A Simpler Financing Option Increases Case Acceptance

Inside Dentistry: April Hall on Sunbit’s Smile Now, Pay-over-time financing solution

During the time that I’ve worked for 7 to 7 Dental & Orthodontics, the practice has grown from a single office with four chairs to a large multilocation practice with eight dental offices across the San Antonio, Texas, area and one administrative office managing all of them. I started my career in 2009 as a registered dental assistant and then went from the front desk to office manager to my current position as operations manager. As a member of the operations team, I’m always on the lookout for innovative ideas, programs, and procedures. We like to experiment with new solutions and tweak them to fit our needs, but we are also happy to abandon things that don’t work for us at all.

Over the years, we have worked with at least five different financing services but were never able to find an option that approved patients across the credit spectrum. This left many of our patients who had lower credit scores and a lack of financial resources unable to get the treatment that they needed. When our practice’s owner heard about Sunbit, he was extremely interested in the high approval rates and the simple application process and asked me to have it set up in all of our offices.

We began using Sunbit toward the end of May, and in about 4 months, we realized $382,000 of additional revenue from 302 patients who otherwise may not have accepted treatment. In addition, our offices have experienced an approval rate of approximately 91%, and Sunbit reports an average approval rate of more than 85% among their clients. Sunbit is now our go-to financing option for every patient. It is a much simpler process than other financing options. There is no tedious or invasive paperwork, and our patients simply need to scan their state-issued driver’s license or identification card and add a phone number and email address in order to submit their application. Furthermore, the application process doesn’t require a hard credit check, so patients’ credit scores aren’t negatively impacted when they apply.*

The implementation process was extremely simple. Sunbit’s training team worked within our schedule to set up a training program based on our needs, and the customer support has continued to be great. Each of our offices has an iPad preloaded with the application, so it’s easy for team members to sit down with patients and review their options. To help motivate our team members to implement this new process into their workflows, Sunbit’s Sunbeast rewards program recognizes them for their engagement, and the portal allows us to track how Sunbit is being used in each office by each team member to see where we are financially as a result.

With Sunbit, we are now able to serve our patients who otherwise would be lost to other practices or, worse, would have their teeth extracted rather than treated. Its ease of use, soft credit check, and fast turnaround time truly increases our rate of case acceptance. It’s already difficult enough to get some patients into the dental office, so eliminating the 24- to 48-hour wait period for financing approval not only helps to speed up acceptance but also allows them to get the most out of each visit.

*Account openings and payment activities are reported to a major credit bureau. Loans are made by Transportation Alliance Bank, Inc. (dba, TAB Bank), which determines qualifications for and terms of credit.

Key Takeaways

1. Sunbit technology has an average approval rate of more than 85% and only requires a soft credit check to apply.

2. It’s a simple process with no tedious or invasive paperwork and no long wait period to get results.

3. The Sunbeast rewards program provides motivation for employees to implement the Sunbit patient application process into their workflows.

4. Sunbit’s portal allows managers to track an office’s use of Sunbit and see the financial results.

April Hall
Operations Manager
7 to 7 Dental & Orthodontics
San Antonio, Texas