Shorr Solutions: The Podcast – Ep. 160 – How to Plan a Memorable and Measurable Business Event

00:00:31:14 – 00:02:29:25
Ana Suarez

Welcome to Shorr Solutions: The Podcast. My name is Ana Suarez and I will be your host for today. I am the Director of Client Development, and today I have the pleasure of having with me Paige Hamilton. She is our Marketing and Advertising Manager. So, Paige, welcome to the podcast. I wanna thank you for having me. I’m glad to be here. Awesome. So today we have a fun topic. It’s about planning events for the practices. It’s something that we have been hearing our clients mention, and I know that they’re working on planning whether it is their open houses, or maybe there’s a practice event that they have coming up. And so we thought that this would be a good topic to discuss today. Kind of like mention some things that we have been noticing and provide some feedback in some guiding points, as you guys will be creating some of these events in the future. So we’re going to be talking about why is it important to do some of these events, right? Why would we even take the time to plan an event, put all this time and money? And basically, we have to keep in mind that when we’re planning an event and we let the community know, it’s a way of positioning your practice, positioning your business in the community. And it is an opportunity to create that connection between you, your practice in your patients. You know, whether these are existing patients or prospective patients. So it’s more than just promoting your practice. It goes above that and it is about creating relationships. It is about making those connections with the patients and also giving them the opportunity to get to know you get to know who you are, get to know your team. Learn more about the services that are provided in your practice, and just having those interactions in general. Yeah, and that’s.

00:02:29:25 – 00:03:07:20
Paige Hamilton

A great point. Ana, is that the connections are so important with the patients. And I think that a lot of people are afraid to have events because they think maybe people aren’t going to show up or it’s going to be too high of an investment, or maybe they just don’t want to make the time for it. But I think that you should always make time to connect with your patients and bring awareness to your practice. And if that’s through events, then I think that that’s very important. Putting yourself out into the community, making sure your patients know what’s going on, but also attracting new people so they can discover what’s going on in your practice as well.

00:03:07:23 – 00:04:03:10
Ana Suarez

Yes. And I mean, what you mentioned about some of our providers, our practice owners getting a little bit afraid about the event, right. Kind of like planning an event and putting things together and coordinating and, you know, calling vendors. And it’s true. It takes time. It takes a little bit of an investment. It’s just a different opportunity of interacting with people, putting yourself out there and creating more opportunities for your practice. And so we always recommend it specifically when someone is opening a new practice, we definitely want to make sure that at some point it doesn’t have to be right away, but it could be within the first 3 to 5 months of opening your practice, just putting an open house or a grand opening event together, and making sure that you get that opportunity to introduce yourself to the community.

