Are Groupon Deals Killing Your Medical Spa?

There's a deluge of Groupon offers from Medical Spas who are using cheap laser hair removal treatments to gain new patients... Is it working?

This Groupon tactic is used by skin clinics who are desperately trying to get new clients and don't know how to market effectively or drive perceived value.

Let's take a look at some of these offers and run some numbers on how effective, or ineffective, this will be for your medical spa or laser clinic.

Here's the first of the offers for laser hair removal that I've received from a local laser clinic in the last two weeks. (I think I've received five or six.)

This Groupon offer is from Enlighten Laser Cosmetics of Bountiful, UT.

Okay, so let's take a look. Enlighten is offering an 84% discount on laser hair removal from a starting price of $617 for a savings of $518.

The starting price seems about right for what the average cost of most 6 series laser hair removal treatments are in the area so that appears about right. Since they've sold 700 treatments the can't be unhappy about that since it appears that they're getting swarmed with new clients. Let's dig a little deeper.

The selling price is $99. Groupon takes 50% so Enlighten is taking $49.50 for each sale. They may have sold many more than 700 but let's go with that number. So, with 700 sales at $49.50, Enlighten is bringing in a respectable $34,650 from Groupon...

So let's break down that number and see what we find.

With 700 sales at an average of 6 treatments we see that that gross number of $34,650 comes in at a mere $8.25 per treatment. ($34,650 / 700 = $99 / 6 treatments = $8.25 per treatment)

Not so good.

That's $8.25 before any labor, rent, treatment tips, appointment scheduling or anything else. It also ties up around 4,000 or treatment room time that this laser clinic won't be able to use for other treatments. They'll also have to deal with all of the support issues; phone calls, appointment setting, consultations, equipment depreciation and the inevitable complaints and patient issues that arise any time you're treating a patient population of 700 individuals.

If you've ever sold gift certificates you know what I mean. You sell a boat-load in December for the holidays and then starve in January and February as your rooms are booked delivering the services and no money's coming in.

So, what is the most likely scenario?

Enlighten laser clinic is going to skimp on treatment time.

Instead of performing a complete treatment, the staff is going to be under a lot of pressure to get these patients in and out. One likely scenario? They'll cut a 45 minute treatment to 30minutes. They'll perform skip treatments where they're not covering the entire area but treating every other one. They'll have a waiting room stacked six high or schedule patients only on off hours... All of these can lead to exactly the opposite result that Enlighten is looking for, happy repeat clients.

I'll also note that as I've spoken at length about before, the people buying these Groupon deals are coming for price, and they'll leave it just as quickly... Not the patients you're looking for.

Here's another laser hair removal offer from Lisse Laser & Aesthetics Medical Spa in SLC, UT.

This offer arrived in my inbox early this morning so it just started. They have 101 sold deals now but it doesn't end for 24 hours so they'll probably sell many more. (Note: While I wrote this post their sales have climbed to 371 in about 40 minutes.)

Lisse Laser & Aesthetics Medical Spa is taking a much sneakier approach. They're listing their value at $2000 in value.

Here's Lisse's Groupon offer:

...for $145, you get six laser hair-removal treatments on the lower or upper legs (a $1,000 value for women, $1,400 value for men), lower or upper arms (a $700 value), or Brazilian bikini area (a $1,000 value for women, $2,000 value for men)

So again, six treatments but at least they're making an extra $23 per patient. Let's do the math again.

$145 per sale / 6 treatments = $24.16 per treatment.

Lisse is going to have all of the same issues and problems with scheduling, service, appointment setting and the rest as well.

(I'd be interested to hear how those medspas that are using commission (which I personally hate) to pay their staff feel that this kind of discount effects both the level of service and the commission structure. If you have a thought on this please comment.)

And there's another problem.

Selling your services at this type of discount positions you in the marketplace as the cheap player in town. You'll never be able to control your pricing. You'll never be able to create steady, repeat buyers that pay a premium for your services. You'll never be able to bring in the bigger treatments and you'll always have cash flow issues.

• Read: Your Medical Spa Pricing, Cognitive Dissonance, & How To Charge More

Instead, you'll always be scraping along at the bottom of the barrel... if you can survive this type of cut throat slash-and-burn price war.

I can see that Groupon is doing a great job of selling their deal to laser clinics just by the endless stream of deals.

