How to Set Yourself Apart by Differentiating with Karen Zupko
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Standing out in today’s tight market is critically important for maintaining and growing a practice. With over 35 years of consulting experience in aesthetics, Karen Zupko shares how practices can really shine by focusing on the patient experience, embracing useful technology, and making every interaction count.
Karen shares her go-to strategies for standing out in the competitive world of aesthetics:
Offering self-service options like online scheduling for added convenience
Creating memorable patient experiences with sensory touches, like music and scents
Building trust through authentic patient stories
Offering flexible appointment times for busy patients
Keeping your photo galleries fresh and updated
Packaging recovery essentials for an easy post-treatment experience
Tailoring the experience to the age group of your patients
Going beyond with extra services that show you care
Links
Learn more about KZA
Connect with Karen on LinkedIn
About Karen Zupko
Karen's expertise stems from decades of consulting, coaching, and training thousands of physicians, managers, and staff nationwide. Specializing in aesthetics, she covers all aspects of practice management, including marketing, financial management, and leadership. After 12 years at the American Medical Association, Karen founded KZA in 1985, which has since grown into a full team of consultants skilled in management, marketing, coding, technology, and clinical operations.
Guest
Karen Zupko, Founder & Consultant
KZA
Host
Robin Ntoh, VP of Aesthetics
Nextech
Transcript
Announcer (00:06):
You are listening to the Aesthetically Speaking podcast presented by Nextech.
Robin Ntoh (00:11):
Welcome back to the Aesthetically Speaking podcast presented by Nextech. I'm your host, Robin Ntoh. Today my guest is Karen Zupko and we're going to speak about services differentiation and I'm super excited to have Karen here today. Karen's got a wealth of knowledge. She has been in this space for the past 35 years. So Karen, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Karen Zupko (00:32):
I can tell you that I am the most enthusiastic consultant working with plastic surgeons. I've had the pleasure of working with the Aesthetic Society, Robin for 30 years. And I do mean pleasure of educating literally thousands of patient care coordinators on the art of patient service patient experience, which we're going to talk a little bit about today. And I have been contributing now for 10 years articles to the Aesthetic Society Journal. So I'm well published in the field and I think we should dig into our topic because I've got all kinds of really fun things to share.
Robin Ntoh (01:18):
Oh, I'm super excited to get started. I know you've taught a lot of courses and I know that you've been doing this for a long time, so let's dig in, as you said, into services differentiation. And what I really want to do is start with really what is differentiation and how do you really define this when you think about the practices that you work with?
Karen Zupko (01:39):
Okay, here is the top line and the bottom line, they're the same. If your consultation patient comes in and their experience from the first phone call to the quote and goodbye feels like the other two plastic surgeons that they saw, who were also board certified Robin, they were all board certified, but if that experience doesn't feel any different, you can count on the fact that you have no pricing power. There will be financial objections and it's likely, if all those three experiences all were okay on the net promoter score, they were all there in the solid middle, I believe that patient is very likely to go to the internet and decide to see a fourth surgeon, right? It's a big investment in yourself and you're looking for something special.
Robin Ntoh (02:42):
Yeah, you're right. Board certification, a quad A certified operating room, a safe and comfortable environment, those are not differentiators anymore. Those are table stakes. Those should be what's expected. We think about this from making someone sound truly unique, what are those USPs or those known differentiators that we should be seen or looking at in the marketplace?
Karen Zupko (03:10):
Let's think of service differentiation as the process of distinguishing your patient consultation experience from competitors. What services and features make you stand out, in a good way of course, in a good way. You could stand out in a bad way, but that's not where the path we're going down. I used to have a marketing professor who used to say, it's not what you tell them, it's how patients feel about their experience and it's what they tell others. Referred patients are better because they stay longer, they spend more money, often twice the amount of the typical patient. And since they are referred, they tend over their customer lifetime value to refer twice as many patients to you.
