Variable fee levels

Who says that all clients must pay the same fee schedule?Certainly not me.I think that every practice should have within it a number of different fee levels and be able to tailor fees to each individual client.For example a normal client who turns up on time, is friendly and polite, doesn't fail appointments, pays promptly and is easy to work on should pay your base fee.It's a fee that is good value and reflects the fact that the patient treats you well and is nice to work on.Then you should have a series of fees say +10%, +20%, +30% and +40% entered in your computer system.These fees apply to people who are less nice to work on.Let's take a worst case scenario.For example, the patient who often turns up late and sometimes not at all. They are rude to your team, slow to pay, have restricted opening which makes them slow and hard to work on and they have a bad back and so won't let you lean the chair all the way back.Feel free to move this patient up the scale. In this case +40% would not be unreasonable at all in my view.You might be surprised how much better you feel about treating difficult patients if you put them on different fee scales.You are getting compensated for the difficulties that they pose and that makes all the difference in the world.