I’ve been saying it for years, like here, here and here, but never has it been more obvious than now. It’s critical that you grow your email database for future email marketing. And in these pandemic times when patient activity may be down, you need a way to communicate with current and future patients and drive new business.

Grow your email database

Sure, you can pay for advertising during this potential economic slowdown to let the public know you’re still open for business. But patients may be more reluctant to come in for a non-surgical or surgical procedure. Which means you’ll need to advertise more aggressively to capture the folks that are interested. But is that really what you want to do now? Increase your expenses with costly advertising? I mean, you potentially have fewer patients coming in, less revenue, belt tightening…so you’re gonna increase your spending during a time of less cash flow? No, of course not.

That’s why, moving forward, you need to grow your email database during the good times. Remember the Ant and the Grasshopper? In one of Aesop’s classic fables, the grasshopper sings the summer away and the ant stores up for the winter. And what happens when winter comes? The grasshopper is SOL and the ant is well prepared. In this analogy, the business that has built their email database over time will be able to market to their email database at a much lower cost than traditional advertising, especially when funds are tight. Have you seen how cheap email marketing is lately?! You just need a robust email database to utilize its power.

Building a robust email database

Be well prepared for the next crisis or economic slowdown, recession or whatever they call it at the time. To do that, ensure that all marketing efforts are focused on generating leads, Regardless of where they are in the sales funnel. By collecting names, email addresses and phone numbers, you’ll build your email database for future email marketing. So how can you do a better job capturing leads? Give the patient something they want.

Instead of offering a patient an ebook in exchange for their contact info, or the opportunity to sign up for your lame email newsletter, give them pricing! That’s right, allow them to check pricing on a service or procedure they’re considering, but only after they enter their contact information! Just like this doctor, this doctor and this doctor do it with a Price Estimator.

By providing the consumer with a really tantalizing call to action button, like Get A Quote Now, you’ll capture more of the traffic on your website or social media page. And you get a better return on your marketing dollars. And when that next black swan event occurs, you’ll be prepared! So what are you waiting for, go grow your email database!

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Be the ant: Grow your email database now! first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

What’s an abandoned cart?

Say you’re shopping online and add a tub of Vaseline to your cart, or condoms (ribbed for their pleasure), and you forget to complete the purchase. Okay, maybe that’s not what you’re adding to your cart, but in general, sometimes you’ll add something to your cart and ultimately not make the purchase for one reason or another. Then, 15 minutes later you receive an email encouraging you to click on a link to bring you back to that specific item on the website to finish the purchase. And notice, the link doesn’t simply bring you back to the homepage of the website forcing you to search the product again. It brings to back to the exact item of interest.

That email you received is an example of an abandoned cart. And the link that brought you to the specific product you were considering is called a deep link. No searching necessary.

Why is an abandoned cart email so important?

If you think of any other healthcare provider, their online stores don’t send out abandoned cart emails. Why is that? Because if a website is expected to send someone an abandoned cart via email, you must first know their email address!

If your online store required someone to login and provide their contact information (name and email address), you would then have a way of capturing their email address. But how do you encourage them to enter their contact info? Withhold something they need. For example, don’t show them the price up front!

Think about it. Most online stores simply show the product or service, like the example below. By showing the price, you’ve removed any incentive for the user to enter their contact info.

Withholding price changes that dynamic. If the consumer had to create an account and add their demographic information to see the price of a particular product, they would. And if adding the item to their cart to see the price required their information, then you could capture their contact info (a lead) with each abandoned cart. Just as they receive the abandoned cart email with a deep link encouraging them to return to your website to purchase, your front office staff would receive the same email with their contact information for follow up.

For the people that purchase, great, you get their money and their name. But there will always be more people considering purchasing an item than those that actually purchase. As the sales funnel demonstrates, there are more potential names and email addresses to be gotten from the people that may purchase an item vs those that will purchase.

Case study in Abandoned Carts

Dr. Steven Weiner, a facial plastic surgeon in Florida that has a non-surgical practice demonstrates the importance of abandoned carts. He used to show all of his products and product prices online. Then he switched to a Price Estimator on his website (https://theclinique.com/build-my-bod/) wherein the consumer must enter their contact information to see any pricing.

More importantly, if they were considering purchasing a product, they wouldn’t see the price until they created a free account and added the item to their cart. Once in their cart, they could see the price and decide whether to purchase or not. Over the course of 4 months, they definitely purchased! He generated almost $5,300 in online sales.