Robin Ntoh (04:06):
Well, absolutely. I mean one of the things that we look at a lot of times in practices is what are your top referral sources? And the data really has revealed that patients are a top referral source. So if we lean in and we really value that type of relationship, it will lend itself to a higher lifetime value, like you said, and it will yield over and over again with more patients and high quality patients as you said. And that, in and of itself, I think is oftentimes overlooked. As one of those differentiators, people are referring other people and that differentiates a practice in and of itself I think.
Karen Zupko (04:40):
Can I give you an example to start off that will relate close to home to Nextech? Countless practices pride themselves on their Instagram accounts and their websites and their followers. And then Robin, they drop the ball on the last piece of marketing a patient receives, which is the quote, and you say, well, Karen, what do you mean by that? Because as you know from the workshops you and I have been conducting, we ask people to send us a copy of their quote. Sadly, 70% of the quotes look exactly like what you at Nextech sent them out of the box. So if I'm that patient, Robin, and I've seen four doctors and all four quotes, look strangely alike, fees are different, but otherwise some of the copy looks alike, just plain. In our course last week there were two courses, two practices that had their logo prominently displayed. They had adjusted the font and had laid out the columns about what were inside fees, what were outside fees, but only two out of our group had gone through that extra step.
Robin Ntoh (06:15):
You're right, I mean you think about it when you leave an experience like that on the table and you don't really tend to focus on the impact it can have. It's the piece of paper that they might be sharing with their spouse or their significant other, and that may be one of those things that pushes them one way or the other and it's a piece of paper, but one would think it can't be that complicated, it's just a piece of paper, but it really does make a difference. I think about you go to a department store, do they give you a cheap plastic bag or do they give you a really nice bag and that becomes a calling card? It becomes something that differentiates that business because of that one item that you took out of the store or that business.
Karen Zupko (06:57):
Well, and the same thing with restaurants. You can tell a lot about what the price point's going to be when you look at the menu and not because of the fees, but it is the quality of the font, the descriptions. So I think that's one thing all of our listeners should do is you need to take a look at your quote and please remove the language about anything having to do with finances that is in capital letters and bold face. That is the equivalent of screaming and after
Robin Ntoh (07:34):
Absolutely
Karen Zupko (07:36):
Right? Typographical screaming. So I think they need a visual and an editorial tuneup.
Robin Ntoh (07:43):
Oh my goodness, they need to actually do a little spell check too sometimes. I see a lot of times where they've misspelled it or haven't even put the correct grammar in their sentence formatting, and so it's different size fonts, different fonts altogether, and they can actually fix that because it is highly customizable. They can actually put their logo on there, they can change the fonts, they can update it, they can add new content. So those of you out there that are listening that do use Nextech for your systems, absolutely you can actually reach out to support and get some support and assistance on what you want that to look like.
Karen Zupko (08:18):
Great.
Robin Ntoh (08:19):
So let's talk about another area of differentiation. One of the things we look at in our environment, our ecosystem of aesthetics is around the patient experience and that in and of itself is a differentiator. But what are we really doing there and what are we doing to make things more convenient, which is that online scheduling component. I mean, how many times do we get home after a long day of travel or whatever we may have and we realized that we missed our window to call and schedule that appointment that we needed. And so that practice that's not really thinking about patient convenience or they're more fearful that they're going to disrupt their schedule because they don't have the right things set up within that online environment. I think that they're not doing themselves a service. You're not making it efficient for your staff and you're not making it convenient for your patients. So patient convenience to me, I think is a really good way to think about how you differentiate. Are you providing those things to your patient to make it easy for them to connect with you, easy for them to find you?
Karen Zupko (09:25):
And this may not be as, it's important, but it may not be as important if you have a facelift practice as it is, if you have that younger demographic who don't like to talk to anybody on the phone, God forbid. Much better for them to be able to interact with your office through technology.
Robin Ntoh (09:50):
I mean, those generational differences and they have different expectations. You're right. So if you've got a practice that's got a med spa or you're focused on that nonsurgical element that has a younger generation, they're not going to pick up the phone. In fact, they may not even answer the phone if you call them.
