Headwinds and Tailwinds: What to Expect in Aesthetics in 2025
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Looking back on the past year and gearing up for 2025, Robin and Tyler discuss the hottest trends shaping the aesthetics industry.
From buzzwords like skinimalism and prejuvenation to the rising influence of GLP-1s for weight loss, they explain how these shifts are redefining the landscape.
Hear recommendations for adapting to the ever-changing market dynamics and regulatory landscape while keeping patient care and compliance front and center, including:
How to reclaim patient loyalty in the face of Allergan’s recent changes
Is aesthetics election-proof?
Opportunities and potential risks of AI in aesthetics
Is e-commerce a game-changer for boosting revenue?
How the ballet body trend and Ozempic face are shaping the most sought-after procedures for 2025
Robin’s top tip for standing out as the industry evolves
How frictionless spending options improve the patient experience
Are “buy now, pay later” options the new must-have for practices?
Hosts
Robin Ntoh, VP of Aesthetics
Nextech
Tyler Terry, Director of Sales, MedSpa
Nextech
Transcript
Announcer (00:06):
You are listening to the Aesthetically Speaking podcast presented by Nextech.
Tyler Terry (00:11):
Hey guys, welcome back to the Aesthetically Speaking podcast. We have a special episode coming at you today. My name is Tyler Terry, and I'm here with the amazing Robin Ntoh, Robin.
Robin Ntoh (00:26):
Hey, Tyler. It's been a journey this year and we've learned to kind of move through those components of where are we? Where are we in a hotel? Are we in our home office? Believe it or not, you guys, I'm in Hawaii and this is my go-to for Christmas and the holidays. And so we are presenting from our respective homework offices and my homework office this week just happens to be in Hawaii at the obvious Disney resort.
Tyler Terry (00:52):
I'm so jealous.
Robin Ntoh (00:52):
So if anybody knows Tyler and myself, we have our fondest for the Disney component.
Tyler Terry (00:57):
Yes, we do.
Robin Ntoh (00:58):
Excited to be here today and excited to recap what we think of as far as the 2024 year and thinking about 2025 and ahead and love our theme today, Tyler Headwinds and Tailwinds, a look back at 2024 and look forward to 2025. So let's do it.
Tyler Terry (01:15):
Yeah, let's do it. And I love that you leaned in on this remote work. Our company with over 500 people, we probably have 600 people now. We are a remote work company and we've totally embraced that in our culture and trying to still connect and as part of our fabric within Nextech. So yeah, super excited that we get to be here today and talk about the look forward and the look back. And Robin, what would you like to talk about first?
Robin Ntoh (01:48):
Well, let's talk about something fun. You and I did some preparatory work for this episode and one of the things that we really thought would be very intriguing was let's look at the new buzzwords or words in general, the weirdest scene in the aesthetics industry. So kick us off with what did you think was your top one that you were, like wow?
Tyler Terry (02:12):
I would say my favorite was something that I've only heard a few times and it popped out for me because I think it resonates with not just one generation. I think it actually resonates with every generation, and it really comes from the word minimalism and the word is skinimalism. So the idea behind it is to have something where you have a high impact procedure or service with little downtime or minimal downtime. So people wanting to be able to go in and get something that maybe takes 30 minutes to an hour, but they can get right back to work. And not many people notice, but yeah, the word is skinimalism.
Robin Ntoh (03:02):
I think that all those energy-based device companies that we see out there are probably really focused on that because that's a big part of that skinimalism. I dunno if I can even say that. One of my favorites was zillennials, really? So not that we already had the individual generations, but now we got to to combine the two of them.
Tyler Terry (03:23):
Yeah. What happens when you're on the bottom, you're like, wait, wait, I'm a millennial. Are you sure? Am I a Gen Z? And they're like, let's just combine them.
Robin Ntoh (03:33):
Right. Yeah, no, that went threw me for a loop because I'm not even in that generation, but okay, let's just continue to redefine what a generation is. Yeah, maybe you can speak more to that one, Tyler.
Tyler Terry (03:46):
I would say it just goes back to, I think people are like, you know what, let's just redefine it. And I'm kind of at the tail end anyways, and I think I relate more to gen, I think it's just the people that I relate more to Gen Z or I relate more to millennials. I'm a zillennial.
Robin Ntoh (04:01):
Right. What about pre-juvenation? I mean that we heard early in the beginning of the year and it's like, okay, now we've got, it goes back to the generational differences.
Tyler Terry (04:10):
Yep.
Robin Ntoh (04:10):
People are starting to invest earlier in the way that they can ward off those signs of aging, which isn't necessarily new, but I think there's a younger generation now that's really focused and intentional about it because they're probably looking at their parents and their aging and thinking about if they were to compare, wow, look at my mom, but look at her next to her sister who has done nothing. That stuff really works. I'm going to get started. Or maybe it's just the influence of all of the social media that's out there that's really made it hyped and readily available, especially those that really focus on social media as far as where they do their buying and the influencers that are out there. So I think that that really hit me as, okay, yeah, this is now not just a thing that we kind of understand is maintenance. It's more about how we start early and really lean into it.
Tyler Terry (05:03):
Yeah, I agree. I love it because it is, and it takes a proactive approach. And you're right. I think social media definitely drives awareness. And then like you said, even when you have a family member and you could see the difference because at the end of the day, of course, it's all about our inner beauty, but our outer beauty does make us feel more confident in what we do. And yeah, I would go back to just the awareness of it. Patients are more educated. Practices are trying to educate patients on, Hey, let's not just be reactive, let's drive proactiveness, and we're going to call it pre-juvenation. And I think it resonates with the younger patient database. It definitely resonates with me. And you think of things like even going back to this skinimalism, what are the minimum things that I should be doing? Okay, I should watch my face in the morning. I should put on sunscreen. I should have some type of moisturizer. It's a great word. And I think it will be here through the next 10 or 20 years. So I don't think that word's going away.
