Dental A Team Podcast

Dental A Team
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This podcast is here to give dentists and all dental office team members, in EVERY position, TACTICAL and PRACTICAL TIPS to: - Be more efficient - Have more fun - Improve doctor and team communications - Eliminate frustration - And make your life easier! Jump in! We are thrilled you have decided to LEVEL UP and be part of the DENTAL A TEAM! New episodes every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

  1. 2d ago

    #1,207: This Is What Your KPIs Are Trying to Tell You

    Your key performance indicators do not have to be intimidating. In fact, with the correct frame of mind, they tell you exactly what's going on in your practice! Kiera shares the smart way to utilize KPIs, including: Looking for patterns, not just numbers Finding the question in each KPI Understanding KPIs are team-wide, not just for the owner Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera, and I hope you're excited because I'm gonna talk to you about KPIs and whether you're excited about it or not, you're gonna listen to KPIs because KPIs are the vital of your practice and your KPIs are really telling you a lot more, just like your vitals on your body are probably telling you a lot more than you think they are. I have been getting and falling in love with weight training, and I had a client shout out to her. She was like, Kiera, you need a new passion to become obsessed with, and I think weight training could be there.   But with my history, I was anorexic for a lot of my life. And thankfully that part of my life I think is like done and over. And I love food. And so with weight training, my coach was like, you've got to track in and you gotta weigh in. So it's weighing in every day, doing your measurements, and then doing macros. And for a girl who is terrified of that, because a skill for me and eating food, like a lot of food.   was like no goes for a lot of years in my life. And what I found though is she was like, Kiera, you're just tracking these because they're telling you information like the food you ate yesterday, or are you like coming up on your menstrual cycle where you're bloated and you're holding more water? it's been fascinating. And I've been tracking for almost a year now. So like huge win. Thank you. Thank you. I'm sure you're all cheering for me. and if you're not, I appreciate the cheers. but what I realized is like,   It's just data and it's telling me information. And I re bring that up because I believe that this was what our KPIs are too. The KPIs are just data to tell us if something's working, if it's not working. I'm obsessed with tracking my metrics. Like there was a while that I was weight training and I wouldn't track what my weight was. And I never was getting stronger because like it's like, I think I was at like 10 pounds last time, versus hey, last time you were at 10 pounds, we're gonna start you at 10 on your warm-up and we're going up to 12. And now I have a really like strict UR trainer.   Who watches my metrics, watches the pieces, and then adjusts accordingly. I am up to PRs that I've never been hitting, but it was because I actually use the data, not just track the data, to make better decisions. And that's what your KPIs are. So I just want you to know that like look at your KPIs to look for the right messages because we're only looking to see if we won or lost most of the time with KPIs. But using these to diagnose problems before they become expensive to me is where your KPIs really start to become impactful. Similar to like, wait.   Right. Like we're trying to add and bulk up my calories. Like I came in at a lower calorie, no shock to anybody. but for us, it's like, okay, well, for me also, how do I know I can add this much food in? Like, guys, so much protein. If you have protein tips, please email me. Be a protein buddy out there. I am so tired of eating cottage cheese, chicken, fair life shakes, cottage cheese. Like my main thing was like cottage cheese, wheat checks, gr raspberries, and peanut butter.   I have eaten Built Bars, like you name it, protein powder. I shout out to Ballerina Farms. That's my favorite one. I've made an Orange Julius with vanilla protein powder. Like you guys, to get that much protein has been so hard. But I also know if I don't get enough protein and I'm lifting, I'm not gonna get my the the gains and the strength that I'm actually going for. And this is to make Kiera, 95-year-old Kiera, to be freaking ripped. I wanna be like running and beating your 20-year-old son or daughter. Like that's what I want to be doing. So   But if I'm not looking at this, I'm not diagnosing these problems. So like we're adding more food food, but like we got to watch to make sure the measurements aren't changing and we're not adding it too quickly or not. So it's this whole piece. Same thing with your KPI. So I hope that analogy was there. I hope that, and hey, if you want to talk to me about like protein or weight training, hi, I would love to talk to you because I was like rookie girl who didn't even know how to lift going into it, wasn't like a bodybuilding competition. There's really, I don't know how to explain it.   But there was this incredible photographer from Spain who does physique photo shoots. And that was like a goal I worked towards. And to be able to have that to weigh in, to do a bulk and a cut, to just like be able to turn my body into this incredible machine and see how I can fuel her. Hey, if you want to talk about that, like hey, maybe that's another podcast of like, but happy to chat with anybody and just know, like, it's really incredible. Also, exhaust the body, tame the mind. Shout out to Dan Martell.   It really has also made me a more powerful CEO and to navigate some of the hardest times in the business because I've been able to have that mental strength and support by working out. So total tangent, but like let's get back into KPIs because KPIs really truly are so helpful for you. It's the first thing that's going to work with you. We have a KPI dashboard for all of our clients. We use the analytics with all of our clients because this will tell you before there's truly a problem. And we can watch trends instead of being like, it was an off month or I feel this way. No more, I feels. It's either I'm gaining.   My weight, like and it's muscle, and I'm building muscle, or I'm just eating nonsense over here. Like it's been really fascinating. So I want you to know this, and we're gonna talk to you guys about like what your KPIs are really trying to tell you. So, as I mentioned, step one is looking for patterns, not just numbers. So, usually like we have a book of business trend for all of our consultants. So we're watching certain KPIs on every single practice, all hundreds of clients that we have, we're watching it.   And we look at kind of like a three-month trail. So I want to see how are these clients doing? How are they doing compared to last year? Because that's going to tell us the whole story. Looking at it just monthly isn't really going to tell you a lot. Just like me tracking my metrics every single day. Well, it's not really going to tell me a lot. But looking at it over the course of time, I'm going to be able to see, okay, when my like as a female, when girls go on their period, guess what? They actually increase their weight because our hormones shift. So then I'm going to be able to start to see. I can actually start to tell without even looking at a calendar.   Which men, I don't know. My husband's like, how do you just not know these dates, Kiera? And I'm like, listen, and all the ladies are giggling, I don't freaking know when this thing's gonna come. It's not like an alarm clock on the 30th of the month that shows up, gentlemen. Okay. So for a female for us to be able to track because of our metrics going up, I'm able to tell when my period's coming much better than I used to be able to predict it because I'm actually watching and trailing that. But I've been tracking it for multiple months. So now I can see the pattern of what's going to happen. So with that.   A lot of men are also giggling, like, well, Kiera, I could tell you beyond just weight. It's probably your mood shifts. Hey, we women are emotional creatures, and I'm okay with that. All right. I hope you guys just enjoyed my like rant between men and women. And I hope you guys all got a good giggle because I did. But back to KPIs, I'm getting tangenty on you all. A single month's not really going to tell us the whole picture. We've got to look at this of like, cause you can have high production, low production. I look in January. It's really embarrassing when I'm showing a new client like an example of a book of business and showing them like,   How this client's trending. January always usually has a low collection. And I know that because December is usually a lower month, which usually means my January is a lower collection. It happens almost on every single practice. So you go down the line, all those buckets for us of every client usually is red on their collection compared to their production. Usually they're producing X amount, they're collecting, but their December is usually two weeks, sometimes three if we're lucky. But that tends to happen. So if I'm saying, like, my gosh, those collections are down.   Well, no, I need to look over this. Or if we're panicking because we have a slow week, everything's down. No, but we need to figure out like how we can actually predict this, how we can measure it. So what I like to do, and this is what our practices are doing, we're looking over several months. So usually like a quarter. Also, I'm gonna look annually because sometimes it's cyclical. Anybody have a September or an ominous October or a dead December? You're welcome. because it's either a September or an ominous October.   And some of my practices just have a genuine dead December. Like my practice in Hawaii, they must aloha over there. It is dead, dead, dead December. So we have to plan and prepare for that because I know it's just gonna be dead. So we're gonna look at this and we're gonna look at the trends over several months. We're also gonna look at cyclical, what's happening annually, or even like month over month, what's going on and w

