Making Your Practice Y Generation (Echo Boomer) Friendly

Why shift my focus to Y Generation prospects?

Because the Y Generation, also known as Echo Boomers (as they were born to Baby Boomers), are people born between 1977-1995 and they now represent 52% of the prospect pool for LASIK. If you have looked over your own practice’s demographics you have probably found that most of your patients have been Baby Boomers, or people born between 1948 and 1964. So why the shift to this younger group?

There are some good reasons for that predominance of Baby Boomers but here are two main ones.

The first reason is that most past marketing for LASIK has been aimed only at this Baby Boomer group. What resonates with a Baby Boomer can leave an Echo Boomer totally cold. In fact, one of the major characteristics of this Y Generation is that the members shun mainstream media and mainstream marketing techniques. So the simple answer here is that you simply have not been telling the Y Generation prospects what they needed to hear. In fact you may have been driving them away by outdated marketing techniques and internal systems and décor that were designed for their parents.
Income-wise the Baby Boomer sector peaked about 5 to 10 years ago, about the time that LASIK really moved up in popularity. Therefore the Baby Boomers group could afford LASIK, while their children could not.

But that predominance is about to become a thing of the past. People born in the Y Generation will constitute a major part of your future business – if you let them.

LASIK works best on a young person.

Some marketing for LASIK makes statements such as “Throw away your glasses!” “Be free of spectacles forever!” For a Baby Boomer whose average age today is between 40 and 60, these statements are not only untrue but lead to disappointment with their outcomes, which cuts deeply into word-of-mouth for your practice.

Ensuring the patient has realistic expectations is an essential part of the educational process, and for a Baby Boomer facing the presence or onset of presbyopia, throwing away their glasses is just not going to happen. In fact they will probably find they need glasses for reading quite soon, with or without LASIK.

But an Echo Boomer whose current practical age today is between 18 and 31 has up to 20 years of excellent vision to look forward to after LASIK. In other words, they’ll get more out of LASIK than their parents and for longer, which makes for a much better return on investment.

Echo Boomers come to a positive decision faster.

The average Baby Boomer LASIK patient, by survey, has usually spent up to 4 years in research mode, gathering enough information and data to feel comfortable about the big decision. Most of this time was spent laboriously gathering information from newspapers, periodicals, television, and other people who had had the procedure. A not inconsiderable factor here too was waiting for the technology to be good enough to ensure 20/20 results – the benchmark of good vision. With the advent of Wavefront technology, this benchmark is now being surpassed routinely.

The point here is that an Echo Boomer is tapped into and extremely comfortable with the information superhighway – something his parents are probably still fumbling with. Therefore the Y Generation can accomplish the same research at the speed of light compared to his parents – and has no need to wait for ‘better technology’.

The Baby Boomer sector is on the way out.

Perhaps it is not a nice way to look at it, but nevertheless factual. Baby Boomers are now moving beyond the age limits for LASIK, are developing cataracts, are beset by presbyopia, will benefit less from the procedure and know they will enjoy what benefits they gain for only a few more years.

Convinced?

How do I shift my focus to Y Generation prospects?

Echo Boomers think, act, and respond differently to their parents. Although one of their characteristics is to rely on their parents when making major decisions, here are some key differences:

They don’t respond to mainstream marketing. TV and radio are not high on their agenda - their life revolves around the internet.
They listen to iPods and digital media players.
They don’t read newspapers, they go to websites.
They don’t wait until they run across a friend to exchange information – they text right now.
They don’t believe hyped-up advertising messages, they want and expect to get actual facts, not meaningless reassurances.
They live in a world that operates at the speed of their index finger, so they don’t expect to wait or be delayed.
If they have a question, they want it answered as instantly as possible – preferably by email or text message.
Compared to their parents they’ve been coddled, so they expect to get snacks, drinks, comfortable chairs, have access to the internet, feel safe and treated as an individual – not just another patient.
They like to feel as if they are operating as a part of a group of their peers, so you’re as likely to get two or three showing up for the consultation as one.
They like to share good and bad news – instantly.

Here are some ideas that could help:

Pay more attention to your website. Appeal to the people who will visit it.
Offer webcasts, set up a blog, provide audio-visual links so they can watch, listen and learn online.
Provide brochures and other credible material such as DVDs or PDFs that give facts not platitudes.
Take a good look at your décor, waiting area, and how patients are handled. Is the décor smart, hi-tech and cool looking? Or is it designed for Baby Boomers? How about waiting – what’s the average length of time someone waits to be seen? Could you speed up the Consultation process? How?
Pay close attention to your email lines. Do inquiries get answered immediately or all together at the end of the day? That won’t cut it. Replies have to be as immediate as possible or they’ll just email someone else who will respond.
Review the entire process of the Consultation and Surgery. How could you make it more comfortable, more secure from the patient’s point of view? What kind of music do you play? Can the patient have a friend with them during the surgery?
Maybe set up to do group consultations.
Video the procedure and give it to the patients to post on their social media pages – this works well for word-of-mouth.

How you approach this growing market sector will determine your future success and prosperity.

It may seem like a major shift in how you are currently operating. We can assist with programs, systems and materials that will help you on your way. Contact us for a free analysis.