Ep.67: Is Discounting Helping or Hurting Your Practice?

Is Discounting Helping or Hurting Your Practice?

Plastic surgery advertising is out of control and everywhere you look, you see offerings for deep discounted procedures.

Extreme competition is forcing some practices to lead with
price to attract new cosmetic patients.

This “Groupon Discount mindset” not only cheapens the surgeon’s image, but also our entire industry.

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Quick update on what’s happening around the US in the arena of Plastic Surgery

95% of surgeons I’ve spoken to are still enjoying the post-covid shut down surge

Here are a couple of thoughts

PS patients seem to have turned PS into an essential 

And most of them are saying I finally have the time for recovery
which is interesting since practices tell me regularly about price objections but if it’s really about time, then I would spend a  whole lot more of your time figuring out how to cut down the patients downtime and more on that coming up.

So today’s Beatuy of the bix podcast is called:

Is Discounting Helping or Hurting Your Practice?

I want to start this episode with a story about my experience that is appropro to this episode talking about discounting. 

I recently decided to get contact lenses since I’ve been doing so much on-line zoom conferencing.

Fumbling with my reading glasses was not the look I was going for so I needed contacts.

However, I remembered years ago searching for contacts. I ended up at one of those national chain eye shops. They advertised a lot and it was a free eye exam and they were conveniently located in a shopping center I frequented so I chose them. 

It took me weeks to get in and then the eye exam was fast which I actually like since I’m busy but then I had to come back for another visit to pick up the contacts since they had to order them, along with reading glasses I ordered.

I remember them being busy and I had to wait, which I dislike when I have scheduled an appointment.

And, I remember the staff being very average in customer service.

When it was my turn, I received training from a woman who was pleasant enough and she showed me how to put the contacts in and then take them out. 

I actually could not leave with the contact lenses until I did it. 

I struggled with this since I wasn’t used to putting my fingers in my eyes and she ended up just signing off and telling me to practice at home. 

Needless to say, I tried a couple of more times at home and just gave up so I never used the contacts even though they were an extra $200’ish

So overall, the experience on a 1-5 scale was about a 3. It wasn’t awful but it wasn’t great and I only received ½ of what I wanted since I never used the contacts.

Now let’s fast forward to my recent experience at a boutique Sausalito eye practice. 

Everything about this experience was superior to the chain. There was limited waiting for my appointment and no waiting when I arrived. They actually greeted me by name and said they were expecting me. 

The eye doctor was friendly and asked lots of questions to figure out the best solution since I wanted to wear these contacts all day while reading or being in front of a huge computer screen that is 3 feet away but I also wanted to be able to drive so these contacts needed to be adaptable. 

 The equipment they used was new and they used a lot more technology to test my eyes. It all felt very updated and professional. The optometrist was super knowledgeable and efficient at coming up with the right prescriptions for each eye.

She even had the disposable contacts in house and gave me a 5-day supply to test them out to be sure they were right for me. If they weren’t, I could come back as often as I wanted to get them tweaked.

Now I had to learn to put the contacts in and take them out. 

She had an excellent assistant who was a great teacher and very patient and I did it after many tries.

I now am a proud contact lense wearer, thanks to paying extra and choosing the right eye care provider who was more expensive but well worth it. 

Here’s the point, I got so much more value and a much better experience when I paid more. 

And I was happy to pay for it and wished I had the first time around.

So what does this have to do with our industry? Plenty.

As you know, plastic surgery advertising is out of control and everywhere you look, you see ads, banners, and Websites offering deep discounted surgical and non-surgical procedures.

That’s not happening by accident. Extreme competition is forcing some practices to lead with price to attract new cosmetic patients.

However, this heavy emphasis on discounts creates the “Groupon Discount mindset” in consumers. But that not only cheapens the surgeon’s image, but also our entire industry. 

And, on the other hand, you have to address it with prospective patients because they are bombarded with it. They start believing price is the only variable to consider when shopping around for a service provider.

But then, that puts you in a position to play “Let’s Make a Deal” with prospective patients who want to negotiate with you.

OR NOT, but then you lose to these discounters more often than you want to admit so what do you do?

First, get your own mindset straight. 