  2. 3d ago

    #1,206: The Honest Truth About HR in Dentistry

    Guest episode! Kiera is joined by Paul Edwards, CEO and co-founder of CEDR HR Solutions, which provides human resource support especially for dental practices. They go through a rapid fire of topics, such as coaching and accountability, worker classification, documentation and evidence (including AI!), and reporting policies. Visit CEDRSolutions.com to learn more about Paul.  Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is a great day. I love my episodes with Paul. Paul is incredible. He is the owner and founder of CEDR. And guess what? He is somebody that I get to just pick his brain about all things HR every time he comes on the podcast. So, Paul, welcome to the show today. How are you?   His Paulness (00:19) very good and I'm gonna take that introduction, that part where you said Paul is incredible. I'm gonna turn it into my ringtone and I'm gonna be insufferable for the rest of the year with that.   Kiera (00:25) Yeah.   His Paulness (00:27) So thank you for that.   Kiera (00:29) You're welcome. I it's funny because every time people meet you and they know you're an HR, they're like, he's actually really funny and he's a good time. And he used to play in a band. And I'm like, yeah, he makes HR not feel as scary. But every time, every time I leave, everyone's like, my gosh, he scared me to death, which is good. Like I think it's a good healthy, like you're super approachable, super nice, but also like whip us into shape of like do this, don't do that. And I appreciate you continually like guiding us along the right path.   His Paulness (00:55) There's   a lot of moving parts when you're an employer. So it all feels a little bit scary. 'Cause soon as you get figure one thing out, then there's the next thing. You're like, no, I'm doing that wrong or or I could do it better or whatever. So yeah, you know, we try   Kiera (01:07) Yeah.   His Paulness (01:08) to break this down so it's understandable.   Kiera (01:11) Which and I appreciate. And if you guys are not subscribed to his newsletter, he's got the best newsletter out there. Like I think you guys do an incredible job. So, Paul, if they're not, how do they get connected to your guys' newsletter? 'Cause that's one of my favorite things about you guys.   His Paulness (01:21) Well, I think what you want to do is just go to the website and search for almost any form on there, but there are education forms on the website. So just go to the website and join what we kind of refer to as HR Base Camp. So if you think about base camp as a place you come back to when you're on a big hike, well, you're on a big hike as an employer. And so we are constantly sending out helpful stuff, you know, two or three times a month. We send out some pretty cool stuff to all of our base campers.   That'll get you also an email that invites you to join the Facebook group, which is kinda cool 'cause you're in there with just managers and owners. and you know, it's about ten, I don't know, nine thousand people in there, something like that. So, yeah, that's the way to go there. you know, you can also subscribe to my podcast, which is what the hell just happened and we cover a lot of topics there that that are kinda fun, you know. So   Kiera (02:12) I love it. Okay. I want to just get that right in at the beginning because you guys truly he's got the best newsletter, got an incredible podcast, and I think this is the stuff that keeps business owners up at night. So let's like not have that happen anymore. So, Paul, we're gonna just like rapid fire. There's   His Paulness (02:27) Okay.   Kiera (02:27) a few topics, and then I know you've got some case studies for us as well. So, and if you guys don't know Paul, CEDR, they are one of the top dental HR companies out there. most of our clients use them. He is one of our   I do not bring a lot of people in to speak to our private groups. And Paul is one of the people that I have hand selected to come in and speak to all of our dentists in a very intimate that's not on the podcast. So it's like no recording, it doesn't get shared. He comes in and speaks to them. So, Paul, I'm excited for today. This is stuff that we'll talk publicly, but let's talk about some of these items. Coaching and accountability. I'm sure we're all doing it wrong. I'm sure I've been coaching and telling people to do this. So tell us what we can and can't do when it comes to coaching and accountability.   His Paulness (03:08) you know, the thing about coaching accountability is that it starts to feel like it starts to feel like something that's punitive, like consequences. And and when it goes into that realm, it's really hard to get somebody to listen. I I I don't know about you, but when someone starts to tell me what I'm doing wrong and that's what the focus is, I get defensive. And that's just human nature. So when we t when we talk about coaching and accountability, especially with Dennis, and I know that you're gonna I think you're gonna agree with me.   I while there are exceptions to the rule, and probably many of them, overwhelmingly I find that dentists do not want to have difficult conversations with their employees. They kind of avoid it. That I mean it's it's about 50% of the reason they get office managers because they're like, I want to have these conversations. I can get someone else can do it. Here's the thing that   Kiera (03:55) Yeah.   His Paulness (03:56) I want to say. Yes, sometimes it ends up where you have to have a really serious conversation with someone. but the   Better way to go about this is for you or you and your manager when you hire someone is to set the expectation with the employee, I mean literally during onboarding, that they are going to receive feedback from you, both positive and sometimes it might feel a little negative, because you're making small corrections. So if you get in the practice of making small corrections as you go forward, you don't you you have far fewer of those big conversations with someone.   And then the the ones that are frustrating, I mean the issues that you're facing with an employee, also become easier because when we're looking at someone who's late all the time, and you know, in a practice with you know, we ha always have just the right amount of employees. We never have a I don't know about you, but I never have an excessive amount of employees around, where everybody's important, you just start leaving no quarter for being late all the time.   you really have to say something about look when you're even when you're only five minutes late in the morning and you tell them what the issue is, you tell them what the impact is, you explain their role in a very positive way so that you can say, Look, when you are late, we are missing you. Not you need to be here on time because when you're on time, bad things happen. And if you don't start being on time, bad   Kiera (05:19) Mm-hmm.   His Paulness (05:20) things are gonna happen to you. If you start with trying to enroll them in the idea that they're playing an important role.   you know, part of the reason I think for goal setting is that you get to say, how are we going to get to the goal if this behavior continues? So I just want to give everybody this reminder that coaching is coaching and it doesn't always have to be corrective and it needs to you if you set an expectation and then you execute on it, you're gonna get a lot better outcomes with people when you bring them on board. And and the other the other end of coaching should always be.   Can you do that? And do you need anything else from me? Like is is is the issue here me? Do we need to give you more training? What can we do to help you get there? So don't forget where that's appropriate, you'll always want to insert that in.   Kiera (06:08) I think Paul on that just like piggyback, what do you do when you've had that conversation like four times? Like, Perry, we've had this, we've had this, we've had this, like, I miss you at Morning Huddle. We need to be at what   His Paulness (06:20) I missed you.   Kiera (06:21) point, at what point is it not like cute? It's like the I feel like it's the child that keeps throwing the rock and mom's like, Okay, let's not throw the rock, like it's gonna break a window. When   His Paulness (06:28) Yep. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Yeah.   Kiera (06:31) do I actually like do something about it?   His Paulness (06:34) As my mom would say, when do we get to snatch a knot in him? That's what I I was just with my mom. She's eighty eight years   Kiera (06:37) Ha ha ha.   His Paulness (06:39) old right now. I she actually said, Son, don't make me snatch a knot in you. 'Cause I like to take her out in public, embarrass her now, and pick on her. but anyway,   Kiera (06:46) Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.   His Paulness (06:51) look first things first, great question. I I would do wanna say that after you've had the same repetitive convert conversation with someone   After the second or third time, especially if it's in close proximity in time, you know, you've already talked to them two weeks ago about something and they're doing it again or not doing it. you also want to make sure that you're making little notes in their file. That's very important. and what I found is is that if you don't hold someone to the standard, right? The standard that you're looking for, I I you're they're never going to improve.   And if they're not improving, then maybe they're not the right fit for your company. And the sooner that you figure that out for them and for you, the better. And so if I'm in my third or fourth time within a month about the same thing, I'm sitting down and having a much more serious co

