Episode 832: Staying Human in Automation

 Kiera is joined by Pedro Becker of Axle to talk about how to effectively use a centralized dental platform that utilizes artificial intelligence while staying human. Points of conversation include learning curves with automation, how this software is transforming dentistry, what’s easy for the patient and the practice, and more.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:04.061)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I am freaking jazzed about today's guest. This is a person who I believe is changing the way dentistry is going on. And their mission is to honestly give you your life back. And so to give you your life back, and I love their core values, our amazing customer experience, and putting people before profit. And I just think that that's a beautiful way to kick this off. I've got Pedro, owner of Axel. Pedro, welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. How are you today?

 

Pedro Becker (00:33.526)

more excited than you are. Thank you for having us on. It means the world to me. Thank you.

 

Kiera Dent (00:34.741)

I'm sorry.

 

Pedro, I'm so happy and you're at a conference and you're taking time to podcast with me. I'm out next month, so we had to move your podcast around. So thank you for joining us. But okay, I feel like I just scratched the surface of who you are. You have such a robust background in dentistry. And now I feel like Axel is truly changing the way that we're doing things internally in offices and automating things, making it easier. I'm jazzed. But what I love about you is when people have their top line problems,

 

So, you know, I was talking to you about credit card fees and talking about automating hygiene and billing. You see that this is the problem, but what really it is, is it's overhead or it's high costs or different. Like you guys don't just take surface level and solve the problem. You look below that to find out what's really the root. And then let's create the solution for that. So Pedro, that's my little intro. Tell everybody, how did you get here? How are you even a part of Axel? And then I'm dying to know how you named it Axel. So like, that's my second follow-up question, but kind of tell us, how did you even get into dentistry? Tell us kind of a little bit about Pedro.

 

Pedro Becker (01:37.698)

So Pedro, Pedro's just a normal guy like everybody else. I came in dentistry in 2015. Before 2015, I'd done worldwide projects with Google, worldwide projects, Apple, and digital billboards throughout the world. I was part of teams, so there was no I in teams. So part of some great teams that built those technologies, and I call that a digital transformation, something that changes the world. 2015, there was a dentist that came to me and said, hey man, let's build the largest call center.

 

quit your dream job, working for corporate America, and then build the first call center. And at the time I actually was a, I was working for our government, that's what I'll say, in cyber. So I took the leap of faith and built our first startup. We went from zero to 300 employees, built the largest call center, but it was attractive. And it brings us to where we are today, is everything is done manually. I've got those 300 employees, from zero to 300 employees. And that's what Axel's mission is about is.

 

Kiera Dent (02:32.725)

same.

 

Pedro Becker (02:35.562)

You said it, it's giving people back their lives. No kool-aid, no nonsense, software that works, software that makes you money, and software for people that listen to you. I tell this to everyone I meet, we have no debt, we have no pressure, no one trying to make us push sales. I don't care about sales. Dumb as ourselves, I don't care. I just want people to love the product. We have some very big groups with us, five locations, 20 locations, 80 locations, and that's where the climate is coming from, is giving them back their life.

 

Kiera Dent (02:45.397)

Mm-hmm.

 

Pedro Becker (03:03.69)

automating every little thing they do. And we'll talk about that today. I'll give you some examples.

 

Kiera Dent (03:09.185)

Well, and I think it's beautiful right now because hiring is tricky, right? I mean, I'm sure you look everywhere we look, any conference we're at, any place that we're going, everyone is talking about how do I hire my teammates, how do I hire my teammates? And I don't know about you, I think as business owners we tend to do this. We look outside of dentistry and I look to see, well, what are other people doing? We have QR codes, we're using automation in other ways. We're like...

 

They're using technology way more than I feel like dentistry is. And we're just kind of sitting there like, we've been doing it for years. Let's just keep doing it. So I love that you guys are truly transforming dentistry. So I've got to know how did you come up with the name Axel? I'm always intrigued by how people name their companies. So tell me, how did you name, name it Axel?

