Episode 661: Social Media: A Glimpse of the Patient Experience

 How does your practice handle social media and other internal marketing? Dana and Kiera explain what successful internal marketing like social media looks like:

• What types of posts work

• Who your avatar should be

• How to get team members on board

• And more!

Episode resources:

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Reach out to Dana and Kiera 

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Transcript:

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 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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0:00:52.0 KD: Hello Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera and you guys, I am so excited because I'm actually podcasting with my people, the Dental A Team consultants. Today is the day that we're rocking it out, and today I am lucky to be hanging out with the one and only Dana. Dana, how you doing today?

0:01:07.2 Dana: Really good. Thanks for having me on. I'm so excited.

0:01:10.6 KD: Oh my gosh, of course, it's always fun. It's fun to podcast with consultants, because I don't know if you guys know, but me and the consultants don't actually live by each other. So unlike you guys with your team members who you see every day, you have morning huddles, you get to have potluck lunches, you get to go have birthday parties, Dana lives very far away from me, and I think I might see her, if I'm lucky, once, maybe twice a year, if I'm lucky, so it's real fun to podcast. But Dana it's kind of weird, I don't know how you feel, but I know I feel like I feel so much closer to you than just seeing you twice a year. I don't know how this is true, but do you feel that way? I know I'm kinda putting you on the spot, but you give me your side.

0:01:49.5 Dana: No, I agree. And there are times, even when I'm not in work mode, I'm in personal mode, and I'll see things out and I'll think of you or one of the team members, Tiff, Brit, and just laugh or chuckle. And it is because even virtually, there's such a connection that we've made.

0:02:07.0 KD: Yeah, it's pretty nutty. But I am gonna say, I... There are some times that I wish we lived a little closer. So podcasting with the consultants is fun. We are a pretty tight-knit group with miles apart. There are some funny things that go on. I just showed all the consultants my Day One. I'm gonna put a plug out there guys. There's this free app called Day One, if you wanna journal or make a really cool thing for your practice, you could do it personally or for your practice. It's a free app and I just choose one picture a day, write a little journal entry in there, and then at the end of the year, I actually printed it out and that became my journal and my scrapbook for this last year. And it was pretty fun 'cause I was actually flipping through it, showing all the consultants, 'cause I'm like, "Guys, this is like the coolest thing I ever did." And it was pretty funny 'cause I sent Dana and the whole crew the memory about them flying in for Summit last year, and Dana had some poor vomiting person behind her. Dana's pulling her hair forward, trying not to get puke splatter on the back of her. Tiff and Brit... Brit gave Tiff a death stare and said, "If you even think about throwing up on me Tiff." It was one of the funniest moments, and I wrote and I was like, "Does anybody remember this?" So Dana, do you remember that moment? [laughter]

0:03:14.8 Dana: Oh yes. That one I think is burned in there. I don't think I'll forget that one any time soon. Plus, it was just one of those days where there was lots of scrambling and stress, but so much fun too in all of it.

0:03:27.8 KD: Mind you, Tiff and Brit are in the front seats jamming out, Dana's quiet in the back seat. I'm not with them. And we find out it's 'cause Dana is wicked nauseous, almost throwing up on the trip there, they're going through a blizzard. So, if you guys wanna do that, I think that's a real fun thing for you guys to do for your teams as team bonding. I was obsessing. I do write an end of year recap to all of our team as well. I go through all the months and just kinda do a year end review. Dana had some pretty funny ones in there. Dana lived in what I called GSP land. Dana, you guys, I don't know how... Dana, you have it, so you're gonna have to tell the secret. Dana has the passion of a saint, guys, and patience. This woman's patience is out of control. She literally... Guys, I have renamed a portion of our company that we've tried to roll out that I think is actually coming to fruition. I think, I renamed it about 10 times, and Dana has very lovingly gone back and redone PowerPoint after PowerPoint after PowerPoint, renamed it, renamed... Dana, how do you have this much patience? 'Cause I'm sure some team members can relate that their boss changes things on them, and you just smile and keep... How did you have that much patience? How do you do this Dana?

0:04:33.3 Dana: Yes. It's more work for me to go back, but when I look at what it does for the company, what it does for our team, how it pushes us forward, and honestly the end result was well worth all of those changes. So sometimes I just have to remind myself that those changes are made because as a company we're learning and growing, and that's part of it.

