Here's Why Podium Should Be Your Reputation Management Software

Getting positive patient reviews that give an accurate representation of your medical spa's reputation used to be hard. Now it's easy.

Receiving negative patient reviews is a bummer, especially when one of your unhappy patients - perhaps with unrealistic expectations - looks to wreck your reputation online. And it's the angry, unhappy patients who can really damage your reputation because their voice or 'comment' is abnormally enlarged since your happy, satisfied patents are not the ones who most often leave you reviews.

It seems that patient reviews fall in to two camps; friends and family who you beg to give you reviews, and unhappy patients who seem bent on destroying your reputation.

No more.

Podium gives you a super simple way to to gather patient reviews from almost all of your patients and build your reputation on Google, Facebook and other review and reputation sites. (Watch the video above to see how easy it is to request a review.)

There are a myriad of benefits for a continual stream of reviews including:

1. Increasing your SEO rankings and visibility of your clinic for more patient traffic.
2. Increasing the number of inbound contacts you're front desk is fielding.
3. Outbound contacts to your existing patients via text message (a 99% open rate)
4. Control of your online reputation by gaining a massive influx of patient reviews that more accurately show your actual reputation and lessen the effect of a few unhappy patients.

Check out the Podium special offer for Medical Spa MD Members.

Facebook, Google, word-of-mouth all expand your reach - note that Podium handles this use case as well - but reviews can make or break your reputation and either lead to long term success, or abbreviate your opportunities.

You'll notice on this chart that online reputation is critical for  "Medical / Healthcare" businesses. The reviews that you now have are setting the tone for your new patients since a whopping 87% of consumers - including consumers of cosmetic medicine - now search for even local businesses before they contact them. 

It's often the case that successful clinics are competing in ways that the rank and file don't appreciate, or don't have access to (Asymmetrical Competition), using tools and spending smart money in areas that actually benefit them in the long term rather than just saying yest to the salespeople who walk through the door.

Take a look at the special offer and free setup that Podium is offering to Members.

Medical Spa MD Certified Partners

Buy your next cosmetic laser or IPL from a Medical Spa MD Certified Partner with confidence that they will meet our 7 point guarantee.

When you buy your next laser or IPL from a Medical Spa MD Certified Partner, you know that you're dealing with an organization who has agreed to meet our high standards, and that their continued inclusion in our program relies on treating Members with transparency and honesty. All Medical Spa MD Certified Partners have agreed to our 7 point guarantee.

As a Member, If you purchase from a Medical Spa MD Certified Partner who does not meet our standards and our 7 Point Member Guarantee, you can contact us directly and we will intercede on your behalf. If we determine that a Member has been treated unfairly or that there has been a violation of our values, we will revoke that companies privileges and access to the program, and we will list publicly list that company as a business that we will no longer work with. 

If you are a Medical Spa MD Member who have purchased from a Certified Partner and want us to investigate an issue or complaint on your behalf, you may contact us here.

Our 7 Point Member Guarantee

Every Medical Spa MD Certified Partner has agreeded to:

1. Follow our Terms & Conditions and our Code Of Ethics
   You can read them here.
2. Transparent Listing Prices
   Any product listed on our site will be immediatly available at that price. There will never be any "bait and switch" tactics of listing of products that are not under the direct control of the listing company.
3. Lowest Price
   Certified Businesses agree that the price you see on Medical Spa MD is the lowest price for that item on their own site or anywhere else.
4. Awesome Service
   Certified Businesses agree that they will provide Medical Spa MD Members with their highest level of service at all times.
5. Public Reviews
   Certified Businesses agree that after every purchase they will use a verified Podium account to send you a request for a public review of their service.
6. Member Only Benefits
   

   Certified Partners agree to provide free, special benefits, upgrades, price reductions, and/or perks to every identified Medical Spa MD Member purchasing a laser or service.

   You must identify yourself as a Medical Spa MD Member before purchasing to recieve these benefits.

While this program can't guarantee that nothing bad will ever happen, it does go a long way to cleaning up the industry and gives you (if you're a current Member) much more serious remedies and security when you're buying a used laser or IPL. It also begins to clean up the marketplace since we will actively be looking to publicize and identify cosmetic laser resellers who are not ethical or have unhappy customers.

Here's a short FAQ about this new program for Members.

Which used laser companies are currently Certified Partners?

There are currently two used laser resellers in the program; Sentient Lasers and Rock Bottom Lasers. 

• Sentient Laser - Free upgrade from 30 day Silver to 90 day Gold warranty for Members.
  View Member offer from Sentient Lasers 
   
• Rock Bottom Laser - Free upgrade from 60  to 120 day warranty for Members
  View Member offer from Rock Bottom Lasers

Want to become a Certified Partner? Apply here: https://medicalspamd.com/partner

Why is this program needed?

