by Sponsored Content: Boomcloud
Amazon has over 200 million Prime members and chances are you are one of them. Almost 150 million of those members are in the U.S. In fact, Amazon has seen an approximately 50% increase in U.S. members in the past four years. It registers over $25 billion in annual revenue from subscription fees alone and much of its additional purchase revenue can be attributed to Prime membership.
Prime is the top reason consumers shop on Amazon, according to a Digital Commerce 360 and Bizrate Insights survey of 1,000 U.S. online shoppers. More importantly, once a consumer signs up for Prime, that consumer is unlikely to cancel their membership as Prime makes it easier to make purchases, including discounts.
So, how does all this affect your dental membership program? Simple. Dental membership programs, much like your Prime membership for Amazon, drive monthly recurring revenue for DSO practices, increase patient loyalty and allow for patient access to better procedures.
Create Monthly Recurring Revenue
An in-house membership program can help your practice generate a predictable recurring revenue stream. For example, the common membership program through a robust dental membership software company like BoomCloud costs a patient about $35 a month. If 1,000 patients sign up, that’s $35,000 a month in recurring revenue.
“I’ve seen practices across the U.S. benefit from recurring revenue generated by an in-house membership program,” said Jordan Comstock, Founder and CEO of BoomCloud. “It stabilizes a dental practice and makes it less stressful to manage.”
Comstock explains that a dental membership program lessens the “feast and famine” cash cycles that can make running a practice a nightmare. “One month you may be crazy busy and generating a lot of cash, but the next month may be a different story,” he said.
BoomCloud helps practices create, organize and automate a dental membership program for a practice’s patients.
Increase Patient Loyalty
A membership program offers a set of plans to patients. These plans offer discounted dental care for a monthly or yearly subscription fee. A patient might benefit from free cleanings and a discount on other needs when enrolled. These options can relieve patients and practices from the restrains of insurance companies.
“Our plans are customized for each individual office,” Comstock said.
Practices are encouraged to use a 12-month contract on a retainer agreement when patients sign up for dental membership programs.
“If you use BoomCloud, we recommend using our ACH bank withdrawal features so that your practice isn’t dealing with declined and expired credit cards,” Comstock said. “ACH is one of the most secure and efficient payment methods, plus it is more affordable in regard to merchant fees.”
ACH withdrawals are when funds are electronically withdrawn directly from a checking or savings account for the purpose of making bill payments or purchases.
Patients with memberships spend two to three times more than patients that are non-members. Membership patients are more loyal. The more your membership programs grow, the more you will make from your patient base. According to BoomCloud and Divergent Dental, the average member patient spends $1,576 in a 12-month span, while the average non-member patient spends $772 in that same time span.
“The data tells us that patients spend more in membership plans,” Comstock said. “Membership benefits and discounts draw the patients back to your office. It creates more loyal customers.”
Better Procedures Available to Patients
Consumers desire dental benefits as nearly 50% of them don’t have an employer-provided dental plan. A dental membership program model is dentist and consumer friendly. There are no claim forms, no prior authorizations and no denials or limitations to services. Uninsured patients gravitate to dental membership programs because they feel like they can finally afford better dental procedures.
“This enables dentists to increase patient loyalty, visits and treatment acceptance,” Comstock said. “These programs are easy to set up and they eliminate dental practices becoming the middleman between the patients and insurance companies.”
“BoomCloud is the most robust solution in the dental market,” Comstock added. “If you are serious about growing and scaling a dental membership program then you need a system.”
