Latest / Hey Docs! / Maximizing New Patient Opportunities with LeadSigma
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Welcome to the Haydocks podcast with your host Jill Allen.
- 0:09Speaker 1: Today I am joined by Scott Hansen, founder and CEO
- 0:13Speaker 1: of lead Sigma. Scott works with orthodonic practices to help
- 0:17Speaker 1: them improve lead management, patient communication, and conversions through automation
- 0:22Speaker 1: and AI driven systems. As practices continue to navigate staffing
- 0:27Speaker 1: challenges and increasing patient expectations, missed calls and inconsistent follow
- 0:33Speaker 1: up can quietly impact growth. In this episode, we're talking
- 0:37Speaker 1: about how AI is being used in practices today, where
- 0:41Speaker 1: it creates real value, and why even the best technology
- 0:45Speaker 1: still depends on strong systems underneath it. So let's take
- 0:49Speaker 1: a look and now a word from the sponsors who
- 0:52Speaker 1: make this podcast possible hay Docs. If your new patient
- 0:58Speaker 1: follow up depends on someone remind membring it's leaking revenue.
- 1:02Speaker 1: Grayfinch automates new patient follow up. Texts and emails go
- 1:06Speaker 1: out automatically, and your treatment coordinator just checks their tasks
- 1:10Speaker 1: list to see what needs a quick call or a
- 1:13Speaker 1: more personalized message. That is one of the many reasons
- 1:17Speaker 1: I recommend everyone take a look at Grayfinch. It isn't
- 1:20Speaker 1: just a follow up tool, it's a complete practice management software.
- 1:25Speaker 1: Built to help you grow and scale, stop leaking revenue,
- 1:28Speaker 1: and get five hundred dollars off your startup fee with
- 1:31Speaker 1: the Jill allenspecial at Grayfinch dot com forward slash Jill Allen.
- 1:43Speaker 1: Are you thinking about opening an orthodonic practice. I know
- 1:46Speaker 1: it's a big decision, but saving twenty five percent on
- 1:50Speaker 1: the Adeck equipment you need to get started, that's an
- 1:53Speaker 1: easy one because Adeck has a special program called smart
- 1:57Speaker 1: Start designed to help you launch your free practice. You
- 2:01Speaker 1: get up to twenty five percent off your Adeck orthodonic
- 2:05Speaker 1: equipment and furniture. You also get complimentary services to help
- 2:09Speaker 1: you run and grow your business, and my favorite part,
- 2:13Speaker 1: access to the smart Start pricing for two whole years
- 2:16Speaker 1: after you open your doors. That gives you flexibility to
- 2:20Speaker 1: add more chairs as your cash flow grows. It's pretty smart.
- 2:25Speaker 1: As an orthodonist, you care about getting all the little
- 2:28Speaker 1: details right and Adck really got it right with this program.
- 2:32Speaker 1: So starting off with the big savings on Adeck equipment
- 2:36Speaker 1: sounds good to you. The AdEx Smart Start is definitely
- 2:40Speaker 1: worth a closer look. Just follow the link in the
- 2:42Speaker 1: show notes to learn more. Scott, I am so excited
- 2:51Speaker 1: to have you here on Haydocks again. Thanks for being
- 2:54Speaker 1: here today.
- 2:55Speaker 2: It is my pleasure. I'm honored.
- 2:58Speaker 1: Well, I always love having you on because I know
- 3:00Speaker 1: you and I are always going to have some really
- 3:02Speaker 1: great conversations and we have plenty to talk about to
- 3:06Speaker 1: fill up the time. So in the event that somebody
- 3:09Speaker 1: has not met you yet does not know who you are,
- 3:13Speaker 1: would you mind just sharing a little bit of background
- 3:16Speaker 1: on what got you into our orthodonic field and what
- 3:20Speaker 1: led you to creating Lead Sigma.
- 3:23Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely. First of all, thank you so much for
- 3:25Speaker 2: having me. It's so cool to be able to talk
- 3:27Speaker 2: to like people that I look up to, looked up
- 3:30Speaker 2: to read about and benefited our practice when I was
- 3:35Speaker 2: managing it. So yeah, I started my career managing my
- 3:38Speaker 2: folks orthodonic practice in the Kansas City area and the
- 3:42Speaker 2: practice was flat for about ten years, and when I
- 3:45Speaker 2: started over the subsequent three years, we tripled the size
- 3:48Speaker 2: of it and we were one of the early acquisitions
- 3:50Speaker 2: for Smile Doctors. And that's kind of led me from
- 3:54Speaker 2: one thing into another to today as the founder of
- 3:57Speaker 2: Lead Sigma. And I'm more than happy to dive into
- 4:01Speaker 2: that more detailed story. But I have had just a
- 4:03Speaker 2: lot of wild and cool experiences then yes, yeah.
- 4:07Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, And I think that's what's so great about
- 4:11Speaker 1: Lead Sigma and working with you is you're putting your
- 4:15Speaker 1: money where your mouth is. You know, in regard to
- 4:17Speaker 1: you have been in an orthodonic practice. The practices that
- 4:21Speaker 1: you are brought to the forefront with the company are
- 4:24Speaker 1: real life problems that you encountered and had to deal
- 4:28Speaker 1: with and said, hey, I think there's a solution out
- 4:30Speaker 1: there for this. So I want to dive right in
- 4:33Speaker 1: and talk a little bit about one of the major
- 4:36Speaker 1: areas that I think is a big pain point in
- 4:39Speaker 1: our offices and especially now. I mean I think missed
- 4:43Speaker 1: and new patients have always been an issue, but I
- 4:46Speaker 1: think there's even more emphasis on it right now because
- 4:49Speaker 1: when we look at how much money is put into
- 4:53Speaker 1: advertisement and just how accessible patients now have to information
- 5:00Speaker 1: and to trying to reach out and get a hold
- 5:02Speaker 1: of our practices. And I'm wondering if you can talk
- 5:05Speaker 1: about what you guys are seeing on that new patient
- 5:10Speaker 1: missed call forefront and or interaction and that regard and
- 5:15Speaker 1: really what the data or the points that are important
- 5:19Speaker 1: to talk about on what that has in regard to
- 5:22Speaker 1: the growth of an orthodonic practice.
