Etna Interactive’s recent webinar brought together industry leaders to discuss the evolving landscape of financing in elective healthcare. With insights from seasoned professionals, the session explored strategies to improve patient affordability and increase practice revenue. This detailed transcript provides a comprehensive summary, capturing the full conversation for easy reference.
Full Transcript of Etna Interactive’s Recent Webinar on the Evolving Landscape of Financing in Elective Healthcare
Ryan Miller: An early welcome to those of you that are just joining us. You’re out of the waiting room and into the live session. We’re a couple of minutes away from getting started. So please hang tight for those that are just arriving. I’ve got a question for you. You’re gonna hear me say it just a couple more times, and we’re gonna use the Q&A tool that you’re gonna find for most of you at the bottom of your screen. If you’re using a mobile device to connect, it may be at the top of your screen.
Ryan Miller: Go ahead and click on the Q&A icon that you see. There, open that panel, and you’re actually going to post an answer in the question column, just to kind of get us started.
Ryan Miller: And although we’re talking about financing, I’m gonna ask you a question about discounting inside of your practice. So, reflecting on the last calendar year. So on calendar year 2024, post the discounts that you’ve offered, whether it’s for surgery or a non surgical service it can be considered of, and inclusive of
Ryan Miller: like rewards or loyalty programs the discounts that you offer for procedures
Ryan Miller: in your practice in the last 24 months, and if you don’t do discounts, you can say like not a 1. i didn’t do a single discount. So if you’re just joining, we are sort of a little icebreaker, if you will, for all of us. Click, QA. And inside that QA. Panel. And Corey, I’m not seeing Q. And a drop in. I don’t know if this is like last time where the QA. Was locked. Can you double, check it for us and unlock it?
Ryan Miller: There we go! Thanks, Lindsay, for that perspective. There
Ryan Miller: so early answers there for those that are just joining, looking for? You guys just to share with us again, tangential to today’s topic financing. What discounts have you offered inside of your practice in the last calendar year? Calendar year 2024. See some interesting answers there. I think you guys can see them, too.
Ryan Miller: 10% off booking. If you book before your next appointment $1,500 off of mommy makeover seasonal special there, package discounts when you’re looking at a bundled non surgical services some folks stay away from discounting altogether. $1,000 off Tommy Tuck, discounting on procedure combinations. It’s pretty common that we see that there $100 off if you schedule around your birthday. That’s a cool idea. I haven’t seen that one before.
Ryan Miller: So again, if you’re wondering what’s happening right now, and you’re just joining us. We are just at the hour we’re gonna start in about 60 seconds. Our icebreaker question get us started is tangential. Today’s topic.
Ryan Miller: we’re gonna be talking about financing inside the practice. But the question is about discounting. So if in the last year, in 2024, you’ve offered a procedural discount. Drop that into our Q&A box you click Q&A at the bottom of your screen, for most of you
Ryan Miller: look elsewhere. If it’s not there, open up that side panel and share discounts that you’ve offered in the last year a gift card. Promo. You buy a gift card. That’s $1,000 gift card and you get $100 off of it. So you get realized future value there for any procedure. You want 750 off a procedure, $1,500. If it’s 2, 2 or more procedures, if you’re combining them
Ryan Miller: discounts on combined surgery, we see that’s coming up is really really common on the non surgical side by one syringe and 1,500 but $1,200. When you get 2 or more. So it’s a volume incentive.
Ryan Miller: really good stuff there, all right. So we are at the hour. I see most of the folks that we’re looking forward to join. If you’re wondering what’s happening in that Q&A panel, you can keep throwing your your thoughts and ideas there, those are the discounts that you’ve run offers that you’ve run in calendar year 2024. But I’m going to get us started. So let me 1st introduce our panelists, and then I want to ground us in. Why, we’re having
Ryan Miller: this particular conversation today. So the 1st of our panels I want to introduce is Brandon Tracy. He’s a senior sales director with Patientfi he successfully collaborated with elective healthcare practices all over the country, and his strategic approach, combined with his deep knowledge of our industry. It just means that every day he’s out there supporting practice growth goals, while at the same time enhancing patients access to the procedures that they
Ryan Miller: want, and that last part there. I know it’s something that’s really near and dear to Marie Olesen’s heart. Marie is the CEO at La Jolla cosmetic Surgery Center. It is one of the longest running and most successful plastic surgery practices in the United States. I know Marie personally very, very well. Full disclosure. She’s a client and partner of ours, but she is
Ryan Miller: passionate about great customer experiences and her team. I don’t think she’ll mind me sharing some of her data here consistently outperforms
Ryan Miller: every practice in the nation for customer satisfaction and customer acquisition. So the actual attractions have been conversion in office, and a big part of that, I think, is her clinic’s unique approach to the whole financing conversation in the patient journey and to round us out. Really, the inspiration for today’s topic is Terry Ross, Terry. Thank you for coming back. Just a couple of months ago she joined us for a critical conversation. I’m going to tell you about in a moment.
Ryan Miller: But she’s the founder of Terry Ross, consulting. And like Maria, I think she gets to live her passion, because every day she’s developing the leadership ability, the sales capabilities, the practice management skills of her client partners and
Ryan Miller: gets to play essential role in that transformative moment of helping those partners build thriving practices with measurable and sustainable growth. You guys, thank you so much for joining us today. Before we get started, I need to do a little bit of story time and and credit Terry for this topic, so
Ryan Miller: awesome
Ryan Miller: in our relationship at interactive as a digital marketing consultancy for more than 2 decades. We work the practices all across North America. Something we do with our client partners every year is we listen to their phone calls. So I personally listen to hundreds of call recordings in the month of August, and a little bit later in the year, gathered together a panel because we realized.
Ryan Miller: like so many in the industry, our clients could use a little bit of coaching refresher on how to level up those phone skills. One call in particular, was at the centerpiece of a conversation, and it sounded something like this. The patient said, Oh, I’m not sure I can afford that procedure. I think I might need financing. And the rep inside the office response, well, I think you need to reply on our website
Ryan Miller: and hangs up the phone.
Terri Ross: Okay.
Ryan Miller: And that model was something I heard over and over again this very passive, reactive approach to financing like somehow, it’s a dirty thing that the patient has to go figure out on their own and realize, because what Terry said, that that was all wrong.
Ryan Miller: that there is a different perspective that involves the practice playing a central role in making sure that the patient can afford the procedure as long as everything in their life is right for it. And my question I walked away with was, How do you make that happen? And that’s why we have this panel. So our goal in the next
Ryan Miller: 45 min or so is to tap the knowledge and experience of these 3 industry experts to get real and practical advice that will force you to think differently about how you have conversations about financing with your your patients and prospects and the role that you might play in actually facilitating that overall sound good panelists. You guys ready.
Terri Ross: Ready!
Ryan Miller: Ready.
Ryan Miller: Right? Well, Brandon, why don’t? Why don’t I start with you? I know through Patient 5. You’ve got a unique perspective on the finance industry at large. And we we talked a little bit in the in the the prep for this session about what’s happening in the market. We know, because lead generation is core to our business. We have visibility. The fact that the market’s getting a little bit tighter. Well, there’s still lots of requests for consultation consultations are converting a little bit slower rate. But you told me that applications for financing are actually up.
