The second pillar of success and the most significant determinant of how much you can leverage your time and money link is case acceptance. Maybe the most referenced and focused on aspect of patient engagement.
This acts like the judge and jury on several key aspects…
- Does the patient believe me? Do I have influence over the patient?
- Did I properly educate the patient?
- Did I build the value of dentistry?
- Is the patient able to make an informed decision?
Now, don’t limit yourself by thinking case acceptance is just some statistic. Rather, view it as a broader measure to how well you are executing the entire patient experience, how well you are conveying your clinical philosophy to patients, and how well you are realizing your mission in partnership with your patients. Ultimately, case acceptance acts as the truth teller of success.
It also happens to be why the vast majority of all practices stay stuck beneath their potential and never achieve real success – because it all hinges on whether a patient moves forward with treatment.
Before we go further, understand that it’s not black and white, yes or no. Case acceptance is anything but absolute.
In fact, it is quite flexible and elastic (the only thing more flexible is money – more on that next week). When you relegate yourself to considering a “yes” as success and a “no” as failure, you are missing the broader point.
The success you have with patients moving forward with treatment, reveals a lot about your practice as a whole. It states the quality of your patient relationships and it shows us just how engaged your patients really are with what you do.
When you take our diagnosis pillar (from last week) to its maximum potential, you automatically make your case acceptance something so sophisticated than you have completely changed the entire dynamic of your practice.
What do I mean by this?
It’s not just about the “yes” because it’s about the size of the yes, the speed of the yes, the completeness of the yes, and ultimately the value of the yes.
The more you have a complete health treatment plan or even for our specialists with say implants, full arch, tmj, sleep, ortho, something more set-fee based – you can still judge the comprehensiveness of the yes… how fast someone says yes, pays, schedules, and gets placed into the flow of treatment.
Everything changes when you don’t accept on face value a percentage of case acceptance but instead you start tracking, following, monitoring, and managing case acceptance by patient – the goal is to get them to the finish line, even if it takes some time.
That means working towards getting every patient to begin a comprehensive, state of ideal pathway to health. That is the real game you are in.
I’ve pointed out many times before that a high case acceptance rate doesn’t mean very much if you aren’t diagnosing comprehensively and presenting complete treatment plans.
Because we talk about it so often, I’m not going to get too in-depth today. Like diagnosis last week, I want to focus on the elevation of mindset to unlock your potential.
To do that, I will draw your attention to three key concepts to improving the case acceptance in your practice…
#1: The battle for case acceptance should be won before it ever has to be fought.
If you wait until you present treatment to start thinking about case acceptance, you’ve already lost. From the very first phone call (or even website visit), the patient is already being influenced in a manner that moves them closer or further away from treatment.
It’s important to think about how can you make the experience interactive with your patients from the very beginning. Make them a participant instead of an object, happening with (not to) them.
You need to focus on engaging the patient along the way. As you do case building, you must also be value building with every step, action, protocol, and interaction.
The shortcut (if you are looking for such things) is this… the more you ask questions, listen, learn, have empathy, and educate your patients on their goals… the more you will see results in case acceptance you didn’t think possible.
This also means you must solidify in your patient’s mind their own victory. Help them see, feel, and experience the future by articulating the benefits and consequences of their decisions.
#2: Case acceptance is relational, not transactional.
It is vital to see this as the nurturing and cultivation of relationships based on elevating belief and value in dentistry over time. This is a real game changer, if embraced.
Most practices present and then patients decide. It’s transactional. It’s singular. It’s definitive.
Like a pitcher throwing a ball and the batter swinging – hit or miss. Next batter up, another pitch thrown. It becomes a rotation of volume where you just hope eventually you get a strike.
With case acceptance, it is never the end, it is never one-and-done. Rather, it is a continuum your patients move along and reaches closer to optimal health.
Don’t get so caught up looking at the percentage of case acceptance (or the immediate yes or no), that you miss seeing the patient relationship.
Continue to nurture and cultivate people and their health. This requires more determination, attention, time investment, and over delivering by going above and beyond. This should come naturally, as it is the real meaning and significance of what you do.
You can keep needing more and more volume because you aren’t doing much with any one patient or you can make the most of patient opportunities by solidifying relationships and controlling your case acceptance.
#3: A “no” is not a “never.”
That leads us to the last part of case acceptance… the inevitable “no.” But remember that is never definitive. It means not right now because the patient hasn’t fully bought into the clinical value, the belief, the need, want, and desire of treatment.
Go to work on your team’s mindset and shift away from being afraid of noes to understand this is just another continuation of the relationship. Find common ground with your patients, there is always a “yes” to something even if it’s a cleaning or a follow-up phone call. Remember to stay focused on outcomes and benefits not prices and procedures.
There should be no end until they’ve either moved on from your practice or completed their pathway to optimal health. Until then… there is no “no,” there is just new information and a new opportunity to learn and grow together with the patient.
Case acceptance isn’t just about yeses and noes. Go beyond them to understand the depths of the conversation and the value of the relationship, which will lead to greater and more influential interactions with your patients.
Master these concepts and the success truth will be told: you’ll have a lot more than just a percentage to show for your efforts – you’ll have major breakthroughs… for you… and more importantly for your patients.
