March 3, 2025 • 16 mins
Feeling uncertain after a big dental purchase? You're not alone. This episode unpacks the phenomenon of buyer's remorse, especially regarding dental treatments. We delve into why patients harbor doubts about the necessity of their treatments, the high costs commonly associated with dental procedures, and how these factors can lead to feelings of regret.
Throughout the episode, you'll find practical tips that can be easily implemented in your practice to enhance patient trust and satisfaction. Ultimately, addressing and mitigating buyer's remorse not only benefits your patients but also cultivates long-term relationships and encourages referrals. Don't miss this opportunity to improve your practice! Be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with colleagues who may benefit from these insights.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
At some point in your life.
I know you've experienced theill feelings that come after
purchasing something that costyou a lot of money or that you
had to stretch a little bit, forit's the inevitable buyer's
remorse that comes from makingthat very large purchase.
Now your patients they can feelthe same way about the
dentistry that you provide forthem.
And often when a patientreturns to the office unhappy
(00:22):
about their treatment or afterexperiencing some buyer's
remorse, maybe some post-opsensitivity, you can really get
yourself into a sticky situationthat is sometimes nearly
impossible to get out of.
So today we are going to talkabout what causes this
phenomenon, how to prevent itfrom happening and how to
address it when it does.
Now you are listening to theDental Practice Heroes podcast,
(00:45):
where we teach you how to runyour practice like a business,
make more money and take aninsane amount of time off.
I'm your host, dr Paul Edgison.
I'm the author of two books ondental practice management and
the owner of a large grouppractice in the south suburbs of
Chicago.
I want you to be able toexperience an amazing life
because you own a dentalpractice, all right, so I just
(01:05):
got back from a weekend out oftown with my wife for her
birthday and we were supposed togo to Savannah, georgia and
there's just been so much stuffhappening with like the
airplanes like lately, and it'sjust scaring the hell out of her
.
Okay, I'm saying her because Iwas like, oh, it's going to be
fine, relax, relax.
And then the night before theToronto thing happened and I'm
(01:30):
like, oh my gosh, I'm like I'mfeeling uneasy about it.
You know, you just get thatintuition Like this is a bad
idea.
We ended up canceling ourflights and we're just going to
use them sometime in the future.
But we still had like a sitterfor the weekend.
So her and I drove about twoand a half hours up to Kohler
Wisconsin.
You know Kohler like the peoplethat make the faucets and stuff
and they have like a spa upthere.
They got a showroom.
That's really cool.
It's kind of like close toMilwaukee.
(01:50):
But man, it was a greatexperience.
I got to talk about that in adifferent episode.
And then on our way back westayed one night in Milwaukee.
We stayed at this really coolvibey hotel called St Kate and
we ended up eating dinner withone of our longtime babysitters
named Kira, who is a third-yeardental student at Marquette and
it was cool just to talk to her.
She's seeing patients.
Amazing how a dental student'sdress hasn't changed much in the
(02:13):
16 years since I was a dentalstudent man 16 years.
It's crazy, but we had a greattime.
It was good to get away withthe wife and we had planned it
for a long time and, honestly,every time I do one of these
with my wife just her and I say,why don't we plan more of these
?
You know, all it takes is justto sit down with a calendar and
plan it ahead of time.
That's what you gotta do.
Today I wanna talk aboutbuyer's remorse and how it
(02:34):
applies to our dental offices.
Now I'll share a story about sixyears ago when I bought my
first investment apartmentbuilding.
If apartment building, if youare a listener of the podcast,
you know I do a lot of realestate.
I invest in some biggersyndications, but I also own
smaller buildings around mylocal area.
I had been wanting to buy anapartment building for a really
(02:54):
long time.
I was looking at them five,maybe six, seven months and I
just really couldn't findanything that would pencil out
on paper because I didn't knowwhat I was getting into.
Right, I would.
I would do the calculations.
