Are You Charging Enough for Treatment?

How do you know if you are charging the optimum price for the services you provide? Should you raise fees? Should you lower them? Let’s take a look at each of these from a business perspective.

When it comes to the issue of whether or not your fees are at the right price point, or should even be increased, I am reminded of one of the more useful tips that I learned in my corporate consulting career. This “Rule of 20”, as it is called, states that your fees are where they should be if twenty percent of the people that do business with you (in your case, accept treatment) make the comment that you are “pricey”. If the number of patients who make the comment exceeds twenty percent, you should adjust your fees downward. And, on the other hand, if 20% of your patients do not complain about your fees ….  you aren’t charging enough for the amount of value that you provide. Raise them ….and keep raising them until they do. 

And what about lowering fees? Most of the time, this is a really bad idea, and it should truly be a refuge of last resort when it comes to treatment pricing. The reason is that the problem that precipitates the inclination to drop prices is usually not related to fees at all. It is much more likely to be a correctable skill problem; specifically with the communication skills and quality of process that the doctor and TC exhibit in the new patient conversion meeting. In other words, a poor presentation experience – and corresponding lack of perceived value  on the part of the patient – is not a good reason to drop prices. If you are concerned about your fees being too high, determine how much value your visitors take away from visiting your business first. Do you impress visitors, or are you viewed as a commodity? For most of you, that assessment would be a much better idea than lowering your prices, and would likely provide a much more effective, and more desirable, solution.