For Groupon this is great. They just made $34,650 from Enlighten by sending out an email... but Enlighten is the one who's stuck delivering all of the services, making all of the appointments, dealing with the customers, and putting their reputation and business on the line, including the potential of any issues that hit their malpractice insurance or medical licensure. (I'm not saying this will happen, just that the risk is entirely on Enlighten and the physician, not Groupon.)

Undoubtedly, there are some occasional successes and I've heard from clinics that claim that they love Groupon, but I've never heard from a physician who was paying the bills that this worked well. It's often the staff that like this since the clinic is now busy, but the physician owner is the one that's not making any money and still paying out.

Here's a quote from a business that ran a Groupon offer.

After three months of Groupons coming through the door, I started to see the results really hurting us financially. There came a time when we literally could not make payroll because at that point in time we had lost nearly $8,000 with our Groupon campaign. We literally had to take $8,000 out of our personal savings to cover payroll and rent that month. It was sickening, especially after our sales had been rising. So the experience jaded me, and the interactions with the few bad Groupon customers we had jaded our staff. After all of this, I find myself not even willing to buy Groupons because I know how it could hurt a business...

This business owner goes on to tell of her experience that the Groupon clients also lambasted her business on Yelp and other review sites with negative reviews.

If you have an opinion on this or experience with Groupon, please leave a comment.

Additional posts on Groupon:

• Medical Spas & Groupon Group Buys
• Your Medical Spa + Groupon
• Groupon & Fee Splitting
• Groupon post on Techcrunch

How Men Would Help Boom Your Practice

It is not new that men are also getting cosmetic procedures, due to pressure from social media or people in their environment or combating aging. Based on recent surveys and statistics from different faculties related to aesthetic medicine, the number has ballooned for men since the early 2000s and it is expected to grow larger in the next few years. Would this be a factor in your future marketing strategies for men? Or are you only considering now to offer cosmetic procedures to men?

Despite the numbers, do men still face stigma? 

According to several physicians, that despite the rising number of men asking for cosmetic procedures, it’s still common that men do think there still is stigma.

And how you could curb stigma to market to men better?

Market and target

Fathers, young men, and even grandfathers can be your demographic. Based from many experts, dads are looking into addressing their aging concerns. Men would like to get rid of their “dad bod” and their wrinkles. Know what treatments would be better suited for each demographic. Many experts note that men want more straight-forward treatments and less wait times.

Do not leave out the males

Before and after photos on your website could show proof that men are also welcome to your practice and that they should not be ashamed in getting an injection or surgery done. Stock photos could be in lieu of patient photos or ask your male patients to have their photos taken, with their consent.

Revamping Your Design

Men may feel uncomfortable in a clinic where you had women in mind first. You could start with the waiting room in your practice, and find ways to make everything gender neutral looking even from the outside. In any case, you could do it digitally on your website.

Set-Up a Male Page on Your Website

Most plastic surgery websites have a “Mommy Makeover” or “Bridal Makeover”, and obviously the women will only be more interested, and as such men might be discouraged to take interest in your practice. Some researchers suggest that plastic surgery websites also set-up a male-related web page to cater to your potential male demographic.

Step up your marketing game to both men and women. There are other marketing options like contests or usual social media advertising to reach out to men.

Improving Your Laser Clinics Marketing Funnel

Web users are, for the most part, used to giving out personal information online, especially in exchange for content they want. But certain kinds of information are more sensitive than others.

If you're capturing leads for your laser clinic or medical spa, here's some info from Hubspot that show how asking for certain type of information can reduce the number of contacts or leads that you're able to capture.

Here are some of the findings.

Forms asking for any type of geographic location have lower converstion rates than forms that do not, but mailing addresses seem to be much more sensitive since the perception is that visitors filling out the form will receive mail.

Asking for a telephone number has much the same impact as asking for a mailing address... a decrease in the number of completed forms.

Oddly, at least to me, it seems that asking a visitors age is also sensitive enough to prevent form completions.

So what should you do?

First, don't try to swallow the entire apple, just take a bite and begin to add value. Remember that they're filling out your form in order to receive value from you. If you don't provide any value at all and just spam them with offers, your relationship will sour quickly.

Video Waiting Room Marketing

Video marketing for your waiting room? You'll want to watch this...

Frontdesk is launching truly awesome waiting room video marketing DVDs for doctors, dentists, chiropractors, medical spas, laser clinics and pretty much every other small business with a waiting room or lobby...

Putting a jaw-dropping, attention grabbing video in your waiting room or lobby is the perfect way to add additional sales and profits to your clinics bottom line.

