Archive for Cosmetic Image Marketing
Aesthetic Patient’s Feelings About Their Experience with You
Posted by: | CommentsYou have (or had) patients who feel they were not treated right by your receptionist, a staff person or you. It could have been something benign such as your receptionist did not acknowledge the patient when they first walked in the door and it could be something more serious such as they believe they got a mediocre or bad result and have lost trust in you.
On the one hand, aesthetic patients have elephant memories. They may be prone to holding grudges if they are treated badly in your practice or if they “perceive” they were treated badly.
Frankly, your patient’s perception is your reality so you have to deal with their emotions. Please remember this:
Aesthetic patients won’t remember what you told them.
Aesthetic patients won’t remember what you showed them.
Aesthetic patients will remember how you made them feel.
On the other hand, patients can be quick to forgive IF they feel you value them and want to make them happy. That could mean you simply reconnect with them or it may mean you show significant remorse so they know you understand how they feel.
An Ounce of Prevention is Worth It
Obviously, the best thing you can do is to avoid bad feelings with your patients so you don’t lose them. You want to have the friendliest and most informative receptionist answering your telephones. You want to employ staff that bonds quickly with the patients and knows how to direct the patient to a decision to choose you over your competitors. You personally want to connect with the patient so they like, trust and believe in your recommendations.
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For more Free tips and videos, visit www.CosmeticImageMarketing.com. Catherine Maley, MBA is Author of Your Aesthetic Practice/What Your Patients Are Saying and her firm offers everything you need to succeed in aesthetic medicine. You can call Catherine at (877) 339-8833 or email her at info@CosmeticImageMarketing.com.
What’s the Objective of Your Website Home Page?
Posted by: | CommentsMost doctors get this wrong. They truly believe the home page is designated to tell the prospective patients all about them, their credentials, skills, expertise and then the laundry list of services they offer.
I guarantee – that’s not it! The true objective of your Website Home Page is to get the casual web surfer to stop-notice-act once they land on your site. How do you ensure that happens? You answer the burning question most on the prospective patient’s mind which is,
“Hey, what’s in it for me?”
The secret is to talk about the patient first – not you. They don’t care about you – yet. Right now, all they care about is do you have a solution to what is bothering me right now? That can be a tall order; however, because you offer many services which is why the most sophisticated practices put up separate Websites for different procedures.
A typical aesthetic consumer is looking for information to a specific procedure so design your Website to give that to them in the form of free reports and videos they can view when they provide their name and email so you can follow-up. Start with emotional copy that addresses their fears and apprehensions, show lots of before/after photos and as much social proof (patient testimonials) as possible. Then, get into you specifically.
I guarantee if you first give the patient what they want which is information, they will then be much more open to learning more about you.
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For more Free tips and videos, visit www.CosmeticImageMarketing.com. Catherine Maley, MBA is Author of Your Aesthetic Practice/What Your Patients Are Saying and her firm offers everything you need to succeed in aesthetic medicine. You can call Catherine at (877) 339-8833 or email her at info@CosmeticImageMarketing.com.
How Do You Follow Up After the Patient Consultation?
Posted by: | CommentsYou may be under the belief that once a prospective patient leaves your office without booking the procedure you and your office just spent an hour talking about, all is lost. You may be assuming they weren’t interested or they got sticker shock or they just chickened out. Not necessarily….
Patients today can be fickle consumers who shop around. There is a very good chance they visited you as well as several of your competitors so they feel as if they can make an educated decision based on comparison shopping.
Let’s say you did everything right and now you are stuck because you don’t know how or even if you should follow up for fear of looking as if you are chasing the patient. Fear not! Use these tactics to follow up professionally and close the procedure:
- Send a handwritten note to the prospective patient immediately. Express how much you and your staff enjoyed meeting them and that “Sara” will be following up on Friday if you don’t hear back sooner;
- Now be sure Sara calls back on Friday to check in to see what additional questions they may have and then attempts to close the procedure;
- Have your patient coordinator call the patient with an important development that just came up; i.e., CareCredit is offering a new 0% financing program or there’s been a cancellation so if they can book now, they can save $500 or whatever.