 

Pedro Becker (03:52.654)

Yeah, that was one of the things we thought about for a long time. Like, what are we solving? We're solving for X, right? So it's been an acronym. Accelerate, expand, and grow your practice. So Axel is like no other brand, but that's the story behind Axel. X is expand, accelerate, leverage, enhance, leverage your technology. That's what Axel is. Um, I can tell you one thing. If people watch this podcast or watches this, if you're on OpenDemol, I want you to know this. We have studied how humans don't have to do things anymore.

 

So that way your practice is not stressed out, having to call patients, not even have time to do that stuff. Who has time to call someone who's in there rescheduling their hygiene, or their next profile, their next period, or their restorative treatment, or their crown? We're gonna do it for you. Set it, forget it, do it alone. We do it with insurance too. We actually pre-fill a lot of patient stuff for them, Piera. I'll give you an example. I don't know if you know this. Did you know every year, patients' insurances, a lot of them are terminated because the employer gets a new insurance plan?

 

Kiera Dent (04:43.509)

chance.

 

Pedro Becker (04:51.15)

So what will happen is the plan says terminated. I think it's like January, February, they're never gonna be getting any plans. So we had one group that said, hey, and they're pretty big, they're like, we love y'all's automation, but every year they get terminated, that's the problem, right? We said, okay, they said, can you text them? The student's axle sees that their insurance is terminated. We never do that. What could that do though? So we took a step further, like, well, they're just gonna tell them, hey, your insurance terminated. Just give us a call. We said, no.

 

Kiera Dent (04:51.228)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (04:56.095)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (05:04.883)

Mm-hmm.

 

Pedro Becker (05:19.114)

Take it a step further. So what's gonna happen to call y'all? Oh, they're gonna fill out. Okay, we'll do that, too So we send them a text and hey your insurance you see that you're whatever word any like fill it out You need to fill out before your appointment That way you're stuck in having to call so every little thing we're looking at is about efficiencies taking away the human Having things manually allowing you to love what you do not be stressed out not let the doctor be stressed out He's got 20 pieces of software and he's got to do everything manually even though he's got one soft

 

Kiera Dent (05:27.892)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (05:48.125)

Mm-hmm.

 

Pedro Becker (05:48.938)

I don't think the all in one, I love the all in one, don't get me wrong, but I want to generate revenue for a product that's not seen as overhead. A product that's seen as something that generates revenue. A lot of our dashboards, Kiera, we show you how much money we're making in it, because I want to bring deposits into people's lives. Not withdrawals.

 

Kiera Dent (05:58.025)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (06:07.969)

Mm-hmm. Which I think you're speaking everyone's language, but I'm sure listeners hearing this are like, I love this idea, but dentistry is human, Pedro. It's human. And how is this becoming robotic and automated? Are you taking out the human element? Because I think so many people are scared to jump on the bandwagon of technology. It makes sense up here at a high level. It makes sense logically, but.

 

Dentistry is a human art I feel and I think that that's where dentistry has stayed and I think that that's what's made it successful So how are you able to take that human piece to the automations because I think that when it's married together that some people will actually Jump on board. So what have you guys done to make sure it still feels human versus it feeling less than and Becoming a robot because all of us like with AI coming in I was talking to Shelby the other day

 

I'm so angry, I'm trying to get a hold of somebody and they just have this stupid AI bot and I can't talk to anybody and I can't get through and there's no phone number. And I'm like, that's what people don't want. So how is Axle different than that and still keeps that human element and keeps us to where we still feel that connection as opposed to robotic automation that's making us money.

 

Pedro Becker (07:12.878)

robotic process automation. So I think a lot of it comes off of just dipping your toes in it. So I'm gonna pick on our platform, Axel. Doesn't matter what platform you use. You can try any platform. Pick one thing they have. Start off small. Gain trust. Trust is earned. It's not given. I've earned my friendship with lots of guys. I've started off with men and women. They've started from one practice, and now they're at 25 locations, and they're great friends of mine. But I think it takes many years to earn people's trust.

