In crisis, there is opportunity. We’ve been working closely with clients the past month to find creative ways to maintain momentum and be set up for maximum success when the current health crisis is behind us. While it’s still impossible to predict exactly when things will “get back to normal” or what “normal” will look like, we encourage you to be hopeful and consider investing now in ways to set your practice for success later in the year.
Here are some of the most important things you should be doing right now.
Setting Up Virtual Consultations
With your physical office space closed, it’s essential to provide new options for follow-ups and new prospects to be able to speak with you easily. Many of our clients have started up virtual consultation programs. There are tons of videoconferencing/telemedicine platforms. For a free option, we recommend Doxy.me. Others to consider are ClockTree and Mend.
As long as you find a platform that’s easy for you and your patients to use, it doesn’t matter a ton which one you select. Here are a few tips to make your virtual consults go as smoothly as possible:
- Set expectations. Over-communicate about what the whole process will look like. The best practice is to talk with the patient on the phone to schedule a convenient time and walk them through some policies/procedures. Give them an idea of what will happen during their video session. Then follow up with any additional information or homework they need to complete before their scheduled telemedicine appointment.
- Make the intake effortless. If you were still having patients write out physical intake forms before their consultation appointment, now is the perfect time to go digital. A couple options for form conversion are turning forms into fillable PDFs or Google Forms. You could also set up a virtual consult intake form on your site and collect information that way. Put yourself in a patient’s shoes and think about how to make it as easy as possible for them to get you the info you need before the virtual consult.
- Encourage a test run. While not all platforms will let a patient test out their technology/equipment before the scheduled consult time, many will. Often there is at least an app to download or install, and a patient may need to go through a sign-up process. The more they can do to be ready to rock and roll when it comes time for their consultation, the better.
- Make it feel offline. Once you’ve started a virtual consult with a patient, do all the things you normally do to create rapport. Ask them about themselves and how they’re coping in such tough times. Make a joke or two. Tell them why you love what you do. Without the person right there in front of you, it can be easy to feel like you need to “get down to business” right away. Resist the urge.
- Follow up. After a virtual consultation, send a thank you note to the patient and provide any additional information you may have discussed during the meeting. Use your usual protocols to follow up and check in from there, but also be mindful that it is a hectic and challenging time for many people. Stay in touch, but don’t become a nuisance.
Shifting Their Marketing Messaging
Let’s just say you can say goodbye to “breast season” this year, at least in the traditional sense of breast enhancement surgery popularity surging in the Spring months. And without a firm date to say when you will be able to schedule surgeries, it can be challenging to get prospects signed up to take the next step.
On top of that, you have the obvious concerns of how to help patients while being mindful of social distancing. Cosmetic procedures involve bodies in close proximity, there’s just no way around that. With a flattening of the curve and more preventative measures being put in place, it could be that the commonly followed 6-foot circle of social distance can be shrunk. But we’re not there yet.
What to tell patients and prospects in such an uncertain time? Here are some ideas:
- You are committed to patient safety 1,000%. Absolutely nothing is a higher priority. Talk about steps you have taken or plan to take to avoid virus transmission in your office, OR, or surgical suite.
- You love what you do, and you’ll be back to doing it as soon as it’s safe. From what we’ve seen so far, there is still a great deal of interest in cosmetic procedures. This very well could mean you will be busy as all get out later in the year. It’s of course not appropriate to pressure prospects into booking right now, but you can certainly let them know that getting on your calendar earlier could be a smart idea.
- You’re committed to those who support you. While tough financial times and business restrictions have absolutely put a strain on us all, if it makes sense, share what you have been able to do to keep staff members occupied and supported.
- You’ve got tips and tricks to help them stay beautiful even during stay-at-home. People are forced to do a lot of DIY self-care right now. Share cosmetic secrets to help them keep putting their best face forward, even if they’re only sharing it with their family and pets.
