Something Is Better Than Nothing: Getting Your Practice Ready for the Fall Surge

Three weeks ago I had a facelift and a laser treatment. I'd never had any type of laser treatment before, despite over a decade in this industry and overseeing tens of millions of dollars in surgical and non-surgical revenue. This entire recent patient experience has been full of lessons, and it’s the laser result that totally caught me off guard.

My skin looks different now. Not in a subtle way. In a way where I keep touching my own face like I'm checking if it's real. And the whole time, I kept thinking: if I didn't know what a single laser treatment could really do, there is no way the average patient does either.

That gap, between what a treatment can actually deliver and what patients think it delivers, is where the next few months matter more than almost any other stretch of the year.

A lot of the highest-value non-surgical treatments such as laser resurfacing, RF microneedling, and laser hair removal, need patients out of the sun to get safe, lasting results. That rules out Summer. It rules in September through roughly March, which is exactly why you should be planning now to fill your fall consult schedule that leads to winter treatment plans.

Let’s keep in mind, most of these treatments aren't a single visit. To get the best results for the patient and the practice, we’re usually performing a series, often spaced 4-6 weeks apart. So by the time a patient books a consult, meets with a provider and starts their plan, the real treatment window has already shrunk. Someone who finally gets around to calling in November instead of September might not finish their series before they're heading back outside and the whole opportunity resets.

The practices that will be fullest this fall aren't waiting around now, or scrambling in October. They're the ones already reaching out to their patient lists in August, saying some version of:  ‘Tis the season to undo summer. Your skin kept receipts from summer, we’re here to help you settle up.

I'll be honest, I made this mistake myself when I was on the practice side. It's not that practice leaders don't care about growth. It's that we're putting out fires all day, and strategic thinking for two months from now gets pushed to tomorrow. Then tomorrow becomes October, and the window that was wide open in August has quietly closed.

The number one thing holding practices back isn't a bad strategy. It's no strategy, and not finding the time to make something happen. You can choose to be passive or intentional, and your schedule will reflect your choice. If your team isn't re-engaging your existing patient list or leads that were previously lost then you're relying entirely on people to remember you exist and reach out first. Some will. Most won't.

I understand the instinct to look at a marketing line item and wince. But the way to evaluate it isn't "how much does this cost," it's "what does this generate." An email campaign to your existing patient list, the people who've already shown interest in what you do, tends to convert immediately once it lands in front of them. People don't forget you exist on purpose. They just need to be reminded that now is the time. Eva Sheie and I discuss lead-gen tactics that work, including one campaign that pulled in 400 responses and 35 consult requests, in this episode of Practiceland: Not Your Doctor’s Podcast.

And the return isn't limited to one appointment. Someone who comes in for a laser series often becomes a Botox regular, a skincare client, someone your team sees three or four times a year instead of once. That first re-engagement email should quietly become a year's worth of treatments that will help the patient look and feel great, and support the continued growth of your practice. 

If you're reading this and realizing you haven't thought about any of it yet, that's fine. This isn't about having a perfect twelve-month strategy. It's about doing something instead of nothing. Send the email. Post the before and afters. Ask your team who owns re-engagement this month and help brainstorm how to do it. Small, consistent action beats the "perfect" plan that never leaves your notes app.

The practices that will look back on this fall as a strong season are making that decision now, in August, while there's still enough runway to matter. The ones who wait until the leaves change will still get some walk-in business. They just won't know what they left on the table.

oOo