Ryan Miller: So talk a little bit about that. What’s happening in the industry at large.
Brandon Tracey: Yeah, I think there’s a couple of things that kind of lead to the growth that we’ve been experiencing and kind of the busyness, at least on our side of the field, and some of that is going to be larger economic conditions when it comes to things that are going on in people’s wallets and their home budgets, and looking for opportunities to leverage something as powerful and useful as financing to address what we see, and consistently here.
Brandon Tracey: which is the number one concern that folks are not willing or able to move forward with treatment is the cost of that treatment. And so that’s why we’ve seen, although, like you said, the market’s getting a little squeezed. It’s getting busy. It’s getting competitive, etc. On our end. We continue to find ways to really be an asset in every practice that we partner with, to ensure. If you get somebody walking in the door, you need to be doing everything that you possibly can to convert them in one of the most, at least
Brandon Tracey: feel important ways. To do so is to ensuring you’re addressing that cost concern as early and often as possible, so you can move on to treatment.
Ryan Miller: So
Ryan Miller: it’s a completely different market in the last couple of years we think about the peak of the pandemic and the arc to where we are today.
Ryan Miller: The, the volume, the consumer interest, the time, the disposable income, all of those things have changed.
Ryan Miller: Are the finance programs that are available today? Do they look the same? Are the are the programs in any way different in response to how the market has shifted.
Brandon Tracey: Great question. One of the 1st things that I that comes to mind when I think about one of the changes in the past couple of years, and I know kind of our platform in particular, has been a leader in this is expanding access, expanding optionality. When it comes to how you leverage financing. What I mean by that is.
Brandon Tracey: for instance, the amount that we’re willing to lend in the various specialties that we operate has increased dramatically over the past couple of years. The cost of these services, the cost of the goods that go into these procedures and surgeries, for instance, on the specialties where that’s applicable has increased. Therefore the end cost of the user has increased.
Brandon Tracey: and the need for financing has grown. So, for instance, I’ll give you an example, for our platform. The amount that we lend to has grown up to $50,000, which for some specialties that’s not applicable. But for many practices it’s very valuable to provide that level of optionality and affordability to your patients
Brandon Tracey: to effectively say yes to anything that they could possibly want to get done in your practice, and that wasn’t always the case a number of years ago, when oftentimes approval amounts and line assignments, as we call them, with much smaller than they were today. In addition to increased optionality for term options, the amount of time that a patient can choose to pick on repaying kind of the amount that they’re financing. We’ve expanded our portfolio
Brandon Tracey: of options to patients and practices so really just trying to increase. Like I said, accessibility and affordability options and optionality for practices, and ultimately patients. Certainly over the past couple of years since the pandemic.
Ryan Miller: Interesting, Brandon. So you know, we did that warm up question. We asked people what kind of discounts that they had offered in the last year, specials and promotions, and one of the themes that was really common was combined procedures multi, you know, concomitant procedures, receiving special discounts and offers, and I think that dovetails in many ways with what you’re talking about. That
Ryan Miller: average ticket volumes are going up. So people who are gonna borrow may need to borrow more. We also know that household savings are down again. People may need to borrow more of the total towards their procedures. Who makes sense that you guys are responding with bigger loans.
Ryan Miller: I I want to talk, though. Let’s kind of pivot around the industry and pivot towards the practice.
Ryan Miller: You have visibility. I know you directly consult with clinics around what some of the best performing practices do to leverage financing, and specifically how that might compare and contrast with practices that are maybe growing a little bit slower or struggling a little bit more in their conversion.
Ryan Miller: Can you talk a little bit about what you see among the top performers in the in the country?
Brandon Tracey: Absolutely. And I’ll kind of call back a little bit to your initial point about that phone call which hurts me every time I hear you tell that story because it’s so avoidable and so unnecessary. But you know, to that point, and we hear a similar thing where I joke, the majority of practices will leverage financing as the patients walking out the door. Right? That’s just they let their staff kind of conduct and speak about financing in that way. My joke when I’m on the phone with folks is that they’re grabbing them by the shirt collar and saying, Wait, I’ve got some for you. Please come back, submit this application, so on and so forth.
Brandon Tracey: and the most sophisticated and successful practices, especially in this day and age, just with
Brandon Tracey: everything you were talking about earlier with the markets with it. Kind of being squeezed, if you will, are flipping that entirely on its head. So it’s now it’s not a last ditch effort. It’s not a, you know, scary concept that financing should only be talked about in closed doors and hushed tones. It’s
Brandon Tracey: putting forth the optionality of financing, and the availability of financing in various ways in the practice, training your staff to talk about it early and often in the patient experience, not to be afraid of it, and again to be varied in the way in which you make patients aware of it, so that way they can leverage it as early as possible, because if you have a patient coming in with a
Brandon Tracey: 5, 1020, 30, 40, $50,000 approval, ready to spend their comfort, level with the cost of services that you or your staff offer to them. Your ability to upsell them and just overall convert them is significantly higher than not leveraging at all, or waiting until later in the patient experience. And that’s really what we suggest is and offer a variety of ways to do so whether it’s on your website training your staff
Brandon Tracey: social media posts about the optionality and availability of financing, etc, to really eliminate any sort of stigma around financing and just make it this completely. Okay, completely normal thing in all of these industries and practices, like we’ve seen with many areas of our lives and things that we buy that are kind of standard example being the car industry.
Brandon Tracey: No one balks at the idea of being offered financing. When you walk into a Mercedes dealership, and we’re trying to kind of have that same conversation with every practice we partner with. You need to be that
Brandon Tracey: kind of practiced and honed in your ability to offer financing, and not make it a big deal in any way, shape or form.
Ryan Miller: And as I think about what you’re saying there, and I think about you know I’ve been in this industry for 25 years now.
Ryan Miller: where I see things like that happening, it usually requires
Ryan Miller: a directive from the top down. It’s not to say that we don’t have, and there are many really exceptional practice contributors on this call. I’ve seen a couple of like really go get them patient care coordinators adopt this kind of approach because they see the value in it, but usually it’s a clinic like Marie’s, where there is guidance from leadership. She’s got an amazing partner in in her practice. Lead janelle
Ryan Miller: to drive those kinds of initiatives inside inside the group. How important is leadership alignment? Or does this come from the bottom up in your experience.
Brandon Tracey: No, that’s a great question. And again, I love using Marie as an example, because she’s an exceptional one. It is certainly a top down initiative. It’s imperative that you either have, whether it’s the owner or to your point. The practice manager, whoever that kind of key champion is to understand and believe in the power of financing how it should be conveyed in the practice, and then showing the staff how important it is the impact that can have in the practice. And then really, what great looks like when presenting this to patients, because, although you can again make
Brandon Tracey: financing available and present in again the website, social media, etc. The most impact it’s going to be and have is when you have the staff talking about it and conveying that directly to patients. But that’s not going to happen unless kind of the folks at the top, if you will really again understand and believe in the value and the power that financing has.