 

So let's go through one scenario and let's talk about robotic process automation, how does it not fill AI. I'm going to answer that question for you. And this happened to me as a real patient. And a buddy of mine bought this office by the way, I demonstrated it from my house, but I told him about it. So I walk into a brand new dental office and I go in and then I get my exam, I get my cleaning. This is my patient experience, right? And they hand me an iPad, I fill out the iPad and it's all right, I fill it out. Boom, give it to them. I go in the dental room. I get my...

 

Kiera Dent (07:46.615)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (08:02.583)

Mm-hmm.

 

Pedro Becker (08:11.15)

x-rays get my cleaning and they say hey Mr. Becker would you like your next hygiene and you know the store of the doctor you know you got your cleaning today what you want next like I'm a really busy founder I own two tech companies I don't have time you know let's get back to me later and it's the truth people I mean people you know have kids they have busy lives so I think a lot of it's for me was timing in my in this situation I'm giving you so what do we do the office is not gonna remember to call me if they do great job

 

Kiera Dent (08:26.773)

Mm-hmm.

 

Pedro Becker (08:40.382)

I know they have this some kind of things they all teach to or this This are gonna carry but so what we did is we said, okay How can we just remind mr. Becker not just remind him but make it easy for him back super easy I mean super easy. I don't want to say hey mr. Becker you do for your cleaning So the day that mr. Becker becomes me When I come over you for my cleaning I get this beautiful message that you handcrafted your word in Kara of your practice

 

Kiera Dent (08:44.513)

Right, I'm proud of you.

 

Kiera Dent (08:55.477)

Mm-hmm.

 

Pedro Becker (09:09.314)

Beautiful wording. We miss you. We love you. We want to take care of your next cleaning is due. Click below and let's get you on the books. They click that link. They're going to send them to some website just to fill out a bunch of stuff that's blank. We pre-filled everything for them. Their name, all their info. It's catered for them. They feel special. I mean that. They feel special. But most importantly, we even made everything even more simpler.

 

Kiera Dent (09:22.621)

Nope.

 

Pedro Becker (09:38.366)

We started every session. What we learned is some humans needed to make it a little easier. So then we even loaded the first date available. What if you're scheduled out four months from now? You want them to click next, next. We're in this first date, first time, and a beautiful UI, user experience with your brand and two clicks in their schedule. That's what people want. That's just hygiene. Think about that thing with 12 other things and do the same thing.

 

Kiera Dent (09:43.573)

All right.

 

Kiera Dent (09:49.962)

No.

 

Kiera Dent (10:01.118)

Yep.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

Pedro Becker (10:07.266)

with different functions of a business.

 

Kiera Dent (10:10.185)

It's amazing. And I think about, as you were saying that, all I could think of was Amazon and how Amazon has taken over. And I remember one of the questions that was asked was how can we make it towards a one click purchase? And because people want it easy. And I think that we have to realize that, yes, there's this human piece to it, but there's also a piece of we've got to make sure it's easy for our patients. Like I think about paying bills online and just sending statements. Oh my gosh. Like it stresses me out because...

 

I don't, I mean, it's so funny that we say like, well, they got a call between eight and five. Well, a lot of people are working between eight and five. And so we've made it so hard and put all these obstacles of we need you to schedule your appointment, but we're only available while you're working. And we need you to pay your bills, but we're only available while you're working as well. It just feels so inhuman that way. Like we're talking about being so human and having this great connection, but we've made it so hard for our patients. And I'm like, right now, I don't know about you, but I know I'm booking up most of my...

 

Appointments online. It's at night and I'm like, oh my gosh, I need to go to get this done I just remembered I got to schedule the dentist. I'm not thinking about you while I'm at my job I'm podcasting today. I'm hanging out with people I am NOT thinking about my dental appointment And so I love that we have this thought that people think about their dental appointments all the time But the reality is they don't and so I love that you make it in two clicks. Here it is We want to get you scheduled. We care about you so much. We made it super easy for you pick the time That's best for you now

 

On the flip side, I know the team side, and they're all gonna say, no, I do not want online scheduling. Do you know what happens to my schedule? They book in these crazy spots and I've got a mess and patients are canceling on me. So answer that question, because that's the next one coming. I like this idea, but my schedule is gonna be mayhem. I think we did get burned. Some of the early ones of online scheduling were a bit of a hot mess, which is fine. We have to figure it out. We've got some growing pains. But I mean, you guys are working with huge DSOs. You're working with the small practices, the DSO practices. So.

