August may sound like an odd time for a re-decision point, but here it is. 2019 will be here before you know it.
If you’re like most dentists these days, you’re “enjoying” an amazing boost in your new patient numbers. That’s in large part because the economy is booming right now and unemployment figures are close to 50-year lows.
This should be an ideal situation for dentists… but it’s not.
“Enjoying” is in quotes above because wages haven’t nearly kept pace with the cost of dental care. Odds are that the vast majority of your new patients are looking for cleanings, exams, and the least amount of dentistry that their insurance will cover.
So you’ve got too many new patients asking for routine procedures that don’t pay you enough. Are you having fun yet? Probably not, although you’re probably making money, too.
That’s fun, but how hard are you working for what you get? An equally important question is how long you can realistically keep up this pace. High patient volume is a high-stress situation that can take a tremendous toll of your neck and your back over time.
Can you manage another five months of this, much less another 15 or 20 years?
Dentistry is too good a profession to be spend it working too hard for too long for too little.
Change the Equation
You’ve probably heard the old computerese saying “Garbage in, garbage out.” That’s in no way saying that your patients are garbage, but it is true that on average they don’t bring a lot of value to your practice.
If you change the input, you change the output. To work less, earn more, and have time to enjoy life again, you need patients who bring higher average case value to your practice. Fewer cases, more interesting cases, and at least as much money as you make now. What’s not to like?
However, you won’t get those patients by marketing the way you do to low-value patients. People who are ready and willing to spend a significant amount of money on elective dental care aren’t motivated by a slightly lower cost or what insurance will cover. They’re looking for the best dentist for them who will deliver the outcome they want.
Your marketing has to provide a wrap-around approach is setting you apart from the great mass of dentists. Remember, this isn’t price-based marketing; it’s positioning yourself as the dentist of choice for the better patients you want to attract.
Completely revamping your marketing approach is a time- and labor-intensive process. Not all dental practices have the bandwidth to accomplish it. Fortunately, you don’t have to do the work yourself.
SmartBox provides a steady stream of better patients so our doctors can focus on doing more of the cases they truly enjoy. Our dentists work less, earn more, and can actually have time away from the practice.
If that sounds like something you’d like to explore, you can do it with just a free, 25-minute phone call. And, you’ll receive your completely personalized, no-obligation Patient Attraction Roadmap
following the call. Do with it as you wish.
There are five months left in 2018. How will you spend them?
The post What Will Your Dental Practice Do With the Last 5 Months of 2018? appeared first on SmartBox.