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In this episode of Monday Morning Marketing, we're diving into the power of reputation management with our guest, Steven Jensen, from Dental Intelligence. Steven breaks down the intricacies of building trust and shares practical ways to ensure an excellent customer journey. In an increasingly digitalized world, offering a streamlined and efficient patient experience can make all the difference. Join us as we discuss the significance of trust throughout every point of interaction and learn key strategies to optimize your operations for increased patient satisfaction and positive online reviews.
The insights waiting for you in this episode may transform your approach to reputation management, so tune into the episode now!
What you'll learn in this episode:
You can reach out to Steven Jensen here:
Website: https://www.dentalintel.com/
Email: sjensen@dentalintel.com
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Software:
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If you want your questions answered on Monday Morning Marketing, ask me on these platforms:
My Newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/
The Dental Marketer Society Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2031814726927041
Michael: Hey, Steven. So talk to us about reputation management. How can we utilize this or what advice or suggestions or methods can you give us that will actually help us attract new patients through reputation management?
Steven: Yeah, I think that's it. That's such a good question. I want to start by setting the stage with a concept or a principle that I believe in wholeheartedly.
So the phrase goes like this. My, my, I grew up with my dad always telling me this. He said, Stephen, trust is earned in drops and lost in buckets. I'm going to say that again. Trust is earned in drops. And lost in buckets. So as we consider, you know, our reputation management and getting people to put reviews online, like you have to step back and realize that before that review ever happens, there were drops and drops and drops and drops of moments, right?
That that person has had with our business and our team members that led up to the point where they were like, okay, cool. you have invested enough in our relationship bucket, I guess, so to speak, where we're actually going to give that review. So I thought. Kind of something I thought would be worthwhile talking through today where what are some tactical ways or some tactical things you can do to make some of those moments consistently in the business, right?
Like, how can we make it so there are repeatable good drops that are happening that we're investing in that bucket? Avoid those moments where we're losing, you know, losing trust. And then also kind of at the very end, like how can we, how can we ask for those reviews, obviously. So here's the first thing that came to my mind. So a couple of weeks ago, I went to go see a doctor. So not dentistry. I went to like just my medical doctor and I haven't been in like seven years.
I'm in my mid thirties. And my wife's been on me like, hey, like you need to get a checkup. And I'm like, I know, like I go to the dentist, but I don't go to the doctor. So I go, and it's been a long time, like the last time I went to the doctor, I remember sitting in the lobby, and I would fill out the paper forms, and then I would wait, and it seems like it was always like 15 20 minutes, so like, I blocked out almost 2 hours of my day, of work day, to go and see the doctor.
Because I thought that's how long it would take, like it always took forever. So, like, I was so surprised because when I walked in, they're like, hey, like, Steve, welcome. And, um, they're like, hey, to get you checked in, we're just going to send you a text message, and you're going to fill out your forms, and then we'll have you go back and see the doctor.
So I was like, okay, cool, this is going to be like 20 minutes. And, uh, before I actually see someone. So I start working on the forms, just on my phone. So they sent me a text, I open it up, and I'm filling out the forms, you know, uh, medical history and stuff like that. And then within three minutes, all of a sudden someone comes and says, Hey, we're ready to have you come back.
We're going to get vitals. And I was like, holy smokes. Like this is, this has changed since the last time that I was here. And, uh, so I walked back to the back and I've been to this doctor a bunch. Like he's been my family doctor for like 20 years. And it's always been a long wait. So then I walked back to the back and I'm, I'm filling out the forms, finishing them while I get my vitals.
And then the second they're in the vitals, like they're like, great. The doctor ready to see you, Dr. Sharp. So they walked me back to Dr. Sharp and we jumped right in and he's got, you know, everything right there on his iPad and he's looking at everything that I just submitted. And he's like, cool. So it looks like, you know, these are the things we want to talk about today.
In general, you're healthy exercising this much. This is what your diet's like. And like, he was so dialed in and that process was so smooth that for me, I was like, I'm ready to like give this guy, cause I'm thinking about this all the time. I'm ready to give this guy a good review. Like this is perfect.
This is like such an ideal experience. Right? So I want everyone to think through what I just explained and like the drops that just happened. Right? Like I had these expectations. blocked out all this time, but they were able to get me through this experience really quickly and efficiently. But not in like a rushed way, but in a way that was like, man, they have their crap together.
And they were just putting all these deposits into this bucket to the point where I was wowed multiple times throughout the visit with just how well that went. Right? So as you're listening and you're thinking yourself, okay, like, do I have myself dialed in like that? Do we have? Things in place so that forms aren't a hold up in my business.
