The coronavirus has created an unprecedented national and international emergency that is affecting nearly every business in the U.S. These are scary times for aesthetic practice owners, but this isn’t the end of the world.Â
Once we have a better handle on the spread of virus there will be an opportunity for aesthetic practices. In fact, there are already opportunities for some aesthetic practices that haven’t been forced to close its doors. Even if you have closed your doors, now is the time to work on your marketing and sales game plan for when you open back up.
Keep in mind that everything with the coronavirus is fluid and it seems like things are changing day-to-day, even hour-to-hour. TRBO is committed to being nimble during this crisis so stay tuned for more updates to come.Â
Here’s What Aesthetic Practices Should be Considering Now:
1) Email and text all your patients, especially those with consultations, appointments, or surgeries scheduled: Step 1 is alerting your existing patients to reassure them you’re taking the steps needed to keep your office clean. This alert should be done via email for your entire list and consider texting those who have appointments or consultations scheduled. Lastly, consider adding a banner, pop up, or other visible notice on your website.
2) Parking lot waiting rooms: These are gaining popularity since many patients feel more comfortable waiting in isolation rather than of next to someone else in your waiting room. For this system to work, patients need to be alerted when to come in. This is where a texting service like TRBO Text by Zipwhip comes in handy.
3) Virtual consults: Also gaining popularity are remote or virtual consultations. You don’t need to leave your home and you can speak to the doctor directly about your concerns and goals.
4) Keep ads running, unless you’re closed: It’s tempting to want to cut costs when you’re dealing with a crisis, but marketing should never be considered an expense. It’s an investment. There’s less competition now online because other practices are shutting their ads down, so the cost-per-click is dropping, which means you get more bang for your buck. Among TRBO clients running Google Ads, the cost per click has dropped 19% on average in the past 10 days compared to the previous 10 days!
Here’s What We’re Doing at TRBO for Our Clients:
1) We are fully functional:Â The team at TRBO took measures early and made the decision last week to ask all employees to work remotely. This has turned out to be a great decision. We currently have no recorded cases of employee sickness and all teams are operational.
2) You have our full support: We at TRBO want to be able to help in any way we can! To provide extra support during the isolation period, TRBO would like to offer you extended email assistance. Until we are past the initial isolation period, we are prepared to assist you with any text or email communications as needed to your patients. Also, if you need any messaging added to your websites please notify your team and we will be happy to help!
**Side Note: If you would like sample communication to send you can reach out to our team for some templates. The templates provided have been used by other practices; however, we are not lawyers and you should review the verbiage with your legal team to be sure.
3) Office Closings:Â If you are choosing to close your office, or are mandated to close, and are not accepting appointments please send an email to your team so we can pause any current ad campaigns until you resume normal operations.
4) Silver Lining: Hang in there! We understand this feels scary; however, this too shall pass. Let’s not forget the fact that there is no cleaner and safer place than our wonderful aesthetic practices. The preventive measures announced by the CDC are what you do on a normal daily basis, and for many of the practices I’ve spoken to it appears it’s business as usual.
After this isolation period, we expect a ton of pent-up demand so now is the time to game plan so your aesthetic practice can capitalize on moving forward while others retreat. There will be market share-gaining opportunities in the days ahead.
Stay tuned for more updates to come.
Get Our Communication Swipe File:
If you’d like to gain access to our communication swipe file with details about messaging you can use to send to your patients, please fill out the form here.