It’s never ALL about price. If it is, you didn’t do a thorough enough job promoting your value OVER price. 

It’s imperative you show prospective patients why you are worth what you charge, and I’ll give you examples coming up.

And here’s something else to consider…

Like attracts like. That means, you attract who you are. 

If you verbally wrestle vendors to the ground to get a great deal, you will attract patients who do the same.  

If you make buying decisions based on quality, credibility and excellent customer service at a fair price, you will attract patients who do the same. 

Be the quality decision-maker you want your patients to be. 

And here’s the biggest tip to avoid discounting your services…

Promote Value, Benefits and results of Your Services rather than price.

The value of your services is the difference between the price you charge and the benefits the patient perceives they will get.

If the patient perceives they will get a lot of benefit for the price they pay, then their perception of your value is very high. 

The good news is, you can control that more than you realize. 

Here’s how…

Spend the time teaching prospective patients how much they will benefit, how much your expertise and skill will help them get what they want and solve their problems. 

The more you focus on these values, the less important price becomes.

Here are steps to follow to help you focus on more than price:

• Who Wants Your Services?

In other words, who is most likely to choose you and pay your prices? Which procedures do they want? How old are they? What is their income level? Do they have children? What is their level of education? What zip code do they live it? 

Now that you know their demographics, ONLY advertise to that targeted audience. 

Not only will you save money, you’ll get better quality prospective patients who can afford your services and who want to pay a fair price for your skill and expertise.

For example, there’s a huge difference between a 20-year female who wants a breast aug and only cares about price vs. a more mature female who wants facial rejuvenation who cares a lot more about your skill and expertise than saving a few dollars.

• Identify the Patients’ Problems Clearly 

You are in the business of providing solutions to problems consumers have about their appearance. 

Cosmetic patients pay you to solve their problems, so your job is to find out what bothers them and why. 

Here’s a secret that wins you more patients……

Not only are you looking for the positive benefits prospective patients hope to gain such as increased confidence, increased desirability to the opposite sex or a new lease on life, but you also need to address their fears. 

Because they may like what they hear, but they are afraid. Afraid they will spend all of this money and time recuperating only to regret their decision. 

The media loves to show plastic surgery patients who have had bad plastic surgery outcomes with distorted face and body features, awful scarring, and disfigurement of other cosmetic surgery patients who said yes.

So, the prospective patient is scared they, too, could end up with regret and have to go through hell AND spend even more money to fix it.

The surgeon who not only proves their skill, but also calms the patient’s fears AND reassures them of a great result, wins.

And that leads us to #3

• Prove It with Show and Tell

For all sorts of reasons, consumers are a skeptical group. They want proof they can see, feel and touch and they want it from all sorts of sources so provide it in abundance. For example:

Proof from You: would include:

• Your great before/after photos untouched – and lots of them
• Your videos explaining each procedure
• Your videos talking about pros/cons of a procedure; i.e., A smiley face scar vs. a flat tummy
• Your videos showing how your technique is different than your competitors and that’s why you get better results
• Tour of your private and comfortable in-house OR suite
• Your clean and updated office
• Your PR
• Your speaking engagements
• Your book and/or articles authored
• Your guest spots on others’ blogs and podcasts
• Your Voted Top Doc plaques
• Your Excellent staff professionally representing you and 
• Your superb customer service

Outside 3rd party Proof: would include:

• Patient video testimonials telling their story and what you did for them
• A local celeb interviewing you and using your quote in her column
• A ton of online patient reviews talking in detail about their experience with you
• Patient comments in 3rd party forums
• Patients interacting and talking about you on your and their social media platforms as well as
• Googling your name and all good news comes up

The more benefits, value and proof you can clearly “show and tell” to perspective cosmetic patients, the more likely they will consider your value more than just price. 

When done correctly, they see and appreciate your higher price is well worth it.

And That leads me to Branding 

consider the top consumer brands today like Chanel and Mercedes-Benz. They have risen above all others because they deliver a really great product AND incredible 5-star service.

I did a blog post on chanel that you should check out. I ordered face powder that is easily 10X the cost of face powder from the drug store but the experience and the quality are also 10X of what you get at the drug store. 

