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Patient Survey for Plastic Surgery Practices

Patient surveys for plastic surgery practices provide excellent feedback about how they are doing from the patient’s point of view.

That’s important since the patient has a choice and can easily move onto your competitors if they are not happy with you.

Surveys also indicate your value to your current patients. When they take the time to think about you and complete the survey, they are actually reconfirming their loyalty to you. 

But the survey’s purpose is to discover the good, the bad and the ugly about your practice.  You can’t fix what you don’t know, and you don’t know unless you ask.

Here are strategies to help you glean feedback that grows your practice and makes it immune to your competitors:

Who to Survey in Your Patient Survey for Plastic Surgery Practices?

Patient Survey for Plastic Surgery Practices

Practices have a tendency to survey their existing current patient list. That’s fine but that’s not enough.  

You are looking for candid feedback from those who love you, as well as those who don’t, so here’s a list of who to survey:

  • Current patient list
  • Patients from years ago
  • Patients who have not been in for the past year
  • Came in for a consultation but didn’t book
  • Had surgery but haven’t returned since

How to Survey?

Patient Survey for Plastic Surgery Practices

Keep it simple and digital since this will be an impulsive decision to reply or not. 

Since the average survey response is 10%, send out as many as possible to get back enough surveys to give you enough data to be useful. 

Use an online survey vendor such as www.surveymonkey.com or www.SnapSurveyscom. You can set it up in minutes and they will track the details and compile the responses.

Tip: Do NOT ask yes or no questions by themselves. You are looking for well thought-out feedback so add a comment box after each question so they can explain WHY they answered the way they did in greater detail.

Add Survey Incentive to Your Patient Survey for Plastic Surgery Practices

Your patients are busy, so taking time out to complete your survey can be challenging.

To increase your survey response, add an incentive.  A “$75 Gift Card Towards a Non-Surgical Treatment of Your Choice” works well. Patient Survey for Plastic Surgery Practices

Add a tight expiration date as well such as they must complete the treatment within 30 days. Some patients will complain they need more time and that’s ok. Give it to them since they are returning for more of your services.

Mention the $75 Gift Card immediately and tell them they receive it upon completion of the survey and then show them the link to the gift card at the end. 

If you don’t want to offer a gift card, you can be creative and use a rewards system where they get points or kisses instead that go towards free services. 

Either way, give them a reason to complete the survey so you get enough response back to do something with the data.

What Survey Questions to Ask

The biggest mistake with surveys is you ask too many questions. If this feels like a homework assignment, your patients will bail. 

I suggest asking 10 questions max, add the comments/explain box after each and leave it at that. 

Sample questions can include:

  • Were the telephones answered professionally?
  • Was it easy to get an appointment?
  • Were you treated courteously by my staff?
  • Did we see you on time?
  • How genuinely interested did we seem in you as a person and giving you a great experience?
  • During your office visit, did we adequately address your concerns and explain expectations properly?
  • What’s 1 thing we could have done to improve your experience with us?
  • Were you satisfied with your results?
  • If you had a surgical consultation, why did you choose NOT to have surgery with us? 
  • Would you refer your friends and family to us? 

You may be asking yourself if the survey should be anonymous. If it’s anonymous, you wouldn’t be able to offer the gift card. Frankly, the gift card is needed to get a response, so I suggest offering it. 

Surge of Survey Revenues

The beauty of the gift card is two-fold…. You are collecting excellent intel from your patients to improve your practice. And you get a surge of business from a good number of patients who redeem their gift card.

The survey is a great strategy to re-engage with patients who haven’t been in lately, find lost patients who left and would love a reason to return, as well as your regular patients who are ready for more cosmetic rejuvenation.

This is a win-win for patients and for you!

Data Collected from Surveys

This is where the real work begins. You now want to address the feedback you receive. 

If only one patient comments on something, note it but don’t act on it in a big way.

You are looking for trends. My rule of thumb is if 3 or more patients comment on a particular staff person or process, you need to address it immediately.  

Fixing just one aspect of your practice can change everything and get your revenues moving in the right direction. 

For example, a practice received negative comments about their long-term aesthetician. She was burnt-out and it showed in her service (or lack thereof) so it was time to make a change. Their skin care revenues increased by 25% when they replaced her. 

The patient survey is an important tool to help you identify and fix the problem areas costing you patients and revenues so plan on doing a survey at least annually.

