Powerful Intake Form:

The power of a thoughtful intake form: Elevating Your Esthetician Practice

In the world of esthetics, the intake form is more than just a document; it’s the gateway to creating a personalized and transformative client experience.

At Elite Spa Pros Academy, I emphasize the importance of designing intake forms that go beyond gathering basic information. A well-crafted intake form can set the tone for the client’s journey, help you identify opportunities for upgrades, and foster long-term relationships.

Let’s explore the key factors to consider when designing an intake form for your spa or esthetician practice, and how to leverage it to grow your business.

First Impressions

The Importance of First Impressions - Your intake form is often the first point of contact between you and your client. It’s an opportunity to convey the level of care and attention to detail that they can expect from your services. A thoughtfully designed intake form can:

1. Build Rapport Quickly: Before you even meet the client in person, your intake form can begin to establish a connection. Include questions that allow you to get to know the client beyond their medical history, such as their lifestyle, stress levels, and personal preferences. This approach helps clients feel seen and understood, setting the stage for a more meaningful interaction.

2. Position Yourself for Upgrades and Long-Term Services: Design your form with an eye toward the future. Include questions that can open the door to recommending additional services or upgrades. For example, asking about their skincare routine or specific concerns can help you suggest relevant treatments that they might not have considered.

3. Create a Personalized Experience: Tailor your form to reflect the unique experience your spa offers. If you specialize in holistic treatments, for instance, include questions that align with that philosophy, such as their emotional well-being or their preferences for aromatherapy.

Tailoring Intake Forms

Tailoring Intake Forms for Specific Treatment.
One of the most effective ways to enhance the client experience is to create specific intake forms for different treatments. At my practice, I use a general intake form for basic information—contact details, skin concerns, allergies, and medical history. However, for more advanced treatments like microneedling or TCA peels, I have separate forms that include pre- and post-care instructions.

Why this approach works:

• Efficiency: A single, all-encompassing form can overwhelm clients and lead to unnecessary information being collected. By tailoring forms to specific treatments, you keep the process concise and relevant.

• Compliance and Safety: Specific forms allow you to include detailed pre- and post-care instructions that clients must acknowledge. This not only ensures they understand the requirements but also protects you legally, as clients sign off on following the care guidelines.

• Client Convenience: When clients don’t have to wade through irrelevant questions, they’re more likely to complete the form thoroughly and accurately. This convenience builds trust and encourages them to engage more openly with you.

Client Convenience

Balancing Thoughtfulness with client convenience. An effective intake form strikes a balance between gathering essential information and making the process easy for the client. Here are some best practices:

1. Keep It Simple: Avoid long, complex questions that require detailed responses. Instead, use checkboxes, scales, or short-answer questions. This approach keeps the form user-friendly and encourages completion.

2. Prioritize Essential Information: While it’s important to gather thorough details, focus on what’s crucial. Make key questions mandatory, such as those related to allergies and medical conditions, while keeping optional questions brief and straightforward.

3. Adapt to Your Clientele: Consider the preferences of your client base. Younger clients may prefer filling out forms online, while older clients might be more comfortable with paper forms. Offering both options can enhance the client experience and ensure everyone feels accommodated.

Maximizing the Value

Maximizing the value of the intake form. Intake forms are more than just paperwork; they’re valuable tools for growing your business. Here’s how you can maximize their impact:

1. Review and Update Regularly: Health conditions and client preferences can change over time. For one person it could be monthly for another not for years. Implement a system where clients fill out a comprehensive intake form on their first visit, followed by a shorter update form during subsequent visits. This allows you to stay informed and adjust treatments accordingly. And always give them the opportunity to fill in the full form for every visit if they prefer.

2. Encourage Home Care Product Sales: Include a question on your form asking if clients are interested in learning about or if they need you to set aside any home care products. This subtle prompt can increase retail sales and reinforce the importance of a consistent skincare routine.

3. Address Contraindications Clearly: When asking about health issues or allergies, specify which treatments or products are contraindicated. For example, if a client has a pacemaker, note that certain electrical treatments are not suitable. This transparency builds trust and demonstrates your expertise.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls

To ensure your intake form is as effective as possible, avoid these common mistakes:

1. Not Reviewing the Form with the Client: Take the time to go over the completed intake form with the client. This shows that you value the information they’ve provided and allows you to address any concerns or questions they may have.

2. Overcomplicating the Form: Keep the form concise and relevant. Avoid overwhelming clients with unnecessary questions or requiring lengthy written responses.

3. Neglecting Legal Requirements: Ensure your intake form complies with state regulations. In some states, like Florida, it’s necessary to have both the client and esthetician sign and date the form. Additionally, make sure you’re well-insured to protect your practice beyond just relying on the form.

