You remember the Noid, right?
He was the little turd that always ruined your Domino’s pizza in the late 80’s. He made the delivery guy late, your pizza cold, or worse...
In the late 80’s, I remember standing on the door step, at 2514 Borst Avenue, in Centralia, WA, after ordering pizza to time the poor delivery guy so we could get it free. We were ruthless. We’d order pizza during parades, snow storms, floods, celebrations, and construction just to see if he could make it.
We ate a few free pizzas because they couldn’t always get it to us in 30 minutes. They RAN to the door step sometimes! It was comical.
On the flip side, we’d never ordered many of those pizzas were it not for their guarantee.
That, my friend, is an important point. And, don’t think it doesn’t apply to OUR business.
(Avoid the Noid was later turned into a platform computer game for my very first computer, the Commodore 64 and was based on those pizza commercials Domino’s was so famous for.)
Some of you already do this. Some of you don’t.
I’m writing to both of you: If you have a guarantee, does your team know about it and are they leveraging the guarantee to move patients to action – to sell more treatment? If you don’t have a guarantee, WHY not? It’s incredible leverage and removes a lot of the buyer’s hesitation to DO what is in their best interests. Perhaps you have an excuse. You’ve “heard” but never done the research or figured out how to ethically and legally circumvent some goofy state rule.
I am not telling you to break the law. I am suggesting you get creative and think outside the box. Read the law, and think about how you can use it to your advantage.
First thing though, understand the relationship between a Guarantee and Warranty. This from the interwebs:
A warranty is a promise or guarantee given. A warranty is usually a written guarantee for a product and declares the maker's responsibility to repair or replace a defective product or its parts.
Example: Let’s say it’s against the law to "guarantee" any dental work in your state. Then I'd say,
“While our state dental board prohibits any dentist from offering a warranty or guarantee of any kind, we will stand by what we recommend and offer and ultimately, provide to our patients. If you are ever unhappy for any reason, we will absolutely make it right. So when considering different treatment alternatives, rest-assured, whatever decision you make, we’ll back you up. No matter if you have a problem in 1 year, 2 years, or, 10.”
You might also be thinking, “Yeah, but crowns might not last 10 years...will I have to replace it?”
My answer: YES, perhaps, and WHY NOT?
If you can keep your patients coming back for more, why worry about a $100 lab fee, an hour of chair time in 10 years, etc., when you can leverage that statement and belief and get your team on board and instead of doing 1 crown a day, you do 3 or 4.
That doesn't even consider how much more opportunity you now have to diagnose and do even more dentistry on that same patient! OR, the referrals you'll get from offering a guarantee!
You see, that statement -- the guarantee or something like I wrote above -- removes resistance to buy. And, it engages the trust gland in your patients. They will move forward with treatment more often if you will back up what you do and their decisions in print and verbally, especially when supported by your team!
My suggestion: TRY IT. Think it through, place as many “limiting factors” on your “100% Satisfaction Promise.” In other words, keep the weasel language to a minimum. If you want to add one condition, make it, “To take advantage of the 100% Satisfaction Promise, you need only keep your regular re-care appointments as suggested by the doctor.”
If sufficient interest, I will write more at length on this topic and perhaps even provide a training.
Bottom line: LEVERAGE this key emotional driver (an "e-factor"), remind your team about your policy, train on it, and you will do more restorative by removing one of the barriers we all think about (esp. patients) and have in the back of our mind.
Just think how many times you’ve bought something because it had a strong guarantee or warranty. I’ve bought cars – in fact, the last one I bought for my wife was largely due to the warranty it came with! And, that purchase was worth 40 or 50 crowns...
Adios,
Jerry
PS. Whatever you decide to do, spend $200 and run it by your legal beagle. I’m not one so my suggestion is to clear it with yours first and tell them to be creative and provide you a solution they can defend that will allow you to sell more! (Not easy for the legal profession unless they need to conceal/avoid something, then all sorts of creativity flows!)
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