The Cancellation Playbook Every PCC Should Have

Alli (00:00):
Being- the patient that's paid that $100, I would be like, oh.

Andrea (00:05):
That's-

Alli (00:05):
That's ballsy.

Andrea (00:07):
I don't even know what to say right now. 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 (00:28):
And I'm Blake Lucas and this is PracticeLand. This is not your doctor's podcast.

Andrea (00:34):
Well, welcome back to PracticeLand. I'm Andrea and if you are on YouTube today, you're going to be able to see that Allie is actually here in Casa Day walk-ins with me. So special treat, we're having a slumber party this weekend and we're able to do the podcast. We're going to do quite a few episodes actually live today from my office. So the first thing that we're going to talk about right now is something that kind of makes every coordinator's stomach flip just a little bit. And that's when we get a call from a patient with a last minute cancellation. So this just showed up on the schedule. There's a hole. Someone called in, we need to make a decision. How do we fix that? What do we do to make sure that we're optimizing our practice and our doctor or provider's time when a patient has a last minute cancellation come up?

(01:25):
So there's a right way to handle this, there's a wrong way to handle this. And then of course there's going to be some gray area in between. But let's just kind of lay it out for our listeners because this is something that is inevitably going to happen to all of us. It's happened. So there's playbook and what we want to talk about first is prevention. We're going to get to, yes, it's going to happen, but what are some of those things that we need to make sure we have in place so that we can limit or minimize the opportunity for cancellations to happen on our schedule?

Alli (02:01):
Yeah. I think that just like you said, it's really important to get ahead of the ball and have the policies and procedures in place. So that means having a pretty tight cancellation policy that every single patient understands and agrees to at the time of the quote presentation. So understanding that this isn't something that you can cancel last minute, there are going to be consequences of that depending on how far out we are. My recommendation with a cancellation policy is to have it incrementally based on the timeframe going into surgery. So maybe start it at one month out and then they kind of will lose additional funds or run into additional fees the closer that we get to surgery.

Andrea (02:43):
Do you remember when we were in practice we did not have a good cancellation policy. When we first started, we thought -

Alli (02:52):
Every time it happened, we were like, "Wait, what is the policy? What is going on?

Andrea (02:56):
" And we were awful at this. And so I think that's why it's easy for us to raise my hand. I sucked at this. We didn't have something in place. And as it would occur, that was when we were always reminded, oh shit, we need to get it together and actually make this very clear, easily understandable. But the real goal is you've got to protect your provider and your practice's time because that's where you generate your revenue. But you also don't want to make this policy that makes patients absolutely scared so that they don't even want to schedule their procedure or they're like, "Well, what if something catastrophic happens and yada, yada, yada?" We need to make it very clear and not so limiting that they're scared to place a deposit and to move forward, but also we need to protect ourselves in our practice.

(03:40):
And what I was going to say is, this just reminded me, do you remember the time where we had a patient call us the day before surgery and she's like, "Yeah, so my ride canceled and they're not going to be able to pick me up, so I need to move to next week." And we were like - I know. WTF is happening. Where

Alli (04:00):
Next week? What's

Andrea (04:01):
Your plan? Yeah. A of all, we don't have time next week. We're scheduling out months in advance, but B of all, pull it together. This is surgery. And know you can't get in an Uber and go home. You have to have someone that's going to be with you for the first 24 hours after surgery. You've committed that to us. We've committed our time to you. But I think at that time, that was one of the main things that kind of put us into a position where we're like, we need to get this straight. We need to write it down. We need to have it make it make sense for us so that we're protected, but also so that it doesn't scare off the patients. So this doesn't come from a place of me and Allie saying, "Oh yeah, we've always done it perfectly and do everything exactly the way that we've done it, but because we have been burned because we didn't have something written, you've got to definitely have that cancellation policy in place."

