Elevate Your Dental Practice with a Patient Rewards Loyalty Program

Rewards programs that include whitening products can help practices attract new patients and increase treatment acceptance. | Image Credit: © AFRICA STUDIO / STOCK.ADOBE.COM

As a dental professional, you understand that exceptional clinical skills alone are not enough to thrive in today's competitive market. To build a successful dental practice, you need to cultivate patient loyalty, attract new patients, and provide an outstanding experience that sets you apart.

This is where the power of a patient rewards loyalty program can come into play. In this article, we will delve into the transformative potential of The

Debbie Seidel-Bittke, RDH, BS is the founder and CEO of Dental Practice Solutions. | Image Credit: © Debbie Seidel-Bittke

Smile Club, a patient rewards, loyalty program, which not only helps you grow new patient numbers but also has the potential to reduce cancellations, enhance clinician-patient communication, and unlock significant profit potential for your dental practice.

Unlock the Power of Patient Incentives:

1. The Power of Incentives: By offering an irresistible reward, something as simple as including a lifetime of whiter teeth for your new patient special, clinicians can provide a sustainable profit center in their dental practice. You will motivate many people looking for a new dentist to choose your dental office when you include free teeth whitening your new patient special.

Teeth whitening is expected to be a $11 billion industry in North American by 2026, but very few of these people will buy their whitening products from their dentist.1 The majority of teeth whitening is purchased online, in retail and grocery stores.

What’s wrong with this picture?

How can dentistry tap into this simple profit center which does not include more patient time or overhead for your dental practice?

Keep reading for an opportunity to tap into this profit center for your dental practice. This is an easy way to grow your dental practice without adding days to your schedule or more money in overhead.

2. Exclusive Offers: People are naturally drawn to exclusive offers, special perks, and the opportunity to receive “something” for free. Something as simple as a tooth whitening pen may serve as a compelling reason to choose your dental office over your competitors. This Smile Clubspecial patient rewards loyalty program serves as a powerful tool for attracting new patients and more easily increases patient referrals. Give patients any reason to talk about something positive associated with your office.

People are paying about $20 for one whitening pen on AMAZON and retail stores. Dental offices can buy teeth whitening at wholesale prices and mark up the price they sell whitening products by 5X. Now you create a profit center in your dental practice without having to work more hours or increase overhead.

*See below for more information about wholesale pricing for dental offices. You don’t have to break the bank when you offer teeth whitening to your patients.

3. Combating Cancellations: Last-minute cancellations and no-show appointments can be a significant challenge for dental practices. However, when patients enroll in a Rewards, Patient Loyalty Program, such as The Smile Club, they are more likely to honor their scheduled dental appointments. The anticipation of receiving the free whitening pen acts as a motivating factor, increasing the patient’s commitment to attend their dental appointments. This results in a more streamlined and productive dental practice.

Once patients are enrolled in The Smile Club, they agree to: Number 1—Call during business hours at least 48 hours before a scheduled appointment if they need to change their appointment, and Number 2—Patients must pre-schedule their routine dental hygiene preventive care appointments. Number 3—Patients can purchase additional whitening pens for a discount.

Consider a 10-15% discount off your regular price of whitening products. Patients will easily pay $20-$25 for each pen you sell in your dental office. When you are buying your whitening products at wholesale, you can give the savings to your patient. You save on your whitening products and your patients save when they buy as a member of The Smile Club.

Practices can purchase whitening pens at a low cost for and imagine selling 100 pens a month for $25. This can lead to a net of over $2,000. And that is only for the pens your patients buy in addition to the free pen they received at their hygiene appointment. You may now also experience have higher production because you have reduced cancellations.
The teeth whitening kits yield even more net profits and at least 60% of all new patients (if you ask the important patient questions) will yield a net profit over $1,000 each month. The larger your dental office, the larger your profit center profitability becomes. Remember, this is net production because you will not need more patient chair time, and your overhead will not increase.

