Recession-Proof Revenue: Inside a PCC’s 90% Conversion Rate

Andrea (00:04):
Well, hi there. I am Andrea Watkins, and if you're listening to this while juggling three patient calls, checking in a couple patients, taking a payment, selling skincare, and trying to catch your doctor in between procedures, you might be working in an aesthetic practice.

Blake (00:18):
And I'm Blake Lucas, and this is Practiceland. This is not Your doctor's podcast. Welcome back to Practiceland. Thank you so much for listening. We have a really hot topic today that I think is going to be really relative for so many of you in this kind of scary or uncertain economic time. Lately, we've been hearing it a lot from practices that their schedules that were once fully booked solid are suddenly seeing some gaps and consults are taking longer to close or they're more difficult. Patients are hesitating and ultimately just the energy or the vibe across industry just feels different. Today though, we're going to talk about how those slower months don't have to mean slower revenue and for the right teams they become a major opportunity for recalibration, connection and really grow. So we're going to show you how today. For the first time ever too, we're bringing you a panel of three experts who each play a different essential role in the patient's treatment acceptance process. So really exciting to have all of you here today. First, we have someone who's built a reputation for turning uncertainty into strategy. She's a former nurse and COO who now helps aesthetic and wellness practices across the country increase conversions, build team systems, and create patient experiences that generate trust and loyalty. You may recognize her as we've had her on the podcast a few times. She's the founder of The Core It Method. Please welcome Heather Hughes Hardy.

Heather (01:50):
Hi guys. So happy to be here.

Blake (01:52):
Thank you, Heather. And next we have Eva Sheie, founder of the Axis a Content Marketing and podcast production company that helps practices turn long form conversations into trust, building content to drive conversations and feed the AI monster. Welcome, Eva.

Eva (02:09):
Hello. It is the monster. Thank you.

Blake (02:12):
Absolutely. And finally, our special guest patient care coordinator at Berks Plastic Surgery, Stephanie Deswert who's been quietly setting the standard, consistently converting 80 to 90% of her consults even in this economy. Really excited to have you join us today Stephanie.

Stephanie (02:28):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited.

Blake (02:31):
Great. Well, we're going to dive right in because I think this is a really interesting topic. Heather, I'm going to do something a little bit different today and it's really because I know that you know what it takes to really protect a practice or protect practice revenue when the markets are slowing down. I've helped thousands of practices, but I've never run one before, so I'm going to kind of hand the reins over to you and put you in charge of asking the questions today and put you in the hot seat if that's okay.

Heather (02:58):
Yeah, absolutely. So excited to do that. Thank you for giving me the opportunity. I do want to start with Stephanie. I'd love to know specifically what has felt different about 2025 and what you've done to keep your performance consistent when other practices really are feeling that slowdown?

Stephanie (03:16):
Absolutely. We're feeling the same slowdown and in this industry we're not cold callers, so you're not going out there and we joke all the time about going out front with a chicken suit and see what we could get in here that way.

Blake (03:34):
Flipping a sign. Oh my gosh.

Stephanie (03:36):
Yeah, if only. But I think the key for me, and I kind of already said it, I keep going back to this back to basics mentality where we got spoiled and if a patient left after a consultation without converting well, oh, well, there's five more to take their space and we're just not there anymore. Now we're getting those same day conversions are so important and making sure that we are treating every patient like they are the most important patient when they're here. And so that's what I'm trying to emphasize to my staff, which is there are a lot of other med spas, there are other plastic surgeons. We're competing with the Philadelphia region. Focus on that good customer care and customer service and bringing yourself through, letting the patients get to know you. And I found that's been really helpful for me.

Heather (04:37):
It makes a ton of sense too. Even being in that seat myself, a big thing post COVID was patient hesitation. You didn't feel so pressured to move forward. You knew there was such a line out the door that you were like, I can just keep it rolling. But I feel like the best patient care coordinators, they really do get skilled in understanding the fact that hesitation does not necessarily mean disinterest. It really means that they need a little bit more support and some of that emotional safety that care coordinator can give them through that process. And Eva, I know you obviously work with practices to build long form and short form content that helps them to do that in this process. I'd love to know what your noticing and how your audience behavior or trust signals have changed into this post COVID era.

Eva (05:32):
I was just thinking about content and the way that I think about the work that we're doing with content, it's not about making stuff or making a lot of stuff. It's really about making content that convinces people to make their decision before they pick up the phone. So they already know this is the place I'm going to go or this is my doctor. And I see in YouTube comments and in reviews of our podcasts, they say, the moment I watched this video, I knew this was my doctor. That's how I know it's working. And one of the most interesting nuances we picked up was that people respond to content about what their life is going to be like in the future better than any other category that we work on. So we make all kinds of things and I think we just crossed over a thousand episodes since we started across all of our podcasts, which is shocking. I know. So that's really point number one is are the things that you're creating or that your marketing company's creating, are they so good that your prospective patient might forgive the front desk for not answering the phone perfectly because they're sure that this is where they want to go and so they're calling with a mission they're not calling uninformed. That's a totally different kind of caller, which I'm sure both of you can tell right away when you've got someone who already knows what they want.

Heather (07:03):
Absolutely. And I'm wondering too then in creating that content, obviously you want that patient to have that exact feeling, just like you're saying that I know that's my doctor. I feel already ready to go. Stephanie, I'm curious, what are the hesitations that they are stating so that when you're crafting that content, we're obviously wanting to answer those questions, but what do you most commonly hear patients hesitating around?

