How to grow your whitening business and still avoid Bridezillas this wedding whitening season

Wedding whitening season is upon us, and now is a great time to find brides in your town who want to add a little sparkle to their smile. Here’s how you can make the most of this practice-growing opportunity.

Every bride wants to feel beautiful on her wedding day. From the dress to the hair to the makeup, every bride pictures herself a certain way as she’s walking down the aisle.

Brides-to-be also picture themselves with a dazzling, bright smile that will forever be captured in their wedding pictures. It’s just one more touch that helps to make a bride’s day special, and makes her feel even more like a princess.

With wedding season in full swing, now is a great time to help these brides achieve that beautiful smile they picture-while helping to grow your whitening business at the same time. Here are a few tips to make the most of wedding season and to give brides a reason to smile a little bigger on their big day.

Attend local bridal shows. Just about every bride attends a local bridal show to find vendors and ideas for their big day. These shows are a great opportunity for you to talk with brides about whitening and how your practice can help them achieve a sparkling smile for their big day, said Gary Takacs, owner of the Takacs Learning Center.

Bring a digital photo frame with full-face photos of before and afters, Takacs said. Let them see what you’ve done for other brides and what you could do for them. This really shows the power of whitening-just make sure you get permission from each of the patients you feature.

It’s also a good idea to bring shade guides with you to bridal shows, said Penny Reed Limoli of Limoli and Associates. Let the brides see what shade they are now and where they’d like to be. Before they leave, give them a card that features a menu of the various whitening services you offer. Be sure to have a space available for them to write their current shade and desired shade at the top or your whitening promotion flyer.

Don’t forget about the wedding party. While brides are the focus of wedding season, don’t forget that the groom, wedding party and family members also want to be camera ready for the big day.

Think about offering a buy one get one special for the bride and groom, Reed Limoli said, and offer your best possible whitening special to the wedding party and family members.

Host a bridal event at your practice. Pick a Saturday this summer and plan a half-day wedding-focused event at your practice, Reed Limoli said. Spend that time doing nothing but whitening services, whether that means trays for take-home or chairside whitening.

And don’t just limit the events to brides-invite entire wedding parties, immediate family and even the groom. If you have the room, think about inviting a few local wedding vendors to sponsor and promote the event. This could even become an annual event that kicks off wedding whitening season in your area.

Talk to brides-to-be in your practice. Chances are you don’t have to look outside your practice for the brides in your town-you’re probably already treating several.

“One thing I recommend my clients do is pay attention to what’s going on in their patients’ lives,” Takacs said. “They should know if they have patients getting married. If they don’t know that, they’re not dong a good job of connecting with patients. It goes back to creating relationships.”

Once you find out you’re treating a bride-to-be, talk to that patient about whitening specials and let her know the specials include the groom, bridal party and family members. Take a shade so she knows her current shade and what shade is possible-something both Reed Limoli and Takacs said you should do with every patient as a routine part of the hygiene appointment.

Use social media. Social media is a great marketing tool, and both Reed Limoli and Takacs recommend using it to market your wedding whitening services.

Take before and after pictures and post them on your Facebook page. Ask former brides who are happy with your whitening services to send in wedding pictures that you can post on your Facebook page. Ask if you can tag them in the photo. Before you know it people will be commenting and sharing the photo that not only shows off the bride, but what your whitening services can do.

It’s also a good idea to use social media to promote your wedding whitening specials. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest are great tools to spread the word about what specials you have for the bride, bridal party and immediate family members.

Don’t overpromise.  As with any patient, you have to be honest with brides-to-be about the results, Reed Limoli said. If their goals are unrealistic because of time or any other reason, make sure they understand that before you get started.

“If they haven’t allowed enough time for the ideal result tell them,” Reed Limoli said. “Let them know what can be achieved and ask them if that’s something they want to move forward with. We get in trouble when we over promise. I’d rather disappoint them on the front end than have them furious on the back end.”

Takacs recommends letting patients know they’ll get the best results if they do chairside whitening, like Philips Zoom!, combined with the take-home trays. While they might not see dramatic results after the initial chairside whitening, if they continue whitening at home they’ll notice a bigger change once they’re done with the trays. Compliance is also huge-if brides aren’t wearing the trays long enough or are drinking tea and red wine, they’re not going to get the best results.

Managing Bridezilla. Weddings can be a stressful time and sometimes brides have unrealistic expectations. Managing expectations will help you avoid dealing with Bridezillas in your office, but even then the stress of the wedding may cause frazzled brides-to-be to lash out if they’re not completely happy with their whitening results-even if you laid out what was achievable before you started the process.

If you find this happening in your office, Reed Limoli suggests telling that patient it may be time to find a new practice. Let the patient know it sounds like you might be having trouble meeting her expectations, and that maybe this isn’t the best office for her.

If this is coming from a loyal patient who’s been part of your practice for years, wait and see if her behavior changes after the wedding, Reed Limoli said. The stress that comes with weddings may have gotten to her, and you may even find she’s apologetic when she returns to your office.

Of course, if you feel like you might be dealing with a Bridezilla before you even get started with the whitening process, it might be best to part ways rather than going forward. If you tell the bride the results she’s looking for aren’t achievable and she doesn’t respond well, kindly let her know she may be happier at another practice.

Take advantage of this opportunity. Weddings are an exciting time for brides and their families, and they all want the day to be perfect and filled with memories that will last a lifetime. You can help make their day a little brighter by offering whitening services that will help them sparkle-while at the same time growing your whitening business and maybe even bringing new patients into your practice.