The Importance of Your Clinic's Curb/Street Appeal

You're listening to Podiatry Marketing, conversations on building a successful podiatry practice with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDannald. Welcome back to Podiatry Marketing. I'm your host, Jim McDannald, joined all as always by my trusty cohost, Tyson Franklin. Tyson, what's going on today?

Good morning, big Jim. It is fantastic. It is June, which I believe in tropical North Queensland is the best time of the year. So if anyone's ever thinking this is my tourist ad for Cairns. If you're ever thinking of visiting Cairns, June, July, August are are the best month to actually do it.

Sun is shining, and we have just what we find cold, other people down south laugh at.

June is a great month, though. I'm I'm very biased. It's it's my birth month, so I I I the month of June.

What date is your birthday? And I should know this by now. I probably do have it.

June June thirtieth. So coming up here in about two weeks.

So Oh, end of financial year for us. Yeah. So it's the end of financial year for Australia. So, yeah, your your gift, if if you got one, would be tax deductible. Give it give it in that financial year.

That sounds fantastic. And just a little teaser, think, coming up here pretty soon, we're gonna be talking maybe about that end of financial year or maybe the midyear for us people here in North America. But we'll say that for different podcasts. But what are we gonna jump in today on on your side of things?

Okay. So the topic today, I'm just gonna call it street appeal. And and and I think it's it's something that whether you own your own business, not business, if you own your own building, or you might even be within a a shopping center or you might be down a a mall or something like that. Street appeal is all about how is your business being viewed from when people are actually driving past, you know, walking past, riding the bike, wherever they're going, getting past your business. I think you've really got to pay a lot of attention to that because sometimes you could have the greatest business inside, but on the outside, it could look like a dog's breakfast.

And that can be very off putting to people. They go, oh, yeah, I don't wanna go in there. That looks awful. But they don't realize how nice it is inside.

No. That's in in North America, we usually call that curb appeal.

Oh, curb appeal.

Curb appeal is usually like you're on the curb, and what is that building or what does that house look like? That's so that's up here, that's usually what we call that. But I think that's a huge you know, that's it's that kind of that first impression someone comes either driving by your your clinic or they pull up to your clinic and it's gonna set them in a certain mood or kind of, you know, I guess, kind of get them going in a way just by seeing what what you have. Do you look professional? Do you look like there you're someplace they wanna go?

And whether it's like you said, if it's amazing inside, it's not great if it's not great until they get through the front door, it's it's editing it kind of priming them in a way that you may not want.

Yeah. And I think it's important to view your business from different angles. So don't just stand directly at the front and go, okay. Oh, yeah. Front on looks fantastic.

Is have a look at it at different angles. Yeah. How's it look coming up one way of the street? How's it look coming up the other way of the street? And is there are there trees?

Is there something in the way that's actually blocking your signage, or is there something about your building that is really off putting? I've seen somewhere the front might be painted a certain color, but then the side of the building has never been touched, And it's a it's a it's a paint color that doesn't even match, and it's actually off putting. So to me, it's important to look at everything from different angles. Don't need to look at it from the air.

No. The the those the Google Earth or that, like, top down satellite view of your clinic is not something that unless you're arriving by helicopter, they're probably not gonna be checking it out. But I think the signage thing, I think, is really important. I think what I've seen with some clinics in the past is that maybe they've had two or three different rebrands.

Yeah.

You know, their their their website has one logo. The Google business profile has something different. The front of their office has something different. Their stationary has something different. So if there's like a disconnect with the signage or the branding of the logo, it can be a bit off putting to people because they can look pretty radically different, and they may not know kind of where they're going or, yeah, it can be a little bit discombobulating, I would say.

Yeah. But it's also one of those things. I reckon if you look at your signage and you think, oh, should I change it or should I update it? If you have to ask yourself that question, more than likely, you should change it. And it also goes way back to whoever did yeah.

Whoever your sign writer was. Not all signs are created equal. Even just the vinyl signage that they put on windows and storefronts. I've seen some after eighteen months look pretty ragged, whereas other stuff five years later, it looks fantastic. So the quality of the materials you're using is really, really important.