 

Obviously you've found a way to make it to where it's not a chaotic schedule by making it easy for the patient. Because I don't believe that ease for the patient should mean it's hard for the practice. I think both can coexist and be easy together.

 

Pedro Becker (12:16.534)

You're right, Kiera. They both coexist together. So practices, they're not one and the same. Some want to schedule on top of blockouts. Some don't want to schedule on top of blockouts. Some don't want no blockouts. Some only want certain time ranges. Some only say, I'm only open every other Thursday. It's all covered, we got you. Easy stuff. It's all easy stuff. What it does, Kiera, is it's building a nation like you and me. It's the same thing. We're sitting down and we're getting all the requirements. It's all done, it's all built. That's all we've been doing for four plus years, had to be hiding down.

 

Kiera Dent (12:28.434)

Yep.

 

Kiera Dent (12:34.537)

100%.

 

Pedro Becker (12:45.59)

Heads down concentrating, listening to the customer, giving them what they want and taking all the feedback.

 

Kiera Dent (12:49.887)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (12:53.444)

Awesome.

 

Pedro Becker (12:53.622)

It still feels like we're getting started, but it's fun, beyond fun. To see everything come together, it's exciting. You're talking about, I think, patients getting mail or their invoices. That one was a fun one, too. That one was a fun one. And I'll tell you, with automated billing, there's no more paper statements, no one filling nothing out, no one printing the statement, no one mailing the statement, stuffing the envelope, no one calling no one, no one having to manually send a text, none of that. So...

 

Kiera Dent (13:05.341)

Yep.

 

Pedro Becker (13:23.442)

Aging AR, 0 to 30, 31 to 60, 60 to 90, greater than 90. We agree, four aging periods. What if you were scared of automation, like you said? You said, I don't know, this would make me look bad and I have a good reputation with my patients. I don't wanna build, turn this technology on and look really dumb and build someone maybe for something they don't own. Maybe the claim hasn't come through. We got you covered, Kiera. Easy stuff.

 

Kiera Dent (13:28.05)

Mm-hmm. Yep.

 

Kiera Dent (13:36.265)

You're exactly right.

 

Kiera Dent (13:41.959)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (13:47.472)

I like the confidence.

 

Pedro Becker (13:50.786)

So what we did, and I'm gonna say the guy's name because he deserves the credit, is Dr. Rankin. He owns Rankin Dentistry out of two states. He's in two different states. I love the brand, Rankin Dentistry. Love them, love them. He said, Pedro, let me teach you AR. Okay, I can't even read a new AR, but not as deep as they got. He said, well, you got billing types. Some people are like family members. You don't wanna bill the family members. And then you got patients that are standard patients. And then you got some patients that are whatever. They got bad depth.

 

Kiera Dent (13:55.069)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (14:06.101)

Thanks for watching!

 

Kiera Dent (14:09.628)

Mm-hmm.

 

Yep.

 

Pedro Becker (14:18.998)

It's gotten so granular to where, you see, I just wanna build that greater than 90. I don't wanna build all the aging periods, but there are four aging periods. 30, 31, 60, 90, greater than 90. So if you have six locations, and four automated pay schedules, that's 24 automated pay schedules, always running with your eyes asleep. And no one having to do nothing. And the patient gets a beautiful statement, detailed with your branding, your colors, your logo, and post the payment.

 

Kiera Dent (14:25.567)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (14:43.443)

Hmm.

 

Pedro Becker (14:48.694)

And you can say just click patient balance only if you don't want to do the whole full balance. That's it. Just let it go at.

 

Kiera Dent (14:54.453)

Mm-hmm. Does it post directly? Does it post directly to the account? Because some, when they're taking the payments, then the team still has to go do it. And also, I know that there's a fear of, yeah, but it might be a split payment. And I need to put, they're paying the full balance. Does it split the payments? Those are all the things people are so afraid of. That's what we get on in podcasts, because I can ask these questions. Everyone wants to know. I'll ask them all. I will.

