Stand out from crowd board

Almost every medical aesthetic website I visit talks about how caring and compassionate the practitioner / clinician is and how their main concern is for the patient. Yet, some patients tell me about how they were treated curtly, the practitioner didn’t listen to them, they felt rushed, their questions weren’t answered and on and on. Some even mention that certain clinics treat them like they are on a conveyor belt, rushing them along, pushing them along and selling to them at the same time.

‘We give a great experience!’ you say. ‘We provide an excellent service in a relaxed yet professional environment … we serve great coffee… we provide the most amazing aftercare.’ Sorry, that’s what everyone says. So, use that to your advantage. Don’t rush your patients, listen to them and spend time with them. There are too many practitioners who don’t spend the time they should do with a new patient, because they are too busy wheeling them in and then out again, thinking about their time / revenue targets and the next patient who is coming through the door. Don’t be one of those practitioners, it doesn’t make your patient feel very special I promise you.

YOUR PATIENTS ARE NOT A CONVEYOR BELT ITEM ON THE ‘GENERATION GAME’ TV SHOW!

The way things have always been done will not serve you anymore. Question everything you have done in the past, then write a new set of own rules that understands the patient experience and what it is they really want. Many practitioners don’t understand what a patient really wants because they’ve never been a full paying, regular aesthetic patient before.

Get all your basics right: Standing out from the crowd is not about doing one or two big things, it’s about doing one hundred little things with care and consistency, with every single patient, every single visit. Train your team to give outstanding consultations and amazing service. Keep at it and don’t give up. Don’t accept mediocre from your team and before long you’ll be attracting the staff who don’t want mediocre either. Believe me, just by doing that you’ll start to stand out from the crowd.

Yes it sounds simple but most clinics are not doing this. Some days they get it right, but not always. Make sure you get it right, every single day. Take a good hard look at your business and be the one who dares to win. It takes time to build the foundation of your business but once your foundation is strong, you will add to your empire step by step, piece by piece, and truly rise way above them all.

OFFER SOMETHING YOUR COMPETITORS DON’T AND WATCH YOUR CONVERSIONS GROW.

Offer a guarantee they will be happy with their result or you’ll throw in a revision treatment. However, put parameters around it and document it. They must adhere to your instructions, show up for their appointments and agree to communicate. You probably do this anyway if a patient is unhappy so offer it up front to take away their fear of making a mistake by going with you versus someone else. And it tells your prospective patient you’re confident in your ability and that builds their trust in you. So even if 1 out of 100 take advantage of it and you lose a little money, you’ll get 10x more conversions and 10x more profits by offering something unique.

Make sure you treat your visiting patients better than your competitors do. Answer your phones better than your competitors do. Devise brand guidelines that must be adhered to. Use as many “touch points” to reach out to your patients throughout the year in a feel-good, thoughtful way. Do what you can to make a huge impression on your patients to make sure they return and refer.

Look around at your competitors, see what they all do and decide to do it differently. For example:

• If your competitors have long waiting times, you guarantee less than a 15-minute wait
• If your competitors never have same day appointments available, keep a section of your diary open for same day appointments
• If they have cold, curt receptionists, you have an open, friendly receptionist
• If other clinics make the patient fill out 5 pages of repetitive information, you auto-complete as much as you can to save them time and hassle and so on

For the patient to realise not all aesthetic practitioners are the same:

• Share 3 facts that differentiate you from all others
• Show updated before/after photos of similar patients
• Ask them to read patient stories and watch patient interviews
• Perform computer imaging and/or skin analysis
• Show them videos of the procedure
• Let them touch breast implants, skin care products, etc.
• Show and tell about articles written and talks given by you