If you’re a doctor that offers medically necessary services paid out of pocket before a deductible is met or because they’re considered cosmetic, I bet someone has asked you how much a procedure costs. And I’ll double my bet if you fit in this category and you show your results on social media. As soon as you post your before and after results, one of your followers asks, “how much does this cost?” Does this scenario sound familiar?
The right way to answer “how much a procedure costs”
Sure you could simply answer the follower’s question and give them a dollar figure. But what if the price is more than they were expecting? They’ll just dismiss the idea of coming to see you. And since you don’t have their contact info, you can’t follow up to answer more specific concerns about their needs. You certainly can’t have an open conversation on social media for obvious reasons. One is the HIPAA risk but also, you don’t want to start providing consults to everyone on your Instagram or Facebook feed.
The right way to answer a consumer’s question about pricing is to get their contact information first. Then follow up with them offline (or off social media) for a more personal and patient-specific conversation. But how do you get their contact info for follow up?
Well as you’ll see in the video below, this doctor got it right. Dr. Rich Castellano is a facial plastic surgeon in the Tampa Bay Area and he’s known as Dr. Smile or @realsmiledr on Instagram or ImageLift on Facebook.
In the video, he’s performing filler injections via Facebook Live. And not just once, but three times during the injection session, he was asked how much the procedure cost. Again, he could’ve just listed the price three times in response to the question. Instead, he directed them to his Price Estimator on his website so the follower could check for themselves. However, for the follower to see the cost, they have to first enter their contact information. Armed with the consumer’s contact info, the office staff can follow up and answer their questions and address their concerns. Can’t do that with a vague social media handle!
In the same video, you’ll see where a patient asks via Instagram how much a Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) and Breast Augmentation combo procedure costs. If we simply answered her question, the most we would have is her Instagram handle. But to go to her Instagram page and start asking follow up questions is a bit stalker-ish. She’s probably ok with us answering her questions on our page but probably not ok with us pestering her on her Instagram page.
That’s the secret to the internet. Minimize the number of clicks for the consumer to get from “I know what I want” to “here’s how I get it.”
Since we recommended she go to the Price Estimator on our site, we instead received her name, email address and phone number after she provided her contact info in exchange for real-time pricing information. And since she contacted us, provided her contact information, opted in to receiving emails from us, she’s given us permission to follow up.
Video: How to answer pricing questions on social media
One more small detail to make the consumer’s life easier. Instead of giving them a link to go to a Price Estimator and then forcing them to scroll through all of the procedures to find the procedure they’re looking for, give them a deep link. A deep link brings them to the specific procedure they want to know pricing for without all of the searching. In this example, the deep link takes the patient directly to the BBL/breast aug procedure listing. That’s the secret to the internet. Minimize the number of clicks for the consumer to get from “I know what I want” to “here’s how I get it.”
So doctors, don’t give the milk away for free. Embrace price transparency. But do it in a way that benefits both the patient and you by clicking here and requesting a BuildMyBod provider account. Consumers, click here to check pricing from a doctor near you.
Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.