  3. 4d ago

    #1,205: This Is the Make or Break Point for Team Alignment

    Does your team feel out of whack? Tiff and Pam pull back the curtain on maintaining practice camaraderie by sharing where to find those daily wins. They discuss not only setting goals, but the most effective way to do so; how to best utilize morning huddles; why ongoing communication is critical; and more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Tiffanie (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are so excited to be here with you today. We love taking over the podcast, giving Kiera a little break, and as consultants coming on. So you have both myself, Tiffanie and Pam here with you today. Pam, how are you doing this morning?   DAT Pamela (00:20) I am doing fantastic. How are you doing,   Tiffanie (00:22) Good.   DAT Pamela (00:22) Tiffanie?   Tiffanie (00:23) I'm doing good as well. At the time of recording this podcast, it is morning time for us, about 10 a.m. And it's just after a long weekend. It's nice and hot outside. It's 2026, so I don't even know what year you're listening to this in. but we are just excited to be here. We love starting our weeks out with you guys, with podcasting, with delivering awesome information, awesome content. And Pam, I think today's   Topic is something that is really beneficial for everyone. And listeners, we want to make sure that we're always delivering the best quality, that we're delivering the best ideas, and that we're taking the things that we've learned not only in our own extracurricular activities and our own time in dental practices and education, etc., but also what we're seeing in practices that has been   Tried and true, that's been tested, and that's worked for practices. And something that comes to light for us often is camaraderie, culture, making sure that a team is really, really working together as a team and not just kind of like department by department or me here for myself, that kind of thought process. So today Pam and I are gonna be reviewing some pieces that we feel like we've   really nailed in within consulting and within, you practices of our own that really helped to establish that. And Pam, before we get started too much, what are you seeing in your consulting that you feel like kind of comes in alignment with this? What what are what are doctors saying? Why does this idea of really bringing together that camaraderie and that culture piece, why does this seem to be relevant for us today?   DAT Pamela (02:12) Yeah, I mean that culture piece is huge, right? It's it's everything in a ball and how do we describe that? It's really difficult to describe, but you know it when you experience good culture or a poor culture in especially in a dental office. And I think that alignment, everyone knowing what they're working for is and working towards is super, super important.   Tiffanie (02:37) Yeah. What do you feel like when you see an office that's not in alignment that maybe isn't having those shared goals or shared wins, things like that? What kind of things are you seeing happen because of that? Like what are the negative impacts of team members not being ali in alignment?   DAT Pamela (02:54) Yeah, that's a a really good question, right? It's I think what I think everyone in the practice needs to know what that vision is, right? And when it is when the vision does not turn into daily habits, then that's where alignment or misalignment happens, really, right? destroying momentum is what I see. Destroying that alignment is constantly changing, right? If you're the leader and you're   constantly moving the goal, you're constantly saying, well, t we're gonna do this today and then tomorrow we're gonna do this. And you're just bouncing around. That's really difficult. So it doesn't matter what you decide it is, just stick to it and talk about it every day. So the pro that's a big issue that I see. Like a lot of doctors and office managers just feel like they, okay, here's what we're here's our daily things that we're working on to get to the vision that we've created.   But they don't talk about it every day. And it it   Tiffanie (03:55) Yeah.   DAT Pamela (03:55) it's it's just something that you have to do, whether that is a one, two, three, here's our focus, three focuses for the month, one focus for the month. It doesn't matter, but you have to that's that's a big issue in a lot of practices. inconsistency, right? Then that would kind of be in the same vein as that. When you know your doctor says, okay, I'm gonna be at Huddle every morning.   And then it happens for three days and then not for two, and then it happens for three more. So that it's it just says it's not important, right?   Tiffanie (04:29) Mm-hmm.   DAT Pamela (04:30) another another thing I see is I I again it kind of goes back to too many initiatives create confusion. So simple f simplifying it and giving one or two things that we're doing, accomplishing this day, week, month, whatever that is.   Tiffanie (04:51) Yeah, no those.   DAT Pamela (04:52) Yeah, I   I yeah, and I you know, I don't think teams really fail from a lack of information.   Tiffanie (04:59) Mm-hmm.   DAT Pamela (05:00) perhaps they feel f they fail when there's a lack of focus.   Tiffanie (05:05) Mm-hmm. Yeah. And today we're talking about daily wins. Like how what how do daily wins help the progress of the practice? And how do daily wins help keep us in alignment? And some of the pieces that I think I see that come up that show us that this isn't happening, that shows us we're out of alignment and shows us that maybe some of those pieces that you were speaking to, Pam, are happening as when a doctor comes and they're not profitable.   they're they're not able to find the profit or they're not able to fill the schedule or they feel like their schedule is full, but it's hectic, they're not reaching goals, or maybe they don't have goals, or some of the biggest pieces, or I have a lot of clients that will come and say, gosh, we need more new patients, but then we look at the schedule and I'm like, Well, where are you gonna put new more new patients? So it might not be an acquisition issue, it might be a scheduling issue, but though those pieces really kind of point us in the direction.   of a misalignment and that misalignment is typically going to like to your point, Pam, be really related to the goal setting and the clarity around the goals. Like you said, they they don't always need more direction, like more words, but they sometimes lack that clarity that creates that confusion. And really, maybe not confusion so much as to like our monthly goal is 150. Like we need to hit 150,000.   But maybe confusion on what is a priority. So when we don't have that clarity, when we're not all rowing in the same direction, we're not talking about it frequently, we start to make decisions that are based on what's easiest, what's gonna clear up the busywork in front of me right now that may not be moving the needle forward when there's maybe an option for something that could move the needle forward. And I just put that on the back burner. And what I mean by that is maybe   Maybe I'm cleaning up a protocol because it's a little messy and a little confusing, but there's a patient who's just called to schedule treatment and I said, you know what, I'll call them back. I need to finish this first. But my priorities are a little out of sync there and out of alignment with what the actual goals are. And I think, Pam, when clients come in and they say the schedule's, you know, a schedule's one of the top things that clients come in and and talk to us about or that we get   random emails from our listeners at Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. You guys send emails all the time, please continue. We love those. But we get those emails that are like, gosh, my schedule's full. I'm not hitting goal. My schedule's full. It's chaotic and it's crazy. My team doesn't know how to deal with the chaos, right? I don't, my team doesn't know how to mitigate the chaos. and a lot of those pieces, to your point, Pam, can be discussed daily multiple times. So   When you're helping a team find that alignment, Pam, where's one of the first spaces that you help guide them to speak of those daily wins?   DAT Pamela (08:05) Yeah, I I mean it's it's really like when you're setting your goals, setting those KPIs and and setting your goals, it's it's not only saying we are gonna do 150,000, this is our monthly goal, but it's how do I get there? Me as one person in the practice, right? So you know, that that momentum telling each individual, like, okay, your job is this today. So   For example, if you were to set your vision as being like, okay, we want healthy patients, a happy team, and exceptional dentistry, right? That's not giving me a lot to go forward. So it's making sure within those goals, let's say it's 150,000, that you do actually say, and this is your job today. We are going, you're going to be looking for all the opportunities that we have. If something comes up, make sure you let everyone be aware. So   It's keeping that communication, I think is a big part of it. And really and and it is like to your point, Tiff, it is something you can talk about every day. Like are we staying on task? Are we staying on priority? And you know, we can do the tasks, yes, but the priority is production today, right? So or   Tiffanie (09:23) Yeah. Yeah.   DAT Pamela (09:24) the priority is you know   Patient experience. What whatever that is that you're doing, but you have to describe exactly what each team member needs to do.   Tiffanie (09:34) Yeah. And that can come down too to like their job descriptions being super clear, right?   DAT Pamela (09:38) Mm-hmm.   Tiffanie (09:38) So if I'm a scheduling coordinator, I know my goal of my position is

