BUILDING TRUST:
Trust is the foundation of a private practice. Note I said practice, not “clinic.” It’s trust that will have patients want to stay in your practice even though you may not offer evening or weekend hours, deeply discounted services, free parking, or lots of PPO participation.
A patient will put up with inconvenience, cost, and all manner of other “imperfections” if they know you are keeping their best interests in mind and are treating them fairly. Most of your patients don’t really expect charity, and they don’t want to think that their dentist is so desperate that they have to work half the time for free to keep their chair full. The conditions for trust are well known: validity, empathy and authenticity. Of these, the most important is “empathy.”
A patient doesn’t sense empathy from you just because you accept a discounted fee schedule. A patient feels empathy from you when you truly listen to them. Other forms of social proof such as patient testimonials and, importantly, the full faith and trust of your team help build trust too.
What I’m leading to is this:
When I see Doctors who are willing to work for just 65%, 60%, even 50% of their normal fees, I can’t help but think that they don’t hold themselves in as much esteem as their patients likely do, and they don’t realize that patients aren’t coming to them primarily for their insurance status. If they developed trust with patients, many patients will happily see them out of network. You are already probably seeing many patients out of network.
What if you sat down with your patients and asked them, “Would you go to another dentist if you could save money?”
Almost every dentist I know would hate to ask that question because they would be afraid of the answer! Yet, I think you’d be surprised at how many patients would say, “No, I like it here.”
In fact, we recently surveyed 100 adults, ages 18 to 68, and asked them just that: 83% of respondents said they trusted their dentist. Of those who trusted their dentists, only 8% said they would leave to save money. 66% said they would not leave and 25% said “maybe” they’d leave. Of the 16% who said they just “sort of” trusted their dentist, 44% said they would leave to save money and 31% said maybe they would leave.