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The 4 Patient Levers That Actually Grow a Dental Practice | WOM 032 · The Word of Mouth Podcast

• Jeff: All right, welcome back to the Word of Mouth Podcast, your weekly dental marketing podcast where old school is the new school. I'm your host, Jeff, and I'm joined today by my co-host Troy. And today we're gonna talk a little bit about somet a project we've been working on for the last month. We've been trying to compile all of our standard operating procedures and distill all of our knowledge down and really refine our systems so that the things that we're providing for our clients are systematized, streamlined, and and easy to digest for them. And as we've been doing that, we've been asking the question, if and here's so this is the question of the podcast today. If a practice had nobody to talk to, no consultant, no marketing company, nobody, how much of its growth could it actually run by itself? Troy: Yeah, and it's it's a good question. there's certainly when we're talking about what a lot of people think about marketing, which is advertising, there there's certainly some some things that they could do on the advertising side of things that wouldn't, you know, wouldn't be that difficult. a lot of the inward things where we see real value, a lot of the inward marketing, they can do it all. It's just a question of bandwidth and you know, kind of figuring out. What's the right way to do it? And then having somebody to actually execute. So it's a two-part question, which is you know, what what the capability? You know, it's not rocket science that we're talking about here. it's it's a little bit harder when you're having to both develop the plan as well as execute the plan. And I think that's where a lot of the challenges come into play. Jeff: Yeah, so that's what we're gonna talk about today is where that knowledge lives in a practice. go through quick what a practice can and kind of can't run by itself, break down a couple of stories that we've seen that illustrate some of these things, and then we'll hit you with what the dentists are actually saying to us. So let's get into it. let's let's start here. In most practices, where does the stuff that actually grows the practices live? Troy: And and it happens within. I think that that so many dentists and and even practice or or office managers, those that are responsible for for growth of the practice, have gotten to a place where the expectation is that it's always new patients, that that's actually the the engine of growth. And And and it's not the wrong answer if you're just getting started, if you don't have an established patient base, but for most practices, it's actually the inside marketing where true growth occurs. And and it's but just because of some of the simple mathematics of of new patient acquisition, where you're spending a lot of time, spending a lot of money getting these new patients in and The fact is the majority of them, in in most practices will never come back again. So a lot of time and energy and money is spent for a single visit. that's not growth for a dental practice. You know, growth comes Jeff: Yeah, what we're hearing from a lot of dentists is that the growth comes from the patients who do come back. And the patients who do come back are the ones who are referred to the practice. A lot of dentists have told us, we hear it constantly, that the our best patients are our word of mouth patients. So how do you create the systems and and even the people in your practice that create the ability to generate more of the referrals? Troy: And it's like anything, it has to be intentionally focused on. like I was mentioning, if the attention is on new patients, that is a finite resource. That's where the attention goes. If the attention is instead, how do we really look at as at our patients as an asset? How do we cultivate that asset? How do we do we did develop that asset so that they individually are continuing to come back and that they individually are more likely to say yes to patient or to treatment recommendations. But also how do we develop a a culture where where they are willing to and even expect to invite friends and family in as well. That's that's what's that's what grows a practice. And the thing about it is it's it's sus it's sustainable. You know that's that's It's it's it's not a depleting resource. It doesn't get more expensive. and it compounds as well. So that's where real growth lies is by identifying what you're trying to accomplish and being intentional about how can we do that better. Jeff: Yeah. I actually was listening to some sports talk podcast this week that the coach was talking about culture and what culture means. And he said if culture isn't something that's happening consistently, like if you go and you say in this locker room, they just don't have the right culture, like the culture that they are trying to create isn't there, that's not culture. Culture is the things that happen consistently. And so if your practice has a a c culture of Being in touch with patients. When they leave, are you being in touch with them within a week or a month? Or is it six months later when you're scrambling to try and get them back in for their next cleaning? And that's the only thing they ever hear from you. And and if that is the only thing they're ever hearing