Building an Effective Loyalty Program for your Practice

Tami Vileta

So memberships is a tactic to get to loyalty, and referrals is a loyalty behavior. So when you look at the things that you want a loyal patient to do, um, you want them to come in more, you want to get more of their wallet, you want them to refer other patients, you want them to come to your event, you want them to bring friends. There's a bunch of things that you want a loyal patient to do — referrals one of them. But loyalty, to me, if we're talking about the hierarchy and the structure, that's what we're after.

Max Baybak

All right, hello everyone, welcome back to the pod. I'm very excited about today's guest. Today I'm going to be chatting with someone who has worked in the realm of brand strategy and visual design for 30-plus years, and she has spent the last 22 of those years focused on providing creative services to the field of aesthetic medicine.

So we here at Influx have had the pleasure of collaborating with her and her team on a number of our clients, and every time we do, I feel like it's one of those one plus one equals three types of situations, where our job is made infinitely easier and the final product is truly elevated as a result of her involvement. So needless to say, I'm looking forward to learning more from her today. She's the founder and creative director of Pinpoint Strategic Communications, Tami Vileta. Thank you so much for joining us today, Tami.

Tami Vileta

Thank you so much for having me. Appreciate it.

Max Baybak

Yeah, I've been wanting to do this for a long time. There's a number of topics I'd love to chat with you about, and I think we even kind of — um, I want to have you back on, because I want to focus today on a particular subject, and then we can unpack some of those other topics on a future show.

But for anyone who doesn't know about you or about Pinpoint, I think it'd be great to give our audience a little primer. Um, you know, in my view you have sort of a unique agency, I would say, in terms of the things that you specialize in. I just took this snippet from your site, and let's see, I put it here where I said, um, "Pinpoint is a Seattle-based marketing agency specializing in brand development, loyalty marketing, event promotion, email marketing, collateral development and integrated campaigns."

So we've collaborated with you on nearly all those types of projects — maybe not every single one — and there's a lot of synergies there for us with the services that you specialize in. So it's been fantastic to be able to send our clients to someone who really specializes in certain things that are not necessarily our core, and vice versa.

But today, you know, I specifically wanted to pick your brain about the subject of loyalty marketing. But that's it — before we dive in, I kind of got off subject, because I wanted everyone to kind of — I wanted you to give us a little background about yourself and Pinpoint, and maybe kind of how you and Pinpoint got into the field of aesthetics.

Tami Vileta

Yeah, it was by chance. Um, so this is going to really date me: I answered an ad in a newspaper in 1999, because somebody here in the Seattle area needed a designer to support her agency in the aesthetic space. And so ever since 1999 I've been working in aesthetics. In 2007 I started my own business, and we've grown since then.

We are a unique niche. Um, Pinpoint — I feel like it's so lovely for practices to have kind of that double-edged sword, so they have an amazing digital marketing web company, which is 100% vital and necessary, that brings in the patient acquisition piece of their business. But there isn't really an agency out there to support what happens after a patient is sitting in your chair, uh, and they need to become a lifetime patient, or nurtured to become a lifetime patient. And that's really where we focus and hang our hat.

We're a branding agency at heart. That's where we begin every project, whether it is a one-off — "can you create me, you know, a direct mail piece" — or if it's a full brand strategy, we come at it with the perspective of brand, and how to curate it, how to make it better, wherever we enter the pipeline. And we are mobilized more on those things that happen after a patient has come in your door. So those naturally become things like your events, your email marketing, your membership programs, educating patients, delighting them, you know, doing activities like that.

And there aren't really a ton of agencies in the space that have the vernacular, that, you know, the experience — know all the treatments, know all the devices, know, you know, all the nuances of the aesthetic industry. So it's a really nice fit. And because we're not a threat, um, we tend to really collaborate well with, um, you know, digital marketing companies and website companies, because we help to, you know, raise the bar for the client. That's what we do, and we love it. We do everything custom, we don't have any templates, we do it at an agency level and write, design and strategize every project from start to finish.

Max Baybak

That's a fantastic summary, and I love the way you put it in terms of everything that kind of follows on from after patient acquisition to make that patient a lifetime patient. And so, yep, loyalty fits into that really, really fantastically, logically.

And a lot of what we've collaborated with you on, as you said — you're a branding agency at heart — a lot of what we've collaborated on is the branding side. There's obviously a ton of synergy there, but it's more than just the website. When you've done a full brand strategy for a client, that's something that we can communicate to our entire team, and it really helps to have consistency and a strategy across all of the marketing, down to: who are we really talking to, who are we really targeting, who are those personas? It's really fantastic to have.

And we've done that kind of stuff, we certainly understand it, but I actually think it's better to have an outside perspective than the people who are actually going to be executing. And then obviously, you know, I've got to sit in on some of your branding sessions, and you go way more in depth, and I love — it's been really fun to sit in on some with clients where you can kind of deep dive into their brand, into their why, into so many things that really are useful to have all laid out in one cohesive strategy, for a number of reasons, both visually and strategically in the marketing.

So that's almost a whole other episode that I kind of want to do with you at some time, talking about branding. But yeah, I'm obsessed recently, especially, with kind of the whole loyalty slash membership marketing space, and the potential that I see for it within aesthetics. And while there are definitely some practices embracing it, I think we're still very early in terms of adoption by the industry, and I think a big reason for that is the challenges that are kind of caused by siloed databases and software systems, which we can get into more later. But recently I've noticed that there are some more software companies moving into the space looking to help solve these issues.

Um, but just — and I think there's a lot of potential here, and being that it's something that you and Pinpoint specialize in, I want to pick your brain about it. But just to zoom way out for a minute: I think there are a number of subjects within this thing that we call loyalty marketing that are similar but not truly the same, and that people get a little bit conflated. Um, I'm sort of trying to coin this initialism of LRM, or LRMS — bear with me — loyalty, membership, referral, and sometimes subscription. It's kind of like A-E-I-O-U and sometimes Y. Um, subscription is really quite different, but also has its overlaps with the others.

And I think it's important to kind of — the reason I think it's kind of interesting to lay out those four things is because I do think people kind of get them mixed up. So tell me, do you think I'm balling things up too much, or how do these different things break down in your mind? You know, starting from loyalty being sort of the main piece, and then loyalty, referral, membership, and then we can put the subscription aside — I think it just has some overlap in it.