During that same time period, he generated more than just dollars and cents from his online store. He captured the contact information from 95 unique users that added items to their cart but did not purchase. Because his system tracks users and the carts they abandon, his office staff had the opportunity to follow up with those leads. Over time, some of those leads will turn into patients purchasing high dollar procedures or at least products generating some cash flow for his practice.

Wrap up

Regardless of what type of advertising you engage in, the ultimate goal should be to capture the consumer’s contact info. A call-to-action on your website is your best chance of getting that information. However, not all “call to action” buttons are created equal. Asking for someone’s contact info in exchange for an ebook or to be added to your monthly newsletter isn’t tantalizing anymore. Requiring the consumer to enter their contact information to see the cost of a procedure or the cost of a product they’re considering purchasing online is tantalizing enough.

This concept can be applied to your online store as well. Not every online store will result in many sales but it doesn’t have to be a total loss. If you have an online store, then no doubt it is your single greatest source of lost leads because you aren’t tracking abandoned carts. Still don’t agree? Keep in mind that Amazon utilizes the abandoned cart…and they probably know what they’re doing!

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post The Power of the Abandoned Cart first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

One of my patients came in the other day to receive Botox/Xeomin for her forehead wrinkles right after her ObGyn appointment in the same building. She related a story to me of how terrible the customer service was at the front desk of the Ob’s office and how it’s so much better in our office. Upon hearing this, I immediately knew why the customer service is better in our office.

The difference between insurance vs cash-pay practices

My patient said that the front desk personnel were very passive aggressive and unfriendly. She pointed out how she has good insurance, pays a lot for it and expects to receive good customer service in return. This isn’t unreasonable. Whenever we pay a high price for something, like dinner or a car, we expect the establishment we’re patronizing to treat us well.

But that’s the problem. There’s a disconnect between the patient and the doctor’s office when using health insurance. The patient isn’t paying the doctor directly for those services. There’s an intermediary between the patient and the doctor: the insurance claims process.

I understand most consumers use health insurance when seeing their doctor. I’m not disputing that. But the underlying root problem comes into clear focus when I think about other offices vs my office. In insurance-based offices, the patient pays the insurance company and maybe, just maybe the insurance company will pay the doctor. In a cash pay office, the patient pays the doctor and that’s it.

Why customer service is better in cash pay practices

Look at it this way. If someone comes in and gives my front office staff a $10,000 cash payment for a cosmetic procedure, which is a very typical occurrence in a cosmetic practice, my staff is naturally going to be very nice to that person. I’m not saying you should only treat people nicely if they have money. I’m just saying that if someone gives you a bunch of money, your natural response will be one of appreciation and pleasantness.

Compare that to an insurance-based practice. When the patient gives the front desk their insurance card, it’s not the same as cash. In fact, it’s even worse, Because when the patient hands the insurance card to the office staff, not only is it not cash, but it embodies an evil system. That card represents a process of filing an insurance claim, getting denied, appealing, appealing again, frustration and finally a feeling of defeat when you receive either very little or no reimbursement.

It’s just that simple. That’s the difference between a cash-pay practice vs an insurance-based practice. Sure the front office staff should be trained to be friendly no matter what type of office they’re in. But the fact is that insurance processing sucks the energy and youth out of anyone that is touched by its scourge. This leads to a poor attitude and subsequently poor customer service.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Customer service is better in cash-pay practices first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Why buy bots followers and likes?

Why buy fake followers and likes in the first place? If you’re a plastic surgeon like me, there’s seemingly no point in using bots to create fake likes or followers because none of those fake people will ever become real patients!

Even though I have never bought fake engagement via bots and the like, I think the reason others try it has to do with the Instagram algorithm. The idea is that your post will be shown to more real people if it appears that it initially receives a lot of engagement. So if you have a lot of bots and fake followers that immediately like a new post, the hope is that you’d fool Instagram into showing your post to even more real Instagram users. And that would result in more real engagement. This may have been true at one point. But Instagram continues to improve its artificial intelligence to recognize this kind of inauthentic activity.

As an aside, in our practice, we “work” this algorithm in a more legitimate way by utilizing “Like Pods.” These are made up of real people that will initially like and comment on our posts, hoping that will show increased engagement and a resulting greater reach. I don’t know that it leads to a greater reach, however, it is nice to spark engagement from real people. But I digress.