from you, then of course they're going to be less likely to send their friends and family. But if they feel like, hey, we've got a relationship, people like to refer people to the businesses that they know, like, and trust. Troy: Yeah, and and really there's an opportunity because of the unique nature of dentistry, to not have it be purely commoditized communication. And we use that term a lot. But what I mean by that is if it's if it's something that is no different than what they're going to hear or see from any other dentist around, if it doesn't have something about the practice that is unique, there's a missed opportunity there. likewise, if it's not communication that's building the authority of the of the dentist specifically, but the practice generally, it's a missed opportunity. So what we're talking about is not staying in touch, you know, as kind of a just as a rote act, you know, get the automated automated text that that your software produces and just send those out. It's not a volume question, although volume is a opponent, it's really, hey, what is the quality of the communication and what does it say about about our culture, about the practice culture? and I think that's to your point is where the opportunity lies. Jeff: Yeah, and in terms of practice growth, as we compiled all of these documents and SOPs and what our goals are and how we've helped clients in the past, it boiled down to four things that we're trying to improve for practices. Wonder if you could name those four off the top of your head. Troy: Yeah, here's here here we'll try. Well, one is arrive. We need to actually make sure that patients are getting to the seat, getting into the clinic and and meeting with the the hygienist and dentist. The second is that they they come back. You know, it's it's great to have them come once, but whether it's new patient or patients that have been with the practice for you know, 10 years, it it it's a really a matter of getting them to return. That's where that That accumulating value comes from. The next one is to say yes. when the de the dentist sees an opportunity to improve their oral health, to improve their quality of life, and presents that, if you've built that authority, if you've built that trust, they're more inclined to say yes to that treatment. And so and and then the fourth one is to send their friends and family. So it's really get people to to show up, you know, that means making sure we're answering the phones, making sure we're We're doing those things to reduce the no-shows. Once they're there, make sure that we're getting those reappointments, when they're when there's some treatment that makes sense. Try to encourage them to say yes and then really provide a platform where it feels very natural for them to you know, to recommend their friends and family. So those are the big four that we focus on. Jeff: Yeah, and that's really all of those boil down to culture and the the weakness that we see in practices where this isn't happening consistent c consistently, any one of those four, and the things that we see in practices where this isn't happening consistently, or any one of those four can be a weakness. The the common thread that we see is that nobody owns that. The dentist thinks the office manager owns it, the office manager thinks the dentists own it or They think the front desk ladies are in charge of it, and it kind of falls through the cracks. And so without kind of some system assigned to a person or or an agency or or a consultant, something like that, the things that move these needles never happen on a consistent basis. And so then you start to get leakage through those through the cracks of the people who would be maybe saying yes to treatment if they got a follow-up text who might be sending a friend if they just got a little bit more communication and felt a little more connected to their dentist. Maybe had them more top of mind. Troy: For sure. And and again it's not We need to be clear that that this isn't suggesting that no one's doing their job. what we see in practices to the to your point, Jeff, is people are doing their job. It's just there isn't there's this gap of things that that help elevate these different revenue sources. Each one of these is a revenue source. They elevate these revenue sources, but They're work beyond just the day-to-day, meaning, you know, the front desk has responsibilities to, you know, to process patients when they come in, to answer their questions, to make sure they're you know, they're taken care of, deal with payment processing and everything. There's a lot going on right there. And so to say, okay, we need you to handle all of that just day to day, as well as develop strategies for and implement ways to. improve that arrive or that, come back piece. You're just there's just something else that's being asked besides maintain the day-to-day. And and so again, it's it's not a criticism in terms of saying no one's handling it. We're just saying it's you know it's a complicated set of processes that have to both be developed first and then be consistently implemented. And the the question in in in even good sized practices is who has both the time and the expertise to develop that? And so that's why it falls to your point, Jeff. It it falls through the cracks, not because of neglect, but be p but because people are doing the