Stephanie (07:28):
Everybody right now is keeping money just right here under the mattress. It's this time where they are apprehensive to spend money on themselves. Most of our patients are moms and moms especially have this guilt factor where that could be going towards Johnny's braces or that could be a vacation to Disney World. You know what I mean?

Heather (07:52):
Absolutely.

Stephanie (07:52):
So I think the key for us is that with that hesitation, making sure that the patients know how important it is to focus on self-care, which sometimes we just tot.ally forget about

Heather (08:10):
And I'm curious it makes sense, but how do you relate that to them when they're sitting in that chair in front of you? How do you tell them that compassionately because they have that guilt, they have that feeling that's really holding strong to them and you're that person that gets to hold their hand and explain this to them. But what are the words you say?

Stephanie (08:30):
I am very different patient to patient. I vibe with them and vibe off of them and how they want to interact with me is often how I interact with them. When I have a really young excitable patient, we're going to have one conversation that with my 70-year-old facelift is going to be a very different conversation. And so when I met with resistance, especially about the guilt factor, I tend to explain to moms, we spend our whole lives focused on our children and meeting their needs and you can't pour from an empty cup. So by filling your cup and doing something nice for you, you are going to help yourself to become a better parent and a better version of yourself. And that's how I see it for me personally as a mom.

Heather (09:20):
I love that it's so relational and compassionate to the patient. It's not a transactional feeling. Obviously you're here and money is involved, but you're taking that next step to really connect with them and show how much you actually care about their wellbeing, which I think really does make a difference when you're in that scary spot and you need someone to give you some reassurance. I'm curious, Blake, from your side of the industry, because you interact with these patients as well, your team does, what are you seeing when you're watching practices trying to balance hesitation and revenue? What are you noticing in about how affordability those conversations impact the conversion process, especially when everyone's feeling a little bit tighter?

Blake (10:06):
So I think for some, this might be uncomfortable, but I think it's critical now even more so to know financing products that you offer inside and out, reach out to them and ask for help and get a better understanding, get into chat GPT and ask it questions about financing just in general so that you feel maybe more comfortable about those things. So a lot of us, we never got that class in high school that went through just how interest is calculated and all those types of things. And once you kind of demystify financing and that paper dragon gets torn down, all of a sudden it's like, oh, it's actually not that bad. And that fear goes away and then you feel more confident in talking about it. That goes so far when you're having that conversation with your patients and hopefully you can bring that up early and often in a confident way that puts them at ease knowing that again, they're not just being taken care of physically, but also you're concerned about the financial wellbeing with them after this is done. I think that really helps build additional trust in a new way that could be the difference in conversion for you.

Eva (11:13):
Stephanie was saying earlier about that back to basics approach and the thing that a lot of us have known for a long time, but probably most people working in practices don't know is when patients are prepared ahead of time for what the price is going to be, they're twice as likely to convert. So why wouldn't you pre-educate about price if you know that they're twice as likely to say yes on the day of their consult to me feels like a no-brainer and that if your hesitation is it's uncomfortable to talk about it on the first phone call or put it on your website, then you really got to get over yourself because you're really not doing your patients or yourselves a favor by keeping it a secret.

Stephanie (11:55):
I absolutely a hundred percent of the time go over pricing and financing on my first phone call. You made the comment about the content, getting them to call the office and they know. I also want them to know after that phone call, this is where they want to be. And if you read Google Reviews, you'll see that, oh, as soon as I called the office, I knew this is where I was having my surgery, which is the biggest compliment in the world, but we go over the cost and I've been here long enough to give accurate pricing. We go over the financing patients all the time say, wow, PatientFi is really that easy to use. The answer is yes, and they love it and it just makes the transition and the process seamless for them. So I love that.

Eva (12:41):
Heather and I just worked on a young female plastic surgeon, we were putting our heads together just in a perfect world, how would we get this doctor busier? And when we worked through the financing messaging at the end, I remember texting people did, I was so shocked that you can get a breast aug for as low as $140 a month. You don't even feel that. Most people don't even feel that,

Blake (13:10):
Right?

Eva (13:10):
It's that accessible. And that's the beauty of flipping that messaging around. So I keep working on that myself.

Heather (13:19):
I think it's so cool. You've all touched on really what the power of these tools can do not only for the patient but for the person that is helping them to guide that through their process. One of the things though, if I'm just being so candid and honest, when I first started talking with patients about financing, it was uncomfortable. I was like, I don't know what I'm talking about. I don't know how to implement this. And I was like, my patients can't afford it. What can we do? And they're like, we'll get them financing. And I'm like, cool. Yay. I have a tool, but how do I actually talk to them about it? I can't just be like, Hey, we have financing. So I'm curious, Stephanie, what has that process been like for you and your team? Because nobody wants to hear, I'm not sure if I can afford it. And they go through this really emotional conversation with you and then someone kind of green slaps them with, we have financing. How would you coach that person?

Stephanie (14:12):
It's a valid, valid point. Again, in this economy and this political climate, everything, the state of the world right now, money is scary for everybody. And so by earlier I was telling you how I connect with patients in the room, but on the phone when I have that conversation, I really, because you can hear the apprehension, the second you give them a number, there's that pause and oh, okay. And you know immediately they're thinking, I thought it was going to be $5,000. So I take the time to explain all of the options. We have things if you don't like interest, you have the interest free options. If you want to spread this out and make the payment as low as possible, $140 a month, we have 72 months for repayment. And so if this is something you want to do for yourself, there is an affordable way to do it without affecting your credit. You can check and it's just the easiest thing. I've done it for my own surgery, so I tend to really go back to my own experience. I think that's my biggest thing that I bring into my personal role.

