Raising Fees

Improving Profitability and Keeping Patients

One of the most important elements of raising fees is a consistent message to the patients. Ensure all practice staff supports the change and the reasons behind it. Everyone should deliver the same message to patients. This will ensure patients are met with a consistent and unified message across all members of the team. A team member that thinks you are charging too much can undermine your practice and cause far-reaching problems.

Raising fees can be scary as a small business. It’s easy to picture clients leaving you without notice and causing your practice to spiral into failure. The truth is statistics provide that this rarely happens. In fact, most patients will accept price increases, they expect it in all walks of life.

BIG PICTURE – no one wants or desires the cheapest, worst care that they can find. On the contrary, we seek the best VALUE.

Patients, on the other hand, want your best care at the very best value. However,dentists often confuse this with “great care, skill and judgment and cheapest cost.”

Handling the conversation of increased fees made simple:

  1. Patients who understand the reason behind your fee increase will tend to be more cooperative.
  2. Be upfront in your communications- Let patients know the reason for the increase, for example letting them know that the fee increase is necessary to continue providing safe and quality of health care.
  3. Procedure costs-Materials labs, staff salaries, time spent; you, must understand the margin associated for each procedure.
  4. What is your time worth? – You need to know what your time is worth by the hour.

The dentist’s primary management goal is to operate their practice at optimal capacity doing the type of dentistry they want to do. Now is the time to comprehensively evaluate how your dental practice is positioned. Your dental practice budget is vital for the ongoing success and health of your business.