But your signage is a reflection of your business. And if the signage is looking pretty bad, people notice it. If they're driving past, they go, oh, well, if they can't look after the signs, are they gonna look after what are they gonna do with my feet?

No. That's a perfect example. And I think also, you know, whether you know, in The US, a lot of times, people like to have flags, you know, like, whether it be the country flag, the state flag, or some flagging for the office. It's the same thing. If there's a a ratty flag that has it's in tatters, it definitely is not some it's it's kind of a it's a poor reflection on who you are as a business owner.

I have noticed that when I've been to America.

There's a

lot of flags.

There are a lot of flags.

Yeah. I don't see any flags in Australia. And, like, except if it's Australia Day, then some people will put flags on their fence and other yeah. Different places, but that's the only time we usually see flags in Australia. The other part that's part of your street appeal or curb appeal, as you put it, is even your the windows and glass frontage.

I've seen some businesses where they've got that that many stickers and information on the windows. One, they can get really confusing, so it's hard to even see what the message is all about. I I get off put when I can't actually see inside a business. And I know that might sound weird, but when I see too much signage on a window and I can't actually see it, I sort go, oh, do I do I wanna walk in or don't I wanna walk in? Because I don't know what's gonna be on the other side.

But I do understand with some businesses, depending on how the sun actually hits them, they have to have the windows all blocked out or otherwise, the sun would kill them in the afternoon, especially up here.

I would say also it's a it can be a security thing as well, you know, depending on what part of town you're in or

Yeah.

You know, there's sometimes people that maybe clinics more in an industrial part of town where there's not as much, I don't know, police surveillance or kind of like law enforcement around. So, yeah, it definitely you know, the the it's great to see inside of a practice, but I definitely have seen, you know, whether it be, you know, no windows, those kind of things more from the security purpose. But it does yeah. The the more open you can have it, the more inviting it is for people to come in.

Yeah. And especially if it looks really nice inside. People see it and go, oh, that looks fantastic. Where the last clinic that I had, we the street appeal the building itself was was okay. It was and but the signage was great.

And when you saw inside our shop, you just went, oh, yeah. That place looks really good. It looks really inviting. And at nighttime, we would leave lights on so you could actually see inside the business as you went past because it was on basically a main road. Another part that I think people need to be aware of is just the the entrance, you know, your front door, the footpath leading up to it, if there's any surrounding bins, because that is all part of the street appeal.

At our clinic, there was a a bus stop, and the council had the had the bus seat right up against their bill our building. So one night, we went out there. We unbolted it. No one's no one's listening to this. We unbolted it, and we moved it away from their building.

It never it never ever got moved back, which was great. So, obviously, they they agreed with us that that's where it should have been put. But, also, because there's a bus stop there, great for patients that needed a bus, but there was also a bin there. And certain people would, at certain times, would just dump other rubbish in there, prawn heads, fish, and stuff like that. So just be aware.

If there's bins around your building or there's a bus stop, which means there's always gonna be people there, they will leave rubbish rubbish. They could leave cans. They could leave other things there. Go out and check it on a regular basis because even though it's not really your responsibility, it is your responsibility to make sure your clinic always looks good. Cigarette butts.

All that any sort of rubbish because if someone's walking past your business and they see a 50 cigarette butts there and a dead bird, as far as I can say, that's your dead bird, and you it shouldn't be there.

Yeah. It's a proximity thing. Right? Yeah. It's it's kind of in the clinic your clinic's area, so they whether you like it or not, they'll kind of associate what's going on with with, you know, with the the seat there next next to your office or the, you know, discussing trash, you know, trash can, what's going on there.

So just being cognizant and being aware of that so you can really present a really, like, clean, professional look to the outside of the property is hugely important.

Yeah. And I know this can sometimes be difficult if you're in a a shopping center where there's shopping center management has to look after things. But I think the if they if you notice a problem and you're paying rent, then you should be drawing the attention to the landlord that, hey. This is a problem. Someone needs to fix this up.

It could be as as simple as seating in the wrong spot. We had a a clinic at a shopping center at one stage. And you know those kids' rides, you know, like an airplane, little kids get in there and all. They put one of them right out the front of our podiatry clinic. When you're in the reception area, shopping centers at the best of times allowed, you get a couple of kids screaming with their parents because they wanna have another ride and the parents don't wanna put another 20 piece in.

