Beyond the Treatment Room

By Robyn McAlpine. Owner of the 2023 ABIA Australian Salon/Clinic of the Year – 4 Treatment rooms or less

What to do when your day of appointments disappears! with client appointments changing more often than one changes underwear, it's a challenge to the brain to think that the appointment inconsistencies are becoming our new normal.

Instead of holding on for dear life in the hope that things are going to return to what we’ve always known as “normal”, I think it’s time we accept the fact that our appointment books can be flaky A F and if we can’t beat them… it’s time to adapt so that we don’t end up rocking in the corner with an eye twitch!

Not only is it bloody tough as a business owner to have your team lingering in the treatment room on standby when suddenly a fully booked day disappears into thin air, but it can be such a challenge as a skin therapist to know how to effectively use all this new found free time that has suddenly appeared in our schedule.

There’s only one floor top mop before we’re left alone with a ready wax pot and our own brows to play with. Don’t do it!

I’m not here to tell you it’s all going to be ok or that we just have to stay positive and ride it out. Or that we should tighten up our cancellation policies and be charging credit cards left, right and centre, cos clearly that’s not working- clients are still cancelling! Toxic positivity and a brave face only goes so far.

So, knowing that each new day is going to be a guessing game of who is actually going to show up, how as a skin therapist can we stay motivated without asking our (again) boss for something to keep us busy? Sometimes our bosses are a bit overwhelmed with a massive to-do list that delegating tasks with some jobs on the spot results in the immediate obvious things like dusting the shelves and cleaning out that random draw in the kitchen. A job that they don’t have to teach or explain but you and I both know that there’s only so much laundry/cleaning/ restocking we can do!

I get it, a slow day can feel like a drag. It’s giving ‘nobody loves me’ vibes when your fully booked day suddenly cancels. You feel unmotivated and that rush you get from a busy day of vibing with clients is now nowhere to be seen. Trust me, the whole team, including the boss start to get a little flat so how can we stop the slow vibes from going spreading and going viral?

Our role as skin therapist is so much more than the treatment time in the room.

Our roles in our workplaces aren’t just show up treat skin, pluck hairs and go home. Especially as 90% of us are working in a small business where everyone on the team is a super important part of the growth, stability and success of the business.

So, what else do we do besides treat clients?

A very big part of our career is creating strong professional client relationships. In building our clients and connecting with them to become their go-to advisor on all things skin and beauty. And that goes well beyond the time spent in the treatment room.

When you see you have that spare hour pop up, how can you tap into that and use that time to reconnect and build ongoing connections with clients if they’re not in the salon?

Here’s how: Once you’ve gone through your waitlist client by client and promoted the vacant space on Instagram to try and fill those empty spaces, what else can you be doing as the therapist to nurture those important client connections?

Before you dive into looking busy and getting caught up in menial tasks. Here’s 5 things you can be doing that are going to creating big impact on the clients who are coming through the door this week!

1: Follow up on every client you DID see in the last week to 10 days.

Now that you have some space in your day, it’s the perfect opportunity to send an email to that client who asked about that product during their brow wax, check in on the client who had skin needling yesterday, return that call.

By going the extra mile, sharing your knowledge or passing on information, you’re building that invisible web of connection. No, it might not result in a sale or booking, which might make this feel like an unimportant use of time (if it’s not making money, why do it?). We are in this for the long game. Were here to build connections. These small tough points have big ripples

2: Get feedback from your clients.

Now might be the perfect time to ask your clients for a google review. If you would love testimonials from your clients but they don’t always happen organically, we need to make it easy! Clients are busy (clearly evident based on that ever changing appointment book) so leaving you a review is not front of their mind.

Make it easy for them. Give them the link to your google page, email them with a leading question or two that you can turn into testimonial content on your socials.

3: Get ready to ‘wow’ the clients that ARE keeping their appointments!

Now that you’ve got all this extra time on your hands, you can sit in the lunch room with a cup of tea and dive into your clients notes. That facial you have this afternoon, where are they at with their products? Is it time to change up their treatment plan? When was the list time you updated their clinical images? What are the gaps in their home care routine? This sudden unexpected window of time now gives you the chance to give your clients 100% of your attention and give them an incredible service.

Make sure you are also looking at your upgrade options. Now that you have extra time in your day, would your clients benefit from some extra time under LED? Is there an extra mask or more that you can add to the facial giving your client more time, more results and help bring in a little extra cash to the business.

4: Educate your clients.

What’s a recurring question that you seem to be answering for your clients? Now that you have a moment, how can you help yourself from sounding like a broken record, answering the same kinds of questions over and over again. This gift of downtime is the perfect opportunity to write a blog post or create a library of topics and documents that you have on hand every time this same question arises.

You could have this as a print out to hand out. Add it to an email or even use it as content for your social media. With this extra room in your day, now is a great time to build some resources to help you help your clients.

5: Educated Yourself

Once all of the above has been done, the last of the linen has been washed, dried and folded and you’re looking for something to get you through the next window of no-client-loneliness, this is the perfect time to brush up on those areas of knowledge that are a little bit ‘grey’ in your mind.

If you know the melanocyte cell exists but you’re just not quite sure what, why or how it’s doing what it’s doing, now is the perfect time to grab your books or catch up on that Skinside Out Squad call (*cough* the pigmentation call is archived call #17, go check it out!) and brush up on the things you’ve forgotten or don’t feel confident in talking to clients about or figuring out how to treat.

There is always something you can be learning. Revising your product knowledge. Understanding a treatment modality, a little better. Looking at a specific cell function in skin.

Reach out to your mentors, educators, brand reps for resources. Log into your brands education hub or drag out the product ingredients book and just soak up something new!

I can almost guarantee that the next client who walks through the door will have questions about the exact thing you’ve just learned and you can now support them with education and enhance their experience in the salon!

Next time you arrive at work and check the voicemails to see things have shifted in your day, instead of losing your mojo knowing that things are going to feel a little quieter today, get excited that you’ve now got time to work on your client relationships, you can build connection even when they’re not in the room with you.

It might just be the thing that gets your clients more committed to their appointments, more excited about maintaining their treatment journey and it will give you a greater sense of purpose in your day when things are shifting and constantly moving. When the appointments are all over the place, the one constant thing is the relationship and connection you have with your clients!

Robyn McAlpine @expert_skin_therapist robyn@skintifix.com www.skintifix.com