The New Year often brings drastic changes. After the left-overs of the holiday period, patients often consider this as a perfect time to fulfill their resolutions by rejuvenating their looks. Some may want to lose weight, get fit, eat better, and along with that will be a desire to visit the clinic and book some treatments to support their new objectives.
However, it is worth treading carefully at this time of year as customers more likely to be looking for quick fixes, fast (with potentially unrealistic expectations), and may also be in a highly charged emotional state. As many family lawyers will attest, January is traditionally a boom month for divorces so alongside an emotionally distressing time, patients may be trying to discover a newfound sense of identity post-marriage. You can protect yourself and your aesthetic business by always emphasising the importance of a thorough consultation, and taking the time to showcase realistic expectations of treatment results perhaps using before and after images, patient videos or testimonials. Its also worth managing expectations before patients even step into the clinic, by clearly signposting on your website and marketing materials that you adhere to best-practice cooling off periods before any treatments.
Being mindful of your customers emotional status gives you and your aesthetic clinic a higher chance of establishing a leading reputation. Why? The more patients feel you are truly looking after their needs through your best practices, the more positive feedback and referrals your business will get. True some patients looking for that quick fix may drop away when they dont get that instant gratification but this is surely better for your practice (and reputation) in the long-term, than becoming known as a yes man who puts profits before patients.
If you are serious about maximising your growth for 2017, you should have zero tolerance for mediocre staff and sloppy practices that may underwhelm your patients. The practitioners, first and foremost, have a huge responsibility to always do what is in the best interest of their patients. Your business success will always be measured against how well it looks after your patients well-being.
The product has to be good at all times. Regardless of the marketing strategies that you carry out, if your product is no good, then your business will not stand out among your other competitors who are just waiting to take your place. What product am I referring to? I dont mean Botox or Restylane. Your product is your practitioners and other staff.
Every service, every contact offered by the people representing your aesthetic clinic should be delivered with the highest standards of quality. Their competence or incompetence reflects your business and its reputation. Word spreads fast if one of your practitioners isnt doing their job well.
There is a well used saying – New Year, New You – and you will no doubt have customers wanting a change in 2017. Dont be carried away by their enthusiasm. Continue to offer the level of professionalism they expect and they will keep coming back.
If you are struggling to stand out from the competition, you may need help. Visit my site http://kendrickpr.uk/ or come and hear me speak about overcoming PR pitfalls on the 29th January or How To Stand Out from the Competition on Feb 4th at AM Live http://bit.ly/2iDXCMS
April 6, 2017