Episode 563: Increase Your Practice’s Magic

Want to know if your practice is a place people like? Take a look at the number of internal referrals you’re getting. Kiera shares why your patients telling others to come is a sign of a healthy, thriving practice. Internal referrals mean your practice provides great service, delivers on promises, and is real and authentic (no more fake it ‘til you make it!).

Listen to this episode to learn how to increase the amount of internal referrals your practice gets and make patients raving fans of your work.

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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, for 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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0:00:51.4 KD: Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And guys, I hope today is a rad day for you. I hope you're just having fun out there, I hope your drive is going awesome, I hope going to work, you just remember, you are in truly the most magical best profession you could ever, ever, ever be in. Alright guys, we're gonna kick this one off, this is gonna be quick, direct to the point, you don't get any Kiera fluff today. I don't call it Kiera fluff, I call it Kiera life. And the reason I share Kiera life when I made the podcast, I was like, I'm gonna be GSD business, go to work, as soon as I get on that podcast, no fluff. And then I realized, people... People wanna know who's on the other side. People wanna connect because we're people. We're people first, we're business owners second, we're team members second, but we're people first. And guess what? If you guys can learn from my stories and my authentic self and I can connect with you because I'm real raw and you get to hear my own life. Guys, the last podcast I just recorded, freaking crying my eyes out. Get ready. I was talking about a failed IVF cycle, which I have not wanted to talk about until now. But guys, I don't want you to ever sit there and think that my life is perfect, or our teams lives are perfect, or we don't go through struggles, or I don't have team turnover, that's BS. That's not fair for you to set yourself up on a measuring stick that's not real. Because guess what? We all compare.

0:02:09.8 KD: We all think, Oh my gosh, I should be better, I should be like them. We don't get to see the hidden sides, and I try really hard on this podcast to show you every single side so that way you can know, "Hey, I'm rocking it. No matter what I'm going through, I'm doing great." "I know that Kiera struggles, I know that the Dental A Team struggles, I struggle. I know the Dental A Team freaking crushes it. I know I crush it." Because I want you to have... If I'm gonna be a mentor and an influence in your life, I don't take that lightly. I believe that I should be somebody who's real, authentic and genuine. So if you ever came into my life, which, hey, I hope you do, if we can be coaching clients or we can be friends or you come through Reno, Nevada guys, I'll convince you it's the cool parts of Reno, there are some real weird ones, but I'll give you the great ones. I would love to know you in real life, and I would hope that when you meet me or talk to me, I'm the exact same person that you've been listening to on the podcast, that nothing was sugar-coated, that I didn't inflate it, I didn't make it bigger, I told you how it was real raw, straight, and that's why I call it the Kiera extra, that's why it's there. Because I don't want any of you to ever feel like you can't do it.

0:03:15.7 KD: I want you to have a mentor who's been there, done that and does it with you. So today, on that note, I'm gonna dive into a really fun one about internal referrals. [chuckle] And the reason I just shared all that is because I believe internal referrals come from authenticity, internal referrals don't come from some fancy-schmancy marketing campaign, internal referrals come from freaking great service and deliverables and being real and authentic. No one likes fake. Guys, fake, fake it until you make it, I think is an outdated adage. We are in a time and a place where people are so sick of fake because you don't know. Are those reviews real? Are those likes real? Did they pay... There's bots guys, there's stuff that hangs on that I don't even know, like Gosh, there's weird stuff.

0:04:04.4 KD: Crypto currency guys, that's not even real money anymore, that's like some blockchain in the universe. Yes. Am I into crypto? A little bit. Do I know what the heck it is? Not really. Do I still feel weirded out by it? 100%. Do I feel like we're living in a day and an age where it is very hard to differentiate between real and fake? Yes. So to get internal referrals, which so many of us are looking for 'cause we wanna grow our business, I think internal referrals are my best indicator of how my company is doing. If I'm not getting referrals, it's probably one of two things, one, we're not asking or two, our experience is not great. Because experiences that are amazing get referrals naturally. Guys, think about it. Right now, I want you to think of, if I were to ask, Alright, what is a fantastic restaurant in your area? Go. What would it be? Just say it out loud. Like guys, I'm not in the car with you. Pretend I am. Pretend I'm sitting next to you, or I'm at the office, or I'm on the walk with you, or I'm mowing on the lawn. I'm not in the shower you weirdos.