This patient loyalty program is a win-win-win. Patients win. You win. And the dental office net-production increases annually.

4. Empowering Clinician-Patient Communication: The Patient Rewards Smile Clubnot only benefits patients but also empowers dental clinicians by providing valuable insights into patients' preferences. As patients engage with The Smile Cluband redeem their rewards, patients gain a deeper understanding for optimal oral health.

Your patients also look forward to dental appointments when they receive a tangible free, valuable product to take home. And this tangible makes them feel good for some time.

When a dental office takes the time to ask their patient what “they” want their teeth and smile to look like, most patients will respond, “I want whiter teeth!”

This information becomes invaluable during your treatment planning, allowing clinicians to tailor their recommendations and ensure optimal patient satisfaction.

Think about patients who want anterior crowns or veneers. You now offer them a tooth whitening product which they leave the office with their whitening kit, in hand and start using immediately. The patient starts whitening their teeth without any messy impressions or uncomfortable trays. Within the next 2 weeks they can return for their esthetic treatment to improve their appearance.

You have a very happy patient and happy patients continue returning to your office. Happy patients also refer their friends and family to your dental office.

Many patients when they mention they want whiter teeth, will need old composites replaced after they have achieved whiter teeth. Many patients have old crowns that must be replaced when they have whiter teeth. These patients are great candidates to first whiten their teeth and there are no messy impressions or fabrication of whitening trays when you use the Celebrity Smiles Club teeth whitening system.

A key factor here, if you take away nothing else, is to ask your patients what “they” want their teeth and smile to look like.

If you never take the time to ask your patients what they want, you will miss many great opportunities to more easily have patients pay for your care. You miss the opportunity to create another raving fan who refers all their friends and family to your dental office.

You know this saying, “people will buy what they want, not what they need.” It’s true. Ask every patient as they are being seated, or at least during their preventive care, hygiene appointment and ask all new patients, how they want their teeth and smile to look.

Be creative with how you ask this one simple question. Have fun with the question. There are a dozen ways to ask this question and if you have fun asking, you just may have a lot of patients smiling more easily when sitting in your dental chair.

This is the million-dollar question. At your next team meeting, ask each team member to suggest one way to ask this question. Practice asking each other this one question and have fun practicing. Practice makes perfect.

I’m a clinical hygienist and the founder of Dental Practice Solutions, which created a patient rewards system during the first economic decline in 2009. During the 2020 pandemic we upgraded the rewards system technology, and the whitening system is now called, Celebrity Smiles Club.

The Celebrity Smiles Club patient rewards system offers a unique opportunity to easily discover what patients truly want their teeth and smile to look like. While most patients desire whiter teeth, it can be challenging to gauge their preferences without a structured platform for communication. The Smile Club program facilitates this dialogue, enabling clinicians to deliver personalized care that aligns with patients' esthetic goals.

Celebrity Smiles Club also created a way to eliminate the need for messy impressions requiring fabrication of an uncomfortable mouthpiece.

The Celebrity Smiles Club formula includes Potassium Nitrate (blocks tooth sensitivity) and has added this to the Celebrity Smiles Carbamide Peroxide gel formulation. You and your patients will love not only how bright and white your teeth look but how silky smooth they feel.

The whitening kit includes a mouthpiece with 32 LED blue & red COOL Light Technology with 3 functions:

• Blue LED lights boost whiter teeth fast by releasing oxygen in the Carbamide Peroxide molecules
• Red LED lights soothe and comfort. Think about using these lights for post-op discomfort after gum treatment, various dental procedures, pizza burns, mouth sores from Crohn’s disease and patients with mouth sores from chemotherapy and/or radiation.
• Blue/Red lights whiten teeth fast while comforting and soothing teeth for patients who may feel concerned about sensitivity as they white

Enhancing Patient Retention: Sustaining patient loyalty is vital for the long-term success of your dental practice. The Celebrity Smiles Club patient reward system ensures that patients continue returning to your office indefinitely.

