How does offering a retail diagnostic discount for booking at the consultation actually work for a dental practice?
By setting a published retail price for the Complete Dental Physical and then offering a discount to patients who book and pay for it during their initial consultation visit. The patient who is still in the consultation room sees a price reduction available right now, conditional on commitment, and a higher published price available later. The discount taps into a well-documented behavioral pattern: people respond more strongly to perceived deals than to the underlying price level. The discount is real. The retail price is also real. Patients who book at the consultation get a genuine savings. Patients who delay pay the full retail rate when they eventually book. The mechanism filters for commitment without feeling coercive. It also produces a useful side effect: more patients commit at the consultation visit itself rather than drifting away in the post-consultation period. Cash flow improves. Schedule fills cleaner. The discount is small enough that the practice does not lose meaningful revenue, large enough that patients notice.
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.