0:05:05.3 KD: That one's always weird when people are like, Yeah, I listen to you in the shower. I actually don't wanna know that one. So if you're that person, don't tell me. [chuckle] But the rest of you, if I'm on a trip with you, pretend I'm right next to you. If you're in the shower, I'm not by you. Everybody else, Hey, I'll hang out. Unless... I don't know where else you'd be. But pretend I'm right next to you. What restaurant recommendation would you give me right now? Okay, what about I need a haircut? Who do I go to? Say it, tell me. Guys, I'm right by you. All right, what if I were to ask you, "Okay, who would you go to if you need dental consulting?" If Dental A Team wasn't the first name in your mind, I've done something wrong, I haven't given an experience. And please, if you didn't say Dental A Team, you said another company, I would ask you as a friend to email me right now, like just stop. Hello at the dentalateam.com and tell me why Dental A Team wasn't the first one that came to mind. If Dental A Team was the first one that came to mind, also email me and tell me why. This is gonna help me, guys, to know what things I'm doing well and what areas I can improve. Truthfully, I don't care what you say, rag on us, brag on us. I don't care. Brag or rag. I don't care which one, 'cause either way, feedback is great. If I were now to ask you, who's the best dentist in your area that I should go to, who do you say?

0:06:26.5 KD: Well, if you didn't say your dental practice, we should dive into that. That's a... Number one issue. But if you did, do your patients, also say that? Now, I'm gonna go back. Let's think about the restaurant. Why did you recommend that restaurant, if you were to come to Reno, Nevada, the first one that comes to my mind. Oh, I've got a couple. I would probably say I used to always say South Creek. However, the last time I went south creek pizza was not great. It was actually highly underwhelming, that used to be my first go-to all the time, because their pizza was amazing, the ambiance was incredible, it was always predictably great. Last time, not so good. So then my next one was gonna be Crazy D's Hot Chicken, the reason why is I think it's like a total hole in the wall, not glam and glitz, but man, that is some awesome, awesome, awesome, hot spicy chicken. If you don't love hot spicy chicken and you're looking for more of like romantic place, I would tell you, Liberty tap and wine. Fantastic. Downtown, you're in Midtown, you're down by the river. You can do the river walk. Freaking amazing. They've got the best food. Homemade noodles. Unreal. Amazing, and I would tell you my top five things there, and I love to go there... Cute, romantic date place, if that's what you're looking for.

0:07:34.9 KD: Okay, now notice, why did I just recommend all those, South Creek, I used to recommend 'cause of the ambiance, killer, amazing pizza, great service every single time. But they messed up last time, so now I'm hesitant to refer, Crazy D's, Crazy D's is consistently hole in the wall every time, but man, that hot chicken is so fun, Tiffany trader... You guys know spiffy tiffy, consultant trader, Tiff craves Crazy D's, craves them. She loves them so much, it's just this great amazing chicken tenders that are so good. Bobby Kramer, faculty member from Midwestern, came to Reno, asked me where to go, tell them to go, and he was like, "Kiera, that was the best chicken," so now I know people love it. They don't have the best customer experience, but man, those chicken tenders are to die for every single time. Next one, who did I tell you? Liberty food and wine. Another thing about them, consistent, amazing, cute, quaint, I've got five things that I love, they're amazing, and it's in a great, great, great atmosphere place.

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0:08:35.1 KD: Are you guys sick of trying to figure it out on your own? I know I am. When I'm trying to run a business. Sometimes I just think there's got to be a better way to do this, and so for me, my answer has been to find someone who's done it and does it really, really, really well, like I'm talking the best of the best of the best. I want someone who has been in my shoes, somebody who understands what I'm going through. When I was looking for the consulting business, I found a coach who literally has run a consulting business... Well, that seemed like the perfect fit. So you guys. Right now, we have a few spaces open in our platinum consulting, that is in the consulting where we actually come to your practice, we help you get systems implemented, we don't just tell you what systems to implement, we actually implement them with you and for you. You guys, it is one of the best investments I've ever made is to hire a coach who understands the business I'm in, who's lived it, who's done it, and that's what we and the Dental A Team do, we literally physically fly to you.