My god. We ended up going to the center manager and saying, you gotta move. You you have to move that ride. It's just ridiculous. And we argued with them for about six months, but eventually, we got them to move it sort of a bit further down.

So you can get things done, but you just if if it's a negative for your business in any way, in the way that it it appears, then you need to do something about it.

Yeah. You can't ignore it. Can't ignore it away. You have to take action.

Mhmm. Yeah. Do it. Be an ostrich. Doesn't work.

The other part I think you need to look at is actually beyond the glass. So if you have glass, it could be glass doors, whatever, and people can actually see inside your business, it's really important to be aware of what they can actually see. So it's like, if if you have whatever your floor coverings are, what do they look like? Yeah. If it's a vinyl sort of material, is it worn empty here?

Is it parts that are split or or lifting? If it's carpet, is it worn? Are there stains? Anything that someone can be looking through the glass at night, then what what will they see? Is your seating old?

Does that need to be replaced? Is your reception counter? Is the furniture mismatched? I've seen places where, yes, you probably bought that at an office supply place in 1998, and those seats or that two of them look new, but that third one looks a bit dodgy. That lounge looks like it's your grandmother's.

Those pot plants near watering. Those poor plants are dying in the corner. There's old magazines there. And you're looking around, you go, this this this does not look appealing at all. Lighting.

There might be six lights in the reception area, but only four work. And I know sometimes people might listen and they go, oh, but it yeah. I'm a good podiatrist. My reputation precedes me. They'll never know you're a good podiatrist because they'll see that sort of stuff and go, nah.

No. I'm not gonna go in there. It just looks dodgy.

Well, if you're kind of neglecting certain aspects of the the way your clinic looks like or the what's how your clinic's functioning, they're gonna kind of relate that to maybe the way that's the way you treat patients as well. Right? You're not it's not a well run organization Yeah. Well run clinic. It's it's like a it's it's definitely a liability.

So the more you can be on top of those things, the more trust you build and the more, you know, professional you'll look and and your staff will look.

Yeah. And it's also it's a law of attraction. Like attracts like. So I did a webinar in March. Beginning of February, end of March, I did it.

It was how to attract and retain podiatry talent. Great webinar, if I say so myself, but I am biased. But the people who were there said it was great too. And but it I talked about, you know, the law of attraction. I also did a a post in the podiatry business owners club.

And like attracts like. So remove anything that could potentially be repelling to a patient. So if if you look at something and you go, oh, I don't know if patients are like that, I'll get rid of it. If it could be if it could repel certain patients, get rid of it. But also, if you set your clinic up and you have it set up in a way that is very appealing on the eye where it looks super nice, those patients that have bare that are bare feet and a bit grubby probably won't come in there because they'll look and go, no.

That's not for me. I'm looking for the place with the beige walls, the old lounge, the the stain on the carpet so when I walk in with my dirty feet, they won't know, and and the mismatched furniture. That's what's gonna suit me. Whereas other people, they will see that and they go, that's propelling. I'm not gonna go there.

So you just remember, like attracts like. It's really important to understand.

That's an excellent point. You just have to kinda, like, project the type of clientele or protect the type of patients you wanna come to your practice. And if you're kinda reaching that level, they're they're gonna be attracted, and people that don't feel like it's a good fit will be repelled.

Yeah. And like I touched on car parks a little bit. Did I ever explain about car parks?

No. We talked a little bit about curb appeal and walking around the building, but I wouldn't get too you didn't get too far into depth

Okay. The car park. So with the car park, sometimes a car park may be out of your control. You have no control with it. You're you're in a complex where there's eight other businesses.

Once again, this is a landlord problem, so you need to talk to them. But if there's weeds growing, overgrown trees that could be dropping things onto cars, or it just the the car park itself looks messy. So in my old building, a lot of the leaves would fall from the neighbors and would all blow around into one corner. So it was that was a place where every week you had to make sure you just cleaned it out. Otherwise, it'd build up really quickly.

But the best way to fix it is we contacted all the neighbors and said, hey. Can you chop down some of these trees? And they did. We contacted the council and said, some of these trees because some of the neighbors said, oh, no. We we can't touch them.