job they're hired for and and there's just not for lack of of a better term, there isn't oxygen available to really, you know, develop and implement and and continually execute those strategies that really elevate those inside considerations, but but they're just massive opportunities for growth for most practices. Jeff: Yeah, I think that it boils down to a b business principle generally, which is there's kind of three levels of a business making progress. There's the vision, kind of what do we want this business to look like in the future that's very esoteric. It's it's hard to grab onto. Then there's the bottom layer, which is the tactical, the things that you're doing every day to try and get towards that vision, and the strategic level, which is kind of lives in that middle. middle level in between vision and tactics, that's where the the gap is. And it's because when you hire for a role, you're hiring someone for tactics and you try and get them to buy into the vision, but no one's really organizing the tactics strategically to move move the business forward. And that's it's a hard position to hire for, it's a hard position to expect people to go kind of above and beyond the tactical day to day and develop out these strategies. If you do, you have an amazing employee. Troy: Sure, yeah. And and and there are a lot of practices. I mean, we can see practices that do this really well. And you look at every sort of profit profitability lever, and they're just doing really well at it. You know, that that and and it's it's it's outstanding to see that. It's just really difficult for most practices because again, that middle layer, it it's it's it's both a time. And a focus and to some level an expertise piece, someone needs to learn how to develop those strategies. the tactics can become almost they they can happen somewhat organically out of necessity, meaning someone comes in, we know that we need to do X, Y, and Z for them to get to the chair and you know, process them all the way so they can leave. There's a series of steps that become you know, somewhat self-evident. Now, Doing them well is a different question, but they become somewhat self-evident. The vision question, even that might be when you say esoteric, esoteric, yes, and maybe incomplete, but there is at least a framework of a vision. And and this is what we hear from so many dentists: is I I know what my vision wasn't. And my vision wasn't spending all my time worrying about marketing. My vision wasn't. jumping on five calls a week trying to find the next agency that can, lower my my Google ad costs or, get me higher ranked or whatever. They know w what what their vision is not. They also know, you know, at some level that that there is a connection of of of excellent dentistry, really providing good quality dentistry is a you know that's part of the vision. And so you know it may not be something that's laid out super clearly, but I think most dentists at least have some sense of what that that vision looks like. The the disconnect that you're talking about really is that middle layer, which is okay, how do we go from you know, kind of survival to a place where there's some intentionality and and there's we can see a way forward for it to be sustainable and predictable and compounding. That's where the gap is. And and I mean there's a reason why it's a gap is it's a you know not only a skill set but a a focus. When are you going to do it? You know, who's going to dedicate the time to it, who's going to build the systems and implement. So you know it's challenging for sure. But but it's where the opportunity really lies for most practices to that are doing well to get to that next step of really, you know strategic or I I should say sustainable compounding growth. Jeff: Yeah. So let's go into a new segment that we're gonna add into the podcast called the Lightning Round. So I'm gonna go through just a few questions. for this segment, we're gonna go through if this if a practice can run these by themselves. And these are kind of things that are lie at the intersection between tactics and strategy. And so kind of talk about the difference of those is in a super quick answer. But the first one is calling back. Every missed call the same day. Troy: Yes. Almost every practice has the capability of doing it if it is a really made a priority. And and it makes a big difference. But it boy, it has to be a priority. It is something that's so easy to let slip, but it's doable. Jeff: next one is confirmations and reminders that actually cut no shows. Troy: This is one that yes, again, probably the ongoing answer is going to be yes. It has to be a focus. you you have to be able to tell them something that is something more than just here's when you set this appointment. There has to be a strategy involved. So you have to develop a strategy. If your your current show rate is say 65%, well, say 75%. what gets you to eighty percent doing more of the same thing is unlikely to do it. Really evaluating what can we do. So yes, but that's one of those strategic, like you say, the strategic questions of how do we do it? How do we get a little bit higher? Jeff: Yeah. I think a lot of these kind of confirmation and reminders text read like they came from software. Being just a little more intentional and making them feel a little more personable goes a long way in