In a nutshell, their packaging is amazing and the quality of the face powder is fantastic. Its longer lasting and doesn’t blotch up so the results are visibly better.

But they and Mercedes Benz have spent hundreds of millions of dollars per year to position themselves in the consumer’s mind as THE BEST. 

Their “relentless” efforts to:

– educate consumers about why they are the best,
– provide extraordinary service and experiences for their customers and
– stay front and center by repeatedly being seen in the media, have built their quality brand.

So, as a plastic surgeon, unless you pay a PR agency to get you regular media exposure or you are a regular cast member on the Housewives or you’re doing live feeds or videos every day on IG, you’ll NEVER get the regular mass exposure it takes for prospective patients to see you as a “Brand” and agree to pay you anything you ask.

And, interestingly, even these huge brands feel the pressure to offer discounts to the deal-conscious consumer of today:

For example, Mercedes Benz doesn’t have a sale.
They have a “Winter Event” Do you hear the difference? That’s a good tip.

So, here are other points about pricing to consider:

The more you focus on the VALUE of your Surgical services, the less important the price becomes. 

For example, the right cosmetic patients feel strongly about convenience, experience, comfort, service, safety and trust so put together your own Signature Surgery Package. Include everything in detail for one price such as:

-Transportation to and from surgery
-post-op nurse support and cooling machine for swelling and bruising
-private and convenient easy entrance and exit from surgery
-post-op garments
-post op-recovery kit to include robe, meds, bandages, herbal healing solutions, bariatric chamber gift card, and complimentary lympthatic massage treatments to help with healing and better results

-amazon gift card to watch videos + your customized water bottle so they stay hydrated
-Flower delivery and post-op at-home visits for suture removal
-and anything else you can think of that patients will appreciate and talk about to their friends because they were blown away with your service.

Do you see how this level of quality service takes you out of the average and puts you into a whole different class with few competitors?

It’s something to think about.

Ok, that’s it for this episode

If you liked this, please do me a favor and subscribe to Beauty and the biz

And I’d love a review if you feel so inclined

I also appreciate your feedback so you can leave me a message at cm.com

Or DM on IG

Transcript:

Beauty and the Biz

Ep.67: Is Discounting Helping or Hurting Your Practice?

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. So just a quick update on what’s been happening around the United States. As it pertains to plastic surgery, I’ve been talking to surgeons from all over. And it seems to me like 95% of the surgeons I’ve been talking to, they’re still enjoying the post COVID shutdown surge. And I find that so interesting, because on the one hand, supposedly there’s so much uncertainty about the economy, and there are 30 million people unemployed. But on the other hand, the patients can’t get enough of this.

So, here’s my thought on that. I think plastic surgery has somehow turned into an essential for consumers. For a certain group of consumers, it’s no longer a nicety, or a disposable kind of thing. Like I’ll do it if I have the money. So maybe it’s really become that saturated, or that built into our society now. So that’s fantastic. So that’s fantastic. Okay. And then most of them are also saying I finally have time for their recovery, which is really interesting, because, you know, I do a lot of training of coordinators. And the biggest objection I hear over and over is I don’t have any money, it’s the price there’s the price is too high. Well, apparently, that’s not really true.

And because they’re not hearing that right now, they’re not hearing about price they’re hearing about time. So, here’s my two cents on that. If I were you, I would spend a lot more of your time figuring out how to cut down the patient’s downtime. And I’ll talk more about that coming up. So, today’s Beauty and the Biz podcast is called Is Discounting Helping or Hurting Your Practice? and I’ll tie this all together. So, I want to start this episode with a story about my experience that’s apropos to this episode talking about discounting. So, I recently decided to get contact lenses. Since I’ve been doing so much online zoom conferencing like everybody else. And fumbling with my reading glasses is not the look I’m going for.

So, I really needed contact lenses. However, I remembered years ago, searching for contacts, I ended up at one of those national chain eye shops. So, they were advertising a lot, they were offering a ton of discounts. And they were conveniently located in a shopping center I frequented so I chose them. Now, it took me weeks to get in. And then the eye exam was fast, which actually I like since I’m busy. But then they made me come back again for another visit, to wait some more to pick up the context since they had to order them. But I also had ordered some reading glasses as well. And now, I remember them being busy, and it felt rushed and very transactional, no, no customer service at all. And I remember having to wait a lot. And I hate waiting, especially when I have a scheduled appointment.

