The nightmare client and how homecare is just as important as a treatment

Photo by Anna Sullivan on Unsplash

I caught up with a friend over the weekend and the first thing I noticed about her was her skin, not in a good way. Her skin looked sore, dry and visibly dehydrated and flaking. She told me that she’d had a course of peels but that she wasn’t happy with the result. I questioned her a bit more, I knew of the brand that had been used, the protocol seemed right for her concerns but then, with one simple sentence I knew immediately what the issue was:

‘Yeah’ she said, ‘they tried to hard sell me a load of skincare that I didn’t need, I told them I was happy with what I using, i’m not happy with the result, I won’t be going back there again’

Ding, ding, ding, there was the issue. Her home care wasn’t right at all but because she’d felt ‘sold’ to, she’d declined, which let’s face it was totally her loss. I sorted her out with some samples and happy to report that she texted me last night saying that her skin was already feeling more comfortable.

But what did this exchange teach me?

1. Education, education, education. It’s up to us to educate our clients on why pre and post care is so important and even more critically than that, why the products you are recommending are the right ones for the job. Clients are savvy these days, you need to talk ingredients benefits, the fine detail about why and how this product is going to increase the efficacy of the procedure. We need to go way beyond the ‘you should use this, shall I bag it up’

1. Our frontline staff need to be better trained in sales - this sale wasn’t about getting the extra revenue from the client, it was part and parcel of the treatment, BUT The client came away feeling the opposite and as such she won’t return. Get your staff up to speed and understanding how critical at home care is to treatment efficacy.

1. This one may rankle a bit but I don't think we should be doing treatments on people who are unwilling to put in the homework - the pre and post care. Any client who is under the false illusion that not investing in this will save them a few pounds is going to end up with poorer results, full stop. You wouldn’t go to a personal trainer twice a week and expect results when you’re living off wine of crisps for the other 166 hours per week. Most trainers i know would not put up with that! We should be the same.

Always remember, clear communication makes it far more likely the client with return to you, invest in them and they’ll invest in you.