[February 14th, 2020] by Dr. Ginger Bratzel
Episode #4: [Gold Mine In Your Office]
Everyone always wants a step by step process to success. Unfortunately, there isn’t a perfect recipe.
Building a business can be messy and frustrating, but it’s a beautiful journey with peaks and valleys along the way.
Creating stability can be a challenge. After observing several practices over the years, I have come to the conclusion that the most stable practices are the ones that focus on patients within their own office, not the shiny new objects.
Don’t try to replace patients. Take the time to build those relationships and get your patients to come back. They will need maintenance for the rest of their life. You’re never done with the dentist. Things wear out over time and need replacing.
Today, we are breaking down that journey into 3 areas of riches, or gold mines and where to focus to build your practice.
The Unfinished Treatment Plan is the biggest gold mine. On average, a dental practice has approximately 1 million dollars of unfinished treatment plans. It is important to focus on the difference between what a patient needs versus what a patient wants.
Instead of putting so much focus on new patients, what can you do right now to make sure more people come back to complete their current and future dental treatment.
I’ve talked a lot about unfinished treatment plans in the past. If a patient doesn’t accept treatment, something went wrong in my system. I take that seriously and look back and evaluate why they said no.
Consumer behaviors have changed so much these days. People don’t compare you to another dental office down the road, they compare you to Amazon. They are used to getting what they want in just a few hours. We have to be aware of this and change our approach when presenting treatment.
The second gold mine is add-on services.
Is there something that they’ve always wanted to get done? We want to work towards getting the patient to say “Yes!”. How can we add services and make it happen now? We all know, wants are generally higher than need. What can we do to take away the obstacles and make it happen?
Making patients wait is a killer. If you talk about something as being important and then make them wait 2 weeks, it likely won’t happen. Are there small things on their treatment plan that we can whittle away at while they are already in your office? How can we make it easy for your patients?
The last gold mine is frequency & follow-up.
Patient loyalty is so important. Hygiene visits or unfinished treatment plans are a great way to get patients back into your office. Make sure you are checking in after treatment or visits. You don’t want to be overboard and annoy your patients, but you want to be genuine in your communication.
We go into each of these gold mines in detail on the podcast. Scroll back to the top and make sure to listen to the full episode.
Links Mentioned In This Episode:
MessageFromGinger.com/Masterclass
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