Like we're not filling out paperclips anymore and they're sitting there. Do we have communication with the team set up to the point where like, Hey, once something's finished, like once forms are done or like we're almost done, we're ready to rock and roll. Are we getting communication back to the doctor so that the second we're ready with any like pre appointment stuff the doctor's getting in there pretty quickly and it just seems like we have things dialed in like everyone knows where every patient is and everyone knows where it's supposed to be at the right time.
So that for sure that's like one of my suggestions is make sure you have those moments all dialed in down to just the small little things like what are they doing on their phone, when they're filling out the forms, what happens when the forms are complete, and then what happens once you get back to the back office.
Cool. I'm talking really fast, Michael. Any like questions
Michael: there? No, that's great. That's great. I like the, uh, the idea of, or the need to have your systems already built, right? Obviously. Yes. But then dialed in. Cause I feel like we built them and then we don't really review them or, you know what I mean?
They start providing some like holes in, but you don't go back and recheck them. You just start adding more things to the system, which will eventually fall apart. So make sure the systems
Steven: are dialed in. Yes. And I think a great way to do that. You know, sometimes the doctor wishes they could like secret shop, you know, and be a patient in their own practice, but have a family member or friend come in and just ask them before, like, Hey, will you just pay attention?
Like, what's it like to fill out the forms? And what's it, how long does it take to get back to the actual operatory where we talk with you and, and, and what's that whole experience like? And just ask a few people to give you feedback in the next couple of weeks. And I'm telling you, you'll uncover all sorts of little opportunities, right?
Oh, cool. Like we'll make a little tweak there. And that will help really improve this experience once again, because the goal here is we want to, we're going to earn trust in, in drops and we can lose trust in buckets. So let's make sure we've dialed things in there. Okay, cool. The second thing I'll give is when it comes to the actual way that we Remind patients.
So one of those things, one of these things happens in dentistry where a lot of folks fall through the crack. So, you know, I, I work for dental intelligence and we're always looking at numbers. So one cool stat that I always like to share is that, that, uh, only 49 percent of patients in the U. S. are scheduled to go back to see their dentist. So that means that like in general, everyone's got half of their patients just out there in the law land, not scheduled to come back. So two things there, one, that's a cool note from a marketing perspective. That means that you can steal away patients from another business because they're not scheduled there.
So they're not like really tethered or to write for your own business. It's like, Hey, I want to make sure I get those people. tethered to my business. And that next appointment, traditionally hygiene, is how we're going to really tether them to the business. So one of the cool things that, that you can do is you really should think through, like, how can I automate my recall system?
Right? So I think traditionally right now, still practices are printing off of a list from Open Dental or Dentrix or Eaglesoft of everyone that's due in the next like three, four weeks. But there are systems out there now where you can set it up to say, Hey, Every time it just automatically triggers every time I have a patient who's due for hygiene in the next, I don't know, say four weeks, let's shoot them a message with a link and a invitation to go ahead and schedule online for our business in our business.
And then let's hit them with up to and you can set this up like three messages or four messages or five messages. Everyone's system is a little different, but you can hit them with a series of messages and you can say run that. for the next like four weeks or six weeks. And then once it's done, if that automation has failed.
So, so patient gets a text message and says, Hey, like we miss you at Michael's dental or Steve's dental. And, uh, we'd love for you to come and schedule, come back, you know, click here to find an appointment time that's convenient for you. And if that automation fails, then go ahead and create like an automated task for a team member to follow up with that patient So there's a cool thing that you can do called the voicemail drop where you can record your own voicemail and then you can send it out to patients. And it sounds like you tried to call them, but you actually didn't.
And it just places a voicemail and the doctors decided to record a voicemail of themselves saying, Hey, you know, this is Dr. Steve. I noticed that you haven't been in to see our hygiene team for a long time. We miss you. We'd love to have you come back. you know, no need to call me back at this phone number.
Okay. But, you know, go ahead. My team will shoot a link here soon with a link to schedule or something like that, right? So they would send this personal touch and the patient would get a voicemail in their phone with this personal touch from the doctor. It's like, holy cow, like Dr. Michael misses me. Dr.
Steve misses me and like wants me to come back and those little things like that. have such a big impact on the drops that we're putting into our relationship buckets with the patient. Once again, we're trying to work up to this experience. We're going to ask for reviews and then everyone already knows is I'm sure someone's already said this in the series, but the first thing that everyone sees when a patient Google's dentist near me is they look at the stars.
Like that's the very first thing that they see. And if the stars aren't five, then they look at those first several reviews, right? Like what's good and what's bad. So those are going to impact in such a dramatic way people getting scheduled. So the reason why that even came to mind. So my mom calls me this last week. Uh, do you use B Real? Have you ever heard of that, Michael? B Real? Yeah, the social media app.
Michael: No, I've heard of it, but I
Steven: haven't like, uh, I'm not going to get into like an all pitch, but it's like, uh, it's like the anti Instagram where there's no filters.
