Should Acupuncturists Use Groupon, Living Social & Other Online Coupons?
There seem to be two ‘camps’ when it comes to acupuncturists using Groupon, Living Social and other online coupon programs to promote their services. One camp says, it’s a great opportunity to gain exposure, get new patients and make some money. And another camp says that the deep discounts and high fees make it a financial bust, and worse, devalues the profession.
There’s no doubt that you can lose money using these online coupon programs (as has been well documented in the dining industry), but if you read the coupon program’s fine print, understand your goals, calculate your ‘ break even price point’ and plan accordingly, I believe you can make these programs work for your acupuncture practice.
Here are my recommendations to any practitioner who is thinking about using Groupon, Living Social, or any online coupon company. Understand and plan on ways to optimize:
(1) Front end income
(2) Back end income ** VERY IMPORTANT!
(3) Costs (including time)
(1) Front end income
Front end income is what you get from your coupon sales. When you see service based businesses using Groupon to sell over 1000 coupons at $50 a pop (like a local glass blowing teacher did), it’s pretty easy to get caught up in the “$50,000 payday” and think you’ve found the answer to all your prayers. But if that’s all you see, you could be one of the many business owners who lose money on these deals. So please, pay attention! If we examine an acupuncturist who courageously tried out the Groupon program to sell a $30 coupon for a 45 minute session we can see that $30 x 109 purchases (last I checked) = $3,270. Half goes to Groupon so that leaves $1,635 in front end income. That’s only about $15 per person for 45 minutes of treatment, which stinks! BUT WAIT… here’s what you also have to factor in:
- 15-30% of people who buy the coupon never redeem it before it expires. That free money. Don’t count on it, but just know that it’s there.
- For an acupuncturist who does not have a full schedule and ALL s/he has is TIME, this is a great way to get exposure, create buzz, and generate profit (see back end income below) without laying out any cash.
(2) Back end income
This is the key to generating profits! You need a plan in place to upsell these coupon-purchasing customers. What I like about Mary Ann’s Groupon is she included in her sale an “Individual Wellness Plan”. This is clearly aimed at getting these initial buyers back through her doors for a series of treatments. Even if just 10% of her initial 109 people scheduled 6 treatments as part of her “Individual Wellness Plan” (at her normal rate of $80) that’s 10 (people) x 6 (visits) x $80 = $4,800. Now we’re talkin! Acupuncturists MUST learn how to turn these qualified customers into repeat patients (who refer new patients) in order to make significant long term income. If you add in sales of herbs, oils, books etc., that backend revenue per coupon-paying customer increases. For those of us who understand (and teach) online marketing, the backend income can also significantly increase by offering products like digital products or online wellness coaching and creating automated email campaigns to keep customers interested and coming back. In other words, this is a great way to build a list of qualified customers for future service or product sales.
(3) Costs
The big thing acupuncturists need to watch here is time. (Costs for needles and other office supplies is usually minimal.) The cash infusion from the front end income can help take care of working expenses and pay for upsell items (sold when they receive their session). But time is something that is limited and scheduling must be planned so that full paying patient slots are not taken up by $15 slots. I would recommend dedicating 2-3 days a week just to the Groupon people and get them all scheduled and treated within 3 – 6 months. Personally I think a year is too long to ‘wrap up’ the coupon customers. This may mean working days that you don’t usually work until everyone gets their coupon redeemed.
So before we dismiss Groupons and other social online coupon programs for acupuncture practitioners, I think it’s important do some research (read other business’ deals), think things through, test it out on a small scale then take the lessons learned to larger and larger scales so you can minimize your risk and maximize your potential for generating profits. That’s why I congratulate Mary Ann for having the courage to TRY something new, generate buzz and build her business.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this (or any other acupuncture marketing) topic. Chime in below!
Peace,
Lisa Hanfileti, LAc
Insights-For-Acupuncturists.com
hi Lisa,
Every one of my coaching clients who has tried Groupon or similar programs have expressed very positive feedback on the process.
Like you said, it ultimately depends on the practitioner’s skill level in converting the deal-seekers into patients. If you know how to educate and lay out a treatment plan effectively and you create a WOW experience for these people, you should be able to convert a fairly high % of them.
The hardest part for acupuncturists is just getting new people in the door. Once they’re there, the experience tends to sell itself (if the practitioner is skilled at what they do). Groupon helps with this challenge immensely; it’s up to the practitioner to raise their sales/marketing IQ to convert those folks into return patients.
Kevin
I didn’t know anything about groupon but great article Lisa! It does seem like a nice way for a practitioner to get their feet wet, and like Kevin says if they are skilled in converting them then even better.
