HOW TO BREAK DOWN PATIENT BARRIERS - COST.
Aesthetics treatments. People’s attitudes fall into three categories. They are either advocates who love and enjoy them, critics who find the whole idea morally repugnant and would never dream of having Botox and then somewhere in the middle there are those who are kind of interested in them but are held back by some mental blockers and at the top of the list is the cost.
You might not think there is much you can do about this and we’re certainly not advocating cutting your prices, because actually, for most people the ‘cost’ isn’t actually the barrier at all….
HOW TO BREAK DOWN THE COST BARRIER
They’re Skint
Yes, in some instances cost is a difficult barrier to break down because if somebody can’t afford aesthetics treatments, they’re doing the right thing by not having them. So you shouldn’t try to convert these people.
Action: None
They Shop On Price
There will be patients who can afford them but are driven by price and shop around only on price. The reason for this could be a) they really don’t care about the risks, they just want the cheapest deal or b) they don’t realise that cheap treatments are a red flag, they assume the industry is regulated.
Action: Talk about price. Tell patients why you charge what you do. Explain why you charge more than a beautician does. The As won’t care and will still go to Fran’s Nails for their lip fillers, but the Bs are the ones who can be converted from price shoppers to value shoppers.
A powerful FB post, IG graphic, story or reel would be to take a typical cost of a treatment and break it down. Cut it into segments and detail the cost of all the elements of that treatment. If you’re uncomfortable using actual figures use percentages. What percentage is the cost of the product, the cost of your time, the cost of the overheads in your clinic for that hour, the cost of your marketing, the cost of your training. Why not be transparent and tell them how much actually ends up in your pocket as profit for that treatment?
Overlay that all with the fact they’re paying for a medically-qualified professional who has spent years at Uni and a number of years in clinical practice.
They Need Waking Up
Some people can afford the treatments yet, perhaps, prioritise spending on other treatments or products to address the issue that bothers them, without realising it’s a false economy.
Action: Educate patients on the efficacy of what you do. Tell them to stop wasting money on OTC creams and ‘natural’ Botox. Use before and after photos to demonstrate your results of injectables. In the caption, don’t just talk about what treatment you did, describe what the patient had been doing that WASN’T working prior to seeing you.
They’re Commitment Phobes
‘Keeping up’ the treatments and the long-term costs of this, and the belief that ‘once you start you can’t stop’ also holds back patients, they’re concerned it will become a long-term financial pressure because they’ll have to keep on doing it. Yet they’ll also, probably, keep wasting money on inefficient products and beauty treatments.
Action: Reassure patients that injectables aren’t a lifetime commitment. Educate patients that they will not look any worse if they, for any reason, can’t keep up with their regular treatments. Reassure them that some treatments may last longer in some people and their face will simply return to how it was if they stop - but they won’t look any worse than they do now.
Other ideas to consider:
PAYMENT PLANS Another thing to consider when it comes to making the price of tweakments easier to swallow is payment plans. Payment plans allow potential patients to weigh up what they can afford over the course of a certain period. So, whether you enable them to pay a sum of a certain amount over six months, or simply break it down into three more manageable payments, this could be the deciding factor in whether they get that treatment they’ve been hoping for, and who they get it with.
LOYALTY INCENTIVES Loyalty cards are popular and well established in a variety of shops, cafés and restaurants, so why not consider extending this idea to your treatments? By offering an incentive like this, current patients will be more likely to book in for their next treatment without the worry of money, and a brand new patient may be drawn to your services with the view that they will be rewarded with each treatment they attend.
REFER A FRIEND Along the same lines as loyalty incentives, refer a friend schemes offer patients tempting rewards. For example, for each friend, family member or colleague your patient recommends you to, consider offering them a discount or percentage off their next treatment or product they purchase.
BUT, BE CAREFUL OF PROMOS AND DISCOUNT MANIA Aside from potentially encouraging patients to try out a treatment they don’t really want, price cuts and offers are also frowned upon by many self-regulating bodies in the aesthetics industry.