Last week, I was invited to Marie France Bodyline’s blogger event- Woman behind Women. It was an exclusive event for bloggers to have a Q&A session with Amy Quek, Chief Operating Officer of Marie France Bodyline. I went there in hopes of clearing some myths that are circling around slimming centers. 

For those who are not familiar with Marie France Bodyline, they are the market leader when it comes to body slimming and treatments in beauty enhancement. The branding has always been strong, with famous celebrity ambassadors and a worldwide franchise. Miss Amy is very gracious and charismatic, she represented the brand well by giving well thought answers to all the questions asked.

Emcee : What are your thoughts on aging?

Amy : As we age, our metabolism rate will reduce. Marie France gets to the base of this problem, which happens from having a sedentary lifestyle, bad diet and not exercising. Our technology help to increase your metabolic rate, wake up your body and promote detoxing in your body with our machines which are perfectly safe.

 Emcee : Where did Marie France source their solutions for slimming technology from?

Amy : Back in the 80s, society were getting more affluent and we realized that the people need the right advice when it comes to their lifestyle. Right advice in terms of nutrition planning, exercise and keeping a youthful look. Since then we have over 20 centers in Malaysia. Over 25 years, we have invested alot of resources in the latest technology and counseling as well. We have a philosophy of 3 ideals – Innovative – we are constantly seeking new technologies. Cheerleaders – we have consultants and therapists to cheer our customers and guide them, encourage them to come for their treatment. Client’s compliance – the clients have to know why they are here for, we share their expectations and we encourage them to be realistic with their goals.

 

Emcee : What are the changes that are occurring when it comes to slimming trends?

Amy : Customers are more demanding, they want faster results. Hence our search for new technology. However, the fundamental core is still the same, all women want to look beautiful and feel more confident.

 

Emcee : Recently, Marie France has been involved with a movement to help single mothers, could you tell us a little bit about that?

Amy : We believe in sharing our prosperity and contributing back to society. We chanced upon the Single Mothers’ Association in Malaysia and we want to give hope to the single mothers and their life. We embarked on a journey with to to help them back on their feet, to get their appointments back in career. They lack the confidence and confidence is a huge part to life. We want to help restore that.

 

Emcee : There are many people who are afraid of the high price when it comes to slimming packages. Also, the pricing for the same package may be different across different branches. Can you help shed the light on this issue?

Amy : Back in September last year, we started a Price Transparency program. For people who are concerned about being short changed they can just come in to any branch and find out about the price. The price is the same across every branch. As a market leader, we are proud to say that we are the first to do it. We have been very satisfied with the results so far, customers know that what they pay is what they are getting. The pressure on price is off and now customers only have to worry about coming for the treatments and looking forward to looking good very soon.

 

Emcee : Thank you for clarifying that. There are also women that are worried about the package that they signed up for are going to get more add ons, hence slimming their wallet even more over time. 

Amy : We do an analysis for customers who walked in. We go though your goals and expectations. All packages are transparent, systematic and catered towards the weight lost that you are aiming for. Consultations and analysis are free, you can try the services before you commit to anything. There are no fear at all, no worries.

Amy on Marie France Bodyline’s Philosophy

The first philosophy – Being Innovative
We are constantly searching for the latest technology. Our latest technology, Acoustic Radial Therapy ART uses high-energy rhythmic pulses to penetrate into the skin to target the connective tissues and fat layers. Then a vacuum therapy will exert a suction force that stretches and squeezes the targeted tissues to break the grid structure of fat cell chambers beneath the skin. It’s a complete fat reduction, inch loss and combined with the vacuum therapy, it can help you build collagen back again. It’s 30 minutes per session and you can see inch loss after just 3 sessions.

All our machines and equipment are FDA approved and endorsed by WHO. Other hospitals are using the same machines to treat obesity. All the machine is doing is stimulating the body to work like it used to when we were young. In the end, our body is the one doing the work- burning the fat producing collagen again.

The second philosophy – Cheerleaders
We ensure that our clients enjoy their journey with us. We spend alot of resources in training our consultants on how to answer calls, serve our clients, doing treatments and apart form sending them to training sessions, we do mystery shopping on our own branches to ensure that the team is in shape.