If you've purchased a used aesthetic laser or IPL from an unethical reseller you already know why this is needed. If you haven't had a bad experience yet, we're here to make sure you don't. This program looks to hold laser sellers more accountable since we will actively be looking to publicize and identify cosmetic laser resellers who do not act ethically including.

We aim to make every purchase transparent and ethical for our Members.

Why do laser sellers want to be a Certified Partner?

They want the increased sales from our Members, and they're also concerned about the damage that unethical vendors do to their own reputations and the entire industry.

What types of businesses can be a Certified Partner?

Any business that sells cosmetic lasers, IPLs and medical devices to our target market - physicians practicing nonsurgical cosmetic medicine worldwide - can apply to be come a Certified Partner if they agree to abide by our terms, our 7 point guarantee, and what special benefits they will provide to Members. Applicants are then vetted by us to determine if they should be added as a Certified Partner and can display the Medical Spa MD Certified Partner Seal.

We will only work with vendors who have both the intent and the resources to provide high quality services to our Members. We're currently focused on the used aesthetic laser market but if this program is successful, we may extend it to other areas.

Note: Other businesses may apply to be a Select Partner but only cosmetic laser and IPL vendors may be "Certified" and list their inventory on our site. 

What should I do if I feel like a Certified Partner is treating me unfairly or violating the Certified Guarantee?

First, contact the vendor about the issue. All of our Select Partners are very aware of identifying Medical Spa MD Members and will usually bend over backwards to try and remedy the situation.

If you're still not satisfied, you can contact us directly using the form at the top of this page. We will collect your information and contact the vendor directly to investigate what happened. You may be contacted for additional information. If we determine that the vendor has acted dishonestly, unethically, or violated our Certified Partner Agreement we will take any number of actions up to and including publicly disclosing the issue and banning the vendor from the program and site.

What happens after I file an issue?

The first thing we'll do is collect some additional information from you by email or phone to try and determine the order of events and what happened. You may be asked to forward emails or detail phone conversations. We will then contact the Certified Partner on your behalf to tell them that we're involved and to get their side of the story. (Note: They should already be aware of the issue since you should have contacted them first.)

We will essentially conduct our own investigation to determine if there was a violation of our terms or 7 point guarantee, or if the vendor acted unethically. If we determine that the vendor is at fault we will work with all parties to attempt to resolve the issue to the Members satisfaction.

If we determine that the vendor acted intentionally to violate their agreement with us as a Certified Partner we will take additional actions that may include publicly disclosing the issue or incident, notifying our Members, and removing the vendor from our Certified Program. 

Do you guarantee that I'll be happy with the outcome?

No. You may be a jerk who will never be happy. However, if you're somewhat reasonable we will work hard to come to the best resolution we can for you.

Not a Member yet? You must be a Member to realize these benefits.

The Medical Fusion Conference. A New Select Partner.

A new Select Partner has joined Medical Spa MD, the Medical Fusion Conference.

The Medical Fusion Conference is something of an anomaly in the medical conference circut. It's a conference built around providing physicians additional or tangential sources of income in addition to their regular clinical practice, and it's a damn good idea.

The Medical Fusion Conference offers something that's sorely lacking among the conglomeration of clinical shows and expos, a 'horizontal' approch to how physicians can direct their careers along a path of their own choosing. Truth be told, a great number (perhaps the greatest number) of physicians who enter cosmetic medicine or open a laser clinic or medical spa are doing so in order to have more control over their practice, their income, and their life. The Medical Fusion Conference is designed with exactly that goal in mind.

At this coming conference on November 5th to the 7th there will be physicians who have successfully made career choices that have allowed them to escape the grind an hours of traditional clinical practice and have forged their paths that 'leveraged their medical training'. They're film makers, authors, consultants, marketers, and entrepreneurs that have freed up their time and lifestyle to be able to make choices that most physicians can only dream of. The conference brings them all to together in a way that allows other physicians to learn how to replicate their success.

You might not want to be a physician author, consultant, or film maker, or run a concierce practice while consulting for pharmaceutical companies... but the same thinking and skill sets that these physicians have that allowed them to chart their own career path are perfectly applicable to you if you're a physician who wants more control of your practice and your life. Why? Because while the big conferences and expos are really marketing and advertising floor shows that are paid for by vendors, this conference is designed to give you information and skills that you can put to practical use.

Best of all, the conference is still small and intimate enough that you'll have access to every speaker. That's something that you'll never get at the monster expos and conferences. Faculty who are true experts in their fields are being brought in to discuss their careers and developing trends in medicine.  Each day is designed to maximize learning and face time with faculty members including the scheduling of two "meet the faculty" sessions that allow sit down time between participants and the Medical Fusion speakers.

I just got off of the phone with the founder of the conference, Gregory H. Bledsoe, MD, MPH who is also the CEO of ExpedMed and Chief Editor of Expedition & Wilderness Medicine and I was more than just a little impressed. This conference is quite obviously something special and deserves your support.