Tami Vileta

Yeah. So the loyalty, I think, is the overarching — if you were to do a 30,000-foot umbrella, patient loyalty or customer loyalty is what you're after. That's what, you know, modifies and changes behavior, and, you know, makes people champions and go out and be your marketing arm. So getting a patient to loyal is the first thing you need to do, and there's a number of different ways, um, that you do that, and one of them is a loyalty program. But it's certainly not everything. I mean, your customer service, your patient satisfaction, the way that, um, you know, your practice looks — I mean, there's so many different components that go into patient loyalty. Your results, not to mention.

Um, but loyalty is the overarching strategy. Memberships is kind of the tactical way that you could achieve loyalty. Um, it's more of a — and when we talk about, you know, the different styles of programs that can be put together, memberships, um, are traditionally something that, you know, require a commitment, foster repeat or recurring revenue, um, also adopt trial for different services.

So memberships is a tactic to get to loyalty, and referrals is a loyalty behavior. So when you look at the things that you want a loyal patient to do, um, you want them to come in more, you want to get more of their wallet, you want them to refer other patients, you want them to come to your event, you want them to bring friends. There's a bunch of things that you want a loyal patient to do — referrals is one of them. But loyalty, to me, if we're talking about the hierarchy and the structure, that's what we're after in patients, and the way that we go about doing that — um, we have some strategies that accomplish that. Does that make sense?

Max Baybak

I was just gonna say, I think that's such a nice, clear, uh, succinct breakdown. Loyalty is what we're after, membership is a means to arriving at loyalty, and referral is a loyalty behavior. I love that, so clearly broken down. And then, I know I'm possibly getting far afield lumping in subscription, but to me it's just also that commitment, like membership. That's really the truth of it, right? So it's just another way to slice it, but it's really a tactic.

Tami Vileta

Yeah.

Max Baybak

Yeah, it really helps me even to clearly break it down. This is not something I'm an expert in by any means, it's just something I'm interested in. I have a lot of thoughts about it. I think I might — as, you know, someone who is, um, a professional marketer and always a student of marketing, I have a lot to say about it, but I don't yet know what is really the right tactics at different levels of practices for referrals. So — and but I just see it as an opportunity, I'm sorry, for loyalty.

So I love breaking this down, and you're already making it even clearer for me. Tell me something: so how did you — is there a story or a background to how Pinpoint, how you decided to have, uh, loyalty be something that Pinpoint would specialize in?

Tami Vileta

Yeah. Um, there is kind of a story. It really evolved over the expanse of about 12 years. So we tend to have long-standing clients, we keep our clients for a long time, and about — oh, 12 years ago, Dr. Louis Bucky, who is in Philadelphia, he's now got up to four practices, um, he asked us to design and market his first loyalty program. He, to his credit, engineered that program, he created the value proposition, and he needed help and our support to brand it, make it sizzle, make it look sexy, make it look retail, and bring it to his patient base so that they would be aware that it was being offered.

Um, so that was the first one that we launched, and still running today. Um, it's evolved over the, you know, the last decade, and it's different today than it was then. But, you know, over time we tend to market or share the work that we do, and another practice asked us to, you know, help them launch their program, and we got into it with, you know, probably a dozen or so practices, just doing the marketing side of things — that branding and marketing piece that we do.

And as business started to come in and grow, we started to recognize that practices really needed help. They weren't as sophisticated as some of the, you know, the first practices or the early adopters. They didn't know how to write the value proposition, what to include in a loyalty program, um, you know, how to make members stay members over time and not, you know, have attrition, how to, you know, accomplish some of the more strategic elements, um, of loyalty marketing. And we just noticed a niche, that, you know, this industry really wanted to grow in this area. It was a tremendous opportunity, um, because it just completely makes sense for the types of treatments and the types of patients that you all have, to do something like this.

And so we decided we'd just educate ourselves, um, and so we sought out training in the field of loyalty, and we ran across an entity called The Wise Marketer, who is a global organization, and they really do run some of the largest programs in the country — or their members do. So, you know, Alaska Airlines, REI — you know, these are legacy enterprise huge loyalty programs. And we sought out CME accreditation so that we could learn the back end of the loyalty program offering, um, so that we could add value to that side of the conversation, because practices really needed it and needed the support.

And we do that in conjunction with practice consultants, and we work with many of them, um, and, you know, their input is really valued there as well, from the financial side. But that's how we really got into being able to round out our offering and not just focus on the marketing and the sexy piece of it, but helping practices get on down the road to how to structure their programs, how to write them, and how to help them find technology that's going to — if they don't have it already in the practice — benefit running the back end of those programs, which is a huge issue.

Max Baybak

Right. I think it's such an interesting niche, and I haven't seen anyone else really doing it. I'm not sure if it occurs to people — perhaps if they've been through it, but if they're just deciding, if they're just setting out to set up a loyalty program, I'm not sure if it occurs to them that they might need so much guidance. A lot of what's out there is, um — and like I said earlier, I'm seeing more of them, there's software companies that are players moving into the space to offer the system, the technology on which to run it. But I think most people might think that, I have someone in my practice, whether that's a practice manager or a marketing manager or somebody else, and then we have this software, and we can put it together. And you might be able to do that.

But I think there's so many variables, there's so many different ways to do it, there's so much strategy that goes into it, which you might want to adjust that strategy depending on your practice's, you know, unique qualities and goals. And so I think, like so many things especially within marketing, you can get overwhelmed with decisions. So it's really helpful to have someone who's walked this path and said, okay, we know what to do here — oh, you're trying to do this, here's what we've seen be successful — also to be agnostic on the technology side, so that you can help them find something that fits into their workflow, into the software, into the EMR and practice management software systems that they're already using, and to really just almost be a consultant with a marketing mind and all that experiential track, to sit down and go, let's point you in the right direction. Because I would imagine many people fail on this just due to the sheer overwhelm of decision-making points that there are, right?

Tami Vileta

It's a barrier. You know, like, they know they should do it, but getting over that hump of what do we put in it, you know, and how, and then how do we market it — that's just such a barrier.

