Are Your Clients Paying For Ridiculous Add-Ons?
Dr. David Moffet BDS FPFA CSP
Dental Practice Management Specialist > Dental Practice Profitability Expert > Dental Operations Consultant and Coach.
Some industries are renowned for charging clients ridiculous fees for things that don’t even cost…
It’s a gouge.
It’s a clip.
It’s an unnecessary impost.
Credit card surcharges
In this day and age, nearly every client pays by credit card.
In fact, I’ve been noticing recently how sales agents automatically assume that you are going to pay by card and push the terminal right there into your “space” without even asking whether you will be using cash…
And with the machine, the bill now comes with an automatically added credit card surcharge, without even asking.
But having a credit card merchant facility is an everyday cost of doing business, just like rent and utilities.
Why should businesses be allowed to “pass the merchant fee on”?
Why can’t businesses just suck it up and allow for it, without trying to look like a hero?
And especially when you are paying for a product or service online… there’s no other way to do it other than use a card?
Getting a “treatment” at the hairdressers…
Getting a conditioning treatment or hair mask at the hairdressers can often seem like a lifesaver for dry and damaged hair.
But according to Leo Izquierdo,?co-founder of IGK hair salons & IGK Hair Products, paying for a mask or conditioning treatment at the salon is "a waste of money" and buying the full product and doing it yourself at home is cheaper.
He said in an interview with the Sun Newspaper in the UK:
"In the salon I always give my clients a complimentary hair mask conditioning treatment with any service they come in for. I don’t have a conditioning treatment on the salon menu because it should be something salons do for their clients for free."
Izquierdo went on to say:
"If anyone just wants a hair mask or conditioning treatment it’s a waste of their money to go to a salon, it’s much better to purchase the full product and do them at home more often."
If your hair is in need of a little extra TLC though, "the best option is a cut followed by a good shampoo and conditioning home routine," the celebrity stylist advised.
Lancashire hairdresser Celeste Arnold also told the Sun:
"If a hairdresser suggests you need a treatment always ask how much it will be as they can be quite expensive - and don’t assume they're free, although they should be!"
Builders’ variations
A builder’s variation is a change or adjustment to what has already been agreed in the building contract between homeowners and their builder. The builder or tradesperson may need to vary the contract because of a council requirement or unforeseen circumstances, or because the customer changes their mind about something. If the reason for variation is the builder's or tradesperson's fault, customers do not have to pay for any extra work to rectify the problem.
Most building variations or additions to a contract have an impact on the contract price.
But some do not.
Documents authorising variations must contain a statement explaining the cost implications of the variation and their impact on the overall contract price. Calculation of the price change should be shown, rather than just a simple dollar amount.
领英推荐
Two questionable variations in building are:
At your dental office…
At your dental office, are you accidentally participating in an industry gouge that is silently infuriating your patients?
Is there a surcharge on your services that your business would be better off not displaying?
Are you charging a surcharge fee for credit cards?
Are you charging for diagnostic photos?
And are you charging patients in advance for wax ups for large case presentations that are most likely to proceed?
Where possible, it’s always better for a business to absorb the fee silently into their pricings rather than announce it as an itemised extra.
Always.
*****
Need your phones monitored?
Are you concerned about the number of calls that are not being answered as best they can be?
You need Call Tracking Excellence.
For the cost of a less than one cleaning per week, you could have your phones being answered much much better....
Convert more calls into appointments...Click the link: https://www.calltrackingexcellence.com
Call Jayne on?1300 378 044?or email?[email protected] for more details.
*****
Have you read?my book ,?How To Build The Dental Practice of Your Dreams [Without Killing Yourself!] In Less Than Sixty Days.
You can order your copy here:?Click Link To Order
*****
The?Ultimate Patient Experience?is a simple to build complete Customer Service system in itself that I developed that allowed me to create an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about?my free special report.
Email me at?[email protected]
Chief Experience Officer at billquiseng.com. Award-winning Customer CARE Expert, Keynote Speaker, and Blogger
1 年Dr. Moffet (I'm sorry, but @LinkedIn would not allow me to personalize your first name without linking your name to your profile for other readers to view it), as you are a patient experience expert I very much appreciate you. I hope that you will understand that I agree to disagree to a degree. If you charge a separate fee for diagnostic photos before or after your dental service, but don't tell your patient, then I disagree. But if you charge the patient a one time fee for the dental service and diagnostic photos, then I understand and agree. As an example, over 10 years ago, while I was resort manager GM, we charged a separate fee for what we termed as a resort fee such as valet parking, tennis privileges, and an outside checker and chessboard. When we initially did that, we knew that the state did not tax us for a resort fee, only a room fee. In other words, we could charge more money and pay less taxes. Soon, thereafter, our guests were shouting aloud to the front desk staff, saying that we overcharged them without letting them know until it was too late. We quickly advertised on print or when a potential guest was making a reservation about our resort fee. Our guests paid the exact same fee after the fact without complaint.