Our Practitioner Spotlights showcase the many ways that our practitioners are using Practice Better to help support their business goals. This month, we had the amazing opportunity to speak with Dru Pattan, a licensed Esthetician who first got into skincare after navigating her struggle with acne a decade ago. She decided to take her practice fully remote in 2017 after realizing the convenience of a virtual business for her, as a mom of 2 young children, and her busy clients.
While skincare is typically a hands-on industry, Dru shares that she's noticed a shift toward clients who prefer to manage their skincare health with some support. She notes marked improvement with clients who take this approach versus relying on once-a-month in-person treatment.
While Dru's specialty is acne, she focuses on other problematic skin concerns such as rosacea, chronically inflamed or dehydrated skin, and skin sensitivities. Her clientele includes primarily adults who are as involved with their healing as Dru, but she's also worked with a handful of teens committed to their skin health.
Dru's unique approach of virtual support in the skincare space has inspired her to help other professionals looking to transition to remote aspects of virtual support to enhance clients' results.
Read on to learn how Dru uses Practice Better to offer remote consultations, seamlessly onboard clients, maintain excellent communication and support clients via chat, track progress via journals, and more!
I primarily offer Remote Consultations, which I keep very affordable for my clients. They receive:
I have a program setup that is an introductory walkthrough, and it introduces clients to the Practice Better platform and goes over the process and what is expected of them.
The program walks clients through the platform and onboarding process by prompting them to fill out their forms and showing them how to book their initial consultation.
Clients are instructed to message me regularly through chat, and while in the beginning stages this is often a daily message, once we have gotten their skin to a good place, this is often something they will use to have me reevaluate their skincare as seasons, lifestyle and needs change. I also require them to send me images in chat so that they can be viewed and accessed sequentially throughout their treatment.
With every passing year, I see Practice Better rise to the occasion and add more value to their platform which benefits my business. The way I can seamlessly automate my business and onboard clients through my Walkthrough Program has massively cut down on time spent in those initial phases. Being able to support my clients through our regular discussions has become the foundation of my entire business model.
Best yet, I remember how daunting it was starting out with Practice Better. With Practice Better being more specific to practitioners in the health and wellness sectors I wasn’t able to look to those who came before me for advice or examples of workflows. Now as I help others in my own professional community, I can share programs, and even my intake process, to help get them started.
There are more than I can even count at this point. It was a tough transition to shift from the traditional model many estheticians utilize where they focus on what is directly in front of them in the treatment room. With the help of Practice Better, I was really able to lean into expanding the support I offer clients through continued communication which led to customized recommendations and a more robust way to support them. Acne, along with many other inflammatory skin conditions often leave people suffering, confused, and exhausted when it comes to attempting to manage it. This platform allows for deeper conversations where I can support more than just their skin but encourage them to stick with their plan and assure them that they are doing what they need to do to help their skin.
In addition to the topical relief I offer, when I notice red flags which indicate a more internal pathogenesis, I can refer my clients to other specialists to help them solve issues beyond my scope of practice. I regularly partner with a functional medicine practitioner and collaborate to get clients on the right track both internally and externally.
Working remotely with clients is a successful way to support them. Clients are already trying to take esthetic devices and protocols out of the treatment room and into their own untrained hands, sometimes with dangerous consequences. By offering remote care, estheticians can safely empower their clients. When working remotely with clients, we have the opportunity to impact their skincare choices more positively; we ensure that by making ourselves more easily accessible that they trust us and turn to us with questions and for advice. By offering them safer and more beneficial alternatives through home care and following up on how their skin responds, we are ensuring that what they do to their skin regularly is truly what it needs and that their results reflect this. Setting up your systems and automations to ensure that turning to you with any questions or concerns is as much of a habit as washing their face ensures a successful partnership for you and your client.
The best final piece of advice I can give is that with all of the different options Practice Better offers, allow yourself the freedom to change and modify every inch of your business as you grow. Automations, Walkthroughs /Evergreen Programs, Communications, Protocols, Notes, all of these are infinitely customizable. The team at Practice Better offers an amazing amount of support to ensure you get them set up the best way possible for your unique business needs.
Thank you so much for sharing your story with us, Dru!
Connect with Dru on her website, Facebook group or Instagram.
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