Free
dental examinations will destroy your practice – why you should never offer
them
Many dental practices are looking for more patients and
increasingly I am seeing more practices are luring patients in by offering free
dental examinations and check-ups. You must never do this, and this is why.
The purpose of a freebie is to bring patients in so
that they can see how beautiful your practice is and experience the high
quality of care that they will receive, so the patients return and join your
practice long term. Your patients will forget what you say, they will forget
what you do, and they will never forget how you make them feel. What happens,
in reality, with a free examination is, to avoid losing too much money, the session
is much shorter than normal is often rushed and rather that the patient having
an awesome experience and returning, the experience can be very poor and the
patient leaves never to be seen again with a less than favourable and inaccurate
impression of your practice and how well you treat and care for your patients.
When I have analyzed client data, I have noticed, that
giveaways and special offers attract the price conscious people seeking a deal
and they seldom stay and become regular patients. These patients are special
offer butterflies and flit between practices based on special offers. The rewards
to your patient’s dental health and beauty occur when they become regular patients
with whom you have a lifetime relationship.
The data also show that your income and profitability significantly grow
as your practices has greater numbers of returning patients.
What should you do instead?
The key to attracting and retaining patients is to
engage a patient care coordinator (PCC) with the attitude of outstanding levels
of customer service, excellent communication skills, and appropriate training
in a suite of field of expertise.
A PCC trained and competent in Patient Centred Sales– BEST CHOICES is the most appropriate member of the team to be offering
complementary consultations.
Two months ago, I was speaking with a dentist whose
hourly rate is £400 / hour and who is regularly giving away free 20-minute exams
when his thorough new patient examination is normally 45-minutes. He called me
because he was frustrated that the patients are not returning, he is losing
money and does not want to put the fees up to his regular patients to cover the
losses.
One of the successful strategies we discussed was to
train two of his nurses and develop the role of a patient care coordinator.
The free
examinations on his hourly rate were costing him £133.33, his thorough new
patient examination was charged at £150, so he was still making a loss
He had two nurses in the practice one was paid £15/hour
and the other £13.00 / hour and had been with him for 12 years and 8 years
respectively and both know how he works. have an extensive knowledge of treatments
available and are natural communicators who effortlessly put the patients at
ease, engage them in conversation. What the nurses lacked was, confidence, belief
they could become a PCC and a structure to their patient conversations.
I suggested the dentist that he brought his whole
team and and both his nurses attend my Patient Centred Sales – BEST CHOICES workshop
and introduce free consultations for patients with a Patient Care Coordinator.
The dentist was a little hesitant and opted to only bring himself and one nurse
to the two-day workshop. At the end of the two days the dentist and his nurse
had confidence, enthusiasm, great plans for the introduction of a PCC and many
new skills and approaches which included a framework to patient consultations that
effortlessly elicited the patients wants needs and preferences and a structure
to CRAFT and present options of treatment available.
The dentist and his nurse decided to immediately
implement the role of a Patient Care Coordinator, offering free consultations
to all new and prospective patients. The patients loved that they were being
offered the time and space to discuss all their dental issues, and have
questions answered. They were aware that the nurse could not make any diagnosis
or design treatment plans and she could discuss options that are available.
The results quickly showed that patients were
happier, new patient and prospect retention dramatically increased, new patient
examinations are correctly charged for no longer a loss leader, the value of treatment
plans went up significantly as did treatment plan acceptance rates. The
financial rot has stopped, and profitability is soaring. Job satisfaction of
the PCC was at an all time high and the overall morale of the practice
improved. The dentist admitted that he had realized by the first break on the
first day that he had made an error in judgement and he should have brought his
entire team to the event. Since then I have been invited to the practice and
delivered it in-house with all the entire team with miraculous results for the
patients, practice and team, not to mention income and profitability.
Want to know more about this workshop which has a
money back guarantee, call us on 01296 770462 or e mail Jane@IODB.co.uk