I'm like, oh, this is risky,this is risky.
Or the ones, if they were likepriced reasonably, where we
possibly could make it work.
We would go see the buildingand there would be something
that was huge, that was wrongwith it.
Eventually, I found this sixunit that was maybe like 15
(03:15):
minutes from my house.
It was 40 years old and itlooks great.
I loved it.
I love the area.
We ended up getting it undercontract.
I was so excited.
I'm like, dude, I got it.
This is awesome.
I got my first building.
So since this was my firstbuilding, I thought it would be
really valuable if I went withthe inspector, because that's
what you do after you get itunder contract you got to go get
an inspection, make surethere's nothing wrong with it.
I really wanted to be there forthe inspection because I wanted
(03:37):
to learn, like, what Are wechecking when we're looking at
apartment buildings?
And I remember sitting therewith the inspector just feeling
so naive, just like kind ofembarrassed, that I didn't know
anything about this.
But dude, he was, his name wasRuss, he was so cool, he was so
cool and he spent so much timewith me.
We walked through all six of theunits, went up in the attic,
went down in the crawl space,which I can't even believe,
(03:59):
thinking back that I even wentdown in the crawl space with
them because, dude, I hatespiders and even more than I
hate spiders is spider webs andthe way that spiders walk is
just.
It just looks gross, not cool.
I am the one who kills thespiders in this house.
I don't enjoy it, hate spiders.
We get in the crawl space andhe's showing me the joists.
Now these are like the big,like floor things that are
(04:19):
holding the whole building up.
He's showing me all these onesthat are cracked and like rotted
out and there's like you couldtell there's a ton of moisture
in there.
There's, I mean, there's wateron the floor in the crawl, it's
like it's, it's musty, it'smildewy.
And he's telling me I'm likeman, it could be anywhere, like
20, maybe $30,000 to fix.
I'm just like, dang it.
I really wanted this building.
(04:41):
So what we do is we go back tothe seller and we say, hey, this
is what we found.
Here's our inspection report.
We would like you to discountthe property further $20,000 or
give like a $20,000 credit.
And this seller said hey, whydon't you just go F yourself and
I'll find someone else to buyit?
Said, hey, why don't you justgo F yourself and I'll find
someone else to buy it?
So now it was torn between okay, I really want this building.
(05:01):
I found something out that waswrong with it.
It's going to cost a lot to fix, but I still want the building.
So, even after knowing all that, I still proceeded with the
purchase.
And wouldn't you know it, man,did I feel horrible about it?
After we signed the papers, Ifelt, like you know, I wanted to
be excited.
I wanted to pop the champagne.
I was now an owner of asix-unit apartment building.
(05:23):
I should have been so excited,but in reality I wasn't.
I was having buyer's remorse,and that's what happens when we
make unsure purchases and whenwe make large purchases.
So I'm going to tell you whateventually happened with this
apartment building and this realestate deal.
But first let's talk about howbuyer's remorse applies to our
patients.
Now, when our patients purchasedental treatment from us that
(05:46):
they feel is quote expensive orquote a lot of money, they're
often going to have questionslike did I really need this
Because it doesn't hurt?
Like did I really need that?
Or did I make the right choicebecause they feel like maybe
they should have gotten a secondopinion?
Or did I just get sold onsomething so this guy could pay
for his boat?
You know, like the usual stuff,that patients think about us
(06:06):
dentists.
And the reason that this onecreeps in is because of, you
know, the monetary value.
It's large.
But it also can happen whensomeone's uncertain about the
value that they're gettingbecause they can't really assess
the quality.
So they have to rely on thetrust and, essentially, the
patient experience around theprocedures.
And sometimes in that patientexperience or in our interaction
(06:29):
with the patient, we don'tdevelop that trust.
So if we're going to have happypatients, we need to try to
battle buyer's remorse.
So let's talk about where we cando this in the patient process.
First, we're going to talkabout how do we do it before the
treatment.
