Your Excellent Customer Service Doesn’t Make You Special Enough

The first step in establishing an effective marketing strategy is to define your “USP,” or Unique Selling Proposition.

Developing the USP is one of the very first things my team and I do when working with a new dentist. But when I ask, “What is your USP? What’s unique about you and your practice?” time after time, dentist after dentist, I hear the same responses:

• We provide excellent customer service.
• Our patients really love us.
• We offer high quality dentistry.
• We are all committed to our patients.

Blah, blah, blah. That’s what everyone is saying. There’s nothing new, interesting, or inspiring there. And while all of that is true, guess what? It doesn’t mean much to a new patient. Know why?

Because every dentist in your market area is saying the exact same thing.

More than that, prospective patients EXPECT you to offer excellent customer service and quality dentistry. After all, they’re not considering you because they think you’re mediocre! In their minds, those are givens. A given won’t set you apart.

To truly stand out in the crowd, you’ve got to sell what makes you different. Your USP has to be something that your competitors won’t – and can’t – also claim. When thinking, “What makes my practice different?” avoid the typical, clichéd responses and dig deeper:

• Service – Ask yourself if there is an aspect of your service that is unique. Do you offer limo service for sedation cases or do you lay out each patient’s comfort preferences in advance?
• Quality – What makes your quality superior? Do you have accreditation or a Fellowship that no one else has?
• Honesty/Integrity – It’s hard to sell honesty or integrity as a unique position. Otherwise you’re implying that the competition is not honest, and that puts you in a defensive position. Steer clear.
• Product – Do you have a technology or product that is unique? Are you the only dentist in the market with digital impressions or who offers IV sedation?

You’ve got to do some work, do some digging to unearth that gem that will distinguish you from the rest.

It may not be easy, but once you discover it, it will make all the difference in your marketing, in your message and in your practice.