“Where do you go?”
“Do you like your injector?”
“How much do they charge?”
Those conversations happen everywhere — between siblings, friends, coworkers, and parents on the sidelines of a weekend soccer game.
Brent Fardette, Corporate VP at Synergy Aesthetics, has spent more than a decade working with aesthetics practices. And no matter where the conversation starts, it often comes back to the same question:
What's the price per unit?
“Toxin is commoditized,” Brent says. “People will shop Groupon. ‘The place I’m going to now is $11 a unit. The place down the street is $9, so you know what? I’m going to try them.’”
But over the years, Brent has noticed something else.
The patients most likely to compare prices are often the ones who come in for only one service.
The Growth Playbook
Become Harder to Replace
Most conversations about retention focus on programs.
Membership. Loyalty rewards. Reminder texts. Follow-up emails.
Those things can absolutely strengthen the patient experience. But they don’t fundamentally change why a patient chooses your practice over another.
Relationships do.
When a patient visits you for only toxin, saving a couple of dollars per unit somewhere else can feel like an easy decision. But something changes once that patient trusts you for more than one service.
Every additional treatment gives them another reason to come back. They become more confident in your recommendations and more familiar with your team. They stop shopping for individual treatments and start returning to the people they trust.
“Once you can get that patient to do more than just toxin, say they’re doing toxin and filler, toxin and laser, what are the chances they’re going to shop for toxin down the road to save $2 a unit? You increase that retention by 30% or more with each product or service,” says Brent.
The stronger that relationship becomes, the less weight price carries in the decision.
Help Patients Discover Their Next Service
If most of your patients are only receiving one service, that’s your opportunity.
Start by looking at the services your practice already offers. Where are there natural opportunities to introduce patients to another treatment that supports their goals?
Someone who comes to you for toxin may also benefit from filler, laser treatments, or professional skincare over time.
Every additional service strengthens the relationship. Over time, your practice becomes harder to replace.
“What's one business metric you wish more practice owners paid attention to?”
I'd look at how many services each active patient receives. Most practices track revenue, appointments, and new patients, but they don't always measure how many different services each patient trusts them for. That number tells you a lot about how vulnerable you are to patient churn.
– Brent Fardette, Synergy VP of Strategic Sales
Resources, Support, and Upcoming Events
Patient retention starts with trust, and so does employee retention. If you’re looking for practical ways to strengthen your team’s culture, we’ve gathered four ideas that can help improve communication, reduce burnout, and support long-term success.
The practices that hold on to patients through competition and consolidation tend to have one thing in common: the patient relationship runs deeper than a single service.
Brent compares it to choosing a local hardware store.
“It may cost an extra $10 or $15 to get the things that you need, but you know you can walk in there, talk to the owner, find the right person—that matters.”
That's why the practices that continue to grow aren't always the ones with the lowest prices. They're the ones patients don't want to replace.
Until next time, thanks for being here.
— The Synergy Aesthetics Team