Shelley Bostrom
hi I'm Shelly with align my practice Consulting and today we're going to be talking about how to help you and your team use automation to ensure that your incoming leads get converted into new patient consultations in your books
Dean Steinman
well hello everybody out there in podcast land guess what I'm Dean Steinman and we are back with another podcast for you and I am so so happy to have my favorite guest of all time back with me again those of you that have watched us listen to us for a while know this very pretty woman that is an expert in the marketing and in orthodontic Dental World Training expert to the stars and Shel B I'm so happy to have you back again Shel is the the founder of all my practice um an incredible um Consulting training company and we're here today to talk about different ways to that you need to adapt your practice to get more patients coming in the door plain and simple a whole new world out there so Shel my dear welcome how are you today
Shelley Bostrom
Thank you Dean I'm super great thanks so much again for having me I always love chatting with you
Dean Steinman
My pleasure ditto it's the same you always make me smile and we're in the smile business so it's nothing WR so you gotta love that so we I love you know smiling and making people smile and vice versa there so welcome so we're going to jump right in so we'll talk a little bit today about the need of speed to lead let's say that really fast the need the speed the lead all right so what that means is when a lead comes into your into your office the first person who has a meaningful communication with the patient has a almost 85% chance of getting them in the door and then based upon how good your team is at converting them working with Shel will hopefully get them in so you know sh let's talk a little bit about about that so you know your expertise when you sit down with a practice is to help them be better at converting right but you know getting the patient to show up is been a real different package over the last year year and a half or so um you know I work with 100 practices at oo marketing and i' say you know 80 some odd percent are are down or are flat this year you know it's because Myriad of reasons because of the economy because of the election because of competition um etc etc so you know a what have you found from that because you know if you back me up on this or you heard different I'd love to hear it but practices that that you work with or just through your expertise how have you found the the environment yeah this past year or so for practices
Shelley Bostrom
Whenever I work with my teams um I really try to guide them to not make excuses about the economy and the election or it's a slow month because the kids are all taking finals or whatever it is I really try to encourage my treatment coordinators to not let those outside factors deter what their main goal is which is to create an amazing patient experience when the patients walk through the doors um and really kind of help them hone in on their Superstar sales abilities to convert that patient basically give the patient what they came in for and Dean I know that you and I have talked a lot about um you know this is not a cold call this this patient researched you they learned all about you they called you they scheduled an appointment hopefully they showed up they want to be sold it's not you know it's just give them give them what they came in for um but as far as that you know conversion piece of converting that incoming new patient phone call into a converted scheduled new patient consultation is definitely something that's being missed in our market for sure there's a huge opportunity for growth there
Dean Steinman
It really is and and practices have to adapt all right you know guys you have to be able to change this is not 2022 2020 2019 18 it's 2024 almost 25 and as you know if you just Google you know baline near me orthodontist near me or your town you're going to see more names ever showing up you've got people that were referers that are now competitors you've got you know many direct to Consumer programs from some of the big you know aligner companies out there that even though you are using their services they competing with you you know it's you know there's so much noise out there and how do you stand out so um a that's where a company like wealth of marketing comes in is to get you found and get your name out there and B once they find you all right that's where the trouble has been over the last year is getting people to adapt and to work with that so you know um so what we do at for marketing is we kind of take over the process for a lot of our practices for new business development there um because once they they contact you and they show up and you work with shell hopefully you be able to get them to start but the hardest part is getting them to actually get the butts in the seats there and you know and I mentioned it before the speed to lead so the first person who has a meaningful first practice meaningful two-way conversation with a patient has an 85% chance of getting them in but do you want to be the second or third one that reach out that reaches out to them or the first um you know and you know and then once they do show up obviously as I mentioned you know Shell's expertise will guide you but you know getting patients to actually show up book has been such a struggle lately um you know so first of all how do you help practices you know when when they do that as far as what do you suggest they do um when somebody goes to somebody's website if you had a choice for tell your pra any of your clients if you know when somebody sees your website what would you suggest they do you want somebody to call them you want them to schedule do you want them to fill out a form and get and have a conversation or all the above or chat with them what what would you suggest would be the the number one thing or top two things that a practice should should do
Shelley Bostrom
yeah so I think that you know everybody has different prefer methods of communication and when I work with my teams they may think that text messaging is the easiest way to connect but not everybody loves text messages I person I hate texting so I think having your making sure that your website has multiple options of communication for your potential patients is super important whether that's you want to do a little message you want to fill out a form which turns into an email or can you push a button and make an immediate phone call to connect with them so actually think all of those methods of communication are super important but I find that what the biggest challenge is with offices which is how you can help um all of these clients is getting is just making sure that that phone call is being answered making sure that the message is being responded to immediately um you know I look back I've got three grown kids right now but when I was a young mom and I had I was a working full-time working mom with three young kids three different schools three different car pools three different after school activities and the only time that I was able to make