- 5:25Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, yeah, I think it's a really important consideration
- 5:29Speaker 2: and it has been an important consideration for a long
- 5:31Speaker 2: time when I was managing the practice now twenty years
- 5:34Speaker 2: before I manage the practice. And you mentioned like the
- 5:37Speaker 2: investment in marketing or just like ads and other stuff.
- 5:40Speaker 2: I think what gets missed and why maybe people don't
- 5:44Speaker 2: typically focus on it as much as they should, is
- 5:47Speaker 2: they forget about all the other stuff that they did
- 5:49Speaker 2: to drive those leads. It's like you think about the
- 5:53Speaker 2: sleepless nights of organizing your first hygiene event, yes, organizing
- 5:59Speaker 2: the lunch and learn with dentists, going to do health
- 6:04Speaker 2: day presentations at the schools, and like I imagine for
- 6:07Speaker 2: a lot of your clients and probably just about everyone listening,
- 6:11Speaker 2: they were the people doing that at least maybe now,
- 6:13Speaker 2: but at least to start. And so there's so much
- 6:17Speaker 2: energy that goes into getting a single patient to say, hey,
- 6:22Speaker 2: I want to get some treatment, and the fact that
- 6:24Speaker 2: we have put all this focus on the marketing, and
- 6:27Speaker 2: then we have all this focus on case acceptance or
- 6:29Speaker 2: what happens when they show up to the exam. It's
- 6:32Speaker 2: like there's a number of steps between those two things.
- 6:36Speaker 2: If they didn't book online, we have to schedule them,
- 6:39Speaker 2: we have to get them to show up. All of
- 6:41Speaker 2: that stuff works together to get a signed contract, which
- 6:44Speaker 2: is the goal. But with Lead Sigma, basically what we
- 6:48Speaker 2: started with, we have a what we internally call a
- 6:53Speaker 2: sales CRM. It's an automation engine that ingests new patient
- 6:57Speaker 2: leads and helps practices fallow up on those leads. We
- 7:01Speaker 2: help them be super fast, use all the communication channels,
- 7:04Speaker 2: and do it over the long term, and it's the
- 7:06Speaker 2: easiest way that you can manage leads in an orthodonic practice.
- 7:10Speaker 2: We've had the great fortune of serving many of the
- 7:14Speaker 2: fastest growing practices in the country. We serve smile doctors.
- 7:18Speaker 2: We serve about five hundred of their locations and some
- 7:21Speaker 2: of our largest customers. A couple of years ago said, hey,
- 7:24Speaker 2: we're using these call tracking solutions because typically the enterprises
- 7:27Speaker 2: are pretty dialed in terms of the data that they're collecting.
- 7:30Speaker 2: Would you mind to build it for us so that
- 7:32Speaker 2: we can have not only the digital leads coming into
- 7:35Speaker 2: lead Sigma, but also the calls coming into Lead Sigma.
- 7:37Speaker 2: We can track everything and as soon as we built
- 7:40Speaker 2: that for those customers and started offering it to other clients.
- 7:44Speaker 2: We very quickly realized that more than one out of
- 7:47Speaker 2: four new patient calls is missed and that just like
- 7:52Speaker 2: I was my mind, I mean, I knew that there
- 7:54Speaker 2: was a problem. I've been speaking about it for a decade,
- 7:56Speaker 2: but that is just mind blowing. And so we think
- 7:59Speaker 2: of a hypical size practice, that's four hundred thousand dollars,
- 8:03Speaker 2: five hundred thousand dollars of missed opportunity just by not
- 8:07Speaker 2: picking up the phone. And so I still have a
- 8:10Speaker 2: high degree of conviction that if you do anything to
- 8:13Speaker 2: grow your practice, like follow up on your pending obs
- 8:17Speaker 2: and recall and answer the phone, like you can really
- 8:19Speaker 2: create a lot of practice growth if you nail those
- 8:21Speaker 2: two things right right.
- 8:23Speaker 1: Well, And I really could not agree with you more
- 8:25Speaker 1: and taking that look at the past to where we
- 8:28Speaker 1: are at the present, you know, I completely agree that
- 8:32Speaker 1: for so long we have to your point, just focused
- 8:36Speaker 1: on I really think that patients in the door to
- 8:39Speaker 1: conversion into a start and missed that opportunity that contact
- 8:45Speaker 1: component to actually showing up. And I can remember in
- 8:49Speaker 1: practices where you'd look at all of those patients that
- 8:52Speaker 1: scheduled and never showed up. We were never tracking the
- 8:55Speaker 1: patients that reached out and just never even got to
- 8:58Speaker 1: an appointment. And so you know, to think about just
- 9:03Speaker 1: lost revenue right there. And just to emphasize your point
- 9:06Speaker 1: about if we can capture the patient from any type
- 9:12Speaker 1: of contact point into our practice, whether it is the
- 9:15Speaker 1: phone call, whether it is an inquiry online, or them
- 9:19Speaker 1: being able to directly schedule in I think you are
- 9:23Speaker 1: so right that even if it's one in four for
- 9:26Speaker 1: every one and four that we miss, just really sitting
- 9:29Speaker 1: under the weight of how much money our practices could
- 9:32Speaker 1: be losing just by not being able to manage that call.
- 9:34Speaker 1: And I think about how much more that's even magnified
- 9:38Speaker 1: with a startup practice. And when you think about we
- 9:42Speaker 1: are building a practice call by call by call, and
- 9:45Speaker 1: for every new patient call that's missed, that maybe outside
- 9:49Speaker 1: of our working hours, that maybe oh nobody's going to
- 9:52Speaker 1: call on the weekends, or I just don't have the
- 9:55Speaker 1: money to put a team member in the office on
- 9:57Speaker 1: this day. I mean, it really could make the difference
- 9:59Speaker 1: of whether we hit that initial goal that we have
- 10:02Speaker 1: in our first year or maybe not hitting that goal.