The benefits are obvious. You're marketing directly to a captive audience that's already in your business with information about your products and services. Your clients will be entertained at the same time that you're educating and informing them of the scope of your services. Special offers? New services? Packages or gift certificates? Video marketing will 'soft-sell' your clients and get conversations started that result in increased sales!

If you're a dentist, physician, medical spa, clinic, chiroprator or any other small business that has a waiting room, you'd be a fool to pass up learning how you can increase your profitibility and drive extra sales just by engaging and communicating the right message to your existing clients or patients. It's truly a no-brainer.

This system has been proven in countless businesses that understand that communicating the right message, in the right way, adds to the bottom line.

They're booked solid right now but you can get on their waiting list and be notified when space becomes available.

Note: All images, videos, headlines and copy are copyrighted...

Simple Strategies for Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Paula Di Marco Young is hosting a local SEO webinar for Palomar.

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011
8:00pm EST / 5:00pm PST

As a business owner and experienced customer relationship manager, Paula Di Marco Young knows the challenges of marketing a small business and has experienced the cost-effective – yet significant – impact of sound Internet marketing practices. In this webinar, Paula will share simple SEO strategies that can help increase your business's visibility in local search engine listings and keep non-local competition from taking advantage of your valuable Internet marketing real-estate.

Paula Di Marco Young, BS, RN is the sole owner of Social Marketing Strategy 101, LLC and co-owner of Young Medical Spa. Paula previously owned a cosmetic national franchise, among other businesses in the aesthetics industry, and worked for Johnson & Johnson for over 10 years where she held senior management positions in customer relationship management. Paula has authored for Medical Spa Report Magazine and is an editorial blogger for Medical Spa MD. She has also authored the Medical Spa Training Manuals that are used at top medspas and cosmetic clinics to train their staffs.

Read Paula's Medical Spa MD posts.

Using The Art Of Persuasion On Your Website

Is your medical spa's website causing potential patients to make the kind of decisions you want them to make?

Think about the last 10 decisions you have made.  How did you come to your decisions? 

You probably made a mental note of the pros and cons, factored in your intuition along with some sound logic and came up with an intelligent decision. You probably understand that most people aren’t as strong and smart as you and therefore are easy targets to sway. But, that never happens to you. You are just too smart.

You just made your first mistake. You experienced something called the “fundamental attribution error”.  This is the belief that other people’s behavior is solely based on their personality, rather than external factors. For example, “Mary is late because she doesn’t care if others have to wait for her” verses “Mary is late because she must have had car trouble”.

These types of biases are very common and play a big role in the way decisions are made. So of course web designers are using this information to influence the behavior of users.  Some designers intuitively know what techniques to use to achieve this, but they may not be able to tell you exactly “why” it works. However, there are some very skilled “decision architects” that understand the psychological behavior and intentionally design web sites with the goal of shaping a visitors decision process and guiding them into a specific action.

There are 7 main components in the decision architect’s toolbox:  Authority, Commitment, Scarcity, Salience, Reciprocation, Framing and Social Proof.

#1 Authority: 

This principle is about influencing behavior via credibility. This is why you will see a lot of name-dropping, used to give the reader confidence that this information is valuable and credible. The MD or DO afer your name is a prime example.

Readers are more likely to believe information if it is written by an “expert” in the field.  In turn, they are more likely to act (buy) as a result of this information.

Decision architects exploit this principle by listing rave reviews and testimonials on their site. Patient testimonials are a common example that a lot of medical spas use. E-commerce sites show highly visible icons assuring the user that the site is secure.  Forums are another way to use authority.  People have the opportunity to rate their peers and users might rely on those ratings as if they were from an expert.

#2 Commitment:

This principle is about taking a stand on an issue that is consistent with our own beliefs. When you take a stand on something that is visible to other people, you usually feel a drive to maintain that point of view to appear credible and consistent.

Designers use this principle by asking for a small, but visible, commitment from you. If they can get you to behave in a certain way, you’ll soon start believing it. An example of this is Facebook.  If a group page can get you to “like” their page and it appears on your newsfeed, you are basically recommending this to all your friends.  If you can get a patient to “like” your medical spa fan page, you have “publicly committed” to being your fan.

#3 Scarcity:

This principle takes me back to some of the manufactured product scarcity around Botox and filler injections. The newspapers or press (or even a local doc) runs the headline “Botox shortage” and there are immediately lines around every block of people wanting to be seen. (Of course there is no Botox shortage and never will be.)