Robin Ntoh (06:12):
No. Ballet body was another one that came out with the plastic surgery industry report this year. And I think it represents, well, the minimalism that you just mentioned, where people are looking for natural. And ballet body, I thought was an interesting way to describe it because when you think of ballet, you think of elegance, you think of sleek, you think of someone that's definitely athletic because that takes a lot of work to actually maintain that type of body. So it's not just what we do from aesthetic perspective that might be surgical or nonsurgical. Now we're bringing into that component, the wellness part, because you don't maintain a well toned body just by exercise. It goes back into diet. So I felt like we're now bridging that component of not just the things we do surgically or non-surgically. It just now is extending into where we've seen that huge growth around the wellness market as well. So just kind of encompasses, I think all of those arenas that we're really leaning into.
Tyler Terry (07:15):
This would've been probably my second favorite word. And I don't have too much to add to what you said. You said it beautifully, but it just feels very organic, natural, beautiful, simple in a way of like, yeah, that resonates with me. It's not overdone, it just feels like this is me.
Robin Ntoh (07:34):
Yeah. Oh, definitely, for sure. Well, we can't ignore the weight loss. So Ozempic face, but then that evolves into Ozempic everything. And I think that it also caused the merging of or the add-on of additional services that we saw in a lot of our practices. So the med spas and me have only just been focusing on injectables. Now they've added on that other component of wellness or more specifically those weight loss treatments. So we've seen a huge shift in that this year because it really does prepare a practice for recurring services, recurring revenue, but also helping those patients that eventually as they lose the weight and they have the Ozempic face, now they're the perfect candidates to then fall into some of those other procedures. So we've introduced a whole new type of patient, if you think about it, into the med spa arena that may not have been a candidate before.
(08:31):
And then on the flip side, you see that in the surgical market as well, where they may not have been surgical candidates, but surgery practices that introduced this service, because then it gave them that continued focus on the patient's journey so that as they started to lose the weight and then they became candidates for surgery. They'd already built that relationship with the practice. So what a beautiful way to bring into focus the things that we're thinking about when it comes to weight loss and how we add those services into our business. So yeah, Ozempic face, it's a good way to think about it.
Tyler Terry (09:07):
Well, and shout out to you, Robin, you're one of the first who really we're pushing for us to invest heavily to understand this wellness segment of the market before I heard anybody else talking about it, and I heard of, okay, of course, IV therapy, I knew what GLP-1 was, semaglutide the different, but you were calling it out like, no, no, no, these are going to be their own practices. They're going to also be combined with med spas. They're going to be combined with plastics. This is a new component. It's a new page. It could either be a new menu altogether or a new page of the menu, which is exactly what it's become, and it's still even in its infancy, which is crazy.
Robin Ntoh (09:50):
I totally agree with you. Infancy is a really good way to describe it, and I think that there's going to be more to come in 2025. I mean the drug companies, we're seeing that shift there with the availability and how that's going to impact some of the practices and how they offer those medications. We're also going to see more regulatory, I think, in that area as practices are starting to see compliance come into play. And then we're going to start to see where practices have to think about not just documenting, charting those patient visits around toxins or fillers. Now they've got to think about a new way of charting and how do they chart that correctly? And I think that goes back into another issue that we could spend a lot of time on, which is regulatory and compliance for sure.
Tyler Terry (10:39):
Yeah, 100%.
Robin Ntoh (10:40):
Okay. I'm going to tell you one of my favorites.
Tyler Terry (10:42):
Yes. I want to hear.
Robin Ntoh (10:43):
I just heard this one. Are you ready? Doom Spending.
Tyler Terry (10:47):
Doom spending. All right. Tell me about Doom Spending.
Robin Ntoh (10:50):
Oh my gosh. It really came from, I think the Gen Z'ers, and it's like the people want to, they're coping with pessimism about the economy, politics and other issues, and so even their own personal finances. So they're thinking about, well, you know what? They're calling it doom spending because they're on average, less wealthy than older consumers, but they're going to spend because it just makes 'em feel good. So I think that in other generations we call this something different. It wasn't doom spending. Let's see, what did we call this? There's another phrase that we called it, I'm sure, but this is not new. It's just I think
Tyler Terry (11:35):
Treat yourself.
Robin Ntoh (11:35):
Yeah, treat yourself. Let's see, revenge shopping.
Tyler Terry (11:41):
Yeah.
Robin Ntoh (11:41):
I think that's another one. There's different things that we've called it over the generations, but doom spending was a new way to actually express it, so I thought that was a great fun term to think about.
Tyler Terry (11:51):
I really like it, and you start to think about it like, oh yeah, I know a few people that do that. The other one is glow up, which I think is really just self-care. Treat yourself, get a glow up. What is a glow up? A glow up could be different for everybody, whether you get injectables and fillers. Is it skincare? What is it? But glow up does seem to have some traction with some practices.
Robin Ntoh (12:16):
Yeah, for sure, for sure. Menopause makeover, I think that just, it's not necessarily, the word menopause isn't new, but the makeover part, I think about mommy makeovers. Those were a big thing. That was a big term several years ago, and now we've come into the next phase of this, which is menopause makeover. Could be the same things, but I think this in particular brings into focus wellness again, because you're talking about the entire body and not just surgically correcting things. You're looking at inside and outside and how you appear and how you feel. All of it just kind of comes back into this whole focus of the ballet body, and what's natural ,and what's achievable, and what focuses on all budgets, and how do I start now so that I can grow into it more. I think all of those things, just a new way of thinking about what was a smaller business, but how it's expanding across so many different specialties and so many different revenue streams.