 

Pedro Becker (15:12.95)

Anything you really you get me how about this one? How about family balances? What are they six statements? What do we do?

 

Kiera Dent (15:19.547)

I love those.

 

That was my family, just so you know. Came from a family of seven kids, my mom. Can you imagine my poor mom making all the appointments for all seven of us, having to get all the statements for all seven of us? My poor mom. Yeah. Poor mama.

 

Pedro Becker (15:32.03)

Magic mailbox? The best way. So if a mom these days has four kids, which many, some have three, some have four, some have one, how big your family is, one digital statement.

 

Kiera Dent (15:44.405)

It's awesome.

 

Pedro Becker (15:46.562)

can't get any easier than that. Split payments, it's gonna show you a balance move forward, your credits, it's actual real appearance statements what we're showing you, the real statement from OpenDemo. But we just beautified it, beautiful. Go to meetaxel.com and you'll see it.

 

Kiera Dent (15:55.996)

awesome.

 

Kiera Dent (16:00.949)

Yeah, no, I think that that's awesome because so when the payments made it does split payment it goes in there we can see it's paid. The next question I know most people are wondering is are there fees associated because like if you're collecting my balance for me is it just a monthly fee or are you kind of like other billing companies where you're taking a percentage of what you're collecting? How does that work with an axle?

 

Pedro Becker (16:22.05)

Yeah. So this industry is very interesting industry when it comes to payment processing. It's very new to me in the last five years. I'm becoming a dental, but I've learned a ton. And I'm glad to share that with you. So I'll try my best to answer that question. We partnered with, and you can write this down, I'm very proud to be partnered with them. I love this company. They processed half the world's money last year. FIS Global Epic and Frame.

 

Kiera Dent (16:37.315)

Okay.

 

Pedro Becker (16:49.794)

FIS Global, Google, Ulta, it's the beauty product, right? And you got Disney. Yeah, Ulta is a great brand and that's what it's about, it's a brand. A brand that delivers great value. And Ulta has done really good with it, right? It comes with all the facial products. But Axel integrated with FIS Global. FIS Global runs, their software runs in the bank.

 

Kiera Dent (16:54.797)

Mm-hmm. I know all time shop there a lot. Spend them a lot of money.

 

Pedro Becker (17:19.746)

their software, like if you work in a bank, you're using FIS Global software to operate in your bank. So what's happened over the years is FIS Global has purchased multiple companies in the payment facilitation space, payment processing space. And there's two of them that we get to use because we're with FIS Global. We have anything digital. It could be a digital payment through text or email. That's through a company that they own called PayRet.

 

Kiera Dent (17:48.638)

Mm-hmm.

 

Pedro Becker (17:49.97)

and then there's another company they own called Wool Pay. But on your end, on your practice, we're gonna make it simple for you. You just see one company. If you don't want a terminal, you don't want a wireless terminal, you just want automation only, you can just use the automation. You just use payment plans or whatever you want. They don't say any plans. So you use, what I'm trying to say is, you gotta use a little of those apps as you want, as much of it as you want. Processing fees, such a beautiful topic because people are like, well, how much is the fee?

 

Kiera Dent (17:52.689)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (17:58.546)

Nice.

 

Kiera Dent (18:13.545)

Cool.

 

Kiera Dent (18:18.755)

Yes.

 

Pedro Becker (18:19.822)

So the fee, I know and we know in the industry, you can get fees about 2.5, 2.6. Axel's a little higher, it's 2.99. But it replaced the entire department with that 2.99%. And there's no monthly fees, there's no contract. You quit the next day, month to month.

 

Kiera Dent (18:26.293)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (18:32.501)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (18:42.118)

Awesome.

