Retaining Med Spa Patients: The Gift that Keeps Giving
November 13, 2018
We often are asked “How can I grow my patient base?” and our first response is “Don’t lose the patients you have!” Successful practices are intentional about keeping patients engaged and coming back for recurring treatments. Try these five ideas to improve your med spa patient retention.
1. Schedule the next appointment at check out.
Hair salons know that most clients come back every 6-8 weeks to touch up their roots, and they smartly schedule that next appointment before the client leaves. The same tactic can work for your toxin or chemical peel patients who come back (or should come back) at regular intervals. For those who aren’t ready to schedule, be sure to set a task in the practice management system to remind yourself to call or email the patient when s/he is due for the next treatment.
2. Implement a loyalty program.
Reward loyal patients with special pricing or free products and you’ll almost guarantee that they will return to you for their next treatment. Customized loyalty programs, like those designed by Page 1 Solutions, not only promote patient retention but have also shown to increase overall spending within the practice.
3. Offer special pricing on packages of multiple treatments.
Savvy practices make it attractive to purchase packages of multiple treatments by offering special pricing when paid in full up front. This strategy not only increases sales, it can potentially improve outcomes by ensuring patients get all of the recommended number of treatments.
4. Give spend cards as a thank you for referrals.
Reward patients who send friends to you with a spend card to be used in the med spa. Different from a coupon for a discounted service, a spend card feels more like cash in hand that shouldn’t be wasted, prompting patients to return to the practice for additional services or products. They are happy with the thank you and are likely to continue being your marketing mavens.
5. Use data to measure retention rates.
Use the Nextech Retention reports to generate a list of patients who have not returned for a treatment within a defined period (example: previous patient for a toxin injection who has not returned in greater than three or four months). If you are using the treatment pathways in PatientNOW or the procedure plans in Intellipract (formerly Inform & Enhance), run a report of patients who are overdue for the next treatment.
The Aesthetic Neural Network (ANN)*, provided to members of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS), has a Repeat Procedures dashboard that quantifies the number of times your patients return to you for the same procedure (like an injectable or facial treatment). The report shows the charges generated from those visits and benchmarks your performance against other ASAPS members in your region.
*For more information about ANN, email ann@surgery.org.
Author - Amy Anderson, MBA
Amy is a dynamic and innovative problem-solver who is highly regarded by physicians for her engaging leadership style, intimate understanding of practice operations, and deep appreciation for clinical care and the patient experience.
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