The problem with relying on bots

Now that Instagram is removing those robotic likes and followers, some Instagram accounts are going to lose 100s or 1000s of likes and followers overnight. This could be slightly embarrassing if their “influence” is now called into question. If you go from thousands of likes to 50, followers will realize the discrepancy is due to fake followers and likes.

Increasing engagement with real people

There are ways to increase engagement with real people without having to resort to buying bots. Aside from the Like Pods mentioned above, there are also “giveaways.” These are contests that followers can enter if they like, follow and tell friends about your page.

Sure this could be considered buying someone’s interest but whatever, at least they’re real people that Instagram won’t delete. And keep in mind, after the contest ends, those real followers may unfollow you.

Giveaways are big business for companies that run them. For example, Scott Disick, an adjacent member of the Kardashian clan works with Curated Businesses. As you can see in this example, Kylie Kardashian did a handbag giveaway in May 2019 in conjunction with Disick and Curated Businesses. The idea is that if you liked and followed all 70 people that were “sponsoring” the giveaway, you could win all of the handbags plus $20,000. Where’s the financial benefit to Kardashian, Disick and Curated Businesses? Word is that the 70 sponsors each paid $25,000 to be part of the giveaway.

And what’s the benefit to the 70 sponsors? More real followers leads to more brand awareness. While some of those followers will unfollow the sponsors, some followers may like what they see and become a client to one of the sponsors. For example, one plastic surgeon that participated in that May giveaway grew from 10.9K to 230,819K! Sure his follower count fell back to 149K about 10 days later. But I bet, somewhere in those 149,000 followers is a few patients that will make his $25,000 investment worthwhile!

Summary

Everyone will tell you that you should “simply” grow your following through engaging content. But that usually takes longer than our short attention spans and patience will allow. So consider Like Pods and giveaways. Whatever you do, don’t buy bots follower and likes, because if your following disappears overnight, you’ll have some explaining to do!

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Thank God I didn’t buy bots, followers and likes! first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

It’s official! Price transparency in healthcare is closer to reality. President Trump released new rules requiring hospitals to publish their charges and negotiated rates. You may be thinking, “oh this doesn’t affect me! It only affects hospitals and their employed physicians.” But make no mistake, this affects all physicians. Including those providing outpatient services! You may also be thinking, “that’s too complicated because of different insurers and negotiated rates!” The ability to publish your prices through your website with a Price Estimator can be provided in any format you like.

First, why does this affect me?

You see, as hospitals begin to show their prices, the consumers’ mindset will change. Once they realize hospitals are displaying pricing, consumers will expect pricing information for ALL healthcare services. That means from ALL doctors, whether you’re an employee or not. So while the law may not affect you directly, it definitely affects you indirectly.

Jump on the bandwagon, but do it right! Don’t just list your prices as a menu. As discussed here, that’s the worst thing you could do! See how below.

Publish your prices with accuracy

Bundled rate: If you work with a company that pays their employees’ insurance bills directly, then they may pay a bundled price for all of the services that go into a knee replacement for example. If your facility has negotiated a bundled single rate, you can list that cost in a Price Estimator on your website. The benefit of using a Price Estimator like this bariatric surgeon is that when the consumer checks the bundled price, they have to enter their contact info first. Once they submit their “wishlist,” they receive an automated email with the bundled rate and the practice receives the same email with the consumer’s contact info – a lead for follow up!

Negotiated Rates: If your facility has negotiated rates with various insurance companies (the most common) then that means each service has a previously determined rate that you’re allowed to charged based on the insurance company. With a Price Estimator like this surgery center, the consumer can choose the insurance plan they’re a member of, then choose the procedure, enter their contact info and voila!, they receive an estimate specific to that insurance payor and the surgery center receives a lead!

Cash rate: And finally, for most dermatologists, dentists or plastic surgeons, the practice can also list their cash rate for services not typically covered by insurance. The consumer checks their cash rate through the Price Estimator and is less likely to experience sticker shock upon arrival for their consult.

So you see, a flexible Price Estimator can make price transparency accessible and beneficial for everyone – consumers and providers!

To check pricing from Dr. Kaplan, click here. If you’re a provider interested in offering price transparency and separating yourself from your competition, click here.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post 3 ways to publish your prices with BuildMyBod Health [video] first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

A substitute to specials

The purpose of specials is to generate interest in services at a time when business is expected to slow down. This in turn will keep revenue flowing. So rather than intermittent sales and promotions to keep cash flow from bottoming out, motivate consumers in a way that requires a commitment from them in the long run.