There is also an element of a “marketing expense”. It does cost to market (patients cost money) and sometimes after the marketing expense you may be left with a patient that even if you charge them $80, you may only have $10 left after the expense to get that patient. But then you see them several times and that’s where the profit really comes in. Groupon markets for you and is your marketing expense. It all depends on how you look at it. You get many new patients and if you convert them well then this can be a gold mine every month.
Hi Kevin, thanks for sharing the experience from your coaching clients. It’s great to hear their feedback that their experience has been positive.
Hi Elie, I hope you sign up for Groupon (it’s free) and get the daily coupon for your local area so you can see how it works. Their copywriters are very funny so it’s entertaining too.
I’ve heard that Living Social is more business friendly than Groupon (taking less of a percentage), but I’m sure there are pros and cons to both.
I guess we’ll all just keep livin’ and learning’ together!
Peace,
Lisa
Hi Lisa, This are great tips for a massage therapists or spa treatment, but not for acupuncturists. We are in the medical profession, not the spa industry. Our level of responsibility for patient care and safety is well beyond an initial 45-minute session. We all know that in TCM the typical first visit takes 1.5 hours. What medical doctors do you know, who will drop their medical intake time down just to get new patients into the door? It is irresponsible and potentially dangerous, (it reminds me of all the complaints of Elie\’s Medical Acupuncture Facts website) and this is why many of us think that these types promotions of bring our profession down. We ought to stand together as community for the most effective way to appropriately execute our extremely powerful medicine.
Be Well, Juliette Aiyana
Hi Juliette,
Thank you for sharing your perspective. I certainly appreciate us all working together to strengthen the acupuncture profession (which is why I created and continue to grow Insights-For-Acupuncturists.com). I just disagree with your underlying premise that if a customer receives acupuncture by purchasing through a social/online coupon program that they are not receiving excellent medical care. There are many acupuncturists who spend 45 minutes or less with a new patient and I don’t think we need to make time requirement to be an excellent acupuncturist and provider of powerful medical services.
It’s really not a fair comparison to say acupuncturists should be like medical doctors and not use price incentives to attract more patients when medical doctors don’t typically control their prices. Insurance carriers dictate the price structure which is not a model we should aspire to. A medical doctor’s revenue is often a base salary (regardless of the number of patients seen each day) with bonuses that are comprised of things like, lab tests, procedures and prescription medications. It’s really a different model, for better or worse.
Having said that, I agree with you that we should not devalue our profession and our skills and qualifications as health care providers. And I do not believe that happens when acupuncturists use Groupon and other social coupon programs to attract new patients. Instead I think it opens the door and provides an easy entry point for many people who might otherwise never know that acupuncture can help them. If I had 45 minutes with 100 people who never had acupuncture before, I feel very confident that I could give them a safe and effective treatment (as well as educate them on the benefits of scheduling for future treatments.)
Juliette, I want you to know I totally respect and appreciate your position and I THANK YOU for sharing your thoughts. I think we have the same ultimate goal (to strengthen the profession), but we just have different views about how to accomplish it. I do believe that every acupuncture practitioner needs to model their marketing so that it is consistent with their individual beliefs, ideals and goals. That’s one of the things I love about marketing… you can pick and choose the methods that feel right to you. I’m glad you are sharing where you draw the line and why as I am sure your perspective will resonate with other practitioners and help them to make good decisions for their business.
Peace,
Lisa Hanfileti, LAc
I am a TCM acupuncturist/herbalist/tui na masseuse. I have only held a professional license for 5 months now. At first, I deeply regretted pursuing a career in acupuncture because though i love the work, there are virtually no hiring jobs and I had 5 years of debt to pay off. I tried starting a practice and lost over $3000 in rent for the first few months. No new patients, cold calling doctors, chiropractors, PTs; nobody wanted to be bothered with sending an acupuncturist referrals or they already had 5 of them renting space in their offices..
My business went from non existent to booming with my first online deal. it is my primary marketing strategy now. and yes, its all about converting them once they are in your door; i find about 20 – 30% come back, some become loyal every week. Also, some people see your deal running and call before purchasing; i tell them to just come to my office and i will honor the same price point (to circumvent obscenely high commission)
Juliette has a good point that I mostly agree with; acupuncture needs to become integrated into healthcare. it is worth alot more than $30 or $40 per session and insurance companies should be paying us that. the problem is that virtually none of my clients can afford $100 a session (the retail value in NYC) unless they are working in a high rise investment banking firm on wall street. acupuncture is also foreign to most americans, so throwing out a low price point to come in the door entices them to come discover it; I can tell you some of my most loyal customers were those curious people who would have never come unless there was some enticing deal.
some tips: upsell them by offering them a 50% discount (or whatever else) on continued treatments (now theres no commission so you don’t really lose money). you can print out some kind of “member benefits” card which entitles them to this discount for X amount of time for coming through the promotion.
as for time: i have people coming through these promotions fill out the comprehensive evalulation and bring it with them to expedite the process and fit it into 45 – 1 hour.
just my 2 cents..