Karen Zupko (10:06):
Robin, I want to talk about two, in contrast, two low tech differentiators that I've seen that are very powerful and listeners, the cost is minimal. Let me give you the first. Your patient care coordinator when she's consulting, whether it's me, Robin, 29-year-old gal, somewhere in that initial conversation she should ask, tell me what your favorite music is. What kind of music do you like to listen to and do you have a favorite recording artist? I'm doing a little survey the patient is going to answer and you're going to write it down. When that patient schedules and comes in for surgery, whether they were a Swifty or a Vivaldi fan, that is the music that is going to be playing, their favorite. And as you know, sometimes they're coming in 90 days later, sometimes they're coming in nine months later they're going to go, oh my God, this is my favorite. How did you know? They may have long since forgotten that you asked, but it's going to bring a smile to their face. And it also shows that you are a good listener.
Robin Ntoh (11:30):
I think Karen, that is a fabulous way of thinking about the senses and the different ways we respond to them. And yes, hearing is one of them and I love that because when you're in a high stress environment, if you hear or smell something familiar, it can bring that stress level down and be a calming factor. So I think that they're being rolled into surgery, that happened to me one time. I was getting ready to go into surgery and they said, well, what kind of music do you want to listen to? And it wasn't even an aesthetic surgery. And I'm like, why do you care what I want to listen to? I'm like, I'm more interested that the surgeons happy with what he is listening to because I want him to do a good job. But I thought that that was a unique question because it had bearing on how I felt. So it's fascinating where those senses make a difference in how people can respond to them, and you're absolutely right, it does make a difference and they'll remember that as much as they heard it. They'll go back and remember that, and that's one of those shares that turns into hopefully a patient referral. So yeah, most very powerful. Very powerful.
Karen Zupko (12:38):
Leet me give you, you were talking about our senses and a very affordable and distinctive differentiator is scenting. And why do I think it is important? Because the research that I've done shows that scent is more strongly linked to memory and emotion than other sensory experiences. Here's some statistics that I got. People remember 35% of what they smell, 5% of what they see and 2%, this is alarming, only 2% of what they hear. And the top 20 smells that seem to make people the happiest, female people I suspect more than male, are rose, lavender, lemon zest, and vanilla. So really, and I've got a cute story to tell true story. I was in Cartegena at the international meeting and I spoke and mentioned the scenting issue, and when I came down from this stage, a doctor came running up to me very eagerly holding his name badge out and he goes, look, and I look and his name was Dr. Cappuccino. And Dr. Cappuccino then explained to me he's a Brazilian ,real guy, that he had a very nice coffee bar in his office. And so it had not a medical office smell, but it was more like Starbucks. So that is an example of how you can make scenting part of your branding. Scenting is budget friendly, so you don't have to be the richest plastic surgeon in town. Very interesting studies, one that I found fascinating at Emory, they experimented with scenting in one part and left the other part regular, and then on the patient surveys people perceived that the scented portion was more clean, was more
Robin Ntoh (15:04):
Really?
Karen Zupko (15:04):
You can't make this stuff up. It also reduced perceived waiting time, so it lowers anxiety. So I strongly recommend that you look into scenting and again, a fascinating fact, more hotels are doing this, particularly, higher end.
Robin Ntoh (15:24):
Definitely. I was going to add to that, I think that, that scent driven back to a memory or a type of perception is really interesting because I think it goes on more than we probably even know. Back to the hotels, fun fact, I did a Disney tour a few years ago and one of the things they shared, which I thought was amazing, they pumped the smell of popcorn through the park.
Karen Zupko (15:52):
One of my favorite smells, one of mine.
Robin Ntoh (15:56):
Exactly, perhaps maybe to drive sales most likely, but I mean they send that scent out into the park in certain areas, but I'm sure that, I'm sure they've done so many studies to know what kind of impact that has, but it also triggers a memory or a response or an expectation. So I think that like you said, it's low cost and it's easy to do and the beauty of it is it can be a differentiator just from a smell perspective. You don't even have to even make it an overwhelming component and I love that one. I love it. What's another low cost one you were thinking of?
