Why do aesthetic practitioners join Glowday? What are the benefits, and how easy is it to get started? We spoke to Gema Lorenzo of Gema Lorenzo Aesthetics to find out about her experience so far.
Hi Gema! How did you first come across Glowday, and what was it that made you decide to join our booking platform?
I started to see lots of Glowday-related posts popping up on Instagram, and the thing I really liked about it is that it’s all about separating medical practitioners from beauticians and other non-medics. It really ticked that box for me. It’s also a way to show that you are safe and verified.
My biggest fear going into aesthetics was that I’d come from an environment where the rules were so clear, and what you could and couldn’t do was so obvious, but in the UK, the lines are very blurred, and it’s all open to interpretation. Glowday helps alleviate that.
How was the process of setting up your profile?
I was a bit hesitant at first, thinking about the time I’d need to spend creating my profile. But it was a lot quicker than it would have taken me to create an entire website. All I needed to do was provide that initial information. It looks nice and really professional, and clients have said how great the website looks. It definitely wasn’t as time consuming as I thought it was going to be.
What have been the main benefits of joining Glowday, so far?
Aside from the fact that I don’t need to create a website - my Glowday profile is my mini website - I also like that I don’t need to ask people to send me a deposit or bring the right money with them to their appointment. I have no need to buy a card reader or look at paying for another booking system that would do the same, as on Glowday all payments are made through Stripe, which is much easier.
Social media is also a positive for me, because Glowday’s branding has helped a lot and given me a lot of content I can use. I really like tagging Glowday and interacting with you on social media, and I love your Instagram stickers. You’re trying to grow your reach at Glowday, but that’s also helping a lot of smaller practitioners like me grow their reach. I think the bigger Glowday gets, the bigger practitioners get. The team has been really supportive and always answers any questions I have, quickly.
Would you recommend Glowday to other aesthetic practitioners out there?
Yes, I would and I have. I think Glowday will do different things for different practitioners, depending on where they are in their journey. For those who are just starting out, I definitely think it’s good to be involved with you. There’s definitely a watch this space movement that’s going on in the industry at the moment, and I feel like Glowday will be at the forefront of that. To be on a journey with you will be beneficial for us.
Getting the message out about how important it is to see a medical professional for aesthetic treatments is something that we, as practitioners, are doing one patient at a time, but here comes this company that says, “look - we’ve got together all of these medical practitioners who specialise in aesthetics, and this is why it’s important.” It’s not currently spoken about that much, and I don’t think clients really think that much about it until they start having treatments and having these conversations, and then they realise how important it is to see someone who is qualified and safe.
There are so many confusing terms, such as aesthetic practitioner, fully trained and qualified, but it’s very unclear what they mean. So, to have Glowday break it down for people and explain what they are trained or qualified in is really useful. It definitely helps educate the general public.
The Glowday treatment guides are also really useful pieces of content to send out to clients who have booked a treatment or are thinking of booking one. They’re really clear and concise, and they include all the information you need but are written in a way that means you don’t have to have a medical background to understand them.
What features would you like to see on Glowday that aren’t already there?
I wasn’t using any booking tools before Glowday, as I set up my business just before lockdown, so I don’t have much to compare it to, but I really like it. There are a few things that I think would be beneficial to incorporate though, such as online consent forms and aftercare forms that you could upload and have sent out to a patient before or after a treatment. With aftercare forms, for example, around an hour after a patient’s appointment, their aftercare details pertaining to the treatment they’ve had could be automatically sent out to them. At the moment, I’m manually handing paper copies of these out, but doing this online, as part of the whole Glowday process would be easier.