The first thing we can dobefore the treatment is
co-discovery.
And what I mean by co-discoveryis we're taking our patient,
(06:50):
we're sitting them up and we'reshowing them pictures.
We're looking at the x-rays,we're telling them what this is
on the x-ray, what that is, andwe're explaining why things are
needed, showing them visuallywhat we see, because seeing is
believing.
So involving the patient in thediscovery so that they can see
it and in their heart, theytrust us with it.
Now the second thing is wereally got to build that trust
(07:13):
Before you start talking aboutdental stuff.
You got to get to know yourpatient.
You have got to get to knowyour patient.
You have got to get to knowyour patient.
And I can't tell you how manyassociates I see that when they
walk in to introduce themselves,they shoot themselves in the
foot right at the beginning,like they don't sound confident
in their introduction, theydon't shake the hand confidently
or they don't square up and getright in front of that patient.
These are things you need topractice because this stuff
(07:34):
matters.
This is how the patient's goingto view you and how they're
going to view if you'recompetent or not.
We want to make sure that whenwe're presenting what's needed,
we present very confidentrecommendations, and what I mean
by this is not being wish-washy.
You can't be saying like, well,you could do this or you could
do this, or you don't want tolook at an x-ray and go like,
well, what should we do, doc?
(07:55):
Well, don't do that, bam.
Just say it.
Say what you would do.
I would do this.
If this were my tooth, I'd dothis.
You know what I mean.
You've got to have thatconfidence.
If we want our patients to feelgood about the treatment they
get from us, we have to portraythat confidence.
That is part of the way they'llfeel about the treatment.
They're not going to go homeand look at the bite wing and be
(08:17):
like, wow, those margins aregreat, doc.
You know.
They're just saying how didthis person make me feel when I
was in the office?
How did it all feel?
And we really want to avoid thesticker shock, because that
happens before treatment as well.
People are like how much isgoing to be, holy cow.
So I often like to remindpatients that it might be a big
investment now, but it's goingto be less longer term.
(08:37):
Okay, if you don't handle this,this is what's going to happen.
And I like to remind them thatthey're going to smile like
10,000 times a year.
If it's a front tooth, so you'regoing to use that front tooth.
Or if it's a front tooth, soyou're going to use that front
tooth.
Or if it's a back tooth, I meanyou're going to eat about 1100
meals a year.
So I mean that's a lot of use.
Remind the patient that keepingtheir mouth healthy is part of
their overall health.
(08:58):
It's not just a tooth let'stalk about during treatment, and
during treatment we want toreinforce that they made the
right decision.
So I find it helpful toreaffirm the benefits of the
procedure, like saying thingslike man, mr Jones, I'm really
glad that we got to that crackwhen we did.
It was pretty deep, but I thinkwe got to it in time.
I'm glad we fixed that decaywhen we did, because, man, it
(09:20):
was a lot bigger than I thoughtit was from looking at the x-ray
.
You want to, like affirm theirdecision.
They did the right thing and wewant to talk about future
benefits as well.
We're showing them what thevalue is.
So it's like so now that we gotthat tooth filled and that
cavity all taken care of, thatdecay is gone, it's not going to
erode anymore your tooth andthat bad bacteria is not as
populated in your mouth anymore.
Or now that that tooth we gotit protected by that crown, it's
(09:42):
much less likely to break.
Or now that we did that rootcanal, you're going to get to
continue to keep this naturaltooth in your mouth without that
infection from the bad nerve.
You know something like that.
Let them know what the value isthat they got from that
procedure.
Last, let's talk aboutpost-treatment.
When we're done.
These are those little touchesafter the procedure.
I think it's good to likecelebrate with our patients.
(10:06):
We sometimes just take forgranted what we do.
This crown may be their firstcrown and they're going to
remember it.
Now we do crowns all the time.
It's pretty insignificant to us, but it might be significant to
the patient, right?
So celebrate their decision.
