HERLIFE Magazine Spotlight: AesthetiCare
By Ann E. Butenas
When non-surgical aesthetic treaments and clinics first made their mark in Kansas City over a decade ago, Matt Taranto had already hit the ground running. In the late 1990s, Matt was the owner of Aesthetic Consulting Group, a highly successful business that sold lasers and aesthetic equipment. His focus was primarily on selling lasers, training and consulting at that time. It was this solid background in the use of and understanding of aesthetic equipment that led Matt to founding AesthetiCare, Kansas City’s Premier Medical Spa, located at 5001 College Boulevard in Leawood, Kansas.
Before he got into the business of aesthetics, Matt was working in product development, but a serendipitous call from a friend one day changed the course of his career. “My friend told me about a microdermabrasion product that was new on the market and that the manufacturer was looking for independent distributors,” said Matt. “I had been thinking about doing something on my own and saw this as a great opportunity.”
After garnering success in selling lasers, microdermabrasion systems and professional skincare products, Matt began to hire people to help him with his growing business. One thing led to another and in 2001, Matt officially opened the doors to AesthetiCare Medical Spa and has not looked back since. Far from the run-of-the-mill medical clinics, Matt and his team provide the most qualified and highly trained staff with a thorough working knowledge of the treatments they offer and products they sell. “It is important to me that everyone who works for us has a solid understanding of how our products perform,” explained Matt.
“We don’t just rely on the marketing hype from manufacturers and distributors.”
Each member of Matt’s staff has at least five years of training and their certifications are updated on an annual basis. In fact, Matt’s staff trains other physicians, nurses and aestheticians around the country in Botox, dermal fillers and laser treatments. “We want every client of ours to feel secure that our technicians are trained well, and in that regard, our primary focus here is not in ‘selling’ our clients, but in ‘educating’ our clients. When we educate our clients well, the selling takes care of itself.”
To add to their credibility, AesthetiCare has a board-certified plastic surgeon, Jeffrey Colyer, serving as the medical director for the clinic. Fifteen years ago, non-surgical aesthetics was virtually unknown. Now, in the Kansas City market alone, there are roughly 45 aesthetic businesses within a 20-mile radius, and nearly every other metropolitan city recognizes the same demographics. Matt consults with 50 clinics a year around the country, and in his experience, Matt says 90 percent of the employees in these types of clinics are vastly undertrained.
Unlike the skilled and well-trained staff Matt has, many clinics simply hire an aesthetician right out of school and provide them with the bare minimum in training. That is far from the case at AesthetiCare.
“At AesthetiCare, we teach about the actual anatomy of skin,” he noted. “Each new client receives a complimentary one-hour consultation with no obligation. We are genuinely dedicated to educating individuals about their skin. It is our mission to teach, educate and build credibility.”
In fact, when a new client comes into the clinic, she will not have to face the repertoire of endless sales pitches about products and services. Instead, she will leave with a full understanding of the history of the spa, the knowledge of its staff and the comfort in knowing that the experts at AesthetiCare take their jobs very seriously.
Each new client also receives a digital skin analysis. They have an advanced photo imaging system called Visia that provides amazing insight and discovery into each layer of the client’s skin. Only about ten percent of clinics in the US have this type of technology available to their clients. Visia measures eight aspects of each person’s skin, and actually scores them on the condition of their skin.
“We teach about the layers of the skin,” said Matt. “We educate our clients about why the skin ages and how it ages. We do not utilize any ‘one size fits all’ programs. Instead, we custom design programs to fit a person’s specific needs.”
Matt and his staff work to repair skin damage and aging skin in their clinic, and then educate their clients how to maintain the great results through proper homecare.
“Proper home skin care involves four simple things everyone should do: cleanse, nourish, hydrate and protect,” explained Matt.
Matt is quick to add, however, that they don’t just wave a magic wand and leave each person looking like a cover model.
“You can’t promise perfection,” he stated. “However, if we are taking someone’s money, I want to ensure that the services and products are working. That is why every client sees their own before and after photos. As with any treatments, medical or non-medical, certain people just do not clinically respond the way we expect them to. In these cases, AesthetiCare finds other treatments that will work on them.”
Matt has supreme confidence in the education, training and skill sets of his staff.
“We know what we are doing. We build relationships. We use face-to-face marketing more than anything. We are a results-oriented clinic, and we want to see good results on our clients. Without our commitment to customer service and the dedication to our clients, we would just be another medical clinic. It’s our knowledge, education, training and attitude that set us apart. We intend to keep it that way.”
It seems as if Matt is truly keeping his word in that regard, as even during the economic collapse in 2008, his business has continued to grow. He believes that it is his focus on strong customer service that has kept him alive even during the most turbulent of times.
The growing doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime as Matt has plans to expand his facility within the year to include a vein center, a plastic surgeon’s office and a weight loss/nutrition component. After all, he concludes, most people want more than just their face and skin worked on. They have other areas of concern as well. With his dedication to the education of his clients and his commitment to the strength of his customer service, Matt should have no problem putting a fresh face on his growing business (no pun intended!).
When a client leaves AesthetiCare Medical Spa, Matt hopes that only two thoughts go through their mind, “I really like and trust this place and will continue to have my treatments performed here,” and “I would love to work here.”
Per Matt, “We are helping people look and feel better and we need to make it fun.”
For more information about AesthetiCare Medical Spa, go to www.greatskinkc.com for a complete list of all of their products and services. Their hours of operation are Monday through Friday, 9am–6pm, with “by appointment” visits after 6 pm. On Saturdays, the spa is open from 9am–3pm.
Call 913-338-5476 to schedule a complimentary consultation today.