Driving Patient Value

If someone were to ask me what things have contributed the most to my success in twenty years of owning my business,  the most important would be the importance of creativity – doing things for client value that are different and unique in the marketplace.

To that point, I always enjoy seeing innovations at client practices that improve something about the operation of the practice, but it is especially impressive when such an innovation delivers higher perceived value to the patient. One such innovation that I recently encountered resides in the parking lot of this practice.

This innovation is a car, completely decked out in the logo and graphics of the practice and used solely for ferrying patients to and from appointments. Of course, much of this transportation activity involves ferrying kids to and from school.

This is obviously a significant cost to the practice. To use verbiage from my practice training program, is this an investment or an expense? Let’s assume that you buy the vehicle used, you have the vehicle for 4 years, and the amortized cost, including painting it, insurance, gas, and maintenance is $28,000.

For an investment of seven thousand dollars a year:

• What is the annual value of a mobile billboard; eye-level advertising that is seen frequently at the schools where your patients come from?
• What is the value of having this mobile billboard inserted daily into that line of cars occupied by parents picking up their children at the end of the school day? (You would always steer student pick-up appointments to this time slot first, of course).
• How many two-income families and single-parent households would find not having to provide transportation for their child to and from your practice of significant value?
• How many would, in fact, select your practice primarily because of this benefit?
• Is it reasonable to expect that the collective effect of these points would result in two new cases per year?

I could go on – but this brings me to the second of the two things I have learned about being successful in business – the willingness to take risks.

My orthodontic books are self-published. What that means is that I put up all the money myself to publish them – and the cost to me for the two so far is about the same as this vehicle would cost your practice. It also means that I could have published them and had no doctors interested in purchasing them. That was the risk. It was one that I was willing to take, and am glad that I did – but there was no guarantee that it would work. As with any investment, there never is.

Am I suggesting that you run out and buy a car for your practice? No; I am suggesting that you should, as with all ideas, consider the investment relative to the risk as it pertains to your practice, your patient base, and your market. For the practice cited here, I am told that this vehicle was a good investment. What I do know is this: you cannot expect to grow your practice and your market share without getting out of your comfort zone, taking some well-planned risks, and investing in creative improvements.