Often your first point of contact with a clinic will be via email. Before you even meet the doctor face to face or see the clinic in person, the sales staff will ask you to pay a deposit in order to secure a time for their procedure at their clinic.
Now this may seem sensible. You are only in Seoul for a short time and you want to make sure you can get your procedure done in time right?
Not quite, there are a few problems with this assumption:
- Clinics lie about availability – If you only spend a short time in Seoul, the clinics will always push a local appointment back to accommodate you. It is in their financial interest to accommodate you, regardless of their schedule. They will do anything they can to fit you in!
They will push the idea of scarcity, telling you that they only have a single appointment available to make you think they are popular and in high demand. This is often a lie used to try and persuade you to give them your money.
- A good website does guarantee a good experience – You cannot know that they are the right clinic/doctor until you meet them in person. Often clinics will pay a lot of money to create flashy professional looking websites. These however tell you nothing about what the clinic and doctors are like. Often a client will choose a clinic based on their email correspondence and website, only to visit the clinic in person and be completely disillusioned by the shabby and old office and rude staff. It is paramount that you find a doctor that shares your vision, and until you meet them in person, there is no way to know if this is the case.
- Sales psychology – Paying a deposit makes you psychologically, more likely to choose the clinic. This has long been a method used by sales-people to increase their chances of securing a sale. It is nothing but a sales ploy.
I always suggest you visit multiple clinics and doctors before making a decision about which doctor is right for you. It is important you choose someone who you feel comfortable with, who shares your same end goal and who has the relevant experience [link to how do you verify doctors] to ensure a successful procedure.