Whether your clinic offers routine dental services or specializes in orthodontics, oral surgery, or other services, every client expects a confidential and convenient process. Your payments system can make or break a client’s experience, which is why choosing the right payments provider is essential.

Accepting credit or debit card payments is important for speeding up the patient checkout process and eliminating the time-consuming, frustrating process of generating invoices and collecting fees later. However, many dental practices are overpaying for their credit card processing service. Here’s what you need to understand.

Payments Shape The Client Experience

Your payments system can have a major impact on whether a patient returns. From having a limited set of payment options to having a checkout process that’s simply too slow for busy patients to put up with, it’s important that you improve the patient experience by improving your payment process.

  • Speed Up The Process: One of the fastest ways to improve the payment experience for your patients is to speed up the process. An updated credit card processing machine is part of it, but hardware has to be combined with the right software and support.
  • Offer More Options: Whether they want to swipe, insert, or tap, you should give patients options so they can pay in the manner they’re most comfortable with.
  • Reduce Contact: More people than ever are conscious of avoiding germs, so adding contactless payment options should be a top priority.

Your clients have certain expectations, and your practice should meet and exceed them. If you fail to address the above concerns and priorities, your dental clinic will ultimately suffer in the form of reduced patient satisfaction, fewer word-of-mouth referrals, or poor online reviews.

What to Look for in a Payments Provider

You know what your patients want, so how do you give it to them? Your dental practice needs to partner with the right payments provider. Of course, with the sheer number of options on the market, deciding can be tough. It’s important that you compare your options side-by-side to ensure you get the best rates and the best service.

Fully Disclosed Quotes

Far too many dental practices are grossly overpaying for their credit card processing service, and they don’t even realize it. To help you compare services and get the best rates for your practice, you need to ask for a fully disclosed quote from your current provider, and each service you’re considering. That means they’ll provide you with a written quote listing any and all fees you will be subject to.

The best credit card processing for dentists is transparent. With a fully disclosed quote, you can fairly compare various providers next to each other. You can also be stern about asking for the best price first if you don’t want to spend time haggling over the phone. An upstanding company will gladly provide that.

Highly-Available Support

Many service providers will be quick to respond to your questions — until you sign a contract. Sales teams are sure to be responsive and as helpful as possible. What matters to your practice is that the customer service and technical support teams are actually available when you need them.

The first thing to consider is whether the company limits their service hours. You don’t want to be waiting for the service center to open when you have patients coming in and out hoping to take care of their charges right then and there. Look for a company that promises 24/7 support and read reviews to make sure they actually follow through.

A Focus on Security

Security matters to your practice and to your patients. Your service provider should care just as much and they should openly advertise all the effort they’re continuously putting into keeping their clients’ information safe. At the bare minimum, the service should offer hardware that complies with the PCI Security Standards and they should help your practice achieve compliance, too.

New Features

Don’t settle for a service provider who simply isn’t keeping up with the times. As a practice, you’re under constant pressure to offer the “latest and greatest” patient experience to everyone who comes through your door. The last thing a patient wants to deal with after receiving a modern dental procedure is a slow checkout process with clunky, outdated hardware.

Again, your payment experience shapes the overall patient experience, so it’s important that you partner with a provider who offers modern hardware and software solutions that your clients will appreciate.

Tips for Choosing The Right Provider

  • Do your research. Know what questions to ask and make sure you get straightforward answers.
  • Ask for disclosures in writing for easy reference and transparency.
  • Compare multiple quotes so you know you’re getting a good deal.

Find a Merchant Account That Works for You®

You have options when it comes to merchant accounts, so how do you know who you should partner with? Ultimately, all credit card processing involves costs – so you have to take the time to research your options and understand how these fees work. Do your due diligence, speak to representatives, and make sure that your practice is equipped with the right information to make an informed decision.

At NMA, we believe every client should have a thorough understanding of how credit card processing works for dentists and all of the areas where they should be paying extra close attention. After all, you’re a small, local practice. NMA focuses on serving businesses like yours with the goal of offering the latest hardware backed by quality service, all while cutting costs so you get to keep more of what you earn.Interested in learning more about NMA and what we can do for your dental practice? Explore our offerings and check out our educational resources to see what partnering with NMA can mean for your practice.