Tyler Terry (13:20):
When you say menopause makeover, of course this has coming from a male perspective, but what I like about it is that it's empowering all women to feel like they have the right to enter that next chapter and take care of themselves.
Robin Ntoh (13:35):
Yeah. Well, I think that all of these things just are another way of focusing on what is truly evident in this market and what we've seen evolve over this year. It's moving quickly. It's moving really fast. I mean, wow, what did the industry show? Almost 18% growth in med spas from 23 to 24? That's significant. It's crazy. It's significant. It means people are definitely focused on their body, their face, their skin, and not just outside, but inside. I think that that's definitely where we've seen some of those are going to blend into as tailwinds in many ways, into 2025 as it continues to grow and shift.
Tyler Terry (14:16):
I feel like for the first time, there really is something for everyone. You could say that, yeah, Botox is for everyone or skincare is for everyone, but I feel like for the first time, because it's expanded into wellness, that there really is something for everyone, whether you're trying to tone your muscle, lose weight, become more healthy, have better skincare, brighten your smile, have better lips, whatever it is, there's so many things out there that I feel like there is something on the menu or multiple things on the menu for every human being and in every generation.
Robin Ntoh (14:52):
Yeah, no, I totally agree with that. And that is one of the great things about what we offer in this industry is you can sit at the table and it's almost too vast, and one of the things, it's not really what I would say is a term of the year, but something that I started to see this year was this concept of creating a plan for the year. I saw this in a small way last year, but I'm starting to hear more and more about, how do I create a plan for my patient that carries them through the year so that there's a focus? Whether it's looking at my concerns and how we actually manage them over the year, because some things may take multiple treatments, and then there's other things about maintenance. So there's corrective, there's maintenance, there's augmentation, so some of 'em might be surgical, but then there's also the budgetary concern. So people are thinking about their budget. And so this concept of a plan, whether you call it a pre-juvenation plan or a rejuvenation plan or a skinimalism plan, I mean I think you could put it in front of any of 'em.
(16:07):
It sets the stage for a new way of thinking about how I care for myself. And so the practices have to be more considerate and thoughtful about how do I sit down with my patients, really consult with them and help them figure out what that looks like in more than just one visit. But it also takes a certain type of patient that wants to invest in that, but also wants that education that helps them understand what's achievable, what's realistic, what's within their goals, what fits within their budget, and who's willing to actually help them achieve that? I think that we'll probably see that as a differentiator in the med spas and the plastic surgery practices in the coming years, but I think that anybody that steps forward and owns that in 2025 is probably going to find themselves really able to build a stronger patient base. We always worry about retention, right? This is a nice way to achieve retention, but I also think about differentiation.
Tyler Terry (17:09):
Yeah, wow. When you say that, I'm thinking, gosh, if I had a med spa, that's exactly what I would do. I mean, because with the rise of the about 20% increase in practices, now you've got two or three new competitors within a five mile radius.
(17:26):
Now how do you differentiate? And of course there's always the guest services, the ambiance, the actual care, but instead of just treating the patient, patient calls in, we schedule a 15 minute block for Botox, maybe 30 minute block for Botox. He or she's in and out. What if every single patient, you start a new patient, you start them off with a one year plan and it actually is a 20 minute consultation. And you literally sit down and you go through based on what they need, they could point it out to you. They know that they want or they think they want Botox, but then you can actually point out based on them saying, Hey, I've got a freckle here or a dark spot here. All of a sudden you're opening the doors and also some of these wrinkles, and when I do this with my eyebrows or whatever, but I love it. I mean, what a differentiator. Just that at the very beginning saying, I'm going to do a one year plan, and the patient could call out what their budget is and it turns into a full treatment plan on day one.
Robin Ntoh (18:30):
Well, I mean practices that I know have been doing it, they actually require their patients to do this on an annual basis, because it not only sets the stage, but it shows that the practice or the providers invested in the patient and their journey and care about that outcome. It's a great way to show progress when you're taking the right photos and you're documenting their journey, and then you're sitting down with them and you're actually sharing with them, this is your achievements, these are your results, and that journey then becomes achievements. It becomes successes for that patient, but then they now are feeling like, wow, this practice really cares about me and they're investing in me versus a practice that is just about you want your Botox, you want 50 units, here you go. Bye. That's a different kind of practice set.
Tyler Terry (19:21):
Completely different.
Robin Ntoh (19:21):
That's a practice that isn't really trying to gain commitment or retention. They're just basically letting the patient dictate what the patient wants, what the patient needs. Now, I'm starting to see this shift where, yeah, there's patients that are going to come in and they're going to be very well educated. They're going to know what they want, they're going to know what they need, but there's also the patients that are starting to think about, you tell me what I need. So providers need to be prepared for how do I manage that patient or how do I start thinking that way and shift my patients to start thinking that way? You want them to start embracing this idea of, let me help you achieve that. I mean, gosh, Tyler, when you think about it, okay, there's 25 top plastic surgery procedures. That's not a lot. If you think about the number of devices out there to treat nonsurgical skin conditions: 50, 75?
