A Financial Arrangements Secret

For years, we have talked about the “15 System” which says, after the 15^th impression or request, 90% of patients or prospects will say “yes.”

Here’s the statistics:

After you have ASKed...

4 times – 20% will say “yes”

8 times – 50% will say “yes”

12 times – 70% will say “yes”

15 times – 90% will say “yes”

That is a lot of ASKing. The tragedy is that 80% of the people QUIT asking after the first request. In other words, we ASK far too little and not often enough.

Here is a direct example and application in the dental office.

One of the most challenging tasks in the office is doing financial arrangements. In fact, more treatment is lost during financial arrangements than any other place in the office because there are not enough opportunities in the financial arrangements system in most offices to keep ASKing the patient to say “yes.” The more options you have in your financial arrangements “tool box” the more opportunities you will have to ASK.

How many financial options to do you have to offer your patients? The most effective financial coordinators we work with are masters at continually finding creative ways to help people pay for treatment without compromising the financial stability of the practice. Here are some examples of the kinds of financial options we are talking about:

• A courtesy for paying in advance of the start of treatment.
• Accepting all major credit cards.
• 3 or more forms of third party financing available in the practice.
• Monthly payment plans for whitening or Invisalign.
• 90 days same as cash with post-dated checks processed by a third party.*
• Co-signers for 3^rd party financing.
• Relatives that might help.
• Other assets or investments they might cash in.
• “Lay-away” plans where they can “save up” to have the treatment done.

The more options you have to offer, the more successful you will be at helping your patients accept treatment. Today, it is more than just cash, credit or third party financing. If all you have to offer are 3 or 4 financial options, you maybe losing 80% of the opportunities to help your patients say “yes.”

The challenge is to fill your financial arrangements “tool box” with at least 15 financial options. That’s right…15!

To help you achieve that goal, make sure to participate in our Crown Council webinar entitled, “I Can’t Afford It – Secrets to helping your patients accept and pay for treatment TODAY!” on Tuesday, November 9 at noon Central time.

During this webinar, we will present the most up-to-date information including research on every third party patient financing option available today along with the best verbal skills and financial arrangement systems to help you increase your case acceptance TODAY.

For enrollment information, just e-mail: Answers@TotalPatientService.com and request information on the “I Can’t Afford It” webinar.

In today’s environment, you have to be better - a lot better at helping your patients say “yes.” In fact, it may take 15 request or options. Just remember, the more you ASK and the more options you present, the more patients will accept.

What Financial Arrangements? A Case Study

As you probably know, in addition to our ToPS clients that we work with around the country, we have a group of dental offices that we manage on a daily basis. Among other benefits, it provides us with an active laboratory in which to test and implement everything we teach. Occasionally we come up with a real head scratcher. Here’s one that happened this week. I will share with you what happened before, during and after treatment. Feel free to comment by clicking on the “comment” icon below with your own ideas.

Before
A 61 year old, male patient came in last week for an initial exam for which he paid in full. After the exam, he was presented with a treatment plan for nearly $4,000 which included a root canal, bridge and some other restorative work. He was also presented with several financial arrangement options including third-party financing which he declined and said that he would find the way to pay for it. He signed the financial agreement and scheduled the next appointment.

During
He came in this week for the treatment which included the majority of the work. At the conclusion of the appointment he said that he had no money and would pay when he could and then left!

After
When the situation was brought to my attention, I called him for clarification. He carried on for several minutes about how he was an honest man, how connected he was in town, everyone including the mayor would vouch for him, etc. With the best verbal skills I know, I thanked him for the background and then ASKed him what he would do if he were in my shoes. He said he would probably ask the customer what he could do. So I asked him what he could do. He said that he had a hundred dollars in his pocket and that he could pay that. I concluded by telling him that objectively speaking, I had a signed financial agreement, services that had been rendered based on that agreement, and no payment. Technically that was theft of services. If he could find his way back to the office to make some type of good faith payment that day, that would be a good idea to prevent the police from becoming involved. He did come in about a half hour later and paid one hundred dollars and said that he would pay us something each month.

Will he pay more? I doubt it. We made some calls around town including the mayor’s office. The mayor had never heard of him.

Questions
I’m sure you have had things like this happen to you before. So here’s the question; if a patient signs a financial agreement, is that sufficient? Or do you choose to always error on the side of caution and ask for payment up front before treatment begins? The bigger question at this point is if when faced with a situation like this, do you choose to treat it as an exception or the rule and change everything you do because someone stiffed you?

The practice of dentistry is filled with interesting choices. What choices would you make in this situation?

I look forward to your comments.

Have a great week.