Pennsylvania eye surgeons double their lens & laser eye surgery practice

In Medical Director’s Bennett Chotiner’s words: “Before we came to LiveseySolar, we were a 43-year-old practice. I’m the founding doctor in the practice. We’ve been very, very innovative, always the first to do the latest techniques, the first to be involved in clinical studies. The first, in fact, in Pennsylvania to establish a freestanding eye surgery center, the first to do modern laser cataract surgery, actually the first to do phaco-multiplication in this region, which is what made modern cataract surgery possible.

“So we had all these firsts and we’re ahead of the game, but with modern innovation technology, the internet, Facebook, Google, I’m in my seventies, and these are things that certainly I’ve never kept up on as well as possibly younger people do. And certainly, our practices lagged behind in internet marketing, just internet presence. So we have a really mature practice, a really advanced practice that was somewhat lacking in our marketing skills and our ability to get the word out to the larger population of patients or prospective patients that we do, what we do. And we’re good at what we do.”

Bennett runs the practice with his son, Erik Chotiner, who said: “The main problem we’ve been having is that our online presence, our marketing presence was lacking. It wasn’t reflecting that great quality that we’ve been providing to our patients for years.

“Truthfully, we were falling a little bit behind our competitors in our online presence.”

“The whole team at Memorial Eye have been an absolute pleasure to work with. We meet weekly with their leadership team and find our talks productive and fun. Both Erik and Bennett Chotiner, and their Practice Manager Anna Mary Casserly, are always open to ideas and candid with their feedback. They’ve got the right stuff to make it and I couldn’t be more excited to see what the rest of 2021 brings!”

— Rod Solar, Founder & Fractional CMO, LiveseySolar

“When Erik, Bennett and Anna Mary (leadership team) approached us, we appreciated their commitment to high quality not just in the marketing partner they sought, but in their approach to patient service. This is something we look for in a potential client. They knew they had an advanced practice however they were frustrated that their marketing materials didn’t match their clinical excellence. Our team has jumped on that challenge, and it’s been a pleasure to work together with them to consistently and diligently solve marketing challenges each week. They are some of nicest people we’ve ever worked with, and deserve all the success that is coming their way.”

— Laura Livesey, Founder & CEO, LiveseySolar

“Candidly,” Bennett continued, “the biggest difference between LiveseySolar and other marketing teams we work with is that… working with LiveseySolar is really hard work; and that’s a good thing.

“LiveseySolar, before they were willing to work with us, they wanted to know about us. They wanted to know who we were, what type of practice we had and the quality of our practice. And because they’re a quality team, they want to work with quality teams and that creates a mutually beneficial relationship.

“But again, it’s hard work. We spent tons of time, hours if you will, going over the things that the team has sent to us. They’ve been extremely responsive to questions we’ve asked. They’re available, the availability of technology to talk with one another across an ocean, if you will, is absolutely amazing.”

Erik Chotiner said: “The benefit of COVID, if there is a bright side to COVID, was that they gave us an opportunity to focus on our marketing and we ran across LiveseySolar. And immediately, we knew we had found the right people to help us transform our marketing and really take us to a whole other level with our marketing approach.”

Bennett said: “What you think is impossible to do, perhaps because of time differences, et cetera, really becomes possible.

“And the brilliance of it all is that when you have a great practice and are working with a great marketing team, a marketing team of great individuals, all of whom bring a lot to the program, you get the best of all worlds.”

Erik said: “From the start, LiveseySolar was great and extremely different from what we had experienced before. When we first met with LiveseySolar, they really wanted to interview us. Instead of us interviewing them, they also interviewed us.

“And this is important because before somebody can really be your advocate, market for you, tell others what’s great about you, they really need to know themselves what’s great about us.

“And that’s where they came in and they did a thorough interview, learned more about us, talked to all of our staff, and were very, very thorough in this process.

“And it was just a breath of fresh air. Other firms didn’t do anything like this at all. They were just ready to make a website for us based upon a site that they had done for somebody else, and it really wasn’t tailored to our individual practice.”

Erik was especially impressed with our joint early successes: “So it’s been a great experience working with LiveseySolar. I think we’ve been just amazed at how precise they’ve been, how planned every step is, and how they walk us through every step. They don’t just want us to go from point A to point Z. They take us from point A to point B with steps.

“They’re extremely well organized, more organized than I think I’ve seen any other firm we’ve worked with, and in some ways, I wish we were as organized. And they make it really easy to follow a schedule. They keep us on schedule and I know that we’re going to get amazing results with them.

“And Rod and Laura are incredible to work with, as the rest of their team. Everybody’s so friendly. Everybody’s easy to get in touch with, and everybody’s using modern technology and really helping an established practice like ours jump to the forefront of modern technology as well.”