The presentation of your treatment room can have a bigger impact on your aesthetic clinic’s success than you may think. Clutter can have a variety of impacts on our minds and bodies, from increasing stress, triggering anxiety, and preventing relaxation to decreasing focus, creating frustration, and harming your professional reputation. An organized treatment room may not be the primary focus of your clinic when it comes to improving customer service, but proper organization and an efficient design can pay off in spades. Discover our top tips to get organized and whip your aesthetics treatment room into shape.
Organizational Tips for Your Aesthetics Clinic
Make a Positive First Impression
Studies show that people form a first impression in as little as a tenth of a second and upwards to seven seconds. For this reason, it’s important to consider presentation. If your clinic has chosen to forgo a waiting room, ensure your treatment rooms are dressed to impress. Include décor, clean designs, and soft, neutral colors that help to promote patient comfort and relaxation. Ensure patients have all they need if they may be waiting for a little bit, including a comfortable chair and a small table with a selection of magazines and space to set any drinks they’ve been offered as they wait.
Prioritize Patient Comfort
Aesthetic treatments utilizing advanced technology may be beneficial, but most patients are also spending the money to obtain a treatment plan and taking time out of their busy work, family, and daily lives. For this reason, the treatment room should be organized with both functionality and patient comfort in mind.
Your treatment table or bed is the foundation for patient comfort. Start organizing and rejigging your room by creating a system that’s centered around your treatment bed or table. Select a bed that’s cushioned enough for patient comfort but won’t impact the delivery of any treatments. Place it in an area that naturally flows from the entrance of the room and allows enough space for patients and treatment providers to easily maneuver around it. Features like electric controls for adjusting the bed height, foot, or headrest are beneficial to your staff as well as patient comfort. If possible, opt for soft towels or sheets to cover the treatment table, rather than scratchy sanitary paper, and store clean linens in a drawer, rather than a shelf, to maintain cleanliness. Don’t forget about the ceiling! Lay down on your bed to see what patients may be seeing during their treatments and replace or mask any eyesores on your ceilings.
Hide and Organize
Next might be the biggest step of the organization process: find a place for everything that’s decluttered or out of sight. Organization and cleanliness of treatment rooms communicates to your patients a level of professionalism and respect. Use cabinets with doors or drawers to store supplies, linens, utensils, tools, and other objects that may otherwise cause clutter on counters.
Be intentional with where and how everything is stored: items that are used most often should be placed in areas that are easy for everyone to reach, while less used items should be moved out of the room or stored in less accessible areas, such as lower drawers or higher cupboard shelves. Some small objects that might need to be accessed quickly or a small selection of brochures may be stored in a canister or organizer on a counter, but be sure to leave space for setting down charts and keep everything looking tidy.
The following tips may also help to better organize supplies with both cleanliness and practicality in mind:
- While pulling everything out to reorganize, use this opportunity to do a deep clean. Sterilize the room and wipe down all those hard-to-reach areas.
- Consider purchasing a cart for utensils, towels, or supplies that should be in closer reach during a treatment session.
- If your clinic’s budget allows, consider hiring a storage solutions company to guide you in the best options for your treatment room, particularly if you’re struggling to improve the functionality of a smaller, cluttered space.
- Place hooks on the backs of doors or to the right of the room for patients to hang bags and coats so they’re out of the way, even if you do have an area for coats in the waiting room. Some patients simply feel more comfortable keeping their possessions with them in the room.
- Hide electrical cords with cable management boxes or covers to prevent them from becoming a safety hazard, gathering dust, or just appearing cluttered and haphazard.
- Add labels if needed to make items easier to find or have a system in place for easy access, such as storing treatment brochures in files organized alphabetically.
- Use boxes, baskets, bins, or dividers in cabinets and drawers to keep supplies in order and small items grouped properly together.
- Try to make everything visible at a glance. Don’t pile supplies on top of each other in drawers or store them behind other supplies that may be larger and make it harder to spot what you need in a second. The last thing you want to be doing is rummaging through drawers with a patient in the room.
Clear Clutter and Replace What Isn’t Working or Doesn’t Fit
As you review the flow, structure, and organization of your treatment rooms, consider what might be causing clutter that could be removed or replaced. Supplies that aren’t needed specifically to perform or explain treatments should be moved to an area that isn’t patient-facing or disposed of if unneeded. Ditch anything that may be expired or dirty and cannot be salvaged.
Finally, consider replacing old, clunky technology that clutters your treatment room or does not offer the practical functions your clinic requires. Venus Concept offers a diverse lineup of compact, functional, and easy-to-use, non-invasive aesthetic treatment machines for every space, including a versatile multi-application device that can provide the most popular aesthetic procedures with one platform—the perfect space-saving option for smaller spaces. Ditch the clutter and upgrade your treatment technology today for more advanced systems with clean, compact designs that are sure to look great in your newly organized treatment room, enabling you to better deliver on the results your clients want. Find the right solution for your aesthetics clinic by contacting a Venus Concept expert today.
Practice Enhancement Tips
