The Issue
At a leading dental service, patients were not just skipping appointments; they were avoiding dentists altogether.
The real issue was not the booking system. Patients felt vulnerable, powerless, and sure they would be taken advantage of once more.
Years of difficult dental experiences led many patients to avoid care, even if it meant living with pain. Call centers, complex insurance forms, and confusing treatment plans all sent the same message: "You're not in control here."
Our Mission
Transform dental care from an experience of vulnerability into one of empowerment.
Our Approach
We began with ethnographic research, which involved immersive fieldwork and direct observations. Our team spent weeks shadowing patients during their entire dental care journey, from the initial appointment scheduling to post-treatment follow-up. By engaging directly with patients in their own environments, we gained insights that focus groups could not provide. This hands-on approach revealed the nuances of the patient experience, allowing us to identify areas for meaningful change. The website came later.
Deep ethnographic observation revealed what patients would never say in surveys: They felt like victims in their own healthcare journey. Every touchpoint, from forced phone calls during business hours to powerless waiting in sterile rooms, reinforced their lack of control.
Journey mapping exposed the broken moments: Less than 10% could book online. Over 50% rejected treatment plans written in legalese. Patients literally sat below dentists who towered over them during consultations. The physical power dynamics matched the emotional ones.
Business analysis identified the hidden leverage point: A 1% improvement in treatment acceptance would generate the same $20 million as a 20% increase in new bookings. Everyone was obsessing over the website. The real money was sitting in the consultation room.
The Process
Uncovering Patient Truth We conducted in-depth ethnographic studies with over 100 patients who hadn't visited a dentist in five or more years. Not satisfaction surveys, but real conversations about their moments of struggle. We shadowed patients through 200+ hours of actual dental visits, from searching online to sitting in the chair. The pattern was unmistakable: every interaction reinforced their powerlessness.
One patient abandoned their appointment after waiting 90 minutes with no information. Another signed a treatment plan they didn't understand because they were too intimidated to ask questions. A third drove to three different offices because the website didn't clearly show which location was closest. These weren't edge cases—they were the norm.
Confronting Clinical Reality During intensive two-day workshops, we brought together patients, dentists, office managers, and corporate leadership for conversations they'd been avoiding for years. The breakthrough moment came when a patient looked directly at a dentist and said: "You make me feel stupid when you use medical terms, then you make me feel poor when you show me the price."
We mapped every moment of vulnerability across the patient journey. The team generated over 80 concepts to address these moments, then filtered them through three lenses: Would patients actually want this? Could offices actually deliver this? Would this actually drive the business? No theoretical frameworks—just real solutions that would work in real offices.
Proving Patient Empowerment We prototyped solutions in actual dental offices with real patients. Not PowerPoint presentations, but working systems patients could experience. We tested pager systems that let patients leave the waiting room. We prototyped consultation protocols where dentists sat at eye level with patients. We created visual treatment plans that patients could understand in seconds, not minutes.
One test revealed the power of small changes: Simply allowing patients to hold their own dental records during consultations increased treatment acceptance by measurable percentage points. Another showed that giving patients control over appointment timing through online booking reduced no-shows significantly. Each prototype taught us what empowerment actually looked like in practice.
The team ultimately built and implemented 16 distinct solutions across the patient journey. Each addressed a specific moment where patients decided whether this dental service was different or just more of the same. These weren't just ideas—they were operational changes that could scale across hundreds of locations.
Delivered Outcomes
Financial Impact: Revenue grew from approximately $1.5 billion to $5 billion—a greater than 200% increase driven by experience design.
Operational Transformation: Online bookings increased from less than 10% to over 90%. Call center costs dropped substantially while conversion rates improved by double digits.
Network Expansion: The organization expanded from 400 to over 1,400 locations. Annual patient visits expanded from under 3 million to over 17 million.
Treatment Acceptance: Improved by multiple percentage points, generating over a hundred million in additional annual revenue.
Industry Leadership: Became one of the largest networks of digital dental offices globally. Set new standards for patient-centered care.
The Truth
When you give vulnerable people control, they stop avoiding help.
The entire dental industry had been solving the wrong problem. They thought patients needed more convenient scheduling. What patients actually needed was to feel safe.
Once this organization understood that empowerment was the antidote to vulnerability, everything changed. Not just their business metrics. But the lives of millions who finally got the care they'd been avoiding for years.
This transformation started with a basic request to manage a website. It grew into a full redesign of dental care for millions of patients. The old way of making things comfortable was not enough.
Your Turn
What truth is everyone thinking but no one saying?
Which sounds familiar?
"Our customers tolerate us but don't love us." They stay because switching is hard, not because you're remarkable. Every interaction reinforces why they chose you over others.
"We know the real problem, but no one will say it." The elephant in every room. The truth that would require changes is too hard, too political, or too threatening to someone's interests or power.
"Every initiative takes twice as long and costs twice as much." Simple projects become complex. Months of planning yield minimal results. The system defeats even the best intentions.
The real problem isn't what you think. Your team knows the answer; they need permission to say it.
Ready to surface the truth?
We don't do comfortable. We build solutions WITH your team, not for them.
Let's talk when you're ready for the conversation others avoid.
Note: This transformation was led by us during our tenure at the world's most creatively influential agency, then recognized as Agency of the Decade. While that shop pioneered breakthrough campaigns that blurred the line between entertainment and advertising, this work proved something deeper: confronting uncomfortable truths drives genuine transformation. Today, we take this principle further. We don't just surface unspoken truths, we empower your teams to voice them and build solutions together. This is why we share this story. It shows what happens when someone finally says what everyone has been thinking.
