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Patient Reviews Marketing for Plastic Surgeons

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Patient Reviews for Plastic Surgeons

Prospective plastic surgery patients count on patient reviews marketing to help them decide which plastic surgeon is right for them.

What other patients say gives them reassurance they are choosing wisely and it helps them avoid regret is choosing poorly.

That’s why you want to focus on good patient online reviews since reviews have become EVERYTHING for a plastic surgery practice to attract new patients and grow.

Online review Stats

The stats below how much weight reviews have when consumers are trying to make a good decision:

#1 – 72% of Consumers Trust Online Reviews as Much as Personal Word-of-Mouth Referrals.

#2 – 90% of Customers Say Buying Decisions Are Influenced by Online Reviews

#3 – Doctors are the SECOND most reviewed search group with restaurants being the first. (BrightLocal)

Here is some more crazy reality for you. In today’s social media world, patient online reviews have become as significant as your skills as a surgeon. Yikes!

A surgeon can be excellent at his kraft yet stir up negativity by keeping the patient waiting too long or be dismissive or staff is rude and that can start a stream of bad reviews that will haunt you forever.

Prospective cosmetic patients see that “bad press” and, since they have so much choice, decide to go elsewhere.

That means what OTHERS say about you is infinitely more important than what YOU are saying about you on your Website and in your advertising.

So, do NOT leave this to chance. They are one of the most important plastic surgery marketing: what’s working now strategies to build trust and credibility between you and new cosmetic patients.

Why Patient Reviews Are So Important

Positive patient reviews are great for marketing your practice because they do so much of the heavy lifting for you such as:

  • More prospective patients are attracted to you to learn more
  • Google sees you as credible and ranks you better in the search results
  • This social proof helps prospective patients say yes to you

Patients reviews are the closest to word-of-mouth you can get. Since they are so vital to your online footprint, you can hope they happen, or you can proactively set up systems to make them happen a whole lot more often.

Patient Reviews Marketing

By the way, if you want to see your own reviews, simple type, “your name, MD reviews” into the google search box and see what comes up:

Which Review Sites?

There are numerous consumer review sites to help the general public find a reputable plastic surgeon and these are the most used for our industry:

Google

Yelp

Webmd.com

Healthgrades.com

Vitals.com

Angieslist.com

Realself.com

Realpatientratings.com

Since a patient is not likely to post a review on all of them, I would prioritize with google and Yelp being the top two since google will help your search rankings and patients love Yelp (even though you may not).

How Do You Get Great Reviews?

This is a given…A good review starts with a happy patient who was treated well and got a good result. They like you and feel a connection with you.

Be sure your staff, office, ambiance and processes are set up for a 5-star patient experience. Once you have that right, here are patient review strategies that work well:

Suggestion Box

In order to get the most candid feedback, display a suggestion box for your patients to stop by after checking out from that day’s visit. This not only gives you great feedback, it can also stop a bad review from happening when the patient was able to vent their frustration if something didn’t go well.

Suggestion Box for Patient Reviews

 

Patient Survey

I highly recommend conducting a patient survey for your cosmetic patients at least annually to get their feedback. You’ll learn so much about what’s working or not.

A survey should be digital, quick and easy to complete and include a compelling reason to do it ($50 Gift Card towards their next visit works well).

It tells your patients you care about them and you are listening to them with the intent to improve their experience with you and your staff.

Vendor Review Automated System

Patient Reviews Marketing

You can also use one of the vendor online review systems where you hand your patient an ipad to complete the review process right then and there. If the review is good, they will upload it to the various review sites (be sure they can upload to google).

It’s similar to the suggestion box and a great idea but it has drawbacks. The patient might feel bamboozled and pressured to leave you a good review and/or they may hurry through it by giving you the stars but no comments and that defeats the purpose.

No matter how you do it, the trick is to get way more HAPPY patients giving you 5-star plastic surgery online patient reviews than unhappy patients.

For example, some of your high-maintenance patients may have criticized your staff and you unfairly in their review, so you need to drown them out with the patients who are happy with your work and with their experience with you.

Here are the steps to follow to get great plastic surgery online reviews quickly:

Patient selection and timing is crucial.Patient Reviews for Plastic Surgeons

You need to catch your patient when they are gushing about you and their result.

Most likely, that is at their post-op appointment when they are looking good and feeling ECSTATIC about their result.

This is when YOU, the surgeon, ask them for a review in a comfortable way; i.e.,

“Susan, I’m so glad you’re happy with your result. Can you please do me a favor? You know how important online reviews are for others who are also looking for a good result. Would you mind writing a review?

Detailed Instructions

Now your staff meets with your cosmetic patient to go over the contents of your patient review kit.

Focus on google. Find out if your patient has a Gmail account set up. If they don’t, offer to set up the account for them so they can then write the review at home on their own computer.

Or, better yet, have them write the review right now, in your office, from their cell phone.

So, the plastic surgery patient online review kit contains:Patient Review KitPatient Review Instructions

-Introductory heartfelt letter

-Instructions for posting a review online

-Starbuck gift card*

*While you never want to pay anyone for a review, you can certainly thank them for their time in a small way.

What is a Good Plastic Surgery Online Patient Review?

 One of the biggest reasons your happy patients don’t give you a review is that they are busy. You are asking them to stop their day and write something that will go out to the world.

Help them help you. The introductory letter includes starter sentences for them to complete since a good review tells a full story; i.e.,

I wanted to improve ___________because ________

I chose Dr. Smith because _____________________

My experience with the doctor and staff was _________

How I feel about my result _____________________

 Follow Up

If your patient does NOT upload a review within 48 hours, have the same staff person who walked them through the review kit call them and say,

“Hi Susan, Dr. Smith and I are looking forward to your review and haven’t seen it yet.
Is there anything I can help you with?

Most likely, that will prompt them to do it now.

Thank Them!

Thank them in any way that really shows your appreciation. That could be a simple phone call, a handwritten letter, a little extra Botox at their next visit, etc.

There is a saying “Behavior that is rewarded is repeated? Just be sure your patient knows how much you appreciate their support.

This strategy works. A plastic surgery practice followed these instructions and handed out 12 packets and within 21 days, they had 7 new plastic surgery patient online reviews.

Please get together with your team and come with a process to create your own patient reviews marketing plan to get a steady flow of plastic surgery patient reviews. It’s that important to your success.

Patient reviews are a funny thing. Most practices don’t pay much attention to them until they get a bad one and it’s too late.

Please see reviews as a vital part of your marketing plan that you plan and monitor carefully.

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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