Notes from the Editor Emeritus

Doesn’t it still strike you as ironic that, in 2010, while achieving the best, most natural hair transplant (HT) results via FU grafting that have ever been seen, we, as a medical specialty field, still attract such low regard in the online blogosphere?

Why is this so? I will contend that a significant factor is that many practitioners in our field confuse the product with the service.

The product in our field is the FU graft (produced by either strip excision or FUE).

The service is the design and execution of the movement of the FU grafts from the donor to the recipient areas to achieve the patient’s goals in the most natural manner.

When you market a product, the consumers (our patients) expect uniform quality of the branded product, wherever the product is purchased. This allows the consumer to judge a purchase decision around pricing. A GE toaster is still a GE toaster wherever you make the purchase.

When you market a service, the consumer is critically aware it matters who is providing the service as to expectations regarding the quality of the service. Consumers accept that differential pricing is appropriate and will make decisions based on a value judgment of the service offered.

So, how does this impact on the HT industry? It has long been my view that competitive advertising utilizing pricing is self-defeating as it persuades the potential consumer (patient) that judging the product (FUT/FUE) by pricing alone is appropriate, as the service is equivalent among different practitioners. Competition in the marketplace is generally good as it helps lift standards. Competition that belittles the service (the “race to the bottom” of ever cheaper advertised graft prices) is likely to lower standards as doctors and clinics seek ways to make the diminishing financial returns remain profitable.

This, in some cases, means that the doctor’s involvement in the procedure is minimized and the assistants input is maximized.

I believe successful marketing revolves around perceived value, which can be seen as a combination of the product and the service. Perceived value, while influenced by pricing, isn’t solely decided by pricing.

What influences perceived value? A combination of factors: choice of surgeon (or clinic) based on reputation, experience, personal involvement in the operation, demonstrated outcomes in other patients, etc. The analogy I prefer is that performing a hair transplant is like hand-building a car. It might be cheaper to mass-produce the “car” (the Model T Ford production line approach), but the perceived value of the hand-built vehicle (Rolls Royce, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, etc.) justifies the extra expense as it is recognized as a luxury service. You can still price as you wish, but you are not selling to the cheapest-option sector of the marketplace. Let’s remember that every outcome of our procedure is unique. There is no general equivalence as to the result as it depends upon both the design and the execution of the procedure.

If we take these factors into consideration, how do we increase the perceived value of our product/service?

First, we doctors must reclaim the operation. Stick-and-place by assistants can have a role but, for most of us, we need to be seen to be performing the operation. For purely philosophical reasons, I am the only person allowed to cut the patient. It is then MY operation and I will take FULL responsibility for the result.

Clinics that pretend that a doctor oversees the procedure while having little to no role do us a disservice. As our president, Dr. Ed Epstein, discusses in his Forum column, the oncoming mechanization of FUE harvesting might make it attractive for doctors to divest the harvesting to their staff or, far worse, encourage non-medical “independent contractors” to market their FUE services to largely uninvolved doctors seeking a quick secondary source of income.

Success in our field is not solely based upon quality outcomes. It is also based upon patient satisfaction with our quality outcomes. For this, we need to develop good relationships with our patients that will lead to trust and respect.

If we don’t respect ourselves and our procedure, how can we expect prospective patients to do so?