  4. Sep 17

    #1,204: The Biggest Way to Make Your Practice Stand Out

    Post-visit follow-ups — this episode is all about 'em! Following up with patients is one of the most overlooked ways to build trust. Kiera shares tips on both how to accentuate and accelerate your post-visit methods as a practice, as well as what to avoid doing. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team Listeners. This is Kiera. And today I wanted to just talk about a way for your practice to stand out in a pretty easy, pretty easy way. Along with that, it's also a great way to boost your case acceptance. So I want to talk about how, like, outside of your visit, the post-visit follow-up is actually one of the biggest things that can differentiate a practice. And I think it's something we haven't talked about a lot. It's just something we naturally do. And I was excited to do a podcast about it because realistically, the patient experience doesn't end when they walk out the front door.   But I think for a lot of offices it does. A lot of times it's like, my gosh, they're back in six months and they don't have their treatment scheduled. I think some of you can feel that. sometimes it's like, well, do we do follow-up on these patients? And people are like, but we're too busy to do that. And so making sure that we realize that follow-up isn't just customer service. It's truly one of the most overlooked systems for being able to build trust, to being able to increase your case acceptance, to be able to really grow a raving fan patient base. and I think it's just something that's a very easy piece to add into your practice without a lot of lift.   but it's going to give you a lot of lips. So I love the ones that are like, what's that 1% that I could do that would give me like 20%? That's one of these awesome tips that I wanted to give all of you today. So I want to just walk you through some of the post-visit follow-up things and how you can how you can really accelerate and accentuate that. Also some of the mistakes that practices make after a patient leaves. And then what are some of the things that we recommend you do to really help increase that patient care follow-up. So these are things that we do all the time in Dental A Team. We work with hundreds and thousands of offices.   We help, we see, we see the patterns. And our job is to really make your life so easy, so comfortable, so confident, and for dentists to really like have fun doing dentistry again. So I wanna just go through this with all of you today, give you some tactical, practical tips. And remember, Dental A Team's mission is to possibly impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. So I just want you to know that today you're gonna learn how to follow some of these tips, put them into play, and hopefully gain patient loyalty.   increase those raving fans and really boost that case acceptance for you. So the goal is like people love to feel remembered. And there's this whole thing where people remember the beginning and the end of an experience. And so your intro, you probably have that really dialed in. We say hello, we have the coffee bar, we make sure it says warm welcome. And if not, start there. Okay. If you don't have that dialed in, start there. But then the second thing is what people actually remember a lot is how they feel when they leave.   And so a lot of times when a patient leaves, we're like, check the box, they're done, great. No communication from them. The next thing they're gonna hear from us when it's time to schedule and do their six-month appointment. But like it's follow-ups automated and it's very impersonal. And I know you're like, but Kiera, we have so many patients. Like, how am I supposed to make this feel personal? So a couple of things, and there's some resources out there, so it doesn't have to be a major uptick, but one great thing that makes patients stand out all the time in practices is to call after a major procedure. also on a new patient who's coming in, call before they even get there.   And call after the new patient visit. There are softwares that actually let you just leave a voicemail so you don't even actually have to call. You can just have it as part of the dental assistants checklist. Here's the three patients, call them tomorrow. You can send a personalized text when appropriate, making sure you stay HIPAA compliant. You check on the patient's comfort and recovery. And you can also thank patients for choosing your practice. Now, there's ways that it can be automated. And I had a dentist that I just went and saw, and they're like, How was your appointment? It was one of the worst appointments. Like, I will tell you, it was absolutely one of the worst dental appointments.   Ever had, and that's saying a lot because I work with hundreds of offices and I've seen some pretty ratchet experiences. Like, that's okay. You're growing, you're learning, there's no judgment. When I'm coming in as a patient, I'm not here to consult you. I want it to be a great experience. Well, they texted me afterwards on an automated thing saying, How was your appointment? Leave us five stars. And I was I freaking hated you guys, like, not the thing to do. But if they would have, and I was a new patient, if they would have sent me a text like, hey care, we really loved you choosing our our practice. We're so grateful for you, and we're really excited to see you next time. Like   Fantastic. And then if I write back and say something, awesome. but really just quick little things to be intentional rather than automate. And I know we're just looking for the automation, and you're welcome to automate. I'm just saying, like, think about it. How many big procedures did you have yesterday? And also how many new patients did you have? Odds are we're probably looking like two to four. Two to four. And this isn't necessarily a dentist. This can be the front office team. This can be our clinical team. So it does not need to fall on the dentist shoulders. How much time, truly, would it take to make four phone calls tomorrow?   The appointments and just say, like, hey, how is that going after that crown was done? We want to make sure that you feel cared for. Any questions that you have, and also like if the experience was great, just tell your friends. But like, I'm gonna ask and make sure everything's good before I ask for a referral. but just calling and saying, like, hey, I just want to check in with you and make sure that you're good. People want to feel important, people want to feel great, and people will remember how you make them feel. So, small little things of follow-up will create that raving fan culture.   Like I can't tell you if I've ever had a dentist call me after a procedure. The answer is probably not. Like zero for zero. So do you recognize how this is something so small? The uptick, like that's two minutes a day that we're gonna be doing? Now you're like, but Kiera, like what if they're in pain? Great. It's a great way to get ahead of it instead of getting a Google review that tells you it's a great way. And we'd rather know if our dentistry is not doing well. So that way we can fix it long term. So just do a quick follow-up on them. Check in, see how they're doing. This one thing.   Like, so if we just say like one procedure that should automatically trigger a follow-up the next day, just add that in. Add that in as a simple thing. I would do new patients and I would do any big procedure. Call them that night, call them the next day, just make sure that they're good. Again, this can be some doctors do it on their drive home, some delegate it to their front office team, some delegate it to their assistants. I don't care. What I'm saying is we're doing our job to make that patient feel seen. It's like, think about restaurants that put fresh flowers on the table. That doesn't take a lot of effort, but it's something that's memorable. It's something they're like, wow.   They went a little bit above and beyond. And to me, that's a two-minute uptick for you that's really gonna make patients feel seen, valued, and loved. The other piece is with treatment. This is gonna be a second part of it. We also have treatment plans. And my goal is for you guys to get your treatment plans scheduled, to make sure patients are saying yes in the chair, making sure that we have them. If they don't, you need to be following the two two two follow-up. So anytime a patient does not schedule with me, I tell them, like, fantastic, no problem, Marsha. I want to make sure that you have all your questions answered. I'll touch base with you in a couple of days, just see if any questions popped up that we maybe didn't think about.   Just to make sure that you feel like you're rock, solid, confident moving forward. I'm gonna call Marcia in two days, then I'm gonna call her in two weeks, then I'm gonna call her in two months. And some people are like, ugh, I feel like it's such a nuisance. Well, if you feel that way, they're going to feel that way. For me, I believe that like if a patient doesn't get treatment done, I failed them because we diagnosed it. Like, this is something where I need to like make sure that treatment plans are revisited. Patients are definitely not the ones where it's in their court saying, I'll call you back to me. I've left them with.   something that they don't that they need clarity on that I need to resolve. There's no ownership of unscheduled treatment and it just sits out there like, okay, well, moving on to the next day. Versus like, no, we have follow up every time. We know we follow up in two days, two weeks, two months, and we know that there's a personalized conversation instead of it just being like, are you ready? It'd be like, hey Marsha, I know we chatted about this. I wanted to make sure all your questions were answered. I've been thinki

  5. Sep 16

    #1,203: Have This Problem? There's a System For That.

