I regularly have dentists approach me with a very simple yet complicated problem they have in their Dental Office.
It’s a problem that is either self-inflicted, or if not, is self maintained.
The problem these dentists ask me to solve for them and their offices is how to extricate their Dental Office from the grasps of third party contracts. Contracts with insurers and Preferred Provider, or PPO agreements.
And it’s a tricky question.
What these dentists see, but cannot see how to attain, is a Dental Office operating solely on a fee for service arrangement with their clients, customers and patients. They see a Dental Office where the only contractual arrangement is between the provider of the service, and the receiver of the service.
Between the dentist and the patient.
No third parties.
It’s a very interesting question.
I built my Dental Office up from a small two room, one doc, one assistant [only] practice on the premise that if I always provided an exceptional product with exceptional service I could not only survive but also thrive as those around me fought tooth and nail to compete on price and not much else.
And I did.
Active Dental Parramatta grew to be a very high fee, high grossing Dental Office in primarily what is an average part of Sydney, where people earn average incomes and live in average homes and drive average cars.
This is not some Double Bay part of town. It’s certainly not Beverley Hills.
Yet my fees were, and are well above average. And are well above the fees charged by my Dental neighbours.
And are in some cases double those charged by my neighbours.
And they still keep coming.
New patients still keep coming. Seeking quality dentistry provided with exceptional World Class Service in a comfortable relaxed and relaxing environment that is *DIFFERENT*, totally different, from anywhere else they have ever been before.
For dentistry.
And not just for dentistry.
Different, and totally different from most other businesses and service providers out there.
And that’s not me blowing my own trumpet.
That’s what our clients and customers are saying.
And saying and saying.
And saying, even before they ever meet a dentist in our office.
And that’s the feeling, the bond, the union, that we try to, and succeed in creating between our office and our clients.
It’s a feeling that they know they’re never going to experience anywhere else in the world of dentistry.
So how does a dentist out there achieve that?
For a dentist to achieve and obtain and build a Dental Office like that there has to be certain rules and principles in place that need to be kept and adhered to.
With unwavering commitment.
Change is difficult.
But there must be commitment.
Margins
When margins are tight, everything is tight.
I’m talking financial margins. Profits.
Not restorative margins.
When the profits on procedures are low, and tight, because of price, to be successful, and a profitable business, you need to provide more, many more of those services to gross the same dollar amounts of profit as someone providing that service or procedure at a higher fee.
That’s just simple math.
Business 101.
And this is what happens when a third party intervenes between the provider of a service or good and the receiver of that service or good.
You have a compromise.
And the dentists who are approaching me about change are doing so because they see that without the third party in between, there is a better way.
A more comfortable way.
For the Dentist.
For the Dental Office.
And for the Client.
Because when the profit per procedure is higher there is opportunity for flexibility.
To take more time.
To show more care.
To share the love.
Because the margins are there to allow us.
And with the sharing of the love, and the showing of the love, comes more love back.
Back to us.
In spades.
In more treatment acceptance.
In more referrals.
In less reschedules.
I wish the process were easy.
I wish the process of change were easy.
But it isn’t.
It requires so many things.
But it is achievable.
And it is so worth it!
It requires commitment. Unwavering commitment.
It requires handholding and help. And assistance. And coaching. And consulting.
Continued coaching, and handholding.
Because there’ll always be the temptation to turn back.
To the old way.
Because the old way, with the third party, is so comfortable..
Or is it?
At the end of the day, at the end of the week, at the end of the month, the whole team, the whole office has worked harder, for less.
For less gross.
And way less profit!
For what?
For more patients, who by and large, don’t value the services provided as much as those patients who are stumping up out of their own back pocket for quality services provided in a world class manner in a comfortable environment.
And therein lies the answer.
In a nutshell.
But there’s more.
There’s so much more….
Just waiting for you.
Waiting for you to commit….
The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple to build complete Customer Service system in itself that I developed that allowed me to create an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.
Email me at david@theupe.com
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A dentist I know really well works in a Dental Office owned by one of the Corporates.
It was his Dental Practice. He sold the ownership to the Corporates some six or seven years ago.
What’s interesting is that the Corporates are currently renovating that Dental Office. New paint. New floors. Moving things around.
The number one response from the patients visiting that practice is….
“Why?”
Which is interesting….
Most of the patients are saying they liked things as they were.
His office manager is having to justify the unjustifiable…
Because, to the patients, the place looked pretty good just as it was.
And that’s the interesting point.
