Episode 674: Where Are Your New Patients Coming From?

 Tiff and Dana provide expertise on how to know where your new patients are coming from by using systems already in place. They recommend:

1. Starting with the software you have

2. Capitalizing on the information asked for

3. Putting action behind it

Remember: If you’re not tracking referrals, you don’t know what marketing efforts are or aren’t working, so it’s a worthy implementation to get behind.

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Transcript:

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0:00:05.8 Kiera Dent: Hey everyone, welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. I'm your host, Kiera Dent, and I had this crazy idea that maybe I could combine a doctor and a team member's perspective, because let's face it, dentistry can be a challenging profession with those two perspectives. I've been a dental assistant, treatment coordinator, scheduler, filler, office manager, regional manager, practice owner, and I have a team of traveling consultants where we have traveled to over 165 different offices coaching teams. Yep, we don't just understand you, we are you. Our mission is to positively impact the world of dental, and I believe that this podcast is the greatest way I can help elevate teams, grow VIP experiences, reduce stress, and create A Teams. Welcome to the Dental A Team podcast.

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0:00:51.9 KD: Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and you guys, you are in for the best treat of your life, Consultant-Takeover. That's right. Get ready, they're dropping some dynamite. Our consulting team is incredible guys, and we are so blessed and so fortunate to have them sharing tips and tricks with you today, and as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time, on the Dental A Team podcast. Dana, I'm so excited to be here with you today. Thank you for taking the time this afternoon, I know it's a Friday afternoon and it's sunny outside, and my body is just craving being out there. So thank you for making the time for me today. How are you?

0:01:27.4 Dana: I'm doing good, thanks for having me, I always love these connection times, even on sunny days, right? Where looking out the window, makes you wanna be outside.

0:01:36.6 KD: I know, it's so beautiful in Arizona right now, and our weather is just gorgeous, we're about to hit that hump though that like it's gonna be freaking hot soon. I know it was really warm, I was like dying last night, I was so hot.

0:01:51.4 Dana: Yeah.

0:01:51.8 KD: I was so hot, I just came from Utah and Portland, and then come home and it was hot, so, that's my body though, it's all over the place, so it's just all over. So I think it'd be fun today, something that I noticed in practices recently, going in office, you see a lot of things that we don't always catch in coaching calls, and so one of the things that I actually caught in both of my offices that I saw this week, one office, I've been consulting for years, two and a half years or something like that, the other office is brand new, so this was my first visit with them, but one thing that I noticed is that they have no idea where their new patients are coming from. And so we always get the answer of Google and your patients are probably saying Google, which is totally fine, but I need to know that... They're not tracking their referrals, so they're not tracking where their new patients are coming from, in my one office's defense... They have Modento, which is an amazing tool, but on their new patient paperwork, they have two different spaces where there's one that says, How did you hear about us? And the other one says, who can we thank for your referral? And so one of them is translating to track the referral in the system, when they do their paperwork online, the other one isn't, so I think they just need to fix that, but the reason I bring it up is because.

0:03:09.6 KD: If we're not tracking our referrals, we don't know, we don't know where our patients are coming from, we don't know what marketing efforts are or are not working. Even if it's as simple as Google, we, just so team members know, we put money into all of it, we have Google ads, we have SEO money that's going out to get us a higher ranking on Google, so that when people find us on Google, it's easy because we're highly ranked, and so when we're not tracking the referrals, it's just really difficult to know where those patients are coming from, and Dana, what did you do in practice or what do you have practices do to ensure that that tracking happens? Where do you... Where do you start.

0:03:50.1 Dana: Yeah, sure, I would say to start right with the system that you already have, if your patient software in your practice will allow you to usually put that into their patient information, that makes it really easy, and some of them you can even set that, you can't close out of a new patient appointment or a new patient folder without putting that in, so even putting those pieces in place to make sure. Also adding it to your new patient phone slip, right, so that we remember to ask, when we have those conversations, and then even if you use an amazing software tool like Modento, right? Just making sure that those pieces are getting put in and that we're looking at them too.

0:04:28.2 KD: Yeah. I love that. I love the accountability that you attach to those, so making sure that you can't close out of the new patient like section, like you open it up, and I think that as you start doing this more and more, and as you get used to it, it becomes such a habit, I answered the phone yesterday at my practice or the day before, and it was one of my first questions I asked, when... And, of course, I answer the phone once and it's a new patient, and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, what do I do?" Right, I haven't done this in so long, and I haven't done it for the office, but one of the first questions I ask before I even know where the appointment is, is like, who can I thank for sending you to our practice? How did you hear about us? How did you find us? And having that conversation with them. So I love not being able to close out of that new patient, like that first screen to really get the appointment in there, without having that referral source tracked, and having that actionable piece to it, is huge, and then I think you brought something up too of just making sure, like that it's in there, the referral source is in there, you're watching it, that it's on your new patient paperwork, it's somewhere, if it's there, especially if you're putting it on your new patient paperwork, I think it's really smart to continue to acknowledge it, so if things are on your new patient paperwork, you guys.