    Establishing the right systems in your practice creates consistency, profitability, and freedom in ways that individual effort is never going to. Kiera talks about the difference between systems and the people using them, how to know if you need a new system, why the right system equals scalability, and more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team Listeners. This is Kiera. And today I want to just go back to basics with you because I think that this is such an important thing because we talk so much about systems, but I think people want systems and we talk about systems and like what are systems? And like what is the difference between a system and needing to train people? And I think that there's just this like back and forth in our worlds where we think like, hey, if I get a system, everything's gonna work. Or   Hey, if I get the right people and train them, then it's all going to work. And I think that they go hand in hand. And so today I wanted to kind of break down, dispel, disseminate, and like what exactly is a system? What exactly should we train? How do we put these two things together? And how do you really get the freedom that you're looking for? Like, we're about to roll into a mastermind and I was building the content. So spoiler alert, if you're not a part of our in-person masterminds, get your booties over into Dental A Team because we do meet twice a year and have a leadership mastermind where doctors and OMs get together with myself.   our entire consulting team, and we really talk about things off record. So there's no cameras, there's no recording in there, and it's just a rift area. And I was working on like what do dentists really want? And it's the control paradox. They want control, but the way you get control is by knowing that your systems are working for you and people are reporting. You don't want to actually do all the pieces, but you want it to report back to you and you want to know things are being done your way. Yes or yes yes. Like, am I speaking to you? And do I know you? I hope so. Because I absolutely love dentists. I want to just give you a giant hug and I want to remind you.   That you are doing better than you think you are. I want to remind you that there is an easier path than what you're doing. And I wish I could find somebody that was the Kiera Dent for dental consulting companies. I wish, I wish I could find her. I had a client tell me today, he said, Kiera, you have blessed the world of dentistry in so many ways. And I take that as such a huge compliment because not only did we make their practice better, but that doctor is literally working seven to three, four days a week, taking home several millions a year, living their best life, being with their kids, and to be able to give someone their life back.   Be able to help grow them personally and professionally, that is the greatest gift in honor. And so I am so honored that this is the job I get to do. This is the company that we have. And so while systems are annoying, I want to remind you like this is the way that you're actually going to get the freedom, aka the control that you want to be able to see if your practice is working. So I want you guys to recognize we've got to do systems, we've got to do training, we've got to hold accountable. We can't just put it in play. Like there's cure, this feels hard. I know one of our core values is ease. So I'm gonna try and break it down with you.   Of ease. These are things that we've done hundreds of thousands of times. We work across the nation with small boutique practices. We're talking Medicaid, FIFA service, boutique, natural path to multi-locations. I've got a practice that is building, I'm not joking, a 50 op location. So you name it. We've seen so much in our world. We've seen the DSO world. We've seen the private practice world. We've seen DSO's gone wrong. We've seen DSO's gone right. I feel like having that experience and credibility is something whew.   You can't get other than just living through it. And then my job is to give you as much of that and to hopefully work with you, empower you, change your world, whatever it is. All I ask in return is that you leave us a comment, you leave those five stars, and you share this with someone. That's all I ask. Because if we can serve and help more people just like you, that is the greatest gift. You guys know my mission is to possibly impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. That's why I do this. This is why I do it for free. I don't charge you anything. I don't ever, we don't even have ads. We do our own thing because   Wanna make sure that we're giving you guys back high value quality. So, with that, what I want you guys to realize is systems are going to create consistency, profitability, and freedom in ways that individual effort is never going to fix for you. So, number one, systems are what's gonna create that consistency for you. So when a person leaves, we don't want that knowledge to go out the door with them. When someone has a day off, we don't want that knowledge to go with them. We want to have that system of stability through all of it. And that's what it's gonna create. I remember the day that I had my company go through, it was a three month project, and I had us work.   Actually, break down our entire operations manual. There was like a sense of relief in breath that I could relief that I never realized I had. Now, that is a hard project, and usually it's not gonna move the needle for you. I'll tell you that was one of my worst quarters. Profitability-wise, we didn't grow, but stability-wise, we exponentially grew. Now it's been about five years since I did that project, and guess what? We've outgrown those systems. So guess what? It's probably time for us to do it, and we are actually working on our next version of it. And I'm so excited about it because it's gonna be so much better.   We do not like the way you can tell a system is missing is every team member does it differently. So if you walk in and you're having different assistants work with you and every assistant sets it up differently, guess what? You probably don't have a system. You just have people just doing it their own way. If different schedulers or if a scheduler is out and our schedule doesn't go the same way, now that doesn't mean case acceptance is perfect because there are some skills behind it, but that does mean that we have a set follow-up, we do the same billing. If this person's out for a week, everybody would be able to do it. That's going to help.   If new hires struggle to learn, we don't have a system. We have it being where people are telling each other. If results depend on who's working that day, you don't have a system. You have a people thing. So what we want to have is, excuse me, you want to have documented processes, you want to have standardized expectations, and we want everybody to be trained the same way. But we also want to make sure that that system really is getting us the results that we want. So what we do is   I'm big on when we take on an office instead of doing a whole operations manual like I did. You can do that. Don't worry, we can help you with that if that's your like main shebang. but typically what we're gonna do is we're going to look at what is the vision of the practice, what does that doctor and owner want? And then what are the numbers telling us? And usually your number that's the lowest number or what the PL tells us, that's where we're first gonna build systems because everybody wants the system to win, right? Like if I come in and I put in a protocol for I don't know, like scheduling.   But your schedule's great. We're all out on time. We're hitting our productive goals. Sure, that's nice to have. And I'd like it documented of what we're currently doing to make sure, like if that person's out, we can repeat it. But odds are that's probably not my biggest pain point. Now, there is a flip side to that. And I will say that if team members leave, then yes, it is a very detrimental. So at a minimum, I like every team member to have a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly list of what they do and at least those protocols written down. So if someone's out, I can grab their checklist and I can be like, all right.   Sarah daily does this, and here is where it is in the drive, or here's a video of it, or here's a checklist of it. So that way if Sarah's gone on vacation, nothing that Sarah is doing is dropped. So non-negotiable for me is everybody has to have a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly. If you want those, guess what? We have them for all of our clients. So makes life real easy. And that's just something we've built, but every person should have that. Then what we're gonna look at is we're gonna actually build systems based on the metrics and the numbers. Because basically we've got the core processes done.   Those are core processes daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, what do we do? And we've got quick systems built behind the scenes. So that way I've got everybody's job. So if anybody walks out and leaves me, I'm not sitting here like, huh, how do we like it's crazy. Whenever someone goes on vacation, I'm like, awesome. Let's see if we've got a protocol written for this. Let's see if we've written it down. Can we figure out how to do podcast scripts? Can we figure out how to do podcast reels? Can we figure out how we do podcast recordings? Can we figure out how we do payments? Can we figure out how we schedule?   And if we don't have all that written down to where anybody without being told can do it, let's start with that. So, and then after that, let's look at what our numbers are telling us and let's build systems there. So if like a front office doesn't have a great scheduling system, which h