00:04:03:12 – 00:07:36:25
Paige Hamilton

We want to start with the negative connotations around having an event, which is why you wouldn’t want to have one because maybe people aren’t going to show up, or maybe it’s not going to produce results. Or maybe it’s thinking it’s very expensive. So there’s definitely cases where people have events and they they’re not successful. So we want in this episode to help you if you’re planning your event or if you’re thinking of having an event in the future, to not be afraid of failing because, as Ana said, it’s supposed to be fun. It’s an events are a different way to market your business, and it can be very, very successful and a lot of fun for you and your patients and your staff, if done properly. So the very first thing that you want to keep in mind is to have a goal for your event. Ana mentioned an open house, if you just opened your practice having a grand opening, getting people to know who you are, having awareness, that’s one goal or objective, another one. If you’re already open, you could have an event to promote a new provider that you have in your practice, or a new piece of equipment or a new service that you’re offering. So figure out what you want your goal for the event to be and then what you want to happen. So you have to have clear things for your event to be successful, because you can’t just gauge it on how many people showed up, because that’s different. And a successful event could be maybe 20 people show up and that results in 15 new patients. I would consider that a successful event. You had an event, people showed up and you got new patients from it. I would consider an event a failure. Maybe if 150 people showed up, maybe that seems successful. You got all of those people to come in. But if no one bought anything, no one scheduled a consultation or booked a procedure, then they’re not bringing any money in from having that event. There’s no return on your investment, so you want to focus on conversions happening within the event than how many attendees come? And that’s a very important distinction that you need to make and focus on things that actually matter. It’s kind of like with social media, you shouldn’t necessarily care about how many likes you’re getting, it’s how many conversions you’re getting from it. So think about it that way. And then also making sure you’re promoting the event. People won’t show up if they don’t know that it’s happening. So get out there in your community. Let it know that it’s happening. Get your team involved. Have them invite people, have them pass out invitations, and then also make sure that it’s fun. If people are taking time out of their day to come to your event, they’re not necessarily going to want to sit there and listen to you talk for maybe an hour. They want something fun, maybe have fun music, have fun food, have people mingling, have maybe there’s some form of entertainment, whatever the fun or entertainment looks like for your event, make sure there’s something going on. For example, when my dad opened his business, he had the bounce house outside in the parking lot, the people who brought their kids. And then he also invited one of our local animal shelters to bring dogs in. So he had the space for that. So if you have obviously a smaller business or smaller practice, you can’t have dogs running around everywhere, then that wouldn’t work. But whatever that looks like for you, that also makes it very memorable for your patients that are coming in.

00:07:36:27 – 00:13:19:10
Ana Suarez

Yes, those are all great things to keep in mind, and it sounds that that was such a fun event, the one that your dad put together, you know, when he opened his business. Something else that I wanted to add to it is every every event is going to look a little bit different. I know that I have some practices where whenever the fall time comes, they do kind of like a friends giving type of event. And so yes, it is an opportunity to see patients, to see how they’re doing, see how their family is doing, and at the same time to talk about, hey, you know, these are some of our new procedures that we have right now, or we may have a special promotion going on, whatever it may be, but just kind of like giving that that contact and involvement with, with the community is really helpful. There’s other clients that we have or they’re very specific and they just do events where maybe they have, you know, they have some appetizers, some refreshments, but then there’s appointments that either get schedule for, you know, the next couple of days, or there’s a couple of appointments that have already been scheduled and the doctor is going to be there. It’s going to be performing some of these procedures or maybe the nurse practitioner. And so it’s more structured and it’s just like having all of these schedule appointments, but it’s usually specifically for one procedure. Maybe it could be an injectable, maybe it could be some fillers, maybe it could be HydraFacial. And at the same time they’re having that interaction. They’re having some appetizers and it’s a little bit more casual. So there’s a little bit of a rhythm that can be done. So having that clear idea always helps a lot. In addition to that, I’m making sure that based on the purpose of the event, having the right audience, if let’s say we’re doing maybe you have a new concierge program that you want to introduce in your practice, or maybe now you have a weight loss program that you want to add to your menu of services. So just thinking it through, like who will benefit the most from this type of event, and then how should I be communicating to them. So like if you have some type of audience and maybe it’s like an older demographic, then maybe just making sure, okay. Should I be using Facebook instead of Instagram, or should I do Facebook instead of TikTok? Or if it’s like a younger generation, maybe it could be TikTok and Instagram. Also, the type of messaging that you’re putting in there and always thinking that you’re providing value, you just don’t want to come across like you’re trying to sell products and procedures, because at the end of the day, people don’t just buy because the price has been reduced or because you have that special promotion, but they buy because they see value in what it is that you’re offering, and that they also trust the provider who’s offering the service. And on top of that, that they feel good with the rest of the team and that they feel that they really care about them. And they’re not just trying to make another buck. So keeping that in mind, it always helps a lot in a space was mentioning establishing measurable success metrics. And it’s going to be different for every event. Obviously, if you have one event where you wanted to complete a couple of procedures that day, then making sure that everybody who sign up for it, that they showed up, or if they didn’t show up, then it was like a smaller percentage. If it is an open house, it could be more, okay, how many attendees did we get and were we able to add them to our internal customer relationship management system, our CRM, where we now have, you know, let’s say like Paige’s information and we can keep communicating to her after a grand opening. So knowing the metrics for your event, and this is a problem that sometimes we’ve seen practices or practice owners, business owners get really excited about events. But first of all, they didn’t come up with a strategy behind why do the event in the first place? And second of all, they didn’t have any metrics. So they have this amazing event where everybody has so much fun. But then at the end of the day, they don’t really know. Do we get any consultations booked? How many new patients do we actually attracted to this event? So it really depends. But it’s very important to come up with those metrics. And they’re going to change depending on what it is that we’re trying to do. In the last but not least, is training the team on the expectations and the responsibilities. Right. The owners are so excited about the events and they’re envisioning so many great things, but they’re not really constantly communicating with the employees. Or maybe the only things that they’re communicating is how you’re going to be in charge of this. This is what you’re going to do. There’s not motivation or finding that communication, right? So in order for an event to be successful as anything else in life, you know, you have to work with people. You have to get them excited about things, and you have to make sure that they understand the purpose of that specific objective, making sure that we have those conversations with the team and that we also select the right person for the right responsibility or the right task. If you have someone that maybe you know, they don’t really enjoy talking to people or they’re a little bit shy, then maybe they can help you with another task. Maybe they’re really good at putting a spreadsheet together with tasks to be completed. Or perhaps it’s really good at following up via emails, whatever it may be, but always keeping in mind your team’s strengths and then assigning them to those tasks that, that will make sense for them to help you with.

