After the protests in June, and celebrations involving Memorial Day and July 4th weekends, we’re seeing an inevitable surge associated with mass gatherings. This leads to a continuing shelter-in-place, reducing travel plans and working from home for the foreseeable future. These mass gatherings and changes in consumer behavior are leading to a surge in both coronavirus and cosmetic surgery. What’s the connection?

Coronavirus and Cosmetic Surgery are surging

This phenomenon of increasing cosmetic surgery along with an increase in the coronavirus was recently highlighted in this article.

Since March, consumers are home, on ZOOM, seeing their reflection more than ever before. Naturally, some will see things they want to address. Like Botox or fillers for wrinkles.

They’re also realizing this is the best time to get that Mommy Makeover or other procedures they’ve been considering. With trips cancelled, that frees up more disposable income. And with the ability to work from home after a procedure, it’s easy to avoid questions from coworkers about why you were “out” or what you had done. If you just had a Brazilian Butt Lift, you won’t have to explain why you’re sitting on a pillow!

This increase in cosmetic surgery isn’t isolated. Across elective surgery websites, including BuildMyBod.com, where consumers can check pricing on outpatient services, traffic is up 73.4%! So while not everyone is getting cosmetic surgery or other elective procedures, they’re certainly considering it.

Think of a sales funnel. More consumers are entering the top of the funnel and checking pricing. As more folks enter the funnel, more will progress through the funnel, ask questions, schedule consults and then book surgery.

Safeguards with coronavirus and cosmetic surgery are surging

With the increasing surge in both coronavirus and cosmetic surgery, new safeguards are necessary. For plastic surgeons that perform cosmetic surgery at hospitals, their ability to operate is being curbed. As discussed here, cosmetic surgery is slow to start for several reasons at hospitals. Most significantly, the need for hospitals to make up lost revenue with better paying elective cases like orthopedic procedures.

But for outpatient surgery centers or office-based operating rooms, surgeons are performing a great deal of cosmetic surgery. To keep those patients safe, patients are undergoing COVID testing in the community prior to surgery. And in some offices, like ours, we perform an antibody test the morning of surgery.

While the coronavirus is a serious ongoing pandemic, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the end is not in sight. Therefore, we must mitigate the risks and move forward with our lives as safely as possible. That includes accommodating patients that want non-essential procedures such as cosmetic surgery. And based on web traffic and bookings, they’re clearly on board.

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

The post Why coronavirus and cosmetic surgery are surging first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Here we are, emerging from  the acute phase of the coronavirus pandemic, entering the unknown chronic phase. There is much we still don’t know about the virus, including why some become symptomatic but others remain asymptomatic. Even with these unknowns, the world must press on, doing our best to adjust our lives and maintain some sense of normalcy.

One facet of this new normal is avoiding handshakes. Washing hands frequently. Wearing masks around others. And shifting to a work-from-home (#WFH) routine when and where possible. While all of these changes are upending businesses for the better (DoorDash) or worse (Uber), there is one area where the opportunity has never been better. Working from home will lead to an environment wherein consumers will realize this is the best time to get cosmetic surgery.

Why this is the best time to get cosmetic surgery

In the past, there were various barriers to consumers getting cosmetic procedures. These include cost, fear of the unknown and the ability to get time off work. In our office, we do our best to address the issues related to cost. Not by bargaining with patients. But by being transparent about price before patients come in for a consult. Thus avoiding the awkwardness of sticker shock experienced by so many patients in so many doctor’s offices.

We address fear by pulling the curtain back on the world of cosmetic surgery. With seemingly nonstop education through social media, video and blog posts, virtually every question a patient could ask is answered.

Unfortunately, time off work is out of the hands of the doctor’s office. In the past, patients would coordinate time off months in advance or during holidays. With the onset of the work from home mindset, this obstacle is disappearing along with the patient’s commute! This is why it’s the best time to get cosmetic surgery. Patients can recover from home and still attend ZOOM meetings as necessary!

Additionally, it allows consumers to avoid discussing why they weren’t at the office, during their recovery. They can convalesce in the comfort and privacy of their home. Binging Netflix, ordering food delivery, answering work emails and never missing a day of work!

