Ep.66: What’s Working Now Interview
Sharon Thompson of Thompson Plastic Surgery shares the great results they’ve had with the “KiSS Club” to boost revenue with this turn-key strategy.
With an ROI of over 2000%, and all marketing done for the practice, it’s easier, cheaper, more predictable, and also more fun for the patients!
Thompson Plastic Surgery:
https://www.ThompsonPlasticSurgeryCenter.com
Catherine’s FREE Book:
http://bit.ly/CatherinesFreeBook
FREE Advice Call with Catherine: http://bit.ly/FreeCallWithCatherine
Beauty and the Biz
Ep.66: What’s Working Now Interview
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 more profits. Now I’ve spent my career helping plastic surgeons grow their cosmetic revenues. And that never changes. But what does change are the tactics to make that happen. So, here’s an update, we have a new approach to growing your cosmetic revenues that’s working better than anything else we’ve done in the past three years. In a nutshell, it’s a patient attraction, conversion and retention system, all rolled into one and the ROI has been insane at over 2,000%. Now we get these results without discounting or spending more on advertising or hiring more staff. So, in this week’s podcast of Beauty and the Biz, I interviewed Sharon Thompson from the Thompson Plastic Surgery Center in New Jersey, a very competitive area, to talk about how this strategy has grown their own practice, enjoy. Hello, it’s Catherine Maley, author of Your Aesthetic Practice and we’ve got a new approach to grow cosmetic revenues for plastic surgery practices. And in a nutshell, it’s a patient attraction conversion retention system that is all built into one. And we do all of the marketing for you and all the work for you. So, it’s very easy on the practice to initiate this into their practice. So, I invited Sharon Thompson of the Thompson Plastic Surgery Center of New Jersey, to come on and talk about her own experience with this new strategy and how it’s built her own practice. So, Sharon, thanks so much for coming.
Sharon Thompson: Thank you. Thanks for inviting me. Great to be here. And I love to talk about the kiss program. It’s been working so great for us ever since we launched it.
Catherine Maley, MBA: I really appreciate your time. And I’m not going to take a ton of it. But because I know you run a busy practice, but to start out by saying describe your practice.
Sharon Thompson: Sure. Well, Dr. Thompson is a solo practitioner. He’s been in practice for 20 years. And he had been in another practice for about nine years. And then 11 years ago decided to go off on his own, he asked me, Hey, can you help me open up a new practice? And I didn’t know a whole lot about it. But I was very excited. And here we are 11 years later, and it’s been wonderful.
Catherine Maley, MBA: You’re in New Jersey? Is it a super competitive area of New Jersey?
Sharon Thompson: It is and not only are there a lot of other plastic surgeons dermatologists in our area, but there’s also a lot of med spas. And you know, there’s a lot of competition around us. But I think the most important thing is just to differentiate yourself. And you know, be good to your patients, you get that patient retention. And then you know, they keep coming back year after year and refer to their family and friends, which is really what it’s all about.
Catherine Maley, MBA: I say that all the time. Plastic Surgeons always tell me when we talk about competition, they always tell me, oh, I’m about the other plastic surgeons in their area. And it’s just so much more than that. Because a patient who wants to look good can now go to a plastic surgeon, a dermatologist and an internist, a med spa. And it goes on and on. So, I’m glad you’re realizing that and, and you’re doing something about it. So, tell me how did kiss get on your radar? It’s called the kiss rewards club, and how did they get on your radar? And what made you say yes to it?
Sharon Thompson: Sure. So, it’s something that I had seen your emails about over time, and it always intrigued me. I’ve known about you for years since we opened up the practice, you were actually really good help. To me personally into our office, when we were opening the practice. As you know, as I said before, I didn’t have any experience prior to 11 years ago, when we opened. So, reading your books, and you know, your CDs and scripts and you know, all that stuff really helped me a lot. So, I get your emails and because the rewards program was really focused on patient retention and reaching out to those existing patients, rather than throwing a big net out onto the internet or, you know, something more of a bigger advertising investment. This was not a break the bank investment. But it’s made a lot of sense to me for so many reasons. And so, I said let’s give it a try. And I’m glad that we did.
