By Dr. Ryan Swain
“Value” is a word that we hear so often, I think many of us have lost sight of what it really means. Dictionary.com defines value as “worth, merit or importance.” Value is subjective. We all apply different amounts of value to different items. A great piece of sushi may be extremely valuable to me (a sushi lover) but essentially worthless to someone with a strong aversion to raw fish. During this recession, we as dentists and business owners must think hard about the amount of value that we are creating for our patients. We must also clearly understand what aspects of our practices provide the most value to our patients. Is it the convenient location of our office? Is it our ability to provide painless dentistry? Is it the quality of our dental restorations? To be successful, we need to create significant value for the people in our communities or we are destined for mediocrity or in the worst-case scenario, failure.
A recession is an interesting phenomenon. Billions of dollars of wealth literally disappears in a very short period of time. Although they can be very painful, recessions do a great job of separating the wheat from the chaff and exposing businesses that aren’t bringing sufficient value to their customers. When money becomes scarce, consumers start treating each dollar with more care and spending their money with more scrutiny. Whether we like it or not, our job as business owners is to provide products and services that are worth more to our patients than the money they have in their pockets. When we do this, they will decide to give us some of their money in exchange for our services. Garrett Gunderson, author of Killing Sacred Cows, sums this up by saying “We only give up something in an exchange when we value what we’re receiving more than we value what we’re giving up.” It sounds simple, right? Let’s investigate this a bit further.
Why is it that during this recession, some practices continue to thrive while other practices are hurting badly? Why do some dentists increase their marketing budgets during the recession while others make cuts? It all boils down to value creation. The dentists that continue to provide services and experiences that are truly valuable to their patients will always have cash flowing into their practices. These dentists realize that when times are tough and consumers are clinging more tightly to their dollars, an increase in marketing will help convince more people to come into their offices for dental services. However, an increase in marketing will only yield results if there are aspects of the practice that are truly marketable. In other words, we must have something valuable to market to our patients!
The common myth is that cosmetic dentistry should be “put on the backburner” during a recession. The misconception is that cosmetic dentistry is “elective” and therefore is not something that people will purchase when money is tight. This brings us back to our concept of value creation. What do you think is more valuable to a patient – having a crown placed on their cracked but asymptomatic second molar or having the unsightly diastema closed between their upper centrals? Which will provide a more tangible result for the patient? Which procedure will help improve self-confidence and self-esteem and therefore create a significant amount of value for the patient?
The unavoidable truth is that most people care a lot more about their appearance than they do about their health. This is especially true when it comes to dental health. As dental professionals, we understand how important dental health is but sometimes the most frustrating part for us is trying to convince our patients to feel the same way. The trend towards insurance-based practices is a symptom of the discrepancy between the consumers’ perceived value of restorative dental work and the costs that are associated with these services. Many practices simply aren’t able to convince enough patients to spend the fruits of their labor (their money) on dental services, and therefore these practices opt to participate with insurance plans. When participating with an insurance plan, a practice can generate more patients and no longer has to work as hard to create value for the patients. Value for these patients exists because the dental office participates with their plan and they don’t have to spend as much of their own money in exchange for the dental services provided. Since they are spending less of their own money they don’t require as much value during the exchange.
Don’t get me wrong. I am neither praising nor denigrating dental practices that participate with insurance companies. There is nothing wrong with dental insurance participation and for many dentists it is a smart move. I’m highlighting the idea that there are various ways that dentists can appeal to patients and when times are tough it doesn’t have to be by signing up for more insurance plans.
We have to fully understand what patients want, and then provide it. In my office I’ve seen that affordable cosmetic dentistry can be an enormous boon to a practice. There is tremendous value in conservative dentistry that dramatically improves the smiles of our patients. Sure, those big $30,000 porcelain cases become rarer during a recession, but more practical forms of cosmetic dentistry can be very attractive to patients. Many dentists that I speak with on a weekly basis are actually growing their practices by ensuring that they are offering services that patients will say yes to and then creating the exposure needed to make patients aware of these services (both internally and externally). Many of these services are conservative cosmetic procedures such as: botox and dermal fillers ( www.FacialEsthetics.org), strategic cosmetic bonding (www.BioclearMatrix.com), short term orthodontics (www.6MonthSmiles.com), teeth whitening (www.KorWhitening.com) and ‘minimal prep’ veneers such as Cristal veneers from Aurum Laboratories.
Along with great restorative dentistry it is important to have a vast service mix available to our patients. The products and procedures I’ve mentioned here can all be added to a practice with minimal amounts of time and money, but with significant return on investment. Allow me to conclude by stating very clearly what my “take home” message is. Businesses succeed in any economic environment when they continue to create value for their customers. As dentists, we must be honest about what our patients want and be willing to cater to them on their terms. We are highly trained dental professionals and we must be able to diagnose and treat dental disease at a high level. But, as business owners we should also recognize that it is our responsibility to understand our customers and cater to them. We must create value for our patients.
Dr. Ryan Swain is a graduate of the University of Florida College of Dentistry. He practices in Rochester, NY and focuses on Short Term Ortho and other conservative cosmetic dental procedures. He is president and chief clinical instructor for Six Month Smiles. Dr. Swain is a pioneer in the field of Short Term Ortho and constantly on the forefront of GP orthodontics. He has trained dentists internationally and prides himself on de-mystifying orthodontics for GPs.
