There may well have never been a better time, or reason, to focus on growing your membership plan.
Firstly, let’s look at why there’s more reasons than ever to prioritise building up the number of patients you have on a plan.
Future-proofing your business
Simply put, the regular monthly plan fee that the vast majority of patients continued paying since the country went into the first lockdown, was a financial lifeline to many practices.
That’s what we were hearing from our members time and time again. That the income they received from their membership during that time didn’t just make a difference, it made the difference in keeping their businesses afloat.
While we don’t know what 2021 holds, it feels prudent to take steps to build up financial security and a loyal patient base to protect your practice from hardship as much as possible.
Building a robust, well-populated plan will help you to do that.
More opportunities for private dentistry
Secondly, now is a good time to build your plan for several reasons.
For starters, there’s a lot of opportunity for private dentistry right now, not least because the access to NHS dentistry remains difficult.
We’re hearing from many practices that they’ve had a big increase in new patient enquiries for private treatment.
You may also find that due to being unable to access your services during lockdown, patients have come to value them even more and may be more receptive to the idea of joining your plan – particularly if they understand that those patients on plan, outside of emergencies, were prioritised once practices reopened after the lockdown.
And, while the full economic impact of the pandemic is yet to be fully understood, many people may well have shifted to a mindset more inclined towards paying smaller monthly fees for services rather than facing larger one-off payments.
How to build your plan in the current climate
So, how do you set about growing your membership plan?
As always, the most effective way of promoting anything is to talk about it.
Just like in more ordinary times, the key is to make sure that all of your team understand why the plan works so well for you and your patients, and that they’re confident in talking to your patients about it.
If you’re a DPAS practice and would like some help with this, your Business Development Manager (BDM) will be more than happy to provide training.
Of course, we’re not in ordinary times, yet, so you might wish to tweak the way you discuss the plan with patients and the messages you give out about joining your membership plan to reflect the current climate.
For example, many practices are still trying to catch up from the previous lockdown, and, after dealing with urgent and emergency cases, are prioritising plan patient appointments first, before routine non-plan patients. Therefore, they are offering any private fee-per-item patients who contact them an appointment quite far down the line or they can have an appointment sooner if they join the dental plan.
Or, you might want to highlight both the health benefits of the plan – as the pandemic has led some people to focus on and invest more in their own health – and/or the financial advantage of being able to access dental care via affordable monthly payments.
Don’t forget, your BDM is always available to support your patient communications and help you to build your plan. You can contact them directly or email: enquiries@dpas.co.uk
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