appointments for like a denal appointment an eye appointment whatever it was was either before my hours after my hours or on my lunch break and if those offices didn't answer the phone I like phone calls so I would always choose a phone call they didn't answer the phone and maybe I was looking for a new provider I'm going to go the next person on the list because my time is valuable and I don't have time in an hour I have time now to make that appointment so one of the many things that I love about Dean and Ortho marketing is that they have their smile Hub program which does all that leg work for you they they take that over because your your front desk your scheduling coordinator they don't have the capacity to answer your phone 2 47 they might work 9 to 5 they're going to take an hour lunch break which they deserve and so but all of those off times all of those off hours which I'm I know I'm not a unique crazy busy Mom I'm sure there's many other moms who are often the decision makers and the family you need to really adapt to them and cater to them so um I think Outsourcing that initial communication to make sure that you're conversion of incoming leads to converted new patient consultation should be at least 85% I like 90% but it's important to make sure you've got a partner like Ortho marketing to be able to help you do that
Dean Steinman
well said thank you for that bit of advice that's so true guys you know you focus on what you do best let you know let your phone ring get let you know let work with a company like us to get you found work with somebody like Shel to teach your staff how to get them to convert when they show up but between that is a huge huge gap and there's you got really two options three options now really one is keep the old way all right and you're going to fail unfortunately you cannot just keep it the old way you have to adapt as sh said you know busy mom is going to potentially fill out a form or call you at 8 8:30 in the morning and you're not might not be open they're going to do it at lunchtime you're not going to be open 5 6:00 7 8 at night you're not open you lost them all right so a is you have to have a 247 world where to be to be in right now um so I said you have three options one is keep it as is and you know hope and pray two is you know have a hybrid all right so we have a program as mentioned called smile Hub and it's an automation platform so think about it if somebody goes to your website and they pick up the phone and they hang up they're you know the busy and there a hangup call they're going to get a text back right away thank you for reaching out to you know Dr Jones we sorry we missed you please click here to call us again or click here to schedule an an appointment and or fill out a form and they could take them right to a landing page to fill out a form or it could facilitate an inbound call to your office all right now most practices will you know if a call comes in or a form is filled out they'll reach out to him you know leave a message one or two times and that's a bad lead uhuh you have to reach out to somebody literally eight times in eight days automatically your staff is too busy to do it so that's where a company that's where a program and a company like us steps in is we take that out of the equation somebody fills out a form on your website again we're going to text them and email them right away and if they don't we don't get in touch with them next day do it next day do it next day do it and then after a week or so if we hear from them they go into a follow-up program and then every month we'll do it you know we had a practice that we spoke with yesterday a client of ours somebody filled out one of their forms in March all right didn't connect and blah blah blah we kept texting and emailing we automated the program they finally you know got through and said wow but I really I'm interested I forgot blah blah blah showed up started yesterday without doing a thing all right $7,000 start paid him full okay without doing a thing all right because of they adapted to technology so you have to have an automated process in place your staff can't manually do this work anymore they can't there's just not enough hours in the day and and they're you know they're busy so it's first thing to do is to adapt to that and and most and even better is what we doing now with atho marketing we're taking over everything for the practices we can we could actually answer your phone for you um and it's not being outsourced to India Pakistan or something like that based in the in the in the states train people that will answer your phone properly follow up take it all for you you don't do a thing all right focus on what you do best let the phone let the experts answer the phone you know from you know from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm you know plain and simple with times that that is the most busiest times of the day you don't do a thing and let us follow up with them let us book with them let us do it all you just do what you do best and that's very very important but biggest part now is getting your staff to buy in so Shelley how do you get a practice to adapt to something new because staff is going to be like oh I'm so busy we can't do this we can't do this how do you actually you know help them understand that you have to change
Shelley Bostrom
yeah, um I think implementing any sort of system can be challenging or you know frustrating for teams especially if it's a season team and they've been there for a long time time and they it's hard to adapt so what I really try to work with either if I'm working with the practice manager or the practice owner doctor is you need to express to your team that this is going to help them this is going to reduce stress in their day-to-day operations and allow them to focus on you know gosh if you know that someone else is going to be who's an expert to answer your phone to take care of those leads so that you can f focus on the patients that are in front of you creating those amazing patient experiences the Red Carpet Service all of that is just so so important so I think the best way to get your team to buy in is let them know that this is it's a it's almost like a gift or a service from the doctor to the team I want to make I want to reduce your stress I want to allow us to be successful I know you have a lot on your plate this is just an extension of the team um you know some fun fun facts and this isn't even like industry just for dental Ortho but in the big you know scheme of uh you know sales in general that only 10% of of salese follow up with their potential lead more than three times and yet 80% of those sales are achieved between the fifth and the 12th point of contact most TCS most SCH SCH coordin well I will even say as far as like the people that answer the phone the scheduling coordinators if they aren't successful with taking this phone call and converting it into a scheduled appointment 99.9% of those scheduling coordinators are not going to make note of that number and go I'm gonna follow up with that person again you know if they ask oh are you in network with my insurance company oh no I'm sorry I'm not okay we'll have a good day and they'll hang up with them 99.9% of those team members are not following up with that lead and that's something that you do and they they I think practices are so focused on the conversion of treatment coordinators they're not focused on converting those leads um so you have to follow up so I know like I always say you have to follow up for at least nine months which is like the example that you just shared with your client yesterday is we kind of right about that same time um so just I was like the fortune is in the follow up and if you're not following up you're like you're missing out on such a huge chunk of revenue for your practice