Ryan Miller: So let me ask you guys, and I’m gonna open up. Brandon, take a a breath for one second. I’m gonna ask all 3 of you, because we’ve got a really interesting question coming in from Will on the live QA. Session here.
Ryan Miller: when is the right moment?
Ryan Miller: And you may each have a different perspective, and that will be fascinating. When’s the right
Ryan Miller: 1st moment to open the idea of financing
Ryan Miller: to the patient? Is it? When you send new patient paperwork, is it? During the scheduling call? Maybe I’ll around Robin, and we’ll go Terry Marie Brandon to see where where the consensus is. Here.
Brandon Tracey: Perfect.
Terri Ross: Let me go. Ryan. Yeah, thanks.
Ryan Miller: When’s when’s like? When’s the 1st time it should come up in the? In the conversation with the prospect.
Terri Ross: Yeah, I obviously, there’s many ways to skin the cat
Terri Ross: But there are wrong ways, I’m gonna say, from my experience. And again, Marie’s just done a phenomenal job. We’ve been friends and colleagues for many, many years, and you as well, Ryan. You know. Look, I’d like to say, let’s take a proactive approach. I think that I’ve seen practices increase by 2530% when they are getting patients approved on the initial phone call
Terri Ross: on the initial phone call before they come in.
Terri Ross: The approval rate can take what? Brian 10 min. I mean, this is a we have to be thinking forward, thinking. If the philosophy of the business is such that you believe in a holistic, comprehensive treatment plan
Terri Ross: which is going to get the patient the better outcome. They’re going to increase revenue patients can afford it.
Terri Ross: The buy now. Pay later is here to stay and shame on us that we’re not doing it. So I’m going to say proactively on the phone prior.
Ryan Miller: As early as that 1st booking call, Marie. What’s your perspective?
Marie B.V. Olesen: I, I agree with Terry. And also the website, we’ve had ways to pay on our website for probably 1995 when it started, and we have a calculator payment calculator for them to look at our prices, which are also on our website and then determine what their monthly payment plan could be.
Ryan Miller: Yeah. And you know, I think in the part of the collaboration that we have there, I’ll add to what we’re saying, that you know we made a big pivot in the way we talk about financing for a lot of practices. It’s like
Ryan Miller: a subheading on a page about fees and financing. There’s really nothing about it to give it context. And it’s like 2 buttons or a button.
Ryan Miller: We pivoted to really shake. Like
Ryan Miller: many of our patients do this, it’s normal, acceptable, and invited inside of our practice. We even have somebody here to help you. Now you’re going to talk about that in a second. So right from the very beginning. The conversation is, if you choose this option. You are not a second class patient. This is just a way for you to realize your dream, Brandon. What would you add about the timing? And maybe I’ll go even more specific, since you’re sort of at the other side of the link.
Ryan Miller: When do you send the link for the 1st time.
Brandon Tracey: And I want to kind of echo what Terry and Marie said. In my opinion there is no such thing as too early. What I think, is more so, is how proactive the various ways in which you can make the patient aware of that offering and get the link in their hands. You have these more passive options, like the website, which is fantastic, but it is passive in nature. You know the social media posts where you’re not directing it to a patient. You’re throwing it into the ethos for whomever to kind of be aware and take action
Brandon Tracey: again. One of the more sophisticated ways I’ve seen practices take advantage of it is to build it into their communications with patients. So to Terry’s Point, that 1st phone call or a submission and request for information on your website immediately comes back with an automated email. And one of the items in there is.
Brandon Tracey: by the way, as you’re evaluating coming to my practice or getting a certain treatment.
Brandon Tracey: go ahead and apply for financing from the very get go. Because, again, the earlier that you take care of, and we may have difference of opinions on what the number one concern is for patients. What we constantly see is cost. So there’s no such thing as too early to get that out of the way. Get them approved. Have this thousands and thousands of dollars of a line of credit available to them, and then you get to all the other things that you need to get done in order to get them comfortable and moving forward with treatment. So no such thing is too early, and I would say the more direct
Brandon Tracey: and integrated into your patient communication, style, and cadence, that you can put that link the better off and more successful that you’ll be.
Ryan Miller: And interestingly so, Hannah, one of our guests, shared that they actually include it as a a part of the text appointment confirmation. So if it it’s not front, they’re getting it in the hands of the patient before they even come into the office. And one of my favorite client partners over at. Maybe facial cosmetic is asking, hey, Ryan? Tell us what it sounds like.
Ryan Miller: and it I mean, it could be as simple. I think Terry is something like this, right? That you’re talking to the patient, that the procedure that you’re looking for is, on average, between 4,000 $6,000 a lot of our patients who don’t choose to pay cash will choose one of our great financing options. Would you like me to send over to you right now the link so that you can run that application ahead of your consultation inside of our office.
Ryan Miller: Perfect. What email is best for me to use? Right. So there’s an easy way for us to bring it in as a part of like. Of course, like, that’s a fair value for the procedure. It’s not even up for question.
Ryan Miller: Financing is totally acceptable if you don’t happen to have the cash right now, let’s get you there. Okay, Brandon, I’m gonna hit you with what I think is going to be the toughest question of the hour, and I think it’s really the elephant in the room for clinic leaders that are joining us, or financial leads inside of offices that are joining us. And it’s the discount.
Ryan Miller: So a lot of practices, I think there’s why, often where there’s not more leadership support. And I think, Marie, you’re gonna talk a little bit about this as well. They’re reluctant to promote financing because they know they’re gonna lose a piece of their overall margin. You know.
Ryan Miller: Is there a world where a practice can feel confident about using financing, and that the returns are are more than what it’s costing them in terms of that discount.
Brandon Tracey: Absolutely. And I have so many kind of thoughts on this topic, and I’ll keep it quick, because I know we got a lot of other things to cover. But to your point, there’s.
Brandon Tracey: I mean, there’s the proof of the impact that financing can have that vastly overshadows any sort of cost right all the studies that we’ve done and that we’ve seen 82% of patients are more likely to move forward when provided an opportunity or the availability of monthly payment plans. We’ve done case studies with practices where, when leveraging, financing, you see a 2 x growth in sales as compared to not leveraging, financing.
Brandon Tracey: You know we’ve got, give or take on average, close to an 80% conversion rate, that when a patient is approved they move forward with financing, so all of these numbers to indicate that.
Brandon Tracey: Yes, there is this kind of small cost when leveraging, financing, but the growth and the revenue driven by leveraging it, and the increase in conversions is well worth it. I’m not going to steal too much of kind of where Marie, I think, is going to take this around discount. So I’ll pause on that. But the other point I wanted to make, and something relatively unique to our platform at least.
Brandon Tracey: is complete and utter control by the practice as to what terms are offered, and consistency in the cost in those respective terms. That isn’t the case across the entire industry. But with our particular platform you have the ability to control what terms are offered, and you know exactly what the cost is going to be every single time. So you kind of allay a lot of those fears, knowing your margins are protected. And again, the results of leveraging, financing vastly outweigh that small percentage that you are
Brandon Tracey: are giving up. And the last thing I’ll kind of say, Marie and I were joking about this before. This is that I don’t believe most practices, if any are balking at the idea of swiping an amex right and the kind of percentage that’s withheld in that regard. And again, you’ll find kind of a similar cost here, where it’s so minimal, yet so worthwhile, we really want to kind of eliminate that as concern for practices when choosing to leverage financing.