Blake (15:31):
That is so powerful.

Heather (15:33):
I really love it too because you've also spoken about, and we can dive in a little bit deeper, but what really is important to a patient, right? Because if I'm coming to you and I'm sitting in your chair, I'm like, I want to pay the least amount of interest possible. I want interest free, but then Eva might come sit with you and say that the interest part doesn't really matter to me. I just want to know what can fit into my monthly budget. So having that part of the conversation with them, what really is important to you? Is it the end number and that's what gets you or is it how it fits into your lifestyle? So I love that you take that approach with them because again, it's so compassionate to do it that way. I am curious again, so if you were to give a coaching moment though for somebody that was coming into your practice, maybe not your practice specifically, but maybe in your area and they're reaching out to you and they're like, Hey, how do you do it? Or what do you do in slow months if I really just don't have the leads coming in? Is there anything that you would tell this person to do that might help, even if it's not necessarily directly patient facing, but that could help them be more productive?

Stephanie (16:36):
First of all, your biggest tool is internal marketing, which I think a lot of people know go to that database of 70,000 patients that you can reach out to. And obviously some people might not spend anyway, but it costs very little and can be very effective. I think that, again, going back to basics, we used to put a lot more effort into follow up. So maybe going back to patients that you've seen in the last six months or a year that have not converted and touching base with them. I think it's important to remember details about every patient so that when you're talking to them, they don't feel like a number because they're not. And so, Hey, I knew you had that wedding coming up. Are you still thinking about doing this for the wedding? How was your cruise? Things like that. So definitely going back to the follow-up, which again, during COVID we got away from doing all the follow-up because we didn't need to. So internal marketing's huge. Following up with patients, those are probably my two biggest things. And the social media aspect, patients are getting a ton if not all of their information from the internet and social media is huge right now. So at a minimum you can make great content and great posts that are going to get new patients following you. You can boost for pretty inexpensive amounts and then you're getting all this new traction. So those are my three things.

Heather (18:15):
I could not agree with you more. Absolutely. And specifically on the content piece, but I also want to acknowledge if you're that provider or even the care coordinator that's like, yes, let's go all in content, there's still that little bit of fear factor. And so I feel like this tees up Eva so perfectly. How would you coach someone if they're like, absolutely, I want to go into this, but how do I do it? How do you support practices and coming over that fear and giving content that really does help patients?

Eva (18:43):
Most of what I do now was born from solving a problem for an actual practice. And so the one you're talking about here is if you aren't getting enough leads or if something doesn't feel right, when is the last time you actually looked at what you were doing in every stage of the marketing funnel? And I had this eyeopening experience where I had the opportunity one day to put a picture of a marketing funnel in front of, I think there were 14 doctors in one day and I was doing this mini presentation about marketing and I don't know why I decided to put that in there, but I did. And I said to each one of them, have you ever seen this before? And one out of 14 knew what it was. The other 13 had never seen, did not know what it was. And so the basic gist of a marketing funnel is awareness, acquisition, conversion, loyalty, something like that.

(19:42):
So it's that continuum. And so what I started doing after that was mapping everything that a practice was doing for marketing to the funnel to see if there were gaps. And lo and behold, I usually find a giant hole somewhere in that continuum. So you have to take everything you're doing and say is something missing? And if something is missing, then you actually are aware of it and you can solve the problem. So one good example would be if you don't have anybody in your office assigned to put before and after photos up every single week, that's a huge gap. That's a huge conversion tool or piece of content. Photos are the core of everything when it comes to content and then reviews and then stuff we write about procedures, which people, to be honest, they really don't care about your FAQ. They want to see who did you help, does she look like me and did people have a good experience here and is there someone in the office I can build a relationship with? So find the gaps. I have a very ugly worksheet that I can link in the show notes if you want to try to map your channel, steer to your marketing funnel and see if anything's missing.

Stephanie (20:58):
Yes, please.

Heather (21:01):
That literally just answered the next three questions that I had for you. But I think that it really is so important and in a medical mindset, you didn't necessarily go to school to get a marketing degree, and so you think like, oh, a funnel, but it kind of gets confusing, but it's so parallel to the patient journey if you're thinking holistically about that patient, right? Because before they ever come in, they are a prospective patient. And so you're creating that content and you spoke about it at the very beginning too, of patients are so interested in the transformation and as a clinician you're really interested in not only the transformation that you can give but why it works and the anatomical processes and sometimes your patient's like, I just want to know that I'm going to look really good after this procedure is done. And so my next question was going to be like what type of content performs best? And you've definitely talked about the before and afters, and I'm curious if there's even myself though, I have seen some before and afters where I'm like, I don't know if I can really tell the difference or that wasn't presented the right way. Do you have any hard and fast rules when it comes to a process for putting up before and afters specifically on social media I guess?

