Case Study · CRM & Retention
Meraki Aesthetics
Building a retention engine for a growing aesthetics clinic.
Over three months, Tenue combined CRM strategy, segmentation, automation, campaigns and in-clinic team training into one measurable retention system for a five-star London clinic. This page sets out the challenge, the work and the results — with each figure's basis stated alongside it.
Retention measured on Phorest 90-day cohorts against the prior-year baseline — a directional comparison, stated openly. Campaign revenue is platform-attributed.
Client overview
A five-star clinic in London
Meraki Aesthetics offers advanced skin treatments, injectables delivered by a dedicated medical team, lashes, brows and laser. Its clients come for considered, natural results, and its reputation reflects that: a 5.0-star Google rating across more than a hundred reviews, with a £122 average ticket placing it firmly in premium territory.
What makes Meraki successful is exactly what makes it typical of the clinics we work with: exceptional in the treatment room, with a loyal following built on the quality of the work itself. The opportunity was never the experience. It was everything that happens after the client walks out the door.
The challenge
Loved by clients. Losing them anyway.
Meraki had built an excellent reputation for clinical care. Behind the scenes, however, client communication depended on manual processes, inconsistent follow-up and limited use of CRM data. Two out of three clients did not return within ninety days.
- No lifecycle strategy — one marketing campaign in the clinic's history
- No automations: no welcome, no rebooking nudge, no reactivation
- Manual, inconsistent follow-up dependent on individual memory
- Little segmentation: every client received the same treatment
- No reporting: no baseline, no cohorts, no visibility
What the data revealed
A behaviour problem before a technology problem
The audit established a KPI baseline against industry benchmarks. The single most telling finding was internal: rebooking across the team ranged from 9% to 62% — the same clinic, the same clients, the same software. The only variable was behaviour at the chair.
Services with a natural multi-visit structure retained well; services without one leaked. The strategy followed directly: impose that structure — journeys, reminders, programmes — where it did not occur naturally, and codify the behaviour of the team's best performer for everyone.
Strategic priorities
A system, built in a deliberate order
Audit
A KPI baseline against industry benchmarks, so every later claim had something honest to be measured against.
Segmentation
Lifecycle, service interest, timing and value — so every message had a reason to exist.
Automation
Always-on journeys built natively in Phorest, protecting the moments the team can't manually cover.
Campaigns
Treatment-led and educational, never discount-led — scheduled into the weakest months.
Training
Delivered in person, in the studio — retention is created at the chair before software protects it.
Reporting
Weekly KPIs and monthly cohorts, reported candidly — including the numbers still moving.
The retention system · Segmentation
Relevance before volume
A segmentation library crossed lifecycle stage with service interest, timing and value — under a working rule that every client carries at least one lifecycle and one interest segment. Client source capture, previously blank on every record, became mandatory. Segmentation is how a premium brand stops sounding generic.
The retention system · Automation
Six journeys, one system
Always-on journeys now run continuously inside Phorest — each covering a moment that previously depended on somebody remembering. They connect: a client who doesn't rebook flows toward the lapsed journey; a reactivated client re-enters the welcome rhythm.
Welcome
First-visit thank-you and the bridge from first to second appointment.
Rebooking
Timed email and SMS reminders matched to each treatment's return window.
Post-treatment
Aftercare and reassurance in the days when it matters.
Lapsed
A warm, relevant reason to return before the relationship goes quiet.
Client reconnect
Personal outreach for overdue clients the automations shouldn't handle alone.
Review & loyalty
Protecting the clinic's five-star reputation and recognising its regulars.
The retention system · Campaigns
Sixteen campaigns in three months
In a clinic that had run one campaign in its entire history. Every send educational and brand-led; not a discount anywhere. Revenue figures are attributed by the CRM platform.
May Skin Focus — Microneedling
Educational CRM around a priority treatment.
June Skin Focus — Facial Harmonisation
Seasonal focus, scheduled into the audit's weakest month.
Luisa's June Skin Edit
Editorial, owner-voice education.
May Spotlight — Lip Blush
Awareness for a specialist treatment.
Lapsed Reactivation & Reconnect
Coordinated email and SMS. Ten clients recovered.
VIP Carboxytherapy Preview
First access as a gift at stated value. No discounting.
The retention system · Team
Technology changes nothing if behaviour doesn't change
The best performer's checkout behaviour was codified into a six-step house method and taught in person, in the studio, in a session that opened by naming what it was not: no software training, no campaigns — just what happens between practitioner and client in the chair. Behind it sits a complete communication framework, so the team, the automations and the owner speak as one clinic.
Make it personal
Reference her goal, her last result or what she told you today.
Educate simply
Explain in plain language why the timing of the next visit matters.
Recommend clearly
Name the next service and the ideal window. No vagueness.
Ask naturally
Offer to reserve it now. Warm tone, no pressure.
Keep it secured
Book the next visit within the recommended window.
Input the detail
Update segment, note and timing before the next client.
The goal is not to send more messages. The goal is to make every client feel remembered.
Results · Three months
The numbers, plainly
Retention figures are Phorest 90-day cohort readings against the prior-year baseline — a directional comparison, stated openly. Campaign revenue is attributed by the CRM platform; some bookings may have occurred regardless. Recovered-client revenue is direct and confirmed. We publish the caveats because the numbers survive them.
Commercial interpretation
What the movement is worth
Commercial impact
Revenue grew 23% year on year with acquisition unchanged — a correlation consistent with retention-led growth. Campaigns added £6,568 in attributed revenue, ten clients were recovered directly, and the rebooking improvement protects roughly seventy additional visits a year if the rate holds.
Operational impact
Automated journeys now run continuously inside software the clinic already owned, replacing follow-up that previously depended on individual memory and reducing manual administration.
Client experience impact
Every client now receives timely, personal communication across her whole lifecycle — welcomed, remembered, guided back at the right moment, in one consistent voice.
Before working together, I felt like there were so many areas of the business that needed more structure behind the scenes, especially around retention, client experience and CRM systems, but I didn't fully know where to start or how to bring everything together properly. I've been kept updated every step of the way, and I finally feel like we're building strong foundations for long-term growth rather than just trying to keep up day by day. Even already, I can feel a huge shift in direction and clarity within the business.
Luisa · Owner, Meraki Aesthetics
What happens next
A system is a discipline, not an event
Honest reporting names its open items. Retail remains below its potential and needs a dedicated strategy. Average ticket requires attention as growth becomes volume-led. New-client retention is the system's maturing edge, to be validated over a longer measurement period. Each appears in the owner's reporting in exactly these terms.
The engagement continues into its optimisation phase: quarterly cohort readings, campaign refinement, and staff-level rebooking review. If the approach behind this work fits your business, explore the services or start a conversation.