What do I mean? Let’s demonstrate by example. In our office, we have two ways of offering consumers a “special” without running specials. These offerings are an exchange of benefits between provider and consumer. A typical one-off special incurs no loyalty. The doctor offers a special, the consumer takes advantage of it and the former patient has no reason to darken the doorway of the practice until another deal is run.

Generating commitment from a patient

So we offer a benefit for prospective surgical and non-surgical patients that also benefits the office. First, the non-surgical patients. Instead of providing a special that incurs no long-term commitment, we utilize a subscription system to maintain recurring revenue for non-surgical services. With a subscription or membership, the differences explained here, the consumer receives discounted benefits but only with a monthly ongoing financial commitment.

For surgical patients, we utilize a similar game plan.  As discussed here, most offices allow patients to book a surgical procedure by only leaving a deposit. But this requires the office staff to follow-up two weeks prior to surgery and attempt to collect the balance. Collecting the remaining balance is never as easy as expected. It usually ends up with additional awkward conversations about cost, prolonged games of phone tag and potential postponement of procedures.

To minimize this, we give patients a discount on the surgical procedure if they book and pay in full at the time of consultation. 72% of our patients now book and pay in full at the time of consultation. They’re incentivized to do this because 1) they know cost ahead of time and 2) can get their finances in order by the time they come in for a consultation and 3) they receive a discount for doing so. The consumer receives the benefit of a discount on their procedure and we receive the benefit of reducing the amount of time spent trying to collect a balance. What could your office staff do if they could shift 72% of their time from one frustrating task to a more productive one?!

Using these techniques builds a financially loyal patient base that offers reciprocal benefits for both patient and practice.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Don’t offer specials. Offer commitment instead! first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Whenever I discuss the concept of price transparency with other healthcare providers, the first thing they say is, “I don’t want to compete on price!” I simply don’t understand why the premise of price transparency automatically leads to the assumption that you have to compete on price.

Healthcare doesn’t follow the rules of a free market system

The idea of price transparency in healthcare is quite foreign. Historically, the healthcare industry has never been fond of showing their costs.

It’s partly due to the unusual arrangement between health insurance payors, the consumers (payers) and providers. In the past, insurance companies paid the charges submitted by providers after seeing a patient. This ultimately led to two epiphanies by the insurance industry.

First, at some point, insurance companies felt doctors were charging too much. And two, insurance executives realized that with so many beneficiaries (consumers) under their umbrella, they had the leverage to negotiate better terms for themselves (and poorer terms for providers). Meanwhile, the consumer’s premiums kept rising! Think about that: insurance providers pay out less per service/treatment provided by the doctor but somehow the consumer’s cost continues to rise.

The subsequent negotiations led to various contracts with each provider or healthcare entity (hospital, multi-specialty clinic or health system). And as with many contracts dealing with compensation, they’re considered a secret. Moreover, insurance companies consider these secrets protected by the Uniform Trade Secrets Act.

“…insurance providers pay out less per service/treatment provided by the doctor but somehow the consumer’s cost continues to rise.”

This is what the Trump Administration’s recent Executive Order and rules are trying to uncover – these negotiated rates. By pulling the curtain back and showing everyone what the rates are, consumers can make better financial decisions about their healthcare before, rather than after treatment.

Price transparency, not price wars

Since most providers (doctors, hospitals, multi-specialty clinics or health systems) don’t reveal their pricing, that means those of us who do can separate ourselves from the competition. Consumers want pricing information prior to purchasing any service. That’s how it is in every other sector of the economy. Buying a house or car? You want to know how much it costs ahead of time. That’s reasonable. That doesn’t make you a price shopper!

Just because you show your pricing doesn’t mean you have to compete on price. If others show their prices, could they be lower than yours? Certainly, that’s always a possibility. But that does not mean you are required to lower your price. There’s not an automatic “trigger” in place that requires you to begin a race to the bottom.

However, there’s a caveat to that resistance to lower your price: be prepared to substantiate your higher prices. If your prices are higher because of better customer service or more qualified professionals in your organization, great. That’s certainly worth the higher price if the consumer also places a premium on that experience.

Don’t compete on price, compete on quality

I recently served on a price transparency panel at this past Becker’s ASC meeting and one of my co-panelists, Andy Poole, CEO of Monticello Community Surgery Center, explicitly stated that you should commit to price transparency but compete on quality, not price. So he gets it!