You're just giving them thepost-op instructions and you let
them know man, I'm really gladwe got this done.
I'm glad we got to it when wedid.
I wish all my patients took asgreat a care of their teeth as
(10:26):
you do.
Things like that complimenttheir decision to do it.
And when you give the post-opinstructions, make sure you're
sharing with them to like expectthe worst.
Now that sounds horrible, butlisten to what I mean by this.
Tell them hey, we did a filling.
You know it was on the deeperend.
You're going to have some coldsensitivity.
It might not be today ortomorrow, it might be in a few
(10:46):
weeks, but just know when thatcold sensitivity happens.
Give it time, it will settledown.
That's totally normal.
So I like to say things likethis, because if they start
having pain, they're like, oh,that's normal.
If they start having coldsensitivity, oh, that's normal.
And if you don't share thatwith your patients, you're going
to get a lot of calls that, hey, this feeling is sensitive to
cold.
Watch how much less you getthose kinds of calls when you
(11:08):
start giving your post-opinstructions like that, all
right.
And the last thing is doing thepost-op calls.
It's such a simple touch to do.
I have my assistant.
Do them just to say, hey, hopeyou're doing well.
Thank you so much.
We appreciate you.
Please call us if you have anyquestions.
These are the kinds of thingsthat we teach in our online
training ondentalpracticeheroescom.
So if you're wanting to knowhow to run your practice like a
(11:31):
business and provide the propersystems to your team, check out
all the online training and jointhe DPH Hero Collective.
You can go check that out onthe website.
So that is how we prevent itfrom happening.
But even when we do all that,it can still happen.
What do we do when it happens?
Well, first of all, we listenand we acknowledge their
feelings.
We do not say anything thatmakes it seem like you don't
(11:53):
agree with them or that whatthey're feeling is wrong.
It is their feeling and theyhave the right to have it and it
needs to be validated.
So it's hey, mr Jones, I get it.
Man, this tooth didn't hurtbefore we crowned it and now it
does.
I'd be frustrated if I were youtoo Immediately validating that
the patient's not overreacting.
That is the first step.
It is the most important.
(12:14):
Then you just have to ease theirconcerns that it's going to get
better.
Or, as a last resort, ifnothing can be done to make it
right, just ask the patient whatwould make them happy.
What can I do for you to makeyou feel better about this?
What do you think is fair, mrJones?
And then just do it, and youhave a happy patient that will
continue to come to your officeand will continue to refer
people to you.
Because you addressed the issueand I have found very few
(12:38):
situations where that kind ofempathetic statement
acknowledging their feelings,followed by the discussion of
how we make it right, had thepatient still leaving upset.
I mean, it always works.
Don't defend yourself.
That's not what the patientwants to hear.
They want to hear that someoneis listening to them.
So try to see it from theirperspective.
So buyer's remorse is somethingthat we can handle and be
(13:00):
proactive about.
At our offices we talked aboutthe things we can do before the
procedure, like co-discovery,building the trust, being
confident in our recommendationsand also avoiding the sticker
shock.
Now, during the treatment, wetalked about reaffirming the
benefits and talking aboutfuture benefits, and then in
post-treatment, we talked aboutcelebrating their decision and
giving them post-op instructionsin the correct way, as well as
(13:23):
making that post-op call.
Now you might be wondering whathappened with that apartment
building building with all thoseproblems in the crawl space.
Well, I went through with it.
We closed on it.
It was a half a million dollars.
I had to put about $50,000 intoit.
I did all the repairs, werefinished most of the units and
we raised the rents by about$400 per unit.
We split the garage into likethree different things that they
(13:45):
could rent out and it increasedthe income of the apartment by
about 30K.
You know was about a 50%increase in rents.
So it took like two years toget it all done, but I ended up
selling that property for likealmost $750,000 for very little
work that I had to do personally.
First one turned out prettydamn good and it was that one
that I needed to get my feet wetso I could keep doing it and
(14:07):
keep buying buildings.
