I regularly have dentists approach me with a very simple yet complicated problem they have in their Dental Office.
It’s a problem that is either self-inflicted, or if not, is self maintained.
The problem these dentists ask me to solve for them and their offices is how to extricate their Dental Office from the grasps of third party contracts. Contracts with insurers and Preferred Provider, or PPO agreements.
And it’s a tricky question.
What these dentists see, but cannot see how to attain, is a Dental Office operating solely on a fee for service arrangement with their clients, customers and patients. They see a Dental Office where the only contractual arrangement is between the provider of the service, and the receiver of the service.
Between the dentist and the patient.
No third parties.
It’s a very interesting question.
I built my Dental Office up from a small two room, one doc, one assistant [only] practice on the premise that if I always provided an exceptional product with exceptional service I could not only survive but also thrive as those around me fought tooth and nail to compete on price and not much else.
And I did.
Active Dental Parramatta grew to be a very high fee, high grossing Dental Office in primarily what is an average part of Sydney, where people earn average incomes and live in average homes and drive average cars.
This is not some Double Bay part of town. It’s certainly not Beverley Hills.
Yet my fees were, and are well above average. And are well above the fees charged by my Dental neighbours.
And are in some cases double those charged by my neighbours.
And they still keep coming.
New patients still keep coming. Seeking quality dentistry provided with exceptional World Class Service in a comfortable relaxed and relaxing environment that is *DIFFERENT*, totally different, from anywhere else they have ever been before.
For dentistry.
And not just for dentistry.
Different, and totally different from most other businesses and service providers out there.
And that’s not me blowing my own trumpet.
That’s what our clients and customers are saying.
And saying and saying.
And saying, even before they ever meet a dentist in our office.
And that’s the feeling, the bond, the union, that we try to, and succeed in creating between our office and our clients.
It’s a feeling that they know they’re never going to experience anywhere else in the world of dentistry.
So how does a dentist out there achieve that?
For a dentist to achieve and obtain and build a Dental Office like that there has to be certain rules and principles in place that need to be kept and adhered to.
With unwavering commitment.
Change is difficult.
But there must be commitment.
Margins
When margins are tight, everything is tight.
I’m talking financial margins. Profits.
Not restorative margins.
When the profits on procedures are low, and tight, because of price, to be successful, and a profitable business, you need to provide more, many more of those services to gross the same dollar amounts of profit as someone providing that service or procedure at a higher fee.
That’s just simple math.
Business 101.
And this is what happens when a third party intervenes between the provider of a service or good and the receiver of that service or good.
You have a compromise.
And the dentists who are approaching me about change are doing so because they see that without the third party in between, there is a better way.
A more comfortable way.
For the Dentist.
For the Dental Office.
And for the Client.
Because when the profit per procedure is higher there is opportunity for flexibility.
To take more time.
To show more care.
To share the love.
Because the margins are there to allow us.
And with the sharing of the love, and the showing of the love, comes more love back.
Back to us.
In spades.
In more treatment acceptance.
In more referrals.
In less reschedules.
I wish the process were easy.
I wish the process of change were easy.
But it isn’t.
It requires so many things.
But it is achievable.
And it is so worth it!
It requires commitment. Unwavering commitment.
It requires handholding and help. And assistance. And coaching. And consulting.
Continued coaching, and handholding.
Because there’ll always be the temptation to turn back.
To the old way.
Because the old way, with the third party, is so comfortable..
Or is it?
At the end of the day, at the end of the week, at the end of the month, the whole team, the whole office has worked harder, for less.
For less gross.
And way less profit!
For what?
For more patients, who by and large, don’t value the services provided as much as those patients who are stumping up out of their own back pocket for quality services provided in a world class manner in a comfortable environment.
And therein lies the answer.
In a nutshell.
But there’s more.
There’s so much more….
Just waiting for you.
Waiting for you to commit….
The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple to build complete Customer Service system in itself that I developed that allowed me to create an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.
Email me at david@theupe.com
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