Max Baybak

Yeah. And how do you include things that, um, are natural consumer or human behaviors, instead of having too high a barrier — setting too high a barrier — and maybe having your expectations a little bit disappointed? I've seen it with things like, um, not really in aesthetics but in other spaces, people do social media giveaways and contests, and, um, you know, it seems simple, but they've asked the person to do way too much, and it just falls flat, right? So, um, you really need to understand that stuff. I would think, you know, the subtleties of how far is too far and what's just the right amount of action to ask a person to take, and so forth.

So I can imagine all of that being really, really valuable. Let me ask you this: when a practice approaches you wanting to put together a membership program or a loyalty program, what would you say they're typically trying to solve for? And then, how do you measure the success of the program against those goals that they initially set out to accomplish? So it's kind of a two-part question, but let's break down the first part — what do they come to you wanting? What is it they want to solve or accomplish by putting this together?

Tami Vileta

A lot of them simply are wanting to meet patient demand. So patients are asking, do you have a membership program, you know, especially their best patients. And it's a really amazing stat — I mean, I forget what it is, I think it's like 60 — or no, no, I'm sorry, 30% of patients, actually, or customers, leave the businesses that they do business with annually just because they don't offer enough in terms of patient loyalty. That's a pretty compelling fact. So patients are asking for it. They want a membership or a loyalty program in exchange for that loyalty behavior you're after.

And also, I think practices are looking for a way to differentiate themselves and to be different in the marketplace, to have something that they can offer that isn't a huge capital expenditure — it's not like going out and buying a new, you know, medical device — and that gives them an edge over other companies in their market region.

And also, I think practices are looking for a way to not continually get in that discount treadmill, and, you know, be rifling out, you know, promotion after promotion after promotion, when you can just have something that's super simple and easy that rewards patients for their, um, their, you know, patronage over time. And when you bundle it in a loyalty program versus when you just do, you know, promotions, it looks so much sexier and so much better and so much on brand for you, when you can put together a loyalty program that offers patients value-add versus, hey, we're going to slash our prices 50% on something. It looks completely different, it looks put together, and it looks like you've really thought it out.

So I would say those are the top three reasons: patients are asking for it, it gives you a competitive advantage, and it allows you to not have to get on that discount treadmill and do something different.

Max Baybak

That's a really nice way to summarize it. And I know what you mean by, it looks so much more compelling sort of packaged up, instead of these disparate offers kind of flying in all directions. If you take the classic examples of loyalty, whether it be in the airline space, um, especially where they have these Captain's Club or whatever it's called, um, you know, sort of special perks and benefits, that can be a very different look than — often just looks more elevated to me. It looks much more elevated, like, um, you're really offering something of extraordinary value versus discounting.

Tami Vileta

Yeah.

Max Baybak

Makes sense. So you said patients often want it. What have you found the patients want from a loyalty program, and how do you work with the practice to sort of frame the value proposition? Like, what's the summary — if I'm a patient, I walk in, I want to tell you about our loyalty program, what's the one line or the elevator pitch?

Tami Vileta

So I'm going to go to that question about what patients want from a loyalty program, because I speak on this quite a bit, and we actually have six things that we tell practices patients want from a loyalty program. Um, and you need to really kind of pay attention to all of them. They're all super important, and some of them are surprising.

And the first one is simplicity and ease. Patients don't have the time to really, you know, spend with a convoluted program value proposition. We want to make sure that it's quick to understand, they can see the value right away, and, you know, even in the case of actually just showing them the mental math — you know, showing them in a mathematical equation, this is what you're going to save, or this is how you're going to benefit over a year. They want it to be simple. If you can do that with a technology, if your EMR — and we can talk about this in a second — is integrated with a technology solution that brings it into an app or some sort of a, you know, way that is technology-based, that's a plus. But if it has to be, you know, outside of an app, that's fine too. But just make it simple, um, for the patient. Making it simple — simplicity and ease is super important.

The next thing that they really want is a delightful and differentiated experience with your practice every single time. You have to realize that when you have elevated a patient to a member or part of a loyalty program, that they expect the bar to be raised a little bit for them. And other programs in the world, in the sphere that they experience, are setting that bar higher. So REI, you know, Sephora, Starbucks — those are the programs that patients are also participating in, and you have to realize that their expectation of that delivery of service has been raised, and they just expect it every single time from you. So that raises that whole customer service piece a little higher.

Um, they're looking for superior value. So when I work with practices, I always try to explain there's really two different sides to loyalty. There is the side that is all based on the transaction, or the rational side of the brain, the value side — so they're looking for deals. If they're going to be loyal, they want savings for sure, or value-add. And they also want the other side of the loyalty equation, and that side of the brain that's looking for an emotional connection with the brand. And that's more, how do you recognize me, how do you make me feel, how do I feel part of your community?

And so there's two pieces to that loyalty equation, and oftentimes practices miss that other side. And actually there's been data in studies that show that the emotional side of loyalty is actually more important now today, especially as more millennials get into the mix, than the actual value or the rational, transactional side. So they're looking for those two things: value and recognition, or status.

They want variety and options. Not everybody wants to get their points or spend their value in the same way, and programs that allow me to have a choice of how I spend my loyalty dollars, or spend my perks and incentives, um, do better than those that are kind of siloed into one area.

And then the last thing that they really want is a deeper and more personalized engagement with your brand over time. I mean, they're becoming part of your community, your champions, and they want that deeper engagement. And I think where a lot of practices miss the mark is they will launch a program and they will do like, pick all the boxes — okay, we'll market it this way, and we'll actually do the 10 marketing pieces that you suggest we do — and then they don't do anything with their members after, and they've launched the program.

And if you really look at the best programs in the world, and they're doing extraordinarily well — I mean, if they put them on their spreadsheets, you know, in their financials at the end of the year — you know, they're engaging those members. They're doing something at least every, you know, 90 days. You know, you should be communicating with your members every 90 days, but it should really be every 30, with something different, um, with ways to engage them so that they stay in the program and that they see value from it.

So those are the things that we tell people, um, that patients are looking for, because it's no different than what they look for from any loyalty program. And the stats are really compelling. You know, um, if you were to ask any person in the audience, or, you know, in the world today, how many membership programs you belong to, the data says 15, but actually you're only active in five. And so your practice, if you launch a loyalty strategy, is fighting to be among one of those five programs that the patient is going to actively participate in. And so ticking all the boxes of what patients are looking for is really important.

