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#14: Why Online Booking is Essential for Med Spa Success

Description

In this strategic episode of Medical Millionaire, host Cameron Hemphill explains why online booking capabilities are no longer optional for medical spas. Drawing from extensive industry experience and data analytics, learn why adapting to changing consumer behaviors is crucial for practice growth. Key insights include:

  • Understanding modern consumer booking preferences and behaviors
  • Implementing effective online booking systems that increase conversion rates
  • Selecting the right booking software with essential features like payment processing
  • Integrating booking capabilities across all digital platforms (website, social media, etc.)
  • Using heat map data to optimize the booking experience

Perfect for medical spa owners and practitioners who want to stay competitive in an increasingly digital marketplace. Discover why practices that resist online booking are losing potential clients and how to choose the right system for your business. Features real-world success stories and practical implementation strategies.

Transcript: 

Hey everybody.

Cameron Hemphill, here your host for medical millionaire. First off, I want to thank you for listening to our podcast. Our goal is to give value and insight into the medical spa market, my team and I, we’ve consulted some of the top medical spa owners all over the country for years. I mean, we see businesses that are absolutely thriving, and we see ones that need serious help.

So in this journey together, we want to help you take your practice to the next level.

And in this episode, I want to get into online booking and why it’s here to stay. I talked to a lot of medical spa owners that actually don’t have online booking. And of course, here at Growth99, we’re a digital marketing company.

We build websites, and we constantly encourage that, and it’s not in the sense of what we want or what you want, but really when we’re talking to buyer behavior, right?

So, so we’re talking to consumer confidence, consumer behavior, activity, and if you can get out of the mindset in terms of, you know, what do you want, or how is it best self navigated for the practice, versus how is it best self navigated for the consumer or client, this is what’s going to get you in a position to win for your clients.

So it’s not in the sense of, you know what we want, but it’s what we want to offer to make best ease of use for the consumer. And we have looked at a lot of the data points when it comes to hot sheets, where people are clicking on on websites, and most of the time they’re clicking on the Services page, they’re clicking on the book now page, the booking page, and then they’re actually inquiring of an appointment.

And we see this more and more, and we actually do engage with quite a few medical spa owners that don’t have online booking, and they actually steer away from it. But I’m sure that most of the audience we’re talking to has an Amazon account and does that online shopping without communicating with somebody, or I don’t even know if you can call Amazon, so they want to be able to pull up their phone, maybe pull up your Instagram page, maybe go to a link tree account, or have your website, your call to action and your Instagram page, click on that link self, navigate to your services page and what they can click on and book that appointment on the day and time that best suits their needs, right? So it’s definitely here to stay.

And if it’s something that you are not doing and you’re kind of thinking of and you’re just not there yet, I would encourage you to take a step back and implement this strategy. There’s a lot of online booking technology out there that you can leverage, some more expensive than others, some more robust than others. But the key takeaway is this is definitely something valuable that you’re going to want to incorporate inside of your practice.

And so again, when you’re when you’re thinking of, for example, booking a vacation, right? You’re going to the internet. Like, everybody’s going to the internet, going to the internet, and they want the easiest path of least resistance, and they’re doing what’s flexible for them. Like, unfortunately, this world is changing at such a rapid pace, and I feel like time is speeding up that we almost have less time in there, and we wear so many hats.

For example, you know, being a business owner, being a husband, being a father, you know, wearing multiple roles throughout the day. You only have such little time to really engage and so kind of doing these extra curricular activities in the sense of your consumer, right? They’re they’re seeking a service that’s going to self improve self confidence, right?

And so although they want to do that, if you can make it as easy as possible on them, you’re going to increase your bookings, you’re going to increase your conversion rates, and you’re ultimately going to grow your practice. Okay, so let’s get into to how you can implement this. And again, there’s lots of tools out there. Square is quite popular. You know, you have patient now you have esthetics record, by the way, growth 99 plus, which is our platform, will be.

Release very soon, which will have appointments. And I’m also very keen on the ability to book an appointment and have the consumer pay for that appointment right at checkout before they actually come in and render services. For one, it speeds up time for the consumer, and for two, it speeds up time for you, and it helps the front desk. And so basically that service is already rendered prior to them coming in, and what is that going to do?

Like they’re going to show up to that appointment at a much higher rate because they know they’ve already paid for it. And depending on your policy or cancelation policy, I know that every practice is different, but if you can get them to actually render the service up front, then your conversion rates go up, right? So find a really good software program out there that has the functionality of creating an appointment online, ease of use, something that has a really nice, good interface, flexible.

It has an appointment builder in there, a time builder in there, maybe someone that they can select the injector of choice or the provider of choice in that case, and even location based, so I would say ease of use, location based, provider based, and then also day and Time centric, along with the ability to book and render meaning, Process Payment online.

Those would be the ones that I would say would be the best to incorporate within the practice. And you know, what I’m also seeing is, is some of the EMRs like don’t have the best appointment system. I’m seeing some medical spot owners that are using an appointment system, and then they’re actually like, pushing that data into their EMR system, because the EMR systems are so focused on charting and other aspects and features within their environment that they haven’t put a ton of development into the online booking, which I would argue is the most important point of entry for any potential client.

