Episode 823: Measure Success in a Whole New Way

 In marketing, every dollar counts. In this episode, Tiff and Dana talk about how to know if your marketing dollars are yielding the right results. They touch on why you need to know how much you’re spending on marketing; whether the ideal patient is being converted; and why your active patient count is so important.

Want a spreadsheet to start tracking the important stuff? Email [email protected]. 

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (19:55.887)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners, we're back again Dana and I the blonde duo of the company I think here is kind of blonde Shelby's blonde that you guys don't see her on video. So I love Podcast days and I love when it's we don't call it donuts with them anymore. What do we call it consultant? What do we call it? You name? You and me. I don't know why I was thinking roundtable and something Q &A every Friday Dana does consulting Q &A.

every Friday to HODL with the cutest hair. And I'm like, Oh, I need to like get, I need to step up my game. I almost, I almost curled today and I was like, no, I'll just don't be crazy. Don't be crazy that podcasting. So I love it. I actually made just so the world knows. I made Dana record a video a couple of years ago now on how to use a specific like tool in my hair. The waiver tool.

because I couldn't figure it out and praise Dana for recording and I love that kids are running around. You're like, no, I'm going to get this for you. And I actually, she told me which one to buy. It was perfect. So Dana, thank you for fulfilling all of the pieces of my life that I need from you. I love our sisterly relationship. Of course. And you rocked that hair. So I was happy to help. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Britt calls it curly hair tip. She gets stuff done.

It's a different persona, I'm telling you. And then different person comes out when those girls come in. So straight hair tip today, totally fine. We've been on a marketing kick. I love it. I think a lot of our practices have been on a marketing kick as well. We're just trying to get things in place. New patients has been a really big thing. But today I really want to talk about key metrics for marketing. I have a lot of practices who are really learning how to

really just measure the success of the practices in ways that we didn't realize we could before. Like just obscure things that are like, oh my gosh, yeah, that makes sense. But they're really not doing it yet. So I've been working a ton on KPIs, key performance indicators, and all kinds of different departments for a lot of my practices. And marketing, I think, is a space of life where our every dollar counts and our efforts really count. And even in the practice, the efforts that we're putting out asking for referrals and Google reviews, things like that, it counts. We want to know,

The Dental A Team (22:19.247)

that what we're doing is getting the results that we want. And if it's not, I always say, why run the definition of insanity? If it's not getting the result that you want, stop doing what you're doing and change it. So we only know that if we're measuring things. So Dana and I have brainstormed a whole bunch of metrics for you guys today that you can dive into and really see how that conversion is working and how that acquisition is working, what your ROI is, all of those pieces.

My number one piece of advice to start with is to know what you're spending in marketing. What are your marketing dollars? Your marketing dollars include care to share cards, swag, t -shirts that the team wears out and about your mug. They've got a mug over here with a dental practice name on it, like a Yeti mug. Like what, and that goes across the country with me. That's marketing. Like what?

dollars are you spending in marketing that encompasses everything an outsourced company all of those pieces because you really want to see your dollar spend per new patient so that you can make sure you're not spending a ton of money on new patients and that you're getting the results that you want with the money that you're spending now Copy up to that something we are seeing right now I've been working really closely with a couple marketing companies and a couple of my practices and something that we're noticing is that organic

leads online on Google, like the clicks and stuff just aren't as high as they used to be. And so it is taking a little bit more money in Google ads or social ads than it did even six months ago. So I am going to put that caveat out there for all of my marketing companies that I have actually seen that. And with the increase in marketing spend, I have seen the result come. So still make sure that the dollars make sense, that you're not overspending, but know you may have to spend a little bit more.

right now to get the result that you're looking for. So spreadsheets are my favorite. I have grown to love spreadsheets and trackers. So make sure you're literally tracking all that. I am like old and, you know, I'm, I don't know, the OG Excel is my favorite. So I just throw it in there and I just look at every month, what my practices are spending and where those dollars are going. And I get them on those KPI trackers, especially my specialty practices.

The Dental A Team (24:40.687)

my oral surgery practices, you guys are doing a lot of outreach to GP practices. So those also count. And I really like to see what that turnaround is in referrals. So that's my start. So go get yourself some Excel spreadsheets, reach out if you need some, I know Dana and I both have a couple of different ones, a couple of different versions that work for different practices. So reach out, hello at thegenellateam .com. We have them, they work, we've implemented them and tested them on other practices so you can use them and know that they work.

Um, Dana, I, I'm going to go in tandem here because I thought new patient conversion, right? Leads, calls. We want to know that the calls that we're getting in, the work that we're putting in, the dollars we're spending to get called into the practice, those leads are actually converting to new patients. If they're not, I do have a new patient call tracker as well. If they're not, we want to know why. Is it because they're not eligible to come to our practice? Maybe they're, anyone's eligible to come to our practice, but maybe they're Medicaid. Um,

and just can't afford to come to our practice, like whatever the case may be, maybe they called the wrong practice and we're too far. We want to track those as well to make sure the leads are, the right leads are coming in, but your new patient conversion, but then Dana, I want to tack onto that before we go into all of the other pieces, what you had come up with, because new patient conversion is one thing, getting them to our practice, getting that solidified, getting the treatment plan out there, getting all of those pieces and welcoming them in.

