Should You Add a Retail Expert?

If you continually follow only what proves to be trendy without true knowledge regarding your retail offerings, your skin care facility will not be distinguishable from others. Although unconventional, adding a retail expert to your skin care team can bring about the sales insight that will provide a leg up on your competition. As Anne Saunders, former senior vice president of marketing at Starbucks and current president of Redbox, states, “You can be extraordinarily successful as a business using what people would call nontraditional means … It’s expanded my notion of how important experience versus information—or one-way communication—can be.”

Think back to the last time you had a memorable experience at a makeup counter or a retail store. Now, imagine an amazing experience you had at a skin care facility. How do you recreate those two feelings into a singular client experience as a skin care professional?

By adding a retail advisor to your team, every team member can gain the knowledge of a retail professional and, in return, can complete the client’s experience at your skin care facility.

Some skin care facility owners ask whether it’s worthwhile to have a retail expert leading the rest of their team. Adding a retail advisor increases sales because team members are provided with the knowledge to reinforce education from the moment the service begins, until the client walks out the door. Emphasizing teamwork in business is a valuable focus for a skin care facility—when a client arrives for her services, she becomes every team member’s client. Follow these tips to incorporate a retail advisor into your skin care facility, while encouraging your entire team to work together to increase your retail sales.

• Team members should focus on bringing clients into a state of relaxation using soothing music and touch, while providing a consultation, allowing the opportunity to discuss the products that will be used throughout the treatment. Each client is unique—be sure to provide a personalized service with treatments and products that will cater to their individual skin care needs.
• Throughout the service, the skin care professional should prepare a recommendation pad that includes personalized product suggestions for their client. Following the service, a retail advisor should be given the recommendations, and spend time answering any questions the client may have about the products, including explaining how to use them and providing further suggestions.
• The retail advisor should finish off the service by touching up the client’s makeup.

The result is twofold: The skin care professional is able to go on to their next client without making the previous client feel rushed, and she can feel confident that clients will be leaving with the necessary products to enhance their routines at home. Secondly, the client not only had a longer and more thorough appointment, but they also experienced the added value of undivided attention.