And rebooking of a client like we live around appointments, you’re doing appointments all day long, and so that clock while it’s running that that is your revenue generation time and so I would argue that that is actually the most valuable point entry when you’re bringing somebody in.

So again, there’s lots of options out there. Definitely have the ability to book appointments everywhere, websites, Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, every single social component, every single landing page, even if you have you know, like quick links or text message sends outs have that ability and so why most successful practices I see do this, they understand that it’s not about their comfort zone.

It’s about the comfort zone for their clients, they understand their audience, and they listen and talk to their audience, and then they overall, they collect and take that feedback, and they’re very agile and quick at making decisions and moving forward and implementing strategies to make the online booking experience as great as it possibly can be for their clients.

Okay, so if this is something that you have thought about and have not implemented, or it’s something that you have in place and maybe the experience to the end consumer is not that great, now is the time to kind of check in, ask your clients what they what they want.

Do, Hey, would you enjoy having online booking or what do you think about our online booking experience? How did you book with us today? Take that feedback, take notes, and then have internal company meetings around that, and seek the best technology that’s gonna deliver to what the consumer wants. Right? This is exactly what all of the big, major companies do, is they want to know what the end user experience is like. And I know that’s kind of like, I like a techie word, but again, that’s, that’s what is working in this space.

Like, great example, look at Airbnb. I’m sure that there’s a lot of people that are listening to this episode that have booked an Airbnb. Have you ever called Airbnb to book a specific place in a specific area? No, you get online, you conduct a search. You zero in on the place you want, you zero in on the features the home you want, and then you inquire, and you book the day and time and pay right there, right?

So why is Airbnb growing at such a fast pace? It’s because they’ve built a solution that’s tailored to what the end user wants, right? So that’s the type of mindset that I definitely want to see people get into, and that’s what I see very, very successful practices do. Okay? So number one, obviously, online booking, it’s here to stay.

Definitely incorporate it. Number two, make sure that the online booking software you use has the correct features and user experience that’s going to tailor to your audience. Okay? So if not implemented, you will definitely start falling behind and losing potential customers. Okay, again, think about it. When you’re thinking about how you go throughout your day. Have you ever been in a position where you said, You know what, I’m not going to shop there anymore because it’s kind of a pain, like, maybe you, like, the the actual place that you’re shopping, but it’s become a pain over time that you said, you know, it’s just, I actually tried another place down the road, and it was so easy for me that I’m actually just gonna change, right? Has that ever happened to you?

Like, like, take a step back and realize that so if it’s something that you’re not doing, and let’s say that you know you have a very loyal clientele, which I know that most of you do, and they just, for whatever reason, decide to try out another medical practice and medical spa because They’ve heard good things about somebody else’s specific trade, and depending on the experience like point of entry, from online search to online booking, if it was easier to do, the chances of losing that client actually go up quite high.

And so definitely, this is something that is here to stay. Please implement it. And I can tell you, we have one practice that always just kind of sticks out in my mind, very successful practice. And they have an online booking software that works really, really well. It’s not their EMR software, it’s just a straight booking software.

I won’t disclose the name because, you know, it’s kind of how they run their business, but the software of choice works extremely well from an end consumer standpoint, and that’s how that software was designed. And so in terms of looking at the heat maps on where people are clicking on their website, I can pull that up, and I can compare it to all the other websites we manage, and they have the highest conversion rates, and we drill into where actually every user is clicking, and the reason why is because of the speed to book and again, like our attention spans aren’t as long as they used to be, unfortunately, and that’s just the world that we live in. And so that’s a success story.

Like, make sure you pick the right online booking software and then have that software have like, what is called as an API, an application protocol interface that will push that data to your charting system, your EMR system, and then push to like, you know, drip campaign system, marketing automation, CRM stuff like that.

But again, point of entry that online booking is here to stay. All right, everybody, thank you for listening to medical millionaire again. My name is Cameron Hemphill. If you found this content valuable, please share it.

Keep the conversation going. Head into iTunes and leave us a five star rating and review. Additionally, you can visit www.growth99.com to learn how we can assist you with your marketing coaching and technology needs.

Until next time. Happy injecting, you.

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Client Relationship Management

Streamline your practice with our powerful
customer relationship management tools.

Online Appointment & Payments

Simplify scheduling and transactions with
seamless online booking and payment.

Client Messaging & Automation

Elevate your client communication with
messaging and marketing automation.

5-Star Review Generator

Boost your online reputation with our
innovative review generator.

Web Design & Hosting

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customer relationship management tools.

Digital Paid Advertising Management

Streamline your practice with our powerful
customer relationship management tools.

Search Engine Optimization

Streamline your practice with our powerful
customer relationship management tools.

Social Media Graphic Design

Streamline your practice with our powerful
customer relationship management tools.

Client Relationship Management

Streamline your practice with our powerful
customer relationship management tools.

Online Appointment & Payments

Simplify scheduling and transactions with
seamless online booking and payment.

Client Messaging & Automation

Elevate your client communication with
messaging and marketing automation.

5-Star Review Generator

Boost your online reputation with our
innovative review generator.