AESTHETICS: SKIN MEMBERSHIPS ARE THE NEW BLACK

SKIN MEMBERSHIPS ARE THE NEW BLACK

Skin memberships are popping up everywhere. NADINE DILONG talks to two clinic owners about the advantages of making your clients commit.

Re-launched in February 2019, Ultimate Skin and Body offers several memberships to their clients, including injectable ones.

Owner and Director DEB FARNWORTH-WOOD explains why it works for them.

What made you introduce memberships to your clinic?

We introduced our memberships as a way of introducing our clients to a wide range of treatments. While we all know that no one treatment will fix every concern, many clients do not wander out of their comfort zone.

By putting together packages we were able to demonstrate just how much better results are from combination treatments. In addition, our client base is loyal with some clients coming to the clinic for 25 years. We saw memberships as a way of rewarding these loyal clients and giving back for their years of custom.

“We saw memberships as a way of rewarding these loyal clients and giving back for their years of custom.”

DEB FARNWORTH-WOOD

We find that our clients are not necessarily looking for heavily discounted treatments, but they do appreciate good value and the flexibility of being able to pop in regularly for that personal and tailored approach.

What is the most popular one?

Our two most popular memberships are our Essential Skin Membership and our Injectable Anti-Wrinkle Membership. Our skin membership is a general maintenance regimen that everyone needs regardless of their skin type or colour and it also acts as pre and post treatment care for any of our advanced treatments offerings.

This membership includes Microdermabrasions, LED, and Fraction RF’s. Our injectable membership is great for keeping clients on track with their regular anti-wrinkle and helps spread the payment for the client.

What is the advantage of memberships from a business owners’ perspective?

I believe it generates a stronger bond between the client and the clinic. The clients come more regularly, and in doing so they see better results and are happier about their treatments. In turn this leads to more referrals and recommendations. We also find that the client average spend is higher with more add on sales on the day.

Do you find people make the most of their memberships?

We make it our goal to make sure the client gets the best value out of the package. Our goal is to get the best results which means we follow up the clients to make sure they are on task to achieve their best skin outcomes.

Our members follow-up system alerts the team when our members have not been in for their monthly program and enables the staff to reach out to them personally. Of course many people are often time poor, prefer to attend after hours and like to book online – all of which we can accommodate.

What percentage of your client base has booked into a membership?

We have been in business for over 25 years so our database is vast. Membership accounts for only 5% of our whole database but in real terms would apply to around 15% of our regular customers. Our membership clients are educated clients who want to look after their skin and have a genuine desire to see the best results.

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Black Diamond Clinic has two locations in the Hunter Valley and prides itself on offering completely customisable payment plans and memberships.

Founder ASHLINN SMITH explains how it works.

Please explain the payment plan concept you offer at Black Diamond.

We offer several different options when it comes to payment plans. We have some generic 5+1 free offers, especially for our body treatments, that we run all year round. However, our most popular option is our ‘DIY’ payment plans. These are completely customisable to our clients, as we know not one size fits all.

“When we have our clients on payment plans we often find we have less cancellations or no shows”

ASHLINN SMITH

With the recommendation from our clinicians we suggest what treatments would reach our client’s goals, the time frame etc, and design a treatment plan for them around that. This could be LED Facials weekly, combined with some other Facials once a month, brows every three weeks and lash lifts every six weeks for example..

After a lot of behind the scenes work we designed the mother of all spreadsheets! We enter the treatment info in and calculate the total price and payment plan pricing. The clients have the option to pay upfront and receive a larger saving. If they then chose to do a payment plan, which happens 98% of the time, they have the option to pick the duration of the package and how often the payments come out (weekly, fortnightly or monthly).

When we have our clients on payment plans we often find we have less cancellations or no shows as the clients have already paid for their treatments. We see more commitment from them, they have a clear direction for their treatment plan and they often buy more retail at their appointments as they don’t have to outlay for treatment and products therefore enhancing their treatment, they see results quicker and our average dollar sale increases.

What do most clients decide to commit to?

We have such a wide variety of clients and celebrating individuality is one of our core values here at Black Diamond. Some clients like to commit to only a 3-month option while others love the idea of an entire year package. We have made set packages in the past that were set at three months, others six months or 12 months and we found we didn’t have one that was more popular than another. This was one of the reasons we decided to design our ‘DIY’ packages so our clients can pick the duration of their payment plan and package.

Do you think this is the future of beauty and aesthetic treatments, i.e. having a membership with an aesthetician just like you would with a gym?

100%! We know everyone wants easy, autonomous and more affordable options and we believe this is the future of our industry. We provide high end treatments that come with the price to match, as much as we would love to give all our clients amazing skin for free (wouldn’t we all), unfortunately we cannot, and we understand everyone is in different stages of life. We believe these options provide the solution to keep treatments more affordable, automated and easy!

What is the feedback from your clients like?

Our clients love the ease of having their treatments already paid for when they come into the clinic. They also love the option to pick the duration and payment frequency and not being shoved into a box of ‘x’ treatments for ‘$’ and thinking they are just another number or sale.