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Patient Information Tools Help Your Closing Ratio
I recently attended an open house of a plastic surgeon client. They invited their patients and the patients were encouraged to bring their friends which they did. It was beautifully catered, well attended and nicely run.
Several of the physician’s vendors were on hand to talk with the attendees about their particular products and services. The questions I overheard the aesthetic patients asking the sales reps were telling, surprising and common.
Many were the perfect target market for high-end surgical procedures as well as minimally-invasive procedures with a high profit margin. The majority of the attendees were between 30-60, professional women, living in an affluent area.
Although you might guess they have “heard it all”, especially since the media bombards their listeners, viewers and readers with all kinds of information about today’s cosmetic enhancement procedures, it was evident from comments and questions I heard, that patients were not at all clear about anything. Here is a sampling of what I heard:
One older woman in her 60’s told me that this was her third event this year and she’s more confused than ever. She’s been to two consultations with different physicians and one told her she needed the whole enchilada – face/neck/eye/brow lift and she was blown away – by both the price as well as the downtime. Not to mention the fear of major surgery. The next doctor understood her apprehension about surgery so he suggested wrinkle fillers and laser procedures but then confused her while explaining short and long-term fillers versus facial volumizers and skin tightening versus skin resurfacing. I could tell she was frustrated and felt defeated. She wanted some type of rejuvenation but just didn’t feel comfortable that she thoroughly understood all of her options. She is still contemplating what to do.
If the majority of the aesthetic patients at this event were mature, educated, high-end women in a metropolitan city, how misinformed or confused is the general public that hasn’t even attended an event like this? If these patients are quite familiar with “looking as good as they feel” since they read, attend events and visit physicians in the area, how does the “virgin” aesthetic patient make sense of it all?
This type of confusion within the very target market you are trying to attract is not helping your success.
And, even though the internet is helpful, it can also prove to be confusing with conflicting information from website to website. Then, there are the TV shows of Extreme Makeover, Nip and Tuck, The Swan, The Discovery Channel, etc. so they feel they understand the procedures and the results. However, is that realistic enough for consumers to base their decisions on?
In some ways, your job has become easier since the stigma of aesthetic enhancement has decreased dramatically. That means patients are much more willing to discuss it openly. On the other hand, it has opened up the gateways for misinformation and unrealistic results.
How’s your closing ratio?
Are you sometimes frustrated about the expense you incur advertising and marketing to your patients and community to get them to call you? And then the time your staff spends with them reminding them of the appointment, handling the paperwork, meeting with them? And then your own time and effort meeting with the patient to discuss their various options only to learn they decided to “think about it” and will call you when they are ready? Although the prospective patient may call you days, weeks or months later, don’t you feel like you just wasted your time, your staff time, your advertising budget and morale needlessly?
What went wrong? Here’s a clue:
An aesthetic patient who is confused will decide to do nothing.
It’s to your benefit to educate your patients in simple-to-understand terms and use educational tools to help them understand what they need to know so they will move forward with the procedure or treatment.
A well-informed patient saves you time, money and effort. If they come to the consultation armed with print outs from the Internet, that’s an indication of where to start your discussion. By the way, a great question to ask an educated patient is, “I can see you are very well-informed about the procedure you are interested in. What else can I tell you or explain to help you reach a decision?”
With aesthetic medicine advancing so rapidly, it is almost impossible for your patients to keep up-to-date on the new technology and procedures available to them. They also may not realize how easily these new procedures can be performed and with how little downtime
How many times have you heard your patients say to you, “Really? I never realized I could do anything about that!”
It’s to your advantage to offer all the educational tools you have at your disposal to steer the aesthetic patient through the maze of aesthetic enhancement and lead them to a decision.
Educational Tools Become Marketing Strategies
A side benefit you enjoy from educational tools is the marketing advantage you get from them. Typically, the physician who best educates the prospective patient gets their business because they feel you understand them and their concerns and you know how to address them.
And, if the tools you use show them possible results, risks and outcomes, the closer they will feel to you and respond accordingly.
Physicians who incorporate these solutions into their advertising and marketing strategies will fair better than those who don’t and will gain the competitive edge. Especially on the Internet. Online learning from your website attracts more prospective patients from a wider geographic area. And, the convenience and efficiency of online patient education enables new patients to move faster through the pipeline and closer to booking a consultation. So those surfing on the Internet are first looking for answers and then for the physician who can help them.
The physician who provides the most straight-forward information, crafted in a creative, visual way, will be seen as cutting-edge and more credible. The physician’s website that informs and entertains has a huge advantage over the others.