0:04:55.1 KD: So Dana's a saint, guys, because I don't think most people have that perspective, but I do agree. A lot of those changes were super helpful, and it is gonna tie into this next piece because I think a lot of times in businesses, we are working hard to create something that is maybe an internal marketing product, maybe it's something we're trying to create as a system of a practice. And guys, you have to be gentle with each other because this is the first time we've ever done this. I don't know if any of you know, it's my first time running a consulting company. It's not my first time owning a dental practice or consulting practices, we know that part. If you guys need help with that part, reach out to us, we're the experts there. If you know any dental consultant experts, please send them my way. Truly, if you guys need help running your practices, Dental A Team is the dental expert of the industry, so reach out, [email protected], I'd love to help you guys out.

0:05:44.2 KD: But Dana, let's talk. You've been kind of doing a lot of calls around internal marketing and I feel like we're kind of beating through this like taking those pictures, doing the Day One app, having ways where you're constantly changing and evolving 'cause businesses are growing, being kind to each other. But this whole marketing thing, I do feel so many practices are shackled to marketing because that's how you bribe new patients. And so there's a lot of things we can do internally. I know at Dental A Team, we do the same thing, that's referrals. So I'm gonna put a plug guys, 'cause this is my marketing here. If you love Dental A Team, one, go leave us a Google review, or leave us a podcast review, I'll take either one. And two, if you've been a Dental A Team client or you're a raving fan, send us a referral. Guys, don't be shy. Don't keep all these people to yourself. I will happily and handsomely reward you Dental A Team swag and maybe something that I know you'll love. So email us, [email protected], send someone over. But Dana, what are you doing for your practices for this internal marketing? What have you seen work well? What are some of the things that are coming up on your calls that could possibly help our listeners today?

0:06:48.0 Dana: Yeah. And I love that you tied in the app, the memory app, because truly when patients are looking at things, when they see offices doing community outreach, when they look at an office's social media, when they look at an office's website, they want to see the things that make them people, that make them caretakers, that make them people that they know are gonna create this amazing experience. So, often times we get stuck in a little bit of a rut, especially when... Social media is a great outlet for internal marketing if we can keep it consistent within our practice. But, a lot of times it is, "Hey guys, brush your teeth twice a day." And flossing tips. And that's great because we are there to provide tips for home care.

0:07:32.3 Dana: But really truly, I've been challenging offices lately that we want the patient to get a glimpse of what the experience would be like if they were in your practice. So even little short videos of a new patient checking in, and it doesn't have to... You can do it with your team members, but the experience that they would get, things of... Highlighting patients, highlighting team members, highlighting you doing CE, highlighting you doing community events, all of those then make you people that they want to spend time with, that they want to come into your practice because they know the experience that you put out will be the experience that they'll get in your office.

0:08:10.6 KD: I love that. And I think it's actually a really fun tie-in too. A lot of people call us, the Dental A Team, because you've experienced this on the podcast. People who don't like my energy, don't call me, but people who love our energy follow, and those are the people I wanna hang out with. I don't wanna hang out with people who don't have a lot of energy, who aren't excited about growing and having a great life. Guys, literally everything, the Dental A Team podcast and our newsletters and our social media, it is us. Our marketer is not my same personality, but yet she has to create content that explains, describes, and feels like us. And so Dana, you're exactly right. What people are seeing, is the experience. Guys are coming to you because they like you, they love you, they wanna be with you. Tooth brushing tips, I think, are awesome, I think they're ridiculously valuable. But they've got to like your tooth brushing tips better than another dentist tooth brushing tips. And again, you are not trying to attract every single person.

0:09:06.8 KD: So if you guys haven't done this to kind of plug in, 'cause it makes it a lot easier, figure out who your avatar is. You don't want every single patient to come to your practice. You want the freaking patients who pay you, bottom line, that's what you want. And so with that, if you know that, then let's also isolate this down. Because to Dana's point, those fun things, the things you're doing, you've got to custom craft it to your avatar. Otherwise, it's just going to be noise out there and you're smattering a bunch of stuff hoping something sticks, but you have no direction. That's when you get burnout, that's when marketing becomes annoying, that's when making social media posts just is junk, because it's so hard. Because I know who my avatar is, I wanna have an amazing practice that is a driven doctor, who is driven by numbers and success of their patients and their team and their practice, that's what I want. So if they're driven and I want... They wanna be profitable, they wanna grow, and they want to evolve their team and they wanna make their team better, that's the person that I'm seeking. So guys, you can be listening and if that's you, check, check, check, you might be a great client for us.