Alli (04:49):
I also think it's important to have right next to it your cancellation policy as well as your rescheduling policy. So separating and differentiating between those two because with the cancellation policy, you're just losing funds. With the rescheduling, I usually recommend having a rescheduling fee if it's within two, three weeks of surgery of X amount, which also goes up incrementally the closer you get to surgery. But it's important to have that because if you just have your cancellation policy and someone pulls one of those moves and wants to just reschedule, technically we can't say that there's an additional fee to do that. It puts us out, but there's nothing we can do about it. But if we had a separate rescheduling, we can be like, "Oh yeah, and it's that $3,000 fee." And at that point, this person that can't find a ride is going to be like, "Oh, heck, I'm going to find a ride."

Andrea (05:37):
Exactly. And a lot of times too, just to simplify it, use the KISS method, keep it simple, stupid, is you can just say to reschedule or cancel here and just lump it all together because you still want to protect yourself and the revenue that you're trying to generate. And for example, we've done an episode about this before, so no freebies today. No, I'm just kidding. You can go back and listen to that policy type of pod that we did a while back, but just generally speaking, everyone's going to be a litle bit different depending on how far in advance you're scheduling and how booked your schedule is. But usually it's like at a month we're collecting the total fees and deposits are usually refundable up to a month prior to

(06:28):
The procedure. And then on a general basis, again, four weeks your fees are due and then after your fees are due, because we want to have that money to be able to say, "Hey, there is a penalty or there is a fee associated if you cancel or reschedule." And then if you have to cancel or reschedule within three to four weeks, it's going to be a 25% fee. If you have to schedule any place two to three weeks, it's going to be a 50% and then slide that down the closer they get to surgery, the more they're on the hook to be able to... And again, that secures your practice time because you don't want anyone to cancel. You want to be able to serve patients, help them change their lives, do the procedures, of course. But if they have something where they're canceling or rescheduling, we've got to make sure that we're still able to generate some revenue because that time is actual money.

(07:25):
That's how we make money for our practices.

Alli (07:27):
Yeah. And I also want to emphasize what Andrew mentioned the caveat to having a pretty hard up policy is knowing that at the end of the day, we're also human. So sometimes things do happen and patients will call you a little stressed out and they're like, "My mom, I just had a patient recently and my mom just died. It was two weeks before surgery." And I'm like, "Oh my gosh, I am not going to charge you. I'm not going to keep your money. We're going to keep it on file for when you're ready to reschedule, but no penalties here." So make sure that people know that. And sometimes in the quote presentation, they'll even ask then ahead of time, what if something happens? I'll always just gently say, if there's an emergency, we're human as well, but I'll also go the extra mile of saying, "But if you just decide within this timeframe you don't want to have surgery or you plan something last minute, that's when this is going to apply." So let them know that we're not here to just take their money and run.

(08:25):
We're human too.

Andrea (08:27):
Right. The policy is obviously there to protect the practice, but I think it's really important again, having it where we're talking about it, it's on paper so that they can see it in black and white. It also shows the seriousness of our professionalism and our expectations. And the way that you can easily talk to patients about that is Dr. So - and-so and our team, we're committing our time to you and so we're just looking for the same respect and courtesy and return is that you're committing your time to us as well. Unless they ask, I don't try and say, "Oh, it's an easy out. Just tell us your mom died." We don't want them to think that it's easy to do that, but if someone has a legitimate emergency, the thing is you have the policy you can always fall back on, but don't forget that we're human.

Alli (09:17):
Yes, I love that.

Andrea (09:18):
And what goes around comes around in Karma. I have a client right now where they're kind of going through this adjustment of their cancellation, reschedule policy and all that kind of stuff. And at the end of the day, you should also be running your business where it's not a great big deal if you're canceling a person because their mom died for a 10, 20, 30, 40, $50,000 procedure, hopefully that's not going to make or break your practice. You shouldn't be counting that money as earned money on your P&L until you've actually earned the money anyway. So I think that's also where some practices get themselves into trouble where they're like, "Oh my God, we can't refund these people. Oh my God, we can't cancel them." Where it's like, you got a cashflow problem there.

Alli (10:08):
You

Andrea (10:08):
Shouldn't be spending money that you haven't earned. If somebody's giving you cash, it should be an aside account until you've actually

Alli (10:15):
Performed

Andrea (10:16):
The procedure. And

Alli (10:17):
That's

Andrea (10:17):
A whole nother episode for a whole another day, but just -

Alli (10:20):
Financial management.