The third philosophy – Client’s Compliance
You can definitely feel a difference after one treatment, but it is not magic. It takes months and days to expel the fat away. Therefore the consultants plays a very important role in managing the client’s expectations. We have a nutritionist that gives advice to our clients and we even teach our customers what to look for in nutrition labels when they are shopping for food.

 

I asked some questions that have been plaguing me for a long time about slimming centers. I love to go prepared during an interview.

Haze : It is often believed that diet and exercise are the key to a slim and youthful figure. And there has been speculations that slimming centers charge a hefty price for their treatments, but still place an important priority on diet and exercise. In fact, most of our perceptions is that the success of the treatments often depend on the individuals’ diet and exercise. How effective are the treatments if they require diet and exercise in order to be successful? 

Amy : Diet and exercise plays an important role in achieving your goals. I would say that it is a combination of all three that guarantees the success of the client’s objective. They need to improve their diet, exercise and show up for treatments if they want to achieve their goals. And this is why Client’s Compliance is very important.

 

Haze : The idea of a beautiful woman is a subjective one. For some, being fit with lean muscles is the idea of a beautiful woman. As we all know, muscle weights more than fat and if the quantitative measure of slimming success is weight, would your customers be advised from doing weight training?

Amy : I personally don’t believe that being pencil thin is beautiful. We want to promote a healthier lifestyle and we want women to be healthy, we can all reach this with help from the Inspire support groups. Our goals are a healthier you.

 

Haze : In the future, would you encourage your children to come for a slimming package in Marie France?

Amy : Usually, women who come to Marie France have confidence issues. If my children have confidence issues in the future, why not? It is not a weight loss program but they will be going for a spots reduction program. There is nothing harmful about that and I would definitely encourage them to go for it in the future if they have confidence issue.

 

Reiko also asked good questions that day.

Reiko : There are some slimming centers that keep prolonging the spots reduction program. They add on and on and it became never ending. The customer have to continue going for treatment and paying for it. Is Marie France packages like that as well?

Amy : When you come in for a consultation, we give you the expectations of your goal and how realistic it is. Consumers have to know what they want and discuss with the consultants. The consultants will then advice you, but in the end you are the one making the decision so you have to know what you want.

 

Reiko : There are also rumors going on that after someone finishes a slimming program, they will gain back double the weight after that. 

Amy : That doesn’t happen in Marie France, the nutritionist help you to maintain your weight in the future. The results are there, but with the nutritionist’s advice you need to have the compliance to follow through. We don’t enforce a yo-yo diet or crash diet as the results never last for long.

 

Then I got curious and asked another question.

Haze : In Marie France, do customer return after they complete a treatment? What are the statistics like in terms of the number of women who manage to upkeep their body after completing a treatment? Let’s say out of 10 women who have completed the treatment, how many of them are still having the same body after 3 years?

Amy :  Customers do return after they complete a treatment, but never for the same kind of package. They may have completed a spot reduction for their tummy, the second time they are back they are looking for spot reduction in other body parts instead. It’s a new goal. I do not have the statistics at hand but majority of our customers are able to have the same body after completing the treatment.

 

I am still waiting for the statistics.. Haha..

 

Amy’s advice to women :

For weddings :
Don’t do things last minute. Work backwards one year, if you have the intention to lose weight before your wedding make sure you have one year dedicated to do that.

For everyone :
Don’t start when problems appear. Prevention is always better. Other than slimming programs, we also have a nutritionist on hand to guide you and we have Maintenance Programs to assist you.

For young ladies :
Apart from promoting metabolic rate, we have a Body Shaping Program as well. We can target specific areas they they want to get rid off. Our machines can analyse your BMI and body fat percentage. A perfectly slim lady may not be slim as a result of their sedentary lifestyle. We have a cellulite check analysis for that purpose and can target those areas. We have different kind of treatments for various audiences.

 

Photos are from the Marie France Bodyline center in KLCC. What are your thoughts on slimming? Did Amy address to your doubts on slimming treatments and centers?