00:07:36:27 – 00:13:19:10
Ana Suarez

So keeping that in mind, it always helps a lot in a space was mentioning establishing measurable success metrics. And it’s going to be different for every event. Obviously, if you have one event where you wanted to complete a couple of procedures that day, then making sure that everybody who sign up for it, that they showed up, or if they didn’t show up, then it was like a smaller percentage. If it is an open house, it could be more, okay, how many attendees did we get and were we able to add them to our internal customer relationship management system, our CRM, where we now have, you know, let’s say like Paige’s information and we can keep communicating to her after a grand opening. So knowing the metrics for your event, and this is a problem that sometimes we’ve seen practices or practice owners, business owners get really excited about events. But first of all, they didn’t come up with a strategy behind why do the event in the first place? And second of all, they didn’t have any metrics. So they have this amazing event where everybody has so much fun. But then at the end of the day, they don’t really know. Do we get any consultations booked? How many new patients do we actually attracted to this event? So it really depends. But it’s very important to come up with those metrics. And they’re going to change depending on what it is that we’re trying to do.

00:07:36:27 – 00:13:19:10
Ana Suarez

In the last but not least, is training the team on the expectations and the responsibilities. Right. The owners are so excited about the events and they’re envisioning so many great things, but they’re not really constantly communicating with the employees. Or maybe the only things that they’re communicating is how you’re going to be in charge of this. This is what you’re going to do. There’s not motivation or finding that communication, right? So in order for an event to be successful as anything else in life, you know, you have to work with people. You have to get them excited about things, and you have to make sure that they understand the purpose of that specific objective, making sure that we have those conversations with the team and that we also select the right person for the right responsibility or the right task. If you have someone that maybe you know, they don’t really enjoy talking to people or they’re a little bit shy, then maybe they can help you with another task. Maybe they’re really good at putting a spreadsheet together with tasks to be completed. Or perhaps it’s really good at following up via emails, whatever it may be, but always keeping in mind your team’s strengths and then assigning them to those tasks that, that will make sense for them to help you with.

