Patient with endless needs

The beauty (pun intended) of aesthetics is that practices have patients with endless needs. If aesthetic patients want to look good today, they also want to look good tomorrow, next week, next year, and year after year. So it is the practitioner’s job to keep these patients happy and connected to the practice so they keep returning.

If aesthetic patients like to look good and that makes them feel good, they will be in relentless pursuit to keep those good feelings going. So if they come to a practitioner for a loss-leader, such as a facial, they will stay for more and move up the ladder to higher-priced procedures. The reverse is also true. If they come for a high-ticket surgical procedure, they will move down the ladder to perfect or maintain it with the lesser procedures, treatments, and products.

So much money is left on the table because the value of one patient is taken for granted. Simply increasing the lifetime value of current aesthetic patients by offering a menu of services that satisfies all or most of their aesthetic concerns will dramatically increase aesthetic profits with minimal extra cost.

The preferred patient

Because not everyone will be able to afford a practitioner’s services as in previous years, it is a good strategy to focus on the patients who are least likely to be affected by changes in the economy and last affected by changes in the economy.

An excellent strategy would be to review the practice’s database and target the patients who

• •
  

  Are older and have more skin, body, and facial concerns

  
  
• •
  

  Live in affluent zip codes

  
  
• •
  

  Have a history of frequent visits

  
  
• •
  

  Refer their friends to the practice.

Practitioners must then focus their resources on these patients by keeping in touch many times throughout the year. Practitioners should educate these individuals about new advances in aesthetic enhancement, invite them to the practice’s events, and make sure these patients know their business is appreciated.

The preferred patient

Because not everyone will be able to afford a practitioner’s services as in previous years, it is a good strategy to focus on the patients who are least likely to be affected by changes in the economy and last affected by changes in the economy.

An excellent strategy would be to review the practice’s database and target the patients who

• •
  

  Are older and have more skin, body, and facial concerns

  
  
• •
  

  Live in affluent zip codes

  
  
• •
  

  Have a history of frequent visits

  
  
• •
  

  Refer their friends to the practice.

Practitioners must then focus their resources on these patients by keeping in touch many times throughout the year. Practitioners should educate these individuals about new advances in aesthetic enhancement, invite them to the practice’s events, and make sure these patients know their business is appreciated.

Back to the fundamentals

Another solid strategy is to get good at the basic, fundamental steps to growing an aesthetic practice. The following steps should be taken consistently:

• 1.
  

  Get the telephone to ring with patients interested in the practice’s services.

  
  
• 2.
  

  Be able to then convert those callers into scheduled consultations.

  
  
• 3.
  

  Be able to then convert those consultations into revenue-producing procedures.

  
  
• 4.
  

  Keep those patients coming back for more

  
  
• 5.
  

  Encourage these patients to refer their family, friends, and coworkers.

Now is the perfect time for a practitioner and staff to perfect each of the above five fundamentals to ensure the strategies and scripting are in place to handle each step of the patient experience professionally and effectively, every time, so that more calls, consultations, and booked procedures are closed.

Aesthetic practice marketing rules

Some rules about marketing and human nature are important to keep in mind because they apply to the aesthetic industry:

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  A buyer is a buyer is a buyer, and therefore if an aesthetic patient bought from a practice before, they will buy again from that practice or its competitors.

  
  
• •
  

  It is much easier to make the second sale than the first; the hard work has already been done.

  
  
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  The most neglected high-probability target market is past and present patients.

  
  
• •
  

  Patients welcome frequent contact and communication. The #1 reason patients leave a practice is not because they are unhappy with their result, but because of a practitioner’s indifference. Ignoring patients and not keeping in touch allows these patients to drift away.

  
  
• •
  

  Lastly, a practice’s “hidden” competitive edge is the quality of its ongoing relationships with aesthetic patients.

So, how do practitioners keep relationship going with their current patients?

Several strategies work well.