Eva (22:13):
Yes. The website and social are two totally different animals. I think almost everything goes on the website because the quantity is much more important than the quality of each individual photo. So if you cherry pick and you only put your best cases up there, that actually backfires because if you want a facelift and you come in and there's only three facelifts, what does that tell you? Well, they must not do very many facelifts. I can't go here, so that doesn't work. And then on social, maybe unpopular opinion, I don't want to see before and afters there. And I've seen a lot of people work really hard to set up a second account just for before and afters. I think one thing I've been seeing lately that is really powerful is that sort of 360, so you put the before photo with a video. So instead of seeing a static after photo, you're actually seeing a happy person turning their head or rotating their body. So you can see what happened is way more engaging and way more fun and much better ways to do that. I think the most important thing I can say about social is not to over index on it because the data that I look at every single year still in 2025 says only 18% of women between 35 and 56 use Instagram as their primary social channel. So we're talking about let's say 20% of that 20%, how many of 'em are willing and interested in following plastic surgery content?

(23:56):
And then if you're being offensive or boring or not interesting or gross or for whatever reason your social strategy isn't aligned with what audience you're trying to attract, then the effort we're putting into that tiny fraction of people is not in line with the ROI. That's my only argument. So the last thing I'll say about social is it's much more for people who found you some other way to come in and validate that you're fun and interesting and cool people that you want to hang out with who do good work.

Heather (24:31):
I am curious, Stephanie, how it looks in your practice specifically. Do you have patients coming in that mention a post or a before and after or a testimonial, whether it be from social or the website? How often is that part of the conversation for you on their side? And then also do you ever use it to your benefit for the patient directing them to look at any of these things?

Stephanie (24:54):
I absolutely do. Instagram, that data is fascinating to me because we put a lot of time and effort into Instagram, and I do have patients that say they came from Instagram, most patients are still coming from Google and looking on the website, the patient referral is obviously still the number one source, but patients are going Google reviews are like, they're amazing. I love 'em. They pay for themselves. But as far as social, I do still get a lot of patients that come from Instagram. Now that doesn't mean they found us somewhere else first or a girlfriend told them, Hey, this is my doc, you should check out their work on Instagram.But I do use it quite a bit. We try very hard to update the website. In my opinion, it's not updated as often as it should be, and that's something that we're working on. But for me, because there's a new Instagram post every day, I say, Hey, go over there. There are tons of before and afters, but I direct them to both places because you're definitely going to get even different procedures on the website that you will on Instagram because the Instagram really is catered to a younger audience. So it depends on the patient again.

Eva (26:14):
They belong together and you have to have both. But I'm just saying don't have an oversize investment in just Instagram when there's lots of other things that need to be done.

Stephanie (26:28):
No, I'm showing this to my boss because I've been stressing how many more we still need to continue that constant stream of before and afters on the website because tons and tons of patients are still doing a lot of their research there. They tell me every day, well, I saw on your website X, Y, Z. So yeah, it's super important.

Eva (26:48):
Another thing I'll add here that is also related to this is people look at reviews and photos differently before they call than after they schedule. So you have to think about them at those two different moments. They're trying to decide, am I going to call you? And that's where they're like, how many have they done? How many people have been here? What kind of star rating do they have afterward? They're much deeper, did I make the right decision? Did this person have a good result of the same thing that I'm going to do? Can I find reviews about this procedure or this person? So considering where they're at, they may read them a completely different way after they've scheduled and then they're trying to decide if they're going to keep their appointment.

Stephanie (27:37):
That's really interesting. I never thought about it like that. Now I will.

Eva (27:41):
Well, I thought about it for five years, so I'm glad it came up with something.

Heather (27:45):
Honestly, it is super cool too because the way that you can really dig into the data, you can start refining as you go and really build out such a robust strategy. But I loved what you said, even just when you first responded to Eva saying, I'm going to go show this to my boss because X, Y, Z, because it shows that regardless, the effort is there and you already have something going. And I do think that that's one of the biggest, hardest parts is just starting it and getting it going and knowing that it's not going to be perfect in the beginning, but you're putting stuff out there and then you continue to refine and iterate and have your proprietary strategy that is defined by all of the successes and the trials that you've put it through. I think regardless, y'all are probably in a really good spot. Something that's kind of floating in the back of my mind though, and Blake mentioned it in the beginning, is your high conversion rate sitting between 80 and 90%, which is incredible. And so that's kind of flashing and I want to ask a question about it that I've been kind of stewing on, and I'm just curious as far as your process, what gets you there? What makes an 80 to 90% repeatable month over month conversion rate?

Stephanie (28:58):
My qualification on the front end, the initial phone call, taking the time. So that phone call should not be read from a script. It should not be just data and information gathering. You are cultivating a relationship with the patient, you're putting yourself through the practice through and getting to know them and what's important to them. And I spend, it can be sometimes it's a short concise 10 minute call. Sometimes it's an hour and it just, yeah, which is unusual. Typically it's somewhere in the middle, but it's important for me to make sure that we are having this very important conversation. And like I said, a lot of times at the end of that call patients will say, you know what? This has been amazing. I think you're my practice. They know from that phone call and if that happens, I've done my job. So that's kind of how I look at it.

Heather (29:58):
Yeah. That prequalification pre-call relationship, former, I'm curious, do you ever get pushback from patients that are like, no, that's okay. I'll talk to my doctor. I don't need to go through this part. And how do you handle that? How do you explain to them, no, this is so valuable for you?