Ryan Miller: So before we move on to me, just 2 quick questions. So we’re gonna talk about putting the practice in the middle of the application process to some extent, if not at least in the middle of the conversation. I think there are some legal considerations that vary by State without going, maybe 50 separate considerations. What are the considerations of questions that we should ask ourselves before we just jump in and start filling out applications for patients? For example.
Brandon Tracey: My my personal suggestion and kind of in my time in this industry and and avoiding any potential legal issues depending on the state that you’re in is be knowledgeable about the application experience with your respective financing partners
Brandon Tracey: be so knowledgeable that you can help patients. My suggestion is always don’t do it for them, do it with them right? Have it to be kind of on their device, or them be very aware of what’s going on, but certainly be right there at their hip, if necessary, for the folks that maybe need that help. My personal suggestion for wanting to protect this industry, and the folks that leverage financing
Brandon Tracey: would be. Don’t don’t be the one doing it for them. Do it with them. Be knowledgeable, you leverage your financing company so you and your staff know what the patient experience looks like. So there’s no surprises, and you can really be a valuable asset when you’re talking directly with that patient.
Ryan Miller: So I’ll summarize this. Hold their hand, not the mouse.
Brandon Tracey: That’s a great way of actually, that’s a fantastic way of putting it. Yeah, sure.
Ryan Miller: It’s like I’m a marketing guy or something like that. I don’t even know.
Brandon Tracey: So.
Ryan Miller: Let’s circle back. We’re going to close you out here last question for you. And you know, talking about the patient journey ahead of that moment where you’ve actually greeted the patient. I think you guys had some data that you’ve studied about the intersection or the impact that financing can have on marketing efficacy. Can you? Are you prepped? Can you share any data points? There.
Brandon Tracey: Yeah. And I apologize, probably did so a little bit too early, just a minute ago. But again, some of those figures about and we’ve done studies with practices that leverage our platform. And we’ve seen, and with patients, about 80, 82% of patients are more interested in moving forward with services when presented that option for financing. So now again, you’ve presented that option. They’re aware that cost is no longer going to be an issue, but they’re only going to be aware of that if they’re told. Right? So again, that could be to the staff, or, more importantly, to your point
Brandon Tracey: through the website, a social media post, an email, etc. Like I mentioned earlier as well, we did a case study with practices. It actually wasn’t even
Brandon Tracey: us versus folks not using financing. It was our platform, combined with a very heavy emphasis on marketing. In this particular case it was breast augmentations on a monthly payment. And then there was a kind of a neutral group that was leveraging, financing, just not in the same.
Brandon Tracey: I don’t want to say aggressive, proactive manner with financing, and the 2 groups using historical data, the one that leveraged financing with marketing assets with a monthly payment saw a 2 x growth as compared to the same growth experienced by the group that wasn’t. They still grew, but at 2 x the rate, and that was one of the most
Brandon Tracey: validating and kind of eye opening case studies that we’ve done in the history of the company, where it really showed all things equal, making patients aware early on how affordable a monthly payment could be for a particular service through various kinds of marketing. We’ll get them to apply to get approved and to move forward with service.
Ryan Miller: Yeah. And I can reinforce that. So we’ve studied it. We have data as well. We’ve been able to show that when we promote the monthly cost of a procedure, especially in breast and body work. That we can get increased lead capture rates on things like Google paid advertising. So Google pay per click.
Ryan Miller: and often the barrier that we find is because there is a leadership resistance to promoting financing. We get. We run into a barrier that we have to suffer with lower performing advertisements because of the resistance to
Ryan Miller: the fact that that’s a pathway towards financing right there. So clearly it indicates the patients want it right? They’re attracted to the message of affordability by now and pay later. Just like Terry, said Brandon. Thanks so much. Stay here with us because we’re going to get some Q. And a. As we get a little bit farther along, Marie, I want to pivot over to you.
Ryan Miller: I want to take a moment 1st to say like I asked you to come, because well, we’re dear friends. I have so much respect for you, and acknowledge that a lot of what we’re going to talk about is also about the team that’s behind you. I get to work with them every day. I’m super super grateful for that, and you’re the spokesperson for for La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Center. Can you paint a picture for everyone on the call? Take us through
Ryan Miller: your deck and talk a little bit about your view on financing, and how you, as a leader, work with that team to just do something different than what I’m seeing in most of our client partners.
Marie B.V. Olesen: Yes, and I’m gonna share a deck here, so we’ll see how.
Ryan Miller: Please take it away.
Marie B.V. Olesen: Logically capable. I am
Marie B.V. Olesen: okay, is it? Can you all see it.
Ryan Miller: You’re good. I’ve got your deck just fine, Marie.
Marie B.V. Olesen: Okay.
Marie B.V. Olesen: So La Jolla, cosmetic has been offering. Have I gotten to the let? Me see here? Sorry.
Marie B.V. Olesen: So I’m going to start by telling you about our practice, and my goal in my time with you is to give you an understanding of the kinds of things that I think your management and owners should be considering when they think about payment plans. And so we have a long history. We have actually been offering payment plans for 34 years since 1990,
Marie B.V. Olesen: and we began as an all aesthetic practice, and it was very unusual at the time, and we began advertising, and, contrary to what we expected. It wasn’t all the wives of Ceos. It was real estate agents and teachers, and even meter readers who were coming to us, and a lot of people did have
Marie B.V. Olesen: payment issues like, how were they going to pay for this? And we did? We realized, my gosh, this is our problem. We did not realize it was our problem. But their problem is our problem.
Marie B.V. Olesen: And then, in 1990, there was the Connie Chung breast implant crisis, and it caused.
Marie B.V. Olesen: It was you could shoot a cannon through plastic surgery practices.
Marie B.V. Olesen: and we were doing no work, and we had just opened a huge office, and we had a big staff and multiple physicians, and my husband said to me, Nothing comes from nothing.
Marie B.V. Olesen: If I don’t work, we can’t pay our bills. We are not going to get retention and referral.
Marie B.V. Olesen: And so we looked at our costs. And we said.
Marie B.V. Olesen: Okay, it costs 50% to run the place, and 50% goes to the physician.
Marie B.V. Olesen: So let’s start offering payment plans. And my mother formed a separate entity to loan the money.
Marie B.V. Olesen: and we gave 10% interest and a year to pay that second half.
Marie B.V. Olesen: And we collected 84% of that money, plus paying an employee to collect it. So we literally have been in the Patient Plan business since 1990.
Marie B.V. Olesen: Part of it is understanding we are in retail. And so our consumer takes their cue. From what other retail things they can do, and I can remember my husband saying, Well, if you decide not to buy a car, you could go ahead and do your tummy tuck or forego that ski trip and do your breast dog.
