Pricing your services
Dentists are generally much more sensitive about the price of their services than their patients.
For years an interest of mine has been art. I like visiting galleries and occasionally purchasing art.
I’ve noticed that for a very similar looking painting you can pay $2,000, $4,000, $6,000 or even more depending on where the artist is in their career journey.
That got me thinking about how dentists price their services, for example a crown.
I’ve seen a dentist charge $1,450 for crowns while a dentist only a couple of kilometres away is charging $3,900.
The dentist charging $3,900 does superb work and they do several crowns per day, while the dentist charging $1,450 does 1 or 2 per week.
That indicates to me that when people are considering a serious purchase they look at a lot of other factors other than the price. Here are a few that pop into my mind:
How confident the dentist is when they say the fee
The look of the office and the perception of quality it creates
Their trust in the dentist
The confidence of the staff in the dentist
How well the dentist communicates the need for treatment
As an exercise you should think about what would happen if you increased your fees by say 10% across the board.
Would your patients even notice?
And, maybe if you were charging more you’d feel better rewarded and produce a better experience for them.
It’s an interesting thing to ponder.
