Meet Andrea Watkins, Practiceland Co-Host & Conversion Coach

Andrea Watkins (00:04):
Well, hi there. I am Andrea Watkins. And if you're listening to this, while juggling three patient calls, checking in a couple patients, taking a payment, selling skincare, and trying to catch your doctor in between procedures, you might be working in an aesthetic practice.

Blake Lucas (00:18):
And I'm Blake Lucas, and this is Practice Land. This is not your doctor's podcast. Alright Andrea, it's your turn now. I'm going to ask you a few questions. I'd love to get to know you a little bit more and where you're coming from and what we're trying to accomplish here today, right? So tell me a little bit about yourself. Where are you from?

Andrea Watkins (00:37):
I currently live in Denver, been there for about 12 years via Las Vegas for 10 years and grew up in the Midwest in Michigan.

Blake Lucas (00:46):
Okay, nice. Whereabouts in Michigan?

Andrea Watkins (00:48):
A tiny town with one traffic light. I had 54 kids in my graduating class and I graduated from the same high school that my father graduated from.

Blake Lucas (00:57):
Oh wow.

Andrea Watkins (00:57):
So tiny town, small town girl.

Blake Lucas (01:00):
Wow, that's amazing. That's fantastic. So tell me about what do you do now? What is your current role?

Andrea Watkins (01:05):
So about seven years ago, transitioned into the aesthetics industry and was the chief operating officer for a large plastics practice in Denver. And in my time there we saw about three X growth for an established practice.

Blake Lucas (01:22):
That's amazing.

Andrea Watkins (01:23):
Yeah, so I learned a lot of great things from a lot of great people. And then we implemented, we messed up a lot of things, we learned a lot of great lessons and then just continued to grow our team and our practice and had a really good time. Developed some great relationships, met some incredible people, patients, and team members, and then got out of the practice directly. And now I work for Studio Three Marketing as our VP of Conversion Coaching. So basically what I do is use our software called Lead Loop to help track, manage leads and then analyze data that we're able to capture through this whole process to figure out exactly what is working and what is not working in the practice when it comes to the systems, the process, the people, and the marketing, so that we can optimize everything and serve more people with less effort and generate more revenue.

Blake Lucas (02:20):
That sounds wonderful.

Andrea Watkins (02:20):
Yeah, it's super cool. I love my job. I get to help people every day.

Blake Lucas (02:24):
That's fantastic. Tell me a little bit about your role back at that plastic surgery office there, and it sounds like there was tremendous growth.

Andrea Watkins (02:30):
Yeah, I think for me, I get the most, my needs are met the most when I'm able to help other people grow and elevate and achieve things. And so as I learned from other people in the industry and just through years and years of experience, my biggest takeaway from that was that I really feel the best when I'm helping other people do better for themselves. Whether it's helping patients live better lives because they feel comfortable in their own skin, or it's empowering my team with knowledge, tools, and training so that they can do better, earn more money for themselves and feel better about what they're doing. So it was a great experience for me just to grow as a professional and help people.

Blake Lucas (03:15):
Tell me, how did you get roped into this podcast on Practice Land? What maybe brought you to here?

Andrea Watkins (03:22):
Yeah, for sure. So we have an incredible team at Studio Three and they've been in aesthetics for over a decade and have lots of connections and a person, who knew a person, who knew a person, we all kind of got connected. We saw each other at ASPS in Vancouver last year. Didn't even realize that we would have a connection like we do. And so just made some introductions, talked to a few people and was asked if I wanted to come on and provide some support, some knowledge, and help people learn.

Blake Lucas (03:54):
Fantastic. So when we think about this Practice Land podcast, there's so many other podcasts out there, what do you think sets Practice Land apart from any other run of the mill type of podcast you might be able to download right now?