Andrea (10:22):
Just keep that in mind. I'm not spending money that I'm not earning in my personal life either. And when you have 20 people on your payroll that require you to be able to pay them every two weeks, you shouldn't say, "I can't cancel or I'm not going to be able to make payroll."

Alli (10:37):
Pull it together. Of working a 12 hour day today and being like, "Oh, well, I worked 12 hours so I can go spend that tonight." No, you didn't get paid that yet. So make sure you're rendering it

Andrea (10:49):
Before. Needs to be earned income, not just like, "Oh, this is fairytale money that we've received." But exactly. Anyway, a little sidebar. So back onto this. First thing is prevention. We were talking about cancellations and rescheduling is prevention. Have your shift together, have your policies in place and have them written and make sure that we're going over them with our patients. We're not trying to slide one past anybody. No. Go over this stuff so that they fully understand because at the end of the day, great patients feel safe and they trust us. And the way that they do that is by clarity is kindness being very clear. Yes. Okay. So we're past that. We've got great policies in place. All these things are happening. We've got our sliding scale, all the things the patient totally understands. And tell us just recently what happened with a patient.

Alli (11:41):
Mom died.

Andrea (11:41):
Yeah.

Alli (11:42):
Yeah.

Andrea (11:42):
So

Alli (11:43):
That happened. So

Andrea (11:44):
This is going

Alli (11:45):
To happen. Yes. So cancellations will happen. I would say the thing that keeps me protected in this situation is having a really formulated cancellation list. So I think most practices will have a cancellation or a move up list. And for a long time I did and it was just kind of like chicken scratch names on there. But when this started actually helping me was when I had an organization to it. I like to have an ongoing cancellation list organized by the month that the patient's already booked in. So we have May, June, July, and then within each of those months, the patient's name and the length of their procedure and the type of procedure it is. That makes it so quick and easy. When I have a fhour hole open up, I know I can go start picking from the top either the first five I see or if I could pick two threes and just squeeze them in and overbook the day a litle bit.

(12:38):
About your team loves that, don't they? Yeah, they really like that. Or underbook it a little bit, pick a four or something. But in the past when I didn't have the hours broken out next to those, I was just kind of shooting in the dark and I was going in order of when they were added to the cancellation list, which doesn't really help. But if you're trying to have organization to the schedule afterward, try to pick something that actually fits in that puzzle piece. So yeah, I would say that's -

Andrea (13:08):
Perfect. So

Alli (13:09):
Cancellation

Andrea (13:10):
List, patient's name, procedure, length of time and their ideal timeframe.

Alli (13:14):
Yes. Organized by month. Yeah. And then that was another thing. Just put a little note next to it, even though it has their date that they're already booked for, you could say really looking for something before August, before kids go back to school or something, or has this trip to Cancun X date, so they need to be healed by then. So then you can skip over them if you're like, "Yeah, we already missed that window for them." I know they're not going to be able to take it.

Andrea (13:36):
Because they have vacation or

Alli (13:37):
Wedding

Andrea (13:37):
Or whatever they have coming

Alli (13:38):
Up. And it's just a nice little rapport thing when you call them and be like, "Oh, so excited to have this spot that just opened up and I know that this will get you healed up by Cancun, so let's do it. " And they're like, "Huh, she remembers." Yeah,

Andrea (13:51):
She knows me. And that leads us right into the next question about that is so, okay, great. Spot opens up, we go to our cancellation list. We know that there's people that are willing, able, and want to actually move their date up, got all the information. We pick up the phone, we call them, we text them, we DM them send smoke signals, what is your strategy for communicating with them and do you put a timeframe on it? What do we do here?