Dean Steinman
so let me ask you another question so you know when it comes to following up and being active on something new you know as you said you know they have to adapt and somebody's been there for a while to do so and you know fortunately some of the practi we work with the staff is you know on this the senior side and they've been there for 20 30 40 years and they're just afraid of change afraid of Technology but they have no choice they have have to adapt there and you know and so you know when it comes to getting your your team to to do so what's maybe one bit of advice you could that you could just tell them besides saying this is something you have to do which they do but still they won't buy in you know how do we get them to to learn you know Teach an old dog new tricks per se you know um but we have no choice you know we can help you have to help us help you you know when when we're automating our our messages you have to let us know if if we when we book if we if they booked or not otherwise we're going to keep messaging them and you're going to look kind of foolish if we text or or email somebody or call them and say still looking for an for for an appointment we like whoa I came in yesterday you know so they have to help us help you a bit so they can't you can't be afraid of technology and trying something new but how do they get over that hurdle how does this doctor CU some you know get a staff to do so without being you know agressive have no choice you know
Shelley Bostrom
so that's what I was going to say is who's in charge of the practice so it really needs to be the you know I I teach a great course called lead align and Thrive because I think a lot of doctors practice owners practice managers really struggle with that piece of Team accountability and you like you said it like you just have to do it this is where the practice is moving forward we are doing this in the best interest of the team the practice and the patient period and you need to give them the tools to be successful so yes if they are a you know Senior Team Member who's been in the practice for a long time and it might take them a while to catch on to new technology so give them the tools to be successful don't just throw it at them you really need to have a proper roll out proper onboarding of whether it's smile Hub or whether it's some technology in the lab or whatever it is in order to get the team on board you have to give them the tools you have to give them the expectation we're doing this we're going to start rolling it out now we're going to be ready to go in a month and a half this is what it looks like give them give them the tools to be successful and um and just guide them whether it's like stages of you know implementation but this it's not their practice it's your practice and so as an owner you need to look at the long-term sustainability of your practice and you need to know where you're going like it's your legacy that you're building and you need to make sure that you've got a a team that is there to jump on the train with you and be you know I think typically when I work with my doctors um the doctors are afraid of maybe losing that team member more so than the team member adapting to whatever the new system or technology is but I just I always try to just remind my practice owners like this is your this is your livelihood this is your baby this is your family this is your legacy and you need to make sure that you're hiring the right people and then just give them the tools to be successful and let them know this is where the practice is going and put the ball in their Court they either need to be on board with this or they're going to choose not to be on board and the doctor needs to feel comfortable with maybe freeing up that employees future I like to say if if maybe their future is not with you and your vision for your practice I know it's tough but um it's necessary
Dean Steinman
yeah it it really is they have to adapt and I've mentioned this many many times by podcast if you ever watch the movie Moneyball adapt or die and you have to you have to adapt or you're done and you have to that's why you know companies like mine exist and Technology like smile Hub exist in order to adapt you know whoever heard of AI or automation you know two years ago but it's the world we're in now and you know work smart you know the practices that market smarter not harder are the ones that are successful all right so and you know I guarantee you doc your competitors are marketing and working smarter all right you might be working harder but they're working smarter and they're adapting so just take a step back breathe and let's work smarter together so Shelley thank you so much again for joining this was this was great um and now it's time for a little Shameless plug so if um somebody wants to learn more about you set up a time to to talk learn about what you could do what do they do
Shelley Bostrom
thank you Dean um well yes I'm Shelly founder of align align my practice Consulting I work mostly with ortho practices but I also work with some GP and pediatric offices as well if they are either looking to implement like phase one Ortho clear liners or Airway focused treatment um I offer coaching and training programs literally for every single role within the practice and I do those either on site or from the convenience of your office via Zoom um and I love working with Dean because he does such a great job of filling my clients like getting their phones ringing getting the butts and the seats and then we're just such a great team because then we can keep the butts in the seats um with alignment practice
Dean Steinman
great thank you guys if you are struggling if you're not getting your conversions if your staff is just not able to get the starts and you see people booking you're not showing up or just not starting give her a call you know so thank you so much shell once again you know give her a call guys this is you know she's incredible everybody out there thank you so much for listening thank you so much for watching thanks so much for all all of your feedback we always love to hear any different topics or anybody that is looking to potentially be a guest or know somebody reach out to us we always love to you know to interview and there to know out there so follow us on all your your your social media programs and just keep on smiling Shelley thank you so much everybody in podcast land be happy be safe
Shelley Bostrom
byee
