Avoiding marketing traps by clinics - any suggestions?

[neoname]

Please share your experiences on how you avoid marketing noise vs actual patients??

 

I'm having a tough time between telling what's real vs staged. Even with best clinics out there...for example like Euginex.

 

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

 

Neo

 

 

 

 

 

[Britanium]

Plenty of actual patients posting their own results on here. This is what I look at. We can all be dazzled by the cherry picked clinic ones. 
Any clinic which has already been pre approved by the forum though is fine.

[neoname]

How can we differentiate an employee posting as a patient vs n actual patient?

[Britanium]

It’s easy to spot, just look at the history of the person. The forum will call out anything looking suspicious. 
There are reps on here and that’s obvious in their postings. 

[Britanium]

The best kind of patient results is someone who will post throughout their whole 12 month journey and beyond. 

[Melvin- Admin]

First step is registering on this forum. For example, Eugenix all of their employees (some happen to be patients) disclose this information in their signature. In this forum, you cut past the marketing hype and get real unbiased information from other patients.

[Abhinay Singh]

21 hours ago, neoname said:

How can we differentiate an employee posting as a patient vs n actual patient?

Thank you for following us. All representatives have disclosed the information in their signature. Also even any employee of Eugenix is posting their own experience here this is the mandatory thing for them to disclose about their employment information either in signature or in post. So be assured about it and keep following us. 

 

[deeznuts]

 

On 10/23/2020 at 4:37 PM, JohnAC71 said:

The best kind of patient results is someone who will post throughout their whole 12 month journey and beyond. 

I like to see a consistent poster as well or at least someone who's been here over a period of months if not years. It just takes a lot of effort to create a persons entire post history and fake an entire person over a period of several months/years only to get one "review" out of it. 

[Melvin- Admin]

Read this article 

https://www.regrowhair.com/how-should-i-research-a-hair-transplant-surgeon/

[gillenator]

Keep in mind that most clinics tend to showcase the individuals with exceptional results...but do you see the average case where the result is not so exceptional?

The other thing is that at times too many things sound too good...if it's sounds too good, then it's probably hype.

Experience is a good teacher...when you spend years reading posts and looking at thousands of photos, you start to discern what is genuine and what is not.

[Gatsby]

On 10/24/2020 at 7:19 AM, neoname said:

Please share your experiences on how you avoid marketing noise vs actual patients??

 

I'm having a tough time between telling what's real vs staged. Even with best clinics out there...for example like Euginex.

 

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

 

Neo

 

 

 

 

 

The best way for me is that I ask a lot of questions. To the point that it may be painful!! Lol! But from my experience and it's my belief that you can never ask too many questions (unless it's just for the sake of doing so). Go deeper than the marketing and hype and build a rapport with the actual surgeon performing the work. I've often said that the most important factor with a hair transplant surgeon is communication. This becomes most important even after surgery and beyond.

[gillenator]

And especially if problems arise post-op as well.

[Abhinay Singh]

It is always important to speak to the patients yourself when you are seeking a hair transplant or any cosmetic surgery. The clinic can provide you tons of references and you can be in contact with them directly. That way, you can counter check the facts. Also, a thorough discussion with the doctors, counsellors and a deep understanding of your particular case would of utter importance. 

It is okay to be doubtful and have questions. That is a scientific temper and will definitely be helpful in recognizing the truth. 

[baalloss]

2 hours ago, Abhinay Singh said:

The clinic can provide you tons of references and you can be in contact with them directly.

Surely, no clinic will provide references to un-successful transplant patients? They will only give you details of the happy patients, just like they will only post videos on their sites of amazing looking transformations. Not being cynical, just being frank.

One of the concerns I had when I was researching was the lack of negative reviews. Now that I understand the industry better, I know the reason.

This is probably the most un-biased site on hair transplants, but there are numerous others which are little more than disguised promotion sites for the clinics which fund them. To the point that they will edit/delete posts if the clinic doesn't like them.

 

 

[gillenator]

Yes it's true that some sites will delete any negative posts on some of their sponsoring doctors...in addition, many dissatisfied patients are embarrassed to post their case online as well so we really have no idea how many there are...and still there are those who are afraid of retaliation.

