Prioritize Patient Financing in Your Dental Practice

Your dental patients want your office to be comfortable and your fees to be reasonable. They want to feel secure when they go to get a teeth cleaning, dental crown, or professional teeth whitening. You know this and undoubtedly focus on it – but are you also focusing on one of the biggest conversion techniques? Excellent patient financing.

What Dental Patients Want

No dental patient gets work done on a whim. Cosmetic dentistry takes thought and planning. Restorative dentistry might be done faster than other procedures because of a tooth or mouth injury, but there is still thought behind it. When a patient has time to consider other options – or seek out a second opinion – they’ll do so not only for information about the procedure itself but the cost of the treatment.

The business side of your dental practice is critical and can be the difference between successfully closing cases and losing patients. Patients want:

• User-friendly payment plans: Whether you offer convenient monthly payments or discounts for paying in a lump sum, payment plans are a must-have for every procedure. Patients want to know that they can afford the work they want or need to have done.
• Multiple payment options: Do you take credit cards, personal checks, and dental insurance? Do you belong to helpful third-party payment plans like Care Credit? The more financing options you can give your patients, the more fancy budgeting they can do on their end to determine what they can afford and how.
• An honest discussion: Never send your patient away with a one-sheet that highlights payment options without having a discussion with them to review it. Your words, your investment in them, and your acknowledgment that they’re facing a major treatment means a lot. Consultative sales techniques happen at every step of the dental process, from diagnosis to recommendation and beyond.

Keep Money Matters in Perspective

Patients come from every socioeconomic level, and it’s important for your dental practice not to judge what you assume a patient can or cannot pay for the treatment they want or need. Everyone prioritizes their lives differently. Some put teeth at the top of the list – others put them at the bottom. But it’s your job to work equally hard to convince every patient of the worth of the dental procedures they’re interested in having done.

It’s also important to remember that your office is not a bank – having hundreds of accounts receivable that aren’t getting paid will have your front desk staff running around looking for payments, a time-consuming and unproductive venture. But you can be a flexible enterprise. Accepting credit cards, you get paid instantly and it’s an easy option for patients. Third-party payments have excellent patient financing – sometimes no-interest financing – which makes all dental work affordable for your patients and more eager to sign on for this option so you can get to doing their dental care.

Connect with Independence Dental DSO

The financial part of your dental practice requires attention and support and an upgrade in policies as needed. Get all the help you need for the financing at your dental office with help from Independence Dental DSO. Contact us today.