The rise of “before and after” image apps has started to revolutione the aesthetic industry even before generative AI. Now that these apps become more powerful and convincing to preview the result of an intervention, no one can ignore them any longer. These tools have become indispensable for aesthetic clinics, enabling them to showcase the transformative effects of their procedures.
Yes, as an aesthetic clinic you need to integrate such tools in your processes and client relations management, but beware of some pitfalls if you want to leverage their full potential.
How before and after image apps impacted the esthetic industry:
Enhancing or harming transparency and Trust?
“Before and after” image apps provide an opportunity for aesthetic clinics to enhance transparency and build trust with their potential clients. By showcasing genuine outcomes, clinics can demonstrate the effectiveness of their procedures, leading to increased confidence among prospective patients.
However, if you are using apps to generate “After” pictures, they need to participate in building this trust. Unrealistic outcome or overworked previsualization will have a negative impact on your communication and ruin all your efforts to gain trust. Beyond that, these generated pictures can “pollute” your traditional communication channels where you display actual “Before and after” pictures, making them suspicious.
An effective visual communication tool or a contractual engagement?
These apps enable clinics to visually communicate the potential benefits of various treatments. By presenting side-by-side comparisons, clinics can effectively demonstrate the impact of procedures, helping clients make informed decisions. Clear visual representation eliminates misunderstandings and encourages a more accurate expectation of results. But as you start to use generated pictures of the patient himself to preview results, this goes way beyond simple communication. Your client now has a lot more specific expectations, and this image could be considered as contractual, engaging your responsibility to reach as certain outcome, instead of just being examples.
Showcasing Expertise and Experience
By utilizing these apps, aesthetic clinics can showcase their expertise and experience. Sharing authentic “before and after” images helps demonstrate the clinic’s skills, highlighting successful outcomes, and setting them apart from competitors.
This is where generated images can be tricky: you need to make sure you clearly separate this important communication channel from your actual activity where you potentially use generated images for preview. When applied to actual patient and prospects, these images should remain private until the intervention is done. From this point, real pictures are better for your regular communication channel.
Advertising on the “before and after” app itself is possible, this is a great tool for your patient to feel more secure and have a clear understanding of an intervention, but this type of communication should be very clearly separated from your “real” before and after pictures that are an actual testimony of your expertise.
Beware of these limitations and risks
Unrealistic Expectations
One of the potential pitfalls of “before and after” image apps is the creation of unrealistic expectations. In some instances, patients may develop unrealistic ideals about their own potential results, leading to disappointment or dissatisfaction when the actual outcomes differ from the digitally altered images.
In some cases, clients might consider that such images actually engage your responsibility as a practitioner, so you should be extremely clear from the beginning about the status of these preview images.
Ethical Concerns
The improper use of “before and after” image apps, such as excessive retouching or misleading alterations, raises ethical concerns. Clinics must ensure that the images accurately represent the actual results of their procedures and refrain from engaging in deceptive practices that can erode trust in the industry.
“Polluting” your communication
As explained above, the main risk when using generated “After” images in your public communication is to affect your authentic before and after pictures, mixing up with them. The real pictures are supposed to be showcasing your talent and know-how, and they should be under no circumstances suspected of being overly edited, or in a dishonest way.
Good Practices and Wrong Uses
Good Practices
– Authenticity: Clinics should prioritize the use of genuine “before and after” images, avoiding excessive editing or manipulation that could misrepresent the results in their public communication channels.
– Generated images can be used in a private way with your patients for preview purposes with proper explanations and warnings, and should never be mixed with genuine after images.
– Consent and Privacy: Clinics must obtain proper consent from patients before using their images and ensure compliance with privacy regulations to protect patients’ personal information.
– Contextual Information: It is essential to provide context alongside the images, including procedure details, recovery time, and potential variations among individual patients.
Wrong Uses
– Misleading Alterations: Altering images to create unrealistic or unattainable results is unethical and can lead to misleading advertising.
– Mixing real before and after pictures with generated or heavily edited picture will ruin the transparency and trust.
– Lack of Consent: Using patient images without proper consent is a breach of privacy and can damage the reputation of the clinic.
The Changing Aesthetic Business Landscape
In today’s aesthetic industry, the integration of “before and after” image apps is crucial for a successful business. By utilizing these apps, clinics can effectively showcase their expertise, enhance transparency, and establish trust with potential clients. Embracing these technologies also positions clinics as modern and technologically advanced, attracting tech-savvy clientele.
However, as people’s trust in images has never been so low, tokens of authenticity are extremely valuable. You need to make sure you never mix real and generated images, or never edit real images in a misleading way. Imperfections are part of the aesthetic industry, you should embrace it and focus on gaining trust rather than displaying perfect models.