People are more likely to want something if they think it is in short supply or more valuable than it actually is. For example, psychologists have reported that if you give people a cookie from a jar, they rate the cookie as more delicious if it comes from a jar with only 3 cookies list verses a jar with 10 cookies. A nice fact and part of the reason that Fifth Avenue shoe stores put their shoes on pedistals in almost empty stores.

Decision architects exploit this by showing scarcity of a product. This could include limited treatment times or any number of 'act now' specials in your clinic. Smart medical spas understand that perceived scarcity will generate demand.

Another example of this might be a Grand Opening sale. How many medical spas keep that sign up for months and months, hoping that new customers will take advantage of the “special” price?

#4 Salience:

People are more likely to pay attention to details in your user interface that are unique such as a colored “continue shopping” button.  For example, there are certain times during a purchase when consumers are more likely to investigate a special offer. Being able to understand this gives you an opportunity to sell more products or services by offering them at just the right time in the buying cycle.

#5 Reciprocation:

Do you like to return favors?  Most people do and it’s this psychology that is the basis for this principle.  If someone helps you paint your house or babysit your kids, you feel obligated to help them at a future date.

Decision architects know that if they offer you a small gift – a free newsletter, consultation, seminar, or a sample chapter from a book – you are very likely to do something for them in return, even if it's only positive word of mouth. At first they may not ask you to buy something. They may start by asking you to comment on their blog or link to a website.  They know that it usually take several contacts with a user to make them an actual “customer”. 

#6 Framing:

Savvy decision architects know that we like making choices. It makes up feel in control of our destiny.  So, if we are given a choice of 3 tiers of products, you can be assured that there is one of them that they are pointing you towards whether you realize it or not. Another example of framing is the medical spa doc who shows you the most expensive 'total makeover' package knowing you can’t afford it.  Then the next 'best bang for the buck treatments' seem like a real bargain in comparison!

#7 Social Proof:

Have you ever gone to lunch with a group of friends?  Have you ever watched as everyone orders and then base your decision on their choices? 

A great example of Social Proof is shopping on Amazon. When you buy a certain product, say a digital camera, Amazon will then post a note to you saying “other people who bought this camera bought this case and memory card”. Well, if other people bought them, you certainly should as well!

A medical spa example is a 'recommended treatment' for a patients age issue or skin type. A good decision architect will have the 'most patients like' add-on already checked. The client thinks, “I guess everyone buys this so I should too”. 

So back to my original question: How do your medical spas patients come to their decisions?  Maybe now you can see that their decisions can be 'helped along'! Smart medical spas help patients make the 'right' decision.

Your Medical Spa + Groupon

Does it make sense to promote your medical spa with Groupon?

Groupon is a “daily coupon” website. It’s basically an email list that charges advertisers to send out their “coupons” called Groupons.

Many small businesses I’d likely never hear about otherwise send me their coupons this way. I receive them mainly to see what’s up… because the city I receive them from is 2 hours away, I don’t expect to take advantage of them.

I've noticed that for the most part, these are not large mainstream businesses. They are small businesses – spas, bakeries, etc. that likely don’t have large advertising budgets and think that Groupon is a great way to drive traffic without spending marketing dollars.

At Groupon, they have an email list of over ten million people and if you contact Groupon to be included on their “deal-of-the-day”, you can get the word out about your medical spa to thousands of people you would otherwise never be able to reach.

There are usually huge discounts involved (50% or more) to incentivize buyers and the general idea is that by offering a big discount on your products or services, people will try out your offerings and keep coming back for more. On the surface, it sounds like a great way to market your business and I was really excited about the idea until I thought about it some more and did some analysis. While Groupon might work for a small subset of local businesses, here’s why I don’t think Groupon is a good fit for the majority of medical spas out there.

Using Groupon will cost your medical spa an arm and a Leg... and another arm.

You might have read some Groupon horror stories already, but the reality is that Groupon is extremely expensive for a business. If you look at their faq, they give off the impression that running a Groupon campaign is free. They collect the money online from prospective customers, send you a check and mail out the coupons automatically.

What is not explicitly spelled out is that they take 50% of your revenue as a fee for using their service. So given that most Groupon campaigns offer the end customer around 50% off, let’s run some numbers here. Say your product retails for $100. By giving a 50% discount to customers, you will only make $50. After Groupon’s 50% cut, you only get $25 for something you normally would charge $100 for. Depending on what your markup is, it better be more than 400% otherwise you could potentially lose money on every transaction!