So, the staff ended up being very average, I’ll call them that they weren’t rude, they were just very average in their customer service. So, when it was my turn to come back the second time, I received training from this woman, and she was very pleasant. She was fine. And she showed me how to put the contacts in and take them out. However, she was pretty busy and I wasn’t allowed to leave there without the contact lenses until I was able to put them in and take them out. And I was really struggling with this since I wasn’t used to putting my fingers in my eyes. And she ended up saying I forget it. And she just signed off. And she just told me to practice at home. Well, needless to say, I did try a couple more times at home. And then I just gave up so I never did use the contact lenses, even though they were like an extra $200 I think so overall, the experience on a one to five scale was about a three. It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t great. And I only received half of what I wanted since I never use the context. Now that was many years ago. And so, I’ve never been back since I just didn’t love it. I didn’t want to go through it again.

Now let’s fast forward to my recent experience and this time I chose a boutique Sausalito I practice that was definitely not about discounts. It was much more about service and so everything about this experience was superior to that chain. That chain store I went to there was limited waiting for my appointment like I called and I actually they gave me an appointment like two or three weeks from then. And then they called and texted me and said I could come in a week earlier. So, I love that. And there was absolutely zero waiting when I arrived. Now that could have been because of COVID. So, I get that. But they actually greeted me by my name. And they said, they were expecting me. And I literally walked in and went straight into the chair. I love that. Anyway, the eye doctor, who is an optometrist, she was very friendly, she asked me tons of questions to figure out the best solution. Since I wanted to wear these contacts all day while reading or being in front of a huge computer screen, that’s about three feet away from me. But I also wanted to be able to jump in the car and go somewhere. And I didn’t want to have to take the contacts in and out. So, they needed to be adaptable, okay, so the equipment they use was new. And they use so much more technology to test my eyes than they did at that chain place, to just all felt very updated and very professional and very efficient. I love efficiency. So, the optometrist was super knowledgeable, and again, very efficient at coming up with the right prescriptions for each ad. And then she even had the disposable contacts in the house. And she gave me a five-day supply to test them out to be sure that right for me, and then if they’re not, I can always come back as often as I want. And she’ll tweak the prescriptions.

Now, I had to learn to put the context in and take them out. So here we go through that again. And this time, she had an excellent assistant, who was a great teacher and very patient. And I actually did it after many tries, I actually did it twice, I put them in, and I took them back out. And I was so excited. So now I am a proud contact lens wearer thanks to paying extra and choosing the right eye care provider who is more expensive, but well worth it. So, here’s the point, I got so much more value and a much better experience when I paid more. And I was happy to pay for it. And I wish I had done that the first time around. But that’s the thing. I didn’t know any better. And so that’s what we’re going to be talking about. Because what does this have to do with our industry? Plenty.

As you know, I’m sure you’re painfully aware of plastic surgery, advertising is so out of control. And everywhere you look you see ads, banners and websites offering deep discounted surgical and non-surgical procedures. That’s not happening by accident. Extreme competition is forcing some practices to lead with price to attract new cosmetic patients because they don’t know what else to do. However, this heavy emphasis on discounts, creates the Groupon discount mindset and consumers remember that whole thing oh my god, I don’t even know if Groupon is still around. Nobody talks about it like they used to. But boy, they sure changed the whole mindset of our industry. But they not only cheapen the surgeon’s image, it actually cheapens the entire industry. And on the other hand, you have to address it with prospective patients, because they’re bombarded with discounting.

And with price being the number one variable, they start believing prices, the only variable to consider when shopping around for a service provider. But then that puts you in a position to play. Let’s make a deal with prospective patients who want to negotiate with you or not. But then you lose to these discounters more often than you want to admit. So, what do you do? Well, first to get your mind set straight and it’s never all about price. If it is, you just didn’t do a thorough enough job promoting your value overpriced. Now it’s imperative you show prospective patients why you’re worth what you charge. And I’ll give you examples coming up. Now here’s something else to consider. like attracts like, that means you attract who you are. This is so true. If you verbally wrestle vendors to the ground to get a great deal, you will attract patients who do the same. So true. If you make buying decisions based on quality, credibility and excellent customer service at a fair price, you will attract patients who– be the quality decision maker you want your patients to be.