Catherine Maley, MBA: Thank you so much. How was the onboarding for you? Because a lot of the practices say, Oh, I can’t add anything else. The front desk is saturated. How was that for you?
Sharon Thompson: Right, right. So that was available. Very simple process, I was very nervous about that too. But the team of yours that I worked with everyone– very easy to work with, I got everything done, any questions that I have, they were very responsive, got back to me right away, and it was very smooth, seamless, and smooth. So, I highly recommend and don’t think that people practice, you shouldn’t be afraid of the onboarding process, because that was very simple.
Catherine Maley, MBA: Great. Now, what benefits are you getting from the kiss rewards club? And I know one of them. You said, I love that it changed the conversation with my patients. Can you talk about that?
Sharon Thompson: Yes, definitely. Um, I’m sure all of you know practices get the same kinds of phone calls, you know, you have any specials, or specials us. And you know, it’s not that we still don’t have specials, but we don’t have we’ve reduced the number of specials we’d rather build value, as opposed to offering discounts. You know, that’s what we would prefer to focus on. And this enables us to do that. So, that conversation if somebody calls, you know, do you have any specials, you can go right into the conversation about kiss rewards. And it’s great, you know, it’s an easy way to say yes, and just kind of, you know, go into more detail about it, and people get excited about it, they love collecting things, and then redeeming things, it just feels nice. And you know, people are really enjoying it.
Catherine Maley, MBA: That’s exactly what the psychology was behind this. It’s not your typical rewards program. It’s more about collecting kisses. And that’s another thing that keeps you out of trouble. You’re not doing any fee splitting; you’re not giving anybody money for referrals. But it’s literally every dollar equals a kiss. And then you collect kisses to then get free Botox, fillers or lasers. And yeah, typically, this is for non-surgical procedures, because the writing is on the wall, and it is so competitive now. And the market is so saturated, how are you going to enter this marketplace? By lowering your price? So, then you have to deal with that in the marketplace? What then do you do to lower your price? Or do you add more value? And that’s what– you have such a step ahead of everybody else in the area of who’s new and up and coming because you already have a patient list and who knows, likes and trusts you. And so, it’s so logical to me that you can still do external marketing. But please, the easier, faster, cheaper way is to hang on to the patients you already spent a fortune to get in the first place. So yeah, it was a natural fit for us. And really, well, you had a very good customer service. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What would you say? That’s also super helpful. It can’t, I mean, I can’t work with a practice where they don’t care about customer service. And they have that one and done mentality, and you don’t have a very friendly kind of practice. Um, it wasn’t always like that, or you are pretty friendly.
Sharon Thompson: It’s always been like that. It’s always been about relationships. Since the minute we opened the door. And even prior to that, because as he said, Dr. Thompson was in another practice for nine years prior to opening this one. And a lot of his patients came over and followed him, which I thought was fantastic. You know, we love that we welcome them. And, you know, in the same holds true with new patients that have come along, you know, from, we get phone calls from it, I mean, especially since we reopened after the pandemic closure and everything like that. A lot of patients for many, many years ago have surfaced. And that’s been wonderful, too. So, we welcome new patients, existing patients, family, friends, you know, but guess it’s all about our relationship is not the, as opposed to the one and done definitely, that’s not what we are for.
Catherine Maley, MBA: You know what? One of the features is that we are sending emails and social posts, we’re doing all the marketing, because here’s the goal is to take a patient who likes you, and turn them into a rabid fan. And too many practices assume that and we all know what that means. Assume that they’re patients, of course, they’ll refer Of course they’ll return. There’s no course anymore. You really have to have a strategy to build those golden handcuffs around a patient and so they actually do talk about you on social in their bed, a barbecue when talking to a friend. You can’t assume any of that because it doesn’t. People are so busy today and so saturated with information that your marketing strategy is not our plan. So, the goal of Kiss was to get your patient to Uber, you know, recode or Uber return and just step it all up. Sorry, my talks
Sharon Thompson: We don’t have a dog here.