Max Baybak

That's really valuable insight. I particularly like the breakdown of the value side and the emotional side, and I agree, because, um, just anecdotally, I agree that people tend to get caught up — they hear loyalty and they just immediately think discount or value, and they forget how important that other side is. And that goes back to, um, some of the examples I gave, where you get to be a part of kind of an exclusive club, or get certain perks, and that is how you're treated, how you're perceived, how you may be coming through a different door, whatever that is that makes a person feel pretty special.

And also, talking about, like you said, the big players, they reported in their quarterly financials and things like that, as you mentioned, big, big companies of the world. And in many cases, going again to the airline example, I think oftentimes that's a big part of how those companies are valued, is their membership base, because it's such a currency.

Tami Vileta

Yeah, holy cow. I mean, I'm an Alaska Airlines member — my loyalty to that airline is insane. I mean, I don't fly any other airline or their partners. I belong to their lounge, you know, I take advantage. They do a lot of great emotional-side benefits, they use partners in their program, they do so many things right, and it's completely changed my behavior. I don't fly any other airline or their partners anymore, period. I put everything that I spend on my Alaska Airlines card. I've drank the Kool-Aid, I absolutely love them. And that's why people put loyalty programs together, period. It changes behavior, period. And so I'm sure you have an example.

Max Baybak

Well, I do have examples, but I'm thinking that just from a bigger look, this is another way to look at loyalty that's important for people to think about. You spend X amount of dollars to acquire a customer — in our case, to acquire a patient. The nominal follow-on cost of loyalty to retain them should be kind of a no-brainer. And there are definitely businesses where the entire play is retention, and that's how all these businesses are looking at — Alaska Airlines in your example. It's well worth it to them, they've got you. If they can now make a smaller investment, probably, than they initially have to, to get you in the first place, to keep you and get that lifetime value, that's a no-brainer.

And it's obviously — and I think as we see aesthetics moving more and more non-surgical and more and more into these repeat procedures — you know, in the case of surgery, there are studies I've seen that, you know, people will typically get as many as three surgeries in a lifetime. You can kind of walk through the beats of the various points in their life where they would get the different types of surgeries, so there can be recurring there. But when we're talking about the recurring that comes with non-surgical, it just is really logical to look at how you can retain after you've spent the money up front to win them in the first place, and to have them have that — um, that's just the way you just spoke about your loyalty with that airline, you would never use anyone else.

Be fantastic if practices could get their patients — and we have a lot of fantastic practices whose patients are super loyal just, whether it be some sort of a program they're doing, or just that, like you said towards the beginning, it's everything: the way your practice looks, the way they feel when they walk in, the way your staff treats them, the level of service. So people have that, but to make, um, a concerted effort to increase that I think is obviously a no-brainer.

But I have some more questions for you about it. Um, one thing, going back real quick to the referral side: one thing that seems crazy obvious to me that I don't see too much of the industry doing — it's happening more — but is incentivizing patients to make referrals. And we know that word of mouth is easily the best form of marketing, so it's a no-brainer to pair your loyalty rewards with some kind of referral reward, um, provided you have some kind of software to track it. So do you have systems that you recommend to your clients for incentivizing and keeping track of the referral side of loyalty? As you said earlier, it's a loyalty behavior, so maybe it comes at a certain point that they make that ask. But is that something you incorporate there?

Tami Vileta

Yeah, we always incorporate referrals into our program. How they're executed depends on the back end and how they're running their program, and also on their region, because some places, you know, have a little bit of a different challenge in rewarding for referrals than others, and so we kind of have to be, you know, careful on how we craft the value proposition there. Um, but typically how we would do it, if a software piece can manage it — so should we talk a little bit about some software that does?

Max Baybak

Yeah, if there's any that you think you like, or if you think it's more that you have to kind of assess each practice one by one and make referrals — or sorry, make a recommendation. But whatever you want to dive into.

Tami Vileta

So the first question when we do a loyalty discovery call for a practice is usually, what EMR are you on? Um, it makes the most sense that you run a loyalty program that's tied to your patient chart, and so right away we can know. Well, if you're on PatientNow, you know, they have the capability to do basically anything, any type of program, whether it's a membership or a buy-in or, you know, prepaid card or points and, you know, tiers — they can do it all. So then we kind of know we have everything at our disposal.

Um, if they were to say something like Nextech, we know, okay, you're integrated with Remembership, which is a loyalty platform that has an app that makes referrals super easy, to rifle out, um, distinct patient codes that make it super easy for a patient to just send or share a promotion and/or their unique pixel code to friends and family. So that, you know, makes total sense. If you're on, um, something, you know, like Mindbody or Symplast, that kind of changes the discussion.

But we want to know first, can you do the referrals digitally? Is that something that can be done through an app that can be shared easily? Um, and if the platform supports it, great. If it doesn't, then there's, you know, a number of ways that we could run a campaign to your members. We could do that out of text, we could do that out of email marketing, we could do that in print, that is exclusive for your members, that, you know, makes them aware that they have benefits for referring. And that's absolutely something that you should write into your programs, to do on a regular basis — if it's every six months, reminding patients that there's a reward for referral. Um, you know, that should be a part of your program. But it's a soft benefit, it's not that hard benefit of a free treatment or a free this or that.

Max Baybak

Yeah, that's great. I would imagine trying to run that without software, or just manually in a spreadsheet, could be a nightmare. So really being able to integrate it I think is the key.

Tami Vileta

Yeah, yeah. And like I said, there's more entrants coming into the market now, with Remembership being integrated with Nextech. There's a new one called RepeatMD that looks like it does just about the same thing, and they say they're integrated into every platform. I have not actually had a practice come to us that's, um, you know, benefited from that yet, but we'll be looking into that. But they have referral capabilities right out of an app.

Max Baybak

Yeah, I'm aware of them, and also with Remembership — those are two of the companies that I was thinking of when I said there's more moving into the space.

Tami Vileta

Yep. And you could do it out of Pathways and PatientNow, um, so that's — you know, you can automatically — many of the practices that we do membership programs for are on the PatientNow platform, and it is pretty flexible, um, and you can, you know, do that right out of Pathways, which is —

Max Baybak

Yeah, I wonder how many people know that there are ways. You mentioned this to me before and I thought that was cool, because I think you tend to think that there needs to be some specially built software that's specific for that, and that'd be great to have that, but, um, it's great to know that there is kind of a way you can set up the automation features that already exist in PatientNow to put something together.