What’s attractive about Groupon is that they run the campaign for you and simply send you a check. It’s not until later when you have to fulfill orders with these ridiculous discounts do you realize how much money you are potentially losing out on. Most medical spas that are using Groupon—and there are many of them—tend to try to limit their 'deals' to services like laser hair removal and IPL treatments rather than Botox or cosmetic surgery to limit their exposure to services with high fixed costs. But whatever you're offering, it's questionable that taking a huge loss on hundreds of services will prove beneficial to your clinic's bottom line in the long term.

While I'm not absolutley against using Groupon in any way, there are some issus that you want to be aware of around how using Groupon will actually hurt your medical spa or cosmetic clinic.

Groupons don’t make your medical spa memorable.

I’ve got some experience using Groupon a few times as a consumer and you know what? Every time I've purchased through Groupon, what stands out in my mind after my purchase was not the business itself but how great of a deal I got on the product or service. In fact, I remember talking to friends about what a killer deal I got through Groupon. Not once did I mention any details about the business that I was actually purchasing from. I was too excited about the bargain itself.

Using a Groupon takes the spotlight away from your business. After all, it was Groupon that provided your customer with the coupon and the unbeatable deal. It was Groupon that made your customers’ purchase exciting and fun. As a result, customers are far more likely to brag about Groupon and not your clinic.

Groupon deteriorates the perceived value of your medical spa.

Whenever a store offers an incredible deal or discount, there is this perception that the markup was already ridiculously high. If company X can offer a 50% discount and still make a good profit, then they must be jacking up their prices. Once a customer receives a large discount, it trains them to wait for later coupons and deteriorates the value of your products and services. This is especially true with medical spas since Groupon is saturated with them.

There is this dining card I sign up for almost every year called “The Passport” card which entitles the card holder to a free entree at select restaurants when another entree is purchased. The card lasts exactly one year until it expires and you have to pay to reactivate it. One year, we decided to let the card expire and you know what? We refused to dine at “Passport” sponsored restaurants during this period because it didn’t seem worth it without the card. We were so used to getting a free entree that we didn’t want to pay full price again.

While this principle applies to coupons in general, the price erosion caused by a Groupon are infinitely worse because the discounts are so steep.

You can bet that the majority of the new clients you attract through Groupon will be visiting your competition next month. You've just invited all of these new users to price shop you.

Groupon hurts your loyal clients.

Don’t you hate it when you are a loyal customer of a product or service only to find out that the company started issuing huge discounts for new customers only? This happens all the time with cell phone carriers and it really pisses me off. Using Groupon has a similar effect on your regulars and your loyal customer base.

By taking a loss using Groupon to obtain new clients and patients, you are essentially forcing your loyal clients to make up for your losses. And this is counter-intuitive to the way you should be doing business. Your regulars should be the one rewarded with discounts and perks.

There are 2 possible outcomes when a regular customer sees one of your Groupons and both are bad. In one case, your loyal customer could get pissed off and consider shopping with a competitor. But more likely, your regular customer could buy a S@$% load of Groupons and only pay a fraction of the price for what they normally would spend at your store. In effect, you would be losing out on future business with this customer because you would be taking a loss or breaking even on what could have been a 4X profit!

I've had experience with this first hand through another service. Some of our most loyal—and profitable—clients found out about some discounts and switched to them. All we could do was smile since there was no way that we wanted to make waves with our existing clients. We just quietly folded our program and smartened up.

Conclusion

Outside of the issues I’ve already covered, the main problem with Groupon is that the longer term effects are extremely hard to measure. It might be possible to measure repeat business somewhat but it’s almost impossible to measure the word of mouth effect.

To sum it up, I think of Groupon as a shortcut with major consequences. The attraction is that you’ll get a lot of customers upfront, but once everything is said and done, you’ve lost a lot of money and the long term benefits are questionable.

My general philosophy in business is to focus on the long term. Instead of trying to get a one time flood of customers, why not put forth your efforts on making your business stand out? Be the store that everyone wants to shop at because you are awesome and not because of a coupon. Be the medical spa that offers the best customer service. Be the clinic that gives customers the best experience. Giving a one time discount isn’t going to win over any followers and you risk damaging your medical spas real business.

Gift Certificates That Work For Medical Spas

Year end gift certificates and postcards are where some medical spas are making 40% of their yearly sales.