(20:16):
There's so many different devices, there's so many different treatments. I think the world of nonsurgical treatments and options is so vast. It really is important for med spas to really embrace the concept of how do I educate and give them what's best for them because that's going to basically be the best option because then those patients, then, even if they walk out the door and they don't purchase anything, if you've educated them, then you've just raised the bar that someone else has to meet. So if they go to the next med spa, you've now armed them with the right questions to ask the right expectations from that next person, which they may then decide, wow, this person isn't even coming close to what the last person did. I'm going back to spa number one because they actually were invested in me, listened to me, understood my goals, but then gave me a plan that I may or may not be able to fulfill financially. But again, there's options and I think that's going to be a big differentiator when we think about it.
Tyler Terry (21:19):
The top thing that pops up in my mind when you say that is when you do this, it doesn't become about price. It really flips the script to become about care and make it about care. If you don't want to make it about price, then don't make it about price. It's not about how much per unit, how about treat the patient with the best care possible, almost simplifying it, but if you provide an experience where you're giving me this level of a consultation, of course I'll pay three or four or $5 more per unit because I can tell that you're more expert, you care more about me and I'm probably going to get better. I will get better results. Who wouldn't pay more for better results? Because that's why we're here anyways.
Robin Ntoh (22:04):
So let's talk about another thing that happened in 2024 because I think it lends itself to this really well, and this has been a very hot topic. So big changes in the Allergan industry this year. And those changes created a little bit of a stir, I think little is undermining that word a little bit, a big stir in the marketplace. And physicians and med spa owners and providers really shared their feelings about that to the point where in the past few days, Allergan has decided to really go back to what they had before, that original program that Alle program. Applaud the fact that they actually listened to their providers, to their owners and said, okay, we hear you. We're going to go back to what it was. I applaud them for actually listening to them. But I also think that the providers really also brought up a really important component, and that is back around retention and branding.
(23:07):
And a lot of times these practices are frustrated because companies like the pharma companies, et cetera, they're very focused on the consumer, but yet the providers are the ones purchasing the products. They're the ones delivering the treatments, and the providers want that loyalty to them, but yet the loyalty is being driven towards the brand. I think a lot of that goes back to a practice can reclaim that loyalty if they stop focusing on the brand being the one who dictates what the patient needs and the providers re-own that ,they reclaim that. And that goes back to creating a plan for the patient. Creating your menu of services around what they're focused on, correcting versus these are all the devices that we have and educate around those components versus letting the brands continue to dictate that. It goes back to we've let the industry out there create an opinion around education. When education really comes from the expert, the expert is the provider, the physician. They're the ones that are trained to deliver. They're the ones that the patients want to and should be listening to because they're the ones that really should be the ones providing the best course of treatment, whether it's across 10 different brands that provide the product or the devices to support that. But it really comes back to the provider being the one that dictates what that patient should be having.
Tyler Terry (24:40):
It's such a hot topic and I mean there's so many points to be made here. I go back to on your website, on your social media, are you using just the videos in the brand box that are generic? Or what if you said, I'm going to spend one hour a week creating content, creating videos about me talking about Botox, me talking about my energy devices, whatever they are, because that resonates with patients. When patients watch a video about you talking about something, and it doesn't have to be long, it could literally be a one minute, a one minute video. Tell me about it. Thank you. Usually a lot of patients, again, multiple generations like and enjoy and appreciate short form videos. Give me a short form video, tell me what are your top 20 services. And again, take an hour a week for the next two months doing it, and you'll have those videos for the next three years and then make them over and over. But to your point, I would rather hear it from the expert than from the manufacturer because I'm hiring the artist and my focus shouldn't be on the brand of paint that they're using.
Robin Ntoh (25:51):
Yeah, I think education is the key takeaway there, which we talked about a lot this year and many of our podcasts, several of the people that we had on our podcast. I think it's relevant and we could talk about it all day long, Tyler, because I think we're both very passionate about education and what it means to a business, not just a business such as ourselves, internally, externally, but it's more important for those patients or the consumers out there. And who should be the voice and the expert that delivers that education? What better place them to start right there in that practice.
Tyler Terry (26:22):
Yeah.
Robin Ntoh (26:22):
And how are they delivering it?
Tyler Terry (26:24):
And if you're not delivering the education, they're getting it somewhere. So you either own it or you let somebody else own it, and if you let someone else own it, then their expectations might be different based on what they heard from someone else outside of the person that they're getting the service from.
Robin Ntoh (26:39):
All right, Tyler, let's talk about the big topic this year of the election.
Tyler Terry (26:43):
The big E word.
Robin Ntoh (26:44):
The big E word. So I've been in this industry for a long time. You've been around it now for many years, and it's hard for people to understand it unless they've been in this space, but the election has always impacted aesthetics, every single election, some more than others. Now that we're through it, I'm starting to feel and hear that people are feeling the pressure of the downturn that they were seeing from their consumers or their patients is kind of wafted off. It's not as relevant, and people are starting to open up their wallets, spend more again, booking procedures. They're not so indecisive. So we're seeing that, it's post election, and it's kind of normal. It's happened every major election. Now what do we do? Okay, it's behind us. What's next? And I think this is the perfect time for a practice to recognize this is a thing and know that we absolutely know there's going to be another one of these in four years.
(27:51):
We don't get to change that. It is a fact. If you live in the United States, there is a major presidential election every four years. So it's good to know that this is coming again in four years. What can I do now? What is my strategy now? And your strategy really shouldn't be for just one year. Your strategy should encompass, most of you should think about it for the next five to 10 years, and then you have a way to transition from year one to year two to year three. So what better time to think about it than now?
