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Follow Up on Plastic Surgery Leads

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Follow Up on Plastic Surgery Leads

If you want to grow your cosmetic revenues, you must fix your follow up on leads that are NOT converting.

It costs you time, money and effort to attract these patient leads to you, so you can’t afford to waste any more time or money on marketing if you are not converting these leads….

It’s too competitive, crowded and expensive NOT to do everything within your control to convert these Internet leads into paid procedures.

Follow Up Stats

As you can see from the following stats, it’s very common for staff to ignore/forget about leads that came in but did not convert right away.

  • 48% NEVER Follow Up
  • Average First Follow Up is 72 Hours Later
  • Only 25% of practices make 2 contact attempts
  • 64% of practices do not have an organized way to follow up on a lead

But then how frustrating is it for the plastic surgeon to spend a ton of money, staff time and resources on internet marketing for new cosmetic patient leads only to have those very leads come in as prospective patients and leave as prospective patients….STILL.

You might as well throw money down the drain when you don’t do all you can to see these active leads through to paid procedures.

Here’s a typical consultation scenario…

Hmmm….

You thought you had a great consultation with your prospective patient, Sara.Follow Up on Plastic Surgery Leads

Sara had a good consultation with you and your staff and she asked lots of questions and you had a good connection…at least you thought you did.

But then you find out from your coordinator Sara ended up saying, “I gotta think about it” and walked out the door.

Now what? Maybe your staff emails or calls them and then they are dropped in the “dead leads” file.

You move onto the next consultation that you hope converts and the cycle of waste continues…

Why Don’t Cosmetic Patients Convert?

Since cosmetic rejuvenation is a very personal as well as emotional decision, there are all sorts of reasons why prospective patients don’t book….MAYBE:

  • They have other consultations lined up
  • They don’t have a comfortable way to pay for it
  • They’re confused about something you said so now they will research it more before
    deciding to move forward

Or maybe…..

They received bad news that morning or

They got flack from their family when they told them about meeting with you;

Or a dozen other benign things could have happened that had nothing to do with you.

It could have had everything to do with the patient’s frame of mind at the time that prevented them from moving forward.

The point is people change, their moods change and their circumstances change so you can never assume anything.

What Do You Do When You Can’t Convert Consultations?

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.

When you follow up on plastic surgery leads, use these strategies and close more procedures:

Follow Up Protocol

Follow Up Process for Plastic Surgeons

Develop a follow up protocol like this one above that spells out how, when and what to follow-up on revenue-generating consultations that didn’t book….YET.

Otherwise, it’s too easy to never get around to following up because there are a million other things to do.

Protocol takes the emotion out of it and it becomes what you do automatically…no matter how busy you are.

Collapse Time When Following Up

Collapse Time When Following Up on Leads

Time is your enemy in the follow up process. The more time that goes by without the prospective patient hearing from you, the more distant you become to them.

Collapse time by following up quickly, repeatedly and often. That’s how you differentiate yourself from your competitors who follow up weeks later (or never).

Add a Sense of Urgency when You Follow Up on Plastic Surgery Leads

Since its human nature for prospective patients to put off making a big decision, you want to counter with a sense of urgency to get the patient off the fence. Give them very compelling reasons to stop procrastinating when you follow up on plastic surgery leads. For example:

  1. Your schedule is filling up quickly so book now or you’ll have to wait
  2. Your prices are going up next month
  3. If they can have surgery on a Wednesday next month, they get a $500 price reduction
  4. If you want it done before [wedding, summer, etc], they need to take into account the
    recovery time (IE., even though the downtime is less than 7 days, they are still a bit
    limited in activity like swimming and dancing), so they’ll want to get it done before this [date].

You need to customize these to your liking and use them in your standard protocol so you get comfortable telling the prospective patient WHY they need to make a decision now rather than later.

The most successful cosmetic practices have systems in place to follow up quickly, strategically and consistently. They spent a lot of time, money and effort attracting prospective patients so they do all they can to see it through to a YES.

These fix your follow up for plastic surgeons strategies “pave the way” for your staff to do all they can to confidently convert these valuable consultations.

If you need help with your follow up on plastic surgery leads, let’s do a call to set up your own customized plan to follow up on plastic surgery leads.

Follow Up on Plastic Surgery Leads

Case Study When You Follow Up on Plastic Surgery Leads

When your staff has the proper training and strategies, they will be able to convert at extra 15% of your leads which bumps your revenues up significantly. See for yourself in this case study:

Follow Up Case Study for Following Up on Plastic Surgery Leads

 

So, rather than spend more or advertise for more leads, they focused on the follow up on plastic surgery leads on the leads they already had, and it didn’t cost them an extra dime.

However, this windfall allows this plastic surgery practice to either pocket the savings or increase their ad spend budget to compete on google adwords.

Win Back Lost Patients with Follow Up

Winning back lost customers is frequently the most overlooked source for incremental profit. Research studies tell us that a business is twice as likely to successfully sell to a lost customer as to a brand new prospect.

Here are reasons first-time buyers do not return:

  1. rude or indifferent staff
  2. inconsistent results
  3. inconsistent experience
  4. long waiting times
  5. Money discrepancies/misunderstandings
  6. Being ignored

Have your staff track the percentage of first-time patients who became repeat patients.Then research the reasons they did NOT return and address those issues before you lose any more.

If you contact patients who haven’t been back, three great things happen:

First, you have an excellent opportunity to renew your relationship.

The second benefit is that you have begun to stop the negative publicity. The patient knows that you care about them and tells others.

Finally, as your last benefit, you’ll identify what’s wrong within your processes so you can take immediate steps to correct the problem and prevent it from occurring with other cosmetic patients.

Great questions to ask during your next team meeting would be a good start:

– How many patients do we lose each year?
– What would it cost us to keep those patients?
– How does this cost compare with the cost of finding new patients?

Your Patient List is an Asset

An up-to-date list of your current patients is the most valuable list you can own.

These patients chose you for cosmetic rejuvenation and gave you money. That means they know, like and trust you. That’s more than half the battle.

You can use your list to help motivate your current patients to return more often, spend more when they buy at each visit, and refer more of their friends.

Your list also gives you the ability to segment names into subgroups and to personally address their needs and give them a compelling reason to return.

For example, segment a list of anyone who has had Botox but not fillers. Your message would talk about the advantages of fillers and include a special offer on their first filler treatment.

Click here for all the strategies for Plastic Surgery Marketing: What’s Working Now.

 

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TESTIMONIALS

5/5
"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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