- 10:06Speaker 1: So I'm wondering if you can dive into a little
- 10:09Speaker 1: bit because I think you guys take a really great
- 10:11Speaker 1: approach where you're really leaning into AI and powering the
- 10:16Speaker 1: systems and lead Sigma through AI, and I'm wondering if
- 10:20Speaker 1: you can talk about that and what it does for
- 10:23Speaker 1: us to have our phones and our systems managed twenty
- 10:28Speaker 1: four to seven and what you guys are seeing from
- 10:31Speaker 1: your data as far as practice success when they have
- 10:34Speaker 1: that support.
- 10:36Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely. We initially started working on our Copilot AI product,
- 10:41Speaker 2: which is a generative AI receptionist that answers missed calls
- 10:46Speaker 2: or new patient calls that were otherwise missed and has
- 10:48Speaker 2: a dynamic conversation with the patient and books them for
- 10:51Speaker 2: an appointment, and in most cases it books it directly
- 10:53Speaker 2: in the practice management software, so we have integrations with
- 10:56Speaker 2: the majority of the softwarees. The reason why we built
- 10:59Speaker 2: it it was because we saw the stats from our
- 11:02Speaker 2: clients missing calls and we're like, Okay, that's a lot
- 11:06Speaker 2: of potential opportunity. And I think it was just like
- 11:10Speaker 2: right time, right place. This was like right at the
- 11:12Speaker 2: beginning where people were starting to hear more about AI,
- 11:16Speaker 2: and fortunately I have a very talented technical team, and
- 11:18Speaker 2: so they're like, we think we can do this. So
- 11:21Speaker 2: just to give you an idea of the results of that,
- 11:24Speaker 2: we launched with Southern Orthodonic Partners in July of twenty
- 11:29Speaker 2: twenty four, and for the fifteen locations that we launched with,
- 11:34Speaker 2: we had a unique setup in this sense that we
- 11:36Speaker 2: were not answering all the miss new patient calls. They
- 11:39Speaker 2: were not confident enough, you know, in this brand new thing,
- 11:42Speaker 2: So we were only answering the calls that came in
- 11:45Speaker 2: via digital ads that were missed. And still in that case,
- 11:50Speaker 2: we averaged two hundred and fifty three thousand dollars of
- 11:53Speaker 2: production scheduled through Copilot annually since we launched. And so
- 11:59Speaker 2: the results are in credible and it makes sense too,
- 12:02Speaker 2: like patients are calling, they are calling to get an
- 12:05Speaker 2: appointment scheduled, and we help them do it, like we're
- 12:09Speaker 2: not having to have them jump through more hoops. Yeah,
- 12:11Speaker 2: leave a message, get called back. I mean, our data
- 12:14Speaker 2: shows that the majority of new patients who call, when
- 12:17Speaker 2: they hit the voicemail, they hang up without leaving their information.
- 12:20Speaker 2: And almost all the practices that we start to serve
- 12:24Speaker 2: they don't even track that they don't even know to
- 12:27Speaker 2: call those people back. And I think that's a huge
- 12:29Speaker 2: advantage of being a startup, is like you can be
- 12:32Speaker 2: really in those numbers, Like it's pretty easy to see
- 12:35Speaker 2: two or three missed calls and call them back.
- 12:37Speaker 1: Yep.
- 12:38Speaker 2: It starts get lost in the sauce as the practice grows,
- 12:41Speaker 2: and so taking advantage of that while you can keep
- 12:45Speaker 2: control yourself of all those metrics is important.
- 12:49Speaker 1: Yeah. I think that it's such a good point that
- 12:52Speaker 1: you bring up that the devil is in the details,
- 12:55Speaker 1: and it is easier in a startup. We can look
- 12:57Speaker 1: at our voiceover IP system and be like, oh, this
- 13:00Speaker 1: came in, I can call them right back. Where to
- 13:03Speaker 1: your point, the bigger the practice, the busier you are,
- 13:06Speaker 1: And I just think most people don't even think to
- 13:09Speaker 1: look at that. And I think, as there are still
- 13:12Speaker 1: some doctors that are not on voiceover IP systems, so
- 13:15Speaker 1: it's even harder to check those numbers or even be
- 13:19Speaker 1: aware that, oh my gosh, that is a total leaky
- 13:22Speaker 1: bucket that we haven't even thought about. So I want
- 13:26Speaker 1: you to talk a little bit about I've heard you
- 13:29Speaker 1: use this word patient attribution, but what does attribution mean
- 13:35Speaker 1: and how does that matter to us? When we're really
- 13:38Speaker 1: looking at how practices track their marketing and operational decisions.