So, all right, thank you somuch for listening today.
Come back on Wednesday andwe're going to be talking about
the power of visuals in yourcase presentation and how you
can utilize these simple hacksfor better case acceptance,
especially with larger cases.
Thank you so much.
We'll talk to you next time.
At some point in your life.
I know you've experienced theill feelings that come after
purchasing something that costyou a lot of money or that you
had to stretch a little bit, forit's the inevitable buyer's
remorse that comes from makingthat very large purchase.
Now your patients they can feelthe same way about the
dentistry that you provide forthem.
And often when a patientreturns to the office unhappy
(00:22):
about their treatment or afterexperiencing some buyer's
remorse, maybe some post-opsensitivity, you can really get
yourself into a sticky situationthat is sometimes nearly
impossible to get out of.
So today we are going to talkabout what causes this
phenomenon, how to prevent itfrom happening and how to
address it when it does.
Now you are listening to theDental Practice Heroes podcast,
(00:45):
where we teach you how to runyour practice like a business,
make more money and take aninsane amount of time off.
I'm your host, dr Paul Edgison.
I'm the author of two books ondental practice management and
the owner of a large grouppractice in the south suburbs of
Chicago.
I want you to be able toexperience an amazing life
because you own a dentalpractice, all right, so I just
(01:05):
got back from a weekend out oftown with my wife for her
birthday and we were supposed togo to Savannah, georgia and
there's just been so much stuffhappening with like the
airplanes like lately, and it'sjust scaring the hell out of her
.
Okay, I'm saying her because Iwas like, oh, it's going to be
fine, relax, relax.
And then the night before theToronto thing happened and I'm
(01:30):
like, oh my gosh, I'm like I'mfeeling uneasy about it.
You know, you just get thatintuition Like this is a bad
idea.
We ended up canceling ourflights and we're just going to
use them sometime in the future.
But we still had like a sitterfor the weekend.
So her and I drove about twoand a half hours up to Kohler
Wisconsin.
You know Kohler like the peoplethat make the faucets and stuff
and they have like a spa upthere.
They got a showroom.
That's really cool.
It's kind of like close toMilwaukee.
(01:50):
But man, it was a greatexperience.
I got to talk about that in adifferent episode.
And then on our way back westayed one night in Milwaukee.
We stayed at this really coolvibey hotel called St Kate and
we ended up eating dinner withone of our longtime babysitters
named Kira, who is a third-yeardental student at Marquette and
it was cool just to talk to her.
She's seeing patients.
Amazing how a dental student'sdress hasn't changed much in the
(02:13):
16 years since I was a dentalstudent man 16 years.
It's crazy, but we had a greattime.
It was good to get away withthe wife and we had planned it
for a long time and, honestly,every time I do one of these
with my wife just her and I say,why don't we plan more of these
?
You know, all it takes is justto sit down with a calendar and
plan it ahead of time.
That's what you gotta do.
Today I wanna talk aboutbuyer's remorse and how it
(02:34):
applies to our dental offices.
Now I'll share a story about sixyears ago when I bought my
first investment apartmentbuilding.
If apartment building, if youare a listener of the podcast,
you know I do a lot of realestate.
I invest in some biggersyndications, but I also own
smaller buildings around mylocal area.
I had been wanting to buy anapartment building for a really
(02:54):
long time.
I was looking at them five,maybe six, seven months and I
just really couldn't findanything that would pencil out
on paper because I didn't knowwhat I was getting into.
Right, I would.
I would do the calculations.
I'm like, oh, this is risky,this is risky.
Or the ones, if they were likepriced reasonably, where we
possibly could make it work.
We would go see the buildingand there would be something
that was huge, that was wrongwith it.
Eventually, I found this sixunit that was maybe like 15
(03:15):
minutes from my house.
It was 40 years old and itlooks great.
I loved it.
I love the area.