Tami Vileta

Yep. We've actually done it for practices who, you know, don't have their loyalty program siloed outside of their EMR, through just Constant Contact — you know, just again, just making patients aware of, you know, here's the benefit, and, um, refer your friends. And that's just, again, it's just a piece of marketing for the program.

Max Baybak

Yeah, that's a great way to also just sort of, low commitment, just sort of test it, see what occurs, see what kind of feedback you get, just something like you mentioned through Constant Contact.

So okay, so as I mentioned, I think incentivizing referral is super accretive, it's something that adds value, to me, very clearly. There could be an argument to be made, just playing devil's advocate, that incentivizing people who are already spending money with you by offering discounts is kind of cannibalizing your margins. Do you have any thoughts on that, or strategies to make sure that that's not what happens with the loyalty? Obviously we just talked through and you educated me on a lot of fantastic reasons that you would want to offer rewards or loyalty, um, or reasons to keep incentives to keep people within the practice. There's obviously all kinds of people buying — other practices, competition buying — to bring these people outside of your practice, so I see that side of it. But do you run into this with anyone where they're concerned that offering some kind of reward or discount when the person already is a patient is cannibalizing in any way their margins?

Tami Vileta

I would just go back again to the data that points to — you know, I mean, and go back to the Starbucks and the Alaska Airlines and the REIs and the major companies of the world that are mobilizing around loyalty marketing — um, that it is not, you know, something that's going to cannibalize your margins. People spend 67% more as loyal customers than they do as new customers. Um, you know, they're going to refer more of their friends. 81% of customers are more likely to continue doing business with your brand if you offer a loyalty program.

I mean, the data supports — yes, you may give away a little bit more of your margin, but they're going to spend more, they're going to refer more, they're going to try more, they're going to adopt more service. It's easier to sell them new services when they are a loyal member than if, you know, you're just a new patient off the street, trying to market, you know, the new BTL Emsculpt device that you bought. When they're a loyal patient, it's much easier to sell to them.

I also think the benefit of having a loyal customer — when you screw up, occasionally you do screw up, there has been great data to prove that loyalty programs really give you a buffer, um, almost a hall pass, if you will, um, where, you know, somebody else may just, you know, leave automatically. It gives you some insulation or some protection when things go sideways. And so there's so much data out there that supports why, you know, having a loyalty strategy in your business is important. That's my answer.

Max Baybak

No, it's a great answer. I think the most compelling data point that you gave — and I have heard these types of data points before, but it's not just that you're simply getting the person to keep coming back, you actually are driving more revenue per capita with membership. And that's really the most compelling data point that you gave, whatever the figure was — the, uh — but they spend, that experience.

Tami Vileta

The share of wallet is really important, because, you know, there's so many times where, you know, I'll talk to a practice and they'll say, you know, well, I have a patient coming in and, you know, all they're doing with us is IPL, they didn't even know we did, you know, injectables. If you had a loyalty strategy and a loyalty marketing program that was inclusive of everything that you did, um, you would gain market share for those patients who are going, obviously, elsewhere for other things — and/or their skin care. Or, you know, I mean, that's a no-brainer, everybody purchases skin care. If that's a piece of your membership or your loyalty program, um, it might, you know, give them a reason to stay with your practice instead.

Max Baybak

And so, yeah, it makes a ton of sense. The share of wallet, that's the key, underscores it perfectly.

Uh, I had another question that I prepared to ask you, which kind of follows on from this, and maybe we've tackled it, but I'm going to ask you anyhow, because I see something else occurring. This is less on the surgical side, but in the non-surgical world, obviously the number of aesthetic doors, you know, is just proliferating right now, um, opening up, you know, providers you can go to. And I can see loyalty becoming even more of a requirement as practices in certain tiers of aesthetic medicine — essentially, an entire industry — race to the bottom on pricing.

So if it — and, you know, I'm really curious to see how that plays out over the next decade. When I say race to the bottom, I don't necessarily mean the bottom, I'm not talking, you know, hair salon level, but just looking at the fact that we are going to see, you know, on every corner, your med spa. There are obviously legal, uh, regulations that tie into all this that are super interesting on a state-by-state level, but just generally speaking, we're going to see more and more competition come in, and we already have industry players who are coming in to compete on price in product categories like neurotoxins and so forth.

So I think it's going to be interesting to see what happens there, and whether loyalty becomes a bigger piece of any practice's strategy — or a med spa strategy, I'm really talking about med spas — in order to try to retain people so that they're not enticed away by a lower price offering across the street.

And then I think on the other side, I can see higher-tier providers saying, I'm going to stay out of that game. You know, typically the clients that come our way for us to design a custom-design website and all that, they've really already made their way up and they're investing to go to the next level, and they're typically focused on a higher tier of patient, focused on creating an amazing patient experience, and focused on a type of clientele that understands that you get what you pay for. And I feel like those types of practices may say, I don't really need to play the loyalty game, because I just do that inherently in our whole practice strategy and brand.

Um, do you agree with that, or do you think that there are strategies for even the most high-end practices, um, that are not going to be playing necessarily? I gave you a big question there, a lot, but I'm curious what your thoughts are on: do you think that loyalty will become more of a necessity with competition, and do you think there's a higher-end practice that can just stay out of that, or they need to get into it too?

Tami Vileta

So I'll answer that question. So we share a lot of those higher-end clients, um, Influx and Pinpoint, and even those clients are really taking a look at the loyalty sphere and trying to figure out what to do there. I think that those types of practices actually have the opportunity to write programs that are so creative and, um, really meaningful.

For example, um, one of our joint practices in Tennessee, they, you know, have a give-back mentality and a culture of, um, kind of philanthropy, and one of their membership program principles allows patients who are part of the practice to feel great about giving back with the dollars that are spent. Um, it's just a different side, or a different piece of the loyalty thought process, but it's still valuable. It doesn't have discounting as a part of it.

Um, another — some practices are getting super creative in how they write partnership deals with like-minded businesses. We have another joint client that's in New Jersey that is currently writing a membership program with us, and, um, one of the offerings in his practice is, if you come in and have a procedure that's over three hours, we're going to detail your car. He has somebody that he loves in the community, and it's going to be written into that program. It's thinking outside the box on how to create value. And he's probably getting the detailing for free, because, you know, that detailer is getting new customers.