 

Pedro Becker (18:43.318)

Month to month, the question is every business owner has to ask themselves is 2.99% worth it? Plus 30 cents per transaction, is it worth it? You need terminals, we'd love to give them to you for free. It's a long-term partnership. But with value, value that's quantifiable, value that gives you back your life to run your dental group or to run your one or two practices. So not have to use five pieces of software. Or use Pay-Pay-Me to do that and not be, or maybe be kind of efficient, maybe, I don't know.

 

Kiera Dent (18:49.749)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (18:56.275)

Yeah.

 

Kiera Dent (19:05.854)

Mm-hmm.

 

What is?

 

Kiera Dent (19:13.497)

I don't know. But I also think like a beautiful thing that I want practices to be thinking about, which is why I wanted you on the podcast today is, yes, it's nice to have people. I don't mean to replace people. I think people are amazing. I think they add, but people are human beings. They get sick, they have babies, they go on vacations, they have family things that show up, they get married, they move away. They're very transient. And so in...

 

my elusive mind, I think people will stay with me forever. And the reality is they won't, they're going to be gone. And there's things that are going to turn over and that's just part of owning a business. And so that's something where I feel like as much automation as we can get while still maintaining the human piece, still not having the errors, it is a good idea to outsource because the outsource never sleeps. They don't go on vacation, they don't get sick. And when people turn over, you have to deal with it. I don't have to deal with it. So you have to staff it.

 

I don't have to take care of it. And it's on, and like when it's on a software, it's not even a staffing problem on the outsourced company. And so I know though, Pedro, people are so concerned about billing. Billing becomes a nightmare. Billing becomes something, it sounds so incredible. And I'm like, gosh, billing is the easiest thing to outsource because it's very, it's like math problems all day long. Like we look at it, we send the statements, we collect the balances, we look, we send the denials and the claims. How can you give the confidence that?

 

you guys will not mess the billing up because people are so scared. They've outsourced it. I mean, the horror stories across the forums are, we outsourced it, it was so great. And then we didn't really check on it because we thought it was happening. And now we have no money in the bank. Our collections are in the toilet. Our patients are all mad at us because we, you heard it. This is what people are complaining about, which is why you built a software. So how do you get the confidence of, because again, it sounds amazing, but I gotta go test it and become your test patient.

 

to see if it works for my patient base. I think that's why a lot of people are so scared to make the jump.

 

Pedro Becker (21:09.87)

I think it's okay to be nervous. I think one thing I've found fact.

 

Pedro Becker (21:16.918)

The faster we can get used to being nervous, the better, because it's good to be comfortable. And I mean that because people used to be comfortable, used to just the way of life. And you're right, we're not trying to replace humans, we're trying to get back their life so they can go on vacations, they can love their patients, and they're not all stressed out in the office and have a point of the finger, that's your job, that's your job, I don't know about that, I didn't know insurance, it gets rid of that chaos. I know I owned a bunch of, I owned a bike.

 

Kiera Dent (21:20.522)

Mm.

 

Kiera Dent (21:42.206)

Mm-hmm.

 

Pedro Becker (21:44.658)

I was part of 30 something demo offices, so I understand. We built them practices, we built over 800 of them for fun. Right? So we know the chaos. I would tell you, if you're scared to use any type of automation, use yourself as a patient. Set yourself up as an automated building, keep yourself in balance. See if you got that detailed receipt. With any vendor, not just with Axe, or any predator we have out there, get a demo of all of them, but I'll tell you, light waves.

 

Kiera Dent (21:47.733)

It's awesome.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (21:59.561)

Mm-hmm.

 

Pedro Becker (22:12.226)

almost 100 locations, they demoed us with all our competitors. And they did a very thorough analysis. We earned their business. So today, six months later, they're still with us. Listening to the customer and starting off small. Go at their pace, some people are very brave. Some people are like, oh no, no. I just wanna do just one patient, I wanna see what it looks like. I just wanna build myself. That's okay. You can even build a patient on demand. Don't turn on automation until you're ready.

 

Kiera Dent (22:12.419)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (22:23.035)

Awesome.

 

Kiera Dent (22:40.113)

Mm-hmm.

