Episode 573: The New Patient How To

Here’s your quick fix for getting more patients through your doors! Kiera talks through the following ideas (and why they work):

Transcript:

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0:00:05.6 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 team. Welcome to The Dental A Team Podcast.

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0:00:51.2 KD: Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. You guys, I hope you're having a killer day. I hope it's really fun for you. I don't know, wherever you are, I hope you're making it amazing, because I am, and I hope you are too. Today I'm driving, so it's kinda fun. Hopefully I'm driving along with you. I just had someone interview for our company. This is kind of a fun story, and he's like, "Kiera, we've been pocket pals for a long time." He's like, "You have gone on so many trips with me. I've listened to you," and I thought that was just a fun full circle, that the podcast has inspired, shaped, helped someone in their practice, and now that person is interviewing to be a Dental A Team consultant. So guys, on that note, we are always, always... And who knows, this could change, so take it if you want. But we are actively hiring traveling and virtual Dental A Team consultants.

0:01:39.1 KD: So if you've loved this podcast, if you've thought it was amazing and you're looking for a career change, by all means, we would love to interview you. On that note, we do not hire anybody that ever is from a practice that we have consulted. No way, Jose. That's no good, and we do not ever wanna take great people from it. And I don't wanna snag you from your office. I would hate for dentists to be scared to share this with your team. At the end of the day, we are only looking for people that you might know that might not be happy in their practice. I want you guys to stay in your offices, 'cause it's fun. That's a fun place. But if you're moving or you're looking for another job and you're not leaving your practice, I would absolutely 1000% love to interview you.

0:02:17.1 KD: So doctors, don't be afraid. We're not taking your people. That just does not gel and jive with me. And if they're happy, they're gonna stay. So have awesome morale. But virtual, so you don't need to travel, and traveling consultants, where you will physically fly to it. We are currently hiring in Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. So if you live in one of those states or you will be living in one of those states, I'd love to chat with you. Like I said, if you already work with us, nope, sorry, we'll not hire you, no way. We do not do that to our practices at all. And also, I don't wanna snag you from any practice that's a fantastic practice. So again, these are more for people who are shifting because your family's moving, or you're looking for a career change, maybe you're burnt out, we have hired hygienists, and I will also tell you the requirements in order to be a Dental A Team consultant.

0:03:01.0 KD: You Must, this is with a capital M, Must have clinical and front office experience. We do not hire people that only have one or the other. Preferably, we'd love to have bachelor's degrees minimum. And we also look for... You have to have at least two years office management experience, minimum. No ifs, ands, or buts, and I need you to be a true office manager. So KPIs, overhead, profitability, tracking those numbers, running large teams, growing practices to multiples. If you have multiple office experience, even better, but just so you know, that's what we look for. So Hey docs, guess what? Most of you are free and clear, [chuckle] 'cause you don't even qualify for that. But if you are that person or you know of a friend who would be awesome or you've worked with someone in the past who'd be an incredible consultant, send them our way. I would love to interview them, [email protected].

0:03:47.8 KD: It is pretty rigorous to become a consultant. So docs, the ones who hire us, guess what, you've got top, top tier. Most of our consultants come from us from usually they're moving to that state, they wanna get back to the state that they grew up in, or they're just looking for a change. Maybe they're burnt out on clinical hygiene. They don't wanna do it anymore. They've managed the front office and they're looking for that. We do have a tiered system, so it's pretty fun of how you guys are able to be compensated, lots of fun. So if you know of anybody, send 'em our way, [email protected]. With that, I hope that you guys are just having a killer day. Today is fun. It's an amazing way for us to just get connected today. Like I said, I'm driving between offices and decided to pop on the podcast while I'm doing it.

0:04:31.0 KD: So today, I wanted to quickly dive into a way for you guys to grow your practice, and that is obviously through referrals. I mean, I just asked for you guys for referrals of people you know for Dental A Team consultants, because we need to hire, so I'm going to ask you for referrals. But I think, in the same vein, how can we grow your practice through referrals? So number one, you've gotta have a company that you believe in 110%. I know that Dental A Team is truly one of the absolute best companies in the entire world to work for. Like, we have a killer company, and I know our entire team would tell you the same thing. It's not killer if you don't like to pivot. If you're someone who doesn't enjoy change, guess what? You will absolutely hate working for us. Absolutely. Because we change a lot, and we have to think outside the box and there's no rule book or cookbook of how to run a dental consulting company that I've been able to find.

0:05:23.8 KD: We make it up on the fly, which is why we love what we do. But for a lot of people, that's not ideal. But I know, if that's who you are, and I'm not trying to attract every person, I want the people that love to pivot, love to travel and love to serve, even if you wanna be virtual, fantastic, let's hire you. These are the type of people I'm looking for. The people that have been there, done that, done it really well and want to go and help and serve more practices. That's the type of referral I'm looking for. And I'm super crystal clear. And the reason I talk about that is because when you're crystal clear of who you're trying to hire, guess what? Or the type of patients you're trying to get, like, I'm crystal clear of who we're trying to hire, referrals become easy.