making them just that little bit more effective. And I do think, just as a quick aside, you don't need to send the same thing to every patient. You can segment patients and the ones that need a little bit more attention, give them a little more attention. The ones that are fine with just the automated stuff and they come back and they're happy every time. Don't don't reinvent the wheel, but you can you can make these really intentional. the next one is reaching out to patients who haven't been in for eighteen months or more. Troy: Yeah, this is where we see just a massive opportunity. They've they've often oftentimes drifted for no real reason. You know, they just it meaning they haven't moved. It isn't a change of insurance. They're there's just they're they're still available. And really trying to really view this as an asset. You know, this is like a you know, a gold mine or or a hidden treasure. You have to dig a little bit, and just sending out a a boilerplate, we haven't seen you in a while, we'd sure love to see you, that would be the exact same for any other of the twenty dentists around you. What a mistake. You know, that's just like saying well take a teaspoon out and kind of dig where there's this little hidden treasure, but you know, I'm I'm do it for ten minutes and you know and and be done with it. No. If it practices that recognize what this means from a longevity standpoint, like looking longitudinally over time, that understand the value of that reactivation because those people do become less likely to drift in the future. So it's you're reactivating someone that's going to be easier to retain. Huge value here. We've seen huge value in in a well. A a well designed, a really well thought out reactivation campaign. Huge. Can a practice do it on its own? Absolutely. You just have to recognize that if you're not putting much thought into what you're sending out, that's gonna be obvious and you're gonna get the associated response. So yes, they can do it. Oftentimes they It takes some time and it really takes developing some strategy and understanding what you're really trying to accomplish there. So yes, with that caveat. Jeff: Yeah, I have a dentist that still sends me, Hey, we miss you, come back. And I haven't gone there in several years. I found a dentist that I like better that is a little bit more personable in their communication sequences. I feel like I'm a valued patient at their practice. And it just makes me laugh every time that that text comes through. So the next one is a recall that sounds like the office, not like a robot. Troy: Yeah. this is again just where the opportunity lies. Can you do it? Yes. Software makes it easier than ever to seg like you were talking about, to segment your client, your patient base, to to personalize some of this outreach. we all respond the same way, you know, if if we get something that sounds like there was no thought given to it, that it's this, you know, just an automated thing being sent out. It's I I don't want to suggest it has no value. It's just a missed opportunity. Okay, so now can a practice do it on their own? Yes, of course. They've got the technology and they know how to write a text or write an email. The challenge comes in spending the time to really develop out the strategy. And I just connect this point a little bit, Jeff, because I've kind of let this slide a little. The continuity of messages. So if it's just a I want your money. whether it's I haven't seen you for a while or you've got an appointment coming up, here's your reminder. If the only communication they get from you is really give me your money, do something for me, that's another opera a missed opportunity to develop a relationship there. So again, the answer, the lightning round answer is yes, they can do it themselves, but there's some challenges that are involved in effectively doing it. It just takes time and and and and some real focus on developing that associated strategy. Jeff: All right, excellent. Last two, following up on a let me think about it after presenting a treatment Troy: Yeah. Jeff: plan. Troy: Yeah. I this is one that I the average we've done some research, we put together a a paper on a lot of these factors with just the best data that's out there. And the average practice has over a million dollars of of treatment that hasn't ever been scheduled. Okay. Well, think about it from the standpoint of a you know, of a car salesman or insurance agent or whoever else. When when they know that there is an opportunity to get money, when they see that there is a sell opportunity, you know, the good ones don't leave it at let me think about it. You know, there's an opportunity to educate, there's an opportunity to encourage, there's an opportunity to really evaluate, you know, what impact it would have on their life, whether it's an improvement of, you know, just kind of quality of life, or if it's really you know, an oral health concern. But most practices, I I think there's an uncertainty of how to do it without feeling like it's a hard sell. And there is ways to do it, you know, there is nuance to it, but doing none of it, which is what a lot of practices do, is is really very little follow up until their next appointment six months from now, which oftentimes People won't show up if they have deferred, you know, treatments. That's a big reason why people