 

Pedro Becker (22:40.258)

to your heart and says, okay, I'm gonna do it just for greater than 90. Just for my greater than 90, just this building type and don't build pages that are balanced like less than 50 bucks or less than 20 bucks. All those parameters are there for you to feel comfortable. And then you can go and audit it. You can go and look at the statements you're being sent out. You can see the robotic process information. You can say for greater than 90, build them, just build them once every two weeks for a total of 10 attempts. No, just build them once a month for six months. Doesn't that feel good?

 

Kiera Dent (22:42.965)

Thanks for watching!

 

Kiera Dent (22:49.109)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (23:08.629)

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, because I feel like you're in control and you don't have to stress. And it also helps have the money come into your practice because so often, I hear all the time with teams, we're so busy. And I'm like, when do we last do our AR? And they're like, it's been like three months because we've been so busy. And Sarah was out and we had this. And to me, I stress about AR so much because I'm like, no, no. That's the money in the bank that we did the work. We need to collect the amounts.

 

Pedro Becker (23:10.082)

There's nothing to fear.

 

Kiera Dent (23:38.085)

and it shouldn't be a reason to ever have it that high on AR. And I think honestly, AR within Axle and outsource platforms is truly the way that I think we should go. Also, I feel like as a practice, it is a great way to like prevent embezzlement. Like there's less hands in your money, which I think is also a beautiful way because I'm not saying that teams are there to embezzle. That's not what I'm here to say, but there are opportunities that I think again, like let's mitigate those risks. I think it's worthwhile.

 

And there are learning curves. And I want everybody to know, like when you move to automation, there are learning curves. And so having that, like you said, get comfortable in the uncomfortable and be okay being nervous, because that's where innovation takes place. I mean, that's where breakthroughs come. That's where freedom lies. And so you can sit where you are, or you can start to try some of these things. But I always tell people, give it at least three to six months before we throw in the towel. So when we choose to go into it, it's a three to six month journey of figuring it out, working with people.

 

And I just think like when you switch softwares, it's a three to six month journey. When you buy a practice, it's a three to six month journey. When we hire a new team member, it's a three to six month journey. Software and automation is no different. I think we just expect because it's automatic that it should be automatically easy. And it is, we just have to adapt and change and that's the hard part. It's not usually the software, it's us adapting and changing and actually using it.

 

Pedro Becker (24:56.438)

Yeah, I think you're right. Change is always hard for people, right? People are used to wake every morning, brush their teeth, get ready, get in the car, whatever they do, right? Do their day at the same time.

 

Kiera Dent (25:06.225)

You're speaking to Dennis. That's why you said brush our teeth. I heard that little pun in there. Good job. Agreed. Wake up, brush your teeth. Everybody should do that. Ha ha ha.

 

Pedro Becker (25:13.782)

Everyone gets up and does their same routine every day. I think we have to be different. If we wanna become the better America, the smarter Americans do our businesses, we have to think smarter. We can't say, oh my God, it's all so complex and all these ifs and else, we just have to execute and make things happen. And that's what we do, make things happen. Look at it, what's the problem? Let's solve this problem. I'll tell you, Kara, the funny thing is...

 

One software, and I know this for a fact also, is good. If you, every one of these things we do is good, but does it work for groups? Can I look at a group of about 50 law firms and say, okay, how's my greater than 90, what percentage is that? Is my greater than 90 20%? Without logging into no Open Dental, no servers, can I see lines, can I see AR graphs? Oh yeah, the automation's working. Look at my greater than 90, it went down to 15%. Oh wow. Right? So we've got a lot of analytics that I'm telling you. So analytics and AR we have.

 

Kiera Dent (25:56.489)

Right.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (26:08.677)

which is amazing. And I think dentists listening, you are the CEO of your practice. You are also a dentist, but you are a CEO of a business. And as a CEO, it is your job and your obligation to know your numbers. And so I just think it's an incredible thing. I'm super excited. I love it. We've partnered with you guys. I am so pro Axel. I think there's so many great things you guys are doing. And there are different tiers that you guys offer. So if you're not ready to do all of it, there's pieces, and like you said, I agree. It would be awesome to have a one-stop shop, but I do believe some softwares are better.

