By ERNIE WRIGHT
Sometimes in life people find ways of doing things that seem so obvious it’s hard to believe you got along without them for so long.
Here’s one for dental practices that do teeth whitening (that’s pretty much all private and mixed clinics these days). It’s so simple, but it works. I have to admit, I stole it off one of our clients – Martina Collins Dental & Skin Clinic in Belfast (she is kindly letting me share it with Update readers). It was actually her receptionist Ashleen Hanna who came up with the idea.
At the start of the day give (or ask your practice manager to give) each clinician in your practice their appointment list with patient names highlighted in different colours.
The point is to highlight opportunities to sell whitening, which come under the following categories of patient:
- Not yet a practice member
- Not yet whitened
- Referral
Having an idea of how to start the ‘sales’ conversation makes it that much easier, and so the colours provide an at-a-glance tee up for the clinician to refer to through their day.
To make sure the clinician only broaches the subject where it’s helpful to the patient, other colours can be used for non-opportunities:
- Practice member (already briefed on the benefits of teeth whitening)
- Whitened before
- Not applicable (child or elderly)
This colour coding works because it puts the patient’s circumstances front of mind for the clinician. Please use it, and let me know if you see an uplift in teeth whitening treatments.
Best wishes
Ernie
ernie.wright@breathebusiness.co.uk
07990 568909