Designed for Business Growth

Creating a well-designed intake form is an investment in the success of your esthetician practice. By setting the tone for the client experience, tailoring forms to specific treatments, and balancing thoroughness with convenience, you can build stronger relationships, enhance client satisfaction, and ultimately grow your business. At Elite Spa Pros Academy, we delve deep into these strategies to help estheticians and spa owners maximize the potential of every client interaction.

If you have any questions or want to learn more about how to elevate your practice, feel free to reach out. I’m here to help you succeed.

Can YOU Feel It?

Living with the residual impact of trauma sucks and the beginning stages of healing can be just as brutal.

When it comes to learning how to process emotions, Body Talk, Body Wisdom, Body Awareness and exercises of the sort can be a trauma survivors' biggest challenge | frustration and I am here to tell you why that is normal AND that there is hope.

Traumatized people tend to disconnect from the body by numbing bodily experience because things are either happening too intensely, to quickly or they do not have the resources to handle it. So it is no surprise we may find exercises asking us to feel sensations and stay aware of the body to be difficult. They are asking us to fully experience the body and sensations the thoughts are creating.

During these times the sympathetic nervous systems get activated – our fight/flight/freeze response and we try to change what is happening. If a resolution is not found, the sympathetic arousal cannot be soothed or discharged and it becomes overloaded Our body's survival response is to adapt by shutting down.

The high nervous system arousal due to trauma and unprocessed experience make it challenging to hold a state of awareness, presence of our body and even mindful meditation. I’m going to share my experience to provide an example of what this may look like and then suggestions of how to work through the difficulty so you can begin to benefit from these fabulous practices.

At the beginning of working with some of the modalities I mentioned above, nothing happened for me. At that time, I questioned the validity of the methods. Sometimes when I would work with Body Wisdom, I could locate sensation in my body, intensely and in a matter of seconds – nothing. Like a faucet being shut off. It was really frustrating especially because I am okay with the icky part of healing and I wasn’t afraid to go through it, it just wouldn’t happen. But I guess I had numbed so much my body had to learn how to feel again, how to be with whatever it was experiencing.

And for some reason, I kept working with these methods. And on the rarest occasions, one would work… a little. And then a little more and a little more. After some time, I realized it is a lot like a meditation practice. You wouldn’t expect to be able and sit in meditation for 3 hours if you have never meditated before. You would start out with smaller sessions, maybe 5 minutes and add on as it became easier.

So, this is my suggestion for you.

If you find these "be in your body and feel what you are feeling" type processes don’t work, keep practicing. Don’t get frustrated and think you are broken or that the process isn't effective. Give it time, be patient and gentle with yourself.

I’ll compare this to a terrified, traumatized puppy dropped off at a shelter. It’s not likely it is going to run over to start to play the moment it arrives. It might sit shaking in the corner and after time start to sniff what is closest to it. Then after hours, days or weeks, of hearing the same voices, sounds, not being forced to do anything that scares it - once it feels it is safe it may start to make its way over to you.

Your traumatized mind and body may need that same time, consistency and patience. Keep going.

The work may not always feel great, sometimes it may feel like it isn’t working, but the subtle shifts will start to accumulate, and you will notice the positive impact of your commitment to your healing ♡

Do you have any questions?
Would you like to share your experience or talk about how to begin the work?
Let's schedule a time to chat.

Getting the most out of this holiday season

A lot can happen over the next few weeks.  A mix of excitement and overload.  And it is so crazy to think that the holidays are going to be here like the blink of an eye, as well as the new year!  I don't know about you, but I just started to get used to writing 2019!  

Here's what we can expect over the next few weeks:

• Changes to your usual routines

• Extra get togethers or activities

• Pressure of holiday responsibilities, shopping and budgets

• Potential for family feuds - If you are an empath or highly sensitive - exhaustion from the extra interactions

• Setting goals and intentions for the new year to come

Here are 8 expert tips to enjoy yourself and have a great holiday season

1. Set an intention for the season. 

• What do you want to do?

• How do you want to feel?

• What emotions do you want to experience?

List it all out, find what feels the most meaningful to you and create an intention.  You can even write it out as an affirmation - Something short, simple and sweet.  For example:

I am patient, joyful and kind. 

I am loving, present and calm.

I am living in the moment and finding something special in each of them.

2. Have realistic expectations. 

Nothing ruins a good time like expectations.  So let's get real.  

You know someone is going to say something that makes your jaw drop.  Someone is going to be late.  Someone is going to be messy.  Errands or tasks may take longer than usual.  Set yourself up for less disappointment by being realistic about what to expect.  