So it really comes down to choosing the doctors who have long reputable histories of doing great work...oh sure, everyone has a blip now and then however we must keep in mind that elective surgery is not perfect and there are risks associated with it.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

[Melvin- Admin]

3 minutes ago, gillenator said:

Yes it's true that some sites will delete any negative posts on some of their sponsoring doctors...in addition, many dissatisfied patients are embarrassed to post their case online as well so we really have no idea how many there are...and still there are those who are afraid of retaliation.

So it really comes down to choosing the doctors who have long reputable histories of doing great work...oh sure, everyone has a blip now and then however we must keep in mind that elective surgery is not perfect and there are risks associated with it.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

It is true, I’ve seen this happen with my own eyes. Other sites removing negative reviews, or having them posted in a “private” section, which makes no sense. However, there are instances where patients also try and use sites as a tool to coerce refunds, etc. Once they receive a refund they disappear. My point is not all patients are saints and not all surgeons are bad. Researching in-depth is vital. Drawing your own conclusions is important, because you can’t expect another person to have your best interest. That every patients job. 

[gillenator]

Very well said Melvin!

[baalloss]

On 6/9/2021 at 12:23 AM, Melvin-Moderator said:

It is true, I’ve seen this happen with my own eyes. 

I've experienced it first hand! On another site which, of course, I cannot mention in case it violates any rules (but happy to do so if asked).

And my comment on that forum wasn't even that negative - it was an expression of amazement at someone else's wonderful HT and my confession that I wish I too had chosen that doctor. Within hours, bingo, my post gets edited and I get a message from the site owner.

 

 

Edited June 11, 2021 by baalloss

[Melvin- Admin]

2 hours ago, baalloss said:

I've experienced it first hand! On another site which, of course, I cannot mention in case it violates any rules (but happy to do so if asked).

And my comment on that forum wasn't even that negative - it was an expression of amazement at someone else's wonderful HT and my confession that I wish I too had chosen that doctor. Within hours, bingo, my post gets edited and I get a message from the site owner.

 

 

Sure go ahead and say the name. It’s not a violation. 

[baalloss]

Here you go...... hairlossexperiences.com

 

[Britanium]

Just now, baalloss said:

Here you go...... hairlossexperiences.com

 

That was my guess 😂🤣

[Melvin- Admin]

I have no negative words for how someone else runs their site. I will say that I have encountered some off-the-wall patients, which made me understand why removing posts and banning people are necessary. I’ve seen cases of blackmail, extortion, coercion from patients to surgeons. Sometimes it is necessary to remove posts, but the reason why has to be transparent. 

Personally, like to keep things open, of course this does not come without problems. But it’s the best way to get real information. Suppressing information doesn’t change opinions. Challenging those opinions with facts do, at least that’s my thinking. 

[ITA]

16 minutes ago, baalloss said:

Here you go...... hairlossexperiences.com

There are many others besides this, they are real commercial activities disguised as forums, the clinics (all) pay good money to publish their works, and they repay them by banning dissatisfied patients and deleting the related threads.

[ITA]

13 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

I have no negative words for how someone else runs their site.

Instead, you must have negative words @Melvin-Moderator, think that on an Italian forum ,  is forbidden to make references / links to other forums, while they, come to our forum, "take" the threads of happy patients, operated by the clinics they sponsor and they repost them on their forum.

[Doron Harati]

I was botched one my 1st HT, then had a repair procedure at HDC.

The first clinic that botched from Turkey called Arenamed, they have almost 40000 followers on the Instegram, many cheap hair mills buy fake followers (150$ for 10000 fake followers), I even saw new cheap hair mills with over 1.5 million followers, didn't see any legit MDs clinics with more than few thousands maybe 10000 followers.

I myself run 2 business Instagram pages I get to my private mails of "Wannabe be like the big pro stars? Pay us 150$ for 10000 followers" 

Unfortunately people get into big hype fake followers blof, how a clinic with 40000 followers have only 15-20 likes per a post...