Episode 656: How to Earn a Multi-Million-Dollar Reputation

Kiera’s teasing what’s going to happen at the 2023 Dental A-Team Summit! The theme: tried-and-true secrets of those multi-million dollar practices. This episode looks at your dental practice’s reputation, and why you need a good one. 

Be sure to sign up for the 2023 Summit: thedentalateam.com/summit2023. 

Episode resources:

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Transcript: 

:00:00.0 Kiera Dent: Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera, and you guys, today is a great day and I hope you're having a good day. It was kind of funny. I had to call a friend to get me a pick me up to podcast. Guys, usually I am obsessed with podcasting. Today was one of those days where things just didn't quite go as planned. Does anybody else have one of those days? Yeah, me too. But sometimes you just need a friend who will get you off the couch, will get you out of that rut and remind you that, "Hey, you actually don't have to do this." And then that fueled my fire and I know how much I love this podcast family. So I surely definitely wanted to pop on today guys and have a really fun podcast with you. So if you're in that mood, this podcast is for you guys. And also if this podcast has been serving you, blessing your life, please, by all means, go leave us that five star Google review, that podcast review. And the way you do it is, if you're on Apple, you just are on our icon. So you'll actually scroll down. So you'll see ours and it's like where you scroll down, like just scroll up past all the episodes, like all the way to the bottom, keep scrolling. And then at the bottom, there will be a spot for those five stars. So really leave those five stars. You can leave only just the stars or you can also leave a review. I read those in the middle of the night when I can't sleep.

0:01:12.7 KD: Today I was up at 3 AM. So definitely love when I read from you guys because it also helps our other listeners. So guys, if this has blessed your life, this is the way we're able to grow and elevate and help more practices. Because honestly, at the end of the day, my goal is to serve and bless over 2 million practices. So if you guys want to help out on that mission, I know it's possible, I know it's doable, but it's going to take all of you leaving the reviews, sharing this with friends. And I just appreciate each of you who have done that.

0:01:36.7 KD: All right, today, guys, I wanted to get into a topic, and today's topic is, How to Earn a Multimillion Dollar Reputation. So if you haven't heard, Dental A Team is putting on our Dental A Team summit, and this year it's on the multimillion dollar practice, secrets of those multimillion dollar practices. And so what I wanted to do is a little tease of what we're going to have actually at summit. So with this, how to earn a multimillion dollar reputation, we are actually going to do this as a full team experience. So your whole team will going to be a part of this. Instead of just listening to the podcast, we are going to be there with you guys and with your teams.

0:02:09.2 KD: But really, let's talk about why even do we need a multimillion dollar reputation. And when I was thinking about this, the whole theme of the summit is going to be about how to really set yourself apart from other practices. I actually don't care about the dollar amount. What I want you to be is that ultra successful practice financially and balance and happiness. Right? I feel... There's a great quote and it says that, "Success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure." And I think Tony Robbins is the one that shared that. And I just think about this, like, if you really are this multimillion dollar practice but you're not happy, but you're not fulfilled, what does it even matter?

0:02:47.3 KD: And so the reason why I actually like this topic about how to earn that multimillion dollar reputation, is that in a practice, I actually feel like your reputation is the number one thing that your practice should be concerned about. So I'm going to tell you guys a little story about Kiera when she was in fourth grade. When I was in fourth grade, so I had the same teacher in third and fourth grade and her name was Mrs. Proctor. And Mrs. Proctor was absolutely terrifying, guys. I was literally afraid of her. What she would have us do, I'm a strong I on the DiSC profile. I also am a very high B on culture index. I love people. I've got thin skin. My number one greatest fear is being made fun of in front of other people. Okay? Like, you can do pretty much anything else, but just don't make fun of me in front of other people.

0:03:29.3 KD: So Mrs. Proctor's class terrified me because what she would have us do is, I'm a type A, I have my homework in, my mom helped me with it. And so what she'd do is she'd go to the basket and she'd actually call out all of our names and we'd all have to be standing. And as soon as our name was called, we could sit down and I was always terrified that my homework would get lost. It wouldn't be in the basket. And I was going to look like the idiot who didn't turn in their homework. Like, literally Mrs. Proctor scared me to death as a little third and fourth grader. Helped me a ton, but I remember I was a little bit of a tattle tale in third and fourth grade. I would be the one who would rat out other students. That was me, guys. Sorry for all of those people in my class. And I remember one day Mrs. Proctor told me, she said, "Kiera, you need to make sure that you slow your tattling." Basically is what she was saying. She's like, "Otherwise you're going to develop a negative reputation."