Marie B.V. Olesen: So they’re making choices, and we want, and they come to us. Then saying, You’re among my discretionary choices.
Marie B.V. Olesen: I want a discretionary payment plans. And then, as time evolved, then all this buy, now pay later stuff started, and so then they come to us going? Well, why don’t you offer that?
Marie B.V. Olesen: So I want to go to retail data. And this is on the impact of offering payment plans. And this includes payment plans in the left column is increase in conversion rates increase in ticket size
Marie B.V. Olesen: and from buy now pay later up to 40% spending increase when you offer. Buy now pay later, and to Brandon’s Point, knowing in advance how much you’re coming up with is a huge benefit to that consult process.
Marie B.V. Olesen: So in our in medicine, let’s look, what are our benefits? Increased sales, customer loyalty. When you help people buy from you in a way that’s comfortable for them. Then they come back.
Marie B.V. Olesen: and then competitive differentiation. And I want to share 2 examples with you, and these have both happened within the last month in our practice.
Marie B.V. Olesen: So Susie had saved $8,000,
Marie B.V. Olesen: and she was going to have a lower bluff.
Marie B.V. Olesen: but she had some concerns about her cheek area as well because we offered payment plans.
Marie B.V. Olesen: She ended up doing a quad bluff and a Mini face and a $19,000 ticket, of which she paid 8 from her savings, and she financed the 11,000 on a payment plan. She’s absolutely ecstatic.
Marie B.V. Olesen: We did more work. A complete win-win.
Marie B.V. Olesen: Katrina is an interesting example.
Marie B.V. Olesen: She’s wanted to have a breast augmentation.
Marie B.V. Olesen: She shopped a number of practices.
Marie B.V. Olesen: We were actually $2,000 higher than the other practice that she was considering.
Marie B.V. Olesen: but they only offered 6 months.
Marie B.V. Olesen: Buy now, pay later, and we offered 18 months.
Marie B.V. Olesen: so to get the 18 month term that she wanted she was willing to pay 2,000 more.
Marie B.V. Olesen: So there, we address this a little bit. You’re paying for
Marie B.V. Olesen: processing of credit cards on cash and checks. Often you’re paying a cash discount, and in payment plans there are fees. And so we we all know that. But it’s how we think about those.
Marie B.V. Olesen: So I asked
Marie B.V. Olesen: for the question about what are you offering in discounts? Because I want to make the point
Marie B.V. Olesen: that discounts are a form of cost, and we tend not to think of that. So if you go to your list price, and then you list all the reasons that you give discounts and actually specials was one that guests in this seminar pointed out. But we’re giving discounts off list all the time, but nobody is really adding those up.
Marie B.V. Olesen: and they do add up.
Marie B.V. Olesen: and as I’ll show you in a minute, 70% of your customers are using credit cards. So then there’s a cost to the credit card as well. That may be the same, or more slightly more than offering a payment plan which would have a big incentive.
Marie B.V. Olesen: And so when you offer terms.
Marie B.V. Olesen: that’s what a payment plan is.
Marie B.V. Olesen: it has a fixed, known cost to the practice, and they range depending on what you offer, and it cannot be combined with other discounts.
Marie B.V. Olesen: So now I want to show you this is data out of real patient ratings.
Marie B.V. Olesen: and we took 75,000 consult patients, and we asked them, how did you pay for your procedure?
Marie B.V. Olesen: And if you’ll look here, 70% are paying with credit cards, and this is presumably for the cash back and the points that they get from using a credit card
Marie B.V. Olesen: 24% cash or check with some potential for a 2% cash discount.
Marie B.V. Olesen: and only 6% are using payment plans in a market when payment plans are becoming, you know, de facto method by which people buy.
Marie B.V. Olesen: So what this tells me is, there’s a huge lack of understanding in this industry of the value of using payment plans and the benefit to the practice, some of which we’ve already discussed in terms, higher tickets attracting patients to come to your practice versus another.
Marie B.V. Olesen: So, preparing for this talk.
Marie B.V. Olesen: I did something I’ve never done in the 34 years, Ryan and I have you to thank for me making me stop and think about this.
Marie B.V. Olesen: So what I did was, we took 163 patients from early spring.
Marie B.V. Olesen: and we analyzed how they bought and what
Marie B.V. Olesen: discounts we offered and what the cost of payment plans was to us.
Marie B.V. Olesen: and quite surprisingly and amazingly, it’s virtually the same.
Marie B.V. Olesen: So if you take a 10 K case and you say I’m going to give $900 of discounts, you’re going to put $9,100 in the bank.
Marie B.V. Olesen: Same thing, 10 K. Case. I’m going to pay $800 in fees, and I’m going to put $9,200 in the bank.
Marie B.V. Olesen: So, even presuming this study is wrong, and the numbers are slightly reversed and payment plans cost slightly more.
Marie B.V. Olesen: I believe that there is still incredible advantage in added higher conversion, additional procedures, competitive advantage.
Marie B.V. Olesen: And remember, Susie, who doubled her quote, and Katrina, who chose us over the issue of payment plans.
Marie B.V. Olesen: So what I would like to suggest to you we’re in retail.
Marie B.V. Olesen: and I urge you to go back to your practices and take a group of patients and analyze what the actual cost of the discounts you’ve been providing against list.
Marie B.V. Olesen: And let’s say you’re not like us. And you, you’re number 6% or 4%.
Marie B.V. Olesen: There are still payment plans that you can match to the amount of cash discounts you’re already giving. But enlarge the number of consumers who are going to be interested in your practice and consider you because you’re meeting their their needs.
Marie B.V. Olesen: And so I hope I’ve convinced you why, to consider using payment plans, and I’m going to defer to my friend Terry to tell you how to do that.
Ryan Miller: Awesome ray before we step away. That was fantastic. A couple of things I want to share or and have you helped me share about your practice, I think, are a little different one. I think you have trained and conditioned your staff, that there is no stigma
Ryan Miller: for the patient that chooses financing. We celebrate all patients equally. Number one, number 2. I’ve seen you put your money where your mouth is on this, and that you actually have a member of your staff
Ryan Miller: who they have like an adjunct title. It’s not their only job, a finance coordinator who is the go to person when a patient needs help or guidance on financing, finding the right program, understanding the amount that they need to figure, determining how to answer a specific question about their income, because not a lot of people do this.
Ryan Miller: and if they’re gonna do it, they may do it only a couple of times. You know, things like, you know, the the choosing Netflix, or something like that, where it’s a subscription driven program, you don’t really think about the number. But here you do have to think about a few things.
Ryan Miller: And I think the acculturation that you’ve done inside the office to say, this is okay, and we’re gonna help
Ryan Miller: is really special.
Ryan Miller: So kudos to you and to your team for doing that. And and really fascinating analysis. That was a big surprise. Thank you for sharing that.
Marie B.V. Olesen: We. Years ago we had a little talk track called ways to pay, and so early on in the consult, you know, initial call they would, the coordinators would bring proactively up. Well, how people pay us! They pay us with cash, they pay us with credit, they pay us with checks. They pay us with combinations of credit cards, and they pay use our payment plans.