3. Have a plan for potentially tense situations.

1. Have a go-to mantra (a statement or phrase that you can repeat to yourself to bring you back to the moment and to a mental state that serves you. Example: I am calm, collected and remain centered.

2. Choose a style of pranayama or breathing exercise that helps you slow down and release. I love 3 part breathing. Generally, people breathe only into their upper chest and neglect the expansiveness of the lungs available by practicing deep diaphragmatic breathing. It will help calm the mind, slow the breath, and bring focus to the moment. It can be practiced seated, laying down, or standing. I like to suggest resting one hand on the belly and one hand on the heart to physically observe the expansion and contraction of the lungs. For the first few rounds, you may wish to exhale out the mouth, but generally, this breath should be in and out through the nose.

• Inhale deeply through the nose, inflating the belly as if expanding a balloon. Exhale through the nose, contracting the belly by pulling navel to spine.

• Inhale, fill the belly and low chest, expanding the ribcage front to back, side to side. Feel the space between the ribs expand. Exhale, the ribcage falls and belly contracts.

• Inhale, fill the belly, ribcage, and upper chest, breathing into the clavicle region, feeling the shoulders rise slightly at the top of your inhalation. Exhale, chest falls, ribcage falls, belly draws to spine.

• Repeat this breath, breathing in belly-ribcage-chest, and if preferred, add a short retention at the top of the inhalation, focusing on the point between the eyebrows, then exhale slowly through the nose.

4. Maintain some of your routines.  

Many people tend to get stressed or feel overwhelmed when their routines are interrupted, which we have to expect to happen this time of year.  As much as this may feel impossible or impractical, try to keep some consistency with your usual routine and now is the time to ramp up self-care. Pick up some new grounding and shielding routine to help you be less affected or less absorbent of the energy of those around you.  

One of my personal practices is that I have given a name to my wake up alarms on my cell phone. So when they go off, my phone shows the title of the alarm.  One, is "Make today great" and my final alarm (after 3 or 4 snoozes 😏) is "shields up".  This is when I imagine a shimmery golden glass egg coming up from the floor and encapsulating me to keep me protected from non-serving energy I will encounter throughout the day.   

5. Take care of your mind, body and behavior.  

• Body: Activate the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) and relax the body as a whole. My favorites - find a restorative yoga class, meditation or yoga nidra, these will also engage the PNS and help you rest, digest and heal.

• Emotions: Encourage positive emotions by focusing on and savoring all the positive experiences associated with the holidays. Spending a minute or so relishing these experiences helps them enter our long-term emotional memory and sink in. Think gratitude journal.

• Thoughts: Our thought create our experience, so if you find yourself frustrated or disappointed by something or someone, try to see the circumstance from a different perspective or a different lens.

• Actions: Do things more mindfully, more thoughtfully and with more intention.

6. Create reminders of your intention. 

It’s easy to get carried away, let stress consume you and forget the purpose and meaning of the holidays. A visual reminder helps bring you back and put things in perspective.  Taping quotes to your fridge or putting them in frames in other areas of the house is a simple reminder

• "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

• "You may be one person in the world, but to one person you may be the world."

• "A single sentence at the right time could change someone's life forever."

• "Let your presence be your present."

• "Life is too important to be taken seriously."

7. Create an environment of calm. 

• Do you have a favorite aroma or calming album?

• Is there a blanket that makes your stresses melt away as soon as you touch it?

• Or a cozy pair of socks or slippers or a pet you can snuggle up to?

• Do you have a favorite tea or light-hearted book you like to read?

• Keep all of these tools readily available and use them more often the usual.

• In fact, look for additional tools, like coloring, journaling, clearing away clutter, writing thank you notes to those you love or spending some time massaging your own feet or brushing your hair.

8. Have fun activities planned for get-togethers. 

Keep people occupied to keep them happy.  Find playful, silly games that can keep people engaged and interacting.  This allows for friendliness and fun to dominate over differences of opinions, our political climate or gossiping about what cousin Sally has been up to.  

Cards Against Humanity is always a fun adult game.  I used to love Catch Phrase!  Or you can create your own game.

I just had an idea to hide Christmas ornaments like you would Easter eggs!  You could put a tag on each one with truth or dare written on it or a get to know you question.  

Or even more fun, write a type of drink or shot on it and have the ingredients on hand, then whoever finds that ornament with that shot, that’s what they have to try.  You could do this with unusual foods too.

I hope these 8 tips are helpful to you and feel free to share with friends or loved ones who could use the support as well.  If you or anyone you know struggles this time of year due to holidays, family, Seasonal Affective Disorder or pressure of the upcoming new year, reach out or have them connect with me so we can discuss more personalized options to make it all more comfortable. Click here to schedule time to Chat!

Warmest wishes,

Heather