Andrea Watkins (04:10):
Yeah, great question. I think what we're really striving to do is to talk and speak the language of the folks that do the work in the practice every day. I have sat up front when their phone is ringing, I've got two patients in front of me, I have another phone ringing, I've got emails coming in, I need to scan, I have a nurse behind me that needs something. And so through these experiences, we can talk and help other people kind of fast track of what works, what doesn't, what are tools that we can provide, what's the education we can provide to help people maybe not struggle and enjoy their job a little bit more and get more out of it for the practice, but also for themselves. I think when you're kind of isolated, you just work in a practice, you maybe don't go to conferences, you don't talk to other people in the industry, you don't really quite understand the bigger picture or what's really out there and available to help you do the very best job you can, and to get the most out of it for yourself. Are there things that maybe I should be proposing that I can help the practice with that will also help me maybe earn more money for myself, or get some incentives or maybe some free product or something like that? Because people in our industry, we like to be pretty, we like to actually use our products so that we can sell them and show the benefits to our patients too.

Blake Lucas (05:33):
Yeah, absolutely.

Andrea Watkins (05:34):
So I would love just to provide a lot of the information and value that I've learned through the years to help people elevate themselves.

Blake Lucas (05:44):
Yeah, that's fantastic. And I think hopefully we can accomplish that here. I think it'd be fantastic if we can provide that kind of value to any kind of practice or coordinator that's out there listening.

Andrea Watkins (05:53):
Yeah.

Blake Lucas (05:54):
I've also loved that you're in that practice, you're in the trenches, you're in the bind, answering those calls and doing the work that so many of our listeners have or are doing right now. Tell me maybe a story or an interesting case that you may have had that was really difficult or one of those ones where it's like, oh, this one I remember it's never going away.

Andrea Watkins (06:20):
You were talking about PTSD earlier, right? Yeah, we're going to take it back to that. There's really only one awful experience that I remember having and something that we need to know when we're answering the phone. There's definitely a skillset to answering the phone. And a lot of times people just call and say, can I get the price of X, Y, and Z? Can I get this? Can I get that? And we can't really even answer their questions until we know a little bit more about them.

Blake Lucas (06:49):
Right? Yeah, there's so much more context to that. You can't just come in, yeah, there's way more nuance to that.

Andrea Watkins (06:55):
Yeah, you could ask me what's the price to a tummy tuck, but you don't even need a tummy tuck, you just want lipo or something like that. And we don't know those things until we ask questions. And so in our practice, we had a very structured system where someone calls in and I was sitting up front covering for, I had two front desk people, one was out on vacation, one was sick. So I'm upfront answering the phone, in the trenches, doing all the things. And a lady called and she says, she was like, yeah, how much does a tummy tuck cost? And I was like,

Blake Lucas (07:31):
Okay, here we go.

Andrea Watkins (07:32):
Yeah. I was like, here we go. So I just give the answer, I can definitely help you with that. What I'd love to have you do is talk to one of our patient care coordinators. They're going to be able to ask you questions to make sure that's the right procedure for you, and then they'll be able to give you information about the procedure, the recovery, the pricing, and go through all of that. And she said, well, I just want a price. And I was like, well, I don't have that information at the front desk because the patient care coordinator is really going to be the one that needs to ask the right questions so she can give you the correct answer. Well, don't you just have a price for a tummy tuck? And I was like, there's probably a range, but I don't have that here at the front desk. Again, a PCC is going to be able to ask the right questions to be able to give you that information. And she said, I hope you f#*@ing die, b#^%h.

Blake Lucas (08:21):
What?

Andrea Watkins (08:21):
I swear.

Blake Lucas (08:22):
No way.

Andrea Watkins (08:24):
Yep.

Blake Lucas (08:25):
Unbelievable.

Andrea Watkins (08:25):
Yes. And I was kind of shell shocked and I'm like, I'm really sorry that I'm not able. And then she just hung up.

Blake Lucas (08:32):
I can't believe you just hang up right then.

Andrea Watkins (08:34):
Yeah. Well, I was trying to be nice. You always have to be polite and try and serve the customer, try and serve the patient. So that one will always stick out as, and we had Lead Loop, our platform where we record all our calls, we can see all the communications, whatever,

Blake Lucas (08:49):
That was played back a few times I'm sure.

