Okay, Dr. Ellis here. Today, we’re going to talk about something that’s happening far too frequently in my opinion in our field. A lot of people ask me:
- Dr. Ellis, would you price match?
- Dr. Ellis, would you bleach my teeth free for life?
- Dr. Ellis, will you take just the money that the insurance pays?
- Dr. Ellis, would you do all these things?
And the answer, even to the best of my friends, is no, I won’t. And the problem is, it cheapens the product that you get. And let me explain what I mean when I say that. Whenever someone says I need a knee replacement, I have heard this thousands of times and everybody has, when you need a knee replaced, mom, grandma or whatever, nobody ever say ever I got the cheapest knee I could possibly get for mom. Nobody ever says, “Yeah! I was thinking about getting a knee replaced and a coupon came in the mail, 2 for 1 knees! And I went to that guy.” Nobody ever says that! What they always say is that, I got the best knee specialist in the state. I got mom the best specialist. I got mom the knee guy that works on Tiger Woods or some famous basketball player. They always say, they got the most famous guy who does the work on other people. They never say that they got the absolute cheapest, freebie, lifetime of free physical therapy with knee deal.
Now, I understand that in some regards there are medical procedures that are obviously not on par with dentistry. I understand that! I will never save your life from cancer. I will never replace your lungs. I will never do anything like that, however, for anyone that has needed wisdom tooth extracted, for anyone that has needed a root canal, for anyone that has needed things like that its medicine and it’s a medical need. And there are qualities performed in this industry. And although I don’t want to talk bad about any doctors, dentists do different things for different reasons, I don’t want to talk down to any of them, there are only so many hours of the day and to offer tons of free services bills have to be paid, staff still has to be paid, mortgage still has to be paid. None of the bills decrease and so to decrease the fees for services means that more people must be pushed through every day. And I won’t do it. I hate when I go to a doctor’s office and I wait an hour and I get five minutes with the doctor and then he chips me off. I hate it and I won’t do that to my patients. I provide a good service at a good fee. I am definitely not the highest and I am definitely not the lowest. If you would like to compare prices in the field that something else’s out there suites you better then I am okay.
I want everybody to be able to go to some place that they feel they are getting a good product. I treat the way my dental practice the way I shop, usually the things I get at the middle of the road. I very seldom buy anything that is the most expensive and very seldom do I find the absolute bottom of the bear cheapest in anything whether in television, phone, whatever the case may be. So that’s the way I run my life and I try to run my practice the same. I want good quality product for a reasonable price. So that is why I do not give out freebies, that’s why I do not price match and bleach for free. If you want to get two-for-one knees out of the coupon that’s great! If you want quality service for a reasonable price with a dentist you trust then hopefully I am your guy. Thanks!
