Market Visibility for Plastic Surgeons is Cloudy

by Karen A. Zupko

Attention aesthetic surgeons: highly variable economic trends are afoot, and they stand to influence consumer behavior.

Doom and gloom is not in my forecast, but I strongly recommend that you watch your volume of consultations and surgeries very closely. They may undergo a shift, due to market conditions. Further, an effective follow-up plan for patients who do not schedule is critical. If you don't have one, you are at great risk of losing the "I wanna think about its..." when conditions improve.

Here's some food for thought:

1. Tax Rebate Offers No Benefits to Plastic Surgeons
   The Outback Steak House and Wal-Mart might expect to see incremental business as Americans race out with their $300-$600 rebate checks. But it's unlikely that this stimulus to the low end of the market will do you much good. Most people won't get enough back to cover one Botox injection.
   
   
2. Retailers are NOT optimistic
   Take this story about Lori's in Crain's Chicago Business as a sign. Lori's is a very popular woman's value shoe emporium in trendy Lincoln Park. (Gourmet food loving plastic surgeons who have dined at Charlie Trotters know that Lori's is next door.)
   
   Lori's has up to the minute styles at good, and sometimes great, prices. The store is always crowded, and women always have money for shoes. A woman may feel too chubby for new slacks but mercifully one's feet stay the same size. Plus, new shoes psychologically provide the "new" bounce without denting your credit card.
   
   With that background in mind, Lori's is buying 15% less inventory for this year's fall holiday season than last year, based on flat to disappointing year to date sales figures.
   
   Check the trends-you sure see it on your brokerage account statements. Business is bad. Even the high-end stores-Tiffany, Neiman's-are having a tough time. And those shoppers are your potential patients.
   
   
3. "Layoffs! Will You Be Next?"
   Fortune Magazine had a cover feature of a large red bubble with this question. The article points out that it is NOT just dot-comers who got the ax. The job loss is across the economy in telecom, ad agencies, and manufacturing. Healthcare too-just yesterday, one of our friends (a rep for a device division of J & J) and several of her colleagues got layoff papers.
   
   Another big example, Accenture, which is the former consulting arm of Arthur Anderson, rescinded offer letters to hundreds of new grads-they are delaying hiring them for up to a year. One gal I know was a summa cum from UCLA-and was told to wait it out.
   
   (It's significant to note that in the Fortune story, no nurses are being laid off anywhere...be nice to your nurse, doctors.)

ADVICE and Recommendations

This is a very good time to use your free time to RETHINK what you doing in terms of patient intake, tracking and followup.

If you don't track the Patient Acceptance Rate, shame on you. At all times you should know how many of your consultation patients schedule surgery by PROCEDURE. Gross statistics don't help with strategy!

Knock off the attitude about so-called "shoppers." Everyone is a "shopper" when deciding to buy a big-ticket item-cars, houses, and jewelry. Replace this pejorative with "seeker." Be attentive to facelift patients-their buying cycle is often months long. Augs, on the other hand, tend to schedule after the first consultation.

Start measuring the effectiveness of your advertising. We continue to see and be shocked by Yellow Pages expenditures of $30,000 a year-with NO definitive tracking plan in place. Advertising is an investment, and you must know what your return is. Visits that clog up the schedule, but don't result in surgery, are NOT a bonanza. Consider redeploying those ad dollars to a better, more effective, more marketing-oriented website.

Keep in touch and follow up with patients, track critical data, and use your marketing dollars wisely.

Back to the Marketing and Management Tips Archive