Advice for Skin Care Professionals on Surviving the COVID-19 Shutdown

Across the country stores and businesses are closing to protect the health of workers and the community they serve. While some businesses in communities that have not seen a widespread outbreak have been remaining open, it’s becoming increasingly clear that shutting down the spread of this virus will take a worldwide effort.

Non-life sustaining businesses have been ordered to close in several states. If your local ordinances have not yet required closure, they likely will soon. The economic impact will be extreme. We’ve put together some ideas to help you weather the challenging days ahead.

Communicate

Your first order of business is communicating with your clients. Send an e-blast to let your clients know exactly what your plans are and how they will be affected. Be positive, clear, and direct. But don’t stop there.

Continue to nurture your client relationship by keeping up communications throughout the time of disruption. Take advantage of clients being at home and offer skin care tips and consultations via social media. Send tips, advice, updates, and product reminders.

Stay present (and positive) on social media. This crisis will end, and when it does, your clients will be desperate for services, and you want to be top of mind.

Get Creative to Keep Cash Coming In

Keep cash coming in now and ensure future business by finding ways to entice customers to spend remotely. Here are a few ideas:

• Encourage your clients to buy gift certificates as a way of supporting your small business through challenging times.
• Offer personalized skincare advice sessions via Skype or Zoom to help clients stay on course.
• Encourage your clients to keep consistent with their skincare regimens by continuing to purchase their products from you. We can help with this one (details below).
• Look for new ways you can offer value for clients without adding cost for you.

How is Vivant Helping?

Free Ship On-Demand, No Minimum Order

Vivant will ship orders directly to your clients so you can avoid having outlay cash for inventory. And we’ll cover the shipping on all orders so you can offer your client free shipping with no minimum purchase as an incentive.

How does that work? Your client orders from you. You call in, email, or text your client’s order to us. Provide us with your client’s shipping information, and be sure to specify DROP-SHIP. You pay wholesale and collect retail payment from your client. We package the order free of marketing or wholesale invoice, so when it reaches your client, it appears to have come directly from you.

Basically, it’s a ship on-demand system that allows you to continue servicing your clients without having to carry inventory.

Free Hand Sanitizer

We’ve also developed a hand sanitizer that you can use as a value-added promotion. You offer it free with purchases of $75 or more, and we will include it, at no cost to you, in the shipment for those orders that Vivant ships for you.

60-Day Guarantee

You’ve got one more incentive to offer. Don’t forget to remind your clients of the 60-day purchase with confidence guarantee on their Vivant purchases. If they are not completely satisfied, they can return the product for a full refund within 60 days of purchase.

We all have some difficult weeks ahead. Every industry is suffering right now. But it’s particularly challenging for businesses like yours that can’t be shifted to remote working.

We are so grateful for all the loyalty you’ve shown Vivant and hope that these ideas and implementations will help to lessen the burden you’re feeling now. Try to keep your stress level down, remain positive, and stay engaged with your clientele. Things will get better.

Vivant will offer free “home-schooling” for AES with live video chats during this downtime. Watch your email for details.

Do you have any more ideas about how to deal with the shutdown? Share them in the comments below.