And here’s the biggest tip to avoid discounting your services and promote value benefits and results of your services rather than price. The value of your services is the difference between the price you charge and the benefits the patient perceives they will get. If the patient perceives they’re going to get a lot of benefit for the price they pay, then their perception of your value is very high. So, the good news is you can control that more than you realize. And here’s how I spend the time teaching prospective patients how much they will benefit: How much your expertise and skill will help them get what they want and solve their problems. So, the more you focus on these values, the less important price becomes. So, here’s some steps to follow to help you focus on more than just price. Number one, who wants your services? In other words, who’s most likely to choose you and pay your prices? Which procedures do they want? How old are they? What’s their income level? Do they have any children? What’s their level of education and what zip code do they live in? Now that you know their demographics only advertise to that targeted audience, not only will you save money, you’ll get better quality prospective patients who can afford your services, and who want to pay a fair price for your skill and expertise. So, for example, there is a very huge difference between a 20-year-old female who wants a breast dog and only cares about price, versus a more mature female who wants facial rejuvenation, who cares a lot more about your skill and expertise than saving a few dollars. So, here’s number two, identify the patient’s problems. Clearly, you are in the business of providing solutions to problems consumers have about their appearance, cosmetic patients pay you to solve their problems. So, your job is to find out what bothers them and why. Now, here’s a secret that wins you more patients. Not only are you looking for the positive benefits, prospective patients hope to gain such as increased confidence increased desirability to the opposite sex or a new lease on life. But you also need to address their fears, because they may like what they hear, but they’re afraid, afraid they’re going to spend all this money and time recuperating only to regret their decision. Now the media loves to show plastic surgery patients who’ve had bad plastic surgery outcomes. And they show the distorted face and body features the awful scarring and the disfigurement of these poor cosmetic surgery patients who said yes to the wrong provider. And actually, that works to your advantage when you start educating patients on why you charge what you charge. That way they don’t fall into this problem. And they don’t have to be on that show.

So, the prospective patient is scared that they too are going to end up with regret. And they are going to have to go through hell and spend even more money to fix it. The surgeon who not only proves their skill, but also calms the patient’s fears, and reassures them over great result wins. Now that leads us to number three, prove it was show and tell. Remember, show and tell when you’re a kid, for all sorts of reasons that I don’t need to go into consumers are a skeptical group. Aren’t we all hope boy–? I mean, we weren’t before. But we certainly are now thanks to all the shenanigans going on in advertising and marketing. They want proof these consumers want proof that they can see feel and touch. And they want it from all sorts of sources.

So, provided in abundance. For example, proof from you would include, obviously, your great before and after photos untouched and lots of them and put them on your website. For some reason I work with surgeons who will not put their photos on the website. And I don’t even know how they get any patients at all. No patient is good, that’s just silly. You need to put them on your website. Also, your videos, your videos, you explaining each procedure, and explaining the FAQs. And what does every patient want to know about a procedure? Well, they want to know, what kind of result can they expect? Is there going to be any pain involved, they’d love to know the cost is there any anesthesia involved? What’s the post op recovery like, you know, the usual stuff, but they want to hear it straight from you. Also, your proof would include your videos talking about the pros and cons of a procedure. So, for example, you might as well deal with a smiley face scar discussion versus a flat tummy. It’s just part of the discussion, the patient’s not stupid, they know there’s going to be or maybe they didn’t know this until you tell them, but you have to tell them about a tradeoff. If you want a flat tummy, you do need to have a smiley face scar that goes with it. However, there’s plenty we can do to minimize that, that kind of video. Also, your video showing how your technique is different from your competitors. And that’s why you get better results. You know, a lot of this is emotional, but so it’s also logical.