Karen Zupko (16:33):
One that is so intriguing to me and I've only seen it in one office, therefore there's a lot of opportunity to be the differentiator.
Robin Ntoh (16:44):
Until they listen to the podcast.
Karen Zupko (16:46):
Well, this practice had taken five by seven cards, file cards. We've all had those different colors and at the top, at the top they had printed. If you are considering breast augmentation, if you are considering a facelift, here's my best advice for you. Okay. This card was given to the patient on their last post-op visit, on their last post-op visit, and they gave them pens, normal pens, and people wrote out their advice. They then put these
Robin Ntoh (17:34):
Love that.
Karen Zupko (17:35):
In photo albums that would take a five by seven picture. These were in the reception room, these were in the exam rooms. The doctor had been doing this for a while and we all know patient referrals are the most important. We all know that we go to ratings and reviews from real patients. And the advice that they provided was intriguing, was friendly, and people were going through those albums with enthusiasm over the reading your phone. It's because it's in handwriting, you could not have manufactured this.
Robin Ntoh (18:24):
It's authentic and people are looking for authentic. There's so much hype and there's so much make believe out there. I mean, I think about what we think about social media a lot these days and what's real, what isn't real. And I know that there is a push for authenticity and everything. What more authentic way to do it than to have handwritten, whether it's in the form that you just provided. I also learned recently that one practice was doing something very unique where as the patient was leaving, they offered up to the patient, they said, listen, we would love, on your behalf, to gift to a new patient the opportunity to have a great experience. If you feel that you've had a great experience, we would love to share your experience. Here's a gift card that we're going to let you give. We're going to send on your behalf.
(19:15):
You just need to address the envelope, put in a personal message and we will send this on your behalf. What a great way to differentiate, but then also extend on that person's behalf a gift, so to speak, for this potential new patient. I loved it. I mean, I thought what a way to really, again, when you think about the differentiation, I go back to one of the things we said earlier. You can think about differentiation around your different referral sources and patients are a great way to think about how you can differentiate to grow more patient referrals, and it should be organic easy. I love these little ideas. What other things are things have you come across when you think about differentiation?
Karen Zupko (19:56):
When you take the photograph makes a difference, particularly for body surgery patients. I had a patient care coordinator that moved across the parking lot from big building A to big building B, and she said to her new doctor, your efficiency move of having the patient disrobe and having pictures taken before the patient has seen you is freaking people out. They don't like it. They want to meet you dressed, even to even before they move into patient mode. So changing the order of the consult, and remember we can measure this, that improved his patient acceptance rate for breast and body in two categories by more than 25%.
Robin Ntoh (20:57):
Well, that's impressive. I mean, the fact that you can measure it, we know that that's I ideal, but it's small, simple shift in the way that they did things, ordered events had that much of an impact on the patient acceptance rate. That's huge. That's significant.
Karen Zupko (21:15):
Robin, what did it cost?
Robin Ntoh (21:16):
And it probably didn't cost him anything.
Karen Zupko (21:17):
Exactly.
Robin Ntoh (21:19):
It didn't cost him anything. He just had to adjust his style and adjust the way that he managed his patients. It makes a difference. I think the other thing that probably lends itself to that is one of the things that we covered this weekend, which was how much you prep the surgeon or the doctor before they actually walk into the room. It feels seamless when a physician walks in to see the patient for the first time, but they already have insights into a major event. Maybe the patient that there's a wedding that's coming up or they've got a graduation or there's a significant change in their work life. Those things, apparently the physician knowing that before they go in the room, I think really sets the stage that the staff communicates. And I think communication internally is a big differentiator because not everybody does that. They don't know what A's doing or B'S doing. And so then the patient, how are they supposed to feel comfortable that you're going to actually care for them? And yeah, I think that there's just those little changes are free. They don't cost anything.
Karen Zupko (22:26):
One of the things that I like about your bringing that up is also if before the surgeon sees the patient that he or she knows what the patient's recovery time tolerance is, and yes, I can work around that. When I'm giving options, I'm going to say, Robin, there's two things that we can do to help you achieve your goal. This one is within your recovery time goals. This other option has the X, Y, Z advantage, but it's going to exceed your recovery time goals maybe by five days.