- 13:44Speaker 2: Attribution is really important. It may be less important for
- 13:48Speaker 2: a smaller practice because at the very beginning, it's a
- 13:52Speaker 2: lot of just brute force, like you're just talking to
- 13:54Speaker 2: everyone you can the fact that one patient came from
- 13:58Speaker 2: a mom at a soccer field or whatever, that's not
- 14:00Speaker 2: that important. But the larger the practice gits, the more
- 14:04Speaker 2: the attribution is important because there more arms length or
- 14:07Speaker 2: third party investment you're making in buying signs and hiring
- 14:11Speaker 2: digital marketing agencies and all these things. We were really
- 14:15Speaker 2: surprised when we started lead Sigma that even the largest
- 14:19Speaker 2: practices in the world, once we started tracking their leads,
- 14:23Speaker 2: once they had leads, or once those leads converted into patients,
- 14:27Speaker 2: they didn't really know where that patient originated from. They
- 14:32Speaker 2: could tell what form got filled out or where they
- 14:34Speaker 2: did the online booking, but our clients couldn't tell if
- 14:39Speaker 2: they got a click from a Google ad, was it
- 14:42Speaker 2: a Facebook campaign, was it the sign at the soccer field,
- 14:46Speaker 2: was it a dental referral where they came into the process,
- 14:49Speaker 2: and what actually happened with it in the end. And
- 14:52Speaker 2: that really surprised me because I've never been really on
- 14:55Speaker 2: the marketing side. Has always been kind of in this
- 14:58Speaker 2: transition between marketing and operate. But we're talking, you know,
- 15:02Speaker 2: amongst our client base hundreds of millions of dollars of
- 15:06Speaker 2: marketing spend, and the best that could be done in
- 15:10Speaker 2: terms of attribution was, oh, you got this many clicks
- 15:14Speaker 2: or you got this many calls. And all of us
- 15:18Speaker 2: know that's not what any doctor wants to buy. They
- 15:22Speaker 2: want to buy money. They want to buy the patients
- 15:25Speaker 2: and butts and seats. And so we're like, Okay, we
- 15:28Speaker 2: think that we can solve this problem by taking all
- 15:31Speaker 2: the data we have on the front side and matching
- 15:33Speaker 2: it up with the appointment data and patient data. And
- 15:36Speaker 2: that's what we've built so that we can actually tell clients,
- 15:40Speaker 2: you got this many leads generated from this source, and
- 15:45Speaker 2: those leads turned into nothing or every single one of
- 15:49Speaker 2: those scheduled and appointment showed up to their appointment and
- 15:52Speaker 2: started treatment. And so we are helping clients see past
- 15:57Speaker 2: the vanity metrics and he led the real ROI for
- 16:02Speaker 2: their effort and for their spend. And that's just one
- 16:07Speaker 2: piece of the benefit. And that is a huge piece,
- 16:10Speaker 2: we're giving people insights into the data that they've never
- 16:13Speaker 2: had before. Yeah, and we're really excited about that. The
- 16:16Speaker 2: other thing that's really exciting about having that data is
- 16:18Speaker 2: you can say, Okay, the people who came from this
- 16:21Speaker 2: particular ad or this particular source that ended up as patients,
- 16:26Speaker 2: we want to see more of those people. So we
- 16:28Speaker 2: pass that data back to Google and Meta and TikTok
- 16:32Speaker 2: and the ad platforms so that we can train their
- 16:34Speaker 2: algorithms to target more people like the ones we want.
- 16:38Speaker 1: I just love this concept because I feel like what
- 16:41Speaker 1: it does is putting the power back into the doctor's hands,
- 16:48Speaker 1: where I feel like, for so long, many times our
- 16:53Speaker 1: doctors have just been fed the data from the marketing
- 16:57Speaker 1: companies or the groups or whoever they're working with, and
- 17:00Speaker 1: they don't really have much power to push back to necessarily.
- 17:04Speaker 1: And this is no shade on our marketing companies out there,
- 17:07Speaker 1: but I do think that there's something really wonderful about
- 17:13Speaker 1: arming yourself as a business owner with the data to
- 17:17Speaker 1: be able to go in and have really good conversations.
- 17:20Speaker 1: So when you're being told, oh, well you need to
- 17:23Speaker 1: spend another four thousand dollars, and you know, look at
- 17:26Speaker 1: all these great clicks that you're getting, but you had
- 17:29Speaker 1: calls although none of those actually came through, or whatnot.
- 17:33Speaker 1: To be able to have powerful metrics that as an
- 17:38Speaker 1: owner you can sit under and reflect on and review
- 17:42Speaker 1: and then come at it as like it's actually a
- 17:45Speaker 1: two sided discussion now with your marketing company or if
- 17:48Speaker 1: you're doing it yourself, the decisions that you're making, to
- 17:52Speaker 1: be able to say, I love the idea of thinking
- 17:56Speaker 1: that yes, being able to decipher out the information it
- 18:00Speaker 1: out and then say this works, this doesn't work. I
- 18:03Speaker 1: want to lean into this more and really dialing it
- 18:07Speaker 1: down versus just this really where I think we all
- 18:10Speaker 1: kind of live in this really top just kind of
- 18:12Speaker 1: throw money at it and hopefully two or three starts
- 18:16Speaker 1: will come out of the money that we're throwing at it.
- 18:19Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, we're really fortunate to work with probably
- 18:22Speaker 2: the majority or all of the agencies in the space,
- 18:24Speaker 2: and we have some phenomenal relationships with great agencies. So
- 18:29Speaker 2: all of those agencies when I have discussions with them,
- 18:32Speaker 2: they all say, yeah, we would love this data because
- 18:35Speaker 2: in addition to the doctor or the buyer understanding what
- 18:39Speaker 2: they're buying, it puts us on the same team. Yes,
- 18:43Speaker 2: And for really good agencies, it helps them say, hey,
- 18:48Speaker 2: the performance that you have experienced is this, The performance
- 18:52Speaker 2: that you will likely experience is this, And now there's
- 18:55Speaker 2: a degree of accountability and like two yes, both the
- 18:58Speaker 2: doctor and the agency working to accomplish the same goal
- 19:02Speaker 2: as opposed to. We see this all the time, even
- 19:05Speaker 2: with great agencies. Oftentimes we see that the clients or
- 19:08Speaker 2: the orthodonic practices, they might be driving really good leads,
- 19:13Speaker 2: but they might be really dropping the ball in terms
- 19:15Speaker 2: of following up with those leads. Maybe their case acceptance
- 19:18Speaker 2: is really poor, like they need you to come into
- 19:21Speaker 2: the practice and fix all that stuff. And so what
- 19:24Speaker 2: happens is the marketing agency is doing a phenomenal job,
- 19:27Speaker 2: the practice is dropping the ball. The marketing agency says, hey,
- 19:30Speaker 2: we've got you a thousand calls, and the doctor's saying yeah,
- 19:33Speaker 2: but I don't see the results, and that doctor hops
- 19:35Speaker 2: from one agency to another, and that's frustrating for everybody.