Marie B.V. Olesen: And it was just to say, anybody who needed a payment plan can talk to us, because, you know, this is just a common thing that happens in how you’re going to pay for your cosmetic surgery.
Ryan Miller: Excellent. So we had a couple of questions come in about pricing. But I want to get to Terry to kind of put a bow on this for us, and talk about how she’s consulting. Let me 1st thank you for inspiring this entire conversation, I think already well well worth the the free price of admission. But your brand had talked about leadership alignment, you know. Marie shared success stories and some of the real math that’s there, but as someone who’s consulting in practices all across the country.
Ryan Miller: what’s really stopping more practices from doing like having this realization on their own and providing the leadership from the physician owner, or if it’s a PE backed owner to bring this into the operations of the practice, what what’s the barrier, or what are the barriers.
Terri Ross: You let me just 1st echo, you know, love this panel, Marie Brandon. Phenomenal information I continuously learn from you know, you guys as well and
Terri Ross: You know I spent 2 and a half weeks in South Africa with somebody who owned 20 clinics this year.
Terri Ross: But to answer your question, and I’m always going to say this, and anybody who knows me and follows me and supports me. Thank you so much. It is, and I’m sure Marie would agree her and I go way back. It is 1st and foremost. It is just a fundamental lack of training.
Terri Ross: which is why we created for us with Dr. Ronaldo Saltz. The industry just lacks the business of aesthetics, and it’s just we put all the credence on the clinical side, and we we just ignore. How do you run a successful, sustainable, profitable, aesthetic practice period? So the training needs to come at the forefront. You guys, all everybody has employees, whatever role they are, what Kpi are they tied to?
Terri Ross: And how do you hold them? Accountable? And financing is one of them. So I think, training. 1st and foremost, I think, miscommunication on expectations which comes to, and I think Brandon talked about it, or Marie did as well the leadership like, is it an emphasized
Terri Ross: importance
Terri Ross: in the practice, and that is a top down approach. Not that we have these 5 options. Well, I always say a confused mind won’t buy, so if it’s
Terri Ross: you know I don’t want to choose like, guide me, guide me to, Marie said. Have it on the website, whether it’s passive or it’s direct. Do it. What Brandon said. Let’s do it together. I’m a patient, I mean, I listen, and I think we underestimate the patient’s needs with affordability. Maybe I don’t want to use my own personal cash. Don’t presume my pocketbook
Terri Ross: right. I want to be able to have right interest free. And and, more importantly, what, Marie? And again, we share the same philosophy.
Terri Ross: We are not in this to acquire. And you, Brian, coming from the marketing side, it’s very expensive. 8 times 8 times more to acquire a new patient, if not higher. Let’s nurture the ones we have, and the only way to do that is by doing these treatment plans and allow people to
Terri Ross: what Marie’s case studies were, afford to get it done.
Ryan Miller: So all things a lot of our clients are are plastic surgeons. And they they positioned themselves as premium brands in the market
Ryan Miller: right. And you know, Marie, you you highlighted that experience, the the Neiman Marcus, the the Nordstrom, you know, level of concierge, consumer, concierge experience.
Ryan Miller: And I think some of them perceive that there is a a disconnect between premium branding
Ryan Miller: and even talking about financing.
Marie B.V. Olesen: Yeah.
Ryan Miller: Do you agree? And and how do you? How do you help a practice that’s struggling with that? Find
Ryan Miller: the connection? Find where it fits into a conversation with the patient without compromising how they see themselves in the market.
Terri Ross: Yeah, I love that question because I think that we always talk about our value proposition. And the why. So, what is your unique value proposition as a company.
Terri Ross: and I think it is taking the right approach.
Terri Ross: And what I mean by that is, let’s think about accessibility versus exclusivity.
Terri Ross: Right, how? How can we? We can position financing in a brand in a prestigious brand, allowing that person to get to to have it be accessible to them versus I’m so above it, I think, positioning the treatments and surgeries as a sophistication and empowering. It’s an empowering option.
Terri Ross: actually, and using, I think the right vernacular. We have, you know, flexible investment plans. People used cost and expense.
Terri Ross: It’s not, and it’s an investment in ourselves in our body, and how we feel. And when I teach the sales training curriculum
Terri Ross: people purchase because of how they feel. That is what sales is.
Terri Ross: It is a transfer of emotion. How badly do I not like my face, or my body, or my boobs, or whatever it is, and transition that feeling into empowering me to allow me to get it, and I think you know clients are going to be more committed. You know, when when we have that option.
Ryan Miller: Yeah, I know. I know some of our clients that are in the premium brand space. They don’t even talk about it in terms of financing. It will come up simply as a conversation. Many of our clients just choose to keep their cash accessible in their own bank account. We have options that allow you to make monthly payments if that’s a preference for you. And so it’s just about the monthly payments and the ability of like, you’re gonna stay liquid the way that you want to stay liquid and so I I do agree. I think there are ways to
Ryan Miller: to get around it. You know, I I have to imagine there’s some difference to like where it fits for anyone.
Ryan Miller: and I guess maybe I’m asking you to sort of like, give away a little bit of your secret sauce. Is, if you were to give like, just a few core lessons for everyone on here who’s gonna walk away and say, like, I’m inspired. I think I’m gonna try something different.
Ryan Miller: Are there specific tips that you would give to say like, Go try these things. Go try these nuggets. That you think are going to make them more successful at being
Ryan Miller: a partner with the patient in approaching affordability.
Terri Ross: I was hoping that you would get get here. So in my sales training curriculum I literally teach 1313 questions.
Terri Ross: and I tell practices. Like.
Terri Ross: you know, 80% of any consultation is listening. The problem is, we talk too much.
Terri Ross: So if we listen with intention.
Terri Ross: you’re going to get a lot of information by what the client says. More importantly, by the questions you ask.
Terri Ross: So if I can draw the analogy that sales
Terri Ross: of any sorts is a transfer of emotion.
Terri Ross: And I’m going to give you one question. You know.
Terri Ross: Marie, you know. How have you been feeling? How you’re right?
Terri Ross: How has this made you feel?
Terri Ross: How has it affected your personal life?
Terri Ross: No one asks. I literally will challenge people of my 13 questions. How many of you ask the feelings questions.
Terri Ross: 90% say they don’t.
Terri Ross: So if I start to tell you as a patient, you know, Marie, I’m feeling old. I don’t like my skin. It’s you know I’m dating. I’m having a hard time. You got to get the patient to tell you the vulnerable. I’m feeling fat. I had to be, get them to express the way they feel.
Terri Ross: And then the next question, these are 2 free questions, you guys, I don’t give this stuff away. You know. How can, how committed are you, Marie?
Terri Ross: How committed are you, Marie, to not feeling that way anymore?
Terri Ross: I’m a hundred percent committed. Marie. I’m telling you that I’m committed. So if I could get you on an investment plan, not a payment plan.
Terri Ross: If I could get you on an investment plan
Terri Ross: that would allow you to pay a couple $100 a month
Terri Ross: to get you the outcome. You you’re looking for.
Terri Ross: Are you prepared to do that?
Terri Ross: No one says no.