In the end, offering price transparency online will allow you to stand out from your competition. It will give you a competitive edge. And it’s possible without lowering your prices.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Compete on price transparency, not price! [video] first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

It’s official! Price transparency in healthcare is closer to reality. President Trump released new rules requiring hospitals to publish their charges and negotiated rates. You may be thinking, “oh this doesn’t affect me! It only affects hospitals and their employed physicians.” But make no mistake, this affects all physicians!

Why price transparency in healthcare will affect everyone

You see, as hospitals begin to show their prices, the consumers’ mindset will change. Once they realize hospitals are displaying pricing, consumers will expect pricing information for ALL healthcare services. That means from ALL doctors, whether you’re employed by a hospital or not. So while the law may not affect you directly, it definitely affects you indirectly.

Another way to look at it is from the perspective of a Millennial. They have easy access to the cost, ingredients and details of most everything via their smartphone. But if they’ve ever sought out healthcare services, confusion ensued. They thought to themselves, “how can I not know the cost of something that’s potentially very expensive, before I purchase it?” As they have grown up with an Amazon world, and continue to grow older, they will expect and demand price transparency in healthcare, just like there is price transparency in other aspects of their lives.

The new rules

So what exactly is contained in these new rules. Most would argue that the rules went further than expected. Based on the initial proposal announced in June, many thought the Trump Administration would only require hospitals to post their negotiated rates. If that was all they demanded it would still be a big improvement over the previous rule requiring only chargemaster rates – rates that no one actually pays.

In addition to the negotiated rates for facility fees and their employed physician fees, the new rule states that hospitals must also disclose the negotiated rates for medications and supplies. Specifically, the rule requires hospitals to list negotiated rates for 300 “shoppable services,” listing 70 in the rule and allowing the hospitals to come up with the other 230.

Aside from the payer-specific negotiated rates, the hospital must also list the gross charges, discounted cash prices, de-identified minimum negotiated charges and de-identified maximum negotiated charges according to Becker’s Healthcare Review.

The Biggest Surprise

There was one big surprise in addition to the official rules regarding negotiated rates at the hospital. The Trump Administration also proposed requiring insurers to list their negotiated rates with various facilities and doctors. Basically the Administration is working this from two angles. Hospitals would list negotiated rates with various insurers and insurers would list their negotiated rates with hospitals! Somewhere in there, the consumer would find the truth and be able to compare pricing.

Despite their best efforts, and there’s no reason to think hospitals and insurers will try their best when being forced to doing something they are reluctant to do, the posted rates will be difficult to navigate. This presents an opportunity for the rest of us in the healthcare industry.

Physicians shouldn’t wait!

Physicians and independent practitioners need to get ahead of the curve. Don’t wait for hospitals and insurers to list your rates. Price transparency, when done correctly, can be a customer service satisfier. Whether it’s providing the consumer the bundled rate, the negotiated rate or the cash rate for their healthcare services, the consumer will find it much easier to determine their costs through the physician’s site rather than a clunky hospital or insurer’s site. None of this will be easy but doing the right thing rarely is.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post One step closer: Price transparency in healthcare [video] first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Dr. Kaplan, founder/CEO of BuildMyBod Health recently wrote an article on social media for the benefit of healthcare providers. Many are reluctant to use social media in their practice but Dr. Kaplan explains how they’re missing out on an amazing opportunity to educate their patients. You can listen to the article here, from a very exuberant and dramatic voiceover professional, or you can continue reading below.

The past is behind us! The future is social media

In the past, consumers found their doctors through physician referrals and word of mouth. Then it was the yellow pages giving way to the internet, a doctor’s website, and Google. But speaking as the founder/CEO of an online marketplace for health care services and a practicing cosmetic surgeon, I believe the way in which a consumer chooses a doctor is changing drastically. Rather than relying on typical search engines or the curated pages of the doctor’s website, consumers are turning more and more to social media. Nowhere is this more evident than in the cosmetic surgery specialty. But make no mistake, what I am suggesting will affect all doctors offering elective services—which probably means you!

So, when we refer to social media, are we talking about Twitter or Facebook? Not even close! The level of engagement that is connecting patients with doctors like never before is via Instagram, Instagram Stories, Facebook Live and Snapchat. Currently, patients want to choose a physician they can “get to know” on social media. They’re looking for a doctor who’s willing to be broadcast working in the operating room or clinic, and they even want a glimpse of the doctor out of the office. Consumers don’t consider going to see a doctor because they published a paper or because they presented at a meeting. The consumer is unaware of your expertise unless they see it on TV or social media. To appreciate this unprecedented level of transparency, a basic understanding of these platforms is necessary.