- 19:40Speaker 2: It's frustrating for the great agencies, it's frustrating for the clients.
- 19:43Speaker 2: And so in addition to just showing the results from
- 19:47Speaker 2: the marketing, we're also showing them all the results for
- 19:50Speaker 2: the sales activity or this new patient follow up activity,
- 19:54Speaker 2: so that the whole picture is painted now for the
- 19:57Speaker 2: client and the agency can say we drove these thousand leads.
- 20:01Speaker 2: These thousand leads are really good because you'll notice on
- 20:03Speaker 2: these fifteen you followed up with them well and they
- 20:06Speaker 2: all started treatment, and these other ninety you didn't and
- 20:10Speaker 2: they didn't start treatment. So it's no longer a finger
- 20:14Speaker 2: pointing game. It's more like, hey, how can we work
- 20:16Speaker 2: together to accomplish this goal that we've set.
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- 21:12Speaker 1: Just what a wonderful thing to just really have that
- 21:15Speaker 1: fluidity of being able to have both sides, as you
- 21:19Speaker 1: just said, working together, because I just don't feel like
- 21:21Speaker 1: this is something that we've paid a lot of attention to.
- 21:25Speaker 1: And to your point, there can be a lot of
- 21:27Speaker 1: finger pointing one way or the other. And you know
- 21:30Speaker 1: me as a consultant, a lot of times all come
- 21:33Speaker 1: in and say whoa, whoa, before you go dump another
- 21:36Speaker 1: X amount of dollars in marketing, maybe we need to
- 21:39Speaker 1: just work on the system that if we're getting them
- 21:41Speaker 1: in there, or maybe you're just too busy and we
- 21:45Speaker 1: need to put a system in place that can still
- 21:48Speaker 1: follow up so that your team can focus on what
- 21:51Speaker 1: they need to focus on. And we've got the help
- 21:53Speaker 1: on both sides. The shoulder help on getting the patients
- 21:56Speaker 1: in and the follow up if we can't get them
- 21:58Speaker 1: to convert on the backs side just completes that cycle
- 22:02Speaker 1: in hopes of we're just taking every opportunity to make
- 22:06Speaker 1: the best out of getting that start and that patient
- 22:08Speaker 1: saying yes to treatment.
- 22:10Speaker 2: Yeah, one of the things that we think about is
- 22:12Speaker 2: we want to turn marketing from like an expense line
- 22:17Speaker 2: item to like a measurable investment with a feedback loop.
- 22:22Speaker 1: I'd love that say that again with the feedback that's
- 22:24Speaker 1: so good. Yeah.
- 22:25Speaker 2: I mean when we think of great business processes, they
- 22:29Speaker 2: have a feedback loop, like we know if we're doing
- 22:33Speaker 2: a good job or a bad job, like in the
- 22:34Speaker 2: case of marketing, like we want to be able to
- 22:36Speaker 2: know we invest this much, we do these kinds of activities,
- 22:40Speaker 2: we get this kind of return, and if we have
- 22:43Speaker 2: really good data, we can actually turn that into a
- 22:45Speaker 2: measurable process to say, okay, we changed this, how are
- 22:48Speaker 2: the results affected? For most practices today, probably ninety eight
- 22:53Speaker 2: percent of practice today, we know a lot of the
- 22:56Speaker 2: things to do, and so many of the fastest growing
- 22:58Speaker 2: practices like they're doing those things regardless of what the
- 23:01Speaker 2: metrics say, like they're not super concerned about every little metric.
- 23:06Speaker 2: But even like you look at a practice like big
- 23:09Speaker 2: practices that have a three percent missed call rate, that
- 23:14Speaker 2: was three percent for a really big practice is a
- 23:17Speaker 2: million dollars a year cute? You know? Yeah, Yeah, I
- 23:21Speaker 2: think marketing turning into an investment with a feedback loop
- 23:25Speaker 2: is something that we're really focused on.
- 23:28Speaker 1: It's just fun to see again how we can use
- 23:31Speaker 1: technology and moving our profession forward, even something like this
- 23:37Speaker 1: where I do believe other industries have paid attention to
- 23:40Speaker 1: this for probably longer than our industry has, and we're
- 23:44Speaker 1: maybe a little slower on the uptake for this. But
- 23:47Speaker 1: that's why I really appreciate Scott what you have done
- 23:50Speaker 1: with lead Sigma, and I think you've done an excellent
- 23:53Speaker 1: job at capturing this and helping doctors and practices be
- 23:58Speaker 1: aware of this leaky bucket. I think that we really
- 24:02Speaker 1: have and it's a huge one. And to your point,
- 24:04Speaker 1: the bigger the practice, the bigger that leak is. You
- 24:07Speaker 1: look at and go, oh, that's three percent. Three percent
- 24:09Speaker 1: is a lot, and even three percent in a small practice,
- 24:13Speaker 1: if you only have twenty new patients a month, it's
- 24:16Speaker 1: as big of a deal because you're not going to
- 24:19Speaker 1: hit the numbers that you want. So let's switch gears
- 24:22Speaker 1: a little bit. I know we talked a little bit
- 24:24Speaker 1: about AI earlier, but this, of course is the hot topic,
- 24:28Speaker 1: the hot conversation piece. I want you to talk to
- 24:31Speaker 1: us a little bit about how lead Sigma is using
- 24:34Speaker 1: AI within your own company, because I think every business owner.
- 24:39Speaker 1: I use AI in my company in multiple different ways,
- 24:42Speaker 1: and I think as business owners we have to start
- 24:46Speaker 1: looking beyond chat cloud or any of the other pieces.
- 24:50Speaker 1: That's all real basic. Now, how are you guys using it?
- 24:53Speaker 1: But also what lessons have you guys learned, because I
- 24:56Speaker 1: feel like you've been on the forefront of not only
- 24:59Speaker 1: implement to show us how to use it in practices,
- 25:02Speaker 1: but you're also using it within the company, and i'd
- 25:05Speaker 1: love to hear your insight on it.