If you're looking to give yourself some new tools in your career, this is the place to be.

Confirmed faculty for the Medical Fusion Conference include:

• Gregory Bledsoe, MD, MPH, CEO of ExpedMed and Chief Editor of the textbook Expedition & Wilderness Medicine. ExpedMed.org
  
• Natalie Hodge, MD, Co-Founder & Chief Health Officer of Personal Medicine PersonalMedicine.com
• Elliot Justin, MD, Founder of telemedicine group SwiftMD and CEO of Pegasus Emergency Group. SwiftMD.com   Pegasus.md
• John LaPuma, MD, New York Times best-selling author and founder of ChefMD. ChefMD.com
• Steven Knope, MD, New York Times best-selling author of Concierge Medicine: A New System to Get the Best Healthcare. ConciergeMedicineMD.com
• Setu Mazumdar, MD, Founder and President, Lotus Wealth Solutions.  lotuswealthsolutions.com
• Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA, Professor of Otolarynogology, Dentistry, & Engineering, University of Colorado and Founder of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs. sopenet.org
• Steven Peskin, MD, MBA, Executive VP and CMO of MediMedia. medimedia.com
• Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD,  Founder and CEO of Medical Justice. medicaljustice.com
• Gary Taff, MD, entrepreneur and real estate investor
• Mike Woo-Ming, MD, MPH, entrepreneur and internet marketing consultant. themarketingmd.com

Cosmetic Lasers, User Groups & Clinical Exchange Forums

Medical Spa MDs forums are getting some TCL.

With tens of thousands of comments, the navigation menu had pretty much outgrown the the previous navigation and was bursting at the seams. The only way to really drill down and find information was to search, and that's somewhat clumsy since you have to know what you're looking for.

We spend the last couple of days and nights attempting to create a better system that allowed physicians to brows by topic as well as have access to holistic search functions. It's still in need of a little tweaking but we're letting you see it now.

Medical Spa MDs new forums are divided into four broad categories:

• Medical spa business

  that includes legal and marketing and advertising forums.

• IPL & cosmetic lasers grouped by manufacturer 

  You'll find a special forum on cosmetic laser & IPL reviews and comparisons as well as forums for Palomar, Cutera, Sciton, Lumenis, Candela, Cynosure, Sineron, Alma, Solta and others. I've also put all of the IPL & cosmetic laser user groups in one place.

• Physician clinical exchange

• Used cometic laser classified listings

These changes to the forums combined with the new area for Medical Spa MD Select Parterns should allow you to navigate the site and find information that's relevant to your needs more easily... at least I hope so.

We'll try to manage the places that posts are found and move them to the appropriate location when we can. Of course there's a huge amount of overlap. I've included pretty much any fat removal treatment under the Bodyscupting & Liposuction forum for example. While it's not perfect, I think it's much better to have only a few forums that you can peruse.

If you haven't used the forums before, please do. We have a very active physician community who are very helpful. Many of the best threads on the site were started with physicians asking very specific questions around treatments, techniques, and other 'down in the trenches' queries.

If you would like to have a forum added or think we've missed something please let us know. If there's enough content or interest we'll add it.

Also, if you're a physician who has some great information or something to say on any topic, please submit it as a guest post and help everyone out.

Medical Spa MD Select Partners

As the world’s #1 physician community around non-surgical cosmetic medicine, Medical Spa MD's Select Partners offer discounted products and services as well as special customer service to our more than 4000 physician members worldwide.

Medical Spa MD Select Partners display this badge.

IPL & laser technology companies, service providers, publications, content providers and other businesses that sell to cosmetic medical practices and medical spas are partnering with Medical Spa MD to gain access to the tremendous buying power of our physician community. And our Members get special pricing and the trust that comes from the fact that Medical Spa MD stands behind every Select Member.

What makes a Medical Spa MD Select Partner?

• Amazing Products & Services our Members want: To be included as a Medical Spa MD Select Partner, there has to be real value available to our world-wide community.
• Exclusive Member Pricing: All Select Partners offer reduced, exclusive pricing to Members. In some cases our Select Members will build out entire new websites to keep this pricing from their existing clients.
• Fantastic Customer Service: Select Partners must provide exceptional customer service to Members. Medical Spa MD is an active community and Members can complain directly to us.
• Transparency: While we consider our Select Partners as just that, partners, our reputation comes first. When our Members buy from a Select Partner they know that we're standing behind that business.

Become a Medical Spa MD Select Partner.

If you meet the above criteria, let Medical Spa MD help you make the most of your marketing efforts. Consider joining the Medical Spa MD Select Partner Program — a way for you to access our incredible physician community. Or propose your own creative plan for partnering with Medical Spa MD. Apply here.