drift. yeah, there's a there's a huge opportunity to do it. Can practices do it themselves? Answer is, of course, yes. What is the challenge? It's figuring out what that you know, what the appropriate way to do it that improves the relationship. You know, in most of these instances, these dentists are. suggesting something that will make the other person's their patient's life better. Of course you should try to do what you can to, to encourage them to do it. It just takes work and it takes, really some you know some research and thinking through what's the right strategy to approach. And so it can it it certainly can be done at a at a at a clinic level just on their own. it's just challenging to develop that strategy. Jeff: Yeah, and just an anecdote for that story. We talked to one practice that was brand new. They'd been open a year or two, I think. so they were trying to grow their patient base. They didn't have a ton of inactive patients, but we took a look at how what kind of outstanding treatment plan do you have? And they'd only been in business for one to two years, like I mentioned, two hundred thousand dollars. One year, yeah, two hundred thousand Troy: One year. Yeah, it was just one year. Yeah. Jeff: dollars of outstanding treatment. And so The opportunities for a more established practice are only going to be bigger. and it is a little bit I I mean, you're not gonna capture all of that. I don't wanna be delusional and say that that's even possible. But even just a small percentage of that is patients that are now coming back and increased production. So it's it's definitely worth thinking about. the last one is asking happy patients to send someone. Troy: Yeah, and a lot of practices do some of this in practice. Like they either will have a a take along card where they they can give it to a friend or family and say they get fifty dollars off their treatment and then the the referring patient gets some money and and we've even seen somewhere practices try to encourage their employees to you to promote the program by getting, $50 or whatever themselves. And all of those are are are great. But you've just trained the the challenge that we see is you've just trained that patient to think of this as a purely commercial transaction. And I I I won't say don't do it. I mean everyone that that has done it is going to have different experiences. For some it'll work great, others it won't. But what I would say is if you create a relationship with a person, that person knows however many, 10, 20, 100 different people in that in that group of people they know are some who are dissatisfied with the dental experience they're receiving right now. All you want to do is you want to make your patient, cult getting back to culture, Jeff, make your patient feel like This is a practice that I'd want to tell my friend or family member that's having a bad experience or that isn't totally satisfied or even wants a second opinion. I'd tell them about this because not because they gave me 50 bucks, but because I have a relationship with them. I understand how they treat me as a patient. I understand what the the culture is. I understand what. you know what their identity is. All of those things make an emotional connection. And that emotional connection is what's going to be much much more leverageable in those requests for referral than a fifty dollar, you know, gift card or whatever it is. So can it be done better? There are practices who destroy on getting referrals. I mean, they kill it. And And and we've told stories about it about some of them in the past, but it's because they've made it easy for people to refer them because they want to. They like them. And it's not a transaction, it's a relationship. And having continuity of relationship and of correspondence and interaction, that's how you develop it. If I see somebody twice a year and don't hear from them any other time, yeah, I might like them and maybe that's enough. But in a lot of instances it isn't. And and and just having a strategy where the culture is, we're the practice that that you want to send your friends and family to. Like that's that's who we want to be. That's just a different paradigm. Again, can practices do it? Yes, for sure, but some of it is really building out that broader communication ecosystem where You just make it easier on the practice to to hope that your front desk or your hygienist or even the dentist is going to be friendly enough that that's gonna be, that's gonna be all it takes. It it may happen. You can improve your odds by, you know, really developing strategy and communication systems that make it more likely. Jeff: Yeah, we talked a couple of weeks about a couple weeks ago about Joe Girard and the rule of two fifty. And he went to that funeral and he was talking to the funeral director. the and he said, Yeah, at every funeral there are the average is like two hundred and fifty people that that person was close with that if they have a good experience will come back for their funeral or for a loved one's funeral. And so Every person is an opportunity for 250 connections. And so if you think about that from a dentist's perspective, every patient is an opportunity for 250 connections. You're not gonna capture all of those, but if you just capture a few here and there, it's it's amazing how fast that adds up and the math