0:05:42.8 KD: It's on there for a reason, you made them fill it out, so let's not forget that it's there, so acknowledge it. So look at it and say, Oh, I see you found us on Google, that's so awesome. Or, oh, it looks like Mary Joe referred you, we love Mary Joe, she's so fantastic. Like if it's on there, make sure you're utilizing it, and then putting the action behind it, so the team knows it's not for nothing, this is for something. Making sure at the end of the month you're looking at how many new patients you had and then what's the ROI, so where are they coming from? Looking at the tracking that they did and making sure the team knows, this is why we wanna know, and so maybe you're even talking about it, Dana, like at a monthly meeting or something where it's like, "Hey, this many patients came from this and guess what, we had this patient refer three patients to us, can you believe that?" and getting them excited about it too, kind of at those meetings. What do you think?

0:06:35.3 Dana: I agree, I think that really helps reinforce it when we're asking team members to ask for those referrals, we're also prompting them to ask for a use, then celebrating the fact that, hey, look, this is working, we had this many number of in-house referrals, we had this many number of patients say that they came from Google, and then it really helps you be tactical, even if you don't have marketing in place, it helps you see where maybe you could drive a little bit harder in some areas and where you're doing really well too.

0:07:01.6 KD: Yeah, I love that. I think that's really smart, and I think that you pointed something out really big there, because if you're asking me to do something, I wanna know why, number one, I think, it's human nature, we wanna know why, but then we also wanna know the result of what I'm doing, I don't wanna do something for nothing, I wanna know, okay, if I'm putting this out there and the way that I'm doing it, am I getting a result, are we getting new patients from the referrals that we're requesting, because if we're not, if I'm not producing a result, I wanna change what I'm doing, right? I don't wanna keep doing something that's not working, so if we're not tracking the referrals in the sense of any marketing, right? But even in the sense of me being a team member having to ask for referrals, I don't wanna keep asking for referrals if it's not working, I wanna find new verbiage, so if we're not getting referrals from our patients, we know, "Hey, guess what? We either need to ramp up how many referrals we're asking for, or we need to change our verbiage," and tracking that makes a huge difference.

0:07:58.3 KD: We are huge proponents at Dental A Team of tracking everything, and your referrals is a huge piece of that, again, I can't help you... I can't help you get a ton of new patients, if we don't know where the new patients you're getting are coming from. Because otherwise it's like, it's like a startup practice that's just spraying everywhere to try to capture something. I'd rather you track the referrals that you are getting, track the new patients that you are getting, so that we can see, "Okay, where can we ramp up? Where are we doing really well? Can we ramp up there and get more? Or where are we doing really badly, do we get rid of that source all together? Or is there something we could do differently to get a different result?" and if you're not tracking it, you don't have that information, you can't dive into the why.

0:08:51.3 Dana: Yeah, I completely agree. I think it really gives you kind of a roadmap, of how to get to your end goal of new patients.

0:09:00.7 KD: Yeah, I love it. I love it. Okay, so actionable pieces, I think, figure out in your software, I think, that was really smart, Dana, figure out in your software how to input the information for a new patient, make sure that that question is prompted. "Where did you... How did you hear about us?" And if you can make it so that they can't close out of that screen until that's in there, do that. Make sure it's on your new patient paperwork and that it's transferring to the chart, have someone... It should be, multiple people, honestly, but it should at least be your check-in person who's checking for the paperwork, did we get the paperwork in? They should be checking to make sure that it transferred and that the referral source is in there, your next team member, your support team, either hygiene or dental assistant, whoever is taking the patient, should make sure that the referral source is in there, and then last would probably be your TC or your checkout, whoever is finishing with the appointment, should make sure that it's in there. So make sure you know how to use your software, is there a way to make it so that you can't get out of that screen, until that's in there, make sure it's on your paperwork and that you've got a tracking system to ensure that that's getting put on there, and then look at those.

0:10:03.9 KD: Look at that tracking, look at those referrals and see what's your ROI and share it with the team. I think those are huge. Tracking referrals is giant, you guys, and if you're not doing it, and you're spending money on marketing, I'm not sure if you're spending the right money or not, and that's a question you should be asking yourselves, because I hate putting money out of my bank account that I don't know where it's going, or I don't know if it's producing the result that I want, and if you're not tracking your referrals, that's exactly what you're doing with marketing, you're putting money into something that you're not sure if it's working or not, and that seems outrageous to me. So make sure it's working for you. Take these steps, get the team invested, get the team involved, and go kill it. Go get some new patients. Dana, is there anything you think we need to add there that we missed?

0:10:49.1 Dana: No, I think you hit it right, and I think it's something easy for team members to implement, but yet gives massive amount of results and effects for the practice.

0:11:00.0 KD: Absolutely, absolutely. I love it. Awesome, thank you for taking that road and that journey with me today, Dana, it was so much fun. I think tracking referrals is huge, and I could soapbox it forever, but I think we did, I think we did well, we stayed on task, and they've got some good actionable items, so guys, go figure it out, figure out your system, figure out how you're gonna do your tracking, make sure you've got team members invested and involved, and not only asking for referrals, but making sure that that is getting notated in your new patient charts, and then make sure that you're pulling that information and checking your marketing ROI. I can't wait to hear... I can't wait to hear all about it. That was hard to get out. Tell us what's working for you, and tell us what's not working, let's hear it, if you need verbiage tools, reach out to us, [email protected]. We love to help you guys with so so many things, and if you loved this podcast, if it was helpful for you, if other podcasts have been helpful for you, please leave us a review, we'd love to hear about it. Five stars are always welcome, and we love you guys. We hope that you get the best results ever. I can't wait to hear about your tracking adventures.

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0:12:04.1 KD: And that wraps it up for another episode of The Dental A Team podcast. Thank you so much for listening and we'll talk to you next time.

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