Medical spas are becoming more and more popular these days, with new treatments constantly coming out to appeal to a variety of customers. While plenty of factors such as cost and ambiance can distinguish one such establishment from another, sometimes it’s the actual medical spa staff that can make or break a client’s experience. Santo Criscuolo is the owner of Ambrosia Medspa, a multi-service facility serving the Kirkland, Washington, area. According to Criscuolo, medical spa owners need to choose their staff members wisely in order to ensure that customers walk away feeling satisfied on a personal, physical, and financial level. He therefore imposes the following guidelines at his own facility for developing a good medical spa staff:
Little employee turnover
Medical spa employees who stick around for an extended period of time are indicative of two things — one, that the spa itself is being run well and that the employee experience is positive, and two, that the staff members are truly dedicated to their jobs and their specific customers. Aestheticians, Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioners, Registered Nurses, and Licensed Massage Practitioners are nurturers by nature; they love taking care of clients and providing a great experience. Once they find a positive work environment that is also dedicated to high quality customer care, they tend to stick around and be loyal to their employer and clients.
Educated employees
Every medical spa is required to have a licensed medical professional on staff. In some states, the requirement is to have a doctor on the team, and in others, an Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner (ARNP) is acceptable. Consumers sometimes feel that they are in better hands with a medical doctor as opposed to an ARNP, but what really makes the difference is the specialized training and experience that a particular doctor or ARNP has accumulated. Therefore, in many cases, an ARNP with advanced training on staff is just as good as, if not better than, a medical doctor. In order to evaluate a staff’s experience, you can start by reading through the medical spa’s website, as it is likely to contain a biography of each staff member. This way, you’ll get to see how much experience the staff has in treating skin disorders, where treatment administrators attended school, and so forth. You can also feel free to ask questions before undergoing any procedure to ensure that the person performing it is fully qualified and experienced.
Good bedside manners
Certain medical spa treatments are known to produce a degree of discomfort, so it’s important that staff members be able to address their clients’ physical needs before, after, and during such procedures. Just as a patient would want a doctor with a good bedside manner, so too do medical spa “patients” deserve a similar attitude from the people giving and assisting during their treatments. Since insurance companies rarely cover medical spa treatments, most clients have no choice but to pay their own way. For this reason, customers deserve staff members with great bedside manners, coupled with a soothing, warm, and inviting spa atmosphere. In fact, this is often the key feature that differentiates a medical spa from a typical medical clinic.
A relationship-building focus
Some medical spas have the goal of ushering as many clients as possible in and out of its doors in order to rake in the greatest amount of “on the spot” cash. A good medical spa staff, on the other hand, will focus more on relationship-building and less so on immediate profit. By catering to individual customers’ needs and providing top-notch service, medical spa employees can prove to clients that they are worthy of repeat business. And clients, in return, will be more likely to come back knowing that the staff has met or exceeded their expectations.
A “no pressure attitude”
One of the worst things that a medical spa staff member can do is pressure a potential client into getting a treatment that she is uncomfortable having or paying for. A good medical spa employee will understand that the decision to have certain procedures done might be a difficult one for some customers, and therefore offer information instead of a hard sell. By verbally coercing a client to undergo a treatment that will not serveher well, a staff member will only alienate that person, causing her to avoid returning in the future.
As a medical spa customer, you deserve to be treated by a staff that understands the value of client satisfaction. At the same time, it never hurts to let the owner know if a certain employee has gone out of his way to provide particularly excellent service, or vice versa. After all, a medical spa owner can’t be keeping tabs on every individual employee one hundred percent of the time. By making a manager or owner aware of the service you’ve received, you can do your part to encourage those first-rate employees to keep up the good work while prompting the mediocre staff members to shape up their acts. Remember, the goal of any medical spa owner is, ultimately, to serve his customers’ needs, and it really takes the right kind of staff to help achieve this objective.
The information in the article is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your healthcare provider. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with an appropriate healthcare provider.
