You have surely seen the commercials. And while they do in some cases provide real life changing care – the problem (from mine and your perspective) is they provide the same solution to everyone and they do it in a way that leaves patients with no hope and no teeth.
What they are is a marketing company, not a dental company – plain and simple.
And the way they impact a market is very simple. They come into an area with a TV ad budget that is more than your entire practice grosses in a year and they flood the marketplace. They monitor their numbers and drive people in – in droves. They are doing complete mouths in a day or two in many cases. All of a sudden, someone can have a smile again, eat again, be whole again – minus of course all remaining teeth. They only need a few yeses a week to make very big money; but they get a few yeses a day. They are bringing patients to a boiling point very fast with three options that are all very similar (aside from price), or often one forced in a fear based solution.
At $40K-$80K or so, it’s not uncommon for them to do more in a week than some of the most successful solo-practices do in a month or more. It is all a numbers game, a marketing strategy and a selling experience that takes patients through their system.
They know that their best shot is getting them on the first visit otherwise they might think twice, go other places to compare or look for second opinions.
The irreversible consequential part about it all is they create dental anxiety in patients and give dentists a bad name for acting as if there is only one solution for their mouth and they have little to no say in it. Of course, some locations are better than others based on personnel and I’d assume they’d have a few satisfied patients.
But, their goal is to get in and get out of the market – there is a reason for that.
The hard truth is: it is your fault they exist. If every dentist focused on comprehensive treatment, really kept the retention of their patients and was proactive with their health then there would be no patients left for the clear choices of the world. Your negligence is their gain.
There are three lessons…
1 st – They fill a void because they are bold in what they do and confident in their solution. Most patients seek more comprehensive, long term and permanent solutions than they ever get from their dentist. We undermine their treatment – not the patient.
2 nd – They create patients who seek other options and can be incredible patients for you because they scare off more than they get. All big budget marketing helps an industry grow (if you know what you are doing).
3 rd – The key to everything is keeping your patients. They have no retention, no hygiene, no solutions for anything other than a one mouth transaction. This isn’t you and the only way to protect yourself from having your patients stolen by others is to know for sure you are retaining them and that means helping them achieve their desired results.
I could go on about this. You will never out spend them, they do create patients for you but they also ruin a lot of patients along the way. You have to out experience them, out personalize them, out relationship them, out work, strategy, maneuver them – by doing comprehensive treatment, getting incredible case acceptance, and closing the treatment loop and backdoor on your practice.
You can always learn a lot (both the good and the bad) from everything, especially a competitor like this.
Being proactive and on offense is the best defense. Knowing the reality of what your patients see, hear, experience, believe and are dealing with when it comes to their perception – it is the reality we face.
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