 

at certain things and so test it out, see what's best for you, but you guys are working in the DSO space. And I always think for the solo practices as well, because I know we have a lot of those listening, if the DSOs, which are large organizations, are using this for automation, there's probably a reason that they're doing it. And there's probably a reason that they're having these efficiencies because DSOs are really smart. They've allowed it to where they can mass scale, deliver incredible value, and they've taken the things that are not the finesse of the hand skills.

 

They've taken the things like the billing and the automations and the scheduling and all those things that are not necessarily skill related and made them tour. They're very simple for the patient, like Amazon. I mean, you can still go shop somewhere else, but you got to go get a grocery cart. You got to put the stuff in. You got to go check out versus Amazon is a one click. And I think all of us would say the user experience is incredible at Amazon. I think most of us would say we shop on Amazon, maybe a little more than we even shop at other places and it's quote unquote inhuman. And so with that, but it feels very human.

 

I think everyone should try it. So Pedro, how do people connect with Axel? I know because you are part of Dental A Team family, everybody does get preferred pricing. That's always my jam. I do not care about kickbacks on my side. That's not even how I work. It's just always give our clients the cheapest, most best price that you guys can offer. So what does it look like if people want to try you guys out, if they wanna come to you, how does that work?

 

Pedro Becker (27:58.222)

So if they want to learn about Axle, they can go to meetaxle.com. That's M-E-E-T-A-X-L-E.com. Right when you get on the page, you say, I want a live demo. You're gonna meet a live person, you're gonna click on that, you're gonna pick a date and time, you're gonna schedule for your convenience, you're gonna meet a person. And we're gonna give you a live demo. They'll see Axle in action. And it will cater towards your conversation, because there's so much to cover. You could be there for hours and hours. You won't drive the conversation towards what they, what is.

 

the X they're trying to solve. What problem are they trying to solve out of all the things you have and help them out? One thing I want to tell you here, one last thing. If you interview any DSOs, the ones that are maybe 100 plus locations, maybe 200 plus locations, many of them were trying to build their stuff for many years. Many, many years. Really.

 

Kiera Dent (28:44.721)

Yep, they were. I know the CEO of LightWave. I've talked to him. I do. He was actually the professor of my brother at school, so it's kind of a funny little connection. And when I talked to him, they were building their own software. And so knowing they're with Axel, because they just do it better, you guys specialize in this.

 

Pedro Becker (29:02.742)

Yes, we do. Carol, you're awesome. I'm so glad to be partnered with you. Glad to give those discounts to your listeners and deliver value. That's how life should be, seriously. Deliver as much as value to just undisputable. That's all we want to accomplish. Just give everybody's lives back and we're gonna win. And then just love doing your business, that's it. Shouldn't be more difficult than that.

 

Kiera Dent (29:14.894)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (29:20.721)

I agree. No, and I think that this is the way you can do it. So I would encourage everyone listening today to just go book the live demo. You do not need to do anything from there, but I feel like education is power. And then what you do with it is truly upon the execution, but at least go look at it. I would encourage all of you, whatever it is, there's so many different things, like we talked about AR, hygiene, treatment planning, all the different pieces, the scheduling, anything. And again, think if we could wave like a magic wand and take something away and give you your life back.

 

Just go look at it and you don't, you're not committed. It's month to month. There's no contracts. Um, I think you've got to give it a good run, like three to six months to make sure that we don't just jump in and then jump right back out, but I'd encourage everybody to go take a look at that and just see, see if it can help solve problems. I'm obsessed with you guys. I think you guys are doing such a good work out there. Thank you for being on the podcast today. Any last things you want to wrap up with Pedro?

 

Pedro Becker (30:11.83)

I love everything you guys are doing. And I love being part of this community, the movement. And I think everyone has the right intentions. Just keep working together, everyone. And I love it. And just keep making life easy. Thank you, Kiera. Thank you.

 

Kiera Dent (30:17.449)

Mm-hmm.

 

Kiera Dent (30:21.681)

Amazing. Thank you. Thank you so much for being here and for all of you listening. Thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.