Offering Your Patients Good, Better, and Best Options
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Offering your patients a range of services is likely to significantly improve your profits. This tactic works especially well when you offer prosthetics, eyeglasses, dental implants, or eyeglasses.
By Chuck McKay
One of my first lessons in psychology occurred in my freshman year at the University of North Dakota. It wasn’t on campus. It was on the job at Howard’s TV Repair, where I handled deliveries, made parts runs, did the odd minor repair, waited on customers, and occasionally sold something.
Color television was still a recent development, and Howard had a whole line of Sylvania portables visible through the showroom window.
On the left end was the most basic of color sets – a fifteen inch model with marginal color, a picture that never got bright enough to appreciate in sunlight, and a $299 price tag.
Next to it, for $359 was a similar set with a much brighter picture. To its right was a seventeen-inch set for $399, followed by a nineteen-incher for $439, and finally our top-of-the-line nineteen inch set with automatic fine tuning and a black matrix picture tube for $469.
That basic low-end set became an embarrassment to me as I tried my turn on the sales floor. “Why do we keep that set, Howard?” I asked. “It’s cheap, has a bad picture. As long as I’ve been here no one has ever even been interested in it.”
Howard said “Its here so that I can advertise a color television set for only $299. Its here to provide a full range of options. But mostly, Chuck, its here to help me demonstrate exactly why people should buy one of the better models. I show them this set. Then I show them the most expensive one. And finally, I let them drift to the middle where they usually find something in their price range.”
Since then I’ve seen the Good, Better, Best strategy used in nearly every business and nearly every industry. I suspect that those who don’t use it, could.
However, there’s an interesting outcome when this strategy is applied to health care. When dental implants, or hearing aids, or eyeglasses are sold in the Good, Better, Best fashion, people frequently buy the Best.
And if you add another choice - call it, say, “Ultimate” - a significant number will buy that one. Especially when you suggest that it’s the newest technology and highest quality. In that case the low and middle choices seem to make the high end more attractive.
What do you sell that could be delivered in a Good, Better, Best (and maybe Ultimate) fashion? Can you package your services? Differentiate by the amount of your time required or the guarantees you offer?
A few people will always choose the cheap alternative. Most won’t. Offering choices will boost your profit margins every time.
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Offering Your Patients Good, Better, and Best Options copyright © 2007 Chuck McKay and AdvanceMyPractice.com. All rights reserved.
Chuck McKay is a marketing consultant who works with professional practices and owner operated businesses. Questions about Good, Better, Best pricing in your health care practice may be directed to ChuckMcKay@ChuckMcKayOnLine.com.