Case:it’s a 40-year-old woman with many dental problems, such as continuous repair with porcelain, gaps, symptoms of pulpitis, and a residual root. When she entered, she was in a hurry and wanted to ask about the price.

Story:

Patient: Hey, doctor, these teeth on my upper right side are particularly painful. Can you tell me how much it will cost to treat them?

Consultant: Did you just ask the guide at the first floor? You need to go to the second floor.

Patient: Yes, I asked about the price, but they didn’t tell me, so I came to ask you.

Consultant: Well, dear, your teeth are hurting badly, aren’t they? Let’s first lie down, and I’ll examine which tooth is causing the pain. Let me examine you first.

Patient: You don’t need to examine me. I’ve had this tooth treated before, but I didn’t get braces, and later it fell out halfway. Yeah, my husband used pliers to pull out the remaining half. So, how much does it cost to get braces for it?

Consultant: You’ve had this tooth treated before? Then you should know, without an examination, how can I just tell you the price like selling a product?

Patient: Why do you need to examine it? There’s nothing wrong with this tooth. Just tell me the price so I can have an idea.

Consultant: Please, don’t rush. Let’s first lie down, and I’ll show you with an intraoral camera, okay?

Patient: How much does that camera cost?

Consultant: It’s free. Let them check you for free.

Patient: Okay.

Consultant: Well, these two teeth on this side here, because of improper brushing for a long time, there are some deficiencies, and it caused inflammation of the tooth nerve.

Patient: You don’t need to explain the professional stuff to me. Just tell me how to treat it.

Consultant: Hey, don’t rush. Let me explain slowly. The situation with this tooth is that you need to come a few times for treatment. If you don’t treat it, I can give you braces, but you know that would be irresponsible, and it would waste the braces.

Patient: Just tell me how much it will cost to fix this tooth?

Consultant: It also depends on the X-rays. Let’s take an X-ray first, and I’ll describe it to you more clearly. Would that be okay?

Patient: What X-ray? Can I still walk after taking it? I don’t want to take it.

Analysis:

He urgently asks about the price, with urgent words about the price, what I’m thinking is, is he elsewhere? Having already asked about the price。

First of all, saying that if he asks about the price elsewhere, it means the price elsewhere is higher, and he didn’t accept it, so he wants to come and compare, to see what the price is like here?

Secondly, if the price elsewhere is lower, but he still isn’t reassured, so he wants to come and see if there’s any?

Thirdly,This patient has undergone multi-disciplinary repairs, so is the patient satisfied with this repair? If he’s already very satisfied, why doesn’t he go back to the doctor who treated him at the time?

How to catch this customer?

1.This patient has so many questions. In this case, we might as well solve them one by one. That is to say, since you have so many questions, it’s like this, I’ve thought about it, you treat one problem first, which part of your mouth hurts the most now? Which tooth do you feel is the worst? If it’s like this, you can say, you have so many teeth now, don’t you? Don’t you care about the price? We can also say, there are many dental clinics now, you can first adapt to the treatment of one tooth with us, then you can experience it. Our services and our technology. So if that works for you, you can go to another dental clinic to treat another tooth, compare, and when you’re done, when you want a large-scale treatment to completely cure it, you can come back to us, can’t you? By trying this out, can we increase the turnover rate from 10% to 20% to 60% to 70%?

2.Regarding the price,If we dot not quote,he must have been thinking whether there was something fishy inside, thinking why is it so difficult to ask for a price? At this point, the patient is already thinking about leaving quickly, I think at this point he should be afraid of being tricked and afraid of being cheated

So how to express it?

if you just want to go back today without pain, then you only need to take the first step. It only costs a few tens of dollars, at least you’ll feel much better these days, but if you want to never have pain again, you need a comprehensive guidance, then we need to take X-rays, change medication, follow-up guidance, and then talk about the whole treatment process.