Instagram

After their purchase by Facebook five years ago, Instagram now has 500 million daily active users. The Instagram app is a scrolling wall (referred to as the “feed”) of seemingly endless rows of three photos arranged side by side, each with their own caption and set of hashtags. Hashtags are essentially keywords within the caption or comments of the Instagram post. If one is looking for a particular topic on the Discover page of Instagram, there’s a good chance they’ll find what they’re looking for based on the hashtags associated with that Instagram post. And if your practice has an Instagram page, you’ll receive traffic from consumers who first sought you out through the Instagram Discover page. By having content for consumers who “follow” your page, you’re now top of mind if they or a friend or relative need your medical skillset.

Instagram Stories/ Snapchat

Still photos found on Instagram are fine. But the “truest” impression of a doctor, from the consumer’s perspective, is on the physician’s Instagram Stories/Snapchat account. This is where informal 10–15 second video clips come together to create a 24-hour story that reveals the doctor and staff in the operating room and/or clinic. This is the greatest technique to engage with viewers and let them get to know the practice. From procedures to office goings-on, the doctor and staff become more approachable. The viewer also has the opportunity to ask questions while watching the video. So the physician or assistant can respond and educate. See an example of an Instagram feed or Instagram Stories at @RealDrBae.

Facebook Live

An important distinction between Instagram Stories/Snapchat and Facebook Live is the difference between “live” and “almost live.” For Instagram Stories/Snapchat, the doctor records an interesting procedure. Then they choose to post it to the platform for all to see. Facebook Live, on the other hand, is truly live, streaming video. Delayed posting (after review) to Instagram Stories/Snapchat minimizes exposure from a medicolegal perspective. So while your content appears real and authentic to the audience, there is the ability to curate it.

Obtaining consent

In my experience most patients will gladly sign a consent if there are no identifying marks. In fact, they want to be part of the educational process for other patients. As your practice incorporates social media into your daily routine, most consults will be from patients that want to be on social media. So they will already be expecting to be a part of this process.

Educating patients

Social media is not about dancing in the operating room or dressing up in silly outfits (which some doctors do!). For years, physicians have lamented the low quality of information our patients are finding on the internet. Currently, doctors limit their education to one patient at a time. That means we’re limiting our outreach to a relative handful of individuals. Patients are not going to stop accessing the internet for medical information. That gives us the opportunity to provide them with alternative, more accurate sources of education. And the most engaging and far-reaching method of providing this information is through the physician’s social media account.

I feel your pain

It is understandable why physicians, already dealing with the burdens of EMRs and insurance reimbursement, would want to bury their heads in the sand when it comes to social media. There’s a very steep learning curve, and because of the time commitment, it requires buy-in from all employees. Yet there is an enormous opportunity to be successful on social media right now. Why? Because most doctors wouldn’t consider bringing social media so actively into their practice. That reason alone will separate those who embrace social media from their competition. When I hear doctors say, “but no one in my field really does that,” my reply is “and that’s exactly the reason why you should!”

Jonathan Kaplan, MD, is a board-certified plastic surgeon based in San Francisco and is the founder/CEO of BuildMyBod Health, an online marketplace for health care services.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Making Peace with Social Media in Your Practice first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Want to offer patients the perfect patient experience when it comes to their surgical procedure? Then there’s one thing the doctor must do: be in 100% control of the perioperative (pre-, intra-, and postop-) experience. And to do that, the doctor must have their own office-based operating room.

That time I just missed providing the perfect patient experience

While I do have my own accredited operating room in my office, one of my patients wanted to use her insurance for her breast reduction. If you can prove shoulder or back pain, insurance may cover the cost of your procedure. But be careful. It’s not always a sure thing. Read this to better understand the risks (yes the risks!) of using your insurance if you have a high deductible health plan for outpatient procedures. But I digress.

Anyway, the operation at the hospital went smoothly in the operating room. In the immediate postop period in the recovery room, things were great as well. I checked on the patient in the recovery room and she was appreciative. Since she was stable, I left the hospital.

As far as I knew, it was the perfect patient experience. But then the patient called a few days later. She said she was happy with her results but she had to get something off her chest (no pun intended). She said the last interaction she had that day was with the nurse in Phase II of the recovery room (the phase right before being discharged home), According to the patient, the nurse – the very last interaction the patient had among many interactions that day –  was rude and very dismissive of her pain.