0:09:34.6 KD: So if you're sick of trying to figure it out on your own. If you just want somebody who understands you, join our platinum, I'd love to have you. I'd love to have our consulting team come out and see you, be in your office, be with your team, and truly help you get on to the easy path of dentistry. It doesn't have to be hard. So join us in the Platinum, we'd love to have you.

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0:09:55.2 KD: If you had asked me for a haircut, I'd tell you, Kalina. Kalina, she's wildly expensive. Like, I'm not kidding, when I say expensive, I pay over $200 for a haircut. Legit guys, I wanna throw up. She's highly expensive, but I walk out there looking like a freaking million bucks, and I used to cry every time I got my hair cut, and I never, ever, ever cry when Kalina cuts my hair. Never. So I know you're gonna get the best haircut you have ever had in your entire life, if you go to Kalina, she is a freaking magician when it comes to hair, I would recommend her all day long, and that was me finding her when I came to Reno, not expecting to fall in love with my hair girl, and yet I'm dead loyal to her.

0:10:34.0 KD: If you'd asked me for a dentist in Reno, I would not be able to give you somebody here because I have yet to have a consistent good experience. I used to like one dentist, but then they started charging me really stupid on their bill, and then I feel like they were a scam, and every time I went in, I got a different dentist and a different hygienist, guys, I can get that on the road. I don't know if you know what I do. I work with hundreds of dentists, so to go to a dentist in my area and get a different one every time drives me nuts, and then I don't go to another dentist 'cause I'm scared out of my mind, 'cause what if they drill on the wrong tooth? What if they do bad dentistry? I've seen bad dentistry, summer chicken. Right now, I don't have a dentist I would recommend in Reno, I don't... And I'm not willing to go have my teeth tested to see if they're a good dentist or not, if I had to get work done, I would recommend Dr. Justin at Solid Dental or Dr. Graft, reason why? Two great, great dentists... Sorry, not Dr. Graft, Dr. O'Gara. I've had work done by both of them, an amazing, amazing, amazing work. I would recommend them. For cleanings, the experience, don't have a dentist that I would recommend right now.

0:11:40.4 KD: Did You guys pick up any themes... I went through that whole list for you, what themes did you hear... Say it, remember, I'm right next to you today, what themes did you pick up? Consistency. A consistent experience was one. Great food. Was that right? Kalina, I don't cry. That's why I wanna go to her for my hair, because my hair is amazing, every single time. Did you notice a theme? Consistency across the board, a consistent experience, the book, The E-Myth Revisited is a really great one, and they talk about how you really need to create a consistent experience. Guys, you've gotta make sure that when patients call, they get a great experience every time they call your office with our billing, our billing is not botched and messed up, every time, our hygiene exams are awesome, every single time, our dentistry is amazing, every single time. Now, we're humans, we're going to make mistakes, but is our customer service, awesome, every time, do we make those patients feel like freaking rockstars or are they just numbers, 'cause we're trying to hit production, do we make them feel like they're patients?

0:12:40.1 KD: Do we present treatment plans consistently and make it easy for them to understand, and we do great insurance verification, so our insurance is correct, do we give them an awesome experience, every piece of the team, not just the dentist, 'cause I think some offices like literally rely on their dentist to wine and dine and make them the best. And the front office is not that great. Hygiene is not that great. Do you guys practice and think about, What are the sprinkles we add? Do you have the foundation? Good, so we always perio chart, talk to them about perio disease, if they come in, we recommend fluoride every single time because we believe in it, or we recommend holistic mouth rinse because we believe in that. Whatever it is, how is your patient experience? Is your patient internal referral worthy?

0:13:25.3 KD: As a consulting company. I think there are some things that we lack I really do, but I think there's some things we do killer. And guess what we do get referrals. I just had a new client pop in today and I love, love, love when it says, How'd you hear about the Dental A Team? Referred from a friend. That to me means everything 'cause that says I'm doing great. So when you look at your new patients, how many of those are actually referrals? If it's not very many, I would definitely dive into this. If you're getting a lot, I would dive into that as well. What are we doing really, really well that's making people want to refer to us, because let's keep doing that. You have to remember if I were to go in your city, pull a hundred patients and ask them who is the best dentist that you would recommend?

