How to increase profits in dentistry

Typically, the first thought that occurs at the head about increasing of profits is that you need to run an advertising campaign in the press, on television, billboards and so on. Actually advertising affects only the first coefficient of the formula (see below) - the number of potential customers.

So here's the formula: Profit = L · Cv · S · F · x%

L - the number of potential customers; Cv - conversion; S - the average bill; F - Frequency of visits; x% - Your premium.

What we have as a result? For instance, you want to double your profit and use advertising only. Following the formula above, you should increase the number of potential customers at least in a half. If earlier with advertising you attracted about 1000 people, now this number should rise to 2000. This involves the use of traditional advertising. Frankly speaking, it is practically impossible to do. We should not forget that while you spend on production and advertising heavily, and thus, your net profit will decrease significantly.

Let’s imagine it is happened. You've invested money in advertising, it worked perfectly, the number of potential customers has doubled. However, what will happen? Imagine that your administrator in a bad mood and she absolutely did not want to answer calls today. Believe me, people feel it even during phone talk. Either your manager says, "Sorry, I don’t have time. Please call back in 5 minutes." Do you think the client will call back? As a result, your conversion or the percentage of potential customers who become real, not as big as it could be.

Move next. When your staff gives dental treatment to patients they don’t provide any other services, which will be useful for customer. Most likely, the client doesn’t even know that one of procedures in your clinic is very effective for the prevention of oral diseases, and the doctor never told about it. As a result, the average amount of the bill is smaller than it could be.

Your patient visited you when he has a toothache. The next time he will come only when get sick again, and that could happen in 2-3 years. Unfortunately, about 60% of people visit the dentist only in case of toothache. People just don’t know that the majority of caries appears insensibly and the treatment of the first stage of caries is much easier and cheaper than when the pain gets too bad already. As a result, people come to you only once or twice a year, but they could visit you several times a year for treatment and prevention. It turns out that the frequency of visits is greatly reduced.

The most obvious indicator of profit is your premium. Usually you make the price list from average prices in the city and do it a little lower to attract more patients. However, studies show that the price is not the most important criterion by which most people choose the dental clinic. First of all people appreciate the quality of care and service. So, your margin is not as big as it could be.

Summary. You've invested a lot of money in advertising to increase the number of potential customers. However, due to the fact that the level of other factors is poor, the money invested in an advertising campaign was thrown money to the four winds.

For example, you decided to increase the number of potential clients by 15%. It is entirely feasible to do with advertising: you learned earlier about 100 people now know 115. You will spend learning to work with clients to your administrators, and anyone who will go to you or call you immediately understands that there are professionals. If administrators will know how to talk by the phone, how to meet the patients and so on, then your conversion can be increased by approximately 15%.

Suppose that you run trainer courses for your doctors. Or just made some reminders at the reception and in the workplace of every doctor: "there is such a service - use it". And this service has a good discount this month. As a result, customer not only treats tooth decay, but also consults a periodontologist and makes ultrasonic teeth cleaning. Thus, you can simply increase by 15% your average bill.

A person came to see you, cured teeth and left. After some time he forgot about you, and you wouldn’t think about him. The next time you’ll see him in one year. However, you can make sms-newsletter to all your clients and birthday dentistry offer for a free inspection of oral cavity. It is natural that a certain percentage of people will come to you and someone of them identified the need for treatment. They take advantage of your services, because why would they leave now, if they have already committed time and came to the dentist. Thus you will increase the frequency of visits by 10-15%.

As to increasing your margins, everything is easier. Pick up all the prices in the price list by 10-15%. Many people are afraid to do it not to scare off customers, but everything is ok. Next, we consider the question of how to raise prices and not lose customers. Now we can calculate. Multiplying together all the factors that can be easily increased by 15%, we get profit growth doubled. You got that little effort and without spending significant finance. It is unbelievable, but true. Next we'll examine how most effectively to work on each of these factors.

Next article: You couldn’t control things you can’t measure.