So you can get so creative on how you create loyalty programs when you're in the upper echelon and you don't really think that you need to discount. How do you add value? Um, or if you're bringing on a new device — we're actually working with, again, a joint client in Orange County. Um, you know, she's bringing on a new device, a BTL Emsculpt, and, uh, it's a totally new part of her practice, and she doesn't need to really have the membership piece or the loyalty piece for her facial side of the business, but bringing that in and how to craft a membership around body procedures is something, um, that is part of her business growth development.

So I think that practices that are mature and that are high-end still really should think about how they're going to keep their best customers over time, because, you know, there's new entrants into the market, and, you know, your position is never 100% guaranteed.

Max Baybak

Yeah, that's a good way to put it. I love, um, the community aspect of speaking about our client, our beloved client there in New Jersey. That's such a creative idea, and I know he's such a fixture of that community, such a community guy. And so that's also really cool, to kind of network with others in the community, help each other, use, um, loyalty as an opportunity to cross-promote, uh, and to even kind of foster more of that community spirit. That's cool.

Tami Vileta

Well, especially if they're on brand with your brand principles, um, it just adds value for your benefit. It, you know, increases their earning velocity, it, you know, fosters a stronger relationship with your brand, because you're the person that set that up. And there's so many opportunities. I mean, blow bars, bridal shops, tailors — I mean, the list goes on and on that you could partner with.

We have one practice that launched a loyalty program in Minneapolis, and they have a wellness component to their program, and one of the concepts that was bantered around was, you know, when a loyalty member is coming in, they have a smoothie bar downstairs, and, you know, bring up one of those wellness smoothies for their members as they come in. I mean, just super creative, really fun ideas.

Max Baybak

That's really cool. There's a whole business there. I've seen it done in other industries, but it'd be interesting to see someone start up something and build those networks out for you in each different neighborhood, that are really specific to aesthetics and wellness. That would be really cool if someone did something like that.

But I had another question, which was, I was going to ask you if there are things that people do to engage their members in a loyalty program that don't have to do with discounts. So you kind of already answered it, and I think that's fantastic, those are some great examples. And it goes back to that part you already really said earlier on, when you said there's the value side, but then there's the emotional side and how do you make me feel — and that's more important.

So I think that's the takeaway I'm taking from my question about these higher-tier practices. When I come in and I get a wellness smoothie and I get all these things because I'm a member, that makes me feel awesome. I don't really care about the discount, I'm not coming here because I'm trying to pinch pennies, I'm coming here because this is the best practice and I want the best, and I know that I get what I'm looking for. But part of that perception that I get what I pay for is that I'm treated like a VIP in these places, right? The best, right?

So I think that's my big takeaway that I would want practices to hear: don't get caught up on loyalty having to do with discounts, but think about — or even value, it is value ultimately — but the emotional side of it, and how it makes a person feel, and how you address it. How are you going to make them feel exclusive and privileged? Yeah, fantastic.

Do you find that loyalty programs work similarly or just as well for surgery as they do for non-surgical, um, where there's maybe of course more potential for recurring services? Or do you separate out these two service tracks usually when you're creating loyalty programs?

Tami Vileta

So I view practices that are purely surgical, maybe with some injectables, to be more candidates for programs that have points and tiers and plateau levels, or, you know, that type of reward structure, and referrals. And really a surgical practice is looking for referrals and, as you know, the recurring revenue piece. So being able to reward — that's why, you know, something like a Remembership program that's in Nextech works so well for our surgical practices, because they're rewarded on dollars spent. So surgeries are high-dollar, you know, value, so they're going to get an immediate reward typically with the surgery, um, and then they're going to get points for referrals.

Um, typically for practices that are more med spa, or med aesthetics, or a plastic surgery practice that has a med spa component, we would typically tend to steer more towards a membership-style program, because you're wanting them to come in for those reoccurring treatments so that you get to know them better over time. Or some sort of a buy-in program, like an Amazon Prime program, where, you know, they're paying a small, um, you know, financial commitment to be part of the program annually, but it's not a huge expense, and then they usually will get a signing bonus for, you know, doing that, and then they're going to get relaxed savings and, you know, emotional perks as well.

Max Baybak

Okay, good. Yeah, I was going to ask you more about — because you said in the beginning membership is one of the means, one of the things that can be used to get to loyalty, but I wanted to ask you more about how to use it. So just to say that back to you, what I hear is, on the surgery side, dollars spent and referrals get you points, and then you can use that towards another surgery. And oftentimes, you know, I said earlier people maybe do on average a few surgeries in a lifetime, but we definitely see people who want to do a few different things, um, and so the next surgery you want to do, you'd be able to apply those points towards it. And maybe, if there are some injectables offered by that practice, you can use it towards that.

And then in the more non-surgically focused practices, they're doing either a membership where they pay an annual fee and then they get some discounting perks — what would a membership look like if you don't have an annual fee? Is it also somehow rewarding you for how much you spend, or is it a different — yeah, how does that look?

Tami Vileta

So typically memberships require, you know, a contract. It's going to be a six-month or a full-year commitment, um, you're going to come in for a treatment. So when we write membership programs for practices, uh, it's interesting, because you can have more than one membership going on at a time. So some practices have additive memberships, so they might think about their patients in broad categories: we have the millennials, we want them to start having regular skin care so that they can have better, you know, outcomes later in life; and then we're going to look at the 40-plus as our injectable kind of tier; and then we might have something for body. And so you can have additive memberships, which you can actually write and have it still be simple and easy.

But usually memberships are getting you to come in at least once a quarter, um, or once a month, for some sort of treatment, and it's at a relatively relaxed rate. So say it's coming in for a HydraFacial or a BBL hand treatment or, you know, something else once a month, um, and instead of being $175 it's $150. So that patient is paying, you know, $150 a month, they're getting, uh, you know, a relaxed, um, incentive to have that treatment done. You might do a booster twice a year just to perk them and make them feel great, and then they also will typically have a discount or a relaxed savings on skin care for being a member, and maybe some procedures in the practice, depending on how you want to write the program.

So, um, some programs don't have, um, the 10% discount at the bottom tier, they might only include that if you do an additive one. So we kind of like talk about your goals and what you're trying to accomplish, and, um, the categories of patients that you're going to be putting in each bucket, and really kind of come to a way to craft the membership piece that makes the most sense.