During his time as a dentist, this friend has renovated twice previously.
And both times with good reason. Expansion.
Easily justifiable and demonstrable.
More rooms. More equipment. A better way.
And a lot of agreement and anticipation by the clients and customers.
But change for change sake? Well this can be difficult to explain…
And can be detrimental.
It’s fascinating…. I’ve seen it in clubs and associations.
I’ve seen it where boards have a felt a need to be doing something just to justify their existence.
And sometimes that’s not a good thing.
I’ve seen companies and businesses change websites purely because of their own personal boredom. Without consideration as to why or whether or at all any changes or updates are necessary.
I’ve seen logos reinvented for the sake of a new logo.
When the old logo was doing quite fine.
As a dentist, and dental office owner, I’ve been guilty of change for changes sake myself.
And often it has been in order to chase the next big shiny object.
Without much thought as to whether the object is really needed or not.
And we’re all guilty of this.
I’ve another dentist friend who has a garage at home full up with Big Shiny Dental Objects.
All bought on a whim. Most of which added nothing to his bottom line and often added a millstone to his expenses line.
This friend invites all or any of his younger dentist friends and colleagues who are contemplating a new addition to their office to come visit his garage before signing for that new shiny object.
In terms of image and return on investment, probably the best thing that I’ve done as a dentist in the last ten years is install large screen LED television monitors in each treatment room.
One monitor flat on the ceiling over the patient’s chair, so the patient can easily view this TV during treatment.
A second monitor, wall mounted on the wall at the end of the dental chair, that can be easily viewed by the patient seated in the dental chair.
Both monitors should have input from the treatment room PC, so that they reflect the images being viewed by the dentist on the PC.
This allows the dentist to demonstrate and indicate on his own PC, while the patient watches on a big screen without having to move their head, neck or body, nor move the dental chair.
All on the *BIG SCREEN*.
The return on investment on these screens just as a tool is dramatic.
At other times, the monitor over the patient can play movies and regular television, with text, or with headphones, and act as a visual distraction for the patient during treatment.
And customers, clients and patients view these simple technologies as an indication of a progressive and innovative Dental Office.
Because so many other offices out there *DO NOT* have this technology installed.
And it’s cheap.
Well, relative to other Dental Shiny Objects…
The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple easy to implement system that I developed that allowed me to build an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.
Email me: david@theUPE.com
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I was lunching with two Dental Offices last week during a non-Dental meeting in Phoenix, Arizona.
Well actually, it was an annual conference for a CRM Software firm.
And one of those communal lunches. Where you sit down and say “Hi” and then say:
“And what do you do?”
And coincidentally, the two other people sharing our table were both in Dental.
One was a dentist. The other, was a full time marketing manager at another Dental Office.
The interesting point on this was that both agreed that for any business to grow and thrive, it needs to have an advertising and marketing budget of ten percent of gross revenues.
Ten percent!
I found this fascinating…
Both these two people were in agreement that one in every ten dollars collected by their Dental Office needed to be invested in marketing that Dental Office.
Now that sort of number, or percentage, was a fair bit higher than I’d ever thought…
But in reality, it’s not.
Because marketing is not just about running ads.
It’s not just about attracting New Patients.
Marketing is about existing patients as well.
And sometimes Dentists forget that.
They forget to invest in the business of patient retention.
Sure their Dental Office is out there advertising for new patients.
But some Dental Offices forget to invest in their own patient pool.
And so the flow of new patients into the Dental Office is sometimes matched by the flow of existing patients leaving the Dental Office.
It’s common knowledge that it is far far less expensive to keep a customer than it is to invest in acquiring a customer.
And many Dentists and Dental Offices fail to remember this fact.
Remember that your long-term existing patients will visit more often, will accept more treatment and willingly spend more on that treatment.
Because you already have that established relationship with those long-term patients.
You’ve built that relationship.
You’ve earned their trust.
And it’s a relationship that benefits considerably from reinvestment.
It’s a relationship that will return “in spades” on any extra time and money that you invest in it.
So how’s your marketing budget?
What’s your annual spend?
And how much are you investing in *keeping* your existing patients?
Because if you’re not investing in them, your existing customer base, you’ll be leaking them, and bleeding them, straight out of your Dental Office.
That’s for sure.
And that’s not a good thing.
Marketing to existing patients of the Dental Office is the whole premise of The Ultimate Patient Experience, a simple easy to implement system that I developed that allowed me to build an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.
Email me: david@theUPE.com
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