Gift Certificates For Medical Spas

It's a well known fact that, at least for 'day spas', December is a time of plenty where gift certificates pile in daily and generate terrific end-of-year income. (One of my friends that ran a 50 employee day spa would generate an additional $250+ in revenue in the run up before Christmas.)

The challenge is often how you decide how you handle this pre-selling since you're now going to have to deliver all of those services over the next few months. (Jaunary is often spartan in income since all of your treatment rooms are filled delivering services that you've already recieved payment for.)

I'm wondering if anyone has thoughs on how to manage this effect?

One of the things that I've thought of offering but never really tried is an additional stipulation/option that gives someone an incentive—perhaps a slight discount—for postponing a redempton of the gift certificates. I was thinking of offering an additional 5-10% increase in the value of the gift certificate if it was redeemed after March or May.

Best Examples Of Bikini Line Hair Removal Advertising

It doesn't take a lot of thought to see where this is going. Sex still sells.

These ads are just a couple Wilkinson's ads for their bikini line razor that ran in the UK. I'm not sure they could get these on the air in the US and no reports here about how effecive they were, but they certainly grab your attention.

And another.

Bikini line laser hair removal is, if anything, growing in popularity. (Underarm / bikini line / lower legs are probably the top three. )

Here is A clever and funny print ad around the bikini line from Veet and a number of other bikini line ads for various products.

PrintMD.net - Medical Spa Marketing

Print MD.net is now live.

Print MD.net is our newest Select Partner and one that we've built ourselves to address a very specific need for medical spas and cosmetic practices: how to handle direct mail and marketing with professional design that doesn't break the bank.

Print MD.net is designed to do just that. It's a site that has everything you need, from postcards, business cards, appointment cards and posters, all professionaly created and integrated into 'campaigns'.

View all campaigns

Now you can have your business cards, posters, referral and appointment cards match, ensure the highest quality design and printing, and get the price break. Nice.

Oh, and you can enter your own copy, address and even upload your logo to customize your marketing materials just the way you want. Click here for a demo.

Since we're doing something of a rolling launch, I'll be posting here about how to use Print MD to the greatest effect, but take a gander through the campaigns and see if there's something you like.

I'd also love feedback on the designs, copy etc. so If you'd leave a comment below that let's me know what you think I'ld be most appreciative.

Physicians' Need to Understand & Influence Their Online Reputation

Here's some very good advice from one of our Select Partners, Medical Justice.  

The observation that social media is experiencing explosive growth is hardly novel. Moreover, social media is significantly influencing the medical profession.  CNN Money.com reported that Facebook passed the milestone of half a billion signed on users half a year into 2010.  The professional and legal ramifications from the rapid growth of social media touch almost every aspect of physicians practicing today.  One of the most challenging of these ramifications is a physician’s online reputation.

Pew Internet and American Life Project recently released numbers that document just how important of the source of information regarding medicine and physicians the internet has become.  Sixty-one percent (61%) of American adults look on-line for health information. Forty-nine percent (49%) of Internet users report researching a specific disease or medical problem on the Internet.  Forty-seven percent (47%) report seeking information about their physician or other healthcare professionals from on-line sources.

Finally, five percent (5%) of “E-Patients” have posted a review online of a doctor. It is these very reviews from a small subset which form the basis of a physician’s reputation on-line.

Reputations are forged when people make judgments upon the mosaic of information available about us.”  Viewed in this light, ratings, blog postings, and web pages are the pieces of the reputation mosaic.  Unfortunately, all it takes is one or two bad pieces for the mosaic to be marred.  The implications of a damaged online reputation are extensive."

Most physicians equate a tainted online reputation with a direct loss of business.  The analysis is simple; the worse the online reputation, the fewer the patients.  There are certainly many examples to support this reasoning. 

Dr. Linda Morrison, a physician practicing in Indiana, experienced first hand the harm that arises from an online reputational attack.  In July of 2000, Dr. Morrison noticed that an anonymous individual was posting defamatory statements about her via the internet.  Dr. Morrison received e-mails from this individual under a pseudonym “Surfycity45” that, among other things, made threats against her medical license.  The attacks continued into the fall of 2000.  Dr. Morrison ultimately learned that “Surfycity45” had been circulating defamatory comments about her while simultaneously encouraging others to do the same.  “Surfycity45” worked hard to organize a cyber mob with Dr. Morrison as its target.  