00:13:19:13 – 00:17:00:05
Paige Hamilton

Yeah. And in addition to that, Ana, I mean, you touched on marketing a little bit too, and I think that’s a very important part of having an event is we we said it getting the word out there. If people don’t know that it’s happening, they’re not going to be able to come. How you’re going to get the word out there matters just as much because it sets the tone for the event. Everything that happens prior to the event is setting the expectations for how the event will go in the attendees mind. If I’m receiving a physical invitation? I might think that it’s maybe a more formal event than you know something. If I’m just receiving a text or if I see something on social media. So you want to figure out again, this goes back to what your goals are. And this all has to happen for your planning. So figure out what your goals are, who’s going to be your attendees and then figure out how to market to them. So sending out your invitations you know, if you have printed invitations, it’s always a good idea to go to other businesses that are nearby. Maybe that you’ve worked with in the past, give them invitations to give out to people, or even collaborate with them. So maybe you can say, do you want to do a trade? Do you want to be a part of a giveaway for this event? You know, maybe we’re going to create a little a little gift basket. We’re going to raffle it off to people. So get getting other businesses to help join in. Will a help reduce the costs for you not having to like buy everything for a little gift basket, but also it’s promoting them as well as promoting you. You might get more attention from it. So there’s all different types of things that you can do for marketing, especially Ana mentioned, you know, sending out emails to everybody, keep them informed as to what’s going on, when it’s happening, where it’s happening, what’s going to, who’s going to be there, what’s going to be going on? Is there food? Is there not food? How long is the event going to run? So these are all details that you need to make sure you’re communicating. And then that will help create an experience that patients will remember, especially if you make it feel like the event is exclusive. I think that’s a big thing too, is making it feel like, hey, this isn’t necessarily an event for everybody. People like to be invited to things that are exclusive. So maybe if on the invitation it says, you know, you have to show the invite to be able to come in or attendance by invitation only, it makes it feel a little bit more exclusive. People are probably a little bit more likely to want to come, especially if it’s, oh, when maybe they’re only inviting us certain people, oh, I feel honored I’m selected. So just different things like that. It’s psychological. A little side story to prove. My point is, one of my best friends is getting married at Disney. Disney has very specific security regulations and requirements. So her ceremony is going to be on like one of the resort properties. What they require is that all the attendees for her wedding have to show their ID at like the door to get into the ceremony. I was telling all of this to my mom, you know, make sure you have your ID because they’re going to check it. And she got all excited. She was like, oh my gosh, I’ve never been on a list before. That’s so exciting because it’s exclusive. You know, it’s you see it in the movies, people waiting in line and people skip the line and they’re like, I’m on the list. You know? It feels you’re one of the top people. You’re exclusive, you’re a VIP. So definitely if you can give that experience to your patients coming to your events as well, it’s just a little added touch that makes a difference and makes it memorable for people. Yeah.

