MedEsthetics magazines offers business education and in-depth coverage of the latest noninvasive cosmetic procedures for physicians and practice managers working in the medical aesthetics industry.
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REWARDING LOYALTY The first step in building patient loyalty is to offer great results and topnotch customer service. next treatment. "Gratitude builds loyalty," says Kimberly Bertrang, owner of Allure. "I push hard to create direct contact with each patient through customized rewards, and it has worked for my business. I stress to my clients: the more loyal you are, the better your results will be, and the more you will save." What Fosters Loyalty? There are a number of companies that offer software programs and mobile apps to help practices reward patient loyalty. But these programs only help practices design, manage and track rewards. They cannot create loyalty in and of themselves. "What builds loyalty are excellent outcomes, unsurpassed service and follow-up communications," says Alisha Merlo, founder of ProMD Solutions (promdsolutions.com), a consultancy that helps medspas drive business in their facilities. "Unless you have these three things in place first, a loyalty program is just leading with your financial foot." To ensure his medpsa was offering topnotch customer service, Matthew Pruitt, owner of Nuvision MedSpa in Manhattan, created a 'Customer Concierge' position. This employee is solely responsible for maintaining a high level of customer service in the facility. "Everyone who has a service with us receives a customer service survey following treatment," says Pruitt. "If a patient had a service that was not up to her standards, she can tell us about it, which gives us a chance to address her concerns." Patients also can go directly to the concierge to share any concerns or complaints. The medspa's point-of-sale (POS) system allows it to photograph new patients and add the image to their records. "So when the person walks in the door for her next appointment, we spot her and address her by name," says Pruitt. "People take a step back and say, 'How did you remember my name?' The thing that's sort of lost today is that personal connection—that personal thank you note and walking in the door of a business and having people know who you are." Every client that visits Allure Skin Health in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, receives a handwritten thank you note with a gift certificate for either dollars off or a percentage off her 48 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014 | MedEsthetics The first structured loyalty programs included either punch cards or swipe cards that tracked purchases and rewarded multiple purchases with a free product or service. Today's programs have become much more sophisticated. About seven years ago, Infinity MedSpa in Valencia, California, launched a loyalty program that used swipe cards. "On the positive side, you have your branding in someone's wallet all the time," says Tim Malan, general manager of Infinity. "On the downside, there was an inherent cost—about one dollar per card—and at that time, our spa software didn't have the capability to record reward points, so we would have to go to a separate terminal to update the patient's rewards." Today, Infinity works with Perkville (perkville.com), which "is really good in that it keeps track of rewards points from purchases, but it can also do other things, such as add reward points when people Tweet or make Facebook posts about your business," says Malan. The HIPAA-compliant program works with the facility's POS system. When new patients come in, Perkville automatically sends an email inviting them to sign up for the reward program. Once enrolled, patients have their own portals, where they can track their points and print out coupons to redeem their rewards. Malan and his team chose the program based on its ease of use for both the medspa and clients. The only downside they've found has been the absence of branding. "Having that card in clients' wallets is really powerful," says Malan. "And that's what we're missing out on right now." Merlo notes that many systems now offer the benefits of both loyalty cards and cloud-based systems that allow patients and practices to track rewards. Some of these are separate programs that work with a practice's POS system. Other POS systems have reward tracking built-in. "Some of the portal-based systems, like EVO (evorecruiting.com), offer loyalty cards and points that are tracked through a cloud-based system," says Merlo. "There's another program called Renew Advantage (renewadvantage.com) that has a loyalty card that is swiped when patients come in. Aspire (aspirelifestyles.com) is an aestheticbased system that also provides a physical card. But what you want is flexibility: The ability to add, track and redeem points even if someone forgets to bring her card with her." © ISTOCKPHOTO.COM Rewarding Loyalty