0:04:20.0 KD: And I remember, at that time I would walk home with my brother from school, and I remember at that time being like, "Evan, what is a reputation? Mrs. Proctor said I'm going to get a bad reputation. What even is a reputation?" I didn't even know at that time what a reputation was. I didn't realize that that's what other people think about you, that that's what... How people know you is by your reputation, and your reputation can supersede anything else. So if I have the reputation of Kiera's a tattle tale, even before people meet me, they're going to have that preconceived notion that I'm a tattle tale.

0:04:53.5 KD: And so I only share that because that's when I got introduced to reputation. But when I think about practices and your reputation, what do patients say about you before they even get a chance to meet you? What are the great things they're saying about you? And what are the negative things that they're saying about you? What is the reputation that supersedes them coming in and experiencing you? We want to give that great experience, but guess what, guys? Today, Google reviews are the thing that's really weighing out your reputation. What patients are saying about you, what people are saying about you to other people. I would hope in your town that when people ask, "Who's the best dentist?" Your name is the one that comes up. That's what I'm hoping. And so this is a question of like, how do you actually earn that reputation? How do we create that? And I think number one, it starts with in the practice. Okay? You've got to have really great systems. You've got to have great processes, great team, great culture.

0:05:44.8 KD: Patients can feel the vibe, guys. They can feel when it's super chaotic, psychotic. You can fake it till you can make it for a little bit, but at the end of the day, people really can feel that. Like, there's no point in it because they can feel that stress energy. So you've got to have a really great experience. What does that experience when they come in? How do you want them to feel? What do you want that vibe to be? And if you can get that figured out, then the reputation is going to follow, I would hope. But really it's a lot about those systems, having tight systems, having a great culture, because when things flow easily, that's a great experience for your patients. It's a great experience for your team. It's a great experience for our doctors. So really it's a lot of this, like how do we actually earn that reputation? And I think a lot of it just comes from, you guys doing a great job. It's you guys having all of this put together. It's having the systems in place. It's having the culture, and hiring for culture, and working towards a better culture.

0:06:33.4 KD: That's how our reputation evolves, guys. That's how it's done. And if we're not focusing on that and we're not working on that, then guess what? It's not going to work out for you. So having that multimillion dollar reputation starts; Number one, with the experience that you give them. Number two, I also think it comes from asking. Let's have our patients share their experience with other people. So when people are reading about the reviews, when they're seeing pictures of our practice, you can even go as far as having... Like, I know Studio 88 is a great example. They come in and take amazing videos and pictures of your practice to help patients experience it on the web. What's really cool is in today's day and age, you guys actually get to almost like front load the experience you want your patients to have. You get to decide who your marketer is. You get to decide the pictures that are put out there. You get to decide what patients you're asking for reviews. There's so many review things out there. Swell, Bird's Eye, Podium. I prefer Swell. I know Flex also does it through their software. There's a lot of them.

0:07:33.1 KD: Yappy does it through their software. But you can actually pick and choose the patients that you ask for reviews so you can kind of almost curate an experience. But I will say, you have got to make sure that your practice is worthy of those reviews. So I think about it. If I was looking back in fourth grade, what was a reputation I wanted to have? I wanted to be somebody who is liked. I wanted to be smart. I wanted to be funny. I wanted to be the person that was a good friend. I want to be known as being kind. I wanted to be an honest person. Those are all the things that I hope my reputation would be. So if I wasn't in a room, what would people say about Kiera? So my question is, if you're not in a room, what are people saying about your dentistry? I want you to think back, let's just go back on the schedule. Let's go back over the next, the last week, two weeks. What are those patients saying about you? Think about the experience. Think about our insurance. Did we verify it? Think about the billing process. Think about our injection. Think about were we set up and ready. Think about were they taken back on time. Think about what was the energy of our team members.

0:08:38.3 KD: Were we having hygiene and dental assistant divide? Did we have front office and back office divide? Was our doctor present or were they scattered and not a hundred percent there giving the best experience? What are they saying about you when you're not there? That's your reputation, guys. And so these multimillion dollar practices, the secret is they've got their systems in place. They have a really incredible experience, but it doesn't just happen. They're literally role playing this experience out from top to bottom. They're focused on it. They're looking at their reviews. They're asking themselves, how can we make this better? They've got the mindset of CANEI, Constant And Never-Ending Improvement. How do we make this better? What do our patients need? I have heard so many people say, "I love the doctor, but their billing is absolutely crazy. I would never go back." It wasn't even the doctor's fault. The doctor was a great dentist, but the front office lost it. Or our scheduling team, if they're answering the phone and they are looking on Facebook, social media, whatever they're doing, as opposed to being super focused and intentional on that patient, giving them greater experience. What are they going to feel? That's your reputation. This is how your reputation is built.

