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Picture yourself in this scenario…you are walking past two nail salons and are contemplating having your nails painted from one of the two. Let’s say for this example, both salons have the same services, are located directly next to one another and sell all services for the same price…outside of the logo and salon name, what is the differentiator that will determine where you will have your nails painted?
The age-old strategy focused on driving prices down to attract new business is just not viable for the long term. Eventually, there will be another practice that comes along and digs deeper into their own margins than you do your own. As a result, due to the patient holding such a heavy importance on pricing and not service, you will lose them.
A more sustainable strategy, is to target patients that value you continually improving the Customer experience and the personalised treatment plans that you offer based on their feedback. This seems like common sense, right?
The concept of customer experience relates to any industry you can think of, including dental. The Customer experience, along the whole journey, how you treat a potential customer before they even consider your company to do business with and how you make customers aware of the services you offer through to the way they leave the practice and your follow up of them post treatment are all critical for success.
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Tooth whitening once considered a seasonal offering in a Dental Practice is now an all year round treatment asked for by patients is a service offering that can be used to differentiate your practice from the competition.
Many of us use the whiteness of a person’s smile to determine whether or not someone’s teeth are healthy, but also who they are as a person. According to a survey conducted by the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry in 2014, a smile was the most memorable feature when meeting someone for the first time (48%), while what someone says (25%) and what a person is wearing (9%) contribute far less to an impression. Shallow, perhaps, however, it is a fact and is helpful to understand the needs and wants of the patient.
Combining the functional oral health of the patient and keeping them free of disease with the overall health benefits of a bright and white smile and a great customer experience is a terrific outcome for a patient.
So, what’s a good initial strategy to get started with a customer experience promotion?
To get started with this promotion, inform and train the team about the teeth whitening promotion and how to communicate the benefits of teeth whitening to the patient.
Having engaged the dental practice team begin to offer those customers who have enquired about, or displayed interest in and who are suitable candidates for a sample of an on the go whitening solution for free so the patient can experience the on the go product in the surgery prior to them leaving the practice or prior to their treatment.
If the patient enjoyed the experience there is the opportunity to retail more of the on the go product and/or to schedule an appointment to make a customised bleaching tray for the patient and/or to schedule an in chair teeth whitening appointment.
What does this do for the practice?
The benefit to the practice is that the Customer tries something new, is properly informed, has a great experience, so is more likely to accept a teeth whitening treatment plan, to be retained and to refer the practice to friends and family.
This was all made possible by a practice putting into action the following:
- A strategic approach to growing the practice based on Customer Experience and a service offering
- Identifying specific patients who are suitable candidates for that service offering
- Offering a practical and high quality trail of a solution to a desire
- Ensuring that the customer (patient) experience was personalised and relevant, far before a sale was even conducted
REFERENCES
https://www.ultradent.com/en-us/blog/posts/marketing-teeth-whitening
https://thedecisionlab.com/impact-free-consumer-decision-making/