Alli (14:18):
Yeah, such a good point. I usually will give them, because I mean, this is something that has to move quick, so don't feel bad about giving them a tight timeframe. If it's the morning when I'm calling them, I'll tell them, "Just give me some sort of heads up by end of business today." I need to know if you're thinking about it. If you need to contact your Ryan, whatever, just let me know that you're actually considering it and then we need to know by noon tomorrow a final decision. Always, always, always when you're offering a quick turnaround, give them a timeframe. Don't hang up the voicemail until you put a timeframe. I know. I'll just

Andrea (14:48):
Be hanging

Alli (14:49):
Out. Yeah, because you need to move on to the next person. And if you do that, if you're not hearing from them for a few hours, so you start moving to the next person, then this person calls back, then it just seems unprofessional. Exactly. And it's like, "You just offered that to me. I was in a meeting and we don't want to take anyone off." So yeah, give them a timeframe. I just call them, "Hey, super exciting. We just opened up a few hours on this date." Sometimes for us, my surgeon will cancel a trip that he has or he was speaking somewhere and the schedule changed so a few hours opened up or a day opened up, he's flying out a day later. So I'll use that most of the time too. And then if it was, be honest with them. So if it was an unfortunate circumstance for one of our patients, you had to push out a few months, but I thought of you right away because this spot is the right size for you, so let me know by X, Y, "Yep.

Andrea (15:45):
I think a couple of the things that you've said that I think are really impactful when you talk to the patients are this happened, to your point, be honest with them, and I immediately thought of you.

(15:58):
So make it very personal, make the patient feel really great about the fact. Obviously you know them, you know their situation as a highly professional PCC, to your point, you'll know if they have trips, if they have events. I thought of you because I know we can still get you healed and feeling great by your trip in December, whatever the case may be. Make it as personal as possible. I was thinking of you and you've got to make sure that you give them that timeframe because if they can't do it or don't want to do it or whatever the case may be, then you need to know as quickly as possible so that you can move on to the next patient.

Alli (16:30):
Yes, absolutely.

Andrea (16:31):
Yeah. So that timeframe, creating that sense of urgency. One thing that I do want to throw into here as well is in this circumstance right here when you legitimately just have one of those cancellations or you have a reschedule or doc schedule changes, because we know that these patients have already told us that they'd be willing to move up, they're already on the schedule, we're looking to move them up, do not offer them discounts right out of the gate. Yes, they're doing us a favor if they do want to move up, but the whole discounting thing, there's only one instance in which you should be giving people discounts and this is not the one. Yes. So if they've already said," Yes, I'm committed to surgery. Yes, I'm already on the books and yes, if you have an opportunity, I would like to be considered to move up.

(17:19):
"Don't call them and be like, " Hey, we'll give you 20% off service fees if you blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. "You don't have to do that.

Alli (17:24):
Yeah. This is the gift to them. This is the extra service mile offering them this time. There doesn't need to be a monetary incentive tied with it.

Andrea (17:35):
This is the clap that we do when we like things, when we just have one hand and the other one's stuffed under our own pit. Perfect. I'm just sitting over here with... We're trying to crunch together here so that we can both be seen. Another thing that I would recommend is first call, call, leave them a voicemail. Most people do not answer their phone. Most people are busy. Most people, I mean, we just don't answer our phones anymore. So you can either send them a call or leave them a message because it is something that we want them to hear our voice, but then send them a text and just say," Hey, this is Allie from Dr. Camp's office or whoever, from whoever's office calling. I have a super great opportunity to potentially move you up. I just left you a voicemail, but give me a call back.

(18:22):
"Because most people, if we are in a meeting which - They'll text right back. They'll text right back," I'm in a meeting, I'll call you in two hours, "or whatever the case may be. At least then we're trying to get that. So don't just leave a voicemail and let it sit there because they might not answer it forever.

Alli (18:37):
Yeah. And I also, as you're doing that, make sure you're thoroughly notating. You want to notate in their chart that you called them from the cancellation list and offer them a certain date and if they accepted or declined, but also notate that directly on your cancellation list and your surgery availability sheet. Those are two lists that we should always be relying on as PCCs. So as soon as something opens up, I'll open that hour up on my surgery availability sheet, highlight it in bright yellow so I know I got to fill this, put in parentheses, offered to Jane Doe, and then right next to Jane Doe on the cancellation list, I'm also putting a note there, called at 12 o'clock on XYZ date and offered, told her, let me know by noon tomorrow, offered that date so that if she does decline it and you get another opportunity to call her, you remember it's right there on your list.

