Louise Bone offers her advice on how to effectively implement a dental membership plan…
There are many benefits of introducing a dental membership plan into your practice. To name just a few: increased patient loyalty, a regular and reliable income and a higher uptake in treatment plans.
Everyone can introduce a plan into their practice, however ensuring it is a successful one is down to you and the team.
Below are my tips on how to introduce and build your membership plan…
1. Get the plan right
The first thing to get right when selling a plan membership is the plan itself. Does it stack up as an attractive offer to the patient? Are there enough reasons for the patient to make the move from pay-as-you-go to the plan? The collective benefits of joining the plan should make it a very easy decision for the patient.
2. Believe in the plan
If you don’t believe the plan is the right thing for the patient, then don’t expect the patient to believe it. Everyone in the team has to firmly believe that the plan provides the patient with the best outcomes all round – financial, convenience and most importantly, the best way of achieving excellent oral health.
3. Make it the default position
For new patients, promote the plan as the default position. That is, when you have a new patient enquiry, don’t offer a choice in the first instance, tell the patient that the way the practice operates is through a patient membership plan and back that up with the reasons you operate in this way – i.e. because it’s the best way of ensuring the patient gets the most comprehensive and regular dental treatment they require.
4. Know your stuff
Whatever you do, don’t try to blag the conversation with the patient. Make sure every team member knows how the plan works, what the costs are, what the benefits are and how they should be communicated. If necessary, practise selling the plan to each other. The more ingrained the details of the plan become, the easier it is to have a natural conversation that doesn’t sound like a scripted sales pitch.
5. Prescribe the plan
Patients respect the dentist’s knowledge, experience and advice. That’s why joining the plan should be ‘prescribed’ by the dentist. The conversation is very simple and quick and won’t impact on time in the surgery, it goes like this…
“I notice you’re not on our patient membership plan, it’s something that I would strongly advise that you do. There are lots of benefits, but most importantly, it encourages you to attend regularly so we can ensure we maintain the oral health levels that you want.”
6. Don’t rely on the leaflets
Too many front desk staff use plan leaflets as a ‘get out of jail free’ card. It’s an easy way of transacting the information about the plan without having the conversation with the patient. However, the leaflet should really be used as a back up to the conversation not as an alternative to it. It’s for those patients not prepared to commit on the day and can also be given to patients who have signed up as a reminder of the benefits.
7. It’s not just about the front desk
Building a successful plan is the responsibility of the whole team. Everyone should know the details of the plan and feel comfortable talking about it and recommending it whenever the opportunity arises. It needs to start, in surgery, with the recommendation of the dentist and follow through to a further conversation at the front desk. Don’t leave the selling of the plan to just one person.
8. Talk about benefits not features
Too many practices fall into the trap of talking about the features of the plan and not the benefits. Patients buy benefits, not features. Make sure you go through the features of your plan with a view to getting a clear understanding of what benefits they deliver.
9. Plant the seed
You can start the promotion of your plan before you have the conversation with the patient in a number of ways. For example, posters around the practice or video testimonials on the TV in the waiting room, if you have one, will help to communicate the benefits before the patient goes into the surgery.
The benefits of the plan and why you recommend it should also be on your website and perhaps talked about on your social media pages. The more places you put the information the more chance it has of connecting with your patients.
