Inside CosmediCheck

Joseph: Yeah. So the idea of cosmedicheck came about eight years ago, and through a Medispa clinic, we’ve established ten years, we were seeing more and more clients come in who had had bad experiences or adverse effects or weren’t quite happy with the level of service they’d received before.

So Cosmedicheck is a platform designed for both professionals and patients, where professionals can show that they’re verified in safe practice and potential clients or patients can go on there and have the peace of mind that the professionals on the platform are who they say they are. They can complete the services which they say they can, and they’re vetted and checked to make the industry a safer place.

Joseph: Really what we found since sort of the dreaded COVID time was there was a lot of people doing online courses and training and getting into new industries, which is great. It’s fantastic. The problem with that was everyone was doing it online, so you weren’t actually working with faces, you were working on models or you were doing online training. And I think now more than ever before, we’re seeing the results in the aftermath of that, with poor training, poor results, the media are constantly picking up on the sort of botched surgical and non-surgical procedures.

So Cosmedicheck is in place to help consumers find verified professionals and help professionals showcase that they are who they say they are.

Dawn: That sounds amazing as well. I think it’s just great to be able to, just to check, know if anyone’s going to that kind of procedure and having that peace of mind as well, and to be like, they’ve been checked thoroughly, they know what they’re doing, and obviously complications in the field, it’s always going to happen somewhat somewhere, but the fact that it’s a reduced risk of that, or at least if something happens, you know, that they can handle it and things will be sorted, I think is really great for the customer as well.

Joseph: Yeah, exactly. The thing is, for anyone within the cosmetic industry, yourselves included, we all know how important it is and the mental health side of things that come into cosmetic and medical procedures now. So client and patient safety is always paramount. It always comes first. And I think currently with the industry being how it is with a lot of gray areas, both consumer and professional need a little bit more guidance. So that’s what we do.

How would it benefit the practitioner to be a part of cosmedicheck?

Joseph: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, no problem. So cosmedicheck is a safety and web directory platform. So, it works very much like other directory sites out there. There’s some in the construction industry, for example, people know about some big names. What we found is there wasn’t anything that professionals could go onto a site and get more than just a registration number.

So what we wanted to do from having a clinic ourselves was implement everything that we were using and we needed in our clinic and sort of put it out there and give it to professionals. So as part of signing up as a professional, after a professional has provided all their documentation verification, we do all the vetting check. If that all comes back great, then what happens is a professional gets a basic profile which then they can customize themselves and add treatment photos of the work they do, services they offer, price of the services they offer, a bio about themselves.

Joseph: They can also add articles about specific treatments if they wish. They can add their social media profile so consumers can reach out to them. There’s also direct messaging on there, so if someone wants to reach out directly, they can do. There’s an online client booking system. So I know for a lot of companies they’re using booking systems for their cosmetic clinics. So we’ve added one free of charge that they can integrate with what they’re already using.

So it works in a calendar format. So they can add either cosmetic potential clients or their own existing onto this system. So they’ve got that capability as well, the locations and availability they’ve got. So it really is an all in one that any cosmetic or medical professional can provide. Key information for anyone looking for specific cosmetic or medical procedures.

Joseph: We currently have 154 treatments on cosmetic check. So there’s obviously a lot more out there in cosmetics and medical, but we’re very mindful of the procedures that have had the green light. Some that are a little bit iffy, we don’t obviously offer, but as a whole it means that consumers can get to know a lot more about a professional. So from a professional point of view, it’s great because not only are they getting more traffic and SEO value from the online world and what all businesses rely on in today’s day, but they also get that sort of peace of mind as well.

So it’s really important. And they also get verification status. So any of the members on the Cosmedicheck platform, you know, have passed their GDPR on to us to confirm their insurances, their qualifications, permits, local licensing, background checks, company house, any review or feedback they have already online. And we scrutinize all of that to ensure that we are minimizing the risks for both professional and patients so they work alongside each other.

What’s the Sign up Process like?

Joseph: Yeah, sure. So you go onto cosmedic.com and then you click sign up on the homepage. There’s two options. You can either sign up as a client or as a professional. So what happens then is you go through a series of pages as a professional. So you sign up initially, so you register your interest.

Then you get an application form where you fill out all your personal details, business details, so we can get a bit of an overview of your company, the name, so we can start running background checks and stuff. Then after you’ve completed this application form, you will then get sent a link to submit all your certificates, qualifications, insurance documentation, all that sort of stuff as well. So it collates our system, collates all of that and then sends us a notification of that. Then what we do, we’ve got a vetting team who then work through each application.

Joseph: We check through, like I say, reviews companies as a whole clinic location. We check with insurance companies that their policies are active and their treatment endorsements as well, because that’s very important to make sure that professionals are ensured to perform the treatment and procedures they’re saying they can do.