  6. Sep 15

    #1,202: Do This Monthly To Protect Practice Profit

    Tiff and Kristy break down monthly financial controls that protect your practice's profit. These include identifying lag and lead measures, getting your supplies in check, creating a budget around the team's fun money, and more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Tiffanie (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. Welcome back to the Dental A Team podcast. I am your host today, Tiffanie, and I am so excited to have Miss Kristy here with me. Kristy, you have been with us for quite some time. We have done a lot of podcasts together. and I truly love and appreciate your willingness to jump on. You just came from a coaching call, so thank you for hopping over here to me. I know your brain's a little busy with   Notes and getting everything wrapped up. We do a lot for our clients. So I know Kristy, you just spent an hour with a team or or doctor, and next steps are making sure your notes are wrapped up and you get a nice little email over to them and that's what our clients come to expect. So Kristy, how are you today? Thank you for serving our clients in coaching calls and serving our clients and our audience here on the podcast today. How are you?   DAT- Kristy (00:55) I'm doing good. Happy to be here with you.   Tiffanie (00:58) Awesome, thank you. And this guys is why I normally schedule them on Mondays and I am just feverishly working to get ahead. And Kristy graciously accepted my Tuesday invite to come podcast with me. So thank you, Kristy. Kristy, I know I always say this, I kind of handpick different podcast topics to make it the most fun for you ladies while you're here with me. So I get to talk about all of the pieces and I   Pick things that I think you guys are gonna enjoy the most. I think all of you, all of us consultants could speak to all of the topics that we have, but we all kind of gear towards favorites and things we love, things we do a lot of. And something that you do a lot of is you look for the money and finding it seems to be something that you enjoy, but also something you're just really, really good at. I know Kira speaks to that often as well. And today I wanted to talk a little bit more in-depth.   on profit because I know we talk we've spoken a lot on a lot of different podcasts about AR, bringing AR down, kind of how to find those controls within the practice, but making sure we're looking at monthly financial controls that protect the practice profit was something I wanted to chat with you about today. So how's that sound Kristy? Sound awesome. Awesome. Good. Let's   DAT- Kristy (02:16) Sounds like a plan. Let's find the money.   Tiffanie (02:20) find the money. So one thing I love that we like to do with our clients   And   something we do, I think, in our personal lives too is control what we can and then, you know, leave the rest for later. We we fix the rest later, we work on the rest later. And something that we can control is how much of our profit is being spent to a certain extent. So there's different spaces within the PL, within the practice spending that we do have control over that I think we don't spend enough time projecting and looking at to be able to know.   that we are profitable or that we can create that profit. And to me, when I see a topic that says monthly financial controls that protect practice profit, I think of budgeting. I think making sure we're working with it as a means of what we already have so that we're not overextending ourselves just like we do in our personal lives. So Kristy, you work with practices within their finances and their profit a lot. What are some areas that you work specifically on   helping them to protect their profit within those numbers.   DAT- Kristy (03:28) Yeah. Well, I think it's important, Tiff, that we look at it routinely, number one, and understand what our fixed expenses are and then what are ones that we can actually maybe pull levers and see where we can budget and plan for. so many things. Again, just like we look at numbers inside of the practice, there's lag and lead measures, right?   I kind of look at the PL the same way. There's lag and lead measures. And so sometimes it's just being more proactive and really looking and planning ahead versus reactive and looking at the bank account to go, is there money?   Tiffanie (04:11) Yeah, which I think we all do that at some point, right? Personally   DAT- Kristy (04:14) Yeah.   Tiffanie (04:15) and professionally. When you're looking at a PL, I love that lead measure, lag measure. PLs are full of lag measures and doctors will look back and gosh, I have a practice that only gets them quarterly, and I'm like, I don't know how we do this. Like it's so hard. We've got to be looking at these every month, like you said. So we're looking at those like lag measures. How do you pulse within that?   those lead measures. What are you using and what are you seeing as lead measures when you're looking at those numbers monthly?   DAT- Kristy (04:42) Yeah, well, number one, we might be planning ahead for hiring a new teammate. What is that gonna cost us? And so wrapping that into our budgeting for the month, or maybe there's a new piece of equipment that we're looking to buy or a CE course we're going to, like looking ahead and planning for those expenses on a monthly basis so they're not a surprise to us when when they do hit.   Tiffanie (05:09) That's brilliant. I love that. So making sure even if we know, hey, we're gonna try to bring on an associate this year. So that associate cost, a lot of dentists know look at the associate costs and start, you know, planning for thirty percent goes over here or twenty percent or whatever you're gonna do, goes over here, start putting that aside. But to your point, Kristy, for   Hiring, something that I think we fail to think about often when we bring on an associate is the rest of the team that may need to be brought on as well. So do we need more dental assistance for the associate? Do we need another treatment coordinator to work that schedule? Sometimes, even Kristy, there's hygiene, right? There's a hygiene hire that needs to come along with that associate. So it sounds like for you, you're looking at with that practice, okay, this is our current lag measure. This is our current what we can say is.   our usual and customary employee cost. And then as we add these other additional team members, we can expect that employee cost to become X dollars. And then turning that into being able to see what the what the production and collections costs need to be in order to cover that volume.   DAT- Kristy (06:19) Yeah, you got it, tips spot on. And we can almost do that for anything that we're future pacing and planning, right? To see if it makes   Tiffanie (06:27) Yeah.   DAT- Kristy (06:28) sense even.   Tiffanie (06:29) Yeah. And I as you're seeing as you're saying that too, you said planning for a a large equipment purchase. So with that, then you can look and say, okay, well, this is what our profit is or what we project our profit to be in the next coming months. Can we set aside or how much can we set aside out of that profit each month to be able to afford that large purchase rather than vice versa? I think a lot of practices   And people we say, I want or I need this, and they offer low percentage rates or no percentage rates. So instead of saving towards that thing this day and age, we just say, cool, let's get it, and I'll pay monthly to pay it off. So you're you're even thinking potentially flipping that mindset and saying, let's let's project and see when do we need to make this purchase? How much will it be? And how can we get the money for it?   DAT- Kristy (07:24) Yeah, absolutely. And sometimes we do need to finance it, but also knowing what that's gonna look like too. I mean, maybe that makes more sense. Yeah,   Tiffanie (07:33) Yeah.   DAT- Kristy (07:34) agree with you, Tip. We need to kind of look at where our expenses have been, especially like with team, it's easy to look p back at the last 12 months or six months and say, this is where we've been running. You know, what's kind of funny about that is we just came off of a month where many of our clients had three payrolls.   And being able to budget for those ahead of time, right? So   Tiffanie (07:56) Yeah.   DAT- Kristy (07:57) planning ahead and knowing what we're looking at, but you have to be looking at it routinely.   Tiffanie (08:03) Absolutely.   I totally agree with that. Quarterly, yearly does not, it just doesn't work. It does not, you're left in the dark so much. monthly financial control. So we can project, we can look and see, okay, where's our growth taking us? Do we need to prep and plan for any expenses? And I love your like even adding if we're adding debt, what does that added debt look like against the current PL? And then two.   I was thinking earlier about this, like what pieces do we use a lag measure for to like pull into this month for, like you said, a lead and a lag. So I know a lot of practices I have them working off of budgets, like to the max. And so I have obviously I think a lot of practices work off of an ordering budget, so a supply budget for the back office.   But I know a lot of them are like a little skewy too. They're kind of all over the place. Or they're like, it's fine. We're $3,000 over. And I'm like, $3,000 is like another percent or two sometimes. So making sure we stay in line with that, but projecting that and putting it on spreadsheets, right? So I have practices that have budgeting spreadsheets for that reason. So they know exactly how much money they have to spend. And I have dental assistants that find   that to be like a game. Like that inspires them to go find the best deals because they know they on

