greatly improve the quality of their skin.

Learn more about Ensuring an Optimal Outcome in Skin Care

When people think of going to the spa, they think of getting pampered and having their stress massaged away. When people think of a medical facility, they think of sterile hallways and people in white coats. So, what image do you get when you combine the two? A variety of images might come to mind but the fact of the matter is that medical spas are increasing their numbers and are here to stay.

Many medical spas have created a warm and inviting environment, bringing together the best of both worlds. Warm colors and services that include overall beauty and wellness options bring one-stop shopping to many spa and wellness consumers. These medical spas offer traditional spa treatments, retail options, specialized treatment packages and non-invasive medical techniques to draw a more diverse clientele. As savvy consumers make informed skincare choices and wise health and beauty investments, they will continue to search for the latest products, services and facilities to meet their desire for health, wellness and an improved appearance.

More consumers want to know how to carry their spa experience back to their homes so that the benefits of their treatment can last longer. Medical spas can offer customized homecare regimens to help prolong the benefits of their treatment. Customized treatment packages give clients optimal results by offering the right combinations of active ingredients in topical products along with the most advanced technologies. Non-invasive procedures such as Botox injections and lymphatic drainage offer clients the results they are looking for, along with increasing their health and helping them decrease their stress levels.

With the right combination of medical services, wellness options and spa pampering, clients will keep coming back as they look and feel great on the inside and the outside.

Resource: "Medical-Spa Trends & Your Bottom Line," by Lisa Travis, www.spa20-20.com

Part 5 in a 5-part series on Creating, Monitoring and Changing Spa Menus and Aesthetician Services Brochures like an industry expert…

When starting any business or revamping your business model - which includes reworking your menu of services or business brochure - it is critical to research your competition, know your market, and have a strong idea of the types of services that are needed and the prices you’ll be able to charge are essential.

If you are already in business but your menu is not working for you, the same rules apply. Go back to Square 1 - start over and take a good hard look at your competition, your market and industry trends. 

Due diligence is needed, no matter how long you have been in business. Markets change, industries evolve and cities grow.

Keeping Spa Menus Fresh, Current and Relevant

The holidays and other special events can often be the bread-and-butter of any day spa.  Gift certificates, gift baskets, and private parties are all great revenue increasing opportunities for any spa.  However, you need to plan ahead of time in order to make the most of these opportunities by creating special menus for these special events in advance. Any good spa manager is always looking ahead one to six months in advance.  Planning special menus for upcoming holidays or special events are great ways to increase sales.  Start thinking about offering couples services for Valentine’s Day, mother/daughter packages for Mother’s Day, stress relief packages for Christmastime, springtime specials for bridal season, or teen packages for all those June graduates. Putting together special spa menus and packages for these holidays and special events in advance will allow you time to order products or hire therapists that you might need for these busier times of the year.  So, make sure you plan ahead and create special occasion spa menus so you can focus on providing those services properly without stress rather than worrying about how you’re going to pull it all off at the last second.

Underserviced and Overwhelmed

How big is your city?  How many spas are already there?  Have any spas, either day spa or medical spa gone out of business recently?  If so, find out why.  The major reason for business failure within the first five years is under capitalization. The people starting the business simply didn’t have enough money set aside to operate on, including living expenses, while the business ramped up.  It always takes a while to build up the number of clients needed to actually make a good living with a business and pay for the business expenses that are ongoing as well. Why buy an existing business rather than start one?  When you purchase an existing business you are buying cash flow.  The business already has customers and your job then becomes expansion rather than start up.  You can see what the business is already doing right, and do more of it.  You can also look at what the business may be doing incorrectly and correct it.

Is the city growing?  If so, ask the chamber of commerce or your friendly research librarian to point you in the direction of information about demographics.  Is the under 30 population growing?  Are more baby boomers moving to the area?  Find out who the majority of your potential clients are so that you can determine how to reach them and what services you should offer.

For business success, research is key.