Every beautician and esthetician worth their salt wants to give their clients a great experience.
Not only are good services at the heart of good business, they are also rewarding in themselves. For the most part, beauticians love seeing their clients smile after their life changing results.
When it comes to creating these exceptional experiences, technical know-how is only half the story. Certainly, you need to know how to wax, massage, thread, and use your beauty devices.
However, these skills count for little unless you also know how to give results that enhance your clients’ lives. You could deliver award-winning massages. But if you worsen your clients’ eczema in the process, you’d be better off not offering massages at all.
To deliver the best possible service, you need to use your talent to meet clients' needs, wants, and goals. And in order to do this, you need to master the art of a good client consultation.
Artemis has helped over 1800 businesses thrive by giving them the tools to deliver consistent, effective results. We know how critical a client consultation is in giving exceptional treatments - treatments that build loyalty, reputation, and profits.
Here, we show you why and how to deliver the perfect client consultation.
Why A Client Consultation Matters
Firstly, what is a client consultation?
It’s a conversation between you and your client, in which you establish the reasons they’ve come to your salon. In any good client consultation, you should find out the following:
- What results does your client want?
- What results will fit in with their lifestyle?
- What health and beauty challenges do they face?
- How do they want treatment to make them feel?
You should do the client consultation before you give anyone a new treatment or service. For your regular customers, conduct a new client consultation routinely, and ask them for feedback on your services.
A client consultation is much more than a simple health and safety precaution. In fact, a client consultation can help your business grow in many different ways.
Better Client Experiences
A client consultation gives you essential information on your clients’ underlying health conditions so that you can keep them comfortable and safe.
Additionally, a client consultation helps you understand clients’ deeper preferences, helping you deliver treatments that make them feel truly confident in their skin.
Returning and Loyal Customers
Clients are much more likely to return if they feel you listen to and care about them. A quality client consultation is a perfect way to demonstrate that.
What’s more, if you reflect what you learn from them in your recommendations and treatments, creating truly bespoke services, they’ll be sure to come back for more.
Confidence, Trust, and Better Quality Relationships
Without a doubt, services that don’t reflect a client’s wishes erode trust and will lose customers fast.
When clients tell you about their insecurities and desires during their consultation, listen without judgment, and work with them to achieve their goals. You will find they open up to you more, and become more and more confident in your abilities.
Better Reputation, Reviews, and Referrals
A client consultation improves the quality of your services. For this reason, they increase the pool of clients happy to recommend you, refer their friends, and leave glowing reviews.
More Sales for Your Business
Obviously, you want to give clients a good experience and positive results because it brings you joy. If you don’t, it might be time to consider another career!
However, we unquestionably all want to thrive financially. And the perfect client consultation will help you do just that.
By improving your services and client relationships, your reputation and clientele will grow. You’ll fill your appointment slots with ease. And, in time, you’ll be able to charge more for your services.
10 Ways to Deliver the Perfect Client Consultation...
1. Share a Pre Consultation or Client Consultation Form
A client consultation form is something you send to your client before meeting them. It asks them preliminary questions about the kinds of services and results they are looking for.
Client consultation forms help you prepare for the full client consultation and treatment properly.
First, you can make sure your client is matched with the right member of staff when they come in. Moreover, you can have the list of services they might be interested in ready and waiting for.
Your client flags a health condition that you’re less familiar with in the client consultation form. If so, you can brush up before you meet them, so you’re ready to provide specific recommendations.
Overall, the client consultation form should enhance your client consultation. However, the client consultation form should never replace a period of high quality, in-person listening.
The world is a highly digital place. Your clients will be very used to filling out reams of impersonal digital forms, which don’t lend themselves to trust and connection.
In order to attract and retain high-ticket clients, make sure your client consultation is a real, intimate, and personal experience.
2. Understand Your Own Client Consultation Goals
Before you start any client consultation, get clear on what you want to know.
Are you updating the goals for a client who’s already committed to using your services? Or is this client consultation for someone new, who you could convert to a paying customer?
Without a doubt, you will want to know the results your client is after, and what they want to change about their health or appearance.
In addition, the client consultation should establish important aspects of their lifestyle. It should get an overall sense of their health. And you should identify specific limitations, such as injuries or skin conditions, however minor they may seem.
Furthermore, you may want to do a little research yourself. You can use a small part of the client consultation to ask how they found out about you, and why they chose your salon in particular.
