1. Stretch your potential
With an increased focus on wellbeing sweeping the industry, tailoring the client journey to offer prescriptive advice that goes beyond skincare is an easy way to give more. “At the House of Elemis we had fitness expert Steve Mellor come in and spend time with our therapists, teaching them about stretches clients can do between treatments to help alleviate muscle tension and more,” says Nicci Anstey, global training and education director for Elemis.

“Now, after treatment, our therapists can recommend stretches based on the client’s needs and lifestyle. It ties in with the ‘couture beauty’ philosophy Noella Gabriel [managing director] wanted for clients.” Build in extra aftercare time to treatments so your therapists can offer more in-depth advice – good client experiences will build your retention rates.

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2. Give a finishing touch
Give a finishing touch Make-up is one of the easiest and most logical ways to add value to a lot of treatments, but it often gets forgotten. Jane Iredale’s latest campaign – It Only Takes a Minute – encourages therapists to apply even just a touch of make-up after a treatment to add a small something special to the client’s experience with little to no financial loss.

Anushka Patel, personal shopper at the brand, suggests applying non-comedogenic, mineral-based make-up after a facial. “Give your client’s skin added protection by finishing your facials with mineral SPF foundation. Not only will the client leave feeling confident and looking flawless, but you will be enhancing each facial you offer,” she says. Make-up also provides great opportunities for link selling, allowing you to recommend products along with skincare that will extend the client’s skin health after a professional facial, for better long-term results, says Patel.

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3. Enhance existing treatments
If your budget will allow, consider purchasing a new piece of equipment versatile enough to add something extra to existing treatments and give you more scope to upsell. Samantha Beatty, owner of Beauty at the Gate salon in Grimsby, says that bringing in Dermalux LED phototherapy has been a great decision for the salon, which won Beauty Salon of the Year: Three Rooms or Fewer at the Professional Beauty Awards 2016.

“Dermalux delivers amazing results as a standalone treatment but it has also been very easy for us to show clients that their facial results will be accelerated by adding a session onto their facial at the point of booking,” she says. You could treat this as you would the mask step of a standard facial and enhance the experience further by performing a hand and arm massage while the client is under the machine, suggests Beatty.

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4. Plan carefully
To get maximum benefit from adding to your treatment menu, start at the beginning and think carefully about what is most likely to work. Tracy Brasenell, Caudalie’s national training manager, offers her advice: “First you need to understand when there is downtime in the diary that needs filling and what your most popular treatments are. Then look at relevant treatments that link to those best sellers. These add-ons need to be something that the vast majority of the team is trained in,” she says.

Finding something that would fit seamlessly with your most popular treatments with no additional cost but a high perceived value could be the key. For example, Caudalie’s Fleur De Vigne Candle Massage can be upgraded to include a stress-relieving cranial massage. “It complements the treatment, gives added benefits to the client, and it’s a smooth implementation to the massage,” adds Brasenell.

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5. Appeal to time-poor clients
Mini treatments are a great option for timepoor clients, so think about how you could create express versions of full-length treatments, or take one element and turn it into a short treatment in its own right. This will introduce customers to treatments they might not have previously considered. “We have to keep up with the fast pace of our clients, who are often clock watching and feel reluctant to commit to long-term courses or timely treatments,” says Marie Dolan, an advanced nurse practitioner who works with Caci Skinbreeze.

She suggests targeting these clients by packaging mini treatments together to encourage them to spend more on their appointment. “Give clients easy access to explore other treatments by marrying up three services as mini treatment experiences, and alternating them on a monthly basis,” she says. It’ll be easier to upsell full-length treatments once clients have had a taste of something new.

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6. Switch it up
Theme your add-ons around the seasons to keep your treatment menu fresh and give you easy options to create added-value packages. Trish O’Brien, co-owner and head of education at Waxperts, recommends a “holiday legs” package as an idea. “Upgrade your clients from a standard leg wax by offering a full or half-leg wax with a mini pedicure to get them ready to rock their summer wardrobe,” she says.

During winter you could upgrade a basic manicure to include a paraffin wax treatment for dry hands, and for the spring months a detoxing deep cleanse would be a good addition to other types of facial.

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Article written by Georgia Seago and Amanda Pauley and originally featured here