00:17:00:12 – 00:21:02:08
Ana Suarez

I mean, I love that idea that that’s a great concept and it’s one that works really well for your VIP patients. You know, there’s always this group that they keep coming back for more that they’re very loyal to the practice. So that actually would be a great a great way of doing it right where you have an event but is for your VIPs, your most loyal patients. And this is like a great way to kind of like move on to the next topic, which is also the presence. So in that VIP event or in just any event, making sure that, you know, not only the practice owner or the providers, but also the rest of the team, they have a good presence. They’re very professional. They’re very warm and welcoming because you want people to have a good experience. We’ve seen many times where the practices, the business owners, they do a great job at promoting the event, you know, sending all of those emails, sending the invitations, calling people, getting people on the list, getting people excited. But yet when people come to the event, it’s not as fun and as exciting or even valuable as what you know they heard or read in the promotions or, you know, the emails and all of that. So making sure that, you know, once you have the people in your in your practice that they actually have a good time, that they actually have a very enjoyable experience. So maybe like even just having the whole team there dress nicely, very professional. I will put together maybe having a little present to give them like little take aways or little things like maybe like samples or like Paige mentioned, like working with other businesses within your community and then having like a nice basket of little goodies that they can take with them. And, you know, just making sure that you’re introducing your team and you’re letting them know this is so and so, you know, this is Paige Hamilton. She works in our practice doing our marketing. And so she is the person that every time that we have an event, you’re going to see her smiley face and she’s going to be here for you helping you every step of the way. So making sure that, you know, you include the team from the practice manager to the patient care coordinator, that they get to know their names, that they get to know a little bit about them, and that they know, most importantly, how they will be able. Each team member will be able to help the patients or prospective patients select whichever service that they decide to move forward with, right. So that’s really important. Also that’s going to help you to like build trust. You know, build trust with your audience, build trust with your community. And we do want to communicate, hey, you know, this is everything that we offer or these are the new services that we offer or now we’re including like a new, you know, a new skincare line or a new service within our practice. But we don’t want to overdo it either. And we do want to be a service all the time, because that’s how you build a relationship. That’s how you build trust. I’ve been to a couple of events where it’s a lot of the providers just talking and doing presentations, and then they only leave like five minutes for questions. And then then people feel that they don’t have enough time to actually get other questions answered. I mean, not that you’re going to answer every single question, because for that they can always do a complimentary consultation so that they can speak specifically about what it is that is bothering them, or that they would like to enhance, or that they would like to improve, but at least making sure that we cover the most important or frequently asked questions since, you know, they they took time out of their busy schedules to come here to your event and to learn more about you, your services and be part of that experience. Right? So again, be of service. I think when we are people of service, when we keep customer service like our number one priority, and when we really get invested in learning what it is your patients need, then everything else flows.

00:21:02:13 – 00:22:15:26
Paige Hamilton

I think that’s a good point too, Ana. Is that you you mentioned that they’re coming. They’re taking the time out of their day to come to your event. So you want to take the time to figure out what their needs are, especially because if they’re coming to an event, they likely have a need or some interest in what you’re offering. So it’s a very strong opportunity on both ends that you guys are both going to be able to equally help each other. You know, obviously this person came to your event. You’re hoping that they do book a procedure or book a consult and talk to you. But then on the patients, the attendees side, they’re hoping that they can get more information, that they can get their questions answered, that they maybe can schedule a consultation because they have a goal in mind as well. So I think that it goes both ways, and you have to remember that they’re choosing to be there. It’s not something that they’re forced to go to. They chose to come after work. If it’s on a weekend or during the day or whatever your event is, but they’re choosing to be there, taking away time from their family, their friends, doing anything else that they could be doing. So definitely making sure that their needs are met as well will help create that experience for them.

00:22:15:28 – 00:24:36:16
Ana Suarez

Definitely. I completely agree with that. And then Paige, you had mentioned something that I just remember. It also comes up a lot. This question like when is a good time to do our events? And so from what we have seen, usually either Thursdays and Friday evenings or afternoons for a couple of hours, maybe like 2 to 3 hours, again, depending on what you’re trying to do, that’s a good time to plan an event. Yes, because in the weekends, you know, families and people have their own personal time and they want to do personal projects, right. With that said, we have had clients where they do organize a really nice event, more like a family event or something, a little bit bigger scale on Saturdays. And so people will come in and they’ll, you know, look around, ask questions, see the demonstrations, bring the family, get some goodies, you know, and then just leave and, you know, move on with their day. Again, it really depends what you’re trying to do. But just kind of like in mind a little bit about the timing and the scheduling and always, always making sure that if there’s a holiday coming up people won’t be showing up. You know, like, let’s say the same week of Thanksgiving per se, because that’s just like super busy. So if you’re doing a friend’s giving, then try to do it a little bit earlier in the month or even summertime. It’s usually kind of a little bit slower because people are traveling. That said, I’ve seen practices where just because that’s like a slower time of the year for this, this industry, they do become really creative and they do like pampering session events or kind of like getting getting ready for going back to school, you know, with with the moms, you know, they so I mean, there’s all of these things that can be done. So always keeping in mind, you know, your your guide is going to be knowing your, your why and your metrics. And who are you talking to. Right. Who are we trying to get our message to? Who are we doing this for? And always keeping in mind that you want to be of service, that you want to be valuable for people. But if you’re not communicating, if you’re not having the event, if you’re not thinking things through, then it becomes more difficult to to do that.