Positioning your practice for this unprecedented opportunity: Short term strategies

Taking full advantage of this opportunity requires a combination of short and long term strategies. Letting patients know what services you offer used to mean heavy digital advertising. But that’s too expensive and hard to separate yourself from the competition. So reduce your marketing expenses by going after your existing patients with email marketing.

By both growing your email marketing database with lead generation and using your current database of patients, you can get the word out with this short term strategy. Sure, you’ve told your patients about your services in the past. But now that they’re in the mindset to actually get something done. So remind them of what you offer. No easier way to do that, with very little out-of-pocket cost, than email marketing.

Positioning your practice for this unprecedented opportunity: Long term strategies

In contrast, an important long term strategy includes vertical integration. In other words, ensuring all of the services you’re capable of offering, are provided in your office itself. For example, surgeons in the aesthetic space often rely on hospitals and surgery centers to provide their surgical services. This is inadequate from a self preservation standpoint going forward.

Consider the current state of affairs for cosmetic surgeons relying on hospitals and surgery centers to clear their backlog of postponed patients. These facilities lost a lot of money during the pandemic and they’re looking to recoup those losses. The facility fees paid by cosmetic patients pale in comparison to the facility fees paid by insurance companies for medically necessary elective procedures. Therefore, these facilities will de-prioritize cosmetic cases.

That’s why it’s necessary to have your own office-based operating room in the future. This was seen as an additional expense, maybe even a luxury, in the past. No longer.

Once the ban on elective cases was lifted in San Francisco, I was able to get right back to work. I cleared my backlog of cases and started scheduling new patients. But this was only because I had my own operating room and could control our schedule.

Benefits of vertical integration

Think of the alternative. It was awkward enough telling our previously scheduled patients we couldn’t operate on them during the pandemic. But imagine if after the ban was lifted, we said we couldn’t perform their procedure for another month or two because we were at the back of the line at the hospital or surgery center, behind the orthopedic surgeons and general surgeons? In this situation, patients may consider asking for a refund and go elsewhere to get their case scheduled sooner.

Aside from the ease of scheduling in your own office-based operating room, there is less traffic in the office compared to a hospital. Not to suggest hospitals aren’t safe. But if a patient is concerned about getting coronavirus during the next surge, then it behooves them, and all of us to be around fewer people. In that sense, an office-based OR with fewer employees will allay those concerns.

Combining these short and long term strategies will position your practice for consumers who realize this is the best time to get cosmetic surgery.

Dr. Jonathan Kaplan is a board-certified plastic surgeon based in San Francisco, CA and founder/CEO of BuildMyBod Health, a price transparency-lead generation platform. You can watch him operate and educate @realdrbae on Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.

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

The post For better or worse, this is the best time to get cosmetic surgery first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Here’s the sad truth. Everything will be more expensive now. Regardless of what business you as a customer frequent, the business owners’ expenses are going up. And they’re not arbitrarily using COVID as a pretext to raise their prices. Expenses are up because restaurants, clothing stores, doctor’s offices etc are spending more on personal protective equipment (PPE) and cleaning supplies than ever before. Specifically in our practice, we’re spending more on PPE but also rapid in-office testing kits.

It’s not just the expense of buying more supplies. The supplies themselves are more expensive than ever before. Why? Because of the law of supply and demand. Manufacturers, suppliers and distributors recognize there’s a greater demand, so prices go up. While they may not raise the prices to usurious highs that are just plain price gouging, everyone’s costs are going up. So to cover these increased expenses, a businesses’ prices go up and pass those costs onto the consumer.

Everything will be more expensive now

Aside from supply and demand of PPE increasing prices, another economic phenomenon will come into play over the next several months and years. This pandemic has reaffirmed something we already knew. Our supply chain relies too heavily on countries that have experienced an epidemic several times in the 21st century. SARS in 2002/2003, MERS, H1N1 in 2009 and now COVID in 2019/2020. China, Taiwan and South Korea are the first affected by these epidemics.

The US will start to shift as much manufacturing as possible to facilities within our borders. This is great in reducing the unemployment rate by increasing the number of manufacturing jobs available. However, labor is more expensive in the US so the costs of those goods will be more expensive than those coming from Asia. Pro: it’s good for jobs. Con: it will cost us more. Intel is already in discussions with the White House to develop chip making factories here.

