Most physicians that run cash-based aesthetic practices have one thing in common: They went to medical school, not business school. Yet, before they even open their doors, they need to start running their practice as a retail business. The same laws of marketing, customer engagement and satisfaction that apply to Amazon or Target also apply to medical aesthetic providers.
Physicians must become skilled at sales processes that not only attract consumers to the practice, but also convert them into paying patients. Many physicians have found this to be a frustrating undertaking because they didn’t start with the business tools essential to succeed.
In response to this critical need, Crystal Clear Digital Marketing (Orlando, Fla.) has combined a uniquely streamlined approach to all facets of marketing, practice management, customer attraction and retention to ensure success in the modern aesthetic practice – all via an easy-to-use online portal-style platform.
According to Adam DeGraide, the company’s founder and CEO, “In some cases practices have relied on eight to ten different vendors to deliver such a solution for their practice. In addition, many of these companies characterize marketing and technology solutions as mysterious or somehow beyond understanding. The challenge then, is to educate and enlighten practice owners about finding higher quality patients to convert, how to deliver great outcomes to those patients, and how to get them to come back and give referrals. That is the basis of successfully operating a cash-based, elective practice.”
Jill Lezaic, D.O., a physician specializing in aesthetics and laser-based medicine in Jacksonville Beach, Fla., was frustrated after hiring several third-party vendors to help her manage patient outreach and increase efficiency and profitability. “Those companies were disconnected and made my practice feel disorganized,” she said. “I had to stay on top of them to make sure they were doing a good job. It was like no one was looking out for my business but me. Just when everything seemed to be flowing smoothly, one of them would go out of business and I would have to start all over again.”
Crystal Clear Digital Marketing’s solution not only encompasses a comprehensive marketing platform, it also provides practice management software. This software helps physicians manage their pipeline, receive insight into estimated and actual revenues, track return on investment (ROI), seamlessly utilize website search engine optimization (SEO) and social media for marketing purposes, control the inbound phone call process, and much more via a single system that comes with a widerange of staff training materials.
“I saw that Crystal Clear Digital Marketing actually put everything I needed in one place, on one online dashboard, with one login to one screen,” expressed Dr. Lezaic. “It is really well done and very comprehensive.”
As the owners of Ideal Face & Body in Beverly Hills, Calif., plastic surgeon Justin Yovino, M.D., and cosmetic specialist Sarah Yovino, M.D. had done a Google Adwords campaign, but really didn’t see much in the way of results. “Then we were introduced to the Crystal Clear system and that was an enlightening experience. We learned how to break down the different aspects of a website, what to do and what not to do, including understanding how web traffic works. It made a lot of sense. It became clear that they understand what’s needed to take a business to the next level.”
Thomas T. Jeneby, M.D., a plastic surgeon in San Antonio, Texas, shared his own experience. “I am computer literate and at one point I was creating a second website for my practice when Google blackballed me for having duplicate content and for making a second website while I was already running one. After the second site went live, Google dropped me from page one to page 72.”
While attending a plastic surgery meeting, Dr. Jeneby was approached by Crystal Clear Digital Marketing. “This was a meeting where you could find around two dozen different providers of Internet marketing and website development for physicians, and many are ripoffs,” he said. “I was very skeptical, so I asked Crystal Clear if they would be able to put me back on page one in a year-anda-half. About six months into working with them my website was on page two, which was not bad. I’m someone who looks at metrics and Google analytics, and I was starting to see that my average visits doubled from 3,000 to 6,000. I thought well, maybe these guys have something worthwhile. I also signed up because the leadership at the company was very cordial and still is – they always take my calls.”
Practices employ the system in different ways, noted Mr. DeGraide. “If they do a lot of charting and are happy with their EMR, they use Crystal Clear’s system for marketing. Other practices that do paper charting use Crystal Clear for everything, including its medical records database.”
Users log into the system via the Social Patient Center (SPC), which manages the platform’s front-to-back functionality. “There is no other system that records all phone calls from both new and established patients, for instance, as well as one that sends all website submissions to a single online dashboard, for easy tracking,” stated Dr. Lezaic. “From there, you have the ability to label the patient’s interest in a specific treatment and the possible outcomes, such as scheduling a consult or procedure, or if there is a request for more information.”
Instead of burdening the practitioner or staff with remembering the details of every office communication, “The contact information is routed into the software and everything is automated from that point onward,” Dr. Lezaic continued. “The patient is never lost in the system. Targeted emails are sent to them, thanking them for their inquiry, letting them know if there is a special offer for the procedure they are interested in, inviting them to an event, or whatever you choose. It is a very intelligent system.”
For Drs. Yovino, the SPC’s marketing section has been the most beneficial for building their practice. “Crystal Clear will post information and alerts for us and tie in different outlets to those posts, such as Facebook. With email marketing, we send monthly specials to our patients and the system handles all of that for us. Prior to that, it was a painstaking process to send out those monthly specials, but now it is effortless.
