9 years on the Polish market: the experience of Herhel Clinic

Alina Gergel, co-owner of Herhel Clinic in Warsaw and co-founder of the first Ukrainian Congress of Aesthetic Medicine in Poland spoke exclusively for Woman Magazine about running a business, financial challenges and prospects in the development of the beauty industry.

Tell us about your business values. What principles underlie your business processes? How do you develop and support the financial model of a beauty clinic, taking into account the quality segment of services and the desire for a high standard of service?

We are the founders of the service culture in medical cosmetology. We always do more than what is expected of us. We study each client and his story, create trends and love our business.

We work according to the following principle: professionally and transparently, with maximum return for the guest.

Our values:

• Respect: in the team and to customers
• Professionalism: expert team. We do everything so that clients are as calm as possible, that they will receive a safe and cool result.
• Development: We work in a field that must constantly improve, so we never stand still.

We carefully monitor the indicators every month: of each service, of each doctor. Based on real numbers, we develop plans for the next few months. Where the indicators are low,  we build a plan for improvement or exclude it in principle from what is worth spending energy on. We are convinced that understanding analytics and what exactly makes a profit is a critical thing for business. After all, developing the increase in sales of those services that bring financial indicators up and avoiding that which has low profitability helps to keep the business afloat.

What is your approach to HR management? 

It is important for me not to create a “director” and fears. I always say that I am not the boss or anyone else. There are simply people who are responsible for certain tasks.

It is important for me that everyone understands their tasks and goals, knows how to make mistakes and admit mistakes and take responsibility for them. Also, I am absolutely in favor of an atmosphere of cool vibes reigning in the team due to the understanding that each of them is involved in something big and cool. It is important to understand everyone’s motivation and find out how to achieve it within the company, because it has great opportunities for the development of the scale of the individual not only professionally, but also psychologically.

I try not to set a task or a plan, but to explain that achieving the result is important for some reasons of the person himself. And when it works and the same sword happens, the personality is revealed and gives wow results. From the very beginning, I do not consider job candidates for the team who do not want development. I am immediately looking for ambitious and active people to further contribute to their growth. That’s why I always want to reveal talents, motivate and reward – it works.

And my people get high from the place and the team, from the fact that we are growing together and this is our joint result. After all, only in an atmosphere of ease and confidence can you give real great results, and not be afraid of doing something wrong and not getting paid. 

What methods do you use to involve staff in carrying out the mission of the beauty clinic? 

We are a company that spends a lot of time on training. For us, each person in the company is a business project, in which we invest our resources, so that each of our team is and feels part of a large organism.

I have high demands on the team, because people have the same high demands on our clinic. We conduct trainings, work with internal coaches and psychologists to provide an understanding of our values.

Our company gives insight to the team about where we are going in the next month/year, shows a complete financial picture of our turnover, profitability, net profit.

We have monthly strategy sessions. There we analyze each team member and our indicators for today and those that need to be reached in order for us to achieve certain results.  Also, we have separate meetings with administrators, medical workers, cases, updates, professional development, etc. In addition to professional development, our company promotes a great atmosphere in the team: team building, bonuses, corporate parties.

We share and tell the team what we plan to do, buy in order to be the market leader. By the way, being a leader is much more difficult than becoming one. Therefore, of course, we are constantly working with the team.

Tell us about your development strategy. What steps are you taking to expand your business and attract new customers?

• Daily colossal work and non-stop reinvestment in the company
• We constantly train the team and raise the level of both service and services (new technologies and directions so that the entire range is closed to the needs of our client)

All these steps are important to do both for the business and for our patient (from the point of view of promotional offers, loyalty systems and the ability to keep the price for the service).

How do you assess the effectiveness of investments in technology and equipment to provide new and innovative services in the clinic? 

We approach our investments very carefully. Before buying something, we study the equipment itself, its results, feedback from colleagues and clinics, we make a financial model of the payback of this investment in our business. If you do it correctly with this approach, then the evaluation of these investments is always positive.

What services/procedures are most popular among your target audience?

Our TOP-5 procedures:

• Hydrafacial
• Candela Nordlys Ellipse IPL
• Botox
• Cleansing, peeling
• Smas lifting Ultraformer 3

You are planning to open a clinic in Wroclaw. Do you have plans for franchising? 

We are in the process of opening. The planned dates are the end of spring. We often receive questions about opening clinics from investors in various forms of interaction. In general, it is real, so we can discuss different options. As for the franchise, we are not even planning it yet. We focus on a quality product. This work is colossal, because the clinic is a complex product. While we ourselves discover and try models and schemes of how it will be the most qualitative for people and the most profitable for us.

What financial challenges have you faced while growing your business, and what strategies have you used to overcome them?

• High taxes. Therefore, it is important to keep prices in consideration of dumping by those who work illegally and do not pay them.
• Constant need for large investments for faster development.
  
  

How do you respond to changes in the economic environment and their impact on consumer demand for clinic services?

Our field is highly dependent. It’s actually difficult. After all, cosmetology is one of the first things that people refuse in any unclear situation. Unfortunately, there is little that can be done about it. At the same time, this is what always makes the owner think:

• Special offers we can give
• New services and directions
• Strengthening other businesses

What prospects do you see in the development of the beauty industry in the coming years, and how do you plan to adapt your business to future trends?

The main trend for many years was, is and will be a doctor who develops in step with the times. He has all modern and necessary tools in his arsenal to work better, faster and safer every day. And we always attract strong people to our team and strengthen each other.

Photo: press service