Cosmetic surgery costs and the airline industry

Airline tickets were less expensive in recent years. It wasn’t magic. By loading planes with more passengers than ever before, the airline could lower costs due to the volume of passengers. Now that the middle seat is gone, so are those discount fares. With fewer tickets available for purchase, airlines will have to raise their prices.

This is analogous to cosmetic surgery. Yes, prices will go up due to increasing expenses for PPE. But offices may not feel comfortable seeing as many Botox patients every day or operating on several patients in one day. With lower daily volume comes lower revenue. So doctors will be forced to raise surgery fees to counteract the loss in volume.

If you’re a consumer curious about pricing from a local doctor, click here. If you’re a doctor that wants to know how you fit within the competitive landscape, create an account and login here.

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

The post Why everything, including cosmetic surgery, will be more expensive now first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

While a Cinco de Mayo party with margaritas and Botox would be fun, that’s probably ill-advised at the moment! So join us for the next best thing: a webinar discussing Botox, fillers and other injectables, with a margarita in hand!

Dr. Kaplan (aka @RealDrBae on Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok), along with Nancy Rooney of Current Clothing and Stephanie Argiros, are hosting a webinar to answer your most burning questions about wrinkle-reducing, non-surgical treatments.

After Dr. Kaplan gives a short presentation on injectables, Nancy and Stephanie will field your questions LIVE during the broadcast. No question too silly or too risqué!

Sign up here for this webinar which will be held on Tuesday, May 5th at 3pm PST.

The post Cinco de Mayo, Margaritas and Botox (Webinar)! first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

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.

Dr. Jonathan Kaplan, founder/CEO of BuildMyBod Health is speaking at the AAFE MedSpa Business Academy this weekend. What is the AAFE you ask?! The American Academy of Facial Esthetics (AAFE) is a leading Medical and Dental CE provider specializing in live patient training courses in Botulinum Toxins, Dermal Fillers, PDO Threadlifts, and TMJ/Orofacial Pain Trigger Point Injections. AAFE facial esthetic courses provide the most extensive non-surgical and non-invasive facial injectable training to doctors, nurses, dentists and healthcare professionals.

As part of their courses, the AAFE MedSpa academy also offers a full day of practice management instruction. So not only do you get hands-on training for services you might offer in your practice, you also hear from industry giants in regards to supercharging the business side of your practice.

Dr. Kaplan speaking at the AAFE MedSpa Business Academy

As shown in the agenda here, Dr. Kaplan’s presentation is entitled, “How to Convert a Patient for Life and Keep Them Coming Back.” He’ll review the benefits of using Memberships and Subscriptions. In particular, how they bring patients back frequently and consistently for treatment. This creates a loyal patient base and because they’re now receiving treatment consistently, they’ll have consistent outcomes.

While Dr. Kaplan uses the BuildMyBod Health Concierge program of memberships and subscriptions, providers have multiple platforms to choose from. One of the other speakers at the meeting is Audrey Neff. She’s the Director of Marketing at Crystal Clear Digital Media (CCDM). They also offer a memberships/subscriptions platform. You can hear Dr. Kaplan and CCDM CEO Tim Sawyer discuss their respective platforms on the TrueToForm Podcast here.

Dr. Kaplan will also discuss the benefits of offering these memberships and subscriptions online. Rather than the consumer calling and enrolling, these subscriptions can be purchased online. And even better, if they add a subscription to their online “cart” and don’t purchase, they’ll receive an abandoned cart email just like Amazon. In this case, the doctor will also receive a copy of the same abandoned cart email with the consumer’s contact information. So not only does the doctor capture the contact information for those consumers that purchase online, but also the contact info for those considering purchasing online!

If you’re in the New York area and want to attend the meeting, click here to learn more. Also, follow the AAFE on Instagram @facialesthetics (no ‘a’ before ‘esthetics’)!

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

The post Dr. Kaplan speaking at AAFE MedSpa Business Academy (MBA) first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

This weekend, Dr. Jonathan Kaplan, Founder/CEO of BuildMyBod Health is lecturing on social media and social media influencers at the AACS in Vegas!

