At Northwest Dental Group in Minnesota, practice growth came at a cost: an increase in merchant fees as more and more patients switched to credit cards to make their payment. The office knew that controlling this cost was essential to improve their operating margins, and switched to CSPay. Read on to learn more about their journey with CSPay.
In 2023, the average dental office ran $44,925 in credit card payments per month. That’s a 45.5% increase over the 2019 average of $30,876. It’s also a 195% increase over the 2009 average of $15,221. In other words, the average dental practice in the USA is now running almost 3 times as much in credit cards as in 2009.
Northwest Dental Group was experiencing this shift in consumer preferences first hand. With their 4 locations spread across the city of Rochester, MN, Northwest dental group serves an energetic young population with a median age of 36.3 years (2022). The offices were showing healthy growth, but the leadership team noticed a pattern.
“Almost 83% of our transactions were credit card based.” says DeDee Tibben, Practice Manager at Northwest Dental Group. She knew that with higher volumes, she was paying a lot more to BluePay, her merchant processor. Focused on reducing her merchant fees, she started looking for a better deal elsewhere.
It was April 2023, and Northwest Dental Group had been on the CareStack cloud-based dental practice management platform for more than a year. That was when her account manager told her about CSPay, CareStack’s new integrated payments solution. When she heard that CSPay had lower transaction fees and could also store credit information compliantly, DeDee decided to make the switch.
“The whole process was flawless.” says DeDee about the implementation experience. “We had all the machines sent to us ahead of time before the switch. The process was laid out step-by-step, so it was easy for us to pick a date and go live.”
The CSPay implementation gave instant rewards to DeDee’s team. Northwest Dental Group saved $33,000 in the first quarter after their switch to CSPay, due to the lower merchant processing fees. Today, it also helps them save around $10,000 every year on account of the time saved for repetitive and flawed payment workflows associated with their previous credit card processor.
“I really like CSPay’s complete integration with CareStack, especially for refunds. We process a lot of refunds, so the time savings have been incredible.” beams DeDee.
“You know we were looking at CSPay for the merchant fees, but we had no idea of the time savings we were going to get with it as well.”
But the benefits of CSPay did not stop there. CSPay’s integrated capabilities to store credit card information securely and then use it later for automated periodic billing helped DeDee and her team to launch Northwest Dental Group’s in-house membership plans.
“Our primary objective at first was the cost.” DeDee says. “And then it kicked into a faster gear.”
Today Northwest Dental Group has more than 300 patients enrolled into their in-house membership plans, with new patients being enrolled every month at a healthy rate. It gives the patients a more affordable avenue of care without compromising on the quality of care, while giving Northwest Dental Group an additional way of serving their patients better. The patients also love the easier payment options that have been added with CSPay.
“They love the ability to pay from the patient portal. They love the text-to-pay feature”. Says DeDee. “I think it also gives them confidence knowing that our technology is up to date.”
Northwest Dental Group is one of the many success stories of practices who have switched to CSPay and realized how impactful it can be to their bottom line and patient experience. To know more about CSPay and how it can benefit your practice, click here to book a demo today.
Name: Northwest Dental Group, Rochester, MN
Number of Locations : 4
Previous Merchant: BluePay
Date Implemented: April 2023
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