About 50% of your new patients will not return. Why does that happen, and what can you do about it? In this episode, Kirk Behrendt brings in Brad James, director of SMB sales at Kleer and Membersy, to explain the true problem you have in your practice. You don't have a new patient problem — you have a patient loyalty problem! To learn what's keeping new patients away and how to create loyalty in your practice, listen to Episode 923 of The Best Practices Show!
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Main Takeaways:
Quotes:
“I think [lack of visibility on practice data is] a big problem for really any business, in general. It doesn't matter your size, it doesn't matter what industry, who you're serving, or who you're working with. You need to understand the results and what's going on day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month, and year-to-year. It really just makes sense.” (4:58—5:16) -Brad
“It's tough to make impactful and meaningful decisions when you're not in tune with what's happening . . . Thinking about it myself, if I didn't look at anything every morning and every afternoon before I finished my day, I would be a lot more stressed out. Because as soon as you're not looking at it on a frequent basis — and most of these practices do morning huddles, whether it's on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, whatever that may be. That cadence, the more you can up it, the better, because then you're making your life a lot less stressful. When you don't know, and then you know when it's too late, what do you start doing? Knee-jerk reactions. You might start cutting costs in areas that make a lot of sense for you. We've seen that a lot of practices can potentially cut costs without actually evaluating, ‘How much should I invest in this tool or in this specific aspect of my practice? What was the ROI that I was expecting on this?’ because so many things require investment, especially when you're working with a third party, or whatever it may be.” (9:18—10:27) -Brad
“The number one thing that we've been seeing when it comes to numbers is revenue leakage is a bit of a silent killer, especially when you don't know your numbers. It's not like it's a huge lump sum of money that's immediate — it's a thousand paper cuts. It's something that accumulates slowly, but it adds up over time. We've seen that a lot when it comes to where the revenue is leaking. A lot of practices will point to PPO reimbursements. They will point to their hygiene schedules being empty. Or maybe it is also that they don't have new patients coming in. No matter what you boil it down to, there's a revenue problem. What exactly is happening? Where can I diagnose it? We've seen that something that's very prevalent right now is attrition. So, we see that the no-show rate for new patients when they schedule up front, for the average practice, half of those patients won't show up. Then, the other portion is, if a patient does show up, we're seeing that within an 18-month span, only 44% of patients are sticking to visiting once within an 18-month span.” (10:28—11:42) -Brad
“Consistently, what we see is that uninsured patients, since access to health isn't necessarily the easiest thing for them, they're the highest risk when it comes to not returning, not spending money, and not listening to your suggestions for treatment. So, boiling the entire subject down, without these strategic and data-driven insights, the instinct is a knee-jerk reaction . . . If you're a dental practice, ‘Let's get new patients.’ If you're a business, ‘Let's get new logos.’ But we're in this day and age right now, especially with where we're at economically, increasing overhead, costs, and expenses, efficiency is going to be king. That's really where, as a dental practice, when your margins are getting thinner with insurances, when the margin for error is razor thin, don't necessarily look at new patients. Of course, they're great and you want them in your practice. But we've seen that if you can get more out of the patients that trust you, and you continue to lean on loyalty and maximize that loyalty, it's something where you can see, from a revenue standpoint, increases in not just recall visits, but the more they're in the chair, the more likely they are to accept treatment. And obviously, that's where production and collections can all increase.” (12:38—14:01) -Brad
“The whole APV mindset is exactly what you're looking to do. You're looking to maximize what you're getting out of each patient. So, they're receiving the treatment they need because for so many of these uninsured patients, affordability. But also, there's this psychological element that, ‘I don't have insurance, so it's going to cost me an arm and a leg.’ But when you're able to provide these membership plans to them, you're taking care of the affordability aspect in a way that you're in control of, as opposed to a third-party insurer. Then, on top of that, this is where you're really building that loyalty aspect and you're giving them that peace of mind with it.” (16:50—17:31) -Brad
“Many practices often think, ‘If I have my cash-paying patients, these uninsured patients, they're probably paying me 100% out-of-pocket. They're my most profitable. I'm a little bit hesitant and shaky on wanting to touch that.’ But there are two things I'll say. One, going back to your mention of airlines, even restaurants nowadays, everyone is offering these membership programs. You bet that some of these publicly traded companies know exactly what they're doing and why they're offering it. It's because, like you said, these loyal consumers want to be loyal. They want to feel like they're getting something special. Usually, they become much more passionate about those businesses, those services that they're receiving. So, there's totally a behavioral aspect of it.” (17:34—18:21) -Brad
“What's the alternative if you do dig into the numbers and you're not necessarily happy with what you're seeing from these uninsured patients? Like, we'll go back to the marketing. It is such a knee-jerk reaction of, ‘We'll just spend more. It'll solve everything.’ But that's really avoiding the attrition problem, that revolving door that may or may not exist in your practice. Some of the usual suspects are, ‘I'll just offer a new patient special.’ Well, with the new patient specials, that's low margin, low recall, and high churn. It's short-term thinking for believing that you're going to have long-term benefits from it. So, offer them. Have it. I'm not saying any of these things are bad. But just like anything else, you don't want to be one-dimensional in your offerings in your business. You want to diversify. You want to be a bit more dynamic in having different channels for, ‘How can I make sure each patient feels like they're receiving personalized care, that I'm showing that I care for them as a patient?’” (18:23—19:32) -Brad
