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Ep.91: Word-of-Mouth Referrals

Beauty and the Biz

Word-of-Mouth referrals are your golden ticket to increased close ratios, decreased external marketing costs, and growth through the cheapest form of advertising you can invest in! Help your patients become your brand ambassadors as your revenue multiplies exponentially!

It’s as easy as 1-2-3 when you have word-of-mouth referrals driving your new patient conversions!

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Transcript:

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 – What your patients are saying, as well as consultant to plastic surgeons, to get them more patients and more profits.

Now, this episode of Beauty and the Biz is a presentation I did called word of mouth referrals. The most qualified leads you will ever get are the ones coming from your happy patients.

So, this podcast talks about strategies to get you a whole lot more of them enjoy. And I’ll see you on the other side.

when it comes to converting prospective cosmetic surgery, patients into paid procedures. Word of mouth marketing is absolutely the most effective way. When a friend tells another friend, family member or colleague about you. That’s golden. They’re already pre-sold on you. They’re not as price sensitive and they’re more likely to stay loyal.

Word of mouth referrals will increase your closing ratios, decrease your external marketing costs and grow your practice. It’s also the cheapest form of advertising that you can invest in and it takes minimal time and effort, but don’t leave it to chance. Sure. You will get some referrals from your core group of fans in your practice.

Every practice has them, but you want them from every happy patient, not just the chosen few, maybe word of mouth referrals, a priority. Set up processes and incorporate these word-of-mouth strategies. First connect with your patients, referrals come from connecting with your patients. So, they feel cared about as a person.

First patients. Use their name and make eye contact with your patients, ask them questions about their family, their occupation, or anything else that strikes you as interesting from their patient intake form and let them talk. They’ll feel so much more connected to you when they know you care about them.

They’ll relate max, they’ll open up to you and they’ll talk more about themselves. You can learn so much about a person if you show you’re interested in them, and you’ll be surprised what you learn. Perhaps they’re a member of the media, or they’re a part of a large company who could use your services as an employee perk.

Yeah. Never know unless you ask, think of it this way. Each of us has an average inner circle of approximately 250 people that includes friends, family, colleagues, neighbors, gym, buddies, et cetera. If each of your patients only refer one of those people that would double your practice growth. How does that.

Remember, like-minded people hang around with other like-minded people. So, you want your prefer patients to bring their friends to you? But don’t take that for granted. Your patients need to know you want more patients just like them. And if they send you their friends, family, and colleagues, you promise to take great care.

So, use content to spread the word content is king on the internet. So, produce lots of it for different media channels. So, your patients can share you with their friends, family, and followers. For example, you can videotape a consult with a prospective patient talking about the procedure they had with their permission.

Of course. And then you upload it to YouTube and Vimeo. You break it down into smaller pieces and upload to ICTV. Use the video screenshot and your Facebook banner ads that click to the full video with a click here to schedule a complimentary consultation. And there’s more transcribed the patient consultation and use it for your blog posts or your articles or press releases.

Send an email, announcing it to your current patient list and add, share this with a friend. The point is to cross purpose, one piece of content to many different media channels to increase your presence online. Now, another idea is a social media booth. Make it fun and easy for your patients to share you with their friends on social media.

Order a customized pop-up backdrop with your logo printed on it. Now, have it standing in the corner of your office near checkout, your patients can take pictures with you and your staff and videotape a testimonial and then upload it to their Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, social media. And please don’t take referrals for granted.

You want to thank your patients. However, a boring computer-generated form does not work. Patients want to be appreciated for their time. And acknowledged for their support. So, show them your things, have your staff call them immediately to thank them. Personally, send a personal note from you to thank them.

Call them yourself to thank them. Send a gift of appreciation behavior that is rewarded is repeated. So, make a big deal out of how much you appreciate their referral and more. Better yet set up your automatic rewards program that acknowledges and thanks your patients for helping you grow your practice.

The goal is to get a whole lot more of your patients, sharing you with who they know implement a referral program, but do it with caution to stay out of trouble with the medical societies and their fee splitting rules. Just so you know, medical board say you cannot pay someone that encourages another person to have a medical procedure.

So, there cannot be a tip for cat exchange. That’s a big reason. I came up with the kiss rewards club. Your patients get kisses, not money when they refer review and return. So, it keeps you out of trouble while growing your practice in a fun, organic. You can visit and get more details at kissrewardsclub.com.

And then to wrap this up, here’s the golden rule to remember to grow word of mouth practice. Patients have to be truly happy and satisfied with their results, as well as the service they receive from you to brag about you, to their friends and family. Please be sure every single patient has a wow experience.

Every time they’re in contact with you, your staff and your practice, and watch your word-of-mouth referrals grow. And if you’re looking for more patient attraction strategies, get my free guide called plastic surgery marketing. What’s working now at my website, catherinemaley.com. Okay. I’m back. Do you now see all the creative ways you can boost your word of mouth?

Yes, it takes effort, but it’s well worth it. If you want good quality leads that actually convert to a paid procedure. Now, of course, if you need help with this, let’s talk, you can sign up for a free 30-minute strategy call with me personally. It’s on my website, catherinemaley.com. And that’s it for this week, if you would.

I sure would appreciate you subscribing to beauty and the biz and given me a nice review, if you feel so inclined. And then of course, if you’ve got feedback or you want to do a strategy call, just head over to catherinemaley.com or you can certainly DM me on Instagram @catherinemaleymba. Thanks much.

And we’ll talk soon.

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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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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