0:10:05.3 KD: But I'm also like... I don't want just dentistry. We also are about life, so you'll notice a lot of our podcasts are about life and lifestyle and leadership. And I'm telling you about the Day One app. Guys, that has nothing to do with dentistry, but that has everything to do with life and the moments and memories you're making. So if you're that type of practice and that resonates with you, my content, everything Dental A Team, everything Dana puts out, that is driving for that avatar. So instantly our marketing becomes much easier, much cleaner, much clearer. It's like you were saying Dana, with practices, we want them to be very clear on what they're looking for, otherwise, it's just mess and noise. So, I love that.

0:10:42.7 KD: How do you find, Dana, that you get team members on board to want to do this? So let's say we're at the office, we've figured out our avatar, we know who we want, and now we're like, "Okay, we gotta create that experience and showcase that." Team members usually tell, and I'm sure you hear this as a consultant 'cause I hear it all the time, "We just don't have time Dana. We're so busy." How do you get over that?

0:11:06.3 Dana: So, I think the biggest part is, it's a big hurdle oftentimes because the thing with social media, the things with all of these things, all of the marketing pieces, all of the internal things that you can do, is consistency, and coming up with a plan and sticking with it and making it consistent. With social media, it's consistent posting. We can't have a post and then not post again for another two, three months. So we have to find a way to keep it consistent. So I would say find somebody who is willing to be the poster, the person that's going to take on the posting. That doesn't mean, however, they're creating all of the content.

0:11:39.8 Dana: So, I did a meeting with an office that was super successful, and we basically mapped out each quarter as far as their social media. So we sat down and we said, "Okay, what do we wanna do for January? We're gonna theme a lot of our things around this. We're going to target specific... " So we did... For instance, I'll use this, January, new year, new you. So then the focus we're gonna do on some whitening and some Invisalign, but we're also then gonna do some fun things. So new year, new you, asking team members to share if they made any resolutions or goals or if they chose a word for the year, to share that on social media. So they helped create some of that content.

0:12:19.2 Dana: Then it was, "Okay, we've mapped this out, and so it makes it easy, we know what content we're looking for." Then it's reminding the team, so if we set that for January, then end of December we're reminding the team, "Hey, for January, this is the content we're looking for." And then any team member now can snap the content or can create something in a matter of a minute or two, that then the person can create and can sit and post consistently. Also too, if you're linking Facebook and Instagram, you can create one post, and Facebook allows you to then time out your post, or to map out your post so that you can post for several weeks at a time. So team members are looking for the content, if it only takes a minute or two for everybody to come up with something for that month, if they already have the theme or they already have some ideas that are presented to them, if they just have to look for the opportunities, it definitely makes it easier to keep it consistent, and they see that it really doesn't take a lot of their time.

0:13:18.2 KD: Which I think that that's the important part. It's like, "How can we make this as simple as possible for team members?" Just like your patients, guys. Okay, I'm gonna confess. Dana's a hygienist as well, so this is embarrassing to confess in front of her, and if you've been a podcast listener, you've heard this confession. I had a hygienist change my life by the way. Guys, I used to be a terrible flosser, like legit, I would not floss. When I met my husband, we met on a blind date, and I thought he was lying to me, 'cause, Dana, guess what he said, "I floss every night." How many people actually floss every night, Dana? It's like full-blown. It's a lot.

0:13:53.6 Dana: Not very many.

0:13:55.5 KD: Not very many. And so I just felt like a total hypocrite. But yeah, every hygienist will tell you, "Flossing is so easy, Kiera, it's so simple to do." Well guess what? For Kiera Dent flossing was not something simple and easy to do because I just didn't wanna do it. Getting that annoying string in between my teeth... Hello, welcome to 2023, do we not have anything better than a piece of string to go between my teeth? I'm just asking a question. If anybody wants to make a new business, I will support you. But I was so frustrated with it, and yet they kept saying, "It's easy Kiera, it's easy." And bottom line is, guys, flossing is truly easy, but yet it wasn't easy for me. So a hygienist, she said, "Kiera, how about we make an Easter resolution?" 'Cause we were in the middle of April when she said this. She was like, "Why don't we just make an Easter resolution and you try flossing maybe just like what do you think you could do?" And I said, "Honestly, two times a week." She's like, "Okay, let's just start with that." There was no shaming, there was no judgment, there was no guilt. She literally was so empathetic, and from then on guys, I think I've maybe missed like 10 days in my entire... And that was three, four years ago. But she made it actually easy for me instead of just telling me it was easy.