3.From the patient’s level of communication and the process of communication, besides the price, it seems that he didn’t ask about anything else, such as disinfection, and some fundamental issues of the teeth, he didn’t ask, I think this patient’s first awareness of teeth. It’s not very high, he’s eager to get a quote for braces, and he’s ignoring the fundamental issues of pain, at this point I feel we can start from here to have a breakthrough. We can explain the basic structure of teeth and the importance of teeth to him, give him an explanation, give an example, and then tell him. Building a house is like laying a foundation, if it’s not done properly, even if you build a beautiful house on top, you won’t feel secure, just like if you don’t treat it, you go for braces, this tooth will hurt, even if the upper teeth are done beautifully, you can’t use them. That is to say, if you lay the foundation below, but don’t build the house on top, you’ll just have an empty space there, you can’t use it, just like teeth, if you’ve treated them but didn’t include braces, and then half of it fell off, you can’t use it either.

4.The customer clearly has a sense of worry or defense, worried that I will be bargained down when I come in, and for such customers, I think maybe he has had experiences before, he himself thinks he has been bargained down before, or he. He comes to your clinic, your clinic is very high-end, he is also worried that he can’t afford it, etc., this way, I think customer service personnel should do some leading and paving. And patiently tell them, for example, sister, you sit for a while first, I’ll ask the doctor to come and check for you, but our examination is free, if you have any questions, our doctor will inform you after the examination. Including the cost will also be told to you, if you agree, the doctor will operate on you in the future, you don’t have to worry.

5.You can start with customer service personnel instead of appearing directly in the conversation between the customer and the doctor, but the doctor can inform again before the consultation, for example, the nurse sister or the customer service personnel have told me. You’re here today to ask how much your teeth will cost, so let this sister reduce her defense against the price a little. At this point, I think our medical staff have the opportunity to come in and check, and have a good conversation with the patient and the customer. Establishing trust, this way the doctor can turn passive into active to demonstrate our professional knowledge, this is my first point of view.

6.Empathy, first of all, you think of yourself as the customer who came today, it’s you, the customer itself. It’s about putting yourself in their shoes, assuming I want to go to a five-star hotel today, maybe I’m not very rich, but I also want to experience it, this is a kind of thinking, or I’m sick. But I don’t know any doctors, and I don’t know if I can afford it. I can only go to a clinic to ask. This may be the customer’s first mentality. So we need to have this kind of empathy, starting from understanding, guiding, and then shaping the customer’s mentality.

7.The doctor’s mindset is to seize an entry point and first address the toothache. However, by using an endoscope and extensively magnifying the issue, they inadvertently implant the idea in the patient’s mind that all issues should be addressed together. This leads to the patient continuously asking for a bundled price, deviating from the doctor’s intentions, and continuously focusing on the root problem. The patient, being particularly guarded, feels overwhelmed by the sudden barrage of problems and fears being misled by the doctor. They start to perceive procedures like taking X-rays as attempts to manipulate them, leading to an unpleasant experience. When using an endoscope for the first time, it’s best to initially minimize the magnification of issues, address the patient’s main complaint first without overwhelming them with details about their dental issues, and then gradually explore additional concerns.

8.It’s important to adjust our mindset. When this customer comes to inquire about prices, I feel that if we already see them as just someone asking about prices and we don’t intend to successfully entertain them, then our staff’s service, including the display of our doctor’s professional skills, should still proceed as usual. This might lower the customer’s guardedness a bit, and in the end, the customer might not become a patient. However, I believe at the very least, our doctor earns some positive reputation for the clinic. Since the customer is here today to inquire about prices, I think they are likely to inquire elsewhere as well, or perhaps they have already inquired before. At this point, the customer surely has a lot of comparisons in mind. If we truly are as good as we believe, then the customer should be able to perceive it. If the customer does have money, I think this is when the value of our doctors, including the value of our service, starts to show. And if the customer truly doesn’t have money, I don’t think they would blame us or have a negative impression of us. At most, they might think our fees are higher than others, but deep down, they still hold respect for these doctors.

