Interview with Ms. Sun Jiayin, Founder of Angela SPA,
Discusses Probiotics and Beauty
With 25 years of experience in the beauty industry, Ms. Sun Jiayin has gained high recognition from consumers for her five high-end Angela SPA establishments in the Changchun area. She has become a prominent representative of quality beauty and spa brands in Changchun, offering a comprehensive range of services including beauty treatments, spa, hairdressing, manicure, eyelash services, and dining. In 2018, invited by the Ketao Biotechnology Group, she became a strategic partner for the promotion of the probiotics and beauty brand in China.
“An integrated enterprise combining selection of strains, storage, research, and production, with 20 years of dedicated research, and clinical validation studies in over 60 top-tier hospitals to ensure product effectiveness, along with 600 quality control processes to guarantee product safety. I hope that such excellent products can help more people and be seen and understood by more people,” Ms. Sun Jiayin said in an interview with SpaChina.
What led you to focus on probiotic products?
In 2018, three of my close family members were diagnosed with colorectal cancer one after another, putting both my sons and me in the high-risk category. To address the issue of gut health and comprehensively preventing potential health risks for myself and my family, I entered the health management arena. Determined to excel in everything, various opportunities led me to become the only strategic partner of a publicly-listed company in the probiotics field in China, the brand “Probiotics and Beauty.”
Why did you choose to collaborate with Probiotics and Beauty, and what made you optimistic about this brand?
The market is saturated with probiotic brands, and the key factor for me was how to safely and effectively solve health problems. It was during this time that I came across the Probiotics and Beauty brand, the only proprietary brand of a publicly-listed company (Ketao Biotechnology) in the probiotics field in China.
As I delved deeper into understanding the Ketao Biotechnology Group, I was deeply moved by the professional spirit and dedication of Professor Zhang Heping, the pioneer and founder in the field of probiotics in China. I learned about his 20-year journey in searching for strains, extensive exploration of processing techniques, creation of China’s first original strain, and the ultimate transformation of the passive situation where China was constrained by foreign influences in the probiotics field.
This gave me the confidence to promote the Probiotics and Beauty brand in the market because Ketao Biotechnology’s background and professionalism laid a solid foundation for quality assurance and future development possibilities. Regardless of the current chaos in the probiotics market, products with high stability, safety, and efficacy will always be scarce, providing me with unwavering confidence.
High-quality probiotics are believed to have positive effects on various aspects such as the immune system, skin, digestive system, antioxidant capabilities, and anti-inflammatory properties. How should this be incorporated into daily spa business?
Probiotics play a crucial role in the human digestive, metabolic, immune, and nervous systems, serving as the foundation for human health. With over 90% of the human body composed of microbial communities, which also create the environment for cells, they determine cell vitality. In cases where skin microbiota is disrupted, issues like sensitivity, pigmentation, and aging continue to occur. Taking probiotics can improve and prevent these skin issues.
In the post-pandemic era, people’s immune systems have been severely compromised, leading to various health impacts and risks. Therefore, in addition to in-store spa treatments, we also provide year-round home health management services for high-end clients. This not only meets the health needs of customers but also boosts the percentage of retail sales in the store, increasing store profitability and efficiency.
By incorporating the concept of probiotics, can you attract more customers and target groups? Does it have a positive impact on performance?
People’s understanding of probiotic products is currently very superficial, often limited to packaging and pricing considerations. However, the real competition in the probiotics field revolves around the effectiveness of strains, the functionality of strain formulas, and the stability and safety of processing techniques. Various professional clinical trials can verify the authenticity of their efficacy.
We found that high-end customers are highly concerned about efficiency in the health aspect, requiring quick and precise solutions. Therefore, personalized microbiome customization, addressing individual differences, has become the most popular project among high-end spa clients. This not only brings substantial performance results for the store, ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands from a single customer, but also avoids direct competition with various miscellaneous probiotic sales online. The endorsement of a publicly-listed company and its robust research results make rational high-end customers worry-free, leading to a customer repurchase rate of over 70%. The integration of such health management items is both legal and compliant, significantly increasing retail performance and becoming a popular item for high-end spas.
In terms of employee training, how do you conduct effective training on probiotic products? How do you motivate employees to actively engage in the sale of these products?
Training on probiotics is highly welcomed by employees because it is not just about sales performance and achievements; it is also about knowledge concerning the health of each employee and their families. Therefore, every salesperson and employee in the store is also a user and beneficiary of probiotics. Everyone is motivated to learn related health knowledge with the premise of benefiting themselves before benefiting others.
The Probiotics and Beauty team’s training instructors consist of professionals such as doctors and nutritionists. During the training process, through patient and continuous professional training, they deepen everyone’s understanding of probiotics and truly understand their vital importance to health. When every service staff in the store can confidently and sincerely share knowledge about probiotics with customers, this influence is more powerful than any high-skilled sales technique, and the sales performance and effectiveness can truly be seen.
As consumer demands for holistic care both internally and externally intensify, do you believe that introducing probiotic projects can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty? Are there further advantages in attracting and retaining customers?
Consumers need more than just products; they require health follow-up management services. The key difference between our offline spa service stores and online sales lies in the professionalism and thoughtfulness of the service.
Probiotics and Beauty provides customers with periodic effect comparisons in scientific data format through precise testing, making the results of their current health management clear and understandable. Subsequently, by allowing customers to understand various disease risks, nutritional absorption situations, and guiding them towards dietary adjustments at different stages, customer satisfaction is achieved, naturally leading to repeat purchases.
Behind every customer is a family, implying the possibility of fission involving at least 3-5 members from old to young. This is the best guarantee for the most significant improvement in performance.