Stephanie (30:16):
Yeah, absolutely. I'd say, let's see, if I was going to put a percentage on it, maybe 10% of patients will say to me, well, I'll just talk to the doctor about this when I get there. Or, well, my timeframe's going to depend on what the doctor says to me. And so very politely and kindly, and I am always smiling through the phone, I'm explaining to the patient, I'm doing this for your benefit too, so that when you come in, I can make sure that consult is scheduled at the right time for when you are considering having your procedure. I'm going to go over the recovery with you right now. I will go over your ideal weight with you right now. I'm going to go over your medications with you. Now again, I've been here doing this for a long time, so I have the ability to do that. It's a little bit harder for a new patient care coordinator, but I think that just letting them know, the reason I'm doing this and taking the time to have this call is for your benefit, not just ours goes a long way.

Heather (31:16):
You explaining it like that too. I think that's so powerful for anybody listening, whether it's you and your PCC or your front desk. Because in my practice where I worked previously when I was a care coordinator, it was a scheduler at the front that it was explaining, okay, yeah, you'll have a consult and then you're going to touch base with the patient care coordinator. And they would get that hesitation right there of like, oh no thanks, I don't need that. So to have that nice little bit of this is why, and it is compassionate and it's for you. I think it's such a nice, you've explained it so well, so everybody flag that piece.

Stephanie (31:48):
Thank you.

Heather (31:49):
Blake, I'm curious because you have obviously team members that integrate with practices nationally dipping in, and you have such a wide view of this exact, well, not this exact process of course, but a process like this in mini A practice. I'm curious if there's anything that's can consistent specifically in the financial piece just because that's kind of where my own personal hesitations always came in. Is there anything consistent about how teams talk about financing ahead of time that sets them apart? Is there anything that you've seen that is a special hook?

Blake (32:26):
I mean, I'm going to be kind of repeating I think some of the things that we've said even today. And then also too from coordinators in past podcasts, I thinks this kind of repetitive thing that keeps up that I really do believe is part of their success, and that's some of the things like putting pricing on your website and getting patients to apply for financing pre-consult and being comfortable in that conversation to bring it up then and get them prepared for that before they're even in the office so that they can see how attainable this treatment or procedure is going to be for them. I think that's a huge conversion piece is knowing upfront that I can afford this and now we can focus on the patient and maybe some of the things like Stephanie brought up the guilt piece and some of those others, and we can work through those hurdles next. I really feel like the practices that are really successful right now are doing some of those things or have been doing those things for a long time. And so it's just that second nature for them.

Heather (33:30):
I want to ask you a question that I already know the answer to, but it's just so meaningful to me that I want everybody to know it as well and that, does your team go in and are they willing to talk, the people that are going to talk about financing, how to talk about it and really break it down, get deep into it.

Blake (33:49):
Oh my gosh, yes. One of the ways that we try to set ourselves apart and provide that additional value, because I think nowadays there are a lot of lenders that you can choose from, right? There is a lot of competition in this space way more so than even five, 10 years ago. So what we continue to try to do is innovate in the space, not only from a technology and product standpoint, but also in the service side of it. And our teams, our marketing teams and our account managers do an amazing job going into practices and providing that one-on-one training. Absolutely. And then even just down to if you want to call us, just like our standard support teams are fantastic, and they're local here and they have a wealth of knowledge coming from the industry too. So most of our customer support agents are from the mortgage industry and the lending industry or worked in banks, and so they have that prior experience and they do an amazing job of explaining how things work. So all of those are available to practices and then custom marketing material to help you present it is always available too. So we'll work with your teams to create some really amazing marketing tools, whether it's printouts or I think we even did some billboards recently, so it's really exciting to see some of that stuff. So we rerun the gamut. So yeah, absolutely reach out to us and we can help you with that.

Heather (35:11):
Cool. And for anybody that's listening too, I want everybody to realize there are no dumb questions. I felt so uncomfortable and I reached out and I was like, Hey, I need somebody to explain to me. Y'all are saying this is so great because it's a soft credit check, but I don't know what that means. Can somebody sit and explain it? And they weren't rude about it. It was like it wasn't a whole thing, but I felt so much better equipped that I wasn't just saying the key points of why it was great, I understood and then I could actually use it with my patients. I wasn't just using it as a conversion tool. I was using it as a compassionate way to help my patients get actually what they needed. I want to ask you, Eva, because we talked about transformation, but I'm curious if there's a way to put financing into content that doesn't feel transactional. Have you done that before? How do you go through that when you're helping teams with that piece?

Eva (36:06):
I thought you're going to ask me about my mattress hashtag, remember Eva's mattress?

Blake (36:14):
We've covered that on the past ones we're good.

Eva (36:17):
We talked about my mattress at some point because I financed it, and then I forgot how long the term was, and then the bill went from, I had a couple thousand dollars left, and then on a Saturday morning I got an email that said it had gone up to $7,000.

Heather (36:32):
Oh man.

Eva (36:34):
And then I had an absolute panic attack.

Heather (36:37):
I would too.

Eva (36:37):
According to Reddit, if you call mattress firm and ask, they'll extend the promotional for one more month. So I was really nice and I called and they reversed it, and I paid the whole thing off the next day because I'm scared of you and I'm never doing this again.

Heather (36:54):
No doubt.

Eva (36:56):
And so maybe a couple days after that, I was speaking to a practice manager and she was like, which I don't know which financing company is better. And I said, let me just ask you one question. What happens if your patient misses a payment? And she was like, I don't know what does happen. And I had just heard from Blake, absolutely nothing happens with PatientFi. And from that moment forward, they started leading with PatientFi because she knows if something goes wrong, it comes back on her. So Blake does a great job of explaining it, but I can bring the pain and I can tell you from my mattress experience, I was going to go back in the store and the whole time I'm thinking, this is what happens to the practice when somebody has a bad experience with financing, they go back to the store and they say, I hate you, right?