Catherine Maley, MBA: Oh, you’ve got a lot of real time. Okay, we’re just going to — through and hopefully he stops. So, share, are there any benefits that Oh, let me backup. Another thing just does here was another point, it was to reward your patients for good behavior more or less, because that’s what we all have been programmed to do like a gold star. So, we give kisses. Um, have you noticed, though, like, what they say to us things like, Oh, I referred a friend to you now, or I posted on social because I’ve noticed you’re never–
Sharon Thompson: Absolutely but someone I believe that one of just recently within the last week, I received the email that came from, you know, the program, not one that I said, I still send monthly emails, but they’re supplemented with the emails that come from the kiss program. So, a patient just received an email and thought, Hey, I love it there I think review and it prompted her. And immediately as soon as I got that notification, I went and I issued those kiss rewards to her. And then she called, you know, the next day and booked your appointment, which was wonderful, you know, when she, you know, had been planning on coming anyway. But this was just that little boost that little extra like, Oh, hey, you know, I can get a report and she got excited about it.
Catherine Maley, MBA: Oh, there you go. We send the Birthday to you, get 100 kisses on your birthday. Psychologically, there’s a thing about us completing things. And so, we, when you when we welcome somebody to the kiss program, we give them 100 kisses to start. And that compels them to want to get more kisses to get to the end result, which is like 1000 kisses for Botox 3000 kisses for filler and 5000 kisses for laser. And I’m just a note that it’s optional, but it’s really for non-surgical procedures, because that’s what we were trying to grow. However, we have an element that you take advantage of, and they can get an automatic 1000 kisses, which equals one area Botox, if they have surgery, if they complete surgery, has that been beneficial to you to like have that little carrot?
Sharon Thompson: Yes, Yes, I think so. Because some patients will come initially just you know, just for surgery, others will start as injectable patients and then work their way to surgery and others the other way around, and some discomfort surgery. And that’s it. But this allows them to then consider Oh, hey, wait, I have 1000 kisses available to me. You know, this is like saying it’s you know, a month or two after their surgery, maybe I will get Botox, maybe they’ve never had it before. But at least now they have more of an interest. Or say, hey, let’s give it a try. And then you know, they may continue and keep up with it. It’s too soon for me to comment on that. Because it’s, you know, we’re still in the new launch period. But I can see from conversations with patients, and that is going to be something that’s going to work really well for us.
Catherine Maley, MBA: Absolutely, after doing this for 20 years here is something I do know as a cosmetic patient, I am one. So, I partake in this quite a bit. But somebody who wants to look good. Today, they wanted, let’s say a tummy tuck like today that was their focus, especially a female will then go on to the next body part that she has trouble with. On the goal–
Sharon Thompson: Right, it happens all the time.
Catherine Maley, MBA: The goal is to keep them going up and down that ladder. Today it’s a tummy tuck tomorrow with Botox, then we’re off to a filler now I need a blessing. It really is never ending for that’s the part I love about our industry. We have an audience who has that vanity, plug that vanity thing in them. And that never ends, especially with the aging process.
Sharon Thompson: Yes, we have a wide range of patients age wise and paid to are doing, you know, say lip fillers and maybe a little bit of Botox is starting maybe in their late 20s. And then all the way up through the 70s and even 80s. So, and everywhere in between. So, there’s, you know, a treatment or procedure that can help everyone that in some way.
Catherine Maley, MBA: All right, that’s terrific. And so really like the results that you have gotten have been fantastic. We’ve also had a social media piece for this. And it was so interesting because your social media, it depends on what your husband’s doing, because he’s, he’s really funny on social media so he can get a lot of likes on his own. But we need more than that, because he’s not always around. So, we provide a lot of social posts for you. And that is that’s helped tremendously with your likes and your shares. And have you ever said as well–
Sharon Thompson: We make sure that we don’t do all just one kind of post we like to mix it up and incorporating the social media posts about the kiss rewards has really brought a lot of awareness and just kind of reinforcement about the program. And again, it’s only been a few months. So, I think it’s only getting more and more, you know, well known about, you know what it’s all about.
