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A visit to an aesthetics practice can be a nerve-wracking – but exciting – experience for clients. Whether it’s a skin treatment, cosmetic enhancement, or any other aesthetic services, their satisfaction matters. But how do you know you’re doing a good job?Â
One of the best ways to raise your game is to gather, and action, customer feedback.
Client feedback is super important for the success and growth of your aesthetics practice. Beyond simply assessing the effectiveness of your services, feedback will help you build a better understanding of how clients feel about the whole experience.
In this blog, we’ll talk about why it’s important to get feedback from clients in the aesthetics world, the numerous benefits it can bring to your practice, and how you can use a practice management software like Pabau to bake it into the customer journey.
Importance of client feedback
Client feedback is a way of holding a mirror up to your practice,
It can help you see that things you might not see as the owner and helps to provide insights into areas that may need improvement, be it the treatment, your communication, or the overall client experience. By listening to feedback, both good and bad, practices can make targeted improvements that lead to a more personalized and satisfying client experience.
Additionally, early identification of issues or concerns through feedback enables practices to take proactive measures, preventing future problems. This not only helps keep clients happy but also protects the practice from future negative reviews and potential PR disasters.Â
Here are the top reasons why you should start collecting client feedback…
1. It helps you get valuable insights
For a lot of clients who are starting businesses from scratch, feedback offers invaluable insights that guides them in crafting successful, client-centric businesses from the ground up.
Feedback helps them tackle blind spots or things that they might not have thought of or considered. Your aim should extend beyond simply asking for feedback. It should delve into the deeper meaning of what each piece of feedback says about your practice.
2. It betters the quality of care
When clients choose your practice, they expect a stellar experience from start to finish – and that doesn’t just mean that treatment itself. It’s the whole experience.
It’s about how you schedule your appointments, to wait times, to how they’re treated when they arrive in the clinic. Client feedback helps improve the quality of care you provide by ensuring that your practice meets and exceeds client expectations.
3. It helps you build your online reputation
Maintaining a strong online reputation not only contributes to a strong digital presence but also attracts potential clients and strengthens your client base.Â
According to this survey, 91% of consumers aged 18 to 34 trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. This underscores the significance of maintaining a positive online reputation, which can be significantly influenced by client feedback.
Platforms like Google Reviews and Facebook are considered social proof and hold significant weight for potential clients evaluating your practice.
4. It keeps your clients engaged with your practice
Continuous client engagement has a positive impact on your treatments’ outcomes. Engaging with clients and learning from their experiences allows you to shape and improve your services and overall approach, making clients feel valued and increasing engagement.
Demonstrate your care for your clients by valuing their insights and using them to make positive changes. Don’t forget to communicate these changes with them to show that their feedback matters.
5. It helps with the competition
As we all know, the aesthetic industry is incredibly competitive. But client feedback helps you stay in the game. Client expectations are increasing all the time, but really listening to them can help you keep up with changing expectations and stay ahead of the competition.
For example, if clients express an interest in eco-friendly and sustainable beauty products, you could introduce more environmentally conscious products to your stock and talk about it in your email campaigns and marketing. That then becomes your competitive advantage.
6. It boosts positive word of mouth
Consistent client feedback shows your dedication to your clients’ well-being. This not only keeps clients coming back but also brings in new clients through positive word-of-mouth referrals. Your satisfied clients become your biggest advocates.
7. It helps with audits and compliance
Structured feedback collection is essential for showcasing your practice’s dedication to patient care, a priority for the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Feedback not only provides a total view of your practice’s performance and client satisfaction but showing how you use it to improve your clinic’s processes will also impress at a CQC inspection.
5 ways to get client feedback in your aesthetic practice
Feedback forms
Physical feedback forms are a simple and easy-to-use tool for gathering feedback at your practice. They also demonstrate your desire to continually improve.Â
To effectively use them in your aesthetics practice, start by designing user-friendly forms and strategically placing them in accessible areas in your practice. For example, place a feedback box on your reception desk with a stack of forms nearby.
Make sure you educate your staff on the importance of feedback and how to encourage clients to provide it. Set clear expectations and assure clients that their feedback is valued and confidential.Â
In your forms, you should include questions like:
- Did your practitioner provide you with all necessary information?
- Did your practitioner answer all your questions?Â
- How would you rate your overall satisfaction with the entire experience, and why?
Online surveys
Having physical feedback forms is super valuable when collecting client feedback, but having them in digital format holds even greater potential in enhancing your practice’s performance. And we’re not just saying that because we advocate for going paper-free!
Whenever you deliver a service to a patient, consider sending a survey via email or text. This will not only show that you value your patient’s feedback but will also make your practice stand out. You’re still thinking about that client even after they’ve left.Â
Creating online surveys
- Choose a user-friendly survey platform or software such as Google Forms or Pabau Practice Management Software to host your survey.Â
- Craft clear and concise questions. Keep the survey short to encourage participation.
- Tailor the survey to the specific needs of your aesthetic practice, addressing topics like client satisfaction, treatment outcomes, post-procedure care, and overall experience.
- Include a mix of multiple-choice and open-ended questions to gather both quantitative and qualitative data.
- Test the survey on different devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets, and desktops) to ensure it’s responsive and accessible to all clients, regardless of their preferred device.