(19:27):
"Hey, no, I called you a few weeks ago and offered you this. I have another one." So it's not like - That's why the sky

Andrea (19:32):
Is falling.

Alli (19:33):
Yeah. We don't want to just keep calling the same people and just seeming ignorant to the fact that we've already offered them a few move-ups.

Andrea (19:39):
Exactly.

Alli (19:39):
And

Andrea (19:40):
I know it didn't work for you when we offered the last one and there also comes a point where hopefully it's not happening much and you're not calling people multiple times, but you definitely need to make record of that in their patient chart because any communication, you got to look back before you call them again so that you don't look like an idiot.

Alli (19:58):
Yes. Exactly.

Andrea (20:02):
I also want to just note obviously what we're talking about primarily here, well, solely here is surgical openings. I think it's a litle bit different, a lot different for the non-surgical stuff. I know both of us don't do a lot of the non-surgical, but I do work with a lot of practices that have a non-surgical component in their practice as well. Do you have any thoughts around patient cancels? Again, there should be a cancellation policy in place, so nobody's canceling the same day for X, Y, and Z procedure or treatment or Botox or filler or lasers or whatever. But if it does happen, do you have any thoughts around that as far as even maybe a same day

Alli (20:43):
Trying

Andrea (20:44):
To fill?

Alli (20:44):
I think a lot of that is having a concierge practice and knowing your patients well, knowing who's on the schedule for the upcoming weeks, knowing what their agenda typically looks like. If you've got a HydraFacial coming in in a few days that you know has a really flexible schedule and doesn't have much going on during the day, you could call someone like that because you know their availability. So that's really going to help. That's a lot of what happens at our practice is we know who to reach out to because we know who will slide into this having a cancellation list there too.

Andrea (21:17):
And usually in a lot of EMRs you can have a wait list,

Alli (21:20):
Especially

Andrea (21:21):
For... I wouldn't use the waitlist feature for the surgical stuff

Alli (21:24):
Because

Andrea (21:25):
It's just much more complex and you need to know a lot more about people, but for utilizing the EMRs for the wait list for non-surgical, I

Alli (21:32):
Think would be

Andrea (21:33):
A really good help too.

Alli (21:34):
Yeah. And I think having a cancellation policy that front office is just telling them about when they're scheduling the appointment like, "Hey, we're taking a deposit. This is going to be non-refundable within 72 hours of the visit. So just if you need to cancel or reschedule, let me know before then." Okay. Just really quick, just say no.

Andrea (21:52):
Don't

Alli (21:53):
Worry. Yeah. Don't

Andrea (21:53):
Forget about that. Exactly. Do you think this is on our little list of questions to ask for the surgical side, I don't think that this is as applicable, but do you think that there's a role that social media can play like posting we had a cancellation, do you think it actually works or do you think it backfires?

Alli (22:16):
I don't -

Andrea (22:17):
I have so many thoughts

Alli (22:18):
About this. Tell me. Yeah, I don't love it. I'm just thinking from more of a consumer perspective. I have my people that I follow that I love and when I see them open that up, I'm like, "Dang it, I wish I could snag that, but are you doing okay?" They'll post a story and it's like, these are my opening and there are three or four of them on there and I'm like, "Did something happen?" I'm a little

Andrea (22:39):
Worried - When they're very close in proximity

Alli (22:43):
To the date. I want to though say I just saw this reel a few days ago and it was a non-surgical practice and it was like your $100 deposit getting a facial because you didn't cancel within the policy and it's literally a hundred dollar bill on the facial table wrapped up in a towel and they're rubbing the one and I was like - Damn, that's funny. I don't really know if that would land well with the patients. Being the patient that's paid that $100 would be like, oh.That's bossy.

Andrea (23:21):
I don't even know what to say right now. They're like, "Here's your $100 getting massaged because you didn't follow our cancellation policy." That's kind of like slapping people in the face.

Alli (23:30):
It is a little weird. I

Andrea (23:31):
Mean, it's funny and it's not true.

Alli (23:35):
Yeah. Well, what are your thoughts on posting the last minute?

