SmileDirectClub Reaches New Customers with Innovative Retail Options
In America, achieving a perfect smile can be difficult. Traditional methods can be expensive or inconvenient for patients who lack access to medical care.
"Sixty percent of counties in the U.S. do not have access to orthodontic care, and we're working to close that gap," says Alex Fenkell, cofounder of Nashville-based SmileDirectClub, a teledentistry company that provides personalized, at-home teeth-straightening services through an online system—and is disrupting old-school orthodontia methods in the process.
The company found early success with its digital-only model, which offered dentist-patient consultations and mailing kits that contained impression molds and custom 3D invisible aligners to straighten teeth according to prescribed photographs of the patient's mouth. Now, the company is expanding in both urban cores and rural regions with physical stores, drugstore partnerships, and touring buses that provide affordable and accessible dentistry to the masses and brings the 3D imaging process to brick-and-mortar spaces.
"The challenge is to follow the customers where they are, per the company's philosophy and mission to increase access to affordable care," says SmileDirectClub's chief clinical officer, Dr. Jeffrey Sulitzer. "Orthodontists typically cater to the wealthy. We go to the masses. But it is hard to build the level of trust that would inspire someone to put something in their mouth that they bought off the internet."
So, the company created physical environments for the initial consultation and 3D scanning.
There are no doctors or medical equipment in the SmileShop—and thus, the retail spaces that house them do not need to be zoned as dentist offices. All patient treatment plans are overseen digitally from beginning to end through a network of state-licensed dentists who access patient information and communicate with clients through a secure, federally compliant portal.
"This is doctor-prescribed, doctor-directed and doctor-managed from the very beginning to the very end. It is not DIY orthodontics," Sulitzer says.
The company has opened hundreds of locations nationwide in the past three years—thanks largely to a relationship with WeWork, and now a partnership that will set up SmileShops inside many of CVS Health pharmacies' new HealthHUBs.
When Doug Incorvati, SmileDirectClub's senior vice-president of retail, joined the company in 2017, there were only 12 SmileShops open. Incorvati committed to opening 8-10 locations per week, a pace the brand continues to sustain today. The company partnered with coworking operator WeWork to house SmileShops in many of its office spaces.
"WeWork gave SmileDirectClub the opportunity for scalability and provided the access point for the customer," he explains. "It enabled SmileDirectClub to enter a market where we could see there was demand, and use a shorter lease commitment of six months to test the market while remaining flexible."
While being inside a WeWork may not provide the same visibility as a storefront, the robust tenant mix provides a built-in potential customer base with traffic from small businesses and consultants—a target consumer for SmileDirectClub.
The move into CVS Health was strategic for both the disruptor and the legacy retailer as well. As CVS rolls out HealthHUBs in hundreds of stores, its goal is to provide a more well-rounded health offering to shoppers, especially in the age of urgent care clinics. If you can get a flu shot, or a sprain or infection treated on the spot, why not also oral care?
Erin Pensa, senior director of retail communications for CVS Pharmacy, says that the rollout, which will take place throughout 2019, will show the retailer's commitment to "providing access to next generation health services and solutions that are convenient and affordable."
With a flagship store in Midtown Manhattan and a newly opened boutique-style store in Beverly Hills, Calif., SmileDirectClub is not just hoping to attract new customers based on affordability—the company is also thinking of those who can't take time off in the middle of the day to sit in an orthodontist's office, or who don't want to wear braces for aesthetic reasons. With that in mind, the company does intend to continue moving into freestanding retail spaces that may be in areas without a CVS or WeWork.
The stores' visual merchandising relies on aspirational messaging, customer testimonials, and influence from social media to draw consumers to the product. Since the stores don't actually sell many products that customers can walk away with, the displays are minimal. Though, the stores do have products for purchase, such as the bright on LED light whitening kit—an at-home treatment offered at a competitive price compared to traditional methods of teeth whitening offered in dentists' offices.
To bring the business to remote areas where a store location wouldn't be suitable, the company is deploying a fleet of six branded buses around the country to make stops in areas where consumers have indicated an interest in SmileDirectClub but are more than 30 miles away from an existing store.
"Since launching the SmileBuses in October 2018, we've visited well over 200 cities, and the numbers are growing weekly," says Fenkell. "On top of having our SmileBus stationed in parking lots of malls and shopping centers, we utilize them for experiential activations ranging from B2B Corporate SmileDays to philanthropic efforts with the Boys & Girls Club."
Sulitzer stresses that part of the company's mission of increasing access to care includes not just making the service easily accessible, but also "intensely convenient." While appointments are recommended (especially for the SmileBus tours), walk-ins are accepted at all locations, everyone who applies for payment installments to buy the customized aligners will be approved, and the average length of an initial consultation is only about 30 minutes.
"You used to come to my office as a patient and be seen based on my schedule and my available time," Sulitzer says. "This approach is customer-focused. The customer is more important."