This is rented from the council. Okay. So we contacted the council. They came in and chopped them down. And other ones, we just snuck over the fence and poisoned them over a period of time to to get rid of them.

These are things you have to do. Everyone listened to this. They know they've all done it or thought about doing it. And but because we just knew this all reflected on your car park. And when people turn up for the first time, you know, like they say, you only get one chance of a first impression, but also people driving past it, they can see into your car park.

The car park is a reflection in your business, whether you totally control it or whether you don't. So you need to take action on that.

Yeah. If there's garbage, if the lines aren't painted well, like Yeah. If there's leaves and, like, you know, branches and things, like, within the parking lot, it's one of those things. It's a proximity thing. You know, whether it was your your fault or the neighbor's fault or whoever's tree fault it was, it it reflects on you and your practice.

So you really have to be on top of that as much as you are with, know, the interior of your practice as well.

Yeah. And we've been guilty of it in our own business where you just get so used to just being there that turning up to work and just, yeah, walking into the back door that you just get very casual about it. And until eventually, you sort of you'll hear something like this, like this podcast and go, oh, maybe we should go and have a look and go, yeah. Those trees are a bit overgrown. Yeah.

There are more leaves in the car park than what they should be. Yeah. That yeah. The lines need to get redone. That's the only thing now that we had lines in our back in our car park.

Maybe we should have put lines in, but these are the things that that make you think about. And I think the final thing I just wanna share with everyone is drive around and have a look at your competitors. Put your ego aside and ask yourself, if you were a patient and you looked at your business front on and you went and looked at your competitors front on, which business has better street appeal or curb appeal? Which one would you go to knowing nothing else other you go to your websites, they might look the same. Now you're judging it purely on what they look like.

Is yours up to stand with everybody else or you're sort of like, yeah, I probably wouldn't even go to my own?

Well, I think that's a really important point. I think, you know, sometimes we get kind of it's like a habit. We just get used to seeing our own clinic. And sometimes we get so blind to kind of what we see every day for years at a time. Are there any ways that you think that it could be beneficial for other people to, you know, clinic owners to get like a second set of eyes on it?

Is that a member of your staff? Is that a a friend who's a dentist? Like, how do you how would you kinda like what's another way to get some eyes on it and get some like, you know, some feedback if you feel like you're not being as critical or you just wanna get someone else to take a look at things?

I reckon if you've got a team, just get your team do exactly the same thing. Have them go and look at your competitors and take notes. What do you like about the front of their building? Then come back and have a look at your own and say, what do you what are they doing better than us? What what on their store looks better than ours, and what about ours sort of looks unappealing that's putting people off?

That if you if you could change anything, what would you change? And get your team to do it because your team will be brutally honest with you sometimes. And and you can ask your always ask your mom. Moms are usually pretty pretty blunt.

Definitely not a family member. Right?

It's so sensitive, my mom my mom would probably go, ProArch. What sort of name is that? But anyway, if I look at my old building now, there was a a new clinic opened up across the road. And I look at them and I look at my old building, and the new place for theirs, there's certain things about it which is far more appealing than what my old building is, but there's other things about my old building when I look at it because you can actually see into the business that's a lot more appealing than what theirs is. So it's a bit of a it's a fifty fifty.

I should take a photo of both of them. You can put it on the website.

That'd be a good blog post.

Yeah. It would be. But it's it is. It's one of those things that like I said, there there's certain things about the other building which is really nice, but there's things about it like I don't like that. And the same as my old building.

Well, there's there's no one perfect place. Right? So there's definitely, you know, it sounds like both have kind of things that that are appealing. So definitely, I I'd be curious to see see picture of those.

Well, what's interesting, I I think go and have a look at some really, really successful businesses, whether they're franchises or any type of business in your area, and and sit back and just look at what they've done and go, what is it about their business that's appealing? And you'll find, usually, signage is is a massive thing. So when I compare the new place at new podiatry clinic to my old clinic, the new podiatry clinic signage is spot on. It is really good. Dumb not fan of colors, but it's spot on.