So our vetting team goes through that process. Then we might need to reach out to a professional and say, look, we need a little bit more information on this. Or could you provide the following? We have some correspondence with the professional to make sure they understand our processes, they sign up to a consumer agreement, which is it benefits the professional as much as the client, that they understand that they’re working to each individual’s client best interests on each procedure. So there’s some health and safety questions and stuff like that they sign up to. Once we’ve got all of that and we’re happy, then we let the company know we can then approve their account.

Joseph: And then they will get emails on. Best way to promote their profiles. They will get imagery, they will get certification saying that they are verified and trusted by ourselves and we’ve done our background check. And then they’re able to start building their online profile, which is a really great thing because a lot of website builds and stuff now are so, so expensive. And a lot of companies, especially if you’re just starting out, it seems to be you’re always paying out, paying out, paying know you’ve paid out your training, your insurance and stuff. So sometimes people don’t have the money to go off straight away and know a website.

So this is where cosmedicheck is a great platform because they can have their own entity within our directory and on their profile, then they can showcase who they are, where they are and all that sort of stuff as well. So it’s a great starting point for people. And it’s more than just being a register, which it doesn’t allow enough information for consumers. People need to know the ins and outs of everything because it’s vital. We’re talking about people’s faces and bodies in potentially adverse effect, sometimes life changing effect, mental health knock on effect. So it really is vital that we collate all that information and then the professionals can put that out there for peace of mind.

Dawn: Definitely. And it sounds just really great because, like you were saying, you’ve got other industries that have that kind of registers and give people peace of mind if they need fixing in their home that so and so can do the job and can clean up after themselves like the whole nine yards. It’s really great that you now have this for the practitioners. And it also means, as you said, to have a launching pad if they don’t necessarily have a website yet, but at least if they’re on there, people can still find them and find them through, like the Google search results, stuff like that. So it sounds really amazing.

Joseph: Yeah, that was the thing for us. It baffled us for quite a few years that other industries who it can have knock on effects to people’s lives and homes and stuff, but with such an industry as cosmetic and the medical sector, where things can really go wrong quite badly for an individual. That though there are a couple of registers in existence, none of them are offering this full platform that benefits the professional and the client. It needs to be user-friendly for both and also has the accreditation to go alongside the contact.

And that’s what we’ve tried to bridge, is knowing full well as a medical and cosmetic clinic ourselves, what sort of help businesses and what sort of can help the patients. So, yeah, it really is and we’re really proud of it.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Joseph: So I’d like to say just briefly, for anyone thinking as a professional, they don’t quite know what’s going on in the industry at the moment because we’re waiting for the consultation that happened in September last year and finished October. Have a look on Cosmedicheck and reach out to us if you have got any questions or concerns, because there’s so many gray areas at the moment, there’s traffic light systems that are looking to be implemented.

We’ve had a extensive interview with Caroline Noake, CMP, who’s sort of heading up the women’s equality and female led businesses, for example. So now is really the time where as a collective community and an industry, we need to be working together off the same page to make sure we’re answering anything that comes out. The consultation and the more professionals and businesses that are taking consumer safety seriously and taking the steps with training and these sort of memberships, the better chance we’ve got of providing better care to consumers, but also from a business point of view, to show that you are reputable and the company you say you are.

Joseph: So, yeah, I think it’s really key that people start thinking about necessary training that may be coming in, as well as their insurances, making sure your policies are correct, making sure you’ve got the right treatment, endorsements. If you’ve just completed training, make sure you’re updating your insurance provider, all that sort of stuff, which we should be doing. Appreciate everyone’s life is so hectic and busy, but these are the fundamentals for consumer safety that people do need to start thinking about.

And if you’ve got an admin day once a week, for example, make sure that you’re ticking these things off and getting them done just to help consumers who might have had a bad experience or they might never have had a cosmetic or medical treatment or procedure done before. We want to give them the peace of mind through consultations and the services we provide to enable that and to leave them with a good experience and wanting them to come back. So, yeah, that’s sort of my advice.

Dawn: No, I definitely agree. And obviously, as you said, things are up in the air, so the best thing you can do, I think then the main kind of buzzword is transparency and just making sure that you’re clear and crystal with everything, with consumers, with the companies that you work with, the pharmacies, the insurance companies, always key to make sure that you’re covered.

And obviously, any new treatments that do come out from the insurance perspective, as soon as it comes out, we do have a look at it, and the insurers themselves will actually get quite on it. So if you train on it and it’s still quite fresh in the industry, always make sure that you can definitely be covered or whether or not insurers are actually not covering it at that time, because at the end of the day, you don’t want to be in a hot mess and in a sticky situation, which nobody loves. So, yeah, transparency, I think is so key, especially as things are moving forward and we’re still not quite sure what’s going to be happening. So, yeah, I definitely agree with everything you said.