9.The doctor lacks control over the situation.

We can use techniques like the Socratic method and psychological pressure. For example, if a patient is solely focused on the price and our aura fails to intimidate them, it may only lead to them becoming more anxious and emotional. In such cases, even if the patient doesn’t cooperate and directly asks about the price, we can respond by questioning the patient. For instance, we can ask them, “How much are you willing to spend?” Let’s hear your thoughts. Are you only concerned about money today? Don’t you want to understand anything else? Are you not interested in knowing the effectiveness? If you’re only focused on money, I’d like to hear how much you’re willing to spend. If what we offer here doesn’t meet your needs, I can refer you to our peers who I believe can meet your requirements. If you’re only concerned about money, are you not concerned about the effectiveness? It’s understandable to focus on money, but besides money, what else should you focus on? The cheapest option isn’t always the best, nor is the most expensive. What matters is what’s suitable for our situation. So, since it’s suitable for our situation, let’s start by examining and understanding it, etc.

In such situations, we can communicate while observing their reactions, such as suggesting getting an X-ray. I’m only suggesting it; I’m not saying you must do it. But I want to explain why it’s important to get an X-ray from a professional perspective. If you’re unwilling to spend money, in other words, if you don’t have money, I can apply for a free X-ray for you, or even offer installment payments. What I want is not to make you spend money unnecessarily but to solve your problem. We need to be more assertive. On the other hand, if someone keeps asking if they can directly cover a tooth and they’re only concerned about saving money, we need to understand the purpose of covering the tooth and the criteria for its success. Do you know? If you spend less money, for example, ten dollars, would you be willing? Ten dollars, you suffer and then it can’t be used when you go back, and it starts hurting again. What do you think? So, saving money is one aspect, but what’s most important is to completely solve the problem with the teeth.

Okay, this is a method of questioning and stimulating. On the other hand, psychological pressure. After questioning them, we may be slightly more proactive, and then we apply psychological pressure. For example, we bring out cases of failure and show them. If you’re only concerned about money and not about effectiveness, let me show you these cases. After explaining these failed cases to them and arousing their attention, we move on to the third method, which is demonstrating confidence. At this point, we present successful cases and show them what good repairs look like. We discuss the technical standards we pursue, such as international standards, the type of equipment we use, why we use such equipment, and the results of the repairs. We also emphasize that our fees offer high value for money, focusing on long-term effects, and we strive to communicate effectively.

10.The degree of understanding the needs and concerns of the patient is not sufficient. Instead of immediately focusing on their toothache, it’s important to inquire about and understand the patient’s needs. For example, which tooth is causing pain? How severe is the pain? What impact does it have on their daily activities? Additionally, it’s crucial to inquire about their previous dental experiences to address any potential discomfort or dissatisfaction they may have had.

11.For example, the details of our examination are indeed different from elsewhere. The details of sterility must be gentle and comprehensive. When using an endoscope, which parts should be examined? And how should we explain it to them? How does the defect form? For example, regarding dental issues, the acidity and viscosity of saliva affect the dentin and dental bone. We explain this with diagrams and discuss the pain caused by wedge defects. How do we address it? For instance, the first step is to fill it. However, filling it isolates external stimuli. If there’s inflammation in the dental pulp, additional treatment is needed. The second option is root canal therapy, followed by filling, etc. Before taking X-rays, we explain the general plan. If further confirmation of the treatment plan is needed, what do we do? At this point, we need to use X-rays and diagrams to explain. After root canal treatment, we place a post, followed by a crown.

Consider the worst-case scenario. Since the patient may leave anyway, why not use this opportunity to promote our institution and let them know that there are better dental options here? From the doctor’s perspective, our purpose in studying and mastering our profession is to solve patients’ problems. On the other hand, we also see it as a form of self-improvement and challenge. We strive to retain patients, thus achieving a win-win-win situation among doctors, patients, and the institution.