A client books with a new clinic because the old one closed, or the practitioner left, or something went slightly wrong that she does not want to discuss.
She knows roughly what she had, roughly when, and nothing at all about the product or the amount. The clinic now has to decide whether to treat somebody whose recent history is essentially hearsay.
When switching is straightforward
A client with dates, product names and a clinic willing to share records. This is the minority and it is what every clinic assumes it is dealing with.
When it needs care
Vague recall, treatments abroad, a clinic that has closed, a practitioner who cannot be contacted, or a client reluctant to say where she went.
When to decline or delay
Where the interval cannot be established and treating now could be unsafe. Waiting is a clinical decision and it should be presented as one, not as an inconvenience.
Ask for the history before the appointment
Not at it. A client who arrives having gathered dates and product names makes a consultation useful rather than investigative.
Request records with permission, in writing
Most clinics will share with a signed request from the client. Making that easy is a service and it produces a considerably safer treatment.
Explain why you are asking
Clients interpret detailed questions as suspicion or as a sales process. Saying that intervals and products affect what is safe reframes it immediately.
Handle the reluctance gently
Somebody who had a poor experience elsewhere may be embarrassed. The tone matters, and a clinic that makes this easy gains a client who will not move again.
Ask why they are moving
A closed clinic, a practitioner who left, a house move or a poor experience each tell you something different about what this client needs. The answer also warns you where expectations were set badly somewhere else and will need resetting here.
Do not criticise the previous clinic
It is tempting and it always rebounds. A client who hears you disparage a colleague wonders what you say about her.
Ask whether anything was done abroad
Treatment obtained on holiday or overseas is common and clients are frequently sheepish about mentioning it. Asking directly, without any hint of judgement, produces an answer that materially changes what you can safely offer at the next appointment.
Take photographs at the start
A switching client has no baseline with you at all, which makes your own record keeping the only reference you will have.
Be careful with dissolving and correction requests
Clients arriving wanting something undone need a full assessment rather than an immediate booking, and the consultation standards in consultation questions before any treatment apply with extra weight.
Set the pricing expectation early
Switching clients are comparing you against a remembered figure from elsewhere, which is why the openness argued for in price questions aesthetic clinics should answer openly matters most with this group.
Publish the transfer process
A page explaining what you need, how records are requested and what happens if they cannot be obtained turns an anxious enquiry into a prepared one.
Borrow from other clinical transfers
Practices in other disciplines handle this constantly, and the process in records and referral questions before transferring clinics transfers directly.
Capture the history at enquiry
An assistant that asks what was had, roughly when, where, and whether records can be requested, then takes a consultation request with all of it attached, does the work that otherwise consumes the first appointment. The same structured intake works across clinical settings, as in chatbots for veterinary clinics.
What a proper transfer process is worth
Safer treatment, better consultations and a group of clients who are actively looking for somewhere to settle. See pricing, run the numbers on the chatbot ROI calculator, and the sector view sits under medical spas.