” In addition, the system collects all data associated with phone calls that were missed, as well as for people who visited the practice’s website and requested more information. “Previously, we would have to separately log into Yahoo, RealSelf or any of the other platforms or websites we used in order to figure out who was trying to contact us via the Internet instead of calling the office, etc.,” Drs. Yovino added. “The Crystal Clear system links it all together in one place where we can easily see what opportunities are coming in, if those people have called the office or clicked a link on the website, as well as their contact information. We can find out quickly who has been interested in our practice that day. The system also texts us when that happens, 24 hours a day. Could any other company have setthat up for us? It’s possible, but Crystal Clear was the first to show us it could be done, allowing us to make contact with prospective patients immediately.”
In addition, the system generates truly useful reports, stated Dr. Lezaic. “The detail that these reports provide is more than I have ever seen in the past 16 years of practice. This has taught me so much about what works and what doesn’t for our email campaigns. That alone has been priceless. We can then apply this information to other mediums, such as opportunities on our social media or when to boost an ad, for instance.”
The SPC’s ability to record incoming calls has been invaluable, noted Dr. Lezaic. “In addition to tracking the origin of a prospective patient, such as the specific webpage(s) they visited on my website, the system also records the call. This is beneficial if they schedule with us. We can review all the details before we meet them. The process is also helpful in the event they don’t schedule right away, but call again at a later date, because now we have the history of this patient. We are aware that they have called multiple times and haven’t scheduled, but are still interested. From there, we can then begin working to overcome some of their obstacles to scheduling an appointment. If we did not have their call history right in front of us, then we would have no idea they had called multiple times or what had been said on those prior phone calls. We can even make notes on their profile that other staff can easily access while on the call. And if they don’t schedule, we can set them up to receive an automated email follow-up.”
Dr. Jeneby also utilizes the SPC for inbound call recording. “It is very worthwhile and ensures that we don’t miss something or someone,” he expressed. “If we do miss something then we have a way to track it. We get between 50 to 100 calls per week from the SPC center, and approximately 40% of those calls are from new patients. We are also becoming aware of top website keywords based on the monthly call tracking. I get around 1,500 to 2,000 inquiries from Facebook postings alone.”
Part of the SPC’s success can be traced to Crystal Clear Digital Marketing’s training programs, which are all-inclusive and available anytime, noted Drs. Yovino. “Training was excellent,” they stated. “Everyone on our staff learned the best ways to answer the phone. This made a huge difference in our engagement with patients. We learned what should and shouldn’t be said during inbound phone calls, which is great because we can listen to how our staff is speaking to the patients, what they are saying and how they describe our office and services. In effect, we are being trained to understand best practices, too.”
All of the training materials come free with the SPC system, added Dr. Jeneby. “Crystal Clear has a beautiful library on the subject of call lead conversion, inbound techniques, how to document leads, calls to action, even caller reroute when the caller says they need to talk to their spouse before they commit. There is a way to combat that behavior on the phone and that’s included in the training. The lessons are simple to learn, but inclusive,” he said.
Dr. Lezaic plans to send her employees to Crystal Clear Digital Marketing’s new Florida-based brick and mortar training center for additional learning, even though she expressed that the initial training was great. In addition, she found a significant business advantage after implementing the SPC’s email marketing templates and call recording features to train staff.
“I have used these easy training tools, as well as role-playing and my team is more sales-focused than they have ever been,” Dr. Lezaic said. “I think this is because they can easily see what’s going on with the practice by looking at the reports, the numbers and the graphs in a way they’ve never been able to do before. This helps them understand our current sales, make sales projections and aim for our sales goals. When they understand how calls and emails lead to consults and consults lead to procedures, they can then record procedure revenues in the SPC system and see how that ultimately leads to their bonuses. They are motivated in a way I could not have done in the past.”
With the company’s new training programs, Dr. Lezaic expects to take in-office sales and front office training to a whole new level. “Although my staff is excellent both clinically and at all aspects of the sales and consultation side of my business, Crystal Clear is unique in the way that they offer training that ties the entire process together,” she said. “Through the Crystal Clear Digital Marketing platform, my entire practice is geared up to understand the ‘big business’ picture.”
“This creates a team that becomes very skilled at converting calls into consults, and consults into procedures,” Dr. Lezaic continued. “What I end up with is a highly efficient operation, more conversions and significantly greater profits. In addition, this training is reproducible, so that current staff stays sharp and the on-boarding of new staff is not only more organized and efficient, but also always consistent. With the Crystal Clear software, my staff has become naturally sales-minded.”
If there is ever a need that hasn’t been answered by the SPC program, Crystal Clear will find a way to meet it by upgrading the software, added Dr. Lezaic. “If there is anything you might need that isn’t already built-in as a function or template, you can simply submit a request and they will construct a customized version. They are very responsive and truly focus on being the best in the industry. I can relate to this and I really appreciate that determination in them because that is how I run my practice. I strive to be the best at what I do. Why should I settle for less in my digital marketing company?”
This system provides an all-in-one solution that can run an entire business, concluded Mr. DeGraide. “It gives practices a unifying process and a window into what matters most, such as where the practice’s opportunities are coming from, how well the staff is converting them and if the patients are ultimately satisfied. It does multiple things and does them well.”
As noted by Dr. Jeneby, “Of all the companies in this category, Crystal Clear Digital Marketing is quite exceptional. The people are honest and very approachable. This company manages an extremely awesome team that continues to grow, but you can still always speak with the owners. They really do want to see you succeed.”
