I recently received an email from one of the top learning institutions in the United States asking my opinion for an upcoming article.
The article was about what dentists should look for in patient-education resources, such as brochures, in order to improve patient understanding. The assumption is that brochures or other education materials helped dentists improve case acceptance.
The question got me thinking about all the poor advice we’ve been told inside the dental industry. Too many dentists struggle to find patients or improve case acceptance because they follow the same poor advice. The truth is nobody comes to you or accepts treatment recommendations because of your pamphlets.
For decades, we’ve been told if we explain the treatment procedures in detail or show patients images of their teeth, they’re more likely to say yes.
That’s such a false belief. Patients don’t come to you or accept treatment because of detailed explanations or pictures.
What Causes Patients to Accept Treatment Plans
Think about the process of when someone makes a decision to purchase a car. I’ve been having problems with my car recently. My exhaust, air conditioning, and window . . . the cost to repair my eight-year-old car didn’t make sense, so my husband and I decided to get a new car. We were sick of feeling like we were throwing good money after bad. We wanted to not worry about something going wrong. We wanted peace of mind.
When people shop for cars, they don’t care about the marketing materials. What they care about is how the car will impact their lives. They care about how they’re going to feel in the car.
If they’re shopping for a luxury vehicle like a Range Rover with sport tires and a jet black interior, they might want to feel classy and powerful. Or maybe they want a funkier and fancier red interior to feel excited and fresh. They might daydream, “People are going to think I’m a celebrity rolling by.”
If they’re considering buying a Mini Cooper, they might get excited about driving a cute, modern, contemporary, sleek car. It’ll make them feel cool but responsible.
The same is true in dentistry.
Nobody accepts a treatment plan because of brochures, pamphlets, or pictures.
People accept treatment plans based on emotions.
How to Immediately Improve Your Case Acceptance Rate
If you want to immediately improve case acceptance, you need to stop relying on marketing materials and start getting patients to an emotional place where they actually want the treatment.
When you hand patients marketing materials, they feel like they’re being sold to. They don’t want the treatment.
When you help them get to an emotional state where they can imagine how much better their life will be if they go through with the treatment, they will actually want the treatment.
How can you get people to that emotional state?
Listen to their concerns, and tell them about what their life will be like after the treatment.
Recently, one of my patients who needed two crowns commented about how I was going to be rich after he got his crowns done.
We all have patients like that, don’t we?
This patient was particularly frustrated, but I explained to him that I don’t care about or need his money. I don’t base my treatment plans on how much money they would make me.
I continued that my goal with dentistry is to change lives. In fact, many patients leave my practice with such a transformation that they start to cry.
We are changing lives in my practice. We give people back feelings they haven’t felt in a really long time, if ever. We give them their confidence back. We give them their smile back. We give them functionality back. We help people feel a part of society again. We help them feel great about themselves.
I explained that he might actually cry when we were done because I wanted to change his life, too. After completing the crowns, he would be able to eat anything he wants to eat. He would have the confidence to go anywhere he wanted to go and not have to worry about his teeth. He will have that peace of mind. That’s my goal, I explained.
I took him to an emotional place where he could feel what life would be like with his treatment complete.
People think if we give patients a pamphlet or show them a video detailing all of the steps that go into getting a crown done, they’re going to accept their treatment. Going back to the car example, we know that’s not true. We know people buy cars based on the emotional connection they make with the car and how they will feel after the purchase. They don’t want the car. They want the feeling of driving it and the freedom of having it.
They want to feel cool or powerful. They want to take amazing vacations and know everybody is going to be comfortable and the kids are not going to be all on top of each other because they have space. They want to have a reliable car they can drive with their family and know the car is not going to break down.
The Role of Pamphlets, Brochures, Videos, and Photos
I want you to stop thinking about pamphlets, brochures, videos, and photos as case acceptance tools. That said, there is a place for them in your practice, just not a primary role in case acceptance.
Those things support you, but you need to get to patients’ emotions first. Only after they start to feel and envision their lives will they be open to learning the information in your materials.
Thus, before showing them that stuff, get to the bottom of why they’re in your char. Ask them how they would you feel if they could chew with their back teeth again. Talk with them about the how their teeth are impacting their day-to-day life. Ask them how it would feel if they didn’t have to worry about those things again.
If someone comes in with a toothache, ask how it would feel to never have to have that feeling, that pain, again. Then explain what you focus on in your practice, such as how you focus on changing lives to make patients so happy that many of your patients are so emotional they cry.
Tell them stories about other patients who experienced a transformation like they will.
For example, you might say one of your patients couldn’t eat normally for twenty years. He had no back teeth, so he had a hard time eating.
Or explain how another patient after thirty years was finally able to throw away her dentures and she literally started to cry because she had her dignity back. She didn’t have to take out her teeth while lying in bed next to her husband every night.
When you tell those stories, patients will want those feelings.
Only then do you show them the brochure about the treatment. Many times, they’re so committed to their emotions they don’t even want to see it. They’re ready for their treatment.
In my case, the “I’m going to make you rich” patient got right on board and realized the crowns weren’t about money but giving him the confidence and peace of mind he so desperately wanted.
Making Emotional Connections
When you start making emotional connections for your patients, you will immediately see an improvement with case acceptance. Talk with your patients about what’s going on in their life. Talk with them about the problems with their teeth, and ask why they haven’t fixed them. Ask how it’s impacting them.
Get to the real reason. They’ll tell you if you give them a safe place of understanding to open up.
Then talk about the treatments that can help them achieve the emotional transformation they want.
The more you do this, the more lives you’ll be able to help change.
If you want help improving case acceptance in your practice, sign up for your 14-day trial to Delivering Wow U, where you will find my best systems and strategies for building better practices.
You can also join my free Dental Marketing and Profits Facebook group, where thousands of dentists and I help each other. Finally, if you want even more personalized help, sign up for the next business bootcamp session, where I work with you and a small group of other dentists implement these and more strategies into your practice.
This article originally appeared on DeliveringWow.com.