But then Dana, I love what you tacked onto the new patient conversion. If you'll talk about that a little bit. Yeah. So one thing that I've been looking at heavily with offices in their marketing and looking at their return on the marketing is maybe we're really great at the conversion rate. Like patients are calling, we're getting them in their schedule, but then it turns out that they're not really our ideal patient, right? Or they get in the schedule, but then they don't schedule any other treatment after that, right? So they're great for the new patient exam, but then.

Right? For some reason, either fell short and that is, Hey, is that the marketing? Or is it like, are we not having the experience that these patients are looking for? So we still have to dig in in a twofold, but I think it really helps you hone in on is your marketing company sending you the right types of people you can see that in your conversion calls to like if there is if we're getting inundated with let's say Medicaid calls, and we're not a Medicaid practice, right? Well, then we're there maybe we're targeting.

The Dental A Team (27:02.863)

certain things that like if we switched it up, we might get a better fit for the practice. So I think that looking and saying, okay, but are the patients that they're sending us patients who are coming have a grading experience, staying scheduling treatment and continuing on. I love that. I love that. So the new patient conversion and then tacking onto that, like the new patient is here, then we want to know did they schedule a next visit, even if they don't have treatment to be done, are they coming back for their next cleaning?

Did they schedule something to come back? Because to me and I think Dana too, that's the true new patient. That's a true patient, right? Otherwise it's like that was a cool visit, but you're not actually a patient yet because you established here today, but you're not returning. And then are you getting the right patients? When you said that, I was like, oh my gosh, I have to talk about my office that was in Utah. And we worked a ton on his marketing. We spent, we are into our third year together, our fourth year together now. I can't remember which, I think it's fourth, maybe five.

It doesn't matter. We spent the first year cleaning up systems. He had taken over a practice, but then the second year was like, gosh, he was getting like four new patients a month. We're like, you cannot sustain on this for the goals that we're looking for. We spent a year dialing in the marketing and finally we've got him to where he's up to that 25 to 35 new patients a month. But what happened is we had, we onboarded a marketing company.

They were fantastic and he was getting inundated with a ton of calls, a ton of leads, but a lot of them couldn't schedule with him because sometimes they were too far. Like I said, it was the wrong insurance, whatever the holdbacks were. They weren't getting super great conversion on the leads, but a ton of calls. But then two, the patients that they were getting were one -stop shop patients. They were limited emergency exams that needed a tooth pulled that had pain.

that were going through town and had something happen. And while they were in town, they found him because he populated on Google first, which is great, but he was getting the wrong new patients. So while we were watching the new patient numbers coming in, I said, well, let's start working on this as another key metric, your active patient count. So let's make sure that the patients we're bringing in is actually adding to your active patient count. And it wasn't, we saw we were losing patients out the back door because we weren't focusing on recare.

The Dental A Team (29:22.319)

And then we weren't retaining these patients because they weren't technically patients looking to be established with a dental practice. So we had to switch up the marketing a ton and remove a lot of the key words like, I know emergency dentist was in there, which is fine to an extent, but it was in there with other key words that were making it seem like if you're only, if you're having an emergency. So like family wasn't in there and cosmetic wasn't in there and different pieces that,

make that marketing. So to Dana's point, right, if you're getting a lot of calls that are for Medicaid, and maybe you're not a Medicaid practice, oftentimes there are keywords that will push for when patients say like Medicaid doctor, Medicaid insurance need dentists, it will push you actually into those searches, even if it doesn't specifically say Medicaid. So if you are getting those calls, you have to, you know, that's you've got to track everything, right? By metrics is so important, because then you can tell your marketing department or your marketing team,

hey, we're not getting the right patient. So take a look at the new patient conversion. So one, is your team able to convert the calls when they come in? If they're not converting, why? Is it a hold back and verbiage that we need training on in the practice? Or is it because we're not getting the right leads as they're coming in? Are they scheduling that next visit? If not, is it training on our end? We need help converting that and getting the case acceptance.

Or is it again, because it was a one -stop shop, maybe a limited exam that needed a tooth pulled, you did it same day, you're never gonna see them again. So are you getting the right patients, I think is huge. Are you getting the right leads? Are you getting the right patients in the door? And do you need to tweak anything in there? Or retention falls right into that. I think that's part of that new patient case acceptance. So watching your retention and your active patient counts. So if you're only focusing on new patients, but we're not watching an active patient count,

our active patient count could be going down and our new patients is going up fantastic. But now we're kind of at a break even if we're lucky. Because oftentimes I see more leaving than we're getting and we're still at a deficit. So you may feel like you're growing because you're seeing 70 or 80 new patients a month for a two -doctor practice and you're like, we're killing it Beth. I'm like, you are. New patients are great, but what's your active patient count and are we retaining them?

