A lot of dentists spend a lot of time and resources looking for “the right kind of patients.” Any limitations can be attributed to not getting enough of them. Other dentists who are succeeding at higher levels seem to be getting lots of them. But in my experience, just about every practice—from the smallest to the largest, urban or suburban—is populated with the same kinds of patients and the same kind of patient motivations. Within the “value framework” of any practice there are four patterns of behaviors that patients fall into:
Reactive Patients typically only see a dentist when something hurts. They are focused on fixing immediate pain, breakage, or trauma and aren’t much interested in hearing about other oral health options—they even resist regular hygiene care. Fortunately, they represent a small minority in every practice.
Proactive Patients are generally committed to maintaining their oral health and will typically accept routine treatment that years of insurance mindset thinking have conditioned them to accept: fillings, onlays, crowns—usually delivered one tooth at a time. Most patients in most practices fall into this category.
Discretionary Patients are ready to hear a value message. They have an interest in cultivating their self-image, for whatever reason, and they are open to (or even actively seeking) treatment suggestions that include specific esthetic choices.
Regenerative Patients want the best. They want to restore their mouths to the best standards you and modern dentistry are capable of providing, and they are willing to make the investment now (and in the future) to achieve ideal oral health.
The important thing to remember is that these category descriptions are not labeled buckets in which to place your patients. Rather it is a continuum of behaviors, and any one patient can occupy different categories at different times. So, with that in mind, which category of patient do you think is the most important for driving practice growth? I’ll give you my thoughts on that in the next post.
No comments:
Post a Comment