We ended up getting it undercontract.
I was so excited.
I'm like, dude, I got it.
This is awesome.
I got my first building.
So since this was my firstbuilding, I thought it would be
really valuable if I went withthe inspector, because that's
what you do after you get itunder contract you got to go get
an inspection, make surethere's nothing wrong with it.
I really wanted to be there forthe inspection because I wanted
(03:37):
to learn, like, what Are wechecking when we're looking at
apartment buildings?
And I remember sitting therewith the inspector just feeling
so naive, just like kind ofembarrassed, that I didn't know
anything about this.
But dude, he was, his name wasRuss, he was so cool, he was so
cool and he spent so much timewith me.
We walked through all six of theunits, went up in the attic,
went down in the crawl space,which I can't even believe,
(03:59):
thinking back that I even wentdown in the crawl space with
them because, dude, I hatespiders and even more than I
hate spiders is spider webs andthe way that spiders walk is
just.
It just looks gross, not cool.
I am the one who kills thespiders in this house.
I don't enjoy it, hate spiders.
We get in the crawl space andhe's showing me the joists.
Now these are like the big,like floor things that are
(04:19):
holding the whole building up.
He's showing me all these onesthat are cracked and like rotted
out and there's like you couldtell there's a ton of moisture
in there.
There's, I mean, there's wateron the floor in the crawl, it's
like it's, it's musty, it'smildewy.
And he's telling me I'm likeman, it could be anywhere, like
20, maybe $30,000 to fix.
I'm just like, dang it.
I really wanted this building.
(04:41):
So what we do is we go back tothe seller and we say, hey, this
is what we found.
Here's our inspection report.
We would like you to discountthe property further $20,000 or
give like a $20,000 credit.
And this seller said hey, whydon't you just go F yourself and
I'll find someone else to buyit?
Said, hey, why don't you justgo F yourself and I'll find
someone else to buy it?
So now it was torn between okay, I really want this building.
(05:01):
I found something out that waswrong with it.
It's going to cost a lot to fix, but I still want the building.
So, even after knowing all that, I still proceeded with the
purchase.
And wouldn't you know it, man,did I feel horrible about it?
After we signed the papers, Ifelt, like you know, I wanted to
be excited.
I wanted to pop the champagne.
I was now an owner of asix-unit apartment building.
(05:23):
I should have been so excited,but in reality I wasn't.
I was having buyer's remorse,and that's what happens when we
make unsure purchases and whenwe make large purchases.
So I'm going to tell you whateventually happened with this
apartment building and this realestate deal.
But first let's talk about howbuyer's remorse applies to our
patients.
Now, when our patients purchasedental treatment from us that
(05:46):
they feel is quote expensive orquote a lot of money, they're
often going to have questionslike did I really need this
Because it doesn't hurt?
Like did I really need that?
Or did I make the right choicebecause they feel like maybe
they should have gotten a secondopinion?
Or did I just get sold onsomething so this guy could pay
for his boat?
You know, like the usual stuff,that patients think about us
(06:06):
dentists.
And the reason that this onecreeps in is because of, you
know, the monetary value.
It's large.
But it also can happen whensomeone's uncertain about the
value that they're gettingbecause they can't really assess
the quality.
So they have to rely on thetrust and, essentially, the
patient experience around theprocedures.
And sometimes in that patientexperience or in our interaction
(06:29):
with the patient, we don'tdevelop that trust.
So if we're going to have happypatients, we need to try to
battle buyer's remorse.
So let's talk about where we cando this in the patient process.
First, we're going to talkabout how do we do it before the
treatment.
The first thing we can dobefore the treatment is
co-discovery.
And what I mean by co-discoveryis we're taking our patient,
(06:50):
we're sitting them up and we'reshowing them pictures.
We're looking at the x-rays,we're telling them what this is
on the x-ray, what that is, andwe're explaining why things are
needed, showing them visuallywhat we see, because seeing is
believing.
