Ep.64: Number One Stress of a Plastic Surgeon
One of the biggest stresses of a cosmetic practice is finding a solid patient attraction plan you can count on to bring in new patients.
All you need is a proven method for maintaining a relationship with those patients, building trust, and encouraging them to return, refer, review and share you on social.
FREE Advice Call with Catherine
The #1 Stress of a plastic surgeon
It doesn’t matter if you’ve been in practice 5 years or 20 years…
One of the biggest stresses of a cosmetic practice is finding a solid patient attraction plan you can count on to bring in new patients.
Nothing else matters. Not your new office, your new laser or your killer IG videos.
If you don’t have cosmetic patients saying yes to you and giving you money, you’re in big trouble.
Think of cosmetic patients as your oxygen. When you have a steady flow of them saying yes to you, you breath easy.
When you don’t, your breathing is cut off and you won’t survive for long.
And it never quits. The anxiety. Even when you’re booked out for months, aren’t you waiting for the other shoe to drop?
The well was running over and now it’s dry.
On the other hand….
When you have a solid patient attraction system in place, you breathe easy.
=========
But here is what usually happens…
Whenever most surgeons decide to grow their practices, they start with the most expensive and costly option available — trying to get new patients.
So they spend a small fortune trying to get these “stranger Internet patients” while they leave untapped profits in their backyards.
For some reason, there is something seductive about going after new patients instead of ethically garnering more profit from your existing patient files.
But please keep in mind, The most expensive act you can ever participate in is to find a new “Internet stranger” patient.
I’m just saying, it behooves you to have a balanced plan and budget for externally advertising for new “internet stranger” patients AND internally advertising to your current patients.
To illustrate my point, I want to tell you a quick story.
There’s this farmer who hears of the massive fortunes being made by people mining diamonds. He decides his life is stuck in a rut and he is tired of farming his land because of all the stupid rocks on the property. Rocks all over the place. He can’t walk 2 yards without nearly falling over these little boulders. He thinks his land is absolutely useless for farming or for anything else.
So he decides to set out for his fortune. But first, he sells his worthless land to make some money so he can leave.
After wasting all his money in a fruitless search for a diamond mine, he returns home. When he gets back, he finds out his old property is now the site of the largest diamond mine in the country.
Those rocks he kept tripping over were really diamonds in the rough! He literally had a fortune at his feet but did not realize it – Does that sound familiar?
The same thing applies here. Most surgeons never realize the immense profit potential in their own patient database.
Before you write this off, think about how much money and time you have spent building goodwill and trust by servicing your patient base. It’s been thousands and thousands of dollars and countless hours.
That’s where all your leverage is because you’ve done the hard part already.
You already spent the time, money and effort attracting these patients to you, so it’s time to turn these happy patients into your unpaid sales ambassadors who grow your practice organically from the inside out.
All you need is a proven method for maintaining a relationship with those patients, building trust, and encouraging them to return, refer, review and share you on social.
Let’s start with:
Returning Patients
The beauty of our industry (pun intended) is that you have built-in demand with your current patients because a cosmetic patient who cares about how they look today, will still care next month, next year and next decade.
That means if you have a list of 2,000 patients but only 100 “regulars”, where did the other 1900 go? Yes, some of them moved away; however, the majority of them went elsewhere to continue their cosmetic rejuvenation treatments and procedures.
And, it’s usually NOT because they didn’t get a great result from you. It’s because you’ve been ignoring them so they wandered off to your competitors who treat them better.
The simple solution is to keep in touch with them so they don’t forget about you.
Now let’s talk about
Word-of-Mouth Referrals
Your current patients are your best advertisement when it comes to bringing you new patients.
This not only significantly reduces spending on new patient advertising, it also increases patient retention, which is a very good thing.
Why?
Because referred patients have a higher conversion rate than “Internet stranger patients”. Referred patients also spend more per transaction and are more likely to return, so their lifetime value is much greater.
This makes patient referral programs the most cost-effective AND lucrative marketing strategy that your practice can possibly employ.
By the way, you can learn a lot when looking at how other industries use referral programs to grow their businesses. Here are a few:
PayPal. They literally gave away free money, and it worked out great for them. And this was before social media!
Airbnb. A single user in China led to thousands of signups and hundreds of bookings in a single month.
Uber. They’ve been in a unique position to run multiple referral programs at once – for both users and for drivers.
Tesla. $1,000 for both advocate and friend, with quite a star-studded list of advocates!
Amazon Prime. Likely one of the most heavily used referral programs in recent times.
Google. When the front page of the Internet decides to run a referral program, it’s worth looking into.
Obviously, you are not going to pay cash for patient referrals due to fee-splitting issues in our industry; however, that is no reason to close your mind to a referral program.