Tyler Terry (28:26):
So I've been an aesthetic since 2012, so just over 12 years, and I've seen a few elections now. One thing I've heard is aesthetics is recession proof. Okay, that's great. And I do believe that to be true. Now, the other thing I would say is I believe now after going through it, what three times that aesthetics is election proof. And I would take that as a learning to say, okay, no matter who won, no matter which side you're on, aesthetics is election proof, and the future is bright in aesthetics regardless of who won or who lost. And I would also say that from a sales professional's perspective, that we anticipate that people will slow down their buying decisions a few months prior to the election. It always happens. Now, what do you do if you're racing somebody? If you're in a race and you know that your competitor needs to slow down their gas, they're changing their tires, are you going to slow down too just because they're a little nervous or is that your time where you can really take a leap ahead? You could probably get connected to more sales reps when you're looking at purchasing things. You could probably take a few steps ahead and confidently know that things are going to be okay. If I plan on being in business for another five to 10 years and I'm looking at getting something future's bright, I should go ahead and move forward knowing that likely my competitors are a little nervous right now and they're slowing down their buying decisions. So that's what I would say.
Robin Ntoh (30:06):
I also think another good takeaway from this is write down now, detail all the things that happened to your practice during the election year, and then you memorialize it so that in three years from now, you go back and you can say, okay, these things happen to us. What can I do to prevent those things? If you haven't already built in that plan, starting now going forward, do you have recurring revenue services? Have you built in subscription or loyalty programs? What are you doing now to ward that off, but memorialize what happened? And then look around you and you probably saw people that did things that you thought, why didn't I think of that? Write that down as well so that in four years from now, you actually can think about, well, actually three years from now, you can go back and look at those notes and say, okay, let's do this. They did this. Well, I like this. Some people look at it as, okay, this is a time of year where I know that I'm going to have a slower schedule. How do I beef up my schedule? Q1, Q2? How do I ensure that I augment vacation time this year? Because I know it's an election year. I don't want my staff taking a lot of time off in Q1, Q2. Maybe they should be taking their time off in the latter part of the year. They know it's going to be very slow.
Tyler Terry (31:30):
I love that. I love that. The key takeaways, and it's always good to notate so that you can backtrack and see how were you feeling? What were you doing? What would you have changed? How can you improve the process? Super insightful.
Robin Ntoh (31:47):
Well, you have to remember though, you have to know your practice. You got to know the metrics. You've got to understand what are my revenue streams? What are my costs? How do I actually know where my opportunities are? It means you got to be tracking those metrics. You got to have your KPIs in place, which we've talked about that before. A lot of episodes out there, a lot of people talk about it. You can't know how to manage your business if you don't know your business.
Tyler Terry (32:14):
Yeah.
Robin Ntoh (32:14):
I think another thing that we should talk about, which has been big this year is AI.
Tyler Terry (32:20):
Yes, it's changed everything.
Robin Ntoh (32:22):
I mean, we cannot ignore that at a topic is a topic whatsoever. I mean, it's everywhere, and it's a little frightening because it's not just what it brings to aesthetics, but it's also what it also means from a compliance component. There's people just, I'm thinking about next tech in general. We think it's so easy to go to a chat GPT and just type in information, but you also have to be careful. You can't just paste things into that chat GPT and ask it to do things if it has patient information in it, if it has proprietary business information because then all of a sudden it's become part of that entire AI network that then can be eventually exposed or consumed by either your competitor or someone else. So I think that there's an awareness that's been made, not just that it's got a lot of benefits, it's got a lot of futures for us, but it also has some components that can be a little frightening that we've got to think about how those really impact us. So I also think that in 2025, we're going to start to see where businesses provide more education and more light around that. We'll see more technology that comes out and evolves around it, but I also think we're going to start to see the ramifications of where it goes bad.
Tyler Terry (33:43):
Yeah, I agree. So when we're talking about writing patient education, this applies to your website as well where we've had practices who serve patients who speak multiple languages, specifically Spanish, and for the longest time we had practices who would ask us if we had content in Spanish, which we didn't, but what they'll do now is they'll either take a screenshot of the content or they'll just go copy and paste it and ask chat GPT or whatever you're using to translate. And obviously it does it quick, it's easy. You can verify that it's correct, but also using it to write content. So if you're like, I need to write content, well, you can actually create your own GPT for your practice that you can insert links to your website, links to articles that you've written, and then you can train the GPT to think like you, or at least start to think like you, so that when you have it write content, you can actually comb through it and make sure you like it. But it really doesn't take as long as it used to produce content that you sign off on.
Robin Ntoh (34:53):
I think that that's a great, great way to actually think about where AI is going to revolutionize our businesses and what better way than to think about it and how we can embrace it and bring it forward to actually make things more efficient for us. It's a great way to think about it. I love that. Have you seen any other technologies or trends that are of interest that we should think about or look at?
Tyler Terry (35:16):
Yeah, I would say the one that excites me the most personally, just because I'm big in photography, is skin analysis and the future of skin analysis and the recommendations and cross-selling that can happen, and even the suggested treatment plans. Now, I don't want AI to tell the patient what AI thinks the patient should get. I would like it personally to be a combination of patient suggested that they might be interested in these things. We took a picture and analyzed, the provider took a look, the AI fed the provider some details, and then at the end of the day, the provider fed back to the patient based on what the patient wanted, based on what AI saw, and then based on what the provider could spit back to the patient. To me that's the most ideal because it's not, that way, you still get the provider in it, but I do believe that that'll be a big part of photography. And I could see 10 years from now, the majority of practice is using skin analysis AI in their consultations.