So involving the patient in thediscovery so that they can see
it and in their heart, theytrust us with it.
Now the second thing is wereally got to build that trust
(07:13):
Before you start talking aboutdental stuff.
You got to get to know yourpatient.
You have got to get to knowyour patient.
You have got to get to knowyour patient.
And I can't tell you how manyassociates I see that when they
walk in to introduce themselves,they shoot themselves in the
foot right at the beginning,like they don't sound confident
in their introduction, theydon't shake the hand confidently
or they don't square up and getright in front of that patient.
These are things you need topractice because this stuff
(07:34):
matters.
This is how the patient's goingto view you and how they're
going to view if you'recompetent or not.
We want to make sure that whenwe're presenting what's needed,
we present very confidentrecommendations, and what I mean
by this is not being wish-washy.
You can't be saying like, well,you could do this or you could
do this, or you don't want tolook at an x-ray and go like,
well, what should we do, doc?
(07:55):
Well, don't do that, bam.
Just say it.
Say what you would do.
I would do this.
If this were my tooth, I'd dothis.
You know what I mean.
You've got to have thatconfidence.
If we want our patients to feelgood about the treatment they
get from us, we have to portraythat confidence.
That is part of the way they'llfeel about the treatment.
They're not going to go homeand look at the bite wing and be
(08:17):
like, wow, those margins aregreat, doc.
You know.
They're just saying how didthis person make me feel when I
was in the office?
How did it all feel?
And we really want to avoid thesticker shock, because that
happens before treatment as well.
People are like how much isgoing to be, holy cow.
So I often like to remindpatients that it might be a big
investment now, but it's goingto be less longer term.
(08:37):
Okay, if you don't handle this,this is what's going to happen.
And I like to remind them thatthey're going to smile like
10,000 times a year.
If it's a front tooth, so you'regoing to use that front tooth.
Or if it's a front tooth, soyou're going to use that front
tooth.
Or if it's a back tooth, I meanyou're going to eat about 1100
meals a year.
So I mean that's a lot of use.
Remind the patient that keepingtheir mouth healthy is part of
their overall health.
(08:58):
It's not just a tooth let'stalk about during treatment, and
during treatment we want toreinforce that they made the
right decision.
So I find it helpful toreaffirm the benefits of the
procedure, like saying thingslike man, mr Jones, I'm really
glad that we got to that crackwhen we did.
It was pretty deep, but I thinkwe got to it in time.
I'm glad we fixed that decaywhen we did, because, man, it
(09:20):
was a lot bigger than I thoughtit was from looking at the x-ray
.
You want to, like affirm theirdecision.
They did the right thing and wewant to talk about future
benefits as well.
We're showing them what thevalue is.
So it's like so now that we gotthat tooth filled and that
cavity all taken care of, thatdecay is gone, it's not going to
erode anymore your tooth andthat bad bacteria is not as
populated in your mouth anymore.
Or now that that tooth we gotit protected by that crown, it's
(09:42):
much less likely to break.
Or now that we did that rootcanal, you're going to get to
continue to keep this naturaltooth in your mouth without that
infection from the bad nerve.
You know something like that.
Let them know what the value isthat they got from that
procedure.
Last, let's talk aboutpost-treatment.
When we're done.
These are those little touchesafter the procedure.
I think it's good to likecelebrate with our patients.
(10:06):
We sometimes just take forgranted what we do.
This crown may be their firstcrown and they're going to
remember it.
Now we do crowns all the time.
It's pretty insignificant to us, but it might be significant to
the patient, right?
So celebrate their decision.
You're just giving them thepost-op instructions and you let
them know man, I'm really gladwe got this done.
I'm glad we got to it when wedid.
I wish all my patients took asgreat a care of their teeth as
(10:26):
you do.
Things like that complimenttheir decision to do it.
And when you give the post-opinstructions, make sure you're
sharing with them to like expectthe worst.
