Jessica and Tony Martin’s dental practice was struggling early on, but they were determined to separate themselves from the pack and start building a quality client base. Their depleted marketing budget was almost nonexistent to start with, and despite providing quality service, the Martins had to find another strategy to get a piece of the oversaturated market.

Jessica Martin’s background in psychology enabled her to take things a step further, so instead of making a fateful last stand with a risky marketing plan, she began looking at the dental experience as a whole. Given the connotations, the dental industry has a fair share of flaws, but the Martins saw an opportunity to address the mental barriers and phobias patients experience before visiting; once they were eliminated the case acceptance rate skyrocketed. 

Eliminating Fear and Anxiety at the Dentist

Like many treatments in psychology, Martin’s approach focuses on interacting with her patients to uncover the root cause of their fears and anxieties. So, with all of the information she collected as the strategy rolled out, Martin was able to compile a few universal tactics that got a shockingly positive response. The tactics Martin uses are designed to calm the central nervous system by creating a “dental spa” atmosphere, providing spa amenities that help to curb the fears and anxieties often associated with dental visits. 

Patients are triggered in a lot of different ways, so by offering consultation on top of the amenities, Martin can identify what those triggers are and tailor the experience on a patient-by-patient basis. Trust is built much more easily through this approach and they are seeing a large influx of appointments that are maxing out the practice’s capacity. It comes with its fair share of challenges, but the ability to create positive experiences has brought a lot of “overdue” patients out of the woodwork and shortened the intervals of existing ones.  

Sustainable Growth 

This goes to show that the latest and greatest equipment isn’t necessarily the best option for your practice in the short term. A lot of practitioners are fixated on the accumulation of new technology, but if your chair is empty, you won’t be able to use it anyways. Finding a strategy to increase your case acceptance and keep the calendar full is going to do a lot more for you in the long run, and the Martins’ practice is a testament to that.

They have successfully been able to grow with their strategy as the practice acquired more patients, but they attribute a lot of their success to staying with their roots. The dental-spa tactics provide a refreshing deviation from the traditional sensory assault, but the reason the Martins gained momentum so quickly was because of their focus on providing quality care. Jessica and Tony are in a great position to expand right now, but no matter what happens, their focus on trust helped build a loyal client roster that they can always depend on.