Great article! So much helpful information! Thank you for this post and all of the great tips.
Hi Dan,
Wow… thank you so much for sharing your experience, impressions and tips about using online coupon programs! I love your tip regarding applying the coupon price to people who call without purchasing. I agree that the upsell to return at a special discounted price is a great idea and it’s good to know from your experience, it works. A 20-30% return rate is terrific!! I do all my calculations estimating a 10% return rate so it’s great to see that it can be much higher. Please feel free to post back here if you think of any more tips or ideas. They are very helpful!
your very welcome!
i permute deals of acupuncture or massage, or both. the good thing about massage is people insist on tipping (which i do accept for massage but not acupuncture), so the gratuity compensates for some of the loss. massage is good because even if you dont want a tui na clinic, it entices people to just come through your door, and perhaos they may be interested in trying acupuncture down the line or maybe they would like to try herbs, or refer friends who are looking for acupuncture.
The good news is that it appears these sites are not saturated with acupuncture clinics as much as spa treatments or even chiropractic, so its still a niche market for acupuncture. I totally believe in the daily deal as a concept for future marketing and intend on buying up as many shares of groupon once it goes public, and I think its only a matter of time before alot more acupuncturists start running deals.
and that picture you have of “win win” with groupon is gross misrepesentation; they take 50% commission, not what appears to be 25%
I had this article sent to me by the salesman I was working with on setting up my online “Deal of the Day”. My deal ran for two days last week and I had 17 vouchers sold. Additionally I had 3 people call who couldn’t access the website (work restriction) or got the email from a friend the next day- 2 of which scheduled appointments and will pay me directly. So within just a few days I have gotten 4 new patients and still have 15 people to still hear from. Not to mention the money made on selling the vouchers in the first place. With no upfront cost to me I can not think of a better way to reach the 30,000+ people that Deal of the Day email went to.
So far my experience is definitely positive and I plan on doing more promotions in the future – I should be hearing from Living Social this week, and have a meeting set up with a local news station that is doing their own version. Yes I have to give up 1.5 hrs of my time for a laughably low rate, but I’m not so busy that I can’t handle the extra traffic. If you’re close to your capacity then maybe these promotions would not be a good idea.
One piece of advice, especially for new practitioners – work on your first visit interactions. If you find you have a lot of one-time patients figure out what why. If you’re not good at converting first time visits then you will not get as much out of these promotions as you should and might find it is not worth your time/energy.
I will also be tracking revenue generated from the promotion including first order referrals. That way I can definitively state how much I gained from the promotion.
Great business tips and overall website. Keep up the good work!
Thank you, Dr. Brown, for your kind words. I took a peek at your website, http://www.browncnc.com and your info and especially your videos are great! I recommended adding a place for visitors to subscribe (to a newsletter or updates, it doesn’t have to be anything formal) so you can send out emails each time you post a new video, or have clinic specials. It’s an easy (and inexpensive) way to stay in front of your patients.
Best regards,
Lisa Hanfileti, LAc
Here’s an excellent “case study” on how a business used Groupon to address their needs. Notice how methodical they were with determining what their goals were prior to placing the ad.
http://bloggertone.com/marketing/2011/06/15/groupon-case-study-derrynoid-centre-draperstown-northern-ireland/
Our clinic sold about 300 coupons through Groupon about a year ago. It was a good experience, mostly for my receptionist, she got extra working hours, but not so much for me as a practitioner.
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.
Hi Mark,
Thank you for sharing your experiences with Groupon. I think we are all still figuring out if and how these online coupon programs can benefit our practices. I appreciate you adding your perspective and cautions to the mix! I’m sure they will benefit others who are considering using these programs.
Peace,
Lisa
Hmm, yes, I can see how Groupon can help acupuncturists. However, while I’m sure I could find a way, I see little benefit there for editors.
I found this new product that just came out called SalesVu that can measure the ROI of using Groupon or other online promotions. It’s been a life-saver for my plumbing business. This thing is priceless because I can accept mobile payments, track my inventory, track my employee sales, and my product sales. I recommend it to anyone that is looking into accepting mobile payments and a complete business solution.
I did a group on run just earlier this month – they forced a big discoiunt – and I ran it as a loss leader. It bought in c.50 clients and I was full on with it – and tierd for the end – about 3 months! it generated a few long term patients, but on the whole I would not recoment it . . . I have decide to put more efort into basic advertising – ie web/talks – fewer patients, but ledd hectic and better long term results. . .
Hi Lisa and readers,
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
Hey Glenn,
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 did a Groupon about two years ago, just before the coupon sites began to multiply. At this time, I was maybe 7-8 months into my practice and seeing maybe 10 patients/week.
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.
Hi 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
Hey Lisa
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