Doing business with value at heart
“Consistently audit your customer experience and you’ll have customers for life. These kinds of customers look beyond the product, give them an experience like none they’ve had before.” - Dr. John Paul Ogalo, Plastic Surgeon
In this edition:
Lessons on value creation over pricing from a plastic surgeon
Community building for the customer and the business
Healthy habits for your heart
DIALOGUE
Business values & customer needs with Dr. JP Ogalo
Our first guest is a doctor who uses every avenue to educate his patients, be it social media or a whiteboard in his office. He’s also created a space to enhance knowledge-sharing between medics to improve service delivery — he’s the ultimate connector.
Dr. John-Paul Ogalo is a plastic surgeon specialising in reconstruction, aesthetics, and plastic surgery. Here’s his take on pricing in business.
Plastic surgery is costly and customer acquisition isn’t easy. How do you handle a potential customer who needs your services but feels you’re too expensive?
I focus on value, not price. I choose not to compete with similar offerings based on price. Professionalism, patient experience and above average outcomes is the language I use. There also exists a professional responsibility not to undercut acceptable pricing standards set and gazetted by the medical council.
Plastic surgery procedures also deploy substantial hardware and human resources that are priced into the ultimate cost. It’s possible to have surgery at a fraction of the cost, but you significantly compromise safety and outcomes, and where human life is involved, that isn’t a concession I would ever make.
How do you train your team to deliver on the customer experience that justifies your pricing?
I have a brand strategy team and personal assistant. We’ve spent a lot of time understanding the market, identifying the gaps and aligning that with my own values, ethics and ambitions. The key thing is authenticity on my part, and the genuinely good people I put in place to execute. This makes everything come naturally.
We meet regularly and over the years, have become a cohesive team in which everybody knows their role. Not perfect, and we still have a lot more growth to do. Trust has also been a key component. You can’t train that though, it’s a lived experience.
What’s your advice on developing a convincing pricing strategy for customers seeking services that enhance their lifestyle?
Understand your value proposition. Price isn’t always the best place to get an edge over your competition. Consistently working on creating value in your business is in my opinion the strategy that compounds better in the long run.
Align your pricing with your target audience, and if your product is good, your brand identity is coherent and palatable, and you funnel all this through a great marketing strategy, the right customer will find you.
Consistently audit your customer experience and you’ll have customers for life. These kinds of customers look beyond the product, give them an experience like none they’ve had before.
SPOTLIGHT
Tech for better service delivery
Doctors can run virtual consults, manage patient records and accept payments all in one app thanks to TeleDoc [Read]
Out with papers, in with a smart health app: it’s now easier for community health promoters to spot high-risk pregnancies [Read]
Dr Kalebi Labs: new laboratory uses artificial intelligence and robotics to speed up clinical decisions [Read]
EXPLAINER
Teach your community, strengthen customer loyalty
Building a community around your brand is a great way to formalise a referral engine so that existing customers can send like-minded individuals your way.
Customer retention relies on engaging the customer even when they’re not purchasing from you. The goal is to keep your brand top of mind so they consider you each time they or a referral needs your product/service.
Shaping these memorable customer experiences through community takes strategy and systems so that it’s sustainable and beneficial to the business.
Here are three ways to improve community management:
Plan your content
Have predictable activities that members can slot into their calendars so you become a part of their routine. This could look like:
A patient support group; weekly sharing sessions and biweekly workshops on topics suggested by the community. Create repeatable templates and batch create resources ahead of time.
A fitness community for beginners; a shared class changing the activity every week based on member suggestions and bi-weekly accountability partner check-ins.
A weekly/ bi-weekly Q&A; using the most accessible channels available, offer sessions where you respond to community questions & take in member contributions.
Empower community leaders
Invite your most active members to moderate conversations or co-facilitate classes with you so that they build expertise.
Over time such members can easily onboard others and help you run focus groups to improve your products as a company.
Use tech the right way
Automate messaging e.g. for welcomes and birthday wishes.
Choose the right metrics ensuring community activities contribute to overall business goals. Some useful information includes:
Engagement — top activities (attendance), discussion participation (attendance) and content popularity (polls).
Composition — member growth, demographics and how they found your community.
Success — testimonials, surveys and 1:1 conversations with top members.
Be intentional with the outcomes for the community members and the clear role it plays in advancing your business then make adjustments along the way.
When well managed, a strong customer community is a valuable asset and a necessary retention tool.
NEWS
Meeting patients’ needs
Generic drugs drive demand for local manufacturing and e-pharmacy services [Read]
This support group has helped 52 cancer patients and has a post-chemotherapy feeding program [Read]
HEALTH ED
5 habits for better heart health
There are many accessible ways to take care of your health besides exercise (we highly recommend it though). Do what you can and build capacity with time and practice.
Here are some steps you can take towards better heart health.
Prioritise daily movement: Build up to 30 minutes of moderate exercise, like walking, running or swimming helps to strengthen the heart muscle. Start with these in-chair workouts.
Eat a balanced diet: Eat fibre-rich foods like fruits, vegetables and whole grains to keep you fuller for longer and healthy fats to reduce cholesterol and blood pressure.
Regulate stress: Practise relaxation techniques like deep breathing, meditation, or yoga to calm your nervous system over unhealthy coping behaviours like overeating.
Get quality sleep: Aim for a regular sleep schedule to reduce inflammation and the risk of high blood pressure.
Stay hydrated: Drink plenty of water throughout the day to maintain adequate blood volume, ensuring your heart can efficiently pump blood.
It’s one thing to desire a change, another to build something different and next level to do so for years iterating for lasting impact.
The closer you get to the people affected by the problem, the better the solutions you build. For Dr. Ogalo it’s market research through a brand strategy team and for you it could be a niche community.
Stay active, keep innovating.