Dentistry Financing Improves Customer Loyalty

Healthcare providers must continually look for improvements in the way they provide services. This includes analyzing what everyone in the practice does, from the lead dentist or orthodontist down to the person who cleans the floors after business hours. No stone can be left unturned, but often times, it’s the most obvious stones that go ignored for too long, causing a negative impact on business.

Acquiring and keeping business is all about focusing on the patient experience, and they are aware of this now more than ever. Being a customer centric practice isn’t just a perk for patients anymore – it’s a culture that smart business owners are living by today. Getting everyone on your team to subscribe to this way of doing business is a must if it’s going to be successful.

First and foremost, patients don’t want to be treated like a number. This is something that dental practices could get by with a decade or so ago, but not anymore. Patients expect to be greeted warmly at the front desk, preferably by name. Your staff has the appointment book in front of them – they should know who is coming in and when. Why wouldn’t they also be able to greet the patient warmly and by name?

Not only does your staff have to be friendly and personable, they also have to know how to explain what’s going on with the patients’ dental health. Terms you use dozens of times a day are heard maybe once or twice a year by a patient. Take the time to explain procedures to them in a language they understand. Again, this will include everyone in the office who has authorization to the patient’s records.

Like we said earlier, patients are also expecting more options when it comes to paying for your services. If you’re a practice that has gotten burned too many times by putting your patients on extended payment plans only to have to turn them over to collections for non-payment, think about offering dental financing through a third party.

When you partner with a third party to set up a dental financing program with your practice, you’re going to get access to funds immediately while your patients get set up with payment plans that are acceptable for them.

One of the added benefits to this situation relates to the health of your patients. For instance, when you offer advice on how a patient can fix a dental issue, they balk because the procedure is expensive. They’ll say “no” now and put off these treatments for far too long while the problem grows increasingly more serious.

When you partner with a non-traditional lender, your patients have an option other than depleting their checking or savings account to pay you. The application for financing with non-traditional lenders finds an exceedingly high approval rate and your patients will be on the way to better oral health. Companies like UGA provide such programs for dental financing and watch practices see more patient loyalty as a result.