Max Baybak

Yeah, I mean, the clear takeaway here for me is that it's not one size fits all. Um, really you need to understand — the same way you dive in with a client on branding, you really do need to understand so much about them in order to design something that's really going to make sense and be successful.

Tami Vileta

Yeah. And most of the programs that we do, whether it be a membership or whether it be, you know, a buy-in program, we're really encouraging practices to do something, you know, when they sign up, that is, um, you know, a signing bonus. So the no-brainer is to do a, you know, complimentary skin analysis and treatment plan, and that has a, you know, a perceived value — you should be charging $150 or $200 for your consults, and it's waived, but what you put together is this, you know, beautiful treatment plan that's individualized for that patient. And now they have, you know, relaxed savings on that plan, where they might have only come in to do one thing with you, now they see a pathway of what you are, you know, recommending for their best outcome, and they have a means to get there that is a little bit more affordable for them.

Max Baybak

Yeah, it makes sense. It's so good.

Tami Vileta

Yeah, so that's one thing, you know. And if you were doing an injectable membership, you know, what we might craft into that program is, okay, today when you become a member, you're going to get 10 units of Botox with your treatment, that's complimentary. Um, you know, and we're going to try to think about other things that that injectable patient might want in the future, and so here's, you know, a value-added voucher for such and such. So we really kind of try to think of the ways to move patients up the ladder, so that they aspire to different tiers, um, and different levels of membership as they grow with your practice.

Max Baybak

Yeah, that's also fascinating, to think about how you already have a patient journey, from initial acquisition to, you know, making them a loyal patient, to getting them to refer, and then to also kind of move them, spiral them upwards into these higher tiers as a goal. Um, I think that, and having that really structured and named out, is really fascinating.

So it sounds like you can do a membership with an annual fee up front, or one where you're just having them pay monthly and they would just have to continue to make that payment in order to partake in the services. But I've seen a lot of practices do the annual payment up front, where they kind of cover certain basic costs by doing it, and I think it's a little lower risk for them. I mean, I'm sure you can do the math and the economics can shake out that as long as they pay every month, or they've done at least three months or something, you're not going to lose, or something like that. But I imagine the annual payment up front is probably a little bit more favorable to the practice, just in terms of de-risking anything — or is there not a concern there?

Tami Vileta

The way you structure them, the way that you write the legalese on these, is, you know, important, so you don't ever want to get into a position where the patient is owing you money, right? So they've come in for services that exceed the amount that they've given you, um, or that you're willing to part with for their loyalty. Um, so we always make sure that they're not getting in advance anything, really, and they've covered the cost. Um, and so there really isn't a risk to a monthly membership program, because they're not getting the services until they've paid that first month's membership, and that doesn't exceed, um, the amount of what they received.

Max Baybak

Okay, it makes sense. I've seen a couple other — uh, something that I've seen some practices do is have sort of a prepaid card where it's a discount. Is that also — would you put that in the bucket of membership, or something like that?

Tami Vileta

I love that. Um, that's what Dr. Bucky's program is, our oldest running program. It's changed over the years, and he started with three tiers, but — and this is another thing, loyalty programs should not be stagnant, they should change, you know, at least every two years, but annually he's always continually morphing that program.

But it literally is a prepaid card. It is in his store, um, it's on his Bucky Plastic Surgery store, his patients can load it into their shopping cart. It's three grand, um, so they've prepaid for their services, and it acts like a gift card basically. It's called the Bucky Black Card. He does a beautiful job marketing it, patients love it, and, you know, they receive a couple of signing bonuses right away for getting that card, and they get relaxed savings throughout the year on his most popular treatments, and as they come in it's ticked off that card. Um, so it's a beautiful program.

And prepaid cards are great. Um, I think that they do better in higher-end markets. Um, you know, so it's not always an easy proposition to have a patient, you know, depart with five grand, or however much that card is, on the day of. So some of the smaller market programs that we run, we, you know, may not suggest that tactic or that strategy, but for his market and for higher-end markets, I think it's a great one.

Max Baybak

Yeah, I think it's — I've noticed this myself in sales, and the time I've spent in sales, not just marketing but also sales: you always want to have an offering for someone who's ready to just come in and plunk down. People want to do that, and sometimes you're just not giving them the chance to do that. Um, and just having that offering.

And another one, um, you know, one of the practices that's a client of ours that I mentioned when I said I've seen some practices do it, is Dr. Grant Stevens of Marina Plastic Surgery. And I think I just saw on your website recently — I didn't know, it looks like you initially helped him put together that program.

Tami Vileta

Yes, we did.

Max Baybak

Yeah, so, and he's had that since before our time working with him, but I've helped him do a number of things with it. And he also has a lower tier, or just a different option, let's call it, where they can pay monthly and pay as they go. He has quite a few different things that he does, and he manages quite a lot with his practice.

But I'll tell you, speaking about your point there about changing it so it doesn't stay stagnant: we've revamped, or just, um, changed the offer and made it even more enticing on those pre-sold cards around Black Friday, and then done a digital campaign and set up online payment for it. And without going into the exact figures, I will tell you it was tremendously successful — huge revenue driver around Black Friday. Um, he has a big mailing list, that helps a great deal, and a very loyal patient base. So you are selling to your current patients and they are getting a discount. Would they have come in to get those services anyway? I mean, the reality is, though, that you're guaranteeing it, you're locking it in, they do have to use it in some period of time, and you're also bringing in a nice lump sum. So there can be a lot of reason to deploy a strategy like that.

Tami Vileta

Yep.

Max Baybak

Awesome. I think, you know, just sort of looking at anyone who's thinking about doing this: I think expectations are everything, and often a misalignment in expectation versus, you know, effort and reward — effort versus reward — is where things fall apart. So if I'm setting up a referral program in my practice, what sort of expectations do you think I should have in terms of how much effort I have to put in and what kind of return I could expect? And how long do I really need to stay at it to see success? Do you have any comments about that, for anyone who's looking at implementing a program like this?