00:24:36:18 – 00:27:41:19
Paige Hamilton

Yeah. And I think to end this episode, we need to make sure that we also touch on the whole process needs to have a pretty bow. You need to tie it up. You need to make sure there’s no loose ends. And that means following up with your patients or the attendees. Anyone who was at your event needs to be followed up with making sure you’re getting information from people, their name, their email because you want to follow up with them. You want to be able to send them that presentation. You want to be able to send them a digital copy of the brochure, or a list of your services, or even the link to your website. There’s no way to do that unless you have their information, and there’s likely depending again on your goal, there’s likely going to be people who have never been to your practice before. So you want to make sure you capture their information and follow up with them quickly, thanking them for coming, making sure they enjoyed their experience. Also, you know, if you sent out invitations to people you already have contact information for, maybe they didn’t come. Maybe you’re like, you have a list of people you can mark. Did they come? Did they not come reach out to the people who didn’t come as well? Follow up with them. Let them know, hey, we missed you at the event. Here’s what you missed out on. We don’t want you to feel left out, but here’s the information. Here’s what happened. We hope you can come to the next one however you want to. Word that, but don’t neglect the people who didn’t come. Make sure you have a campaign that goes out to them to like, keeps them in mind. And then also the people who did come, you’re staying top of mind for them. Oh yeah. I did have really fun time at that event last night. Oh, this is their services now. They can take a look at them. There’s a lot going on. Depending on what you have during your event. They talk to a lot of people. Maybe they saw a lot of things. They’re having a good time, so maybe they’re not focusing on all of the details. So having that follow up email helps them kind of, you know, remember and sit down there at home now they’re in a different environment. They can sit and take the time to look at your website and all the information in the flyer that you gave them. So making sure that they have that follow up and then that you’re trying to schedule the consultations, you want them to come back to your practice, especially those who expressed interest that you had an actual conversation with, maybe give them a little bit more of a tailored message and then just keep communicating with them. Don’t just send one email. You want it to be a couple emails that you’re following up with them a few times after the event, and then going back to tracking your conversions, making sure that you know this person attended this event. Maybe they don’t book for maybe it takes them a month to follow up with their appointment, but you still want to know that that’s where that lead came from, and then add it to how your event turned out. How long did it take them to book? Why did it take them so long? Because maybe it took everyone a month to book, or maybe everyone booked the next day. So that’s important to to look at that. You’re also turning those attendees into lifelong patients that will accumulate a very high lifetime value.

00:27:41:22 – 00:29:07:29
Ana Suarez

Exactly. Just kind of like giving that long term goal, because that’s that’s kind of like how we started the podcast, mentioning that when we do the events, it gives you this opportunity to creating deeper relationships and nurturing the ones that you already have, creating new ones in just being part of your community so that they can keep coming back and opening up to you and what it is that they would like to improve, or that they would like to do differently, and having you as the expert there to help them through that process every single step of the of the way. So we really hope that this has been helpful. Thank you so much for joining us today. We hope that this conversation gave you practical ideas and inspiration for planning an event in both a memorable and successful way. Remember, a great event isn’t just about how many people attend, it’s about creating a meaningful experience, building relationships, and just having a clear goal and follow-up plan. Paige, thank you so much for joining me today and being here and adding your insights and what you have seen that has worked as well with our clients, and so we can’t wait to see you next time. If you have any specific questions or anything else that you would want us to speak about, whether it is events or something else about practice management and running the business, let us know. We’ll see you next time. Thank you so much.