Terri Ross: Why? Because I just told Marie how I feel.
Terri Ross: And Marie asked right? I asked Marie if she’s committed.
Terri Ross: if we can just perfect the consultation with the right questions and then
Terri Ross: pull it together. This is 20 years I’ve been doing this and it it. It is a proven method, and I have statistics of practices exponentially increasing conversions, increasing revenue by multi multi millions of dollars when they’re able to approach it this way and that that can happen on the front end, and and as well on the phone, too.
Ryan Miller: It’s interesting, Terry. So we had this year. We had to make a very, very expensive software decision to support our agency.
Ryan Miller: One of the companies that we were evaluating asked us at 1 point I thought it was the smartest question, what’s at stake?
Ryan Miller: Because it was going to be a lot of money it was. It was it was a. It was a hard pill to swallow. And I think that question, I think, echoes this. The sentiment question that you you put out there is what’s at stake for you in this investment? And then at that point it’s an easy conversation. Well, let’s just talk about the affordability, because I wanna I wanna address what’s at stake for you.
Ryan Miller: and that, you know, it’s a fundamentally empowering message. That’s great.
Ryan Miller: you know, I think, that there, if I think about the idea of leadership alignments, let’s assume
Ryan Miller: we have a few leaders that are on the call. We have a lot of senior practice members here that hopefully will bring some of this stuff back. We’ll be making this recording available for reference in the future. So you can have a conversation internally. But once we have leadership aligned, I assume that having a champion inside the office, it, like someone who
Ryan Miller: really gets how the financing works. Who can? Who can be alongside?
Ryan Miller: Who needs to be that champion doesn’t need to be every patient care coordinator, is it the you know the reception team or the concierge team that may be answering initial calls. Who needs to know enough about financing to be a meaningful partner and advocate for that in the process inside. The practice
Ryan Miller: who needs the training, I guess, is my question.
Terri Ross: I mean. Look I I’m and I’ve been to Marie’s practice many times. I’m I’m always going to say that I I personally believe that when anything is implemented or rolled out, that the practice offers everyone. This is it right? We’re running a business.
Marie B.V. Olesen: Right.
Terri Ross: So at team meetings, morning huddles, we are running a business, and part of the business is to understand how it functions and runs, and what tools and resources
Terri Ross: right are we using, and what strategies? And why? The why behind it? Right? If we implement financing and all these statistics we’ve been showing, so I think everybody should be educated on it. Obviously, surgical practices have patient care coordinators
Terri Ross: which are on the front line at the forefront of being able to pull that right. Close that patient on that surgery and and pull it through to the point we said earlier, doing it with them at that moment in time. A lot of medical spas don’t have
Terri Ross: perhaps a a patient care. Coordinator. Now, whether they have somebody who is
Terri Ross: they want to add to a payroll cost which would be fine if we’re keeping that under right? 30%, 30%. Or
Terri Ross: and I, I look again. Personal opinions. I’m sure it gets asked with providers. I I personally don’t like providers talking about money. But if they don’t have a patient care coordinator, then that front desk in a private setting. I don’t like to say that your patient concierge, someone should be able to
Terri Ross: to talk about that, so I guess. Yes, in in a long, winded answer.
Terri Ross: There should be people that are
Terri Ross: completely knowledgeable to make this happen, but everybody should be able to talk about it.
Ryan Miller: So. Thank you, Terry, I’m oh, go ahead, Marie.
Marie B.V. Olesen: I, I think we need to go back to the leadership, and that the the owners of the practice have to understand that this is a viable, sane, good business approach
Marie B.V. Olesen: to making sure that their payments that patients have ways to pay, and so nothing, no complaints from the doctor to the patient coordinator. Oh, why did you have a payment plan with her?
Marie B.V. Olesen: You know that. So it really needs to be. The whole organization needs to say, this is what it takes to be in retail medicine. We are going to be very sound about how we do it. We’ll measure and monitor it, but it it works.
Marie B.V. Olesen: and
Marie B.V. Olesen: people are suffering from from not understanding it. And other people are doing work they should do because they’re turning patients away over terms.
Terri Ross: Yeah.
Brandon Tracey: Ryan, do you mind if I jump in with just one more?
Brandon Tracey: It was brought up a couple of minutes ago, and I think it ties into what Terry and Marie are saying there is. It’s becoming outdated, but it still persists. This concept that financing
Brandon Tracey: should be offered is offered is utilized from a point of necessity from patients. And that is just not true. And it’s not true for a number of reasons. But and Marie said this multiple times.
Brandon Tracey: The ways in which we’re leveraging payment plans is now everywhere in our lives. And it’s not because we need it. It’s because it’s convenient. It’s because it brings down the perception of cost for these things in our life that we want.
Brandon Tracey: and that same kind of construct and perspective needs to be implemented into this entire industry where you’re not doing it because the patient cannot afford your service. You’re doing it because it’s comfortable because they want to, because it increases the speed and the likelihood for them to get services, and then ultimately also increases the amount of services like Marie shared a specific example earlier that they’ll get done. And I just I wanted to make that point that
Brandon Tracey: it’s not about. Oh, hey! You know they may need it, but we don’t need to be quiet about it. We can bring it up. People want to leverage this service in order to move forward with again procedures and treatments, etc. With these practices so just wanted to clarify, we should get rid of this concept of necessity and move it more towards this positive area of desire as to how they want to pay for services in your practice.
Ryan Miller: Agreed 100. I’m gonna hit you with one more question. But before I do, I want to think about something you said in that last answer, which was in general, there’s this big absence of training in the clinic creating the time and the space at the at the lowest level for somebody from, you know your finance partner, like you know Brandon’s company patient fi. To come in and provide it in service to your staff to
Ryan Miller: like. Show how the process works. Start to finish. Talk about how you can coach the the patient to answer each question correctly, to increase the likelihood of funding. Those are things that you can get for free from your partnership, and when you’re ready to go a step further hiring someone like Terry to come in and think more broadly about the sales process becomes a really smart move.
Ryan Miller: But, Terry, I’m gonna actually just a really straight operational question to wrap us up before we move into QAI know there are a lot of times where people go in. They apply for financing.
Ryan Miller: and they don’t immediately book. They qualify, they have money and then
Ryan Miller: lifestyle. Some of the reason, how do good practices use that data set like? Look at all of these people who are pre approved.
Ryan Miller: What do you tell them to do about that list?
Terri Ross: I mean. Look I back to what we said in the beginning. You know, the business of aesthetics is real, and if we want to if the industry is down 22%. But everybody right now is figuring out, how am I going to grow? What are my strategies for next year. How do I get more profit up, more ebitda, more conversions. I hear the same stuff every single day.
Terri Ross: Look, leverage the data we, you know, inspect what you expect, learn how to maximize your practice management software, your crms and run the data.
Terri Ross: So what I would 1st say, do it now like this is something you could do today. Monday morning, run your data of how many patients have actually been approved in a period of time.
Terri Ross: Take the last 3 months, 6 months. That’s open money
Terri Ross: right there, and some of your financing companies. The reps will tell you in a geographical area how many people have open credit.
