Most healthcare professionals will agree that it goes against the grain to ‘sell’ a treatment. Even if we know we can achieve an amazing life changing result for a patient, to start that conversation is difficult. Selling a treatment option is not something we feel comfortable doing. And rightly so, healthcare isn’t the setting for a sales pitch.
Often, the patient will have had the same thought in their mind already, so what you may want to suggest may not be something new to them.
Access to information online means that patients are pretty clued up. Also, with clinics who have a big online presence using social media platforms to advertise cosmetic treatment options, there is an influx of patients booking when they see it online.
We can’t afford to allow another practitioner to perform a treatment that you yourself could have carried out, but of course not all clinics have the resources to push their services on social media. It takes time and dedication and let’s face it, we are not all marketing experts. Gone are the days when the majority of patients are 100% loyal to one clinician. Let’s not lose patients to another clinic because they simply didn’t know you had the same treatment on your service list.
So, if you don’t want to start the conversation about cosmetic options yourself, or you don’t want to miss an opportunity, there are ways and means to initiate the topic of conversation without you having to say a word at all, which is the use of waiting room TV, like that provided by Envisage Dental TV.
Waiting room TV will create conversations
Whilst the patient waits for their treatment in your waiting room, they are exposed to information about the practice and what the practice offers. You may use it to give advice and recommendations, but another way to use it effectively for practice growth is to introduce patients to high earning cosmetic treatments. Topics such as tooth whitening and Invisalign® do well on waiting room TV. Patients know about these treatments, but they may not think to ask about it during their examination.
They may not realise a dental practice carries out aesthetics, or that tooth whitening should only be done from a dental clinic. They may not realise an NHS practice could offer Invisalign privately, or that there are dentists at the practice who carry out implants. Make them aware of these things while they sit and wait.
By also incorporating the patient call option, patients have to physically watch while they wait, allowing you to capitalise on their attention. If you are not keen on the idea of initiating the cosmetic dentistry conversation, or you dread coming across as ‘selling’ to your patients, this might be the investment you need to make for practice growth.
This article was written by Claire Berry a multi -award winning hygienist and author. Claire trained as a dental hygienist whilst serving in the Army, qualifying in 2009. Currently works in 3 practices, as well as being a key opinion leader for brands such as Oral B, Boutique and an ambassador for the BSDHT. With articles published in BDJ In Practice, The Probe, Smile magazine, DH Contact, Young Dentist magazine, as well as numerous FMC publications including a monthly hygienist blog and is on the board for Clinical Dentistry Magazine and Dental Nurse magazine