3. Prepare Everything You Need Beforehand
First and foremost, the client consultation is about listening and building a relationship.
However, you should also always view your client consultation as a chance to sell your products or services.
If your customer is already a regular, this is your time to point out the benefits of new products and services. Or if they are new, you can share the services that they should start with.
To this end, make sure you have your appointment book, prices list, and email distribution to hand before your client consultation starts. Ensure the information from their client consultation form is front of mind, and keep a copy of it with you.
This way, you won’t be scrabbling around for anything. Instead, you’ll handle the client consultation with professionalism, so prospective customers feel confident they’re in expert hands.
4. Speak To Your Clients Face
Digital interaction will be the norm for many of your clients. While highly convenient, it’s hard to replace the warmth of human interaction.
By offering them some high quality, in-person time, in which you really listen, you’ll make your clients feel special and cared for.
Not only should the client consultation be in person, everything about it should make them feel safe and comfortable, both physically and emotionally. This will help foster trust, so they can open up more, and you can deliver services that get the results they most desire.
So, make sure you face your client, give them a comfortable seat and speak gently and openly.
Furthermore, when you see them face to face, you get a chance to have a look at their skin, body, and hair. This can help you spot any physical conditions or features that might impact their treatment.
5. Think About the Client Consultation Like a Conversation
As you go about your client consultation, it’s most important that you don’t think about it like a presentation or sales pitch. If you do, then you risk having a stiff, artificial manner. To clients, this may come across as fake or uncaring.
Therefore, aim to be yourself. If you’re in this industry, you probably really care about making people look and feel good. So, in the client consultation, allow yourself to convey that natural interest and care to your clients.
Think about it like a conversation in which you hold space for your clients. Ask genuine questions, and always keep their happiness, well-being, and satisfaction in mind.
In a world full to the brim of sales, your genuine attentiveness will make you stand out from the competition.
6. Ask The Right Questions
When it comes to skincare consultation questions, effective communication is key.
A successful consultation involves listening attentively to your client for 80% of the time, as it's all about them and their needs. To gain a deeper understanding of their concerns and preferences, ask open-ended questions whenever you speak. The conversation may stray off-topic, but it's important to guide it back to relevant skincare consultation questions that will enable you to provide the best treatment possible.
7. Conduct the Client Consultation with Confidence
During the client consultation, your client will pick up on your body language, speech, and the things you say. They’ll be discreetly looking for reasons they should (and shouldn’t!) trust you to deliver.
Therefore, it’s essential that you present yourself with confidence. Speak to your client as though they’ve already signed up with you, even if they haven’t.
Your confidence in their custom will suggest that your services are high quality. This will make clients much more inclined to part with their cash for your expertise.
8. Share Your Expertise
As shown above, your client should be speaking for most of the client consultation. However, it’s also important that you share your expertise.
If you think that something they want wouldn’t be good for their hair, body, skin, teeth, or nails, you should be honest with them. Equally, tell them if you think something will look especially good, or not so good, on them.
A small handful of prospective clients won’t appreciate your input at all. But these aren’t the clients you want to attract. You want to work for people who respect your experience and expertise and trust your judgment.
So, share your opinions, listen to your client’s responses, and respect their final judgment on the kind of treatment they want.
9. Keep Up To Date Notes After The Client Consultation
Keep notes on what all of your clients say in their consultations. This way, you can remind yourself of their conditions and preferences before the next time they come in.
Your client will feel cared for and valued. And they’ll get treatments they’re happy with, keeping them coming back time and again.
10. Do a Client Consultation Regularly
Finally, it’s all too easy to get comfortable with a single treatment plan for your clients. Don’t fall into the trap of assuming they want the same results over and over again!
In fact, clients can easily get bored of the same cut, wax, or look. If you don’t check in on their preferences regularly, they may end up feeling neglected, and look for treatment elsewhere.
Therefore, conduct a client consultation frequently, and ask your clients directly for feedback on your services.
Final thoughts
Without a doubt, a high quality, regular client consultation can make or break a beauty business. By following the tips above, you’ll make yours the best they can be.
But remember that winning loyal clients doesn't stop at the client consultation. For more ways to win high-value clients, check out this ebook. Here, beauty guru Maxine Drake explains how the services you offer can dramatically improve your hourly rate.