- Consider offering incentives, such as discounts on future treatments or exclusive access to educational content, to encourage higher survey participation rates.
One-on-one conversations
One-on-one interviews provide valuable insights and a personal touch.
Even though, at first glance, this might not be a standard practice for your clinic, they might make sense when you’re first starting out and don’t have lots of clients just yet. Perhaps your clients are mostly family and friends right now? Then this tactic could work nicely.
After gathering information from patient surveys or other feedback channels, implement a system for follow-up communication. This could involve phone calls, emails, or text messages.
These personalized discussions serve to deepen your understanding of individual needs, expectations, and concerns. By building a rapport through direct interactions, you can gather insights that often go beyond what surveys or written feedback can provide.
You can then, with permission, effectively repurpose positive feedback as testimonials on your practice’s website or in marketing materials to build trust and attract new clients.
Here’s how to make the most of those conversations:
- Create a comfortable and private interview environment.
- Actively listen and avoid interrupting clients while they share their thoughts.
- Respect confidentiality and assure clients that their feedback is valuable.
Word-of-mouth feedback
Word-of-mouth feedback is a vital asset for aesthetic clinics, as it bolsters credibility and trustworthiness while building and enhancing their reputation.Â
The bad thing about word-of-mouth feedback is that you can’t push a button and make it happen. The best way to get clients talking about your work is to do such a great job that they’re so thrilled they can’t resist telling their friends and family all about it.
A practice that draws clients solely through word-of-mouth recommendations is likely to outperform competitors reliant only on substantial marketing budgets.
Social media and online reviews
Boost client engagement by encouraging them to share their experiences on popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Google Reviews, as well as on your practice’s website.Â
You should keep your website current and informative, with a designated section for client testimonials. Make sure your website is user-friendly and intuitive, allowing clients to easily provide their feedback.Â
This multifaceted approach will help you maintain a strong online presence and positive interactions with your clients.
Managing and responding to online feedback
- Make an effort to respond to both positive and negative feedback. Ignoring feedback can leave customers feeling unheard and unappreciated.
- Respond promptly and professionally to both positive and negative comments on social media platforms.Â
- Whenever possible, personalize your thank-you messages to make customers feel valued.
- Address concerns publicly and offer to resolve issues privately when necessary.
- If your practice is at fault, offer a genuine apology and take responsibility for the issue.
- Use feedback to showcase your commitment to client satisfaction.
- Transparency builds trust. If changes or improvements are happening because of feedback, let customers know about them.
- Keep an eye out for potentially fake or inappropriate reviews and report them to the platform for removal if necessary.
- Ensure that your team understands the best practices for responding to feedback. Consistency in messaging is essential.
Consequences of not asking for client feedback
1. Missed improvement opportunities
Without client feedback, you might not notice areas in your practice that need fixing. Things like long wait times, unmet expectations, or not-so-great customer service could keep happening, and that might drive clients away.
2. Lost client insights
Ignoring feedback means you miss out on valuable information about what your clients like or don’t like. You won’t know what makes them happy or what frustrates them. Knowing this is super important for keeping and growing your client base.
3. Ineffective problem resolution
Problems with your practice can go unresolved when you’re not actively asking for feedback. These issues can impact client happiness and damage your practice’s reputation, which can hurt your business.
4. Reduced client retention
Ignoring client feedback can make clients leave. When clients feel like no one’s listening or fixing their concerns, they might go elsewhere for services, and that’s not good for your practice in the long run.
5. Negative online reviews
Clients who aren’t happy and don’t feel heard might vent their frustrations online with bad reviews and comments. Those negative words can harm your practice’s reputation and scare away potential clients.
6. Weakened client trust
Ignoring client feedback can make clients trust you less. They might think your practice doesn’t care or listen to them, and over time that can hurt the relationship between practitioners and clients.
Client feedback, powered by Pabau
Surveys
With Pabau, you have the power to build and tweak feedback surveys just the way you like. You can modify existing templates or make your own surveys with as many or as few questions as you prefer.Â
Then, you get to choose when Pabau sends out feedback surveys to your clients. You can choose to send them immediately after a client’s appointment to capture their thoughts while it’s still fresh in their minds. Or, if your treatments require some time to show their full effect, you may opt to send the survey after a longer duration.
Reviews
Reviews serve a dual purpose in your business strategy — they’re valuable feedback sources and potent marketing tools.Â
With Pabau, in addition to gathering insights about your business, you have the opportunity to showcase and promote your top reviews on your website and Google Business Profile to highlight your social proof online.
Once your clients finish their treatment plans, Pabau automatically asks them for a review, so you don’t have to remember to do it yourself. It even sends reminders to clients who haven’t left a review after a certain amount of time.
To sum up
Client feedback is pivotal for aesthetics practices. It helps you understand what it’s really like to visit your clinic – which can fuel success, growth, and enhance the client experience.
Effective feedback gathering you can shape your practice into client-centric business, protect your online reputation, level up your care quality, and stay on the right side of regulations.
You can employ various methods, such as forms, surveys, word-of-mouth magic, and online reviews. Neglect it, and you risk missing out on growth, insights, and client loyalty.
Make sure that you’re generating and incorporating patient feedback to constantly improve your practice the right way. And if you’re ready, Pabau can help you go one step further!