Robin Ntoh (23:15):
Goes back to communication, goes back to knowing what the patient wants or needs before they go in there.
Karen Zupko (23:21):
I've seen people do that so elegantly and so powerfully and it means that the whole team is on the same page.
Robin Ntoh (23:28):
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.
Karen Zupko (23:30):
When we talk about making some of these changes, reputation, I know you and I agree on this is a very important differentiator, but if it's a new doctor listening that takes a while to have a whole group of market mavens. Lots of women with big mouths and lots of friends. Okay, it'll take you a while to get that girl gang.
Robin Ntoh (23:57):
Yeah, but Karen, let's pause with explaining what a market maven is. I think we have a lot of listeners out there that may not know that market mavens is not a made up word. It is a phrase that has been around for a long time.
Karen Zupko (24:10):
You are exactly right. Thank you for asking. That is a phrase that comes from the American Marketing Association and an article that I read about the importance of word of mouth marketing and the marketing maven is that woman and we all, I bet everybody can think of which friend that is. That is the person that knows where you should get your haircut, or the person that knows you should eat it atJupiter, if you're in New York City at Rock Center, that's the person who knows what play to see, where to get your eyelashes done. They are the go-to recommender. And they're happy, if they've had surgery, they're happy to talk about it. So your market maven is that happiest patient with a big mouth, I say that lovingly because I'm kind of one of those, and lots of friends. So that's who we're talking about.
Robin Ntoh (25:11):
But more importantly, it's knowing who your market mavens are and can you report out on that.
Karen Zupko (25:18):
Then why don't you mention on referral source, we don't want somebody to just put patient, do we?
Robin Ntoh (25:26):
No, absolutely not. You want to know who referred the patient by name and you want to enter that into the patient demographic information in the appropriate place so that you can report out on it. Because as you just said, it is critical to know that.
Karen Zupko (25:40):
And that is a report that can be run. And you and I looked at that same report, Mrs. Goldberg, who had referred eight friends worth $120,000 worth of surgery, over less than a two year period. So if someone says, I didn't know Nextech could do that, that report tells you who she referred and the value of the services they acquired. And if I don't know how to run that report, I bet I can call support.
Robin Ntoh (26:16):
Yes, most definitely. Well, I think it also goes back to how, I mean, a lot of times we try, we do a one and done type of attempt. We get the patient on the phone, we say, Hey, Karen, Robin. Yeah, I collect the patient's referral source and we collect it on our first attempt, which is generally on that first phone call. Yep, check that box. You do what you're supposed to do, you got that referral source. However, we don't really lean in and really go two or three levels down from that so that when the patient comes in and you start to really dig in a little. Oh, so I heard that you were referred by one of our patients? And then once the relationship's been established, your patient coordinator or whomever's working with the patient in the room collecting their medical history, they're generally going to have built a better rapport because they've talked to the patient a little bit longer, and now they're probably going to go two or three levels deeper and find out a more specific detail around that referral source.
(27:15):
That's when they're going to get the name. That's when going to, they're going to find out specifically which website or which social media page they were on. So they're going to get more details. A lot of times though, we get it, we just don't do anything with it. So now it's a matter of taking that information and actually acting on it and collecting it because the data, I can talk about data all day long. Everybody knows this about me. Data is critical to how you read and understand your business. So we will not go down that rabbit hole today, but you may agree on that one.
Karen Zupko (27:44):
Our top 5, 6, 7 market mavens should get a gift certificate to the spa, we should, right, a great luncheon, some form of recognition. We know psychologically that when you're doing something right and I compliment you, I notice it, you're likely to get more of that behavior. Okay, well, let's also think about a scheduling, a couple scheduling issues I've got that are differentiators and one of them is expanded appointment times. I believe if you want to attract more men, I would have one or two evenings a month where we on purpose, the staff didn't come in at their usual 8:30, 9 o'clock, they can come stagger the start. So you have somebody who's going to stay later and you schedule ending time, the goal is 7:30 and you're going to be efficient in those consults. But if you want to see more men, men like other men, I would give a guy the option. You can, sure, you can come on Thursday afternoon, but we do have men's night, blah and blah. Are either one of those good for you? Also, women who work, not everybody can sneak out. I owned my own business, so sure I could go to a two o'clock on Thursday appointment, but not everybody can. Saturdays get a little iffy in my mind because there's an awful lot of competition in terms of golf, pickle ball.
