How does internet dental price shopping create a downward discounting spiral that practices should avoid?
Patients now routinely search procedure-plus-price online before calling any practice. They find pages of cheaper quotes from practices that have decided to compete on price alone. A practice that quotes a number on the phone enters that comparison immediately, almost always at the higher end, and almost always loses. Worse, the practice has now joined a game it cannot win, because there will always be a cheaper competitor somewhere. Economists fear deflation more than almost any other economic condition because deflation is discounting that is not chosen, applied uniformly to everyone who refuses to play the price game. The escape route is to position the practice as a clear expert in a niche, back the positioning with substantial third-party proof and substantial information packets, and refuse to compete on phone-quoted price. Patients seeking the cheapest option self-select to competitors who want them. Patients seeking quality work find their way to practices that decline to be commoditized.
If the answers you are finding here resonate with you, my team and I work with a small group of clients each year. The next step is a complimentary Discovery Consultation and Practice Review with Dr. McAnally.