Robin Ntoh (36:21):
Yeah, I think that it's a good thing to focus on because a lot of times we hear in healthcare, the big focus is around a scribe that actually takes all the notes replacing that human component. But I also think we have to be careful about that in aesthetics, and that's one of the things from a technology company that we're very aware of is you may find that an AI scribe fits nicely in a standard medical procedure. So we think about ophthalmology and how AI fits nicely into that. Removes anecdotal conversation within the office visit or the time with the patient and basically collects the information that's relevant to the visit and puts it in the right place in the note. But when you think about an aesthetics practice, there's a lot of conversation that happens in the consultation or in the patient visit and what components are important to put in the note?
(37:15):
Well, not all that anecdotal information we want excluded because it's relevant to the visit. So as we go down this path of the technology changes that are going to come with AI, we have to be cognizant that what works in general healthcare technology does not always work in a retail type of healthcare technology component. And that's something that Nextech has been very invested in is how do we think about that? How does that actually fit well versus just going headstrong into something and generating something that may or may not actually work within the markets that we sit in.
Tyler Terry (37:54):
When I think of it, I think I want AI and aesthetics to be more like Google Maps and then we can kind of pick and choose and reroute based on what we need. I don't want it to drive the car. I don't really want it to, as much as I love Tesla, I don't want it to be driving me in aesthetics. I want the provider to always be the one that's driving.
Robin Ntoh (38:15):
Okay, Tyler, you just said it so I have to say it. Remember we did that workshop in Beverly Hills recently, and I had not been to that area for a while and really used an Uber or anything, and I think I was shocked when I saw cars driving themselves.
Tyler Terry (38:33):
Yeah, it's crazy.
Robin Ntoh (38:33):
I had to take a double take it. It was a bit odd, like, okay, I don't know that I can get in one of those cars, but I go back to what you just said, AI driving themselves. Yeah, those go hand in hand.
Tyler Terry (38:43):
It's wild. It's wild. I remember seeing that for the first time. I used to live in Northern California and I was in Silicon Valley seeing 'em. At that time, they had all the cameras all around them on the Google cars and everyone's trying to do it, and I was like, I can't believe I'm driving next to this thing. Does it know that I'm here, but no, it's super cool.
Robin Ntoh (39:00):
It's a lot for me to process right now. Okay. I appreciate that. We are two different generations and we have a different way of thinking about it. That's what makes us good. Okay?
Tyler Terry (39:08):
Totally. We're a great combo here.
Robin Ntoh (39:09):
Right? I know. Okay. Thinking of 2025 and what's coming, e-commerce is not new to us, but it is predicted to be one of the next big arenas of competition. In fact, I was looking at a report by McKinsey and they were talking about where e-commerce is one of the big 18 potential areas of tomorrow. When we think about growth and we think of emerging markets now one would say, okay, e-commerce is not new. It's been around for a while, but okay, they're talking about it from a competitive component. I look at it from the component of we really have not embraced it at the level it should be embraced. When we think of aesthetics, I think people dabble in it. There's a very small percentage of practices that actually do it well, and I am absolutely here to say that it is a great way for a practice to augment their revenue streams without the cost associated with so many other services. Think about selling 24/7 without having to pay bonuses or commissions or pay your staff to do that work other than to ship it out unless you've got an arrangement with the vendor to auto ship. But I think about that is how do we think smarter about that and embrace that in this industry and incorporate it more into what we do? And it's just a big area of opportunity.
Tyler Terry (40:35):
Yeah. I think of it as the practice is already doing the majority of the work today, and what they're not realizing or having the time to even know what's happening is, yeah, the patient received a skincare consult from you and they did check out with those skincare products and they received a discount or no discount, whatever. And maybe they do have a monthly membership, but the convenience of them to have it auto shipped from a website. There's a few websites that have taken advantage of this for the last decade plus, where you did the hard work, you made the recommendations, and then those patients that don't want to drive back to your practice or call the practice, guess what? You didn't have your e-commerce website. They would've shown you loyalty, but you didn't have it, so you missed the boat. So now how many of your patients, I don't know the percentage, but even if it was 10% or 5%, there's a small percentage of your patients that are ordering the skincare products that you recommended, now they're ordering elastin from another website. And it is just a way for you to go and make sure that you're capturing what is rightfully yours, in my opinion.
Robin Ntoh (41:44):
I totally agree with you. I think it is a very big opportunity that businesses are not really capitalizing on. I mean, Amazon, they've been doing it. I've embraced Amazon, the convenience, convenience, convenience, convenience. We talk about this, but we just miss the boat entirely when it comes to our products.
Tyler Terry (42:06):
It's true.
Robin Ntoh (42:06):
We just don't understand the power.
Tyler Terry (42:08):
I was in Dallas a few months ago visiting my brother-in-law. He actually works for a software company called Colossal. Look Up Colossal. It's where they're trying to bring back the saber tooth tiger. He's their lead engineer. Anyways, he ordered a Snickers bar and some ice cream on Amazon and they had the drone technology. It's the first time I've ever seen it where literally the drone flies over and this string drops from the sky and it drops off your package right to you. And it was the coolest thing. I couldn't believe it. And it was within 30 minutes, ordered it, and it's there, quicker than Domino's. It was amazing.
Robin Ntoh (42:48):
I mean, here we go. Just more and more opportunity out there. I love it. I mean, I was looking at some trends just this year and one of the reports was saying that E-commerce is up, I think 10% over the previous year. I need to fact check myself on that. But it is growing and it's continuing to grow in the aesthetics arena, where I think that that is probably practices that are saying, okay, I got to get ahead of this. That's just what I would consider that should have been done five years ago. That's so early post covid, we should have embraced it better. I just don't think practices focused on it. They focus on other areas, but I think it is still, actually, here it is, medical skincare sales are up 9% just in H-1 of 2024.