Robin Ntoh (29:48):
For sure. Sunny weather versus rainy weather. The weather looks great today. I'm gonna no show on that consult.
Karen Zupko (29:55):
I had an interesting suburban orthopedic practice, suburban to Manhattan, and that doctor started at five in the morning and had appointments so people could make their train. Didn't do it every day, but was proximate to the train station. Started really early and ended really early.
Robin Ntoh (30:23):
I like that. That's clever. That's thinking outside the box. It's fascinating to me how much I've seen in the healthcare world that was not associated to aesthetics. And so when I had had orthopedic surgery and I was seeing my orthopedic surgeon a lot, one of the things that impressed me was if I came into the practice and the surgeon was running late, they actually would say things to me like, we're going to pay for your parking today. We apologize greatly that he's running behind.
Karen Zupko (30:52):
That's a terrific idea.
Robin Ntoh (30:54):
It's expensive. Yeah. Well, I mean it immediately gave me the choice of whether or not I wanted to stay or reschedule, but at the same time, it immediately, they made a gesture of goodwill that immediately reduced my concerns or my frustration about them being late. I think about those little tiny things may not feel like it's an advertised or sought after differentiator, but what it certainly does do is it differentiates in the manner of a patient experience. And we talked about a lot of things that are experience driven, but that to me speaks very loudly around, I had a great experience, that differentiates in and of itself in a lot of ways. I think one of the things I want to talk about is we know before and after photos have been historically known as what sets a surgeon apart, but it's got to go way beyond that these days because everybody has before and after photos, but that doesn't really always differentiate in some cases. I think one of the things that you shared was an example I want you to share, where sometimes the photo may not represent the physician well, and it may even be a turnoff to prospects. And so I think there's a lot that could be done to think about the way we manage before and after photos.
Karen Zupko (32:10):
Thank you for asking. I'm happy to speak to that issue. Let me give you two examples. I was working for a male plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, young and maybe in practice five years. And in order to get his practice going, he frequented a number of strip joints. And by the way, he was particularly handsome, so he was noticed. Well, when you look at his before and after pictures, the patients requested, I think what you and I would consider overly large breasts. Okay, alright. If you don't have any descriptor on these pictures, you think, he did that to her. Okay. He did that to her. You have to say this 23-year-old is an entertainer and requested a double D, however you want to explain that sizing, that this was what she requested. And then I want to flip over to a woman plastic surgeon that I looked at her photo gallery and there were very modest breast implants and there was no verbiage. This was not what she did or decided for her patient. These were well-educated suburban women who wanted their breast restored to what it was before they were breastfeeding. I want nothing more.
(34:11):
My big advice to everybody listening is as follows. Go and look at the photo gallery and remove any photos of women with outdated hairdos. Remove photos with, these are headshots with people who have jewelry on. No photo should be taken if they've got jewelry. Okay, why? The jewelry is a distraction, if it's good or if it's bad. So I think it's time to do a photo edit. I think it's time to add some description to those pictures. Let me give you another example. This doctor has a number of really beautiful rhinoplasties, but the patient has an insufficient chin. And so some of us are going to look and say, well, why in the hell didn't he fix her chin? Because she didn't ask for her chin to be fixed. That's why. Okay.
Robin Ntoh (35:25):
And I think that represents that a surgeon listens. I mean, nobody wants a doctor that doesn't listen to what the patient is looking for. And so I mean that it just goes back to that whole thing of authenticity and telling the story, telling the patient's story and that, I mean, it helps your SEO, but it also helps represent the practice in a much better way and supports the reputation that they're trying to garner. I think that it just goes back to not just taking the photos and the right lighting and with the right background, but it's like taking into consideration, like you said, are you making them take their jewelry off? Are you making them tuck their hair behind their ears or making sure that you're removing body markings or things like that? So I think it goes back to are we cognizant or are we focused on those types of things? They do make a difference.