- 25:08Speaker 2: Yeah, we obviously use AI a lot in our daily workflows.
- 25:11Speaker 2: We started the same as everybody else. Here's chat GPT,
- 25:15Speaker 2: let's use it kind of like a fancy search engine,
- 25:18Speaker 2: and it does a great job of that. But there's
- 25:21Speaker 2: so much more that can be done with the tools.
- 25:24Speaker 2: One of the learnings that we have, and you know,
- 25:27Speaker 2: we're kind of right at the bleeding edge of all
- 25:29Speaker 2: this technology with AI, as probably most people have experience
- 25:34Speaker 2: like they called an AI agent a year ago, like
- 25:37Speaker 2: is kind of a rough, Like it was like pretty cool,
- 25:42Speaker 2: like you could see like it's going to be there
- 25:44Speaker 2: one day, And I feel like today when you talk
- 25:46Speaker 2: to the AI agents, it's like that's pretty darn good.
- 25:49Speaker 2: And that same experience we have had with using AI
- 25:55Speaker 2: tools internally, it's like there are a lot of claims
- 25:58Speaker 2: about what can be done, and once you actually dig
- 26:01Speaker 2: in and start doing them, some of them are real
- 26:03Speaker 2: and some of them are not. We have a Claud
- 26:07Speaker 2: Team subscription. We've set up the Claud deliberately for data sharing,
- 26:11Speaker 2: so that certain stuff is shared amongst all of our team.
- 26:15Speaker 2: Our meetings are shared. In some cases, even all of
- 26:18Speaker 2: our email inboxes are shared, which really helps get oriented
- 26:24Speaker 2: around what a customer needs or practice needs and how
- 26:27Speaker 2: to serve them well for lecture design and like all
- 26:31Speaker 2: that stuff. Like I'm superpowered by about I'm fifty percent
- 26:35Speaker 2: faster at most things. I don't think it has radically
- 26:38Speaker 2: changed the actual workflows I go through. Like I have
- 26:41Speaker 2: some Claud skills built that save me significant time, but
- 26:47Speaker 2: right now it feels like in order for them to
- 26:50Speaker 2: be operational and like affect you in your day to
- 26:53Speaker 2: day life, the tasks you have for it have to
- 26:56Speaker 2: be very well defined, kind of like if you were
- 26:59Speaker 2: hiring a virtual assistant or something like. For that person
- 27:03Speaker 2: like maybe two years from now, they like know you
- 27:05Speaker 2: really well and get your rhythm, but right off the bat,
- 27:08Speaker 2: it's like, here's exactly what I want you to do
- 27:11Speaker 2: every single time. Here's exactly where to go look and
- 27:15Speaker 2: when you do that, the tool is amazing. Yeah, so
- 27:18Speaker 2: all the analysis for all of our sales calls, all
- 27:21Speaker 2: of our support calls, like they're all getting run through
- 27:24Speaker 2: these models so that we have a better understanding of
- 27:26Speaker 2: how to improve.
- 27:28Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, and I hear this all the time. I'm
- 27:30Speaker 1: sure you do too. I think that teams especially can
- 27:34Speaker 1: just feel so overwhelmed in their workday, and I so
- 27:40Speaker 1: encourage team members and doctors with team members, you know,
- 27:43Speaker 1: to really lean in to what AI can do in
- 27:47Speaker 1: the practices. But to your point, I think we have
- 27:51Speaker 1: to put practical tools in place, and we have to
- 27:56Speaker 1: be able to direct our team because the other thing
- 27:58Speaker 1: I see as you get one team member that's running
- 28:00Speaker 1: with something and another that's running with another, and it
- 28:03Speaker 1: just doesn't ever feel very cohesive for what we're trying
- 28:06Speaker 1: to do. And I'm wondering if you can talk to
- 28:10Speaker 1: that just a little bit and what you have seen
- 28:13Speaker 1: and maybe what you think practices can be focusing on, Like,
- 28:17Speaker 1: like one thing that comes to my mind and when
- 28:19Speaker 1: you were talking about this is even something as simple
- 28:23Speaker 1: as when we're listening to our voiceover IP. If we
- 28:27Speaker 1: happen to be having our team members answering the phones
- 28:30Speaker 1: and we haven't completely outsourced. That is even just I
- 28:34Speaker 1: think running our phone calls every once in a while
- 28:38Speaker 1: through an AI system to just kind of pick up
- 28:40Speaker 1: consistencies or inconsistencies to be training tools that we might not,
- 28:45Speaker 1: you know, like if a doctor's like, well, geez, I
- 28:47Speaker 1: don't want to have to listen to ten calls today
- 28:50Speaker 1: just to hear how my front team is doing using
- 28:53Speaker 1: a tool like Claude or some of the different ones
- 28:56Speaker 1: out there to maybe come up with a rhythm on okay,
- 28:59Speaker 1: these are what we're looking for out of it, or
- 29:01Speaker 1: like my team, we use Fathom a lot for everything
- 29:04Speaker 1: and it'll pick up on inconsistencies or outliers with know
- 29:09Speaker 1: how we train or whatnot. I'm kind of curious what
- 29:11Speaker 1: you think and what suggestions you might give practices or
- 29:14Speaker 1: doctors listening.
- 29:16Speaker 2: Yeah, so I know that there are probably some people
- 29:19Speaker 2: watching and probably some people listening. I pulled up on
- 29:21Speaker 2: the screen here something that I very quickly put together
- 29:24Speaker 2: for the AO. That's exactly what you're talking about. So
- 29:28Speaker 2: the most important piece is that it's something that is repeatable.
- 29:32Speaker 2: So if you're going to use a tool like this.