Visual Communication
Today’s aesthetic consumers are a cynical group to deal with. They don’t trust easily and want and need proof that what you say is what they get. And, aesthetic results are subjective.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Advanced educational tools help clear up some of that subjective confusion. Patients can perceive the possibilities better when visuals are used. They have to know they will be happy with their result before they are willing to move forward. They need to be sure your definition of ‘a little” is the same as theirs.
Patients who are interested in revising, rejuvenating or restoring their image must be comfortable with what you propose. They must understand it in terms of their own face and/or body. They learn a lot more looking at themselves. When patients can see differences better, they are often happier with the results of a procedure.
We live in a visually-oriented society and these tools give a strong visual idea of how what you propose will improve the appearance of your patient.
Solutions and Tools Available to You
Use tools to support treatment recommendations and to show the possibilities of improvement. Help a prospective patient visualize a procedure and expected outcome.
Your patient information tools should help educate, overcome doubt and misunderstanding and motivate your patient to move forward.
The good news is that this consumer demand for aesthetic enhancement has motivated industry to develop tools to help you.
From procedure brochures to computer imaging to online education, patients can now be well-informed before they meet you.
Start with Your Vendors
The companies in the aesthetic industry have gone to great lengths to help you educate your patients about their procedures and products. Most of them give you a free marketing kit to get you started and it’s full of quality information and marketing strategies such as patient brochures, a looped DVD to play in your reception area, press releases FAQ’s, etc.
With just a TV or flat screen monitor and a DVD player, you can turn your reception area and exam rooms into educational centers your patients can learn from comfortably and effortlessly.
What’s Hot
Practice Video on Your Website
If you are using the Internet to find new patients, a practice video on your website will help you stand out. The video should include you discussing your philosophies, introducing your staff and touring your office. It should also include lots of procedural information. The prospective patient who is “surfing” for the right physician, will gravitate towards the website that gives them the most information in a clear, straight-forward way that is easily understandable and that gives them that feeling they already know you and are comfortable with now meeting you in person.
You can even produce your practice video on CDs or DVDs and mail them out to prospective patients.
Online Patient Education for Your Website
E-learning is the wave of the future.
The latest tools to help educate aesthetic patients include ready-to-use presentations customized with your own voice and photos as well as 3D interactive procedure animation that runs on a practice’s website. Because they are so visual and informative, they save time and help convert prospective patients to schedule a consultation to learn more.
Now a patient can see for themselves visuals that explain the procedure as well as the potential risks and outcomes, rather than just read a brochure.
Reception Area DVD
There’s no better medium for patients to learn more about a practice than video. A waiting room DVD should be informative, enlightening, and patient-focused. The prospective patient will be more comfortable meeting you if they feel you’ve already met through video.
Again, you can reproduce these DVD’s and mail them out to prospective patients to help them get to know you and it can help to decrease no-shows.
Digital Photo Albums with Sound
Desktop picture frames run your before/after photos on a continuous loop. You can even add visual narration and background music to enhance the visual appeal. They run on batteries that can be regenerated in the evening so they are wireless and can be placed strategically in each exam room and consultation room. And, you can edit your own photos and narration easily using the Power Point software program.
Touch-Controlled Screen Patient Learning Center
The flexibility of this technology is that it lets the patient control what they want to learn. They simply touch the graphic of the procedure or treatment they are interested in learning more about.
Since they may not realize you perform all of these procedures, this can open up the possibilities for additional treatments and procedures. It can also avoid your patients having procedures done by your competitor who did inform them.
Skin Analysis
There is nothing more compelling than a patient seeing their own skin damage, aging process and their own possible results. The more you can customize a problem and solution to that patient’s specific situation, the more compelled that patient will be to move forward.
Systems can now examine and provide quantitative skin analysis of the complexion for wrinkles, spots, pores, texture, porphyrins and UV spots to each patient unique complexion profile.
Computer Imaging
Computer imaging helps to clearly establish reasonable patient expectations. Using the patient's own image to demonstrate potentials of aesthetic procedures, this visual tool establishes natural, meaningful communication for consultations that are powerful, efficient and effective.
Full Body Photography
New technology makes it possible to now take full body photographs, rather than just the face. This is helpful for surgical procedures from the neck down and show the patient the possibilities.
On-Hold Messaging
On-hold messaging has been around for years; however, it’s widely overlooked by busy practices. Not only does this technology distract the caller; it also can relay interesting information and prompt the caller to want to learn more.
Conclusion
Patient education plays a vital part in aesthetic medicine. Using everything available that helps you attract, educate, inform and close more procedures makes good business sense.
Side Bar
Online Learning:
Photography and Skin Analysis:
Practice Videos and Photo Frames
On-Hold Messaging:
Catherine Maley, MBA
CIM specializes in growing aesthetic practices using PR, advertising and creative marketing strategies. Catherine can be reached at Catherine@CosmeticImageMarketing.com or (877)339-8833. |
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