The concept of buy now, pay later has always been a customer favorite. However, due to the drastic changes in the financial situations of consumers over the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, buy now, pay later (or put simply, customer financing) has become increasingly popular.
Payment plans are no longer just for car payments, subscriptions, or utility bills—you can find them everywhere.
From helping your practice reel in more patients, to helping it increase its revenue, offering payment plans and patient financing options is as beneficial for your dental practice as it is for your dental patients.
In this article, we’ll be going through the top four reasons why your dental practice should be offering its patients payment plans, and how you can get started increasing scheduled appointments today.
Increase Revenue for Your Dental Practice
It’s no secret that patients love to save money. While dental payment plans don’t always necessarily mean discounts, the fact that a single monthly payment is significantly less than an associated total balance is often enough to draw in more patients who are likely to pay for a treatment using a payment plan.
When customers feel as if they are saving money, they are more likely to spend in ways that they otherwise couldn’t, or wouldn’t.
By offering payment plans to your patients, you’re making otherwise costly dental procedures accessible, which will increase the amount of patients that can afford the procedure. When your dental practice doesn’t offer payment plans, it doesn’t get the chance to offer its services to a larger population group, which keeps your practice stagnant.
Dental financing for patients provides your businesses with a stable, predictable stream of monthly revenue, and the more customers you get started on a payment plan, the more monthly payments you’ll receive.
Increased Conversions
It is easy to understand why being able to have an expensive dental treatment done without paying for it in full immediately is an attractive option for a lot of patients. When it comes to purchases, patients are more likely to schedule a dental procedure if they know that they will have the option to pay for it over time.
According to Afterpay, businesses on average experience a 20 to 30 percent increase in their conversion rates once they begin offering payment plans.
Be More Competitive
As a small business, it is often difficult to find ways to stand out and stay competitive—dental practices aren’t any different.
Many dental practices experience large amounts of dental competition in their local community, especially those in large metropolitan areas. While this is an ideal situation from a patient standpoint, it doesn’t help when trying to routinely bring in new patients to your practice.
Your dental practice can consider offering additional incentives to patients who start a new finance contract or payment plan. Doing so will help with further improving your dental practice’s competitive advantage. Consider offering promotional incentives such as payment deferrals, low interest rates, and other applicable incentives to help your practice provide more treatments while simultaneously growing its patient base.
Improve Patient Experience
By offering payment options, you are expressing to your patients that you want to make their experience as easy as possible for them. There are very few things that are worse than a patient who would like to have a procedure done, but are hesitant due to the treatment’s price tag.
According to Citizens Financial Group, 76% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase if a simple payment plan is offered. Offering patient financing gives your patients the additional options and increased payment flexibility that they prefer.
When you improve your patient’s experience, you are also helping to improve your patient retention. As patients come to know that they can get access to affordable treatments through payment plans your practice offers, they will most likely continue to return whenever they need additional treatments. These loyal patients can also help your practice whenever they refer a friend or family member, further helping your dental practice grow.
Provide the payment options your patients need
Payment plans and financing help bridge the gap between affordability and dental treatments, while also benefiting your dental practice. Whether your practice already has financing options in place, or if you’re looking to easily start offering payment plans, Denefits can help.
Denefits is a complete payment solutions system that helps dental practices simplify their payment processing, offer no credit check patient financing, and automate their collections process. Getting patients started on a payment plan with Denefits is a simple process: there are no credit checks, and customers are instantly approved. Denefits even guarantees your payments, meaning that if a patient misses their payment, you’ll still receive the money that you are owed.
To easily get started offering affordable payment plans to your patients, visit denefits.com or request a callback today.
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