- Lastly, mail/email them a current article you just found on the Internet talking about the very procedure they are interested in and, again, ask for a decision
And, if none of that works, simply add them to your database so they can receive your invitations, newsletters and email blasts because you just never know when they are ready for you.
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For more Free tips and videos, visit www.CosmeticImageMarketing.com. Catherine Maley, MBA is Author of Your Aesthetic Practice/What Your Patients Are Saying and her firm offers everything you need to succeed in aesthetic medicine. You can call Catherine at (877) 339-8833 or email her at info@CosmeticImageMarketing.com.
Why Do You Practice Aesthetic Medicine?
Posted by: | CommentsAt this point, you might be questioning your decision to get into aesthetics. If you’re like other aesthetic practices, you’re probably down 30-70% and don’t see an end in sight.
So, are you ready for a pep talk?
You know you don’t like where managed care is going and you are sure that it’s not going to get better so you were smart to look for other revenue streams. You know you want to practice medicine your way and not have your relationships with your patients dictated to by the government. You now the paperwork nightmare was killing you and draining your staff.
And, on the more positive side, you most likely want to help those patients who have the need and the financial wherewithal to afford aesthetic enhancement so they look good and feel great – thanks to your skill and expertise.
We all know this sluggish economy is not going to stay like this forever but, for now, circle your wagons and reconnect with your current patients. They may need to dig deeper to justify your services so help them with:
- new and improved technology
- patient events
- education on what’s new in the world of aesthetic enhancement
- offer themed, limited-time only offers with tight expiration dates
Reach out and communicate with your patients so they come back now and later. This will give you added enthusiasm for aesthetic medicine and help you stay open to opportunities available all around you.
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For more Free tips and videos, visit www.CosmeticImageMarketing.com. Catherine Maley, MBA is Author of Your Aesthetic Practice/What Your Patients Are Saying and her firm offers everything you need to succeed in aesthetic medicine. You can call Catherine at (877) 339-8833 or email her at info@CosmeticImageMarketing.com.
Who Gets Plastic Surgery and Why
Posted by: | CommentsI recently read an article that includes statistics on who gets plastic surgery, and why. It is a great reminder that the aesthetic practice is not just selling a procedure, they are selling hope for a better feeling future. Patients want to feel better about themselves, they want to look in the mirror and no longer dislike a part of what they see. They believe revising, rejuvenating or renovating something that bothers them about their appearance will make them feel better and increase self-esteem. So, in essence, they are buying hope from aesthetic physicians. Hope they will get the result they want and hope they will feel better. To learn more about the aesthetic patient, read my book…
If you would like to read the full article, Who Gets Plastic Surgery and Why, click HERE
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For more Free tips and videos, visit www.CosmeticImageMarketing.com . Catherine Maley, MBA is Author of Your Aesthetic Practice/What Your Patients Are Saying and her firm offers everything you need to succeed in aesthetic medicine. You can call Catherine at (877) 339-8833 or email her at info@CosmeticImageMarketing.com.
Aesthetic Patient Data: The Key To Target Marketing
Posted by: | CommentsYour current patients are always your most effective target market because they already know, like and trust you. And, they are much more apt to respond to your promotional efforts.
The secret to marketing to them effectively is to give them a personalized message they will respond to. How do you do that? The answer is you customize your message based on your records.
For example, tell your Botox patients that other Botox patients also loved the youthful effects they got when adding fillers to smooth wrinkles. Tell your veteran wrinkle filler patients there are new, long-lasting fillers and restructuring fillers available to not only smooth facial wrinkles but to also rebuild the cheek area to give you a mini jowl lift.
Use your records to flag patients who haven’t been in for awhile and offer them a “Welcome Back” gift when they return to you.
For those who came in for a surgical consultation but didn’t book, offer them a very special one-time-only, on-the-fence offer they can’t refuse.
And, lastly, by all means, use your patient data to thank anyone in your database who has referred friends to you They love to be acknowledged, and your appreciation encourages them to refer others.
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For more Free tips and videos, visit www.CosmeticImageMarketing.com . Catherine Maley, MBA is Author of Your Aesthetic Practice/What Your Patients Are Saying and her firm offers everything you need to succeed in aesthetic medicine. You can call Catherine at (877) 339-8833 or email her at info@CosmeticImageMarketing.com.
