I’m a regular reader of Seth Godin’s Blog. His article Clawing your way to the bottom published way back in 2014, is even more pertinent and relevant today in business and in dentistry, than ever before.
It results in a phenomenon that is commonly called Circling the Drain.
In Seth’s blog, he states that:
“Trading in your standards in order to gain short-term attention or profit isn’t as easy as it looks. …. Respected brands that rushed to deliver low price at all costs had to figure out which corners to cut, and fooled themselves into thinking they could get away with it forever.”
Sure it’s easy to be the cheapest dentist in town, but for how long?
As others in your town decide to also become *the cheapest* it certainly is going to become a little crowded at the bottom of the basin.
And this has its own inherent problems, which many discounting dentists are finding out now.
Seth went on to write:
“As the bottom gets more and more crowded, it’s harder than ever to be more short-sighted than everyone else.”
This is so very very true. It is impossible to maintain profit while cutting prices. You are simply slashing your way into liquidation and bankruptcy.
I see many dentists just cutting their prices illogically.
I see others failing to ever increase their prices each year, despite upward pressure of inflation and cost of living.
And then I see dentists choosing to align their dental practices in contracts with fee setting corporations and insurers who happily dictate fee scales to those dentists with little or no compassion for the costs of being in business.
There will always be twenty to twenty-five percent of the population who will be happy to pay your fees because they consider the service that you provide to be exceptionally good value.
And they don’t care what your competitors are charging because they are in love with the product [and the service] you deliver to them.
This is true for all businesses. Whether it is the chap who mows your lawn or the man who cleans your pool, it doesn’t matter to you what the guy doing your neighbour’s lawn or pool is charging so long as your guy is doing a good job.
Same goes for the person who does your wife’s nails or cuts and styles your wife’s hair…
It’s all about the service.
So why not work on providing better service than trying to buy your way into the hearts of your customers with discounts and fee contracts?
Those schemes never buy loyalty.
They only buy transience.
Mark my words. As soon as your office is *Out of Network* most if not all of those patients who you thought were loyal to you will be on their bikes and off down the street knocking on the door of the next *Cheapest Dentist* or the next *In Network Dentist*.
Yes, really.
As Seth says:
“If you’re going to need to work that hard at it, might as well put the effort into racing to the top instead…”
Why not put in the effort to attract that top twenty to twenty-five percent of the population who are going to be a pleasure to deal with, and who as Pareto states, will provide you with eighty percent of your income?
They’re out there.
Doesn’t that make more sense?
In the business of dentistry, it’s a lot easier providing the service than it is to claw your way to the bottom.
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