0:14:09.7 KD: Is your name, the name that they would say? Are you out in your community? Do people know your name? Are you on social media? So people see you or are you just tucked in your corner? Are your patients raving fans of you? And if not, how are you going to get them to be raving fans? What do you need to change to make them raving fans. For us, we heard that we weren't doing doctor collaboration within our consulting and people still felt isolated and on their own islands. Guess what? Talk about it Tuesdays, is coming into play. And I cannot wait and that's gonna be our collaboration. We heard what they were saying and we executed on it. Are you listening to what your patients are saying? Do you pull your patients and go ask them, "Hey, how can we make our experience better?" Or patients who are referring, ask them, Why do you refer to our practice?

0:14:56.0 KD: We wanna make sure we keep enhancing the things that you really love about our practice. Just imagine if you made one or two phone calls like that, that can be front office. That can be the dentist. That can be anybody, hygienist, downtime. Are we actually asking for these internal referrals and does your team ask for them? Do we call people and ask them, do we send thank you cards, like genuine, thank you cards. That's something where Dental A Team could highly improve, highly. So I want you guys to think about it. Internal referrals are the greatest thing. In my opinion, to tell you if you're doing a great job or if you need to improve and how you can improve. So guys check it out, try it out. I just gave you a ton of ways to figure out internal referrals.

0:15:36.2 KD: I gave you a bunch of real life examples. Now take it to your practice. Go implement and execute. If you're not getting internal referrals, change your experience. If you're getting internal referrals, find out what they like and enhance it. If you've got a great tip of how you get lots of internal referrals, share guys, I'd love to hear. I'd love to share success stories of practices. So email me, if you were the practice that is just crushing it on internal referrals, email me, [email protected]. I'd love to hear what you're doing 'cause if we can take your ideas and share with more offices and help more offices get raving fans, what did we just do? We helped positively impact the world of dentistry in an even bigger way. And that's my mission. Some of the things that I've seen of practices that get raving review, internal referrals, number one, they're consistent on their dentistry.

0:16:21.5 KD: Their dentistry is great every time. Number two, they give painless injections. That is one of the number one things that's going to get patients to refer to you. Number three, an amazing front desk. Their front desk is top notch. They smile. They answer the phones, they're on it. They call their patients back and they are happy to do so. You all know when you got a front desk, that's like you come at me and I've got laser eyes at you of like, I'm busy. I'm in the middle of my thing. No, no, no, no, no. Truly like we are there to serve those patients. And we do it with ease, grace and efficiency. Their billing is topnotch. They don't mess up on bills. I cannot tell you how many billing departments have messed up internal referrals because they mess up on the bills all the time.

0:17:03.5 KD: Now this doesn't mean we need to be leery. You can literally present a patient full fee and say, we will bill your insurance for you and they'll reimburse you. Patients... Like it's not the matter of like them maxing out insurance or not maxing out insurance. It's the fact that we handle it and we're not passive. And we fix it and we pay attention to what's coming back from the insurance. So we adjust our fee schedules to make them accurate. And we're not lazy on our billing. That is a huge piece. Hygienists are not afraid to diagnose perio. They're actually consistent with their perio and they actually do a true cleaning and not a bloody prophy, other things assistance, assistance is just having the room set up so the procedure flows. It doesn't matter if it's a consistent assistant or not. That's okay. You guys, you can pop assistances around.

0:17:48.5 KD: I've seen it happen in lots of practices, but it's is the experience set up or is that assistant having to get up, leave, get up, leave, get up, leave, get up. That is annoying. Can practices do same day treatment to make a VIP experience? Does that patient feel like a million bucks every time or do they feel like a number? Those are some of the things that get raving, raving, raving, internal referrals. So if you've got other things that your practice does, email us at [email protected]. And if you want help improving your patient experience again, email us. We'd love to help you. This is what we live for. This is what we do with our consulting. This is how we change lives and we love doing it and we're passionate about it. And with that guys, thanks for listening. And I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

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0:18:32.9 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.