- 29:34Speaker 2: It's like you should have a process at the end
- 29:37Speaker 2: of the day or at the end of the week,
- 29:39Speaker 2: someone takes the calls from Mango or Weave or whatever
- 29:41Speaker 2: vope system and puts them in a folder and then
- 29:45Speaker 2: you can build these skills and your AI tools to
- 29:48Speaker 2: go search that folder and give you this kind of analysis.
- 29:52Speaker 2: And like I said, I did this in about fifteen minutes.
- 29:54Speaker 2: Like we could pass phone calls to it and it
- 29:57Speaker 2: would analyze whether to appointment time were offered over the
- 30:00Speaker 2: next seventy two hours, if the person answering the phone
- 30:05Speaker 2: praised the doctor or the office, if they offered an
- 30:07Speaker 2: appointment to a loved one to save them a trip,
- 30:10Speaker 2: if they teed up the idea of a same day start.
- 30:14Speaker 2: So this stuff is actually really easy. This is a
- 30:17Speaker 2: perfect example of something that could be a regular routine
- 30:21Speaker 2: for a practice. And you can even use this for
- 30:24Speaker 2: one on one coaching and it breaks down every call.
- 30:26Speaker 2: I mean, it is just this is an example of
- 30:28Speaker 2: Claude or chatchept being an unbelievable tool for businesses. I
- 30:33Speaker 2: think the main thing that practices want to be careful
- 30:36Speaker 2: about is the hippo compliance. Obviously, we're fortunate that with
- 30:41Speaker 2: being a team of developers. We have a BAA signed
- 30:45Speaker 2: with open Ai and there is a little hack there
- 30:49Speaker 2: if anybody's like kind of nerdy and techi, if you
- 30:52Speaker 2: sign up on the developer platform with open Ai, it
- 30:55Speaker 2: is one of the methods that you can get a
- 30:58Speaker 2: BAA for chatchupt.
- 31:00Speaker 1: That's great to know. That's really great to know. And
- 31:02Speaker 1: again I think what is so great about what you
- 31:05Speaker 1: just showed us? And I would encourage anybody who is
- 31:07Speaker 1: listening pop on to the Haydocks on YouTube and you
- 31:10Speaker 1: can see what Scott was showing us here. But what
- 31:13Speaker 1: is so cool about this is again just thinking about
- 31:17Speaker 1: these tasks that we may not even know we should
- 31:20Speaker 1: be doing or maybe still manually doing on our own,
- 31:25Speaker 1: and instead we can build that out with like you said,
- 31:29Speaker 1: a little bit of time doesn't take a lot. Now,
- 31:31Speaker 1: I would suggest you don't let everybody in your office
- 31:34Speaker 1: build this system out, like use the doctor or use
- 31:38Speaker 1: the office manager. You know, you figure out what you
- 31:40Speaker 1: want to get out of this. But this is just
- 31:43Speaker 1: for how do we continue to make our practices better?
- 31:47Speaker 1: And it's all of these little a leaky bucket, just
- 31:51Speaker 1: how many phone calls do we miss where we don't
- 31:54Speaker 1: offer up that extra appointment to a loved one and
- 31:58Speaker 1: miss the opportunity. I mean, there's nothing worse. Every doctor
- 32:01Speaker 1: at some point in your career, you're going to have
- 32:03Speaker 1: this where you have a family member that comes in
- 32:06Speaker 1: and they've got races or aligners on from somebody else,
- 32:09Speaker 1: and you're like, how did that happen? How is that
- 32:13Speaker 1: even possible that they got care somewhere else? Well, if
- 32:16Speaker 1: their child or family member is in practice with me,
- 32:19Speaker 1: And I think it's those little things that just like
- 32:22Speaker 1: hit us, Oh, you know, right right here, right But
- 32:26Speaker 1: this is where technology is so much above just monitoring
- 32:29Speaker 1: and helping us write better emails or whatnot. Where if
- 32:32Speaker 1: we can learn to lean into it and then just
- 32:35Speaker 1: think what that does for our team members. And I
- 32:38Speaker 1: talked a lot at THEO about building careers versus jobs
- 32:42Speaker 1: and our practices and imagine being able to give them
- 32:46Speaker 1: even more to work on and help them be better
- 32:49Speaker 1: at seeing just how cool our offices are. Besides it's
- 32:53Speaker 1: just about this rote job that you're doing day in
- 32:55Speaker 1: and day out.
- 32:57Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think it is the future. The
- 32:59Speaker 2: people who learn as well, who understand how to use
- 33:03Speaker 2: the technology like they're good man, because every business owner
- 33:07Speaker 2: wants people like that, people who can be efficient and
- 33:10Speaker 2: innovative with how problems get solved.
- 33:13Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 33:14Speaker 2: Absolutely, There's another thing that I wanted to mention too,
- 33:17Speaker 2: in terms of like you ask us how we use
- 33:20Speaker 2: AI internally, One change that we made about six months
- 33:24Speaker 2: ago is we got more serious about the context engineering,
- 33:29Speaker 2: which is just fancy words for saying giving the LM
- 33:34Speaker 2: enough data about us for it to do a good job.
- 33:38Speaker 2: And so I have a spreadsheet that I'd be more
- 33:41Speaker 2: than happy like we can put in the show notes. Oh,
- 33:43Speaker 2: it has a prompt in it where you can literally
- 33:45Speaker 2: copy paste the spreadsheet, plug the prompt into chat, GPT
- 33:48Speaker 2: or wherever you're using your LM, and it will guide
- 33:52Speaker 2: you through exactly what to do to give the LM
- 33:56Speaker 2: enough data about you, and it will make everything about
- 33:59Speaker 2: interacting with the more efficient.
