Yes, it is that important. So much so, we are going there again my friends. In fact, there’s nothing more important than this because this is the only thing that results in dentistry.
Anyone can talk a good game, even diagnosis a lot of treatment, but it’s the yeses that matter.
I often remind teams that you can’t deposit google reviews in the bank. While they are important, any practice can make a patient like them, especially if they take it easy and guide them down the path of least resistance.
Think about the patients with the most opportunity in their mouths. That’s because they’ve taken the path of least resistance that was offered to them by every practice they’ve ever been to before – including quite possibly yours.
Instead, take them on a more worthy walk called the Pathway to Health that leads to an improvement in the quality of life.
The patient might not always like hearing the harsh truth, but they’ll really dislike the health that results from the pacifying lies.
Since we care about the patients’ quality of life, we care about providing comprehensive dentistry which means case acceptance matters just as much.
Last week, we discussed the idea that case acceptance should be evaluated by the size of your yeses – rather than just some percentage. Today, I want to make a few additional tactical points that will help you achieve more valuable and consistent case acceptance.
First tactic to remember is that the ultimate yes is arrived at in a culminating fashion by getting lots of little yeses along the way.
Yes, on the appointment. Yes, on the investment for the comprehensive exam and new patient experience. Yes, on the pillars of health. Yes, on the goals of the visit. Yes, on the comprehension of current problems. Yes, on the outcomes and benefits of treatment.
This is the process of asking questions, educating your patient, creating emotional connection, engaging them in a discussion about your clinical philosophy, and obtaining a clinical yes – all before you even think about treatment presentation.
You need to build up a series of yeses to eventually lead to case acceptance yeses.
Truly, it should not be difficult to build momentum. It is easy to come up with questions no one could possibly disagree with…
- Health being the patient’s responsibility.
- Being proactive rather than reactive.
- Saving teeth and function.
- Avoiding future problems.
- Doing less costly treatment now rather than wait.
All of these acknowledgements and affirmations along the way lead to a committed patient who wants the outcome of the dentistry at least as much or even more so than you do.
This has to be deliberately orchestrated in your practice by everyone. If any one team member fails to advance the patient’s belief and deserve, it will sabotage the entire experience.
As a team, evaluate the following…
Where in our process and experience do we need to get more patient buy-in?
Where are we moving too fast and not accomplishing the objective?
Where are we taking the path of least resistance instead of a pathway to health?
Understand that patients have to first accept that they deserve more than they have now, that they are worthy of the investment, and that their health is their responsibility. You can help them achieve not just the goals they walked in with but the goals you expanded their mind to see and believe in.
Next, the second tactic, is to move beyond the idea of just ‘case acceptance’ as the final end point of a patient’s journey.
The big lesson from last week is that case acceptance can’t be transactional. It’s not yes or no; there is a continuum that must be managed to strategically engineer the yes on your own terms.
Begin to see case acceptance as something that never ends. Just like patient relationships go on and patient education continues. We also never stop looking for opportunities to provide health and discover ways we can enhance patients’ lives.
This doesn’t need to be a secret either. You should not be bashful or timid about this with your patients. Remember, patients can only say yes to what they have been given an opportunity to say yes to.
Give yourself the guilt free permission to always move patients towards optimal health. All it takes is a strong conviction that you are doing what is in their best and a willingness to tell the truth.
As I always say, trust is best built through telling the truth and being completely transparent. That’s why you can be bold and direct with your patients.
The next tactic is to understand that case acceptance is controllable. It can be orchestrated, facilitated, and predicted. Too many practices operate as if they are at the mercy of everything else.
The truth is, patient behavior isn’t hard to forecast, nor are your yeses and outcomes. If you control the variables, you can control the outcomes. That is, if you have the proper expectations and have designed a patient experience that is effective.
That includes working through your triangles of trust to ensure the patient is making progress during the visit.
You also need to have your treatment coordinator pre-scheduled in order to manage the visits of the day and maximize opportunity. You can’t expect to achieve much if you aren’t prepared for success.
As a team, have time blocked to go over what happened at the end of the day. Provide a review of the patient outcomes and scheduled treatment by the treatment coordinator so each team member can see the result of their efforts.
The final case acceptance tactic is to not take no (or maybe) for an answer.
It’s up to you to continue the conversation with the patient, to follow-up with pertinent information, to creatively help them afford treatment, or to ensure the entire family is on-board (whether it be parents or spouses).
As I reminded you last week, a no is not a never. Some patients need time to think it over or additional visits. Perhaps they default to no as a way to test your conviction. Remember you are not an order taker of patient answers, but instead a facilitator of patient outcomes.
No matter what, you can’t give up on a patient… Because you can only help those patients who say yes.
As a team, review your follow-up protocols after treatment presentation and assign individual responsibilities to ensure no patients fall through the cracks. This is why an end of day huddle or debrief is so critical.
There you have it. These case acceptance tactics are critical to achieving greater results for your practice and providing more life changing dentistry for your patients. This is the when, why, and how you dramatically scale up your conversion on treatment and increase the volume, size, value, and consistency of your yeses.