  7. Sep 10

    #1,201: Let's Talk Honestly About AI In Your Practice

    Kiera is joined by Dr. Rania Saleh, founder of Oryx Dental Software, a dental practice management platform that will streamline your practice's inner workings. The two talk about the journey of AI from when it first launched in dentistry to now, how AI can work in your practice as an accompaniment (not a replacement), the honest pros and cons of this intelligence, and a ton more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera (00:01) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera, and today is an exciting innovative day. I am so excited for our guests that we have on here. Her and I met about three years ago in person, maybe even four. Gosh, I can't even remember. But I remember being in this event in Napa, and we were all hanging out in this lunch area, and there was this amazing woman who was talking about her AI innovative dental platform. And I was so fascinated by it. I went up to her, started asking her questions, and here we are four years later. So I've got Dr. Rania, she is the founder of Oryx Dental Software. And some of you may have heard it. It's a new I remember when we were talking, she's like, it's an AI platform that's gonna like take over and help schedule and a lot of the tasks that offices struggle with. And she's a dentist. And so I loved her for those reasons because not only is she a dentist, so she gets your pain point, but she's also created a software that helps a ton. And she's here to talk about all things innovative AI. And I know so many dentists are just chomping at the bit because. Dr. Rania, you know dentists are about like four, five, six years behind where you were. And so I'm super excited to have you here to talk about AI, talk about how AI is impacting dentistry, talk about how your platform's been able to help and serve. So Dr. Rania, welcome to the show today. How are you? Dr. Rania Saleh (01:10) Very good. Thank you for having me. Kiera (01:13) Course. So I gave a little bit of an intro to you. I don't know if you remember the lunch. I know we had a pre-show of how it was like that was so long ago and things have just upgraded and elevated since then. But give the listeners a little background to how you went from dentist, which I know you are still dentisting, to building this software to being like this AI innovative KOL in the industry. Kind of give us a little background of who you are and how we got to this point today. Dr. Rania Saleh (01:38) Yeah, so I started out as a dentist. and I I was an associate like most of us start. Then I went to the COI Center and I learned like a whole new way of doing dentistry. And at that point, I'm like, I'm gonna open my practice, fee for service, startup. and that happened in the middle of the global financial crisis. everyone thought I was crazy for doing it, but I went ahead with it and my practice started growing. I was doing great. it grew to multiple specialty, multi-location. and I got pregnant with twins and I had to be put on bedrust. Kiera (02:23) Mm-hmm. Dr. Rania Saleh (02:24) And it was a big, big shock for me because I had a lot of systems in my practice and I thought we were doing amazing. And at that point I wasn't practicing that many days. I had multiple associates. my practice started declining when I wasn't there. and this is when I realized that a lot of the systems were just in my head and not everyone was implementing those. and I started thinking, like, how do we get back on track? How do we stop losing? Losing money, losing patients' confidence, getting bad reviews for the first time ever, all of that really hurt me. And this is how Oreg started. Kiera (03:06) I love it. Because I think, Dr. Rania, you can really speak to how a dentist feels, right? How many dentists, I think, as you were saying it. I'm sure they're saying, yes, me too. Like I can empathize. I know I've seen it with all the clients that we work with. Systems aren't systems, right? Standards are not standards. They're what we tolerate. It's what we have as processes. And I remember you saying, like, orgs basically is going to become these offices, office manager for them. And don't worry, office managers, we're not replacing you. We're just enhancing this for you. But I remember I was so fascinated by your innovative way. And so I wanted to talk about what things can AI do from, you know, when your software first started to today, I feel like AI has just taken off, right? I was always curious what would take down like Google, right? Like coming with the internet was something in my lifetime that changed. And I was like, what's gonna be the next piece that is that innovative in our world? And I believe AI is here for that. So I'm just curious, like from what you've seen, those systems you said like they were living in your head. What things have you seen that practices can do from like AI is not a replacement, I think, for clinical decision making. It can be a tool for it. But how are you recommending that we use AI and dental practices that you've seen from software to clinical to front office? What are some of the I wanted to like really just rift with you? This is my selfish side because I'm like, Dr. Rania Saleh (04:18) Yeah. Kiera (04:19) let's chat all things AI. And what are you seeing that are like the pros and the cons? Where can dentists start leaning into this? What are some of the best on the market right now? You're one of the I love you were you're a you're a founding female in the industry and you're very innovative in it. So let's have a good rift on on AI and what you're seeing in that realm. Dr. Rania Saleh (04:38) Yeah, I mean, like AI touches every aspect, and I was so excited when something like this was created. And what was really good is with Oryx, we started with systems. What I said, like a lot of the systems were in my head, and we started like, how do we create a check-in checklist, a checkout checklist? How do we make everyone's life easy? So we made a lot of automations in the system very early on, but these automations still needed a human to intervene to be able to make it work. And with the emergence of AI, we're like, my God, this whole workflow that works perfectly for us can now be automated. So although it was easy to manage, now it's a click of a button and the whole workflow of scheduling patients, having AI receptionists call and and get patients that were not scheduled, like this is a great innovation. getting getting your clinical workflow, having to spend time with the patient. If you have your AI summarizing for you, we talk to our AI, and I always say that way, I want my AI receptionist to be the same as my best assistant. So I want I I don't want to learn a new language to speak to my AI. I want to speak as if I have Jessica or Jennifer or one of my best assistants and I'm just telling them I'm gonna do a crown on this tooth, let's extract this tooth. I see a recession here and it's capturing all of this and charting it. So AI charting is like a game changer because now my assistants could be doing other stuff while I'm doing my charting Perio AI is great. The same for imaging. It's a great tool to help us locate conditions, share our findings with the patients, and patients are just fascinating by that. So I don't see an aspect of the software where it doesn't touch it. Also like on the insurance collection, auto-attaching the narrative, anything that the insurance needs, all of that. is built into the AI system and there's a lot of tools to do that. So I I really think people should try it to see what it's capable of. Some people are a bit scared to dip in there, but I it's a game changer for us. Kiera (07:09) Yeah, so let's talk about let's play devil's advocate. because I think so many people listening are sitting on that side of the fence of like, but we're in clinical. And so how do I know that this is HIPAA compliant? How do I know that this is safe? I think that that's a big, a big concern. And then the other concern is like, well, yes, it can help me attend. How many mistakes does it tend to make? How much more double checking? Because I know there's offices and like insurance verifications. Let's go back a few years. Insurance verification, I feel like insurance verification companies have popped. Left and right. Like I feel like they're daisies in springtime. Like we just have a lot of them. And offices will say, I love it, but it's not accurate. So I don't trust it. And I'm just going to do it myself. So I think it's a twofold one. What are you finding for like AI with HIPAA and us being compliant in that realm? And then part B of that question would be: can I actually trust this and how much error? Like, are we talking 70% error, 80% error? And is it really helping my team or is it something where my team is kind of like, turning a blind eye to it, thinking it's taking care of it, and then we're just getting a lot of mistakes we have to fix first. So first question is like let's talk about hip end compliance and making sure in the medical space that we are we're protected and safe on AI. Dr. Rania Saleh (08:19) Yeah, I I would say like there's a lot of new AI companies every day. It's like a new name and people would tell me, Do you integrate with this? Have you heard of this? And if you don't have a BAA agreement with the company you're working with, then it's not HIPAA compliant. So that's the very, very basic. Before you go with any AI or any company in healthcare, just make sure that it's HIPAA compliant, that it has all the certifications needed to administer AI. And I would say that's the bare minimum to to protect yourself, to protect your practice and to protect your patients. W with the errors, it's like Anything that you do, the AI is not a hundred percent accurate, so you still have to check. But for me, I think if if I'm charting, could my

