I think we can all agree that the last few years have been challenging for every skin care professional and every skin care business. The “no-brainer” decisions we made five years ago on marketing, retail, treatments or even brand partnerships are not so “no-brainer” anymore. When times change, when economies shift, or when your market forecast gets a little fuzzier, it’s time to take an honest look at where you stand as a business, who you want to be to your clients, and how to set yourself up for years of profitability.
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I think we can all agree that the last few years have been challenging for every skin care professional and every skin care business. The “no-brainer” decisions we made five years ago on marketing, retail, treatments or even brand partnerships are not so “no-brainer” anymore. When times change, when economies shift, or when your market forecast gets a little fuzzier, it’s time to take an honest look at where you stand as a business, who you want to be to your clients, and how to set yourself up for years of profitability.
It starts with your spa menu. Some pros just set it and forget it. They bring in a professional line (or several), piece together a list of services, write up a few basic treatment descriptions, and then move on to their daily operations. But, your spa menu is the core of your business; it’s often the very first thing potential clients look at. What you offer is who you are.
Instead of set and forget, do a reset. Take a hard look at your spa menu and the products on your shelves that support it. Is it innovative? Is it effective? And, the most important question of all, is it profitable? Here’s how to walk yourself through a spa menu reset.
Editing is Perfecting
How many products does a spa need to carry to have a comprehensive and cost-effective spa menu? If you have to purchase several new products to add just one new facial to your spa menu, is that cost-effective? Of course, it’s not. With the right professional partner brand, you should be able to create an extensive spa menu that doesn’t break the bank. By focusing on quality over quantity, your spa menu can be effective, competitive with the spa down the street, and more profitable than ever. Look for a streamlined collection of pro-use-only formulas that are true treatment room workhorses, that can work for many clients, and are customizable to target any skin type and any skin concern.
Keeping and Moving
Which services are stagnant? Is it not being booked because it’s been outpaced by a newer, more effective treatment on the menu? Or maybe its menu description is unappealing or outdated? If a treatment isn’t being booked, there’s a reason for it. Review your list, and make mindful edits to focus on the absolute best of your menu, to reduce expenses across the board.
Being Flexible
Estheticians want to be empowered to make the right decisions for their clients. Your menu protocols should be more than just a list of step-by-step directions. The secret to success here is to partner with a professional brand that prioritizes the esthetic process and with flexibility in mind, including how many services you can perform with the protocol, what the experience includes, and the key formulas to retail post-service. A truly profitable protocol will “flex” with your client’s progress and offer tiered steps increasing activity levels, so every single client sees optimum results. It means that with just one single protocol, you’ll be able to promote and perform several different services. These flexibility-focused protocols are easy to follow, and are easy to integrate into any spa menu.
Retailing Effectively
Every service on your menu should be explicitly tied to a hero retail formula (or formulas) on your shelves. Brightening Facial on the menu? You better have specific brightening at-home products to recommend for purchase post-service. The right professional line will make these “ties” for you. For example, if a brand features a professional-use-only vitamin C power treatment, then they should have retail vitamin C formulas in the same collection. So post-facial, an esthetician can make the sale: “the potent 10% vitamin C power treatment I used in this facial has these three effective at-home companions with the same 10% vitamin C to maintain and extend the visible brightening you see today.” Bonus points if the protocols provided by your pro line partner list these retail hero companions to professionally recommend to make it easy.
Related: Menu Inspiration From the Latest Spa Trends
Series Over Singles
Your spa menu can be more than just a list of service descriptions. It should promote facials as a series. While a one-off facial has benefits, it becomes exponentially better when experienced in a series. And that’s what turns a “sometimes” client into a frequent, loyal client. Make sure your spa menu emphasizes booking as a series by adding a clear call out such as: Recommended to be experienced in a facial series for optimal visible results. And why not offer a series promotion to further encourage bookings? Save X amount when you book a series package.
Making an Experience
There are off-the-shelf facials, and then there are extraordinary facials. Which one do you offer? The right professional line should not only offer effective, proven formulas and effective clinical treatments. They should also provide you with additional, extraordinary service moments that are unmatched by any other line: core signature techniques, including aromatherapy, acupressure and massage sensorial movements that make a service not only effective, but absolutely memorable and completely unattainable anywhere else. These experiences cannot be recreated at home, and make you truly stand out from your neighborhood competition.
Evolve With Your Clients
When was the last time you modified your menu to meet market demands? Here’s another key secret of partnering with a profit-focused professional line: they do the market research for you. By studying spa trends and current market movements, they’ll help you offer modern treatment names and menu descriptions that match what today’s clients want. And they’ll highlight what makes their services different and effective, including the activity tiers mentioned earlier, and what clients will experience during service: like SkinReading, aromatherapy, deep cleansing massage, personalized custom blending, acupressure massage and more. Your clients should be able to clearly recognize the unique benefits of your services right from the menu. Every description should be informative, appealing and meet the exact terms clients seek.
Time to Reset
A spa menu reset may not be a quick process, but it’s an important one. Invest the time and you’ll see a return on your efforts. And if your current partner brand doesn’t have your back on this – don’t hesitate to search for a professional line that offers products, protocols, support and education tailored to what an esthetician needs: results and profits.
Passionate about connecting people to purpose, Bioelements National Sales Director Kelly Melvin advocates to create a sense of community for spa pros, with 15+ years combined experience with Bioelements, L’Oreal Professionnel and Alterna.
