1 – The expiration was one year. My first few months were extremely busy. The whole year was pretty busy, but those first 2-4 months were packed. The last month was also packed. So definitely think ahead! Groupon and other sites send a reminder email for people to use their vouchers about a month or so before they expire.

And… 100 people never used it at all. And oddly enough, next to nobody contacted me after it expired. I had extended the deadline by a week or two as people were having trouble booking. The law, at least in CA, is that the vouchers are still good for face value after the expiration.

I was actually excited when I got packed again during the last month. Honestly, I’m happy having new patients come in all the time.. even at the low rate.

2 – I collect email on everyone who makes an appointment. Since I use an online service, Genbook.com, an email address is required to make an appointment. I do follow up with everyone who comes in and send out emails to the group from time to time.

The online scheduling was key, as I only had to field about 10 phone calls from the 450! I left an outgoing message to make an appointment online and most people did just that. It was remarkable.

I’m happy to share any other info or questions you may have.

Jeremy

Thank you for sharing your experience with Groupon! Online coupon programs are still such a new concept that learning from each practitioner’s experience is extremely beneficial.

Your two tips are excellent. Checking insurance benefits is very wise and could be the tipping point for people rescheduling. And you’re absolutely right about scheduling strategically. Not only to avoid burnout but to make sure that every day has some ‘paying patients’ while the coupon patients are also being treated. That keeps the revenue flowing.

I have two questions for you…

[1] How far out was your expiration date for buyers to collect on their coupon? The math of scheduling 450 new patients (at 4/day) working 5 days per week suggests you would need 6 months at minimum and more likely closer to a year. Whatever it was, you must have breathed a sigh of relief when the expiration date was up!

[2] Did you collect the email addresses of your Groupon customers? I ask this because following up using an email autoresponder can often result in greater customer retention. (Although 65% returning for at least a second visit is great!) Having an email autoresponder set up and ready to go for coupon customers is something I highly recommend to promote more visits, products, specials, referrals and to collect feedback (among many other things). Because it’s automated, it doesn’t take any extra time. (Here’s a link to a free email autoresponder that’s easy for acupuncturists to use:
http://eepurl.com/gzb9T)

Once again thank you, Jeremy, for sharing your insights! I am sure your experience will help other acupuncturists make good decisions for their business.

Peace,
Lisa Hanfileti, LAc

I offered a choice for an hour Tui Na massage or 1.5 hour new patient Acupuncture treatment. I included the massage because I thought it would bring more people in the door that I could convert to acupuncture.

I expected that I would get about 3:1 massage:acupuncture visits and we planned on capping it at 300. As the day came closer, Groupon asked me to raise the cap as they thought it would sell more. I agreed, though I negotiated a higher share of the cost for anything above 300. We sold about 450. I had to quit my other work that I had been doing though school, because suddenly I was booked out for 2+ months!

Yes, it was tiring, and yes, the initial visits were a lot of time for little money, but it was an unmitigated success on every level (except the one terrible yelp review that i expected was inevitable). It turned out that 60% of people chose acupuncture. Out of those, at least 65% came back for at least one more visit. Quite a few of these folks are still patients today. The massage people were the “coupon clippers” in my experience. I was able to move some of them to longer term care, mostly in acupuncture.

Two things I would encourage. Be sure to check everyone’s insurance to see if they had acupuncture benefits. Most people had no idea and many had very good benefits. Also be sure to schedule wisely, so you are not filled everyday with only new patients (i limited this to 4). This is both exhausting and makes it difficult to get regular patients on the schedule.

In the end, about 100 never used the coupon and so my income per patient rose accordingly.

I think Lisa’s points are right on. It’s really about getting people through the door and showing them what you can do for them. When you show them how valuable you are, you have a long term patient and future referral source.

One more thing. This does not devalue the profession at all. In fact, I think quite the opposite. I don’t have the figure, but I would say that at least 50% of the acupuncture people were new to acupuncture. This was a low bar for them to come and give it a try, when they’ve been thinking about it for a long time.

Filling your practice, making a living, promoting the profession. In my case, this was a win-win-win.

I have heard the same thing from Living Social — they are not working with acupuncturists, at least not right now. That’s okay, there are lots of other online coupon programs to choose from. Here’s an example of a recent one for a Texas acupuncturist:

http://deals.adpages.com/deal/austin/plugerville-acupuncture

The important thing is that you plan ahead to capitalize on future income through rescheduling and product sales. Let us know how it goes!

I recently contacted Living Social about launching a coupon campaign for acupuncture and was told that they are not doing acupuncture now as they did not make enough money to make it worth doing for them…but call back later…things change.

I’m wondering if any other Acupuncturists have had this experience recently with Living Social?

I’m going to contact Groupon to see if they will do a campaign for me.

I’ll let you know what happens.
Glenn

Most of these discounted program participants are coupon clippers and no matter how you educate them, very small percentage come back for follow ups. One day I remember having 15 new patients.

It’s not the same as your regular clients, most are not motivated to come back for a full price tx, even if you get great results.

A short term promo may be OK. Also if you do not have a receptionist, you will be swamped with calls you may not be able to handle the volume. On some days we got 13-15 voice mails.

In conclusion, I would say, I would not do it again, unless the terms were different.
Mark.