How Top Refractive Surgery Practices Use Smart Referral Strategies to Boost Patient Bookings

You always ask about your patient’s medical history during your workup. Here’s a powerful tactic to use during this routine: while asking about their family history.

Seed your family history conversations with the idea of referrals – it’s a natural fit!

For example, if they mention a family member with similar vision issues, you can later offer a private discount for that family member. When? At the point of your patient’s greatest satisfaction (most likely a few days or weeks post-op, depending on the procedure).

An essential tip: Never offer discounts publicly, only privately. Public discounts reduce your perceived value. Private discounts feel earned.

The referral discount can be as high as 1/3 of your patient’s lifetime value (LTV). Why? You’re spending less on the referral than you would to acquire a new patient through paid advertising.

Here’s the best part: Referrals are exponential, unlike advertising. When a successful ad brings in one customer, that’s it. To repeat, you pay again. But with referrals, your satisfied patient tells two family members, those two folks tell two more, and so on. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

Maximize the value of every patient interaction by turning family history into an opportunity for exponential growth!

NOTE: The best way to answer that nagging question about practice growth or marketing or patient volume in the back of your mind is to book a free 15-minute compatibility call. Get some options and go away with a clear idea of what’s possible.

About the author

Rod Solar
Founder & Scalable Business Advisor / fCMO

Rod Solar is a co-founder of LiveseySolar and a Scalable Business Advisor for its customers. Rod mentors and coaches eye surgery business CEOs/Founders and their leadership teams to triple their sales, double their profit, and achieve their “ideal exit”.

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Meet our Co-Founders

We’re passionate about helping leaders of high-quality, growth-minded practice owners double their practice revenue

Rod Solar

Founder & Scalable Business Advisor

For over 20 years, I’ve helped ophthalmology entrepreneurs scale their private practices. I specialise in doubling revenue within three years by offering a proven framework, hands-on experience, and a team of experts who implement what works. We take the guesswork out of growth and scale, so you can focus on delivering exceptional patient care while maximising the value of your business.

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LiveseySolar completely transformed the way we were approaching this… We’ve gone from having just the dream of having a practice to having a practice up and running with people making inquiries and booking for procedures… It’s extremely pleasing. We feel lucky we connected with LiveseySolar.

— Dr Matthew Russell, MBChB, FRANZCO, specialist ophthalmic surgeon and founder of VSON and OKKO

Laura Livesey

Founder & CEO

I’m the co-founder & CEO of LiveseySolar. I’ve developed powerful eye surgery marketing systems that increase patient volumes and profits for doctors, clinics, and hospitals, since 1997.

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Rod and Laura know as much about marketing surgery to patients as I know about performing it. They are an expert in the field of laser eye surgery marketing. They know this industry inside out. I believe that they could help many companies in a variety of areas including marketing materials, sales training and marketing support for doctors.

— Prof. Dan Reinstein, MD MA FRSC DABO, founder of the London Vision Clinic, UK