0:09:43.4 KD: And so I want you guys to really ask yourself as a practice, and this is what we're going to do at Summit guys. So you can do it now. We're going to go into a deeper dive with the entire team, and we're going to work through how you actually earn. Notice it's not how you get, you earn it. It's not something that just happens overnight. It's not something that is just like, "And we have a reputation." It's through small little things done consistently over time. My reputation was coming because I was tattling on every single student thinking I was the cat's meow, guys. That is a reputation. You being late all the time creates and is earning you a reputation of being a practice that's not on time. Having a bunch of billing mistakes earns you a reputation of not being great with billing, and that's a big stressor for patients. Having your hygiene team that doesn't diagnose perio and does bloody prophys. That's earning you a reputation of lower quality care. Your patient might not know it, but ethically you do know it. So how are you able to even treat those patients?

0:10:41.4 KD: These are the reputations guys. So I really want you to think about your practice. So to make this tactical for you, I want you guys to literally go through the patient experience and this will prepare you if you're coming to summit. And if not, you should come to summit head on over to the dentalateam.com/summit2023. I'd love to see you guys there. Guys, it's like nine CE credits for your entire team. It's awesome. And it's going to be so fun. And think of it as like a team retreat, as a team training for your practice. It's not like sitting there just listening. It's literally active hands-on.

0:11:10.2 KD: So, come April 20th and 29th, I'd love to see you there. But I really want you guys thinking about how are you earning? What points are we tallying up for your reputation? Are you the practice that's tattling all the time? Are you the practice who's late? Are you the practice who's on time? And it doesn't have to be a huge ordeal. It can literally be simple, small things running on time, being kind when people call, getting them scheduled in quickly and efficiently, having their benefits verified before they get there, having accurate treatment plans, having smooth and seamless billing, having our clinical team be prepared so we can pull them back on time, have our doctors running on time. So accurate scheduling, these things earn you a reputation.

0:11:46.6 KD: Having a doctor who cares and is thorough with the exams, having a doctor who's not afraid to tell them that they need to get this tooth taken care of, having a front office team that is educated on clinical things. So that way they can actually share with them. That's how you earn a reputation. So which bucket are you guys in? Where are you gathering points? If I were to divvy up all these and like look at the 12 systems, where are you guys earning points, and where are you losing points on your reputation?

0:12:12.6 KD: Multi-million dollar practice reputation does not just happen overnight. And guess what? It's not just for patients coming to you, but it's also for team members wanting to work with you. That's the other flip side of the multi-million dollar practice reputation. It's patients and team. What reputation are you getting? If you've got a lot of team turnover, that's a negative reputation, guys, and you can change it. The great news is with a reputation, just like my teacher told me, with your actions, you can change this. So how are you going to change this? How are you going to make it better? Guys, I'm going to invite you guys to look at your reputation and earn that multi-million dollar practice. And that's not saying... For me, this isn't dollar amount. It's the quality. It's like the Ritz-Carlton practice.

0:12:52.5 KD: It's the Hertz rental car. Like the elite practices is what I'm trying to say with this multi-million dollar practice secrets. It's how are you that elite practice? How are you able to grow your practice to be that? And guys, we're going to share all those secrets and more, but this is just a sneak peek of what we're going to talk about at summit.

0:13:10.2 KD: So guys, I hope you join us. It'll be a great time. I hope you just work on that reputation. Don't be like Kiera in fourth grade, getting a negative reputation and not doing anything about it. If you're on a negative path, turn it to a positive. If you're on a positive path, keep it going. And guys, if I can help you in any way, reach out, [email protected]. This is where a coach can help you. This is where a support group can help you. They can tell you where your weaknesses are. They can point out those blind spots that you might be missing, and they can do it with love, compassion and ease. And that's what we're all about.

0:13:40.8 KD: So guys, reach out, [email protected], make a list and decide what you're going to work on now and put it into play. Reputations don't have to be permanent. They can actually be something that is great and supersedes you that brings people in that never would have found you otherwise, other than you have an amazing reputation. And with that guys, thanks for listening. And I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.