 Hello everybody, Andrea here. So I want to talk to you guys about cost and value, okay? How you can really give value to what you do in your business, because as a mobile dental hygienist or even just a dental hygienist with your own practice, that isn't the norm, meaning people are not used to that. So when you're trying to market and sell your services, people are really not just asking you, well, how much does it cost to get my teeth cleaned or how much does it cost to get my teeth whitened? How much does it cost to see you? What they're really asking you is, why am I going to you and not a dental office? What can you give me? What can you do for me that a dental office can't? So cost and value really goes hand in hand. What value can can you give me for the cost? And I'm going to explain this a little bit. So it really doesn't matter if you offer the cheapest teeth cleanings out there, you know, for starters, don't do that. But if you did, it doesn't matter because when the patient sees you and they walk away and they're not happy or they didn't really get the service they were expecting, they're going to go somewhere else. They're going to go to another dental office. They're going to go to another hygienist. If the cost and the value doesn't measure up for them, people don't mind paying more money for better service and to get what they want to get. You know, as a perfect example, there are people out there who do look for the cheapest teeth cleaning place they can find, the cheapest dental office, the cheapest hairstylist, the cheapest spa. But then there's going to be other people out there who don't necessarily want the cheapest, but they want the best. I don't mind paying a little more money to get better service. You know, it's kind of like, okay, here's a perfect example. I really like shopping at Sobe's. Sobe's is a grocery store because I don't have to carry change to pay for my cart. Carts are just there and they always have somebody there to beg your groceries. Everybody says the cost of food at Sobe's is a little bit more. So you might be paying a dollar more per item. It's hard to say. Some things are a bit cheaper. If things go on sale, some things are more expensive. But I love shopping at Sobe's, the overall experience. Everything is laid out nicer. The food does seem a lot fresher to me and somebody's always there to beg my groceries. The opposite side of that. Nofrel's, that is a grocery store too, is a lot closer to my home, but I have to pay for a cart. Anytime I go, there's so many people there. I'm basically pushing through. It's not a very clean grocery store. In my opinion, there's always food on the floor. You know, it's just not up kept. I mean, I shouldn't say there's always food on the floor. That sounds horrible. That's not true. But it's just not as nice as Sobe's. It might be cheaper, but I find the quality isn't there either. And you know, I prefer to go to Sobe's because it's just a better experience for me and I don't even think twice paying for it. At the end of the day, I might be paying $5 more to go to Sobe's. Again, it's hard to say. It depends on what I'm buying. If I'm not buying things on sale, but you get the idea. But you might be listening to this and saying, Andrea, I shop at Nofrel's all the time. I love it there. A pack of carrots is a pack of carrots. I don't care. You know, I don't care that I have to pay for my cart. I get a basket anyway. I get the money back for my cart anyway. And I don't mind begging my own groceries. What's the big deal? So there are different types of people out there. But ultimately, what value are you giving your patient? Why are they coming back to you? And that starts with the first interaction of them even just looking for a dental hygienist with their own business. Are you upkeeping your social media pages? So when they go to look for you, they heard about you, whatever, but your last post was two months ago. They're automatically going to assume you're not working. They're not going to reach out to you. If you're consistent with your posts, they're going to keep an eye on you. They're not going to book right away. They're going to keep an eye out for who is this person? What type of content is she posting? Is she posting about her reading a book on the beach? Or is she posting about the latest toothbrush that she absolutely loves? That's a manual toothbrush, not an electric one, but she's really passionate about these new toothbrushes. They're going to look and watch those posts. They want to know who you are because as a dental hygienist, we are with our patients. We're talking to our patient. Nobody ever says, I don't even know who my dental hygienist is. Is that the one that's at the front desk? Nobody says that. They say, I love my dental hygienist. She is super nice. She's super informative. That's what they say. Or yeah, you know what? I don't really like my dental hygienist, but I really like the dentist, so that's why I stay there. We need to offer value. Let's say you go the extra step and you allow the patient to book online. It's very easy for them to book an appointment. Or do you make it hard for them? Do they have to call you? You never answer your phone so they're leaving messages. You don't respond to them for three days. Are they going to keep seeing you or are they going to go to another hygienist? These are the things you have to think about and then at their appointment, are you thorough? Do you explain things to them? Do you make them feel comfortable or do they feel like they're in a factory assembly line? In and out. See you later. Bye. Thanks for your money. And then you leave. What experience are you giving them? What value are you giving them? Every patient is going to pay whether it's their insurance or not. Do they think at the end of the day, I don't know why I pay my dental hygienist so much money. I don't even know what she did for me. She polished my teeth. That's all she did. Are you informing them of what you're doing? This is me scaling the teeth to get the tartar off. Do you remember what tartar is? Let me explain it to you while I'm cleaning your teeth anyway and you can't talk so let me explain it to you. Or are you just going in, going out again saying see you later. See you later buddy. Bye. Thanks. I'll see you in six months. Be informative and then afterwards, are you following up with them? Are you sending them a quick message saying, you know, I know we did a deep cleaning today. The gums were bleeding a lot. How are the gums feeling? Have you been using that mouth wash every night that I've suggested that will really help to heal up the gums? Or are you not following up at all in six months? You're sending them a message. Hey, do you want to book your next cleaning? And that's it. Value and cost go hand in hand. If they don't feel like they're getting the value from you, they're not going to book with you again or they might book with you again just because they don't know any better, but they're not happy and they're not going to refer you to other people. They're not going to talk about you with other people. You want patients to say you are the best hygienist they've ever had. You are so nice. You direct bill. You are so knowledgeable. You are thorough and you explain things to them and you help to ease their anxiety. You know who knows? Different patients do want different things and they look for different things. They might not want a hygienist who talks and talks and talks and talks or they might want a hygienist who does talk them throughout their entire appointment so they know what to expect. So personalities can be different too. You know, they might not want a hygienist who's super nice, bubbly, high energy. They might want a hygienist who doesn't say much, but you should be able to feel that patient out. I have patients that I know they don't care to talk. They don't care to chat. I'm still nice and friendly, of course, but I'm not going to be telling them about my weekend, my new business, my tutoring. I'm not going to bother with that because they don't care. I have other patients who I know love to chat. I book in half an hour longer appointment just so I don't feel like I'm rushing them and they don't feel rushed either because they like to tell me about their grandson and granddaughter for the 18th time, but that's okay. Value and cost go hand in hand. It's not always about how much you're charging, but how much value are you giving your clients? Are they going to come back? If you aren't really sure, then you do need to look at your business. Are you doing whatever you can to get that client in the first place? Keep them happy so they refer you to other people and to have them come back and want to book their next appointment. I hope this helped you guys. Please let me know if any questions and I'll talk to you in the next one.