Terri Ross: Then you build your marketing plans based on your services that yield the highest return.
Terri Ross: Forget the rest right? And now we start to call patients follow up.
Terri Ross: I have a blog and a podcast fortune in the follow up 40%.
Ryan Miller: It’s a great recording. By the way.
Terri Ross: 45% of people are never followed up with. That’s sad. What are we doing? We’re paying money. You’re in marketing to acquire a patient. What is your Cac? What’s your patient acquisition cost? And then who’s not converting?
Terri Ross: So if we just took a step back and took a breath and really said.
Terri Ross: right, where are my business fundamentals? What am I doing? Well, what am I not doing well and focus on a couple of those things? You’re gonna see an increase in the bottom line quickly. So I’m gonna say, check out the data right now.
Ryan Miller: First, st awesome.
Marie B.V. Olesen: Primary.
Marie B.V. Olesen: I would also say, if you change your mind and decide to do payment plan as a strategy. Go back to everybody on your books, who hasn’t scheduled, and let them know that you now offer payment plans. You’ll harvest.
Ryan Miller: Or if you change the terms of the plans that are available, also a really viable thing to to talk about. So for those that are searching. QA. We’ve got a couple of questions that are pending. You guys have been amazing and so generous with your experience and knowledge. For Melissa. Hannah, Eva, stay on. Anybody else is interested. I’ve got some data that I’ll share. That’s kind of a little bonus.
Ryan Miller: because the question about sharing, pricing on websites and what that does to marketing performance. We have some hard data on this that we studied over the last 12 months. I’m going to give you an answer. But I want to focus on what my panelists can answer first.st So let’s talk about the timing here and talking about monthly payments when either the patient knows or suspects they might not be able to get pre approved, and that uncertainty, like you can tell from their anxiety that they’re not sure it’s going to work.
Ryan Miller: Do you have any kind of different approach with that person in terms of how that conversation looks? So I think it’s a great question, because it’s super common.
Brandon Tracey: Ree. I think you’re in the practice. You should.
Brandon Tracey: Okay.
Terri Ross: You should probably lean this way.
Brandon Tracey: Right? Who’s starting?
Marie B.V. Olesen: Just bring it up in the initial conversation. And Janelle developed a question years ago, which is, what’s your strategy for payment?
Marie B.V. Olesen: And so.
Ryan Miller: I love that it’s so open.
Marie B.V. Olesen: And then we can talk about what we need to do. And certainly.
Marie B.V. Olesen: some things from patient. I could also send, you know an email to your UN. The people pre-approved and who haven’t.
Marie B.V. Olesen: haven’t booked and haven’t used that line of credit. So I don’t know if that answered your question, Ryan. I’m sorry.
Ryan Miller: Yeah, I think I think that’s there is is opening up so they can expose early if they are think if they’re gonna need the payment plan, and you know often it’s like, you know, from the standpoint of credit approval, patients will often volunteer. Well, I don’t have the best credit. Brandon, do you have any thoughts in those instances? Is it? Is it like just? It’s safe? Can we say it’s safe to apply? Is there going to be a big hit on my credit score. If I apply for a loan with Patient 5. That kind of thing.
Brandon Tracey: It’s a great question, and and the answer is going to vary a little bit. By which financing partner you partner with, I’m very happy and proud to say with Patientfi, we have never done a hard credit check in the entire history of the company, so we’ve eliminated the biggest barrier to anybody kind of expressing any sort of interest in leveraging financing. So with that eliminated. And, Terry, I know you. I think you were kind of kidding, or just throwing out a number you mentioned 10 min, maybe a half hour ago about the application process. It’s about it’s like 62 seconds or something.
Terri Ross: Love it even better.
Brandon Tracey: So if you’ve eliminated the big scary component and you’ve made it incredibly fast and accessible, any device, anytime, anywhere. In my opinion. Obviously, every single patient that walks through your door should apply for it, because they’ve got nothing to lose. It’s not a large time investment. They will be no worse off than 60 seconds before. If, for whatever reason, we’re not able to move forward so truly in that scenario, I totally get it. But you can eliminate that apprehension with that information you should be.
Ryan Miller: I know a lot of the folks are with stare like, well, what does that sound like? And I think let’s start with. Marie’s question was, What’s your what’s your strategy for payment? And the patient might share? Well, I’m probably going to need to get some financial support or monthly payments, but I’m worried about my credit. That might sound like the next response, for your practice is, well, you really don’t need to worry. We can find out together today. There’s no impact on your credit report for us to apply.
Ryan Miller: What if we start a zoom session and I can talk you through the process? We’ll learn together if you get pre approved, and if you don’t.
Ryan Miller: we have other options we can discuss together. But let’s start there right it it’s becomes an easy conversation. Let’s stay on the phone together, and I guarantee you when you’re the practice that serves at that level, they will remember you. You will stand out from the pack unless everybody in your market was on this webinar and and it’s gonna it’s gonna be something that will endear that patient to you because you were there to help at every step of the journey. Okay, so
Ryan Miller: we are at the hour. You guys. Thank you so much. I promised our audience I’m gonna address. There are 4 of the same question up there which is about the impact of pricing on search engine optimization. So we studied this over the last year and found a very
Ryan Miller: perhaps surprising result. So there is a benefit in displaying pricing on your website price transparency. I know. For example, Marie’s practice is a very important thing, but there is a detriment to including your pricing on your core procedure pages of your website, those pages that might rank for breast augmentation or the liposuction page for liposuction. And it’s for this reason.
Ryan Miller: when you display pricing in most markets, you may be one of the only clinics that does this. And Google, wanting a variety of search results on its results. Page will often choose the snippet of text from your page, where your pricing exists as the snippet of text below your name on the search engine result.
Ryan Miller: since most or many searchers
Ryan Miller: have is one of their 1st intents, understanding, pricing. They don’t need to click your result, and the click on your business is a positive signal that it was a good search result, and when they don’t click you, you slowly start to fall in ranking.
Ryan Miller: So we were able to prove in multiple cases that putting pricing on the actual procedure. Page hurts, rankings.
Ryan Miller: kind of counterintuitive, even though it’s the number one thing that patients want. So where do we say if you’re going to put pricing. Put it. Number one is on a dedicated pricing page, separate from your procedure pages, but all your prices that you’re going to list there, and if you want to get the added boost. Do a dedicated blog post about the pricing one for each procedure, with as many details as you care to talk about about what influences, pricing, how you can approach financing the value for you and for your lifestyle, like it’s all kinds of stuff you can talk about in the realm of pricing. And that post.
Ryan Miller: That’s a great thing to get ranked on Google for those price specific searches.
Ryan Miller: Hannah, Elise, Eva Stephanie, hopefully, that wraps up the question that you all shared there at the end. Brandon, Terry, Marie, you guys are amazing such great information. Thank you so much for joining us today. I’m so so grateful. I know everybody who joined us live on the call, and we’ll be watching this recorded in the future, says Thank you as well.
Terri Ross: Thank you. Thank you guys so much.
Ryan Miller: Have a lovely day.
Terri Ross: Thanks! Take care! Bye.
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