So even though the operation was a success and overall the experience was uneventful, there was one and only one interaction that ruined it all.

Controlling the entire experience in an office-based operating room

A nurse or any employee in my office would not be that dismissive of a patient, including a postop patient. One, they know it’s unacceptable. But two, they know they’re going to see that patient at their postop appointment. It would be awkward seeing a patient again that they were previously rude to in the recovery room. Being in control of the entire perioperative experience, including the personnel, is the only way to provide the perfect patient experience.

I’m not saying that every doctor’s office that has their own operating room can provide a perfect patient experience. Certainly patient perception is also a factor in their experience. We can attempt to manage a patient’s expectations, but even still, they may perceive a less than perfect experience. All we as clinicians can do is provide the perfect experience (whether they know it or not)! And if a perfect patient experience is to be had, it will only occur if the doctor has their own operating room and 360 degree control of the entire process.

As the story above demonstrates, you don’t know who the patient will interact with in a hospital or surgery center during the perioperative process. Even in the operating room, you don’t always know who your operating room staff will be at a hospital or outpatient facility. Having new staff in each operation isn’t only a problem for the patient experience, it can even lead to complications and a poor outcome as this study out of Harvard reveals.

Pros and cons of having your own operating room

The vertical integration of an operating room into an office has its ups and downs. There is the issue of hiring excellent staff and the added cost.  But that is easily outweighed by providing a better experience for the patient, staff and doctor.

Of course it’s not possible for every doctor to have their own operating room in their office. This may not apply to every surgical specialty. However, these same principles can be adapted to address inefficiencies in the hospital setting to the extent it is possible. For example, in many hospitals, the heart surgeons lease the operating room from the hospital and hire all of the staff for the OR.

In this way, they are able to better control the perioperative experience for their patients. And at the same time, they have the necessary supporting services (heart lung machine, ICU, cardiac rehab, etc). So when seeing a surgeon in consultation for a procedure, ask if they are the “master of their domain” (the OR)! They’ll be taken aback by the question, but it could be the difference between a wonderful, mediocre or poor experience.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Perfect patient experience? The doctor has to have their own operating room first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Social media is to blame, or take credit, for everything these days! The effects of social media are evident across a variety of spaces. For example, it’s changing political discourse, feelings of inequality (you always knew the Kardashians had more money than you but now you know how much more!) and how a business goes about generating, well, new business. Specifically, to stay competitive, aesthetic practices are increasingly relying on social media and changing their referral patterns.

Social media’s effect on changing referral patterns for aesthetic practices

When patients go to a particular doctor for a medical problem, it’s typically because they were referred there from the emergency room or another doctor within the patient’s same insurance network. But when it comes to practices in the aesthetic space, it doesn’t work that way. The emergency room isn’t referring patients to doctors for botox treatments or a breast aug! Aesthetic physicians (plastic surgeons, dermatologist, etc) have wholly different referral patterns.

In the old days, aesthetic physicians would advertise in the yellow pages or send out print mailers. Those days are long gone. Over the last 15 years, consumers were relying solely on internet searches to find their doctor. With the rise of social media, referral patterns are changing significantly.

This is good news depending on your perspective. How well prepared are you? How diversified are your marketing channels? If you’re active on social media, then great. If you haven’t taken the plunge, then it’s going to be a long arduous trudge building your social media following after so many years in practice. And if you were a Facebook fan, that is now a pay-to-play game. Organic posts to your business page will be seen by about 6% of your followers, For any traction on Facebook, you’ll have to boost, or pay, for anyone to see your posts.

Engagement through Instagram and Instagram Stories

For now, Instagram is where it’s at. And it doesn’t cost a thing…for now. What I’m learning from my Instagram account is that posts aren’t enough. Sure I can have engaging posts and strive for 1-2% of my followers to engage by liking or viewing my posts. However, based on my experience, views of Instagram Stories (the 10-15 second video clips that tell a story and then disappear after 24 hours) is the new gold standard.

While I often get less than 1% likes on my posts (and my followers are real people, not bots), I get over 1,000 views on my Stories in a 24 hour period each week (I’m not even bragging but 1,000 views in a 24 hour period turns into real patients!). How do I know that likes on posts aren’t the recipe for success in my case? Because as the pie chart below shows, my number one biggest referral source at 28% is social media (Instagram and Snapchat). My social media efforts include the content I’m uploading day in and day out on my social media accounts and also my weekly collaboration with Dr. Michael Salzhauer. Also known as Dr. Miami (@therealdrmiami on Instagram and Snapchat), Dr. Miami posts my content on his affiliate page, @drmiamiland for a monthly fee.