Dr. Morrison, via counsel, attempted to enjoin Defendant American Online, Inc. from the continued posting of the defamatory statements about her by the anonymous subscriber.  For a variety of legal reasons, the United States Northern District Court of Indiana ruled against the injunction.  Although Dr. Morrison alleged that “Surfycity45” statements were false, defamatory, and had resulted in damage to her professional reputation as a physician, she was unable to have these remarks removed from the Internet in a timely fashion.  The damage was done.

The implications of a physician's online reputation now extends beyond patients.  At least twenty seven (27) states have a recognized cause of action for negligently credentialing a physician.  Given this liability, credentialing committees will likely perform detailed background checks using all available search tools, including social network sites.

Health institutions making credentialing or hiring decisions currently face a dilemma when it comes to information about physicians contained in social network profiles.  Although there may be some risks in searching against them (as discussed in the next section), the potential liability for making a panel decision in the absence of such information likely tips the balance."

It is not just patients and credentialing committees which are scrutinizing physicians’ online reputations.  In any  medical malpractice action, physicians should assume that the plaintiff’s attorney will checking the doctor’s online reputation.  Geoffrey Vance, a thirty eight (38) year old partner at McDermott, Will and Emry, makes use of social networking sites to gather facts about the opposing side for trials.  “I make it a practice to use as many sources as I can to come up with and to find information about the other side” Vance said.  “We used to run Lexus Nexus; we still do that.  We always look at cases, and now we use the internet – Google, and social networking sites.”

Mr. Vance is not alone.  Paul Kiesel, a lawyer in Los Angeles County, admits to using social media not only to investigate the opposing side, but also to help select jurors.  “Last month I had fifty (50) jurors, and as the Court Clerk read out the names, I had two (2) people in the courtroom and the third person back at the office, with all three (3) of them doing research.”

Lawyers are not the only actors in a courtroom who are using social media at trial.  Courts across the country are grappling with the serious problem of “Internet-tainted” jurors.  In case after case, judges and lawyers have discovered that jurors are doing independent research via cell phone during trials.  Last year in Arkansas, a state court judge allowed a 12.6 million dollar verdict to stand even though a juror sent eight (8) messages via Twitter from his cell phone.

 In another case, a juror decided to seek the wisdom of the masses by holding a Facebook online poll. “I don’t know which way to go, so I’m holding a poll, wrote the democratic juror.”  Upon learning of this misadventure, the juror was dismissed and the case proceeded.

Physicians’ online reputations are being examined with increasing frequency at crucial moments in their professional career.  It is no longerprudent for a physician to fail to monitor his or her online reputation.  “Physicians should carefully monitor their online reputation.  I have seen examples of ex-spouses, past employees, and competitors all posing as disgruntled patients in an online effort to damage a physician’s reputation.  This is a real threat that is not going away,” says Rivera.

In the words of Benjamin Franklin “It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.”

Resource: Physicians + Facebook Marketing - How to do it correctly!

Guest post by Joy Tu of Medical Justice.

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Medical Spas & Groupon Group Buys

Group Buying & Medical Spas

Social networks and social media (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.) get a lot of attention as marketing vehicles in the cosmetic medical world, and with good reason – your potentail patient are already there and are spending more hours being social online than ever before. However, another major marketing movement may have a much larger impact on how medical spa marketing is changing... discounted group buying sites.

How Group Buying Sites Are Impacting Medical Spas & Physicians

A recent Forbes profile on Groupon reported that the group buying site’s sales have reached $500 million and that the company’s valuation is now $1.3 billion. Groupon will be the fastest company ever to reach $1 billion in sales, and they were profitable seven months after inception. In just three years, there are now 200 competitors to Groupon in the U.S. alone (over 500 internationally, says Forbes), and this number is growing — not to mention the likelihood that Facebook, Yelp, Foursquare, and niche publishing sites seem likely to get in on this model of selling. Clearly, group purchasing has resonated with the market... including medical spas, plastic surgeons and cosmetic physicians.

This model is simple: a massive discount with urgency and strong merchandising. In Groupon’s case, a 50%+ discount will definitely drive sales. (It’s important to realize, however, that they are unprofitable sales. According to the article, the retailer only gets half of their discounted deal, netting only up to 25% of the list price. No, the retailer doesn’t make money; however, they do get eyeballs on their company and product. The bet is this exposure will attract full price customers, offsetting the loss.)

A couple things will happen with medical spas that advertise on sites like Groupon. First, it's difficult to get off the “crack” of sales from these deals. Groupon reports 97% of their retailers want to be featured again. And with 200 group buying sites, and more coming, many retailers may just make the rounds of discount after discount. This is a recipe for losing money and commoditizing your entire business with treatments that are not turning a profit. Unless – and this is the big caveat – your medical spa sees sustained profitable sales from returning customers.

