How to Grow Your Aesthetic Practice by 20% This Year
Now, more than ever, is the time to promote you and your practice strategically. With the competition heating up and the economy cooling down, consider where you are putting (or not putting) your time, money and efforts to attract more aesthetic patients to your practice.
Are You Sitting on a Patient Goldmine?
You may be sitting on a gold mine and don’t even know it. I guarantee you have long-lost patients in your aesthetic practic

increase your aesthetic patients by 20 this year heres how plastic surgery
e who would return to you if given a chance.
If you have been in practice for even a short time, you have developed an eclectic database of various types of patients who:
›› currently visit you
›› who used to visit you but now don’t
›› who are angry at you and you don’t even know it
›› who talk badly about you
›› who would come back if you only apologized
Your database is filled with patients who took the time to call
Terms
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your office, set up an appointment and visit you. For whatever reason, they didn’t book a consultation, didn’t return to finish their appointments or have left your office never to return again.
Aesthetic patients are fickle consumers. Rather than a goldmine, it can be more like a mine field to understand these patients and why they chose you over all the others.
Every single aspect of the aesthetic patient’s experience with your office counts. From how your telephone is answere
Category › Plastic Surgery
Title › Increase Your Aesthetic Patients By 20% This Year, Here’s How! | Plastic Surgery
d to how you’re following-up (or not) matters. Your staff, you and your processes can turn a patient into a profitable referral source or a bad-mouthing thorn in your side.
Your challenge is to do everything you can to ensure these patients have a ‘WOW” experience with you every single time they are in touch with your practice – either on the telephone or in person.
Hey, Where Did You Go?
Many of these long-lost patients were not saying ‘No” to you. Some were saying “Not Yet”. Some were in a bad mood that day and just could not connect with you or your staff. Some got sticker shock and some didn’t realize what all was involved to look their best.
However; there is a majority who feel they were not treated right by your receptionist, a staff person or you. It could have been something so benign as your receptionist did not acknowledge the patient when they first walked in the door and it could be something more serious such as they believe they got a mediocre or bad result and have lost trust with you.
On the one hand, aesthetic patients have elephant memories. And, while I hate to admit it, females in particular, can be prone to holding grudges if they are treated badly in your practice or if they “perceive” they were treated badly.
Frankly, your patient’s perception is your reality so you have to deal with their emotions. Please remember this:
Aesthetic patients won’t remember what you told them.
Aesthetic patients won’t remember what you showed them.
Aesthetic patients will remember how you made them feel.
On the other hand, patients can be quick to forgive if they feel you value them and want to make them happy. That may mean you simply reconnect with them or it may mean you show significant remorse so they know you understand how special they are.
An Ounce of Prevention is Worth It
Obviously, the best thing you can do is to avoid bad feelings with your patients so you don’t lose them. You want to have the friendliest and most informative receptionist answering your telephones. You want to employ staff that bonds quickly with the patients and knows how to direct the patient to a decision to choose you over your competitors. You personally want to connect with the patient so they like, trust and believe in your recommendations. And, you want to follow up to show you care just as much after the procedure as you did before.
The good news is that while it takes 10 times the effort to gain a new aesthetic patient, it can take much less to win back a patient who already knows you. It’s well worth the effort to develop a campaign to win back your long lost patients – no matter why they left you in the first place.
How to Win Them Back
Winning back these lost patients will take extra effort. If they left you because they didn’t feel they were treated special, you have some groveling to do to make them feel exceptional. Personalize your communications to