Improving profitability is the goal of every business. Still, sometimes once you start your business it can be difficult to see the forest through the trees and profitability can fall by the wayside.
Dental practices in particular often get set in their ways and forget to innovate in order to improve business results.
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With that in mind today we are going to discuss ways to increase profitability in the dental industry.
Don’t Forget Marketing
The amount of dental practices that don’t spend any money on marketing is staggering. There’s a reason every fortune 500 company on the planet has a marketing department. Simply put, marketing works.
For your dental practice, you need to focus on local clientele, meaning you might consider hiring a Search Engine Optimization(SEO) marketing company to help your business rank higher in google search results for your area. This will improve the number of inbound calls you get, and keep people coming to your door without having to spend thousands on Pay Per Click(PPC) advertising.
Even if you can’t afford to hire a marketing company, don’t be afraid to put some time and money into marketing your business on your own, even small amounts of marketing like flyers or discount offers can make a huge difference in separating your business from the competition.
Increase the Number of High-Profit Procedures You Perform
Increasing the number of high-profit procedures you perform is one of the best ways to increase the profitability of your dental practice without making any big changes. Adding services from dental laboratories like veneers, partial and full dentures, and dental implants can drastically improve profitability.
One full set of dental implants can cost upwards of $25,000 meaning only a couple of these procedures performed annually can greatly improve your profit. Also, offering these high dollar procedures is a great way to get people from out of your normal service area coming into your practice.
Utilize Modern Software
From helping to reduce the man-hours required for administrative tasks to providing analytics that helps you see how your dental practice is performing from month to month, modern dental software can really do it all.
Companies like Carestack and CurveDental offer easy to use online dashboards that streamline the billing process and make scheduling a breeze. Both companies also have quality image management software that saves and organizes all of your dental x-rays and images in the cloud.
Modern dental software really is no longer optional. It’s become an expectation that many patients have, so don’t wait, modernize your software today.
Go Paperless
Increasing profitability doesn’t always have to mean increasing revenue. Sometimes decreasing expenses is the most sustainable way to improve profitability long term.
In 2020, going paperless is a great way to do that. By reducing the amount of paper your office uses you can go green and save money at the same time. Dental Practice management consultant Wendy Aldhamen even found that dental offices that went paperless saved up to $11,000 a year.
So if your clients are still sitting in the waiting room filling out paper forms each time they come in, it might be time to try something new.
If you’re having trouble making the switch to paperless, Dentistrytoday.com has a great list of six easy steps to a paperless dental practice that is well worth the read.
Perform Annual Exams
Performing annual exams for all patients is a great way to increase profitability. When a patient hasn’t been into the office for a while, reach out and offer to perform an annual exam at a discounted rate. Then, present a comprehensive treatment and maintenance plan for the patient that will keep them coming back.
Most people don’t visit the dentist even once annually, despite the American Dental Associations’ recommendation that everyone visits the dentist at least once every six months. Annual exams are a great way to get your patients to come in for treatment or maintenance procedures more often.
When all is said done improving your dental practices profitability is easier in 2020 than ever before. By leveraging technology, green business practices, and digital marketing any dental practice can improve its profitability in no time.