Andrea (23:40):
I mean, I've seen plastic surgeons say, "Hey," even for surgery, last minute availability in two weeks, but then they usually put a discount on it. It's like, "Come on, bro. Are you just slinging steaks on the side of the road?" Yeah. I mean, there are certain practices that everyone has a place in the market and there are Walmarts and there are Neiman Marcuses and depending on what type of practice that you're working in and the type of clientele that you're trying to attract, you could fill that spot, you could probably fill that spot. That's not typically the practices that you and I are working in. So it's not something that I would recommend to clients that I work with because we're just not generating that type of interest in client and I don't want to -

Alli (24:33):
You want to protect your existing patients as well. So you want to be very careful when you post something like that, that you reached out to every single person on that cancellation list and made contact with them and they told you that they cannot take it because there is a risk that they will see it and they'll be like, "Wait a second, I already paid these people money and I've been waiting for my surgery. What is going on? " That's a great point. I didn't even think

Andrea (24:56):
Of

Alli (24:56):
That. Yeah. You've got to think about everybody that's involved involved and who would be seeing that before you post something like that. Yeah.

Andrea (25:04):
Because then you could also have somebody who's scheduled for four weeks from then who paid full price that would call you up and be like, "Well, I'll take that spot if you'll give me a discount."

Alli (25:14):
Or, "I'll keep my spot. Can I have this discount because I saw it? "

Andrea (25:18):
Yeah, that's actually a really, really great point. Yeah, don't do that shit. I think the tier of practices of our listeners, at least from what I know about the hundreds and probably thousands of people that are listening here, they're not working in practices like that. So yeah, don't do that. I mean, I think for non-surgical, if you have a non-surgical provider who has a day that they have maybe a bunch of openings doing something sort of like a non-surgical flash sale, $2 off units of Botox, we have five appointments available, that's totally different than trying to fill one cancellation appointment that says, "Hey, trying to get in here on social media." I mean, I don't know. I haven't tested it. I can obviously make a judgment call about it, but for surgery, that's definitely not something that I would do.

(26:27):
Do you think that there's any way when we're talking to our patients that maybe they have scheduled further out in advance or maybe not scheduled and we know that it's nothing more than the financial aspect that is their holdup, do you think that there's any way that we can continue to just promote or provide payment plan options or something like PatientFi that would be able to help patients say, "You know what? I've gotten there." In my eyes, I feel like we've already done that so much at that point that they would've either been using it or not, but have there been any circumstances where that has been something that would be helpful?

Alli (27:16):
I haven't really seen that occur. Usually if they're booked a little bit further out, it's because of scheduling or they've got to move their kids into college and so they want to wait till after that. It's usually a reason of that sort. If they're paying cash, they're paying cash. If they're not paying cash, already got them going on patient vice and they've got that pre-planned before they even come in for their consultation. I don't really have something where it's like, "Hey, I need a little bit longer to save, so let's look a little bit further out. " I also, if somebody hasn't expressed urgency in moving up, I don't always recommend trying to go out of your way to move people up just for the longevity of your schedule, you're going to need them in September, you're going to need them in October. So if that's what works for their timeframe and they've already secured it, leave them there, they're planning for it and some people need that time just to mentally get there.

(28:14):
So that's kind of my take on that.

Andrea (28:17):
And then I would say the one instance where it could I think come in handy is if we get through our wait list and nobody's able to take that date, so then we're not to your point, I wouldn't just start soliciting people that are scheduled for October because if they wanted July, they would've said July and we should know our patients so well that we know why they want October.

Alli (28:39):
We

Andrea (28:39):
Know why they want November

Alli (28:41):
Because

Andrea (28:41):
Of the holidays, the extra time off, whatever the case may be.

(28:45):
So not just soliciting people to solicit them, but if we've made it through our wait list and we know we've talked to everybody, they're not able to move up, they've got family vacations, it's summer, kids are home, whatever the case is that's happening. I think the one instance that, and this is the only instance that I recommend utilizing a discount strategy and this is where PatientFi can come in handy is when we've consulted with patients, but for whatever reason or we've talked to them on the phone, they're just somewhere in our pipeline and they haven't moved forward with scheduling yet and we know that the reason is the financial aspect, reaching out to them and saying, "You know what? We had this rare opportunity come up, a patient had a family emergency, we have this opening in three weeks. I know that you really want to move forward, but you've just really been hesitating because of the investment.

