Every day, I talk to great Teams (and even Doctors) who still believe money is the biggest issue holding back Patients from moving forward with Dentistry.
Of course, it can often appear to be this way based on the objectives they give you, the things they say and their reliance on insurance.
Sure, there are some instances where money is literally holding them back. However, the reality of nearly every single patient excuse to not accept, schedule, pay, complete their treatment comes back to one concept that we have been talking about here and that really underlays every single discussion we ever have…
Does the patient VALUE it, you, the dentistry, the outcome, the problem being fixed, or the benefits you have presented?
No “Yes” – No Value.
It is very easy to help patients ‘afford’ dentistry as there are many different tools, vehicles and opportunities for them to find the funds if they don’t have it. The unemployment rate is extremely low nearly everywhere in the country, thus they have income and ways to pay for their dentistry.
If they aren’t accepting treatment, it really boils down to them not finding it important enough and meaningful enough to part ways with their time and money.
In other words: you and your team did not create enough relevant and personal reasons why the patient should get healthy, breathe, chew, eat, sleep, smile, be out of pain, and so on and so forth.
And therein lies the ultimate secret for every decision you make and every strategy you execute on every possible thing you do in your practice when it comes to patient experience, case acceptance and the overall culture of your practice.
It’s gotta be about building value for your patients. When value goes up, then price, insurance and any other kind of objection goes down.
Today, as we ease into this ever important and quite complex topic of deep substance, I’m going to first focus this week on what NOT to do. Then we’ll go into some key tactics that you can most certainly use to help not only protect against value decrease but methodically build value before it becomes an issue.
I stand by my bold and direct statement that I repeat during every training I ever do: if a patient ever says “it’s too expensive” (or has any other money based comment); if they do not find value in the outcomes/benefits more so than the investment – then you, your team, somewhere, someone did something wrong because the proper experience is absolutely 100% a value building process. From phone call all the way through follow-up, you never miss an opportunity to reinforce the value.
So, as I often say, the best way to SOLVE a problem is to PREVENT the problem first; also a great way to practice dentistry.
Today, we begin by PREVENTING any diminishing of value in the first place.
1st – Wherever you put your focus, so does the patient.
All too often Teams and Doctors let insurance and money be injected into the conversations about treatment instead of keeping a health focus and an outcome-driven perspective with everything that is done with your patients.
If anyone is focusing on anything but helping patients achieve your clinical philosophy of optimal health, then you are actually giving patients permission to attach money and insurance to their decision.
2nd – Verbiage and communication matter.
I can go into so much detail about the psychology of case acceptance and how words matter. In fact, our entire advanced training experience for teams and doctors is all about this (along with my 7 steps of the ultimate patient experience).
My point today is you can’t make anything seem LESS VALUABLE by using words that diminish and lower the quality of what you are doing. This means that you want the patient to feel as though everything is unique and requires your extraordinary talents because of how you care for your patients and the relationship you have.
You don’t want the dentistry to seem “small” “simple” “easy” or that it could cost less because it’s less difficult.
Remember it’s not your time but your knowledge and ability that you are paid for. It’s not the procedure but the outcome and the benefits the patient receives that they are investing in.
3rd – If you don’t set them first, they will expect the worst.
Expectations. If you don’t give them, lay them out, tell them transparently how to make a good decision, what they are going to go through, what you are doing and why, etc – then the patient will make up all of their own ASSUMPTIONS.
4th – If it goes unsaid then it speaks volumes.
You’ve heard, “What you don’t say can’t hurt you.” Maybe it’s true in court but not in business, customer service, or your patient experience. What you DO NOT SAY is left up to interpretation and by default is SAYING A WHOLE LOT.
Therefore, you want to make sure you are always working to never leave anything up to patients’ imagination and wondering. Now, there is a case of Doctors or anyone talking too much (another problem), but here I’m specifically talking about taking control over everything the patient hears and experiences to leave nothing to chance.
5th – The weakest link rule applies in people and process.
Maybe this is the toughest one to take. This could be you. It’s probably one team member or two that just never does enough… to get commitment, solidify the clinical yes, answer the phone properly, pay close attention. Or it could be an outdated brochure or picture or dust or negatively positioned cancellation and money policies or health history forms or insurance notices or other stuff that patients get their hands on.
It’s a great question to ask yourself and your team at every point of your patient experience and engagement: where, what and who is our weakest link? What can we do to fix it to strengthen the chain and improve the value.
If it doesn’t add value, it takes away value. There is no middle ground.
That ought to be enough for a week for you to carefully study and scrutinize what’s going on in your practice that is actually working against your objectives and diminishing the value your patients perceive.
Remember, no one wants to buy “dentistry” – they are investing in outcomes and benefits to the problems and possibilities you share with them. And above all else, whether you like it or not, they are buying You and Your Team MORE so than they are buying into whatever you are doing inside of their mouths.
Value is about more than how they feel about dentistry. Much more, it’s about how they feel about You. That’s why we preach that everything is in the EXPERIENCE.
Get ready for the most advanced ways to increase and create VALUE for your patients next week. Until then, please STOP making any of these 5 mistakes in the first place.
