One of the most rewarding aspects of our Beaute community has been witnessing the support, compassion, innovation and resourcefulness that the events of this year have brought out in so many businesses, brands and individuals. This is particularly true for a number of professional brands and educators, whom from the moment they foresaw their businesses could suffer, did everything in their power to stay connected, throwing every resource they had towards supporting sales, training and education from afar. This week, we are recognising these efforts and saying a big thank you on behalf of the industry at large. Here are a few highlights:
INSKIN
O Cosmedics completely ramped up their education for stockists throughout COVID. Producing daily virtual tutorials with industry and business development experts partner spas and clinics could stay in the loop by maximising their productivity, refreshing their knowledge with training classes and even helping to improve their sales techniques and practical skills. For those without an online store presence, the team at INSKIN worked tirelessly to create unique clinic codes which allowed the client to allocate their chosen professional space during the checkout process. INSKIN would then send the product directly out to the client and the nominated clinic would receive a credit of the wholesale amount, less a small handling cost.
Gay Wardle
2020 was the year of online education, but it isn’t something we should be taking for granted. It takes a lot of magic behind the scenes to transform physical to virtual, especially in a lot of cases with such a tight turnaround. Programs like Gay Wardle Education’s new online courses have been a godsend for many when it comes to staying connecting with our artform – even when it isn’t possible to practice physically.
Pia Kynoch
Pia Kynoch is another wonderful example of a beautifully executed pivot from physical to digital, shifting her holistic wellbeing education programs online. Pushing the usual boundaries of the world of online learning, Pia has decided to structure her latest ‘Holistic Digestive Intensive Series’ a little differently. The series has been running across a 7-week format instead of her usual two days, aiming to serve those who have time constraints. The weekly sessions have been recorded and have been made available for 6 days after the release, allowing participants to watch in their own time at any given hour.
SkinCeuticals
Not long after COVID struck, SkinCeuticals was treating their partners with the ‘Master Physician Virtual Series’. This featured a number of virtual seminars, each one hosting a handful of industry experts on topics from patient connection, clinic revenue, business strategies, patient consultation and more. Each seminar was generously accompanied by a gift hamper containing wine and nibbles to enjoy during the event!
DMK
DMK pivoted to free online learning early on, and had a spectacular response right away. Debbie Dickson, Australia’s Director of Education at DMK, told Beaute Industrie “during COVID, our first thoughts were ‘how can we support our clinics during this time, how can we help them and make the time valuable and maximise the time?’ All of our educators presented courses via live streaming which our clinics found really valuable. We also offered all of our online training for free and we had 5,100 courses completed in the month of April – usually we have around 2,600 a month so it was very successful, appreciated and everyone really embraced the education. Our intention is always to support our clinics and therapists and try to make the best out of any situation.”
AST
Another huge help when it came to further education, Advanced Skin Technology opened up an extensive online training schedule during the first half of 2020. The distributor hosted an impressive number of online seminars, with two sessions in a day; every few days, across topics ranging from retailing to profiling, pigmentation to ageing, and DNA to enzymes – just to name a few. At first, seminars were only available to stockists, but it didn’t take long for them to be opened up to the beauty industry as a whole, in an effort to support the wider community.
Lira Clinical
As you would already know, one of the most commonly asked questions across our Beaute Industrie Facebook community is which skincare brand to recommend. An honourable mention must go to Lira Clinical, who has received countless stellar accolades from their stockists these past few months for their wonderful clinic support, knowledge and training, fast order turnaround and even emotional support throughout COVID. Lira has even reduced shipping fees on orders to help salons make ends meet, a kind and very generous gesture many appreciated.
If one of your brands has gone out of their way to support you this year, be sure to reach out and let them know. A little thanks can go a long way, and we could all use a pick-me-up to tide us through the rest of 2021!