At some point on your journey of growing your medical aesthetic practice, you’ll have to reevaluate your service prices to reflect your experience and skill set in the field. Here are some factors to consider when determining how and when to raise the cost of your treatments:
All aesthetic providers face the challenging dilemma of using lower pricing to entice new patients to join their practice or to use premium pricing that better reflects the quality of their services. If you have been in the industry for a while, you may have established a solid clientele that will be undeterred when your prices increase. Of course, you will likely lose some clients who choose to take their business elsewhere after a price increase. However, if you are more established in the industry and with your clients, updating your pricing without significant customer base loss should not be an issue.
Patient satisfaction is critical in any medical aesthetic practice. Focusing on patient satisfaction begins at the consultation phase and carries through to after-treatment care. As an experienced aesthetic injector, you have developed a strong skillset across various services. Ultimately, the quality of the procedure is what determines a client’s results (more so than the procedure itself). When we speak to expert injectors and industry consultants, their feedback is that the top providers have higher pricing than other aesthetics operations that focus on volume.
If you feel you’re ready to take your brand to the next level and continue growing, it can be a healthy sign that you are in a position to raise your prices. Increasing your rates may seem daunting, but in reality, you will find that most of your clients will accept the price change once they are confident in the quality of services you offer. On the provider side, confidence shines through and can positively impact client satisfaction.
We spoke with Nicole Brustkern, DNP, a provider at Portrait, who explained that “if you feel confident, then inherently, your clients will feel safe with you. And if something about pricing makes them uncomfortable, they will voice it, but it will come from a place of good intention rather than wanting to be combative.”
If you have mastered a particular lip filler technique, raise your lip filler price to reflect your skill set!
“Change your price based on what you specialize in. If you do lips all the time and it's your thing, price it higher. All providers should increase their prices based on their experience and what they're good at.”
- Nicole Brustkern, DNP (@letstoxaboutit)
Spend some time researching competitor pricing and understanding which services your competitors offer, including what their clients have to say about the environment and quality of services. By focusing on what you can do to stand out in the industry, you will attract clients who are more interested in the quality of your services than their price.
One way to distinguish your services from others is through bundling. Grouping related or complementary services and products together can provide you a competitive advantage in marketing while simultaneously making it easier to sell additional services to each client. Customers interested in multiple services find treatment packages beneficial and more affordable than single services. You can also get creative and think of other ways to differentiate yourself and your services.
“Consider the market. Do your market research. See what the prices are like in your specific area, and adjust them based on your demands, what’s going on around you, and what other people are charging.”
- Nicole Brustkern, DNP (@letstoxaboutit)
Announcing a price increase to your clients can make one feel uneasy. The language you use to communicate your new prices can make a big difference in how your clients respond. By using words like “change” and “adjustment” in your announcement rather than “increase,” clients may be more amenable to the change rather than concerned about pricing. Channel that confidence once more and don’t feel a need to justify your pricing or apologize for it.
Dr. Brustkern encourages people to change their language around pricing. She summarized a few communication tips nicely:
“Call it a price change. A price adjustment is all in how you deliver it and then have confidence. I think self-assurance is a huge thing in being successful in this industry—because if you don't believe in yourself, nobody else will believe you. I don't think you should ever be apologetic about pricing or have to justify it. Don’t say something like, “I know it’s expensive but…” Most of the time, people aren’t even thinking about that. So, you don’t want to plant that thought in their head.``
It can be helpful to change your pricing gradually– say, “over the course of a year,” rather than “all at once,” to not overwhelm your client base and drive them away. Nicole offers the following as a framework for thinking about how to price your services:
“My advice for pricing is that it changes, and you should really think about the amount of time that you put into it, the amount of effort that went into your expertise… Base your pricing off of how long the service takes and how many products are needed. Fillers will always be priced for more because they take more time than Botox, and they last longer. A filler that lasts 12 months will be priced higher than a filler that lasts nine months…”