Andrea Watkins (08:50):
So many times we listened back to it and my team, they were all just like, Andrea, what is wrong? I just had this shell shocked look on my face. And I said, you guys listen, we just play on repeat.

Blake Lucas (09:05):
Oh, gosh.

Andrea Watkins (09:06):
Yeah. It was pretty incredible.

Blake Lucas (09:07):
Man, I've definitely had those same type of experiences. I feel like those ones stick with me for sure. And I always wonder, but I don't think you can do anything different in those situations. Some people just don't have it, they just want to be mean to be mean, and it doesn't make sense.

Andrea Watkins (09:22):
Well, and ultimately, if someone is a loose cannon and maybe she's had a bad day, maybe somebody kicked her cat. I have no idea. I have no idea what happened that day with her. But I do also know that my job as a leader in that practice too, was to protect my team. And that would be a red flag. I don't know that I would want them as a patient in our practice anyway.

Blake Lucas (09:46):
Once they do get in the door, then that's someone that you're going to have to work with. And those are those patients who are like, man, I really wish I didn't answer call that day. I'd rather just quit on that patient and have them go somewhere else, cuz it's just so, it's a domino. Right? And it ruins so many other people's day.

Andrea Watkins (10:02):
100%.

Blake Lucas (10:03):
One of those things where it's like, man, there's so much drama from day one.

Andrea Watkins (10:06):
100%

Blake Lucas (10:06):
We should have just said no. Right?

Andrea Watkins (10:08):
Well, we had a red flag rule. If there were two red flags between the front and the PCCs that I would then call, feel them out, and then kindly break up with them, and say, we really want to make sure that you meet your goals are met and that your expectations are met. And based on the interactions that we've had, we just don't feel that we're going to be that practice that can really help you. Because we want you to be happy and we're already not starting off on a great foot. You're already mad, so we want you to have a great experience.

Blake Lucas (10:40):
We just don't think we can do that for you.

Andrea Watkins (10:41):
Yeah,

Blake Lucas (10:42):
What a great idea. I hope more practices do that because it's so important. Sometimes it's hard to say no to customers. It seems so backwards, but it makes so much sense because it's only going to come back by you guys. It's such a horrible situation.

Andrea Watkins (10:57):
Well, so many patients, they believe that they have the right to be served no matter what. And I think that we all need to take a step back sometimes, and we all also have the right to be respected and respectful. So if you're not giving respect from the get go,

Blake Lucas (11:17):
We'll cut it off.

Andrea Watkins (11:18):
Yeah.

Blake Lucas (11:19):
Good move. I heard there's some really interesting stories from those. I wonder how those breakups went.

Andrea Watkins (11:23):
Oh, lovely.

Blake Lucas (11:25):
I guess so.

Andrea Watkins (11:26):
It's hard. It's so funny when you try and tell people, I'm sorry, I don't want to take your money. And it only truly in six years maybe happened five times. So it wasn't something that we, I'm not trying to kick patients out. Clearly that's not how we're getting three X revenue. But we do, to your point, it does have a domino effect on the team and the people who are at the front desk. Who are on the front lines, who are in the trenches, who are having these relationships with patients, and in most cases, all of us are doing it because we do care about people and we want to help them. So then if you have somebody who just comes in is always kicking you in the face, it just demoralizes your team, which that costs so much.

Blake Lucas (12:11):
Oh yeah. I don't think you can put a number on that. I think, yeah, just the hit to morale and those types of things. It's so difficult to keep a company culture positive, right?

Andrea Watkins (12:22):
When it's like the patient could come in and say, I hope you f#ing die b#!h and do nothing about it. You're like, wow, does anyone care about me here? It's so critical that as leaders of practices, whether you're an owner or you're a manager or practice manager, whatever, that you're really making sure that you're protecting your team as well as providing them that support.

Blake Lucas (12:44):
Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me. I love the story, and we're going to get into a lot more of those, I'm sure. Got a wild customer service story or a sticky patient situation? Send us a message or voicemail. If your tale makes it into our "She did what?" segment, we'll send a thank you gift you'll actually love. Promise no cheap swag here.

Andrea Watkins (13:04):
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