And patients want to know if you’re going to charge more does that mean I’m going to get a better result? Well, you can’t just say or assume that that’s true. A patient wants to hear why is that true? And if you can somehow explain that to them without getting way too technical. But if you can explain how you have tweaked the procedure that most surgeons do and you have made yours better, that’s how you charge more. Also, you can do a tour of your private and comfortable house or suite because most patients love the comfort and cleanliness of a nice quiet place, not a busy crazy hospital or surgery center, your cleaning updated office, your PR, your speaking engagements. Your book, if you have one and or any articles that you’ve authored, your guest spots on other people’s blogs and podcasts, you’re voted top doc plaques, I realized that’s a pay to play. But those are very, patients love those. Your excellent staff professionally represents you, because your staff is a piece of you, you know, they’re part of your brand. So, I sure hope you have excellent staff who know how to represent you professionally, and then your superb customer service that you can never take lightly. Now on the other side, you also need outside third-party proof. Now that would include patient video testimonials telling their story and what you did for them, or a local celebrity, interviewing you and using your quote in her column. If she’s a writer or an author, I’m sure you can hear my dog. I’m sorry, does this work in– at home that’s what we get. A he’ll stop soon enough a ton of online patient reviews talking in detail about their experience with you. Also, patient comments in third party forums, patients interacting and talking about you on your and their social media platforms, as well as googling your name.

And all good news comes up. Boy, you need to Google yourself and make sure no weird stuff comes up. Maybe from your past, things have a tendency to resurface. So, you want to clean that up if there’s any issue there. So, the more benefits, value and proof you can clearly show and tell to prospective cosmetic patients, the more likely they will consider your value more than just price. So, when done correctly, they see and appreciate your higher price is well worth it. Now that leads me to branding, because we keep talking about that in our industry. Consider the top consumer brands today. And I just picked Chanel and Mercedes Benz. They have risen above all others because they deliver a really great product, and incredible five-star service. Now I did a blog post on Chanel that you should check out. I ordered face powder online, and it was easily 10 times the cost of face powder from a drugstore so crazy what they charge. But the experience and the quality are also 10 times of what you get at the drugstore. Just in a nutshell, their packaging was amazing. And the quality of the face powder is fantastic. It’s longer lasting and it doesn’t match up so the results are visibly better. But they and Mercedes Benz have spent hundreds of millions of dollars every year to position themselves in the consumers mind as the best. Now their relentless efforts to educate consumers about why they’re the best, provide extraordinary service and experiences for their customers. And stay front and center by repeatedly being seen in the media. That’s what has built their quality brand. So as a plastic surgeon, unless you pay a PR agency to get you regular media exposure, or you’re a regular cast member on the housewives, or you’re doing live feeds or videos every day on Instagram, you’ll never get the regular mass exposure it takes for prospective patients to see you as a brand and agree to pay you anything you ask. And interestingly, even these huge brands feel the pressure to offer discounts to the deal conscious consumer of today. For example, Mercedes Benz doesn’t have a sale, they have a winter event.

Do you hear the difference? That’s a really good tip by the way, I would use that. So here are other points about pricing to consider. The more you focus on the value of your surgical services, the less important the price becomes. Now for example, the right cosmetic patients feel strongly about convenience, experience, comfort and service and safety and trust. So, put together your own signature surgery package and include everything in detail for one combination price. And you want to just fill this thing up with everything you can think of for example, transportation to and from surgery, post op nurse support and cooling machine for swelling and bruising, private and convenient easy entrance. an exit from surgery, post op garments, post op recovery kit to include a robe, meds, bandages, herbal healing solutions, bariatric chamber gift card, and complimentary lymphatic massage treatments to help with quick healing and better results include amazon gift cards to watch videos, plus your customized water bottle so they stay hydrated and see your name in front of them every day. Flower delivery and post stop at home visits for suture removal. And anything else you can think of that patients will appreciate and talk about to their friends because they were blown away with your service.

Now do you see how this level of quality service takes you out of the average and put you into a whole different class with few competitors? It’s really something to think about. Okay, so that’s it for this episode. And if you liked it, please do me a favor and subscribe to Beauty and the Biz. And I’d love a review if you feel so inclined. And I’d also appreciate your feedback or any questions or comments you’ve got so please feel free to leave me a message at my website at catherinemaley.com or always you can DM me on Instagram at catherinemaleymba. Thanks so much and we’ll talk again soon.