Catherine Maley, MBA: Right? It builds on itself, by the way, on, the longer we do this, the more referrals you’ll get, I hope everyone’s clear about, this isn’t just retaining patients. This also lets your patients bring your new patients to you via their friends. That’s the right, easiest way, then, who’s better to convert an absolute stranger patient who doesn’t know you from Adam? Or that patient says they’re recommended, or Sarah referred you to me? And she’s just had great things to say about Dr. Thompson. So, I want what she had–
Sharon Thompson: Yeah. No, you’re right. And then I say, you know, thank you, and they get their Fisher words, and then they get all excited about it. And, you know, they would, they would refer to people in the past, but now I see an increase in numbers.
Catherine Maley, MBA: That’s the whole point. And anybody who would do it before will do it more. And anybody who wasn’t even thinking about doing it will now start doing it. That’s okay. So, you know what? There are some objections, I already used the vendor rewards program? So why would I get this one? Can you just mention that or talk on that?
Sharon Thompson: It’s great. Just yesterday some patient was checking out, and she had really distinctions points, and she had cash rewards. And she was so happy at everything that, you know, she was saving she had, I think, why she had a lot she about $220 worth of brilliant distinctions, points. And then she had 104 units of Botox. So, it was like a holiday, or she was very, very happy. Okay, well together, it doesn’t have to be exclusive. And it doesn’t take much more time. You know, the issue, the brilliant distinctions, points issue, the kiss rewards, it takes seconds. It’s not more than that.
Catherine Maley, MBA: And just a distinction between us and them. Brilliant distinctions. A patient can use that at any practice. And our program, it can only be used in your practice. That’s right. Yes, very important. Okay. Um, anything else you want to say about kiss store? Or in general, like marketing? Do you think it has to decrease your advertising costs yet increase your results?
Sharon Thompson: Yeah, I would say so. You know, we haven’t done an analysis yet. Because again, it’s a little bit early. And we don’t do a huge number of other types of advertising we did back. In previous times, we had done some local commercials and things like that streaming. But we haven’t done that since March. And we still have a lot of things going on a lot of referrals. So, we really haven’t felt the change of not investing that way and investing this way. We were doing both before. So, we still, you know, I think it’s a very effective way of marketing. Maybe in the future, we may go back to other things. But right now, my focus is on marketing to our current patients, giving them the incentives through the kitchen rewards. And I’m excited to see that you know, after you know, profit at the end of the year, to see how successful I read the reports that you send, and that’s another great thing I want to bring up that those monthly reports, you can actually see, you know, it’s not just guessing Oh, yeah, we got you know, this many calls, or Oh, yeah, I think this ad is working, or I think this billboard is working. This is really, you know, concrete, because you can see exactly how many referrals, how many surgeries, how many Google reviews, so we’re gonna look at work. It’s just everything there is. So, it makes it really easy to see how it’s working for each practice
Catherine Maley, MBA: And just to add to that, it’s not just numbers, it’s names, like we are jacking the heck out of this. We know, those Uber patients are, and we’re telling you put Well, you know, to but we put it in writing, and we’re watching the patient’s behavior. And that just gives you so much about your practice and your customer service. And it just, it’s good Intel.
Sharon Thompson: Yeah, it is. It really is. Yeah, I recommend it. And I thank you for coming up with such a great idea and sharing it.
Catherine Maley, MBA: I really appreciate having you as a partner, because that’s how I look at this. We are partnering to grow your cosmetic revenues. And the numbers are just going to keep getting better. And so, thanks, Sharon. I really appreciate it. Have a great day. Thanks. You too. Thanks. Okay, that’s just one practice experienced partnering with us and the kiss clubs. And it’s interesting to note that Sharon only gave us a list of 700 of her patients to test out and she still got amazing results. The point being you can have a smaller to 700 or a huge list of 30,000 either way you get great results. So, with the kiss club sounds like a good approach to growing your own practice, I’d like to speak with you to see if you’re a good fit. Feel free to leave me a message at catherinemaley.com or DM me at catherinemaleymba. Thanks so much and talk soon.
