Franchise Business
In Japan, we operate in a franchise system
with a new form of dental clinic business for
healthy people to visit to add more smiles to their faces.
We are expanding our franchise business in Japan in pursuit of dental clinics for healthy people to visit to add more smiles to their faces. Maximizing our dental whitening and cleaning technologies which we have accumulated over many years and our expertise in clinic operations, we fully support the improvement of the profitability of non-covered practices through preventive and aesthetic treatments.
Changes in the number of
affiliated clinics
233
Changes in the number of
clinic visitors
357,116
As of November 30, 2021
Mechanism and role of franchise
Role of the WHITEESSENCE
Operating Division
The extensive role of the division includes lending trademarks and manuals, development of new services and new products, providing information systems (reservation, customer and sales support), support for staff training, support for recruiting and giving guidance, advice provided during supervisors' regular visits, and many other tasks.
The planning and implementation of measures to increase overall brand recognition, such as the operation of a website, TV commercials and the operation of social media accounts are also positioned as important parts of the division’s role.
Role of affiliated
dental clinics
The role of our affiliated clinics is to provide service in accordance with the manual, recruit, train and motivate staff and manage sales and profit.
Using the tools for attracting customers provided by the division to make their services known to patients and local residents is another important role of an affiliated clinic.
Clinics can always receive advice from the division’s supervisor, enabling the affiliated clinics to concentrate on their operations.
Behavior of health- and beauty-conscious citizens
Many of the people who learned about WHITEESSENCE through the division’s marketing activities visit the clinic with a feeling of security and trust in the availability of affiliated clinics nationwide.
Repeatedly visiting clinics for dental whitening and/or cleaning, many customers' awareness of oral care significantly increases and they even request non-covered kinds of treatment such as aesthetics and orthodontics.
Having a better teeth color, better teeth alignment and a better-looking mouth makes customers more confident about their smiles.
A feeling of security and trust is the base of our growth
WHITEESSENCE, which is the Franchise Operation Division, and our affiliated clinics have a 50-50 partnership.
Seeking coexistence and co-prosperity, the division and affiliated clinics complement each other: The division provides trademarks, manuals, expertise and management guidance and the latter follows the manual in their operations.
It is very hard for a single dental clinic alone to develop products, implement mechanisms for staff training, attract customers and develop them into repeat customers, implement information systems and engage in many other tasks. Because all of these are available though WHITEESSENCE’s service, affiliated clinics can get closer to success by thoroughly concentrating on manual-based operations.
WHITEESSENCE contributes to the dentistry industry and to consumers by continuing to improve its expertise in operations that it has accumulated over many years.
| Franchise Division, WHITEESSENCE | WHITEESSENCE-affiliated clinics | |
|---|---|---|
| Brand | Lending trademarks and manuals |
Manual-based operations |
| Management support |
Providing information systems Regular visits for guidance and advice Support in purchasing |
Management of sales and profit |
| Management |
Support of director education Support of staff recruitment and training Lending educational tools (apps and websites) |
Staff recruitment, training and motivation |
| Marketing |
Development of new services Support sending potential customers to points of purchase Public relations activities throughout the WHITEESSENCE brand Development of printed materials |
Public relations activities for the areas surrounding a clinic |
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Past experience with dental whitening, etc. in Japan
Dental whitening is a huge potential market
Between 1989 and 2015, the number of teeth per person in Japan decreased to one-fifth for both 3-year-olds and 12-year-olds (source: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology school). It shows a downward trend across all generations, and the market for caries and periodontal disease treatment is shrinking significantly. On the other hand, the whitening market is still an immature market that is currently limited to a limited number of people. About 42 million people, or 53% of Japan's 79 million working population, have an "intention to use", but about 29.53 million people, or 70.8% of them, have never had a treatment. Currently, there is a huge market in the future for whitening in Japan.
* Survey: Macromill (September 30, 2021/n=50,000)
WHITEESSENCE is valuable in
three ways
We will bring you the value that WHITEESSENCE
has built through affiliated clinics, with a focus on:
Establishing dental clinics for healthy people to
visit with smiles on their faces;
Add entertainment elements to preventive dentistry to make customers want to visit the dental clinic
Preventive dentistry will become more associated with fun, comfort and beauty than its educative aspects. We offer a lifecycle in which the customer looks forward to coming back to the dental clinic, just like a beauty salon or a health spa.
Addressing the needs of heathy customers
Our preventive and aesthetic treatment menu is designed in accordance with the changing needs of healthy
customers. We also offer the space and treatment to meet the quality requirements.
Adding entertainment elements to preventive dentistry allows customers to enjoy preventive dentistry as if visiting a health spa or a beauty salon.
Improvement of aesthetic treatment for more income and
profit from non-covered practices; and
Stable non-covered income from dental whitening and non-covered dental cleaning
Customers can feel free to chose dental whitening or non-covered
The greater customer satisfaction is, the more customers will keep coming back. As a consequence, sales of non-covered practices stabilize.
Increase of non-covered practices other than dental whitening and non-covered cleaning
Customers who visit a clinic for dental whitening or non-covered dental cleaning want to keep their teeth and mouth clean and beautiful. They are more willing to change their dental crowns and filled teeth or have orthodontics for better teeth alignment.
WHITEESSENCE enables those customers to smoothly elect to undergo non-covered treatment, whereas it is hard to convince patients receiving insurance-covered care to choose that treatment. As a result, the clinic’s sales of non-covered practices increase.
A clinic organization where staff work independently
from directors
Improvement of directors' management skills
Directors and staff work hard together and this brings the organization greater customer satisfaction and greater profit. We strongly support the improvement of clinic directors’ skills as business managers.
More specifically, we engage in many different support activities, such as providing guidance and advice during monthly visits, holding triannual director meetings, showing business management videos to support learning, organizing certification examinations for directors and giving commendations at conventions.
Building a clinic for staff to work exuberantly and independently
At WHITEESSENCE, dental hygienists can utilize their skills to the maximum extent of their qualifications. Dental hygienists take the initiative (*to the extent allowed under the Dental Hygienists Act) in providing customers counseling and procedures and listen to customers directly expressing their satisfaction and appreciation. This makes it easy for dental hygienists to feel that they and their jobs are worthwhile and they will grow to like their job even more.
When dental hygienists are in a position where they can teach their juniors, they are able to make their organization grow bigger. To produce as many of these dental hygienists as possible, WHITEESSENCE supports clinic directors in improving managerial skills, offers many staff training programs including the organization of training sessions, biannual staff meetings and certification examinations, provides a video-based training system and gives commendations at conventions.