Tami Vileta

Yeah. So first of all, I don't think that putting together a loyalty marketing program in your practice is a silver bullet. It is not going to happen overnight. And I mean, that was the first thing that we learned in our education, is, you know, it takes time to build a program. Um, probably to launch your program is going to take at least eight weeks of consolidated effort. That's how long our programs take to put together, and the practice has to be pretty heavily involved in that introductory process, because it's a commitment. You really do have to think through things: how is this going to be structured, how am I going to, um, you know, take a look at how the needle is being moved, how am I going to slice and dice the data to know that this program is working? You just have to have things set up in place, and it's not a program that comes together in a week. Um, you know, two months to three months is how long it's going to take to put together.

Your staff has to be involved. If you're a provider, if you're the practice owner, and you develop your loyalty program in a void and don't include your staff, that is one of the biggest mistakes, or the pitfalls, that practices can fall into. Your staff has a tremendous amount of reconnaissance and value to add to your program, because they know your patients, they know what patients want, and ultimately they're the ones who are going to be selling it. They have to adopt it, they have to know and love it, they have to be able to role play and sell it and be comfortable with selling that value proposition. So it's a concerted effort that has to weave through the entire practice.

And it has to be marketed. I see so many practices — I just shake my head when I'm on, um, discovery calls with practices where they'll say, oh yeah, we've had a loyalty program in our practice, and yeah, we've had it for about a year, or two years or three years, and it hasn't gotten much traction. And you ask, okay, well, what have you — where's marketing? And there's none. I mean, there's not even a dedicated web page. It's kind of like, you know, just this hidden thing. And, um, so you have to be willing to go out there and market it across, you know, a number of different channels, and we have 10 that it needs to be marketed in. And it's surprising when you talk to a practice afterwards, to say, okay, what's the most popular marketing channel for you for, you know, getting traction with your members — um, it's not always what you think. And so having those different channels and multiple ways for patients to see things and to know that you have a program.

So you have to commit. It's going to take at least two or three months to put together, it needs to be involving your whole staff. We actually, when we write a loyalty program for a client too, we actually say, okay, get your top six to 12 patients and farm this out to them. Ask them if this has meaning for them, if they have suggestions, if they like it, if they will adopt it, if they will chat it up with their friends. You have to really — this is an effort, this is not just a quick little dollar value you can pay and be done with it, it's a strategy. Um, but it's one that pays off really big, and so it's worth it. It just takes effort.

Max Baybak

Yeah, that's been my observation as well. You really have to commit to it, and you have to care about just having an elevated experience, and that needs to be important to you. That's why — I mean, it makes sense to me that you fell into this from branding, because you have to say, I want my brand to be such that when we come in, it's demonstrated and it's very clear that we really care about our customers, our patients, and we're loyal to them as well, and we treat them a certain way, and we've gone all this extra mile to do these things. It takes a lot of effort to dot all those i's and cross all those t's and put it together. So that makes sense.

One of the last questions I was going to ask you, and you touched upon, which is the marketing — we could almost do a whole entire episode on marketing of your loyalty program, so we won't get into that now. But you said you sort of started there and then sort of moved further upstream into helping people develop the programs. But today if someone comes to you and wants help to develop it, you'll also help them market it, right? And creating all the collateral — I think I've seen you create actual cards, if people want to run the program off physical cards, all the internal collateral they need, and then other channels too, digitally, social, email, etc., to make sure it's communicated to their patient base. That's all part of the service that you can provide, right?

Tami Vileta

Yep. So if it's an app, we're going to, you know, create the brand environment, or suggestions for the brand environment within the app, whatever the app is capable of. If they want to run it off of a membership card, that's fine too. Um, we actually do the print collateral, so all of the, you know, the signage, the point of purchase, the explainer brochures, the mental math pieces, um, but also the digital. So you should have it on your lobby loop, there should be a little story so that when patients are in the lobby they see it. Social media — definitely, yep, absolutely on that, it should be on your social platform. So we have a little package of pre-designed, or, um, within your brand, um, social posts that you can put up, animated and static ones.

Email marketing — it should absolutely go out to your patient base to launch, and it should actually have a little boilerplate in every email that you launch after that to your patient base, that's, you know, there's memberships, memberships, memberships, or loyalty. So it's just a constant piece in your email marketing efforts.

Um, and then, you know, we really counsel practices to think about after you launch — you know, well, do you launch it with an event? We typically, you know, would suggest that they do an event to launch the loyalty program, or in conjunction with an already pre-designed event. So say you have a patient appreciation event at the end of the year, that's a great time to launch a loyalty or a membership program, and it can just be part of that event. And then have a strategy for after: once you launch it, what are you going to do, what's your annual campaign, and how are you going to, you know, help these members to get value from the program, and come up with those creative campaigns for long-term engagement.

Max Baybak

That's all fantastic. Yeah, we've seen people doing those patient appreciation events now virtually and actually still having great success. We help some practices — yeah, it's another fascinating topic.

But if our listeners here want to know more about your services, maybe, you know, look into enlisting your services to roll out a loyalty program, where do they find you?

Tami Vileta

So they can find us online at pinpointcmu.com, and they can also check out our active case study page on behance.net/pinpoint, or they can simply call at (206) 427-3241. And, um, yeah, we love loyalty, it's one of our favorite, um, offerings that we do, and, um, so rewarding.

Max Baybak

Yeah, that's fantastic. I, um, like I said, it's a subject I'm interested in, I want to see it embraced more by our industry. You came with such a wealth of knowledge. Like I said, um, largely our interaction has been around branding — but around just branding in general, and the branding sessions I've seen you do with some of our mutual clients — but I learned a ton today. And it's very clear that this is something that you really have a lot of structured thought and strategy around, uh, and it's made it even more compelling for me. It's given me even more compelling reasons why I think practices should take a serious look at this.

I do think, like you said, they've got to be really ready to commit and be involved, but if you have that kind of bandwidth and that matters to you, I really would encourage practices to come to you. It's very clear to me that you've given this a lot of thought. So I appreciate you sharing with us today, I learned a ton, and we'll have to have you back on some time to unpack the whole branding side of things, which I also want people to know about — your brilliant branding services. So we'll do that sometime soon. But thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to join us today, Tami. And thank you everyone for listening.

Tami Vileta

Thanks so much for your great, thoughtful questions. You are a pleasure to work with. Um, we absolutely adore Influx.

Max Baybak

Oh, thank you. I mean, that means a lot, and the feeling is very much mutual. So thank you again, Tami, and thank you everyone, and we'll catch you next time on Next Level Practices.