You may not be allowed to pay for referrals directly like other businesses can, but you are certainly allowed to grow your practice strategically and ethically, so it makes sense to figure out a deliberate, systematic way of encouraging patients to refer you to others.
Then there are reviews
Social proof is everything in our industry because your surgical services are intangible. Your perspective patients can only go by your before and after photos and what others say about you.
In my converting club where I train coordinators to convert more consultations, we review why the patients said yes when choosing that surgeon over the competitors and oftentimes, it was because the prospective pateints loved their reviews.
But you can’t “hope” your current patients will spread the word about you.
Between their hectic work schedules and never-ending list of social and family obligations, your marketing strategy is the last thing on their minds so you Need creative ways to make reviews happen more often .
Lastly, Is social media
encouraging your patients to brag about you to their friends and followers on social media helps you get in front of new perspective cosmetic patients who otherwise would never know you exist.
But you want to regulate this to keep it upscale and professional . The easiest way to do that is to have your staff bond with your patients and find out how active they are on social media.
Then have your staff video you performing a treatment on the patient or consulting with the patient or answering their questions or have the patient show off their post-op result.
That way, You gain instant trust and credibility with perspective patients because that patient’s followers trust them and now they trust you too. It’s called transference of credibility so use it anytime there’s an opportunity.
OK so to wrap this up, I want to urge you to think more strategically about Patient attraction in the future, because patient retention needs to be part of your plan.
It’s just going to get more expensive and complicated so try the easier, faster and cheaper way.
You really do have a goldmine in your current patient list and I would be happy to mine it for you if you don’t want to. I guarantee there are diamonds there.
Subscribe
review
Feedback
catherinemaleymba
Transcript
Beauty and the Biz
Ep.64: Number One Stress of a Plastic Surgeon
Catherine Maley, MBA: Hello and welcome to Beauty and the Biz where we talk about the business and marketing side of plastic surgery. I’m your host, Catherine Maley, author of Your Aesthetic Practice and consultant to plastic surgeons to get them more patients and profits. Today I want to talk about the Number One Stress of a Plastic Surgeon. And this is the reality, it doesn’t matter if you’ve been in practice five years or 20 years, one of the biggest stresses of a cosmetic practice is finding a solid patient attraction plan you can count on to bring in new patients, nothing else matters, not your new office, not your new laser or not even your killer Instagram videos. If you don’t have cosmetic patients saying yes to you and giving you money, you’re in big trouble. I mean, think about cosmetic patients as your oxygen. When you have a steady flow of them saying yes to you, you breathe easy. When you don’t, your breathing is cut off and you won’t survive for long. And it never stops, the anxiety even when you’re booked out for months. I know so many surgeons still waiting for the other shoe to drop as it did recently with COVID. The well was running over and then it just dried up. But on the other hand, when you’ve got a solid patient attraction system in place, you can breathe easy. But here’s what usually happens. Whenever most surgeons decide to grow their practices, they start with the most expensive and costly option available trying to get new patients. So, they spend a small fortune trying to get these stranger internet patients while they leave untapped profits in their backyard. For some reason, there’s something very seductive about going after new patients instead of ethically garnering more profit from your existing patients. Please keep in mind, the most expensive act you can ever participate in is to find a new internet stranger patient, it’s going to cost you a fortune. I’m just saying. It behooves you to have a balanced plan and budget for externally advertising for new internet stranger patients and internally advertising to your current patients. So, to illustrate my point, I want to tell you a quick story. There’s this farmer who hears of the massive fortunes being made by people mining diamonds. Now he decides his life is stuck in a rut and he’s tired of farming his land because of all these stupid rocks on the property. The rocks are all over the place, he can’t walk two yards without nearly falling all over these little boulders. He thinks his land is absolutely useless for farming or for anything else for that matter. So, he decides to set out for his fortune. But first, he sells his worthless land to make some money so he can leave. Now after wasting all of his money in a fruitless search for a diamond mind, he returns home. When he gets back, he finds out his old property is now the site of the largest diamond mined in the country. Those rocks he kept tripping over, were really diamonds in the rough. He literally had a fortune at his feet but he didn’t realize it, does that sound familiar? The same thing applies here. Most surgeons never realize the immense profit potential in their own patient database. Now before you write this off, think about how much money and time you spent building goodwill and trust by servicing your patient base. It’s been 1000s and 1000s of dollars in countless hours. That’s where all your leverages because you’ve already done the hard part, you already spent the time, the money and the effort of attracting these patients to you. So, it’s time to turn these happy patients into your unpaid sales ambassadors who grow your practice organically from the inside out. All you need is a proven method for maintaining a relationship with those patients, building trust and encouraging them to return, refer, review and share you on social. So, let’s start with returning patients. The beauty of our industry, pun intended is that you have built in demand with your current patients because a cosmetic patient who cares about how they look, they care today, they’re still going to care next month and next year and next decade. Trust me on this one, I know this one personally. That means if you have a list of 2000 patients in your database but you only have 100 regulars, where did the other 1900 go? Yes, some of them moved away. However, the majority of them went elsewhere to continue their cosmetic rejuvenation treatments and procedures. And it’s usually not because they didn’t get a great result from you that they disappeared, it’s because you’ve been ignoring them so they wandered off to your competitors to treat them better. The simple solution is to keep in touch with them so they don’t forget about you.