Now that sounds horrible, butlisten to what I mean by this.
Tell them hey, we did a filling.
You know it was on the deeperend.
You're going to have some coldsensitivity.
It might not be today ortomorrow, it might be in a few
(10:46):
weeks, but just know when thatcold sensitivity happens.
Give it time, it will settledown.
That's totally normal.
So I like to say things likethis, because if they start
having pain, they're like, oh,that's normal.
If they start having coldsensitivity, oh, that's normal.
And if you don't share thatwith your patients, you're going
to get a lot of calls that, hey, this feeling is sensitive to
cold.
Watch how much less you getthose kinds of calls when you
(11:08):
start giving your post-opinstructions like that, all
right.
And the last thing is doing thepost-op calls.
It's such a simple touch to do.
I have my assistant.
Do them just to say, hey, hopeyou're doing well.
Thank you so much.
We appreciate you.
Please call us if you have anyquestions.
These are the kinds of thingsthat we teach in our online
training ondentalpracticeheroescom.
So if you're wanting to knowhow to run your practice like a
(11:31):
business and provide the propersystems to your team, check out
all the online training and jointhe DPH Hero Collective.
You can go check that out onthe website.
So that is how we prevent itfrom happening.
But even when we do all that,it can still happen.
What do we do when it happens?
Well, first of all, we listenand we acknowledge their
feelings.
We do not say anything thatmakes it seem like you don't
(11:53):
agree with them or that whatthey're feeling is wrong.
It is their feeling and theyhave the right to have it and it
needs to be validated.
So it's hey, mr Jones, I get it.
Man, this tooth didn't hurtbefore we crowned it and now it
does.
I'd be frustrated if I were youtoo Immediately validating that
the patient's not overreacting.
That is the first step.
It is the most important.
(12:14):
Then you just have to ease theirconcerns that it's going to get
better.
Or, as a last resort, ifnothing can be done to make it
right, just ask the patient whatwould make them happy.
What can I do for you to makeyou feel better about this?
What do you think is fair, mrJones?
And then just do it, and youhave a happy patient that will
continue to come to your officeand will continue to refer
people to you.
Because you addressed the issueand I have found very few
(12:38):
situations where that kind ofempathetic statement
acknowledging their feelings,followed by the discussion of
how we make it right, had thepatient still leaving upset.
I mean, it always works.
Don't defend yourself.
That's not what the patientwants to hear.
They want to hear that someoneis listening to them.
So try to see it from theirperspective.
So buyer's remorse is somethingthat we can handle and be
(13:00):
proactive about.
At our offices we talked aboutthe things we can do before the
procedure, like co-discovery,building the trust, being
confident in our recommendationsand also avoiding the sticker
shock.
Now, during the treatment, wetalked about reaffirming the
benefits and talking aboutfuture benefits, and then in
post-treatment, we talked aboutcelebrating their decision and
giving them post-op instructionsin the correct way, as well as
(13:23):
making that post-op call.
Now you might be wondering whathappened with that apartment
building building with all thoseproblems in the crawl space.
Well, I went through with it.
We closed on it.
It was a half a million dollars.
I had to put about $50,000 intoit.
I did all the repairs, werefinished most of the units and
we raised the rents by about$400 per unit.
We split the garage into likethree different things that they
(13:45):
could rent out and it increasedthe income of the apartment by
about 30K.
You know was about a 50%increase in rents.
So it took like two years toget it all done, but I ended up
selling that property for likealmost $750,000 for very little
work that I had to do personally.
First one turned out prettydamn good and it was that one
that I needed to get my feet wetso I could keep doing it and
(14:07):
keep buying buildings.
So, all right, thank you somuch for listening today.
Come back on Wednesday andwe're going to be talking about
the power of visuals in yourcase presentation and how you
can utilize these simple hacksfor better case acceptance,
especially with larger cases.
Thank you so much.
We'll talk to you next time.
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