Blake (37:53):
Oh my gosh,

Stephanie (37:55):
It's happened. Years and years ago. But yeah,

Eva (37:58):
It happened to you?

Stephanie (38:01):
With a different lender. Patient was they were besides themselves, and I didn't know what to say. I mean, I'm talking a really long time ago, and I will not name the lender, but they were like, we thought we had all this time. We went a couple days past this six month period and there's this gigantic interest rate, and it was a conversation that we have had. But I think sometimes in the excitement of things and with the nerves, you don't hear everything that I'm saying to or reading the fine print. So yeah, it was a bit of an issue for sure.

Eva (38:40):
Well, they're designed for that to happen.

Stephanie (38:42):
Exactly.

Eva (38:43):
It's part of their business model.

Stephanie (38:45):
That's how they make a lot of their money.

Heather (38:47):
Absolutely. But isn't that the worst feeling that you talked with a patient about financing or about some type of thing that was going to help them get what they wanted and then they have a bad experience with it? That for me was one of the worst feelings when something like that would happen, because of course it felt the pharmacy got this wrong, so of course you didn't send my meds or whatever it may be. Wherever you're partnering with someone, it still reflects on you because it's your practice that is partnering with someone. And so you still feel that guilt, even though of course you're not the one that has the terms and made 'em up and you don't have the power to change things. But it is nice to know specifically when you're working with people that actually care what happens to your patients and you feel like they really are a partner in the process and you don't have to go through a Reddit hole to find out what to do.

Stephanie (39:42):
I was just going to say that I've always tried to be a person and an employee that I never say, that's not my job. It's not my problem. If you are my patient, I'm going to take on as much as I can to try to help you, and I want you to know that I've exhausted every option because I do care. So yeah, I do as much as I can. Sometimes my hands are tied, but I do as much as I can.

Eva (40:08):
Has that ever backfired on you, Steph?

Stephanie (40:11):
Internally? Maybe a little. I mean, well, because sometimes it's seen as stepping on toes, whereas in my opinion, I'm doing what I can for the patient and I'm trying to do best by my patient.

Blake (40:25):
But I think if that's your north star, that'll always lead you the right way. It may create some waves or create some tensions, but it's always going to, I think, ultimately lead to success and make the practice better or more successful or whatever it needs to be. And I think that's always the right thing to do.

Eva (40:43):
Heather asked me a really smart question about writing, about financing and pricing in content.

Heather (40:49):
Oh yeah, give us the answer.

Eva (40:51):
I just write the way that we talk to people. So sometimes it does take a while to think through what the best way is to do that. And PatientFi has great examples of how to do it in context, and I think we're kind of building a little war chest of good examples over here, so maybe we can make that an additional resource.

Heather (41:13):
I can't tell you that that would've felt invaluable to me as a patient care coordinator, especially in the beginning phases of having not only a way to understand it, but those next steps. And of course, you don't want to a script. And Stephanie, you mentioned you don't want to talk to a patient on a full scripted piece of paper, but you want to practice, right? You want to have something to go off of. So I mean, I feel like that would help anybody. And Stephanie, what we were kind of talking about too is I've just heard a lot about your character, even just through this conversation. We haven't spoken to each other before, but you clearly embody the characteristics that make a great patient care coordinator. Thank you. I'm curious for practices, what about your environment? What about your practice leads in to letting you do that? Because part of it's probably natural, but also part of being in a supportive environment. What does that look like and what would you hope for any patient care coordinator that's trying to really be successful, how can their practice support them?

Stephanie (42:16):
Number one for me is my surgeon. I believe in him with my whole heart, and he is amazing at what he does. He supports his staff. I mean, you have a lot of people here who have been here one decade, two decades because we feel supported by him and we care about him, and we take ownership and pride in the practice, which you can't teach and you can't fake it. It's something that has to exist. So in order, I think the best way to be successful in this role is for the person in the role to really believe in what they're selling. And I put that in quotation marks because I know this is the sales role in the practice, but it seems like an ugly word to me sometimes because I don't want to feel like I'm a salesperson. I'll joke with patients, if you don't sign up right now, you go out the door, you're losing that car. You know what I mean? Because it's crazy to me. That's just not how we are. But I think in order to be good at this, and along with being compassionate, have a doctor who you would get surgery by, you would let your family member be operated on by him or her. I think that is so key.

Heather (43:34):
I love that. And it almost lends to the conversation we're even having here too, in times where it is a little bit thinner and maybe tensions are a little bit higher, and the doctor is like, where are my consults? Having that team cohesivity of like, Hey, we really are going about this in a team approach, we're going to go back through our follow-ups. It seems very collaborative. And so I love that it's also an emphasis on solving problems rather than just identifying what an issue is. It seems very solution oriented. Absolutely. I'm curious, Eva, have you, and maybe this is a weird question to ask, but as far as internal culture goes, does that ever translate into the content? Have you noticed anything about teams that have stronger cultures and what their content looks like?

Eva (44:29):
For sure you can see it. And I think that one of the secret elements of that is having a doctor who's willing to let you try stuff and see if it works? That's one of the most important elements of that. And so if you have the ability to create content and put it out there without somebody micromanaging you over style and substance, obviously within reasonable brand boundaries, but being able to take risks with the content that you're putting on Instagram and other places. One of my favorite tricks is to test stuff on YouTube and then move it to Instagram because YouTube is just way less, I don't know, I don't think it's technically less risky, but it feels safer to put anything on YouTube. And then if you have something pop off on YouTube, then move it over to your Instagram reels and it should do well there too. Interesting. You can put a million things on YouTube in a day and nobody will notice, but you can't like drown your feed with 10 reels in one day.