Karen Zupko (36:18):
And another thing that I noticed is some practices put the date. So it said 2015, it suggested to me with all of these old dates, in fact, there wasn't any date within five years of 2024. You haven't done any good work lately. That's the message.
Robin Ntoh (36:44):
Completely.
Karen Zupko (36:45):
Intended or not, that's the message that you're sending. And why do I think that happened? I think post covid, people were busier than they ever imagined they would be and trying to just slog through the week and get through the surgery. Some doctors were operating six days a week that the photo gallery was put aside. I think everybody listening, I would take a careful review over a variety of procedures and I would do a refresh on my photo gallery. If you've been using a crummy camera and a crummy setup, now might be the time to invest because people have higher expectations.
Robin Ntoh (37:37):
Definitely, I wholeheartedly agree, don't have to even ask me twice to think about that one because that is one of my, gives me a visceral response to think about what could be done with photos and what people should be doing with them and what they don't pay attention to. They just take it for granted. So I totally agree with you.
Karen Zupko (37:56):
Robin. I know Nextech and TouchMD have a very close and integrated relationship. Do you feel as though people optimize or optimizing the use of TouchMD or do you see more opportunities for people who've made the investment to use that tool better?
Robin Ntoh (38:19):
So standard response, because it's so true. How much do I actually know of my iPhone? Probably a small percentage of what it's actually able to do. And I take that same stance with Nextech and the software family that we have. Sometimes we only learn really well what we have to use every day, but that also can be a detriment because we might think that there is not features or functions within our software. Come to find out, a lot of us will search on the internet or however and find out that yeah, the iPhone can do that. But at the same time, I think with Nextech and TouchMD the same problem. There's a lot of features, there's a lot of bells and whistles. We just don't know it.
Karen Zupko (39:05):
Can you give us an example, one or two features that you think are particularly underused?
Robin Ntoh (39:10):
Yeah. With TouchMD, I think that we think of it from a photo expert type of software, and it really is, but beyond that, it has the beauty of actually helping you keep your patients educated, not on just the services but events. So it serves almost as a marketing tool because it can be an educator to your patients. And so we have that feature that allows you to let the patient use it in the waiting room, use it in the exam room while they're waiting for you or even through the app on their phone. So those are different ways that you can keep them up to date. Consents are also another way to use the Nextech and the TouchMD interface because you can get those consents out to the patient. They can actually use 'em. And then probably one of my favorite things that I love about TouchMD is patient education.
(40:05):
We seem to assume that people remember everything. And as you said earlier, it was a stat about how much people hear, and it goes back to retention. And I think about this a lot when we think about surgery, we overwhelm people when they come in and we go through all this information. And so yes, bite size components, delivering the information, bite size is always good, but when they leave and they've signed up for surgery, they may have forgotten that you said something. And so when you're thinking about who gets the best response, postoperative ability, who follows instructions? Well, some of it goes back to how they actually remember what you've told them. So written format, great. But video to me is another great opportunity. And a lot of people don't think about using TouchMD to present a video education of something as simple as how to take care of your suture line after a facelift. Right? Simple, small, easy to do that is a differentiator because you've actually given them a really quick consumable way to remember to do something because they're not going to remember all that information after surgery. So you're again, finding another way to deliver information that makes it easy for them. And so that just goes back to that the software there has the opportunity, you can use it, but then it also is a tool that helps differentiate you.
Karen Zupko (41:28):
All good points. Can I talk a little bit about Alanya?
Robin Ntoh (41:34):
A what?