BuildMyBod Health: A primer

For those of you not familiar, BuildMyBod Health allows consumers to check pricing on healthcare services that are typically paid out of pocket. They are paid out of pocket because 1) you haven’t met your deductible for a medically necessary service (think colonoscopy, lab test or X-ray) or 2) because the procedure is considered cosmetic and insurance doesn’t cover it anyway. Consumers interested in pricing can visit BuildMyBod.com or download the BuildMyBod iPhone app. Even more user friendly, consumers can utilize the BuildMyBod Price Estimator on a doctor’s website.

Regardless of how you find the doctor, you add procedures or services of interest to your “wishlist.” Then submit your wishlist along with your contact info. After that, you’ll instantly get an email with a breakdown of the costs and the doctor’s contact info. The doctor’s office will also receive your contact info for follow up. By receiving your contact info, the doctor’s office can help you navigate through the healthcare process.

What presentations are on tap at the AACS?!

On Saturday, Dr. Kaplan will speak on utilizing social media influencers in your practice. What’s the difference between influencer pages on Instagram and social media influencers? How can you tell if a social media influencer that wants free product to promote your practice has a legitimate following? Dr. Kaplan will provide the attendees with the tools and knowledge to answer these questions.

If you’re attending the AACS in Vegas, be sure and attend his lecture and panel discussion. It’s not everyday you learn something new!

To check pricing on healthcare services through the BuildMyBod Health platform from a doctor near you, click here. Or to sign up as a provider and offer pricing information to consumers in an automated way and generate leads, click here.

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

The post Dr.Kaplan speaking at AACS in Vegas this weekend! first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Cosmetic Surgery and social media

Many plastic surgeons and doctors performing procedures in their own office or surgery center are showcasing procedures on social media. It’s very conducive to cosmetic dentistry and orthodontics as well. Pretty much any procedure that is elective (not an emergency) is ripe for social media.

The consumers out there on social media will be able to learn more about the procedure they may be considering. Also, they get a good look at the doctor. For example, what’s more genuine, the description the doctor’s bio provides on their website or seeing your doctor on screen in the midst of performing a procedure?

The video below also discusses what it takes to become a plastic surgeon. It’s a long road. The beauty of a career in plastic surgery is that you can often avoid the headaches of dealing with insurance companies. Or using an electronic medical record made for everyone but optimized for no one. Or waiting forever for an operating room in a hospital vs having your own operating room in your office and waiting on no one!

Being in a private cosmetic practice can allow practicing medicine with all of the pluses and none of the minuses associated with most fields in healthcare.

Lastly, the video gives insight into the impact cosmetic surgery can have on a patient. It’s immediate and hopefully, with the right expectations, a positive impact.

Video on cosmetic surgery and social media

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

The post The Bae View: Cosmetic Surgery and Social Media [video] 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.

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.

Congratulations to Dr. Jonathan Kaplan, founder/CEO of BuildMyBod Health for being named a Visiting Professor at UC Davis (University of California at Davis). His visiting professorship will take place in Sacramento on Tuesday, November 5th.

Visiting Professor at UC Davis

The UC Davis visiting professorship program extends an invitation to a plastic surgeon that the residents feel has a knowledge base that can augment their day-to-day training. In Dr. Kaplan, they will receive insight into his experience in private practice. But not just a narration of what his practice is like. As with all of Dr. Kaplan’s presentations, he will present outcomes data on various aspects of his practice. This includes data on clinical patient care and the business side of healthcare. Through his presentations, he demonstrates supporting documentation for the actionable recommendations he makes.

As part of his visiting professorship, he will also speak at the Greater Sacramento Society of Plastic Surgeons on Monday night, November 4th. His presentation topics at the GSSPS will include:
1) The SIMI® (Single Incision Minimally Invasive) Neck Lift
2) Why it’s critical to diversify your marketing channels

As the Visiting Professor at UC Davis, his presentations will include:
1) The Safer Brazilian Butt Lift in my practice
2) Growing the resident cosmetic clinic
3) The SIMI® (Single Incision Minimally Invasive) Neck Lift
4) I bought a practice, should you?

The topics above will give the residents an array of subjects that are interesting, and better prepare them for life after training.

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

The post Dr. Kaplan named Visiting Professor at UC Davis first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.