  8. Sep 9

    #1,200: The Practice Growth Secret

    This DAT podcast episode is a fan favorite! Danny with Swell is on the pod! In this episode, Kiera chats with Danny about Google reviews, Google reviews, Google reviews — a very necessary part of having a practice. Danny shares what practices can do to get their name out in front of potential patients; what not to say in your review responses; why bad reviews are actually good; how to get patients to leave the best kind of review; and a ton more! Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today we are bringing you something so special. I am so excited because this is one of our most popular episodes from the archives. Whether you're hearing this for the first time or catching it again, I am so excited because it's jam packed with a ton of takeaways that you can start using right now in your practice. We have released thousands, literally thousands of episodes. And I wanted to start bringing a few of these amazing episodes back for you. So I hope you enjoy. And as always, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time. on the Dental A Team podcast. speaker-0 (00:32) and you guys, I am so pumped for today's podcast. I have one of my favorite, favorite, favorite, favorite companies. I met them when they very first started. We were just starting, so I think we kind of have a little like duo friendship that way. But these people are amazing. And if you aren't utilizing them, if you haven't figured out how to boost your Google reviews, you are in for the best treat. So I'm so pumped to bring on Danny. Danny works with Swell. If you guys haven't heard about Swell, You need to. because in my opinion, the reason they're the best is because they do it so well. That's how I remember swell. they're just the best at getting Google reviews and I'm excited. Danny's got some cool things to kind of help practices, even if you are utilizing swell, even boost those Google reviews more. So Danny, welcome to the show. How are you today? speaker-1 (01:14) Thank you kindly. I'm doing well, just here in snowy Utah, living the dream. speaker-0 (01:19) I love it. I love it. We actually pre-show connected on the fact that Danny may have gone to school with my husband. So we're waiting till post show to see if they know each other. I feel like it's like who's behind the door? My husband wasn't free. but it's kind of fun that you're in Utah. But Danny, kind of for those who don't know about Swell, Zeke and I I literally remember being in an office. I was in Alabama consulting a practice and they needed help with Google reviews. So I looked up, I had been told About swell. I was on a flight and somebody had mentioned swell. And so, and you guys were like early, early, early on. I was early on in my career and I remember I like just picked up the phone. This is when you guys used to not have a great branding. It was like a well. And I'm like, I don't understand what this is about. And I called and Zeke answered and I said, Hey, I'm Kiera Dent with the Dental A Team. I heard you guys are great. I want to utilize you in a practice and see if you're good. What do I need to do? And that's honestly how Zeke and I got connected. And Zeke has just been awesome. and the practices that I put you guys in, no joke, I think the best one the worst one did thirty Google reviews in one month. The best one did eighty five Google reviews in one month. And so it was super fun for me to have immediate social proof and great testimonial. And since then, Zeke has told me many times, Kiera, any event you go to, please tell me we will be there because you're a little walking advertisement for us, which I am because you guys do it so well. So that's kind of how I met you guys, how I got introduced. But kinda tell us like what the scope of swell is and how you guys even got started. speaker-1 (02:50) Yeah, so Swell actually kind of fell backward into dentistry, initially was hoping to help small pharmacy groups survive against the big boys, but then stumbled into dentistry and realized that there was a great fit in that a there were many systems that were currently attempting to help practices get reviews. A lot of them was just the five digit short code. less branded or personalized messages just with a link and then a few different steps that they had to do in order to leave a review. But Swell just said, well, we need to make it super easy, super convenient, and with as few steps as possible for patients to leave a review. So went out and integrated with all of the practice management softwares, stayed hyper focused on driving the most reviews possible for practices. And really swell as we know it today with without the whale that you're talking about, new branding. We think we're a little bit sexier and agree. And you know, our our design and and the aesthetic of our product, our branding, all of that is really great. But most importantly, we're just super effective at getting practices, reviews to the sites that matter, mostly Google and then Facebook, Healthgrades, other sites as well. Totally. yeah, that's that's swell in a nutshell. Primarily we know reviews are the tip of the spear, but then Swell built a little bit out and said, hey, reviews help you stand out online, but then you need to connect conveniently and convert these patients. And so we've built out some tools like web chat and and different things after the fact, but it all starts with the reviews. speaker-0 (04:27) For sure. And I will say, I am a swell, we have been a swell user. So swell, up until we joined with HubSpot, we've actually utilized Swell's chat on our website and it was awesome. We loved it. It was so easy and it actually started building so much traction. And literally the only reason we don't have swell on ours is because HubSpot integrates and it just pulls all the information. But guys, if I didn't have HubSpot, I would still be Wispwell. You guys were fantastic. You helped with our Google reviews. We still utilize you guys for Google reviews. but kind of like so offices, obviously. I hope if you don't know, we are in 2022. You've got to have a presence on Google. Like, no ifs, ands, or buts. Everybody finds you on the website. That is to me your website, and being on Google is your resume to the world. And if it's not there, you're not going to be found these days unless you are attracting a different clientele than the current millennials, Gen X, Gen Z. Whome coming in, like that's what they're looking for. So, Danny, kind of walk us through. You were telling me some crazy cool algorithms. I also love that you guys have always only been with Google because I was never a huge fan of some other platforms. and so I love that you guys have just stayed primarily, primarily Google because Google doesn't take away reviews unlike some other platforms. but kind of just tell us some of the algorithms you guys have come up with because you guys, that's honestly why I think you do it so well, is because you've stayed very niche, you've stayed very focused. And you guys crank Google reviews. So kind of just walk us through some of the things you guys do differently that practices can do to increase those Google reviews. speaker-1 (05:58) Yeah. Well, just I think one thing that's really important for practices to understand is that Google reviews to the Google My Business page affect local and broader searches. So, like you were saying, Kiera, it all starts with an online search. Dentist near me, affordable dentist, cosmetic dentists, all on for, whatever the case. And if practices aren't showing up in that initial Google search, it's referred to as the Map Pack. then They're being overlooked and potentially missing out on a patient that could have searched them online through social proof, read through very positive reviews, and said, Great, this'll do. I'll I'll make an appointment. so Google is tracking several different things. one is the location of the searcher, that's pretty intuitive. It's just how far away is the business from where that patient is searching. there's proximity, and then there's something that's called authority. So that's how well. Are they known online? Are they do they have SEO? Is their website getting lots of hits? this is less important for the review side. but the two important things that we like to focus on is number one, Google is constantly tracking the star rating of the practice and then the frequency or the recency that they're receiving reviews to the Google My Business page. So Essentially, we think that if you can raise your star rating or maintain a high rating and have fresh recent reviews coming to the page with responses as well, because responses are factored into that freshness or recency, those pages are more, excuse me, those practices are more likely to show up front and center when a patient within proximity searches for a dentist or or anything of that nature, they'll they'll pop up. One other thing you and I spoke about were the keywords. This is something that practices. Those of you who are already using Swell, I want you to listen closely because this is a great way to increase in terms of keywords and boost your chances of being front and center on Google. If a patient, when when you're sending out your review request, you could actually in the verbiage say, please describe your experience with us. Now the patient is able to say whatever they want based on HIPAA. They can say, I went in. To Dr. Lenary, I got an implant, an all-on-forecase, you know, they they changed my life. And then when I respond to that as the practice, I know I can't say the patient's name or or anything tying specifically to their actual appointment, but I can say we love to do all on four cases, we love to place implants, we love to do veneers, we love Invisalign an

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This podcast is here to give dentists and all dental office team members, in EVERY position, TACTICAL and PRACTICAL TIPS to: - Be more efficient - Have more fun - Improve doctor and team communications - Eliminate frustration - And make your life easier! Jump in! We are thrilled you have decided to LEVEL UP and be part of the DENTAL A TEAM! New episodes every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

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