Lori Crete, renowned beauty and spa industry expert and licensed celebrity esthetician, provides her top 5 proven methods to elevate the client experience and cultivate a lasting impression.
You can create a dopamine reaction in your client’s soul. By providing an elevated experience, compassionate communication, and expressing authentic appreciation for support of your business, clients experience pleasure and satisfaction--releasing the "feel-good" hormone that leave them craving more.
As a 23-year esthetician, I have implemented the tips I share in my own spa, studied the outcome, and documented five ways that work extremely well to keep your clients loyalist to your beauty business.
1. Simplified Menu
- TMI is a thing. Research suggests that it can have a negative effect on our health, causing brain fatigue and stress, and it can also negatively affect decision-making.
- Assess your menu and remove 1-3 services that are not serving your brand. Use AI to shorten and simplify the service descriptions.
- Create a signature offering, place it at the top of the menu, and make this the highest-priced option. This will guide people to choose in a 1, 2, 3 manner. Studies show middle offerings are most often booked by first-time curious clients. This gives you the opportunity to attract clients into your business and build trust to keep them coming back.
- Signature Offering
- Essential Services
- Additional Options
2. Specialization of Skillsets
- Social media has heightened awareness of specialized skillsets, with consumers online searching for specifics.
- Beauty and wellness practitioners have invested in training, classes, and education to specialize in their unique areas of expertise. This specialization allows them to offer services that stand out for their quality and effectiveness. By highlighting what makes each service special, we can let our team members shine in the areas they are most passionate about, ensuring that clients receive the best possible care and results.
3. Compassionate Communication
- Since 2020, brand messaging and marketing have shifted from sales and stale information to feel-good, consumer-generated content, including testimonials of real results and the emotions attached to them.
- This shift also involves sharing brand missions, community contributions, and highlighting what makes you different and how your brand elevates the experience.
4. Gratitude Sale: Boosting Cash Flow by Targeting Specific Clientele with Appreciation
- Each year, I host a spa gratitude sale that generates $10,000 - $15,000 in gift card sales within 24 hours. This involves sending an email to my VIP clients, offering them special savings on my signature service. They can purchase up to three facials and buy one to gift to a friend or family member, available for 24 hours only.
- For moving product inventory, I've also seen success with limited-time 20% off bundles tailored to specific skin types or desired results.
5. Social Media as a Professional Blueprint for Your Business
- Don't overly complicate the importance of social media posting. Let your social media platform invite guests in by showcasing elements of your brand that resonate with your ideal clients' lifestyles. Highlight products, behind-the-scenes footage of specialized services being performed, ample parking, branded equipment that is frequently requested, and use hashtags for your city and zip code.
- Another important social media engagement builder that is often overlooked: be sure to search for, follow, and comment on influencers' social platforms (such as local TV personalities and YouTubers) in a manner that is not salesy but complementary of their content.