(45:29):
That just doesn't, not how Instagram works. And then the other thing I say all the time is consistency is a strategy. So it's much more important that you have a regular content creation and posting cadence and rhythm that requires you to have a way of making that easy. It can't be difficult or you just won't do it. So if you have a gimmick or a kind of post that you do all the time, people used to do those. What's that old lady example I could give you would be like the throwback Thursday or Shoesday Tuesday, my friend Monique always posted a gorgeous pair of shoes every Tuesday.

Heather (46:11):
I am curious on YouTube, you can see analytics too, of where people really tuned in. So if you have something that's long form, I would imagine maybe you could chop up the best part of a video, even though it might not match what you thought was going to be best and make that your real. Do y'all do any process of that?

Eva (46:29):
That's a really smart question. What we love to do is pull segments. So you have long form, like a podcast or a long video where you just basically don't edit anything out. That's great. Then you make medium length segments, and this is where I think consistency really plays a huge role. So if you can publish something every day or every other day at the same time, this is what YouTube really loves. And putting smart titles on those, and even thumbnail images is really the whole YouTube strategy. 90% of it is right there. That's all of it is just consistent, edgy hook, thumbnail.

Heather (47:15):
Perfect little formula.

Eva (47:16):
Consistent. Consistent. Consistent, consistent.

Blake (47:19):
Eva just giving us a secret sauce,

Heather (47:21):
Right?

Eva (47:21):
Yeah,

Stephanie (47:22):
I love it. I'm taking notes.

Blake (47:25):
Stephanie's writing this down.

Heather (47:28):
Well, before we go into wrap ups and key points that you would want a viewer to take away. I'm curious, Stephanie, if you have any questions and maybe that you potentially already know the answer to, but that you would want to ask either Blake or Eva that you feel like could either level your practice up or anybody that potentially is listening.

Stephanie (47:47):
Eva, honestly, you have said so much today that I am incredibly grateful for because things that I really feel like we needed to hear, especially with this paradigm shift with not having a marketing coordinator. So I think a lot of my questions have been answered. And regarding the financing side of things, I mean, I find that you guys are so accessible that whenever I have a question I ask and it gets answered. So I'm not shy.

Eva (48:17):
I did have one for Stephanie. How do you start your phone calls with prospective patients?

Stephanie (48:25):
Do you mean my initial words? Just,

Eva (48:29):
Yeah, like incoming. So you take an incoming call, has someone screened it for you before it comes to you?

Stephanie (48:35):
Yes. So the front office gets very basic information, a name, a procedure, usually that's it. Sometimes they'll get referral source as well. They found us on Google. They're interested in a mommy makeover. First name is Sarah. I start my call very simply. I ask if this is Sarah. She says, yes, hi. I am Steph. I'm the lead patient coordinator here. I understand you're interested in this procedure. She'll say, yeah, I want to set up a consult. Okay, well do you have 10 minutes for us to chat just so I can get some information? And then we go from there. But I emphasize and really make it a point to not only do I include things about myself, which obviously I don't mind talking about myself, but I also really like to find things that make us relate. So patients telling me I'm worried about having a mommy makeover because I'm a mom of a 3-year-old. Well, let me tell you about the surgery I had when my daughter was a year and a half. And I try to get into that very quickly in the phone call because establishing that relationship early on when I know that it's going to be a bit of a lengthy phone call and they were expecting just to call and make an appointment, I want to reel them in quickly.

Eva (49:58):
You're basically, you have to be everybody's girlfriend.

Stephanie (50:02):
Yeah. But I like that. I like that part of my job for sure.

Heather (50:06):
I'm curious as, or sorry, Blake, I didn't even give you an opportunity. Did you have a question for either Eva or Steph?

Blake (50:14):
No, this has been, I mean, I love all the insights. I love getting the boots on the ground kind of perspective of things because always working with practices and to hear their true perspective of things, that makes me better at my job, which is always super exciting. And I'm also very nerdy. So all the stats that you've been throwing out are things that are going into the bank, and I'm like, okay, I got to remember this for next time. So this has been fantastic. Thank you both.

Heather (50:40):
Yeah, I could not agree more. I think that this was such a fun conversation and it's one that I've really loved having because I love, again, that PCC role. But Blake, thank you for letting me get to have my time, getting to ask the questions. It's been really fun, but I'll pass it back to you to kind of do the end of show stuff.

Eva (50:55):
Well, Stephanie, she just left us hanging on something though. She said that they lost their marketing coordinator. So if you could go back and do it again, would you hire somebody different? Would you not have one at all? Can you clue us in a little bit on how you're thinking about that role?

Stephanie (51:14):
So we were really adamant that we wanted somebody on the front line, someone that gets to know all the personalities in the office. And because I feel with social media, that's a huge part of what gets the patients in, is they feel like they get to know us as people. So that's why we decided to have an internal marketing person. If we had to do it again, I'm not sure that we would hire a full-time person for that role. Maybe someone part-time that could come and get to know us and get content and put it together. But also now utilizing different staff members and like I said earlier, utilizing cake and their social media person. I think this is just a better way of doing things for us.