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"Catherine outlined a plan that put key metrics in place, gave us a clear plan to follow throughout the year and trained our staff to increase their conversions by at least 10%. Since engaging with Catherine, I’m happy to report that revenues are up 15% over the last three months - 22% in the last month alone! I highly recommend Catherine’s consulting services to any practice looking for “best practice” additions to their operation."
Robert Sigal, MD
Robert Sigal, MD
"I have finally tapped into the most efficient way to grow my cosmetic practice and that is to “fish in the pond of my own patients”. When patients return to my practice, over 85% will purchase another service, product, or procedure. Not only was it worth over $200,000 in revenues this past year, it also reminds my patients I’m still around so they don’t wander off to my competitors. Catherine’s group has far exceeded our expectations and goals we had set up for them to achieve."
Victor Ferrari, MD
Victor Ferrari, MD
"Our consult conversions were running at 40-50%. Then we attended Catherine’s online training and implemented her strategies. They immediately increased conversion rates to 75-80%."
Anthony Corrado, MD
Anthony Corrado, MD
"I know how to run a profitable practice; however, it was not without major staff issues, inefficiencies and unproductive drama. With Catherine's guidance, I reorganized staff, set up processes for them to carry more of the workload and hold them accountable so I have more time to focus on patient care. The changes we put in place and the staff training to convert more callers and consultations will easily increase my revenues by 15% as well as save us time, money and costly mistakes. "
Evan Sorokin, MD
Evan Sorokin, MD
"Working with Catherine and her team has been very profitable. We’re only half way through the year and I’m up $200K and I’m booked out for the next 2 months even though we typically go into our slow summer months now. Her recent promotion brought in an extra $63,782 with more surgeries scheduled. I never realized how much money was sitting in my patient list but I’m a believer now!"
Robert Langdon, MD
Robert Langdon, MD
"Catherine Maley has one of the best Marketing Minds in the aesthetic industry, bar none. She understands the aesthetic patient and she also understands the challenges and frustrations we face as aesthetic surgeons. You will benefit from Catherine's tools whether you are new in practice or a seasoned professional.Turn to Catherine for guidance - she knows what she's talking about."
Edwin Williams, MD
Edwin Williams, MD
“Catherine’s Cosmetic Patient Marketing Service has been a great addition to our practice-building overall plan. While we still invest in our online presence, we also found immense value in the internal marketing efforts. We especially like that all results are tracked so we know we are getting a great return ... last year it was 1,148% and no staff time was used. That’s a much easier way to grow my cosmetic practice.”
Mark Mason, MD
Mark Mason, MD
"Catherine Maley turned our practice around. We converted more consultations in one week than we did in an entire month. Our practice went from a painful 50% no show rate to a remarkable 85% show rate. Even more impressive was our close ratio - from 35% to 80% and still increasing. We would recommend her to any practice that’s looking to not only increase their profits today, but sustain a healthy flow of income for many years to come. Thanks Catherine!"
Sam Assassa, MD
Sam Assassa, MD
"Catherine found me the best patient care coordinator I could have asked for. She worked out a payment plan that was fair to me and motivating to my coordinator. She also provided training tools to help my coordinator convert better, even though she was already experienced. The results have been phenomenal. So good, in fact, that my income increased 250% and I’m booked out for 3 months. Don’t waste any more time or money doing it yourself. Outsource to someone you trust!"
Andrew Lofman, MD
Andrew Lofman, MD
"Since we’ve been working with Catherine and her team for the past 5 months, we’ve brought in $79K in surgeries and have booked an additional 17 surgical procedures and 20 non-invasive body procedures since then. This does not include the additional new patient referrals and revenues we are seeing from the on-going nurturing of my current patient database."
Verne Weisberg, MD
Verne Weisberg, MD
"I had given my staff the goal to convert at least $35K per week in surgeries AND I gave them the tools to help which was Catherine’s Online Learning Center at More Patients Academy. They watched Catherine’s modules and implemented her strategies and converted $80K! That equaled a 2,550% ROI. Nice!"
Adam Stein, MD
Adam Stein, MD
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Catherine Maley

Catherine Maley

Catherine is a business/marketing consultant to plastic surgeons. She speaks at medical conferences all over the world on practice building, marketing and the business side of plastic surgery. Get a Free Copy of her popular book, Your Aesthetic Practice: What Your Patients Are Saying View Author Profile.

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