As I travel around and talk to my clients and listen to what dentists are saying as they talk to one another, a common challenge I hear is “I don’t understand why my patients don’t take me up on the treatment I suggest.”
Improving treatment plan conversions is a big subject best covered in a in house training programme and I wanted to share with some interesting data that I came across the other day that will change the way you relate to your patients and enable them to access the really valuable treatment you offer,
First the disclaimer, the research was not under taken in a dental practice and I am certain that the principles apply.
The research found that in a data base of clients at any one time
3% were ready to buy right now
7% were open to the idea of buying
30% were not thinking of buying
30% didn’t think what was being offered was relevant to them
30% were definitely not interested.
An average private list is approximately 1500 patients per dentist and an NHS list can be twice or three times that number. Take a moment to about you patients who are attending for their six monthly examinations, if your list size is 1500 you will have approximately 125 recalls each month
This means that 5 patients each month are likely to be coming into you primed and ready to start with treatment you offer.
9 patients will be open to the idea of proceeding with treatment. With these patients it will improve your conversion rates if you hone into what they are really after and discus the treatment options in term of the features, advantages and the benefits to them and remove all the obstacles to these patients starting with treatment.
37 patients each month will be attending their routine examination not really thinking about having any further remedial or elective treatment. With these patients it is really important that you are educating them about what you are able to offer and consequences of not accepting treatment early. The use of dental menus, videos in the waiting room, digital photo frames and informal conversations with well trained receptionists and nurses are really useful at this point.
37 patients will not think that what you offer is relevant to them. For these patients I think it is really important that you discus treatment in metaphors and stories that they can relate to from their working or personal life. For example for a patient who is a carpenter who has TMJD you may want to talk about warped, sticking doors and buckling hinges. For an IT technician who has occasional niggles that don’t really cause any major problems you may choose to liken the niggles to a computer that occasionally and repeatedly goes to a blue screen indicating that there is something in the computer that should be investigated and resolved before it crashed irretrievably.
37 are definitely not interested in what you are offering, for these patients it is often best to acknowledge that they don’t want to go ahead and that you have a professional responsibility to inform them as to the condition of their mouths and if they still chose not to proceed that is their prerogative.
There are many exciting opportunities to you so that in between recall visits you can move your patients through from definitely not being interested through to being ready to buy.
If you would like to increase your treatment plan conversion rate or would like to discuss any issues raised, please comment on this blog.
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