- You’re devoted to helping the local community. With your surgery schedule on hold, now is a great time to get involved in (socially distanced) community activities and outreach. Have you supported local medical efforts? Is your family fostering a dog since the local animal shelter is understaffed? Are you delivering meals to seniors? Did you decide to cleanup a nearby creek or park? Whatever you are doing, it’s OK to share your good deeds.
- You’re finding the positives even in tough times. Share how thankful you are for your staff, your loyal patients, the rewarding experiences you’ve had. Take a 30,000 foot view and reflect on your practice and your longer-term goals.
Reviewing Their Marketing Mix
As we’ve said many times, search engine marketing is a long-term play. And our clients are finding that it’s serving them quite well even in tough times like these. While client traffic was down about 25% in March and likely will fall further in April as shelter-in-place orders remain in effect, Google is still a huge driver of traffic. In some cases, clients have even seen growing organic search traffic in March and early April compared to the same time in 2019.
You should still be engaging in some degree of search engine marketing so that you remain a top result on Google now and when things pick up again. But what about PPC? Does it make any sense to pay to advertise services you can’t currently offer?
The short answer is “maybe.” We have been testing more focused messaging on Google Ads and Facebook. We are finding that reduced ad spends, with an emphasis on virtual consultations, can be a smart use of pay-per-click money. This is especially true since competition for PPC ad space is much reduced right now, so your ad dollars stretch farther.
Sharpening Financing and Special Offers
While interest in cosmetic procedures is unlikely to wane in the coming months, many people will have additional financial stress. In the 2008-10 recession, patient financing became a more popular option. So did special offers.
Now is a great time to work with suppliers of your med spa offerings to see what kind of deals you can score, and pass those along to your patients. Discretionary spending is likely to be cut for the rest of the year as consumers shore up their finances. This means that cosmetic companies should be very willing to work with you to move product.
Another special offer idea: sell discounted gift cards for nonsurgical treatments or products. And if you do enough business in product sales, offer free shipping and/or curbside pickup. Or what about bundling some DIY skincare kits so your patients can get a little of that spa-fresh look right at home?
If you already offer cosmetic surgery financing, talk with the lender about their plans going forward. It may be a smart idea to start discussions now with a secondary lender too. And while it may sound out of the box, if your practice could qualify for very low interest government loans through some of the rescue programs rolling out, it may even be worth considering self-financing for some patients. Don’t take any ideas off the table right now. Get creative so that patients can feel comfortable taking the next step.
Responding to Reviews
While Google has temporarily suspended the ability for users to write new reviews of businesses, you still have the ability to respond to older reviews you’ve received. And other review platforms like Yelp have modified what users can write about a business for now, but new reviews may still come in. If you aren’t yet in the habit of responding to every positive review, now’s a great time to get caught up.
We recommend responding to every positive review you receive, even if it’s a very simple “thanks for the kudos” type message. Note that we’re recommending responding to every “positive” review, not every review, period. In some cases, negative reviews are best left untouched – especially if the reviewer seems particularly angry or unhinged. In those cases, you may want to try to address the review privately, or just leave it be.
Staying Connected Socially
If there’s ever going to be a time when you make the extra effort to connect on an emotional and human level with your patients on social media, it’s now. You certainly should have the time, so forget that excuse. We are encouraging doctors to put together a few of their own posts, even if they usually rely on us and/or someone in their office to handle social media.
If you don’t feel social savvy, don’t worry about the details. The important thing is showing how much you care about your patients and staff. Provide updates about how you and your family are holding up. If you are donating time or resources to any medical efforts, talk them up. If it’s Saturday morning and you just had a realization about how grateful you are for the people in your life when so many people are in crisis, shoot a quick video or type out a note of gratitude.
Hopefully we’ll all get back to our regularly scheduled programming in the not too distant future. Heck, maybe we will find ways to take even better care of each other. In the meantime, make the most of this opportunity to learn, improve and grow both personally and professionally. And by all means, if we can help with any communication, be a sounding board, or just be a source of support and strength, please do reach out to us. We will get through this together.