Announcer (43:40):
Wow.
Robin Ntoh (43:41):
Which is 500 million in H-1 of 2024. If you think about that, that's a lot of revenue out there. So skincare sales are up, but what part of that is actually repeat or retention business that you're gaining because you've actually embraced a way to do e-commerce?
Tyler Terry (43:57):
Something to point out, too, before we move on to the next topic, don't just have that link on your website with some text about the product and a photo. Think deeper. What is Amazon doing when you're on Amazon? I'm looking at, it could be anything, I'm looking at a hat, a golf hat, a Tiger Woods hat. Okay, it's there. What matters to me most? I look up and I look at the reviews. Okay, 4.6 stars. So do you have reviews about the skincare product or are you getting reviews about it? Okay, there's a description. Now what happens? Oh, there's a video. So think of the content that you want to feed your patients so that they feel more confident and comfortable to say, oh yeah, I'm going to add that to my cart.
Robin Ntoh (44:42):
Oh my gosh, Tyler, you said it so well. That video, again, is so powerful because it just as authentic. I also think about when I think about Amazon that I love about them is, put that on a subscription plan. I'm going to need it again in X amount of time. Why am I not just putting that on autoship and giving them an additional discount? Bingo, retention, automatic revenue that's recurring all of a sudden. And then I don't have to resell it. So it says the model's already there, it's in place. We're just giving away money right now because we're giving it all to Amazon, cuz they're doing it.
Tyler Terry (45:19):
Alright, there's so much to talk about today, but something that I think is important for us to discuss and elaborate on are the various ways to pay. There's so many ways to pay and to shop in today's marketplace. So Robin, what are some of the ways that you're seeing, what are some of the ways that you envision us paying in the future and do you see any key differences or similarities as it relates to the different generations?
Robin Ntoh (45:50):
Well, first of all, I think about the fact that I can actually pay with something on my Apple Watch. Okay, that's revolutionized the way we actually handle money. It's just all electronic. It's all virtual. You don't even need a card anymore. Not that most people still don't have a card. I just think of how easy it is to just buy something with almost nothing. So I think that it's important that we embrace that not only are there many ways to pay, there's many generations with different ideas of how they want to pay and how they can afford to pay, and it's ensuring that you have those options available. So we have credit cards, we have cash, lot of people don't even take cash anymore. It'll say we don't take cash. Okay, that's fine. Checks? I mean, I write a check for one thing every month and that's my cleaners.
(46:41):
I don't write checks anymore for anything. Then I also think about from a wallet share perspective, there's the credit card companies like a CareCredit, which has been around a long time and they're a credit card that you can use at many different vendors, not just your plastic surgery practice. You can go to your veterinarian and use it. So there's an expanded component, but it's not just available to go into Target and buy your Target cart. And then usher in the buy now, pay later component, which we're seeing really grow in the aesthetics arena. So there's a couple of vendors out there that are doing it. I know that we'll probably see more in 2025 around this because that component of I'm on it now, I can't afford it now, but I can finance it now and then I can pay for it later. And that's the mentality of what we're seeing.
(47:33):
And so embracing that is important in a business because if you stick with just one modality and have only one expectation, then you're going to put yourself in a corner and only be able to handle a small market share eventually, and you're going to miss out on the broader market share. And so I think it's relevant that we recognize it is definitely going to be one of those things that could be headwinds for you as a practice that doesn't expand what you offer in your wallet, but it could also be tailwinds for those of us that actually expand our wallet now, embrace it and move forward with it, and actually make sure that our patients now we have those options. Because it does expand everything they can do. I mean, I think about we've got this integration with CareCredit and Nextech, which everybody kind of talks about because we've got this cool little jingle and this video that we've done that I always think is really cool, but it's funny to me how it is so easy in the software to see or to get the reports, to understand those soft credit checks are there.
(48:35):
It helps practices know what kind of availability patients or prospects have. Those tools are available to practices today if they actually just kind of use them and they're more proactive in understanding what their patients might be able to afford. You also think about the type of patient that actually comes in and they don't want their significant other to know that they're getting Botox. It's just common and we know it's out there. And so you want to remove the barriers. What was it I saw recently? Frictionless spending. I should have said that earlier in our terms. Frictionless spending. So thinking about how do I remove all the barriers to my prospect, my patient to spend money with me? And one of them is to provide multiple modalities for them to spend.
Tyler Terry (49:24):
Wow, this frictionless spending. I'm even seeing a commonality between what we were just barely talking about with educating patients and e-commerce. And what we're trying to do is really expand the net so that we can capture the audience, capture the patient database, and we're trying to make it frictionless when we're allowing people to shop online because we just gave a great consult. Now we're trying to make it frictionless when they're actually spending. And what we're doing is we're providing any and every medium possible to say, Hey, do you want to tap to pay? Okay, great. Do you want to pay cash? Maybe they don't now, but okay, great. Do you want to buy now pay later? Do you want to finance it? Do you want to use CareCredit? What are you using?
Robin Ntoh (50:13):
Or credit card on file too.
Tyler Terry (50:14):
Credit card on file. One of our practices shared recently that he partners with a company out of, I believe it's Chicago, and he actually owns the paper. So the practice owns the paper. It is a buy now pay later experience, but the practice is owning it so that the margins are even better for them. But this buy now pay later, it does lower the barriers and people are receptive.
Robin Ntoh (50:41):
Tyler, I also think about the charting experience, all the regulatory compliance components. Another big thing that we're hearing about is GFE's, good faith exams. What are you seeing? Where are the trends going? What are you seeing in the practices that you're working with?