The Dental A Team (31:43.951)

Are we retaining the established patients that we have or are we breaking even? Because your attrition there, meeting the patients that are leaving is almost as important, if not more important, than your new patients coming in. What are we working for? Why are we turning our, you know, what is it? Turning our buckets, I don't know, or chasing our tails trying to get new patients constantly? For what results if we're not watching on the back end, if they're scheduling retaining?

and adding for active patient count. I do have doctors with that said that will say like, okay, we had 80 new patients, but we had 60 attrition. So our true new patient count is 20. And that's valid, that's fair. So if you're a attrition, we noticed with this practice in Utah, the attrition rate, so I did over a course of time, I did year over year over year of what their...

active patient count was to show what their attrition was to see the percentage rate of attrition year over year. So this year, their focus is to reduce that attrition percentage rate, but also keep in mind, I had to tell him, okay, with this known, this is your average attrition rate that actually increases the number of new patients that you need to see in order to compensate for your attrition rate. So in tandem together, we're working on

compensating for the attrition rate, but also lowering their attrition rate by focusing back again on a re -care patient. So all of that, all of those metrics play a piece in your ultimate goal. And I think not all practices are looking at that. So new patient call conversion, new patient case acceptance, new patient lead, like management, who are you getting? And then new patients, are you getting the right patients? And then what's your attention and your attrition?

Those are like the biggest pieces that I can talk about within the marketing standpoint of knowing if you're getting an ROI. Dana, when we talk ROI, and I know you actually just implemented some marketing spreadsheets with the practice, how did that conversation go with that doctor? Because I know you've been working with them a ton on acquisition. How are they going to implement that to really watch the ROI? And how excited are they?

The Dental A Team (34:04.879)

to see their ROI to know what's happening. Yeah. So I think, like you said, it's going to be a spreadsheet, right? And it's going to make sure, okay, say, what are we spending per new patient, right? What are our marketing dollars? So again, knowing our marketing dollars or our marketing spend, what it's costing us to bring in new patients and then ideally, right? What is that as far as treatment? What are we bringing in as far as then production and collections for the practice from those new patients? So,

Looking at those numbers together helps you kind of see your return on investment and what does it cost to bring those new patients in? And once we have them in the practice, what does that look like as far as production and collections? Yeah, I love that. I love that. So get an Excel spreadsheet. If you don't have one, reach out. And then reminders on the pieces, like just off the top of my brain that I can think of that you will measure as far as marketing dollars going out is going to be any swag.

paper marketing materials that go out to your patients, maybe reminders for their re care money that you're spending on reminder programs every month. So if you've got a system like my dental, maybe that's putting out those reminders, you could include that you're going to include a marketing company, outsource marketing company, any Facebook ads or social ads, even if you're not having that done through a company, it's still marketing spend. And then for

I mean, I do have GP practices that go to specialty practices, I suppose too, but especially for our specialty practices that are doing goodies and gifts and things like that for GP practices, make sure that that's going into your ad spend as well. And then you're just gonna take your total ad spend, you're gonna divide it by your number of new patients that you had. I would look at how many of them actually retained and what your income was from those new patients, divide those out and see what you spent per new patient.

And was that worth it? So again, that flows into, are you getting the right new patients? So action items, you guys, get yourself a spreadsheet, start tracking your ROI if you're not. And then I think one of the pieces that I've seen not being tracked enough is really about attrition or active patient count, whichever way you want to do it. And I can say typically in the dental world, our active patient is anyone that's been seen within the last 18 months.

The Dental A Team (36:21.487)

So after 18 months, if they go longer than that, maybe that 19 or 20 months overdue for their re -care, they are now no longer considered an active patient. Your system, so you guys know, won't always know that or change that. So you've got to do some digging every once in a while and really put those key metrics into the reports that you're pulling. So get your six -cell spreadsheets put together, find your active patient count, maybe go back and see what your attrition has been over the years, see if you see any trends in there, what the percentages are.

Make sure that your new patient acquisition that you're getting, the number of patients that you're getting is actually adding active patients to your count and it's working for you. A lot of offsite companies have dashboards you can look at as well to see how things are going and help mitigate issues a little sooner. Make sure you're in good communication with them. So spreadsheets, active patient count slash attrition, see where that's out.

where that's at and then get in really good communication with any offsite company that you're using for marketing and stay in conversation. I have monthly meetings for a couple offices with the marketing department that they're using, the marketing company for that reason to ensure success because we saw things slip and I said, no, we're going to get this back on track. So staying on top of them is key. Dana, thank you so much. So brilliant, brilliant mind, I think together. That was fantastic. You just.

back on top of my new patient and I love that. So thank you for your help. Thank you for your ideas. It was fun doing this one with you, Dana. Always a pleasure to be here. Thank you. And dental A team listeners, we love you guys. We have all the things. Reach out to us if you need help with it. Reach out to us. I know we've got great programs and consulting for everyone. If you guys are ever in need, we are here for you. And we also offer a lot of these forms and documents for free.

If you just reach out to us at hello at the dental a team .com. And if you have any questions, that's the place to get us as well. Thanks guys.