0:06:00.4 KD: If you know your ideal patient, referrals become very easy. Guys, you don't wanna ask every single person in your practice to refer patients to you. Do you? What about those amazing patients that you don't love? Just asking a question, just asking. Those are the people that you probably don't wanna have in your practice. We don't wanna ask them for referrals. So you need to first have an incredible practice that you think is worthy of patient referrals. Number two, identify your ideal patient that you want referred. Maybe it's implant patients, maybe it's cosmetic patients. Maybe you wanna do sleep apnea patients. I don't care. Maybe you want elderly patients. Maybe you want younger patients. Maybe you want families. Whatever it is, it does not matter. We just need to figure out our ideal patient that we want to try and attract.

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0:06:47.6 KD: How many of you would just love to DIY and get the secrets of people who have been there, done that on your own time? Because I know for me, I love to learn from the best of the best, the people who have been there, done that and can give me the shortcuts. That's why we have created our Dental A Team Virtual Academy, where it's on-demand courses for you at your fingertips where you literally can learn the secrets from all of my experience, all of Tiffany's experience, Britney, Dana, our entire team's experience at your fingertips. So stop taking the hard route, guys, there's a shortcut sitting there waiting for you, and it's also CE, head on over to thedentalateam.com and click on our Virtual Academy. Be sure to use coupon code Podcast and get started on that DIY and become the practice of your dreams.

0:07:34.5 KD: And then, I'm really obsessed with fun ways for you to give back to your patients. So I love, love, love either monthly or quarterly giveaways for these referrals, and guys have fun with it. Every practice that I have ever consulted has been something different. The same give away for a practice does not work for every practice across the board, because your patients are different, your demographics are different, your ideal patient is different. So let me walk you through. For example, if I have a pediatric practice, okay? Who is their ideal patient, you're probably thinking kids, false, it's moms. Moms bring kids to the practice. So if they go target kids, guess what? They are not going to be getting very many patient referrals at all. They're after moms. Now, what kind of a mom? Do they want a multi-child mom? Do they want moms who live with an X amount? Do they want moms... I don't know, that's up to you to decide.

0:08:27.1 KD: Maybe they want people who work at... Or wear Lululemon, I don't care. But you gotta figure out who it is. So with a pediatric practice that I worked with, we actually created... We thought about, Okay, we want a mom who's in her mid-20s, who's a stay-at-home mom, not working, goes to the library for reading days, loves to workout, like we built out an entire avatar of who this ideal patient was. That then helped us figure out what we wanted to do for giveaways. Because, guess what? A giveaway for a stay-at-home mom compared to a mom who's a working mom, those are two radically different giveaways, right? A working mom, they're probably going to want like a day on the town. They'll want a house cleaner, they'll want Lululemon, probably could work for both of them, but we're gonna have different things. A stay-at-home mom, they probably wanna have a trip, 'cause they probably don't get out as often, they might want... They're probably not gonna want a house cleaner, maybe they would, but they probably have their house pretty clean.

0:09:24.3 KD: They might want a night out on the town as well, like have a babysitter, all that. So, with this office, we really started thinking about, Okay, what could be our quarterly giveaways for this ideal patient? So we came up with, like I said, Lululemon, a gym membership to a local place, we also went to a local coffee shop and did coffee gift cards for anyone who did refer in. We also did a... What did we do? I think we did a Coach purse. We're in California. You can't believe the number of referrals we had for those giveaways, so patients were referring constantly because we lasered in in our area what those patients wanted. So like I said, you gotta number one, have an awesome practice that people would want to refer to. Number two, you need to identify your ideal referral, and then number three, create monthly or quarterly giveaways. And have things, so it could be that they do a check in on Facebook, they leave a Google review, they refer someone to the practice.

0:10:22.3 KD: I love that this office worked in conjunction with a local coffee shop and local gyms, because then they are also giving back to their communities, which is always a feel-good. So, I really recommend for you guys to really boost those referrals, get creative, think outside the box, what could you guys do? I've got an office in Washington and I loved one of their ideas. They did for their raffle giveaway was canoe, they did a YETI cooler, an office in Texas gave away... I think it was, I don't remember, Garth Brooks concert tickets and oh my gosh, their Google reviews shot up through the window, but I would try different things on these of how you want people to enter, but really focus on those referrals.

0:11:06.1 KD: I have offices, offices who are very intentional on giving out referral cards asking for those referrals directly and not being afraid. They literally roleplay as practices. These ones crush the referral game, they crush it. Patients refer to them, but they make sure that they have an awesome patient experience. They've identified who they really want to come to their practice, and then they're very intentional on asking for it consistently. So you can give out cards in the morning, you can have a reader board, whatever you wanna do, but really ramping it up, I think can help you guys a ton on these monthly or quarterly giveaways. So I usually set a budget, have somebody over it, tell your patients, tag it, have a ton of fun with it, but it's a great, great, great way for you guys to boost your practice, bring more of your ideal patients in.

0:11:51.6 KD: Social media can be great to bring them in as well, but I love at the practice level, it's something every team member can do, everyone can be asking together, and it's a great way for you guys to all ramp it up. So try it out. If you want some help, we customize this for practices, we help you guys identify your avatar, all parts of the pieces that we do within our customized consulting, so if that gels and jives with you, email us [email protected]. If nothing else schedule it out, guys tis the season. It's a great time for you to do this as a team, really focus on your ideal candidates and then set a quarterly goal around it.

0:12:23.1 KD: As always guys, thanks so much for listening, and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

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0:12:29.6 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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