And why responsiveness is becoming the new definition of premium
As we look ahead to 2026, one thing is becoming increasingly clear. Loyalty in aesthetics is no longer driven by price, novelty or even treatment range alone. It is driven by how easy you are to access, how quickly you respond and how seamless the experience feels across every touchpoint.
New research from Hosted partner Zenoti, based on a survey of more than 1,100 Medspa clients in the United States, offers a timely snapshot of how expectations are shifting among the industry’s most valuable audience. Regular clients who book frequently, spend more and form the backbone of long-term clinic growth.
While the data is US-based, the themes strongly mirror what we hear from UK clinic owners every week. Expectations are rising, tolerance for friction is falling and responsiveness is quickly becoming a defining feature of premium service.
Here are the four insights clinic leaders should be paying closest attention to.
One of the clearest signals from the research is that convenience now sits at the heart of loyalty.
According to the survey:
Limited booking hours are no longer seen as a minor inconvenience. They are a reason not to book at all.
For clinic leaders, this represents a mindset shift. “Any-time booking” is no longer an enhancement. It is the baseline.
What matters most is not whether a client books via phone, website or message, but whether they can engage at the moment they decide to act. Miss that moment, and the opportunity is often lost.
Despite the rise of digital tools, the phone remains a critical channel for medspa clients.
The research shows:
This is not a sign that clinics should resist technology. It is a reminder that technology must support how clients actually behave.
The opportunity for clinics is not to remove the phone, but to modernise how it is handled. AI-supported reception, smart call routing and seamless handover between digital and human support allow clinics to remain accessible without placing unsustainable pressure on front-desk teams.
Accuracy has long been considered the gold standard of front-desk service. Getting bookings right, avoiding errors and maintaining consistency.
But among regular medspa clients, expectations have shifted.
When asked what matters most in the front-desk experience, regular clients ranked:
This is an important nuance. For loyal clients, accuracy is assumed. It is the baseline. What differentiates one clinic from another is how quickly their request is acknowledged and how responsive the business feels.
For clinic owners, this reframes what “premium service” really means. It is not just warmth or luxury. It is immediacy, reliability and the feeling that the clinic is always paying attention.
Perhaps the most telling finding is how comfortable medspa clients now are with AI.
This matters because this age group often represents the most loyal, high-spending and long-term patients.
Importantly, clients do not see AI as replacing personal care. They see it as enabling it. Handling after-hours calls, managing rescheduling, answering common questions and supporting follow-up care frees human teams to focus on in-clinic experience and relationships.
For 2026, AI-supported front desks are no longer experimental. They are becoming part of the expected infrastructure of a modern clinic.
What this research ultimately highlights is not a technology story, but a leadership one.
Clients are telling us that ease, speed and accessibility now define trust. Clinics that respond quickly, remain available and remove friction are rewarded with loyalty. Those that do not are quietly left behind.
As clinics grow, responsiveness does not happen by accident. It is designed. It is invested in. And it is led from the top.
The clinics that will thrive in 2026 will be those that combine human empathy with always-on systems. Not to replace connection, but to protect it.
