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Want to save money? Get rid of your dental insurance.

A while back I did a blog on dental insurance. (found here http://goo.gl/Ac2OsZ)  Please read it and become familiar with the language because I promise you that when you shop for your next policy knowing the terms will help you make an informed decision.

Insurance companies love to proclaim that they cover 100% for any dental services.  Let me begin by saying that unless the provider has agreed to be “in-network” that this is simply not true.  (even then there are co-pays…)

I understand the enormous pressure that employees and employers feel when it comes to healthcare costs.  It seems that rising healthcare costs are accompanied by rising premiums.  Most of the time, our patients dental plans are supplemental to their health plans. But really how much are you paying each year for basic services?

67.5% of our clients come in for two cleanings and one set of x-rays per year.   This is the basic preventative standard of care that we advise all patients to follow.  ( Preventative measures will save you money in the long run!)   On average the cost for these preventative services is from $250-$300 per year.  I am writing this today to show you that you can go to your dentist and save money at the same time.

During my research I spoke with 25 different patients and they disclosed to me the cost of their dental policies. On average the patients maximums were $1000 per year.  They all stated that they believed insurance company paid “100%”.  They also felt that having insurance was the only way to gain access to a dentist.  

Rainy Day Dental Jokes

“Happiness is your dentist telling you it won’t hurt and then having him catch his hand in the drill.” — Johnny Carson

 

A young man saw an elderly couple sitting down to lunch at McDonald’s. He noticed that they had ordered one meal, and an extra drink cup. As he watched, the gentleman carefully divided the hamburger in half, then counted out the fries, one for him, one for her, until each had half of them. 
Then he poured half of the soft drink into the extra cup and set that in front of his wife. The old man then began to eat, and his wife sat watching, with her hands folded in her lap. 
The young man decided to ask if they would allow him to purchase another meal for them so that 
they didn’t have to split theirs. 
The old gentleman said, “Oh no. We’ve been married 50 years, and everything has 
always been and will always be shared, 50/50.” 
The young man then asked the wife if she was going to eat, and she replied… “Not yet…It’s his turn with the teeth!”

 

Marketing in Healthcare

My name is Nicholas Romano and I am the office manager at Ridgecrest Dental.  It has been 4 years since I first started a full on social media campaign for Ridgecrest Dental.   In that time I have researched, tracked, measured and analyzed what I could do to make them stand out as a business.

My findings led me to believe that it does not take a $2000.00 budget per month of print advertising, radio commercials or expensive software to reach your target market.   I attended a whiteboard presentation on Demandforce  last month ($350 per month!) and quite frankly was not sold.  The main issue I had was that it did not integrate with our software.  Secondly, it seemed that in an attempt to secure sales in every industry the software was unable to attend to direct needs that the dental world craves.  Don’t get me wrong the program is very capable of building business revenues, but it was not the right fit for us.

I am a consumer just like everyone else, but it just so happens that I tend to be a little more aware of the marketing that company’s use to lure us into buying.  My personal favorite are the logo urinal pucks in NFL stadiums, but I digress. I kid you not, the dental and medical world is years behind in terms of website development and social media.   Searching for the correct Doctor or office can turn into a nightmare really quickly.   In our demographic almost 70% of the Doctors do not have a website!  We live in an time where patients want to have the convenience of scheduling online,  paying bills online and researching what office to choose.  Why not make their choice easier by creating an informative website! So how are Doctors supposed to market their practices?

A few questions to ask yourself before launching a marketing campaign are as follows:

• What do we do as an office that is better than our competition? Examples include: technology,patient care, state-of-the-art facilities.
• What type of patients are we looking for? What is our demographic? (age,location, ect)
• If asked why someone should visit your office, what would you say?
• Does my staff recognize and understand the vision for my practice?
• How do we provide our patients with the best possible care?

These are just a few questions to start off with and I’m sure many more will follow.  Statistically, from the time I put our website online, our business has experienced 34.7% increase in brand awareness within our demographic.  I did not do anything elaborate to enhance the website (i.e no paid advertising), but what I did do is use keywords correctly, periodically change testimonials and keep it modern.  After a year of using Google Analytics (a free service) I was able to narrow down what words I needed to use. This service has helped me immensely, please check it out because it really can help your practice.

The benefits of an interactive website and social media has been a proven method to build brand awareness.  We use bufferapp.com (another free service) to help us post effectively to all of our media outlets.  Check it out because I promise it will make social media posting a whole lot easier.  The Hubspot website grader (free free free) can help you track your performance as well! Marketing effectively is being able to do something different then your competition.  Once you figure out what your competitive advantage is, market it using the above techniques and success will follow.  There are plenty of other tools that you can use.  Whatever your method is remember that the more exposure your office has, the patient is able to research you and make an educated choice!

 

Our First Newsletter

Hello everyone.  As a precursor to our new newsletter we wanted to share our “mock” draft with you.  Any suggestions are appreciated!  Thank you!

 

April newsletter