Pricing your services
It’s possible that you have been undercharging.
I’ve been interested in art for years. I like visiting galleries and occasionally purchasing art. One thing that often amazes me is that you can pay hugely different amounts for similar looking paintings.
I’ve seen people pay $1,000, $3,000 or even $20,000 artwork that look pretty much the same.
Clearly the artists at the upper end of the price spectrum are creating extra value in the minds of their buyers.
That got me thinking about how dentists price their services, for example crowns. Specifically…
Can patients make an objective assessment of your fee?
Or, does it have to do with the perception of value you create?
Most patients think that dentistry is expensive and they know that crowns cost over a thousand dollars.
Beyond those two things they really don’t have any idea. A dentist friend used to jokingly say that:
“Whatever fee you quote, the patient thinks it is twice what it should be.”
A recent example
Recently I visited a dentist who charges $1,450 for crowns. Another dentist, only a couple of kilometres away, charges $3,900 for crowns.
The dentist charging $3,900 produces absolutely superb work and he does 3 or 4 crowns per day, day in day out. The dentist charging $1,450 does acceptable work but he only does 3 or 4 crowns per month.
That tells me, that when people are considering a serious dental purchase they are influenced by a lot of factors other than the price.
If price was the main factor that patients, then the cheaper dentist should be run off his feet and the more expensive dentist should seldom do crowns.
Some of the factors that are more important than price
Does the office present the right image? (immaculately clean, well organised, state-of-the-art, tasteful, perfectly maintained)
Does the staff present the right image? (caring, careful, efficient, attentive, helpful, experienced)
Does the dentist present the right image? (trustworthy, knowledgeable, competent, thoughtful, calm, careful, experienced)
Does the dentist know the steps to building rapport with patients?
Does the dentist know how to communicate effectively with patients?
Does the dentist always offer optimum dentistry to patients?
Can the dentist show the patient photos of their work so they can see the type of results to expect?
Does the dentist have social media reviews and proof of their work?
A personal story
Once I was standing in a side hallway when a new patient entered my office. I saw him but he did not see me.
He looked around for a few moments admiring the office then I saw him smile and nod his head. He bought me based purely on how he perceived my office.
Subsequently he had a lot of dentistry done in my office.
I had made the sale before even meeting the patient!
Changing perceptions
If you are not doing as much quality dentistry as you want the fee should not be the first thing to look at. So many dentists have a fear of raising fees but most of the time, the fee is not the problem.
The problem is something, or several things from the list above.
In fact, sometimes your fee being too low can be the problem.
I raised my fee and became an expert
Years ago I decided that I hated doing dentures and wanted to stop doing them. Rather than just refuse to do them, what I did was to double my fee.
I went from having an average fee to being roughly twice as expensive as every other dentist in my area. I thought that would price me out of the market and so denture patients would go elsewhere. Guess what.
I became the go-to person for dentures in my area.
“If he charges this much he must be good.”
Suddenly I had a huge influx of denture cases. But, I didn’t mind because I was getting paid very handsomely to do them.
A final thought
If you are creating a perception of quality and yet you are still not succeeding consider whether your fees are too low.
Patients know that you need to pay for quality work. If your fee is too low they may not believe that you can deliver the quality of work that they want.
