Dentaltown May 2022 - 30

" Patients won't know about buy-now,
pay-later options if you don't tell
them. So look to embed BNPL into
every channel of communication
with patients. "
Choose the right
financing partner: better
and more customized
It's important to emphasize that we
wanted a modern financing solution.
What we had seen in-market for years
just never delivered for our patients or our
practices-the application processes were
too unwieldy and cumbersome, and made
for a poor customer experience when after
all that trouble, customers were declined
for credit. When looking for a BNPL
solution, we wanted something streamlined,
convenient and, importantly, usable for
our customers.
After taking a look at various options,
we landed on these as the key questions to
consider when finding the right partner:
* What percent of patient applicants
are approved for financing? (The
more, the better, because many
BNPL programs approve only a little
more than half of applicants, while
others are closer to 100%.)
* Will the BNPL program work
across multiple dental office
locations or just one?
30 MAY 2022 // dentaltown.com
* Is financing approval fast-
as in, under a minute?
* Are the terms transparent to
patients, such as no hidden fees?
Are there flexible financing options,
such as six-, 12- and 24-month terms?
* Does the BNPL provider pay the
dental practice immediately
(which helps with cash flow)?
* Will there be a dedicated account
manager or contact for the
partnership? What kind of
customer support options,
such as an online account portal,
are involved?
* Will the BNPL provider offer
data-rich reports, digital marketing
resources and actionable insights to
improve financial performance?
* Will there be chargebacks, where the
provider takes money back from the
practice because patients can't pay or
dispute the dental charges?
Our practice philosophy is that the more
we can meet the needs of our customers
where they are, the more patients we will
be able to serve. Ultimately, we landed
on partnering with Sunbit, because for
us, in addition to all the criteria above,
that company had expertise in the dental
industry specifically and simply could
approve more patients than other options
we had explored.
We are now able to track how many
patients we're able to help who would not
have otherwise qualified with a " traditional "
credit score-based qualification. According
to the data, more than 60% of our transactions
are from patients who would have
been declined by other financing vendors.
This is the key value proposition that we
see with BNPL.
Get the partnership
and process right
Even if you feel you've found the right
BNPL partner, optimizing the relationship
will require care from both sides. We found
these things helped us to seamlessly deliver
a financing option to our customers:
Frequent communication. Have regular
touchpoints with the BNPL provider during
which you discuss strategies to improve
http://www.dentaltown.com
Dentaltown May 2022

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