“That’s expensive!”
What do you do if the patient flips out about the cost of treatment?
Let’s face it — dentistry is expensive.
Dentistry is a bespoke service where every restoration and treatment is individually crafted for the patient. The running costs of a practice are high, the materials are expensive and the treatment takes time to do well.
All these factors add up to a service that is not cheap.
Sometimes when a patient comes in with significant dental needs the total fee can be substantial — as much as a small car or even a medium-sized car!
When you quote the fee the patient can flip out:
“Wow! That’s expensive!”
How do you handle this?
The first thing is to remain calm.
The second thing is not to be a smart-arse by saying something like:
“Compared to what?” or
“Is cheap important to you?”
Those words won’t win the patient over. In fact those words might even drive the patient out of the practice.
You can try to justify by explaining why dentistry is so expensive. That doesn’t work well.
You can offer a discount but that is a really bad idea. It instantly tells the patient that you were over-charging.
You can rave on about the quality of your work but that won’t get you far. Most people assume that dentists do good work.
So, what is the best approach?
The simplest and best approach is to agree with the patient and admit (humbly) that dentistry is expensive.
It admits an honest fact and it gives the patient recognition for their point of view.
It’s a simple, quick, clean response that often gets the patient to proceed with treatment.