Of course this is the same methodology that many of our Select Partners use to aggregate the bying power of our individual physician members to drive down the cost across the entire network. Examples would be when Sciton offered $15,000 of of a new BBLs IPL platform and the $349 Group Buy Botox offer.

Which brings us to the second and more salient point: Groupon reports only 22% of customers who buy a deal return to buy full price. (There are no statistics about cosmetic medicine deals on Groupon). If you're dealing with treatments that come with high fixed costs that can cause all sorts of problems, especially if you have any form of 'commission' payments with your staff.

Discounted medspa customers only return if:

1. They had a great experience with the product or service.
2. If, at full price, the experience is still a great value.
3. If they're not hopping from discount to discount, which many of them are.

What percentage of medical spas will clear that high bar? Medical spas and physicians must become amazing to attract profitable customers back, or they may discount themselves out of business with unprofitable treatments that are filling their treatment rooms, and that’s where Groupon shines a light on the need for a superior customer experience.

Most medical spas try to get around the 'loss leader' aspects by offering treatments with no consumables (Botox, Restylane, Juvederm, Thermage etc.) and offering purely cosmetic treatments like facials or high margin treatments like laser hair removal.

If you've had an experience with Groupon or other group buy site's, please leave a comment and let us know about your experience and what you learned.

AMA Policy: Medical Professionalism In Social Media

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogging & Physicians

A new policy on professionalism in the use of social media was adopted at the November 8th 2010 meeting of the American Medical Association. These basic guidelines represent one of the first steps by a major American physician organization to offer guidance in the appropriate use of social/new media.

It's pretty generic and basic stuff but it does recognize that Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs and other social networks are destined to become intimately intertwined with medicine.

The Internet has created the ability for medical students and physicians to communicate and share information quickly and to reach millions of people easily.  Participating in social networking and other similar Internet opportunities can support physicians’ personal expression, enable individual physicians to have a professional presence online, foster collegiality and camaraderie within the profession, provide opportunity to widely disseminate public health messages and other health communication.  Social networks, blogs, and other forms of communication online also create new challenges to the patient-physician relationship.  Physicians should weigh a number of considerations when maintaining a presence online:

(a)  Physicians should be cognizant of standards of patient privacy and confidentiality that must be maintained in all environments, including online, and must refrain from posting identifiable patient information online.

(b)  When using the Internet for social networking, physicians should use privacy settings to safeguard personal information and content to the extent possible, but should realize that privacy settings are not absolute and that once on the Internet, content is likely there permanently.  Thus, physicians should routinely monitor their own Internet presence to ensure that the personal and professional information on their own sites and, to the extent possible, content posted about them by others, is accurate and appropriate.

(c)  If they interact with patients on the Internet, physicians must maintain appropriate boundaries of the patient-physician relationship in accordance with professional ethical guidelines just, as they would in any other context.

(d)  To maintain appropriate professional boundaries physicians should consider separating personal and professional content online.

(e)  When physicians see content posted by colleagues that appears unprofessional they have a responsibility to bring that content to the attention of the individual, so that he or she can remove it and/or take other appropriate actions.  If the behavior significantly violates professional norms and the individual does not take appropriate action to resolve the situation, the physician should report the matter to appropriate authorities.

(f)  Physicians must recognize that actions online and content posted may negatively affect their reputations among patients and colleagues, may have consequences for their medical careers (particularly for physicians-in-training and medical students), and can undermine public trust in the medical profession.

Medical Spa MD Video

Here' s a promo video that the good folks from our Select Partner Frontdesk SEO built for Medical Spa MD to show their new video offering.

It's pretty damn slick if I do say so myself.

Frontdesk SEO is already offering a host of social marketing tools and services for the Medical Spa MD Members who subscribe to thier business services, and now they're adding selected video services in to the mix.

Video has moved into the forefront of both internet marketing and traffic conversion since the fact that it's generally difficult to produce offers something more than simple text.

If you need help with your search engine rankings to drive more traffic, take a look at Frontdesk to see if you need some help in generating new patients while, at the same time, interacting with your existing patients more frequently outside of office visits. There are a number of our Members who use the service and love it.

If you' haven't yet run your existing website through through the free reporting tool to see what Google and the other search engines think of your site, you can do it through the link below.

Run a free SEO report on your website