Surge in clients post lockdown can be attributed to the ‘Zoom effect’

Without a doubt aesthetics is a massive growth industry and even in our own clinic we have noticed a massive growth in all demographics attending for a variation of different treatments. Since Covid-19 presented itself, it has changed our business altogether.

I would have always said that as a clinic, we provide an extremely personable experience and take pride in knowing a lot about our patients, however since Covid-19 we have been gifted a lot of time to stay in contact with them. A lot of people would ask who maintains our social media, honestly, it’s me and only me. I couldn’t and wouldn’t want to lose that personal touch.

Since the change in restrictions and our clinic being closed, our business has developed further online, we update it regularly, sharing personal life and real situations we are experiencing. Why? Well, because we are a very normal family and we want people to benefit from the comfort of knowing they are attending a real life persons clinic.

Typically the preconception when I just started my business was, ‘Oh my goodness, I thought I was coming to someone with massive lips’, or ‘I thought you were going to look plastic’.

I suppose for years we have watched celebrities and read magazines with terribly exaggerated procedures done and assumed it was going to be the same. It really could not be further from the truth. The Aesthetic Surgery Journal since 2013 and aesthetics journals before this has been documenting that the over exposure of celebrities, social media and the media can be dangerous in terms of good aesthetics and has caused misunderstandings of the services.

Medical aesthetics is based on a holistic assessment. This is why I’m so adamant to keep my social media personal and relatable. This will all tie together, I promise. Getting back to Covid-19, when we opened after our first lockdown way back in summer 2020, the surge in clients was astronomical. We could have worked night and day and still seen no end to queries and patients of each gender and all age groups looking for treatments. Cosmetic insurance companies then began to attribute this surge to the “Zoom” effect.

The use of the internet, Skype, Zoom, and facetime rocketed as a way for business and the world to continue turning while at home.

These video conferencing tools have been said to increase peoples awareness in their appearance and confirm their desires for cosmetic procedures. The “Zoom” effect for some really highlighted an insecurity that perhaps didn’t burn so deep without seeing their own face in such detail every single day, which in turn would perhaps really push self reflection in a lot of patients.

The holistic assessment process is therefore an integral part of the assessment process in our clinic, more so since Covid-19 hit. We as medical practitioners often have to discuss why people want treatments done and what bothers them.

This dispels for me immediately the Barbie doll imagine, the plastic assumption or what I hear quite often “I don’t want rubber lips”. We discussed in the previous article that medical grade aesthetics should be safe, subtle and suitable, this carries through to the perception and demand we are currently experiencing during the pandemic.

The treatments that are being requested range in terms of recovery, risk, invasion and pain, however each can be just as important to that individual for confidence, self- worth and in general feeling good. The advancement in aesthetic treatment has also meant that imperfections felt or noted by the patient has made it so accessible and easy to be fixed.

The rationale and reasons for a patient wanting their treatment is so important, taking the time to listen is just as valuable. As the medical professional I believe in our clinic it is our responsibility to set the realistic expectations, to disseminate accurate education about procedures and collaborate with our patients in their treatments.