How to unlock the hidden profits in your patient base
It is believed that anywhere from 30-60% of product recommendations may not be acted upon by patients, and as a result a significant portion of prospective sales can go astray. To avoid losing a product sale because a patient doesn’t act on a recommendation, it may be prudent to take a more strategic approach.
According to Marcus Macleod, Managing Director of Your Dentist Recommends: “UK consumers spend more than £1 billion on oral hygiene products every year, yet dentists make very little profit from those sales.
“This inspired the launch of a service which allows practitioners to profit from their recommendations but also removes the need for clinics to hold thousands of pounds’ worth of stock – 20% of which typically disappears due to ‘shrinkage’.
“It also encourages patients to buy the correct product for their needs, while removing the risk of a lost or misunderstood recommendation, while helping to reduce the chance of patients buying fake, low quality, replacement toothbrush heads.”
Your Dentist Recommends is an e-commerce platform which links directly to their own practice website and social media. The online shop, which sells a range of oral health products, allows practices to ‘close the loop’ between the product recommendations they make during appointments and what patients actually purchase.
Practices which sign up to the service receive a 10% commission on all sales generated via a bespoke link to a clinic branded page, and their patients receive priority shipping on all orders. Commission is calculated and paid at the end of the 30-day product return period and the account is tagged to ensure the practice benefits from any subsequent sales – so, for example, regular toothbrush head replacements following the sale of an electric toothbrush will be added to the tally.
Successful users recommend guiding patients through their product advice on their own branded clinic page of Your Dentist Recommends during a consultation – ear-marking product recommendations. They can then check later if the patient has made the purchase. If not, they have the option of either reminding patients, via an email or text, or at their next appointment, to ensure that their recommendations are followed.
The site also allows the practice owner to track who is making the most recommendations and resulting sales amongst all team members. Commission can then be split between the practice, Associate and Hygienist accordingly.
Dr Mike Gow, practice principal of The Berkeley Clinic in Glasgow says Your Dentist Recommends is very easy to use, either on a computer or a mobile phone, allowing him to communicate his product recommendations at the end of the appointment on his own clinic branded shop page.
“I do it straightaway with the patient in the chair,” said Dr Gow. “Once they leave the clinic, they might end up online or in a supermarket looking at a million different things and trying to remember which product you actually recommended.
For a long time, I wrote my recommendations on a piece of paper and advised patients to look on Amazon without knowing if they purchased the actual item I recommended. Some still might shop around to see if they can get products cheaper, but actually Your Dentist Recommends’ prices are really competitive, so the majority do follow through with their order through the site.”
Dr Gow also appreciates that the system allows him to track which patients have followed up on his recommendations and who in his practice is making the most product recommendations and sales conversions.
“The clinic gets a 10% commission on each sale and the patient gets a great deal,” he said. “As a clinic owner I felt quite concerned because we had to invest in, and hold a lot of stock, and things invariably went missing or got damaged, however, with this system, we don’t have any of those worries.”
Since co-opting Your Dentist Recommends, Dr Gow has noticed a positive difference in the oral hygiene of patients who have purchased as a result of his recommendations. “It’s improved massively, particularly for those who have bought Sonicare brushes and Power Flossers; you can tell who is using them.”
Marcus Macleod added: “We can offer lunch ‘n’ learn training for practices to ensure they understand how to use Your Dentist Recommends most effectively and we can also offer additional sessions for new team members, alongside demonstrating how the sales reporting functionality works.”
For more information visit Your Dentist Recommends.com