(29:39):
Let's make sure that you get your pre-approval for your financing if they haven't already had it. " And then that is when you can give them a small discount to get them to fill that hole if nobody else.

(29:52):
So we've gone through our people that are paying full price. We've gone through our people that we know want to move up, we've gone through all these folks, but if we don't... We're then at the bottom of our barrel and then we can reach out to patients that we know the financial aspect and say, "We've gotten your pre-approval. This is what your monthly payment plans will look like. If you were to pay full price, but based on this fee reduction that we can give you as a courtesy to put you in this place that might be three weeks from now," which with surgery, they've got a lot of planning to do, they've got a lot of stuff to reschedule, but then you both win. You don't have empty time on your schedule and then they're still able to get the procedure. We can change their lives.

(30:30):
We can help them with everything and they get to do it at a little bit of a quote unquote discount or a free reduction so that we're not setting idle. Our surgeon is actually in the OR, patient gets what they need and it will fit a little bit better in their budget.

Alli (30:47):
Absolutely. I love that. I agree. That is the one time and that's how you would appropriately apply discounting. I love it.

Andrea (30:55):
Otherwise, you're really diminishing your brand and the real key to that too is building the value around this is a rare opportunity. We had such a great time. Dr. So - and-so loved you, loved meeting with you. We really think we're going to get a great result. We want to be able to help you. Here's an option. And you got to remember too, but you have to put a timeframe on it.

Alli (31:17):
Yes. Yeah.

Andrea (31:17):
I've got to know within 24 hours because if you don't want it, I do actually have two other patients that I wanted to offer it to, but I wanted to call you first because I know that you were so excited. We really want to be able to help you.

Alli (31:27):
Yes. And I get genuinely excited making that call. I'm like, "Oh my God, it's so nice to talk to you. I have something exactly what to tell you. " And they're super excited and they're like, "Oh." And it gets them excited as well for the quick turnaround. They're jazzed about it when you are like, "This is an opportunity. This is thrilling. This never happens, but I thought of you. " They're like, "Oh my goodness."

Andrea (31:52):
And that's really what you can... Mindset is everything in life and you can look at this as like a son of a bitch.

Alli (32:00):
I got to fill

Andrea (32:02):
This

(32:04):
Whatever. Or if you really know your patients and all the people that you've been working with, you can be like, "Oh, hell yeah. This is actually... Let me see if one of these ladies wants to move up because I know she's super stoked and if she can't, then I've got these couple patients that I know the investment was an issue. It was hard for them. So let's see. Talk to your surgeon. Of course, you've got to get approval to be able to give any discounts and all the things, but see if you can give that little bit of fee reduction, build the value around it, have a lot of excitement and you can still help people. Yes, totally. Which will actually take us into another thing that we'll talk about in another episode we're going to talk about today, which is planning ahead sometimes when we know that we're going to have some open spots.

(32:43):
But

Blake (32:43):
These

Andrea (32:44):
Cancellations, I think this has been really hopefully helpful for everybody listening. If you guys have comments or questions or say, "Well, what about this instance? What about that? " Just send us a message through practicelandpodcast.com. Allie and I love a lot of these questions that come up are things that I hear from clients, we hear from people, the feedback that you guys are giving us.

Alli (33:04):
And if anyone has any questions on how to properly document and put those lists together, do ask those questions as well because I think that that's what the success boils down to is just how you formulate the lists and the tracking and it just should really be simple once you have that wet oil machine.

Andrea (33:20):
Yeah, for sure. Process is everything. All right, guys. Well, thank you so much for listening to me and Allie in my small little office here. We're having a blast today, so we're excited and hope to have you back next Tuesday so that we can share some more information and help you guys all. Bye. Bye guys.

Blake (33:39):
Got a wild customer service story or a sticky patient situation? Send us a message or voicemail. If your tale makes it into our sheeted what segment, we'll send a thank you gift you'll actually love. Promise, no cheap swag here.

Andrea (33:51):
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.