The my old clinic, the signs need to be updated. They are just dog ugly now. They they need to like, I sold it to them seven years ago, and they've used some of my old signage and just tried to re reuse it on top of putting some new stuff there, and it just looks dog ugly. I look at it and say, oh, guys, just changing that would make a huge difference. But they're a big corporate company, and it's all about profits.

Yeah. It's like like almost home ownership. Right? Like, if you just wait every ten or fifteen years to like start fixing things that have gone broken, you know, you're gonna have a long list and it's gonna be super expensive. But if you can kind of, you know, do some consistent upkeep, you know, and really kinda, like, you know, check things off the list, you know, every six months or every year, Not that things have to be radically changed, you know, but just kinda being more consistent with those updates.

Yeah. Def there can be curb appeal. There can be benefits that are don't they feel like cost at the time, but it's more of an investment in the business.

Yeah. But if you think of your own home, you like you said, you could just let it go. Don't mow in the yard. We're not trying to sell it. We know there's nothing in there.

Just you could let you could let the paint look terrible. You could let mold get on the fence or whatever, but you don't. You you have a certain about a about of pride in your home that which is why you mow your lawn, which is why you you paint your house, and you look after your fence and your gardens. So you need to take the same pride in your business. I had a a friend of mine, and she say I was a good luck charm.

We were talking one day, and she I said something about her house. I went, oh, I reckon you probably need to just do these certain things with the front of your house, make it look more appealing, curb appeal. So she did did did a couple of things. I reckon the next day, the day she finished it, this Japanese guy came and just knocked on their front door and said, we wanna buy your house. And and she sold it, and he offered her about $200,000 more than she would have even thought about getting for it.

And she's and the things that she changed at the front was so small, but it just made the house look more appealing. If that can make someone just come out of the pool and buy a house, I reckon if you make your business more appealing, it will attract patients as well.

Yeah. It'll attract patients. It'll attract you know, we didn't get into it too much, but, you know, if you're trying to hire an associate. Right? If you have a up to date clinic that's appealing not only to patients, but also make someone wanna work there.

I mean, it's also for your staff. Right? Like, it's a motivator for your staff to have a great looking clinic that's functional and well kept. There's more yeah. Definitely the patients are hugely important, but there's other benefits.

Your reputation with other physicians, if they come into your clinic or they they send their their kid or their wife has a a foot and ankle problem, they send them to you and you have this office that's that's great. It's a total reflection on on you and your practice. So the the better you can keep it and the the better upkeep you can do, it's it's gonna pay dividends.

I remember one of my older clinics that I'd been in there for about three years. And when I first moved, I didn't know anything about street appeal. It was in a little mall. And this one day, we just we had, like, these green we had these green blinds that used to come down. So we took them off.

We just took the blinds totally off the front of the the shop, and then we just repainted the reception. It's all we did. Didn't do anything else. Our patient numbers went up by about twenty percent straight away. And the amount of patients came past and said, well, when did you move in?

Been here three years. We walked past here every day and didn't notice it. Because when we moved in, the color of the reception was there was already an existing business. We didn't care. We just felt, oh, it's already painted.

The blinds are up there. We're already there with all their work, so why take them down? Never thought about it. But once we took them down and people could see in our business more, and then we painted more to see their color, things just improved. And it was like altogether a couple hundred bucks to repaint and take some blinds down, but it added 20% increase in business.

So it's worth doing. People listening to this, have a look your business, make some changes.

No. I think that's great, Tyson. You know, is there anything else you wanna leave the listeners with for today? But I think that's been really, really thorough, and definitely, you know, thinking about the physical aspects of your practice is really, really important.

No. I could tell a joke, but I won't. No. I've got I've got nothing else to actually add to this. I I just think it's one of those things that everybody knows about, but often doesn't think about it.

So now it's now it's time to just think about it. Have a look. Put in your your yearly marketing plan of that. Once a year, just have a look at the front of your building and just make it a habit.

Alright. That sounds great.

Okay. See you next week, Jim. Bye, Tyson. Okay. Bye.

Thanks for listening to Podiatry Marketing with Tyson Franklin and Jim Mcdonald. Subscribe and learn more at podiatry marketing. That's the website address, podiatry dot marketing.