0:15:00.5 KD: So I feel like for practices like Dana just said, map it out, have a game plan to where it's truly on auto-pilot and part of what you guys are doing. You could literally have it where we have a phone and we do it at morning huddle, and somebody brings a joke, and that's what we're gonna do for our story. My husband loves dad jokes. In case you're wondering, there's this whole thing on Amazon and it can be a dad joke a day. So you guys can even get that on Amazon, and then it became truly easy, and it's on auto pilot. So I feel so many things that are easy, we just need to make it part of our daily routine, make it part of it. Like Dana was saying, I love that new year, new you, that Dana was saying, that's freaking genius, guys. That's a very easy theme that your team can then follow. But I would say the number one problem with internal marketing that I've seen is we say it's simple, but we've actually made it too complex, and complexity is the enemy of execution. So make this simple. So Dana just gave you guys a ton of great ideas. We've given you the app, we've given you the dad jokes, we've also told you to figure out your avatar.

0:15:58.4 KD: So I would say, if I was listening to this podcast and wanna make it tactical, 'cause that's what I do... Shoutout to the offices who joined us, 'cause they said, "Kiera, I love you guys' podcast, because it's always tactical. Every single time I know that I'm gonna leave with something I can go implement right away." Lovers or haters, you can be the decision maker, but if you're somebody who struggled to implement all of our ideas, reach out, we make this very simple for you to actually execute with a plan. So if I was listening, I would take what Dana said and I would figure out how we're going to be consistent. Let's back that up a bit more, let's come up with the avatar. Who are we even trying to attract? Let's get that dialed in. Then let's figure out, what kind of content does that person actually want to hear? What do they wanna see and what are they going to share?

0:16:40.8 KD: You guys, if we were trying to attract a bunch of moms, my material would be radically different than what we currently have. I'm not a mom, so I'd be a terrible person to create that content 'cause I would not know what the heck I was talking about. You guys are dentists, you guys are dental offices, you know what you're talking about. So who are we trying to attract? Pediatric offices, your avatar usually is moms, so create content of how can mama take care of the baby. What do we do when baby's teeth are coming in? What are we going to do for bottle-fed babies versus nursing babies. What are the things that we need to do to help prevent that... All these different pieces. Your content can be so educational that that mom is gonna share with the other mom and talk about you, and then everybody's gonna come see you. If you're trying to attract implant patients, it's a very different type of content that you'll be creating, rather than just creating, "Hey welcome. This is Dana, we love her." You're gonna create very specific content and then like Dana said, get it consistent and easy for your team to truly do.

0:17:33.5 KD: I love the idea of having someone who's the set poster, so you can actually hold them accountable to it, they can help get the content there, make a map. Hallelujah for Alison, she has a whole map, she makes all the content, I give her a yes or a no, and off we go. That's really something I love. So Dana, that's what I'd say for offices to make this tactical, practical. Anything you wanna add in that you feel this is what you've seen offices do very successfully or did we put a gold star on that, put a bow, send you guys off?

0:18:00.9 Dana: I think we put a bow on top of it. And I think too, it is, look for that easy, and look how you can showcase the experience they would have in your practice.

0:18:09.5 KD: I love it. Because at the end of the day, guys, people can choose any dentist, but they can't choose any experience, just like you can choose any restaurant, you can choose any grocery store. But why are you a lover of Chick-fil-A, and you don't go to competitors? Why do you feel so guilty cheating on Chick-fil-A with someone else? It's because they have raving fans, they have created an experience that you're obsessed with, and that's why you keep going. So find that way to make it the exact same for your patients. And guys, if you want help, reach out, [email protected]. Dana, thanks for being on here. Thank all of you for listening. And as always, thanks for listening and we'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

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0:18:47.4 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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