Tyler Terry (50:57):
Yeah, great question. So I see practices that are being proactive on one side of the aisle, and then I see practices that are being reactive on the other side of the aisle. The practices that are proactive are the ones where it's not required by their state yet. Not every state requires GFE's, but they're trying to be proactive so that in the future when the laws change potentially that they're ready and that they're already armed, knowing that they are following a protocol that they think is the best, not just for them as a practice, but also for the patient. To make sure that if they don't have a medical director onsite per se, but that they are going through that good faith exam that GFE for that patient. Now sometimes you need a GFE once a year. Sometimes it's for a facial procedure or service. It all varies based on the state and the laws and regulations for the state.
(51:59):
But a lot of people who are expert and pioneers as it relates to GFE's, they envision that every state in the future will require GFE's for med spas. We'll have to see if that happens. But what I do like about it is that people are starting to really take a sense of pride and care in making sure that they are doing what's best for the patient, even if it adds a little bit more time for the provider and for the practice as a whole. But yeah, and then in terms of using software, it's making sure that you are going through the correct processes and sequences in terms of how do I capture their photo and that documentation and make the recommendation, and then how do I send it off to my medical director so that he or she's notified quickly and conveniently? And that they can quickly sign off on this because I have a patient in the office that needs this now. They don't want to wait until tomorrow. So it's understanding the cadence of the timing when you do decide that, yeah, my practice needs to do GFE's, making sure that you find the software that will arm your practice to confidently and proficiently provide a GFE in a timely fashion. Because you did so much marketing to get the patient in the door, you don't want the patient to exit without actually doing the procedure because you're waiting on that software company or service to provide that.
Robin Ntoh (53:27):
I love how you really focused on the immediacy of doing it and getting it done right away and getting that sign off from the physician because the patient's there strike while the iron is hot, the patient wants the treatment. I think that you said that so well, and it's really important to consider that. Whereas a lot of times that's not something practices really focused on or they don't even fall into the component of managing the regulation. They're not even doing the GFE when they should be. So you bring up some really good facts there, which I think moving into 2025, we're going to probably see more of that because we're going to probably see more compliance, more around the regulatory component. And I think that that's just, we've kind of touched on that throughout this episode. Regulatory compliance, which is a gray in med spas in so many ways. And I think it's a great way to dovetail into that, as a subject where, we look at our plastic surgeons and they live in a world of compliance because they're mandated to live in that world based upon not just the state because and states have different rules and regulations, but what really standardizes it for them is their societies.
(54:41):
So their board, their medical societies that they belong to. There's a standardization around that which makes it easier for a software company to actually ensure they're developing things that meet the standards and the requirements within that medical space, especially for charting. But when you think about medical spas, that doesn't exist in that particular format at the moment. There's regulations that are mandated for the specific provider, but then again from med spas, they fall into almost a different arena. And how are we actually understanding what they need? 50 states, 50 different ways of thinking about it. Who can inject Botox in one state, may not be able to inject it in another state. And who's required to do A GFE and who isn't required to do one? And so all those things come into play and we're just trying to practice medicine. And then you put all this on us? And a lot of times physicians left the insurance arena, I mean, one of the top medical specialties that actually is entered in the med spa arena is primary care.
Tyler Terry (55:42):
The most regulated.
Robin Ntoh (55:43):
They left it because they didn't want to do insurance, right?
Tyler Terry (55:47):
It's crazy.
Robin Ntoh (55:47):
I mean, come on, I'm getting paid pennies on the dollar to see a patient. Why not jump into this whole med spa arena that I can make a lot of money in potentially, but I don't want to fall into the whole compliance thing again. But at the end of the day, there's rules for a reason. Patient safety, the legalities, all those things are important and we want to honor those and respect them. But it is confusing. And so I think in 2025, we're going to see more made more awareness around this topic. We're going to see more regulatory clarity that we probably need to see. And it's be important that we understand that's going to fall right into place on how we document. Because charting and credentialing is one area that I know we know because we've worked in aesthetics around plastic surgery for many, many years and we understand that arena. But I think it's going to be become even more relevant this next year and what we see to come.
Tyler Terry (56:42):
Alright, well we've had so many things that we've talked about today, and I seriously have seven or eight more things that I personally want to talk about, but we'll have to curb that for the next episode. Robin, do you have any final thoughts?
Robin Ntoh (56:57):
No. Looking forward to our next episode where we continue on into the conversation around the headwinds and tailwinds that we can expect in 2025. There's a lot coming and it's exciting, Tyler, it's exciting. So I look forward to hear from all of our listeners. We want to hear what you think. So provide that feedback, send that information along and tell us what you want to hear more about, because that's important for us as we start to think about the topics that are of interest that we should be considering as we move into 2025.
Tyler Terry (57:29):
100%. Again, just want to thank you, Robin, for being so amazing to always work with. I'm so grateful that,
Robin Ntoh (57:37):
Thank you, Tyler.
Tyler Terry (57:38):
I get to co-host this with you and to learn from you and to grow with you, and thank you all who are listening for being along with us on this journey to conclude 2024. We wish you the best of luck in the upcoming new year. Wish you happy holidays, a happy new year, a successful and thriving new year. And until next time, we'll see you on the next episode.
Robin Ntoh (58:04):
Happy holidays.
Announcer (58:08):
Thanks for listening to Aesthetically Speaking, the podcast where beauty meets business, presented by Nextech. Follow and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. Links to the resources mentioned on this podcast or available in your show notes. For more information about Nextech, visit nextech.com, or to learn more about TouchMD go to touchmd.com. Aesthetically Speaking is a production of The Axis, theaxis.io.
