Why Skin Clinics and Salons Aren’t Winning. It’s Not Just the Economy

When the business you’re in is about real skin change, your North Star (ultimate goal, guiding principle, direction to keep you focused) is RETENTION. It needs to be a decision filter: “Will what we say and do, keep the client on the mapped plan long enough to deliver results? 

If the answer ISN'T “Yes, this deepens commitment and extends the relationship”, it’s just noise.

Use it to judge the validity of every choice—consultation scripts, promotions, pricing, social and email messaging, training.

Skin change (aka results) is not simple...because results take time. In the short-term it most often means a concentrated block of treatments and homecare (time and money). In the long-term, it means maintenance and consistency (ongoing time and money). Not an easy sell—but it’s the only one that works. Focusing on anything else, will be fruitless and an ongoing stressor for you as a business owner.

Only when you make retention the metric that runs the business,
will a successful and profitable business follow.
- Brigitte Benge

Why Much of the Current Approach Fails
Clients want a “now” result. Fair. But, years of hype from media, influencers, and “miracle” skincare have trained clients to expect the impossible. So when they finally land in a serious skin clinic or skin focused beauty salon, therapists are put in the position of "undoing broken promises" before they even start.

Real skin change takes time, money, and commitment—and too often therapists don’t feel confident saying that out loud. Rejection fatigue makes therapists soft-sell; one-off facials and single products to “ease in” the truth. Discounts run without a pathway and success is measured by today’s till balance (full or empty), likes and new leads—not by months retained.

Why Trust is Low (and retention suffers)

• Hype fatigue: Influencer edits and 7-day “transformations” have normalised instant gratification.
• Underselling from fear: Therapists get so much rejection that they pull back—“Let’s just try one serum and see” (which quietly confirms the client’s belief that small steps are enough).
• Sticker shock in isolation: A single treatment or single product is cheaper upfront, so a $1,000 corrective plan sounds excessive when it isn’t contextualised as the way results actually happen.

The Result? Clients dabble (one facial, one product), don’t see much change, and leave. Retention dies. Not because the plan was wrong, but because the story was weak.

The Truth Clients Deserve to Hear
Skin didn’t arrive here overnight—UV, free radicals, hormones, lifestyle, and time all leave a mark. Correction isn’t magic; it’s a sequence:

• Correct with a course of targeted treatments
• Accelerate with clinical-grade homecare that supports the pathway
• Maintain with monthly treatments and consistent daily habits

The biggest message I bang about incessantly is “Once you know the why, the how is much easier”. This applies to you, the owner, your therapists and clients. Start with the why. 

Businesses that focus on client retention sell a map with checkpoints and evidence.

The Client Results Map (use this in consults):

• Start: Baseline photos after cleanse; define the “North Star” result in plain language.
• Phase 1 (Weeks 1–12): Course of fortnightly treatments. The Core 5 must have homecare products (cleanser, morning and evening serum, moisturiser and SPF), matched to the goal.
• Phase 2 (Weeks 13 and onwards): Monthly maintenance treatments. Progress reviews with photos, refine actives when needed, add targeted add-ons such as LED, peels, needling, sonophoresis, etc.) to hold on to results. Seasonal tweaks; long-term prevention plan.

The “unspoken promise” is that if a client invests their time and money with you, they’ll see real change. Your job is to deliver on that promise by prescribing the whole plan—not the comfortable slice.
- Brigitte Benge