Eva (52:03):
I'm aligned with your thinking on that. It has to be such a unique skillset inside the office to be successful at that role, you have to be willing to go in OR with a camera and not get in the way and understand what you're looking at and then translate it to the internet and make it accessible. It's just a really hard job.

Stephanie (52:25):
So I think if anything, that'll be a big part of the project that I'm taking over, the one that they're getting to know. So who better to ask?

Heather (52:36):
I actually love that. If you're the patient care coordinator and you're interested, for someone out there that's listening and they're interested in really helping with that social media piece, what is it that you've taken on? What do you feel like really fits with the role that you are doing that somebody else could too?

Stephanie (52:54):
So he's letting me be pretty creative and giving me some freedom here. So I'd like to think I'm a pretty funny person. That could just be me. So he kind of lets me fly free with some, so if you go on our Instagram or TikTok and you see some of the videos, you can pretty much pick out which ones are mine, but also I want to start being the person asking the patients again directly, Hey, you're three weeks here for this visit. You look amazing. Are you willing to do a little testimonial? Let us do that interactive sort of post where it's a before and after, but it's not just a boring before and after. So I want to start doing more of that too.

Eva (53:41):
You're hitting something really important Steph. The audience just wants to know you, so you can do education. It doesn't matter where the content is. There's a place for procedure education ,for the most part, they want to know you. They want to know the doctor, and they want to know who they're going to meet when they come in, because that's scary.

Stephanie (54:02):
Patients have said hello to me before, I have no clue who

Eva (54:06):
Like at the grocery store?

Stephanie (54:07):
oh, I saw you on Instagram. I'm like, oh,

Eva (54:09):
You're insta famous.

Stephanie (54:12):
Some patients have said, and our social media following Instagram isn't crazy. It's like 18,000 followers. And when Dr. Reedy, before he comes in, they'll go, oh my gosh, I feel like I'm about to meet a celebrity. And I tell him that, and his head goes,

Heather (54:29):
He's like, you are?

Eva (54:29):
A monster.

Blake (54:30):
Yeah. Oh no.

Eva (54:32):
There's two accounts I want to call out just for inspiration since we're on the subject is Anna, Dr. Anna Steve, she's a plastic surgeon in New York City, and she does what we call just among my team. We coined these social breasts because most of the time they're wearing clothes and you can see just how beautiful they look after their breast dog with clothes on. And that's 99.9% of who's going to see you is going to see you with your clothes on, right? I sort of went, oh duh. Why didn't I think of that? The other one, which is maybe for a slightly older audience is I think it's just being Melanie. I despise perimenopause, menopause, and post menopause content cuz it's awful. This woman turned it into something absolutely hilarious, and she never talks about that. She talks, talks raound it in a way that makes it super relevant. So I'll put those in the show notes. They're just amazing. And I'll send you guys the links too. You need to laugh. It's wonderful stuff.

Stephanie (55:48):
I would love to check that out because I love when Dr. Reedy tries to talk to patients about menopause and perimenopause as a man, and you're like, well,

Eva (55:58):
he can just use Melanie's content and say, have you seen this? Which brings me, I'm going to give you a bonus one, Gary Lawton. Have you guys seen that one?

Stephanie (56:08):
I don't know. I don't think so.

Eva (56:10):
He's the perfect example of they took the doctor's personality and captured it in a way that makes him, if he tried to do it himself, it would be a total fail, but you can tell the person behind the camera loves him and they just wanted him to be him. And so he's very nerdy, but it's super endearing. So there's my three hot Instagram tips for the day.

Stephanie (56:36):
Thank you.

Eva (56:38):
Thank you so much, Stephanie. You're just an absolute treasure and we'll have you back if you'll have us.

Stephanie (56:49):
I would love it. This is a blast. Thank you guys so much.

Blake (56:52):
Well, thank you everyone for joining us today and your insights. I think there's a ton of information. I think it's always important for us to provide value and provide relative information that coordinators can take with them. And I think it's always amazing if we have actionable things that you can literally just right after you listen to this, go do that and see an impact. And I think there's a handful of those today that our listeners will have. So thank you for your insights on everything. Everyone on the panel start with you. Stephanie, where can we follow you online for more if we want to see what you're working on or things that you have going on?

Stephanie (57:29):
So our Instagram is Berks plastic surgery. And like I said, you see the funny stuff coming up. It's usually, usually my content.

Blake (57:37):
You got

Eva (57:38):
Three more follows coming.

Stephanie (57:40):
I love it. Thank you.

Blake (57:43):
And Eva, how about you

Eva (57:44):
Axis podcasts on Instagram? AXIS like Axis of Eva.

Blake (57:49):
Awesome. And Heather, I know we've had you multiple times, but give us all of your social handles at where can we find you?

Heather (57:55):
Yeah, I'm on Instagram at Heather Hughes Hardy. And same name on LinkedIn. Heather Hughes Hardy.

Blake (58:01):
Beautiful. Well, listeners, if you have a question for anyone on our panel, want to get it answered on a future episode, send us a message at practicelambpodcast.com. Thank you so much for stopping in and listening. Stay fabulous and we'll catch you next time. Thank you. Got a wild customer service story or a sticky patient situation? Send us a message or voicemail. If your tale makes it into our "She did what?" segment, we'll send a thank you gift you'll actually love. Promise no cheap swag here.

Andrea (58:31):
Are you one of us? Subscribe for new episode notifications and more at practicelandpodcast.com. New episodes drop weekly on YouTube and everywhere you can listen to podcasts.