He has over 2 million followers collectively on his social media accounts. When he gives you a “shoutout” on one of his accounts, it results in referrals that further emphasizes the new-found importance of social media. Social media as a referral source has become so critical that, as this article explains, even though I had a 62% drop in traffic to my website from April to June of 2019, my social media engagement and revenue increased year over year.

Diversify your marketing channels and building an email database as a backup plan

Thankfully I diversified my marketing channels between internet search (Google) and social media. If I had put all of my eggs in the Google basket, the consequences on my practice could have been devastating. I weathered the Google algorithm updates of March and June 2019 because I had two “arrows” in my quiver. I had my social media presence and a growing email database to protect me.

No matter what technique you use to “make it rain” (Google, Bing, social media or social media influencers like Dr. Miami), you need to make sure you have the right “bucket” to capture as many leads as possible. That way, if your luck changes with Google or social media, you still have a huge email database to show for it and you can reach out to followers directly. Read how I generate leads on my website via price transparency here – http://modernaesthetics.com/2017/12/loading-the-sales-funnel-through-price-transparency#1.

Moving forward

The growth of my social media presence saved me as my web traffic dropped. Unfortunately, I’m not done. I must now build my web traffic again to ensure I remain in a favorable position if my social media presence, specifically Instagram, was to go south.  Cautiously consider each new marketing opportunity in case it’s the next “big one.” Marketing trends will continue to evolve. To remain relevant, providers need to be nimble and able to adapt to the times. Because in 10 years, we’ll be writing about you-know-what that’s changing referral patterns!

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Changing referral patterns in the age of social media first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

My website traffic didn’t drop overnight but pretty close. From the beginning of April to the end of June 2019, the number of visitors to my website went from 11,800 users to 4,500 users. That’s a 62% drop. All thanks to Google, the premier search engine, releasing a wide ranging algorithm update on March 12th, 2019.

YMYL (your money or your life)

This Google update affected many healthcare sites (including mine). The update is referred to as YMYL (your money or your life). Google wants to ensure that when it comes to your health, you to see the results that are trustworthy, authoritative and least likely to adversely affect your life. Government websites like the National Institute of Health is considered trustworthy according to Google. They have not come to the same conclusion about my site which includes weekly blog posts written by a board certified plastic surgeon, ie me!

Does website traffic correlate with practice revenue?

So has this drastic drop in web traffic to my private practice website affected my practice? The best way to quickly and easily assess a correlation between website traffic, ostensibly from consumers considering plastic surgery, and the health of my practice is to look at revenue. When comparing the first half of 2018 (before the Google update, when I had a robust flow of traffic to my website) to the first half of 2019 (after the update) my revenue actually went up 18.5%!

This is mind boggling! Why didn’t this significant drop in traffic affect my practice? Isn’t website traffic critical to success? Luckily I didn’t put all of my eggs in one basket (ie Google/website traffic) but instead shifted my marketing strategy a few years ago by utilizing multiple marketing channels. While it’s not much a secret, my secret weapon is social media. And considering that my patient referrals from social media have increased from 29% in 2018 to 38% thus far in 2019, this alternative marketing channel is quickly becoming the most important!

Who would have ever thought that Google and a doctor’s website wasn’t the most important source for patient capture?! But that doesn’t mean I can rest comfortably knowing that I’ve got social media in my corner and Google doesn’t matter anymore. Just because I was “right” this time around in generating leads through social media, I have the same risk of losing engagement on social media if Instagram changes their algorithm…and they will.

So I need to continue building up my traffic on my website as a backup plan. But what if we could reduce our dependence on both platforms when one or both aren’t cooperating.

Email marketing

Patient traffic and engagement with website and social media are cyclical. It’s either feast or famine. But while it’s “feast,” always capture as many leads and patient contact info as possible. That way, when Google or Instagram deserts you (hopefully not at the same time), you won’t be left empty-handed. You’ll have a huge email database for future email marketing regardless of how Google or Instagram are behaving.

So how do you capture contact info as quickly as possible? Offer the patient something of value in exchange for the name, email address and phone number. No, that “something” is not an ebook or a subscription to your newsletter. Not tantalizing enough! Pricing is that something. Provide pricing in exchange for contact information, preferably in an automated way on your website, or through social media and watch the leads roll in!

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post That time my website traffic dropped from 11.8K to 4.5K first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.