“It's not all just about volume. How can we make sure we're getting that new patient acquisition but making sure, over time, that their lifetime value is meaningful for my practice? We want to make sure we're not just getting them in the chair, and then we'll never see them again. So, build in that retention aspect by leading with loyalty with the membership plans, and do it in a way that's systemized.” (23:13—23:38) -Brad
“If you can really measure it, that's where you can start to see, is this impactful? If it is impactful and you like the margins with your membership plan patients, that's where you can start to pull some levers. Do I want to maybe increase percent discounts? Or, all my patients seem really happy, all my members. I can probably take off 5% and start to profit 5% more, and they're still going to be happy. They know they're getting a great deal. So, there are all types of informed decisions that you can make. By offering the membership plans, you're getting these patients that will come in more frequently. They'll hold their appointments, and you're going to see an increase, 66%, in cash production. So, overall, do it in a way that's measurable and meaningful, and you're going to see huge benefits from it.” (25:34—26:24) -Brad
“The average cash-paying patient comes in once every two years, whereas the average insured patient is coming in once a year. So, the vast majority, I think it's around 18%, of cash patients come in with their recall visits. So, it's a major opportunity for you to take care of, how do I get these patients to visit more routinely? How do I build this relationship with them? The more they're sitting in the chair, the more likely they're going to trust us. A lot of anything that's transactional — you don't want to call healthcare transactional, but when there are dollars and cents attached to it and patients have the ability to say yes or no, that's what they're registering in their brain. And really, what you want to do is help them make a confident decision, build that trust, make them feel comfortable, and then they're going to trust you. You're going to see that case acceptance will increase, and the rest will follow.” (27:11—28:10) -Brad
“Some practices will try to [manage memberships plans] themselves, or they'll work with a third party. Just evaluate team bandwidth. Right now, we hear pretty frequently that a lot of teams are struggling with staffing. Maybe there's not a ton of stability. Maybe there's a lot of turnover. Maybe everyone is spread thin. That's where you really want to start to evaluate and say, ‘If I do have a solid portion of cash-paying patients, maybe there's a lot of upside and potential here. And I don't want anyone on my team to feel burdened by it.’ There are so many administrative opportunities that we support practices with and that we help them out with. But that's ultimately what you want to do is, can I measure this? Will my team adopt it? Will it be successful?” (28:32—29:21) -Brad
“When you're comparing the membership plan patient to an uninsured patient that still doesn't have coverage, the membership plan patient, on average, is spending 66% more when it comes to just production. That's what they're producing for the practice. When it comes to the 92% side of it, that's where we're seeing that they are much, much more likely to visit the practice.” (33:35—33:59) -Brad
“A lot of these uninsured patients visit once every two years. That's a big gap, especially if you're looking at your schedule and you don't necessarily think that it's optimized. That's where, ‘How can I get this patient who's visiting once every 24 months to start visiting four times over 24 months?’, which is what I recommend as a dentist. I was listening to one of the podcasts earlier. I think it was with Miranda. She mentioned with cash flow, and also, if you're getting these patients to pay for things up front and you're collecting up front, they're more likely to want to take advantage of what they're already paying for. So, that's what the membership plan is doing. Patients see that you're offering a care plan for them. It's fully outlined, they see the value in it, they're paying for it, and they want to take advantage of it. So, you're getting these patients to visit more frequently, and we also see they are less likely to cancel appointments compared to cash patients.” (34:05—35:08) -Brad
“Continue to think about efficiency. Efficiency is king right now. The more you can get people to really trust in your business, you're going to get them to produce more care, and they'll say yes to more treatment. Overall, it's not industry specific, but a lot of businesses are focusing on what's called same-store growth. With same-store growth, you're looking to get more out of the relationships. The patients that you currently are working with, there are opportunities for them to feel more comfortable saying yes. There are opportunities for them to visit more frequently. It's our job to give them that access to feel more comfortable, to feel like they can afford the care that they may need. So, I would say a lot of it is efficiency, and with that comes by building that trust and allowing them to make those confident decisions.” (36:07—36:58) -Brad
Snippets:
0:00 Introduction.
1:57 Brad’s background.
4:28 Lacking visibility of practice data and why it’s a problem.
8:50 Consequences of not knowing your numbers.
11:43 New patients aren't always the answer.
14:05 Incentivize patients to return.
15:34 Membership patients have a higher APV.
22:32 It’s not all about volume.
26:54 Myths and data about cash-paying patients.
31:29 Build your practice with loyalty, not price.
33:05 Membership drives loyalty.
35:48 Final thoughts.
37:17 About Kleer-Membersy.
Brad James Bio:
Brad James is an accomplished leader in the dental industry, serving as the director of SMB markets at Kleer and Membersy. Committed to making access to dental care both easy and profitable, Brad plays a pivotal role in empowering dental teams to implement strategies that unlock growth.