Karen Zupko (41:35):
This is, anybody who's listening from New Orleans of course knows what Alanya is. It is a little something extra special. So for example, when you buy a dozen donuts and they put a 13th one in, that's Alanya. When you are at your plastic surgeon and you're having surgery, you don't get a shopping list. They give you a goodie bag that has the bandage changes, all the things you'll need. That is, this is just we believe that the scar gel, the arnica, that all of these things are contributory, Robin, to your recovery. And so we've put together a little package of those things for you. All too often on quotes, I know you've seen it too, they're charging for the garment, they're charging for the scar gel, for the breast reduction patients. Why don't we just slightly up the surgical fee and put those things and package them nicely and give those to the patient? Because we think having the right garment, having the scar gel, having the arnica contributes to an optimal result. And that's what we're about here.
Robin Ntoh (43:05):
It's so nice to be able to walk out of the office with everything that you're going to need to take care of yourself after surgery from the gloves to the four by fours to
Karen Zupko (43:16):
Whatever it is.
Robin Ntoh (43:16):
Whatever they need, the cream, all of it in a package. I don't have to go shop for it now. You just made it so much easier for you. That's Alanya. I love it.
Karen Zupko (43:26):
Okay. Another very, very good, clinically appropriate extra service is to offer your patients for whom you've done a breast implant, the opportunity to come in for a complimentary ultrasound. And let me give you a journal reference. A very good article that won an award from ASJ is by Dr. Brad Bankston, plastic surgeon in Michigan. And Dr. Bankston and another surgeon whose name is skipped my mind, co-authored this piece. The ultrasound will detect if the patient has a leak or if there is some other problem. Bringing a patient back every year, every other year for this complimentary service brings, look, you've now added to your med spa, you now are offering other services. Why don't we want our established patients to come back in the office to see what else we have to offer? Great. So you did my implants when I was 25, but now I'm 33 and I'm noticing frown lines, right? I just think it's so important and it's so easy to do and important from a clinical point of view with you. This is not some sort of chintzy marketing idea.
Robin Ntoh (44:58):
No, I think it's a great way to think about preventative maintenance. If you think about it, you're helping the patient know that you want to stay ahead of any issues that might happen, but at the same time, we do know that those patients continue to have interest in other aesthetic procedures. I mean, and why do we know this? Because in my history of working with aesthetic practices, I've incorporated a tracking mechanism and found that about 25% of long-term follow-up patients actually walk out the door with a quote for a new procedure. This is significant number of existing patients that they're not even scheduling a consult. They're just coming in for a follow-up and assuming during that time that they're going to talk about their next procedure, that they're interested. And so I think that if we were to track it, then we would know. So it's like you want to track that information, but just to your point, it's not just preventative, but it also is, it's happening. People want to talk about more stuff. They want more aesthetic procedures.
Karen Zupko (46:08):
Well, I know we're running long on time and I've got one closer that can be a big differentiator. And that is if you are able to promote your net promoter score, and you do that by having a very well-designed, well administrated patient survey. We want feedback after, some people only do this after surgery. I would like to have it done after the consult and after surgery or after a major med spa treatment. Capturing ratings and reviews with a professionally designed instrument. I would do that and I would not have a section of my website called testimonials. I would rather have a section called Patient Stories. And have those well written by a professional writer that discusses, for example, the little boy who had his ears tucked back and how miserable that had made him. But to have those big ears and be made fun of in grade school. So those patient stories I think are very sweet and very motivating, but getting great feedback is critically important.
Robin Ntoh (47:37):
Karen, I'm so excited that you've been on the podcast today and you had the opportunity to share your expertise in so many years of expertise there. Where can people find you if they're wanting to?
Karen Zupko (47:48):
Well, I am going to suggest that they go to www.KZAnow. I had the pleasure of transitioning my company a year and three weeks ago today, so you can reach me via email on the website, or many people reach out to me on LinkedIn.
Robin Ntoh (48:12):
Fabulous. Well, thank you very much.
Announcer (48:16):
Thanks for listening to Aesthetically Speaking, the podcast where beauty meets business, presented by Nextech. Follow and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. Links to the resources mentioned on this podcast or available in your show notes. For more information about Nextech visit nextech.com or to learn more about TouchMD, go to touchmd.com. Aesthetically Speaking is a production of The Axis, theaxis.io.