By pre-scheduling routine hygiene appointments as part of their Smile Club membership, patients prioritize their dental care and establish a consistent relationship with your practice. This fosters a sense of loyalty, reducing the likelihood of patients seeking dental services elsewhere; no matter where their dental insurance tells them to go for dental care.

Moreover, the program includes a feature that motivates patients to call during business hours if they need to make any necessary changes to an appointment. This proactive approach further reinforces the importance of dental care in their lives and strengthens their commitment to their oral health.

Patients don’t only accept one pen for free at their hygiene appointment but as a member of The Smile Club they will ask to buy more whitening pens and part of their member incentive includes buying more whitening pens at a discount.

Many dental offices are offering new patient specials for $59 or $99 and if you mention in your special that they receive a lifetime of free teeth whitening when they schedule in your office for the new patient special, patients are more likely to schedule a new patient appointment. More new patients will call when you mention the whitening service is included. They will pay $249 to $399 when you include the free teeth whitening. Stop giving away a deep discount for your new patient special.

When you raise the new patient special fee and include the teeth whitening, you can cover the expense of a dental hygienist seeing your new patient.

When you offer new patient specials at a real low fee you attract the shoppers. This can make it more difficult to have a patient want what they need because they came to your office all because of a very low new patient special. Case acceptance becomes more difficult.

Offering your patients, a lifetime of free teeth whitening will grow your new patient numbers.

1. Tapping into Profit Potential: Teeth whitening is a rapidly growing industry projected to reach $11 billion by 2026. This number keeps growing almost monthly.

The Celebrity Smiles Club whitening products and system enable you to harness this untapped profit potential in dental offices by incorporating teeth whitening products into a patient rewards loyalty program.

The Celebrity Smiles Club offers patients a take-home whitening kit, complete with a mouthpiece that includes 32 LED blue and red lights. The mouthpiece LED light is also cordless making it easy to whiten anywhere.

Patients have experienced fast results and teeth that are many shades whiter sooner than later. Celebrity Smiles Club provides dental offices access to deeply discounted whitening kits and whitening pens for ongoing maintenance. By offering high-quality teeth whitening products as part of your patient loyalty program, you have the potential to create a lucrative profit center within your dental practice.

Conclusion

By implementing patient rewards programs such as the Celebrity Smiles Club, clinicians can attract more new patients to their dental practice each month.

When you implement this turn-key system you also have at your finger-tips benefits such as scripts to enroll patients into your patient rewards loyalty program, scripts to overcome those last-minute cancellations, marketing products ready to print and share around your office, and more.

*Resources for the Celebrity Smiles Club are currently offered at no cost. Celebrity Smiles Club whitening products are sold wholesale to dental offices around the world. Schedule a quick call to find out more: or email: admin@dentalpracticesolutions.com

References

1. Straits Research. Teeth Whitening Market Size is projected to reach USD 11.66 Billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 5.45%; https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2022/07/28/2488255/0/en/Teeth-Whitening-Market-Size-is-projected-to-reach-USD-11-66-Billion-by-2030-growing-at-a-CAGR-of-5-45-Straits-Research.html; July 28, 2022; Accessed on June 26, 2023

About the Author

Debbie Seidel-Bittke, RDH, BS is the accomplished founder and CEO of Dental Practice Solutions. In 2020, she also founded Celebrity Smiles Club, a patient rewards system that utilizes teeth whitening (wholesale to dental offices) as a reward. She created a simplified way to deliver faster teeth whitening and without causing tooth sensitivity. Debbie is a recognized authority, a dental hygiene consultant, coach, and former hygiene department program director. Her expertise and passion have helped numerous practices thrive and deliver exceptional patient care. Debbie loves teaching hygienists and the team how to get patients to “own their disease” and “want what they need.”