It just gives you once a day, like it alerts you like, Hey, you got to take a picture now. And you take a picture and take a picture with your front camera, back camera. And so it's like very like raw life. And, uh, you can't look at the past. You can't scroll the past. It's just today. So me and a bunch of my family are on it.
So my mom calls me the other day because I took a picture at work and it had the front entrance of dental intelligence has our mission, which says it's our mission to make it more fulfilling to be a dental, practice team member and easier to be a patient. So my mom calls me and she's like, Hey, I saw your picture about how your software is trying to make it easier to be a patient and she's like, it totally does.
And she's like, so the dental practice I go to uses dental intelligence engagement, and she got like five reminders to go and schedule because she was fast due for hygiene. And she just didn't schedule, didn't schedule, didn't schedule. So the automation failed, but then a few weeks later, so this is like the day after that she called me.
A few weeks later, she's like, Hey, my tooth is hurting. And then immediately what came to her mind was, Oh yeah. Like the dentist has been texting me a million times. So she just went back in her text messages and found that thread, clicked on the link and got scheduled. Right. So that automation, even though like it failed, it did get to the point where like, In her mind, she had been hit so many times, she's like thinking about that dental practice and, uh, got them in.
That might be a tip for, you know, patients that don't convert on the phone for the new patient appointment. You might want to send them reminders to schedule two. Yeah, that's good. And then let me, and then, uh, to wrap up, so Really, you know, the conversation that I wanted to have today was more around, you know, how can we use technology to simplify some of those engagements with the patient and also to make sure that there's consistently a good experience because one of the one of the troubles that you have as you manage a team member is people are inconsistent.
Like, we wish that we were consistent, but we're not super consistent, right? Like, we've got bad days where we walk into that practice and we're like, I Don't want to be here and I don't love work and I feel like I'm on a hamster wheel. Like we all have those moments, right? Where like life's just kind of on a low and we have moments where we're on a high and we're like, man, like life's amazing.
And we look out at, you know, lakes and valleys and oceans and we're like, this place is beautiful. and, and we can't really control that as a practice owner, but what we can control are some of the systems that we put around our team and around our patients. And so for me, the thought was, Hey, let's add a little segment in this.
in this conversation about how we can use our systems to make sure that we're putting in consistent drops, it's scalable, it grows with our team, or it can create consistency with the team. And the three things that I thought were, let's put automation around like that forms an intake system and management while the patient's in the practice.
Let's consider how we can use Recall reminders and automate some of that stuff so that the patient is aware that we're, like, thinking about them and care about them. And then let's use a tool like a voicemail dropper, a recorded voicemail that we send to patients. You could even do something like that in an email, technically, too.
If you want to, like, hack this and be like, I'm just going to record something that says, Hey, this is Dr. Steve, I miss you. Well, then now you come back and you can send an email. that just catches them off guard, right? Something that they don't expect, that's where, like, you really can wow patients. And send out stuff like that to them.
And you can also do that with, like, post op instructions. You could use a voicemail drop, right? Like, Hey, this is Dr. Steve. No need to call me back. I just wanted to make sure that if you're experiencing any excessive pain or any of those symptoms I listed out on the post op instructions that, uh, you give me a call.
But if everything's good, like, just keep following the instructions my team gave to you. you know, thanks again for coming in today, something like that. And that will just really put in that extra, extra touch that patients are really looking for these days, right? Like there is for sure, great tools and automation, but they also want to feel like they're an actual human being.
And it's not just like some bot that they're engaging with the business.
Michael: Gotcha. So use that like the text messaging. Things like that with the links for automation to make sure, Hey, it can be quick, it's accessible for them, like your mom. But at the same time, but that personal touch in with the voicemail drops and well, even
Steven: the language you use in your appointment reminders, confirmations, like have fun with those, maybe I shouldn't say this, but I would just use like the standard thing that every company ships out.
Like there's a ton of companies that do that. Right. So switch it up give it a personal touch to your business and your practice that. Speaks more to the voice that you're trying to have with patients like those types of things people notice and maybe they won't notice necessarily like, Oh, wow, like, I really like the way he said that, but small little changes that feel personal start to add up in people's minds.
And it makes a difference as you do those.
Michael: Yeah, I like that, man. I like that a lot. Awesome, Stephen. I appreciate your time. And if anyone has further questions, you can definitely find them on the Dental Marketer Society Facebook group, or where can they reach out to you directly? They
Steven: can just reach out to my email sjensen at dentalintel. com. And I'm always happy to chat with people. Or if you want to like strategize, feel free to reach out to me. Love every chance I get to talk with docs. Awesome.
Michael: So guys, that's all going to be in the show notes below. So definitely go check that out. Reach out to Steve. Steve, thank you so much for being with me on this Monday morning marketing episode.
For sure.
Steven: Thanks, Michael.