PracticalDermatology

It goes without saying that positive patient outcomes are the most important conversion and retention tool for medical aesthetic practices. However, as more treatments and procedures enter the mainstream and competition continues to crowd the market, practices would do well to focus on the entire patient experience, not just the end result.

Savvy, high-spending patients are increasingly looking to non-outcome-based differentiators when making their treatment decisions. None of these differentiators are more important than a positive patient experience that focuses on providing a memorable and emotional experience to augment the power of a positive outcome.

Taking a Page from the Past

The power of an experience-based sales model was realized long ago. Companies like Disney and Marriott learned early on that consumers don’t simply purchase tickets to enter a theme park or secure a room in a hotel; they purchase them to experience family togetherness, watch their child smile, and take part in other less tangible but emotionally important moments. When selling the intangible—whether that’s family togetherness or self-esteem—creating the perfect customer experience becomes vital to ensuring customer retention and ongoing success.

Yet, how does one create a scalable, replicable model to providing a positive intangible experience? The Ritz-Carlton, an early pioneer in offering a high level of customer service, answered the challenge by developing the Steps of Service. It’s a framework that, when followed, will organically create a positive customer experience and guarantee success in conversion and retention. The Ritz-Carlton brand saw this firsthand in the early 1980s, when it experienced an exponential increase in revenue after applying its new Steps of Service model.

Implementing the Five Steps of Service

Medical aesthetic practices have an opportunity to experience similar success by following the Steps of Service model. This model follows a five-step approach, the steps of which are outlined below so the practice can deliver an exemplary patient experience every time.

Step 1: Offer a warm welcome.

Under the model, every patient journey should start with a warm welcome. This involves a friendly, professional greeting and an offer to help the patient. Besides being an effective rapport-building tool, it gives the practice an opportunity to learn some critical facts about the patient. For example,

• Why is the patient visiting?
• Is the patient nervous?
• Is the patient excited?

The answers to these questions can drastically change the way the rest of the patient’s experience is constructed, especially the handoff. An effective handoff involves warmly introducing the patient to the next appropriate staff member and sharing with that person the information learned during the warm welcome process. The sharing of information among staff is critical in showing the patient that he or she was heard, which further builds rapport and trust.

Step 2: Ask questions to understand patient needs.

Now that staff have warmly welcomed the patient to the practice, it’s time for the provider to ask gentle questions to uncover the patient’s needs. A helpful acronym for this step is PPP, or “Position, Permission, Probe.”

• Position: Tell the patient what you’d like to do.
• Permission: Inquire if that’s OK.
• Probe: Ask the patient additional questions.

A PPP-based inquiry might sound like this: “In order to understand what treatment will be best for you, do you mind if I ask you a few questions about your current skincare routine?”

By asking permission to engage in a specific line of questioning, the provider is putting the patient in control of the conversation, which makes the client feel comfortable, secure, and in charge of the decision-making process. This technique disarms and warms a potentially nervous or anxious patient and allows the provider to build a relationship with the patient based on trust and mutual agreement.

Step 3: Present a solution based on the patient’s expressed needs.

Once the provider has asked questions and gotten to the root of the patient’s needs, it’s imperative to translate those needs into a proposed solution. By focusing on a “solution” and not a “sale,” the provider eliminates transactional elements, which by their nature are impersonal and cold, from the patient experience. Solutions, meanwhile, are warm, personal, and customized because they solve problems born directly from the patient’s expressed needs.

By tying all solutions back to expressed patient needs, the provider should feel empowered to recommend the exact combination of treatments, procedures, and/or products that solve the patient’s problem—no more and no less. Also, the provider can take comfort in recommending solutions with little concern for price if the patient expresses the need. If budget becomes important, the provider can then work with the patient to redefine needs and reset expectations.

Step 4: Resolve concerns and gain the patient’s commitment to the solution.

Often a patient will express concerns after the solution is presented. This may be over the cost, time commitment, downtime, etc. Usually, the patient is simply seeking emotional reassurance that he or she is making the right decision. If concerns are raised, the provider should avoid compromising the integrity of the solution and instead recommend the patient’s needs be re-evaluated if a different solution is sought. The ultimate goal is to gain the patient’s buy-in by crafting a solution that the patient feels comfortable committing to that day. Gaining that commitment helps ensure patient follow-through and allows the patient to play an important role in the outcome.

Step 5: Offer a fond farewell and an invitation to return.

The patient journey should always end the way it began—with a positive, rapport-building interaction. At the close of an appointment staff should offer a warm farewell and an invitation to come back. This final step is often overlooked and without it the encounter may appear impersonal and transactional in nature. Simple questions—like those listed below—can help lend a caring and personal touch.

• Did you enjoy your time with us today?
• How did you treatment with (provider) go today?
• How do you feel?

Also, don’t forget to invite the patient back for another appointment before leaving, as it can help further alleviate the transactional nature of the checkout process while simultaneously aiding in retention.

A Simple, Replicable Roadmap

Implementing the Steps of Service in the practice offers both providers and staff a simple, replicable roadmap to create an outstanding customer experience for every patient they encounter from beginning to end. It does this by keeping the focus firmly on building customer rapport, defining solutions instead of making sales, and elevating each patient from a transactional customer to a trusted and valued partner in his or her aesthetic wellness journey. Such a warm, customer-centric experience helps ensure organic growth in patient recruitment, conversion, and retention, leading to overall business success in a competitive market.