Now, let’s talk about word-of-mouth referrals. Your current patients are your best advertisement when it comes to bringing new patients. This not only significantly reduces spending on new patient advertising, it also increases patient retention which is a very good thing. Why is that? Because referred patients have a higher conversion rate than internet stranger patients. Referred patients also spend more per transaction and are more likely to return, so their lifetime value is much greater. This makes patient referral programs the most cost effective and lucrative marketing strategy that your practice can possibly employ. By the way, you can learn a lot when looking at how other industries use referral programs to grow their businesses. And here are a few PayPal, they literally gave away free money and it worked out great for them. And this was before social media. Airbnb, a single user in China led to 1000s of signups and hundreds of bookings in a single month. Uber, they’ve been in a unique position to run multiple referral programs at once, for both users and for drivers. Tesla $1,000 for both the advocate and the friend, with quite a star-studded list of advocates. Amazon Prime, likely one of the most heavily used referral programs in recent times. And then of course the big gorilla Google. When the front page of the internet decides to run a referral program, it’s worth looking into. So obviously, you’re not going to pay cash for patient referrals due to fee splitting issues in our industry. However, there’s no reason to close your mind to a referral program. So, you may not be allowed to pay for referrals directly like other businesses can but you’re certainly allowed to grow your practice strategically and ethically. So, it makes sense to figure out a deliberate, systematic way of encouraging patients to refer you to others. Then there are reviews. Now social proof is everything in our industry because your surgical services are intangible, nobody can see your skill and expertise, you have to prove it some other way. So, your prospective patients can only go by your before and after photos and what others say about you. Now in my converting club where I train coordinators to convert more consultations, we review why the patient said yes when choosing that surgeon over the competitors. And oftentimes, it was because the prospective patients loved their reviews. But you can’t hope your current patients will spread the word about you. between their hectic work schedule and their never-ending list of social and family obligations, your marketing strategy is and the last thing on their minds. So, you need creative ways to make reviews happen more often.
And then lastly is social media. encouraging your patients to brag about you to their friends and followers on social media helps you get in front of new prospective cosmetic patients who otherwise would never know you exist. But you want to regulate this to keep it upscale and professional. Now the easiest way to do that is to have your staff bond with your patients and find out how active they are on social media, then have your staff video you performing a treatment on that patient or consulting with that patient or answering their questions or have the patient show off their post op results. That way you gain instant trust and credibility with prospective patients because that patient’s followers trust them, and now they trust you too. It’s actually called transference of credibility, so use it anytime there’s an opportunity. Okay, so to wrap this up, I want to urge you to think more strategically about patient attraction in the future. Because patient retention needs to be part of your plan. It’s just going to be way more expensive as we go along. It’s getting way more complicated. So, try the easier faster and cheaper way. You really do have a goldmine in your current patient list. And I’d be happy to mine it for you if you don’t want to do it but I guarantee there are diamonds there. So please get ahold of me and let me just talk to you about what your options are, it’s so easy. My whole career by the way, after 20 years, my whole career has always been on this. And this was before. I mean, I don’t know how many recessions I’ve been through now, I guess a couple and then COVID of course and then you know we’ve had fires and floods and I’m sure waves coming soon. But anyway, what I’ve watched happen is exactly what I said, most surgeons are so focused on throwing money at Internet stranger patients that they forget about the very patient who built their practice for them to begin with. And now some of you say to me, oh, but they just refer on their own, they don’t need my help. But that’s not true. They’re seriously not thinking about you, we’ve all got pretty busy lives now. And it’s complicated. And I think you need a real formatted plan that you can count on that gives you that peace of mind you’re looking for, which is a steady flow of cosmetic patients. Okay, so that’s it for today. I hope that was helpful to you. Please subscribe to Beauty and the Biz. And if you are so inclined, I’d love a nice five-star review. And then if you’ve got any feedback or questions for me, please just leave me a message on my website at catherinemaley.com or you can also DM me on Instagram at Catherine Maley, MBA. Thanks for listening and we’ll talk soon.