- 34:02Speaker 1: And again, what a great tool that is and simple
- 34:06Speaker 1: and thank you for giving us that prompt. I'm sure
- 34:08Speaker 1: we'll have that in the show notes here. But just
- 34:11Speaker 1: how nice that is so that now it is responding
- 34:14Speaker 1: and thinking about us from the business, not just randomly
- 34:17Speaker 1: pulling you know, different context or whatnot. So Scott I
- 34:23Speaker 1: know that you and I could just talk and talk
- 34:25Speaker 1: and talk, but of course we have to pull this
- 34:27Speaker 1: to an end here. So if somebody wants to learn
- 34:30Speaker 1: more about lead Sigma, they want to just they've been
- 34:33Speaker 1: listening to the things that we've been saying and they're like, gosh,
- 34:36Speaker 1: I can't miss that three percent. I can't miss that opportunity.
- 34:40Speaker 1: What's going to be the best way that they can
- 34:43Speaker 1: get a hold of you? Or maybe you sparked some
- 34:46Speaker 1: interest and just they just want to learn a little
- 34:48Speaker 1: bit more about maybe how they can better use AI
- 34:50Speaker 1: in their own practices or whatnot. What's going to be
- 34:52Speaker 1: the best way they can get a hold of you.
- 34:54Speaker 2: Yeah, if you're interested in lead Sigma service, specifically getting
- 34:57Speaker 2: on leadsigma dot com and scheduling a demo, that was
- 35:00Speaker 2: the best way. If you're interested in just nerding out
- 35:03Speaker 2: and talking about AI, my email is Scott at leadsigma
- 35:06Speaker 2: dot com. I'd love to chat with anybody.
- 35:09Speaker 1: I love that I might get on that with you
- 35:11Speaker 1: on a different call and nerd out with you, because again,
- 35:14Speaker 1: I think this is it's just so fun to see
- 35:17Speaker 1: all the great things that are coming towards our industry,
- 35:20Speaker 1: and if we can just have open eyes and be
- 35:23Speaker 1: open to what's coming. Man, we can be so good
- 35:25Speaker 1: at what we do. Indeed, and now a word from
- 35:30Speaker 1: the sponsors who make this podcast possible. Hey, docs, let's
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- 35:41Speaker 1: It's a game changer in the world of new patient management.
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- 36:21Speaker 1: because every smile deserves a suite of excellence. Well, Scott,
- 36:26Speaker 1: thank you for giving us some good information. And you
- 36:29Speaker 1: know how I like to finish up, Haydocks. I like
- 36:30Speaker 1: to finish this up with a little speed rounds. Are
- 36:33Speaker 1: you ready for your speed round challenge. Let's do it, Okay,
- 36:37Speaker 1: what is one of your go to strategies for getting
- 36:41Speaker 1: unstuck if you got a big problem speaking.
- 36:44Speaker 2: With smart friends and colleagues and prompting cloud.
- 36:49Speaker 1: Ah, I like it, I like it all righty. What
- 36:52Speaker 1: is one piece of advice you wish you had followed
- 36:55Speaker 1: earlier in your career?
- 36:58Speaker 2: You know, I don't know if I received this advice
- 37:00Speaker 2: from someone, But as I was preparing for this conversation,
- 37:03Speaker 2: and I'm reminded about an AO that I went up
- 37:06Speaker 2: to Rosemary Bray and I said, I was still managing
- 37:11Speaker 2: our practice and I said, hey, I really want to
- 37:13Speaker 2: do what you do, Like, will you be my mentor?
- 37:16Speaker 2: And she basically was very kind, but she was like,
- 37:19Speaker 2: heck no. And I wish that I had understood earlier
- 37:25Speaker 2: that networking without providing value is kind of a waste
- 37:29Speaker 2: of time. I provided her no value, And I wish
- 37:32Speaker 2: someone had been more exacting when they were giving me
- 37:36Speaker 2: that advice.
- 37:36Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, I love that. That's great. And Rosemary's great.
- 37:40Speaker 2: So she is great. She's a wonderful woman.
- 37:42Speaker 1: And you know what, had you maybe stepped into that role,
- 37:45Speaker 1: we wouldn't have lead Sigma Now, so how wonderful that
- 37:48Speaker 1: she also you had to find your own path, so
- 37:51Speaker 1: that I think that's great?
- 37:52Speaker 2: All right?
- 37:52Speaker 1: Last one, if you could add just one unconventional perk
- 37:57Speaker 1: to a workplace, what would you add?
- 37:59Speaker 2: Could I do? Three? Yeah?
- 38:01Speaker 1: Sure?
- 38:01Speaker 2: Okay, So one I would give every workplace a corporate chaplain.
- 38:05Speaker 1: Oh I like that.
- 38:07Speaker 2: Two I would have support for DMV renewals. And three
- 38:14Speaker 2: I would have all employees have access to someone to
- 38:18Speaker 2: negotiate with their insurance company and doctor offices for them.
- 38:22Speaker 1: Yes, that's great. I love those unconventional perks. I hear
- 38:26Speaker 1: some great ones, so that those are great. Well again, Scott,
- 38:29Speaker 1: this has been just a pleasure talking to you, and
- 38:31Speaker 1: I just appreciate what you and Lead Sigma are doing
- 38:35Speaker 1: in our space and thanks for just like staying on
- 38:37Speaker 1: that cutting edge for us.
- 38:39Speaker 2: It is my pleasure. It's so fun to work with
- 38:41Speaker 2: your clients and see their growth. And yeah, I just
- 38:43Speaker 2: appreciate you having me on yeap.
- 38:45Speaker 1: All right, until next time, Thanks je Are you ready
- 38:50Speaker 1: to start a practice of your own, need a new
- 38:52Speaker 1: fresh set of eyes or some advice on your existing practice.
- 38:56Speaker 1: If so, reach out to me. Jill Allen at w
- 39:00Speaker 1: ww dot Practice results dot com. If you like what
- 39:03Speaker 1: we're doing here on Haydocks and want to hear more
- 39:06Speaker 1: of this awesome content, be here and give us a
- 39:08Speaker 1: five star rating on your preferred listening platform and subscribe
- 39:13Speaker 1: to our show so you never miss an episode. Remember,
- 39:17Speaker 1: new episodes drop every Thursday. See you next week.