becomes crazy exponential because a referred patient is much more likely to refer someone else because of the reciprocity effect. And so This is one that's that's huge and we see it all the time in practices that are really successful, is they're great at getting referrals because every dentist knows the best patients are word of mouth patients. And so can't can't emphasize that enough. So to kind of wrap up the podcast, we want to tell two stories, one good, one bad, of ways to maximize these the four areas that we talked about. So Do you wanna take it away with the the wrong way first? Troy: the wrong way was somebody and well intended and a lot of practices do it, they they send out their reminder texts and this one had got a new system, very gung-ho, got it all set up and started shooting these all out. Well, what they didn't realize is that they hadn't grouped families. And so one family that had, I think it was five children. So there were seven in the family. Several of the children had had cell phones and and that had been entered with the the dentist. Well, this whole family that had booked and scheduled their appointments together got absolutely inundated with these reminder texts, all of them the exact same. And the mom was really bothered. I mean, she you know, they they they left the practice as a result of it, which seems fairly extreme. Jeff: Yeah, they'd been going ten years. Troy: But but It it was so it it it demonstrated so little personal connection between the practice and you know and and this family that the the the mom just said there's all sorts of dentists around. You know, if this is how you view us, then we'll go elsewhere. We'll go someplace where we where we feel like we're a priority. the relationship is a priority. So tough lesson for that dentist to learn. but and you know, a somewhat extreme example, but at the same time, just know that the the lesson that we took away from it, as well as this dentist, was if you're treating people like they're not people, like they are just a transaction, don't be surprised when that's how they view your practice. Jeff: Yeah. Yeah, we hear that all the time with the dentists who are running these specials and they accidentally send it out to old patients and now people are mad because they're paying more than the new patients and they've had a relationship. And so again, the more transactional you make your practice, the more transactional the relationship comes the other way from your patients. All right, so let's move on to the Good, the right way to do things. Troy: I'll I'll let you tell the good story. Jeff: Sure. this is a dentist that's been around since 1971, founded by a father, passed on to two sons. they obviously have a great community presence, but they didn't have any systems for kind of going back and capturing old patients. So we worked with them, developed the strategy behind how do we reach out to these people and let them know, hey, we care about you, we miss you, we want to see you in our practice. It's it's time to come back for some treatments that may be outstanding. All of those things can be captured in a tasteful and and effective and personable way. And so we worked with this dentist on this one campaign to go back and and look at patients who hadn't been in for 18 months, two years or more. And they ended up making about a hundred thousand dollars within the first couple of weeks after that campaign went out, and it was all from from these patients who were coming back. And one story that stuck out to us in particular is a young woman, she was in her mid-twenties when she first came in, hadn't been in for a couple of years. she she was told when she came in, hey, you need some some restorative work. And she decided she didn't want to do it at that time. Finances were hard. but she got the message from this reactivation campaign, came back, And things had gone really poorly for her. She her her she needed a full mouth res restoration at this point. her teeth were not well taken care of. So she got set up with this dentist, was super happy with the service, with the smile, all of the things. really tried to make her feel comfortable and feel like she was someone that they cared about. And she came back the a couple weeks later. to have her check up and make sure everything was was sitting correctly. And she told them, hey, I just had a job interview and I just landed that job. It was a job I never would have dreamed of even applying for when my smile was was the way it was. And so they've they've talked about how amazing that was to have that connection with their patient. She's happy, they're happy, they feel connected. And it's all because of intentional messaging that goes out and hits people at the right time and in the right way. Troy: Yeah. And I I again, you know, it it's it sounds almost trite to to say that you treat people like people and and things go well, especially in a high trust business like like dentists. it's just harder to do, you know. I think that's just the reality that we see with practices, is it's easy to say, but both in developing the strategy and then executing, it's a struggle. and so part of what we're trying to do is figure out ways that we can help practices move further down the road in terms of accomplishing that and and seeing the benefits that come from it. Jeff: Yeah, and you mentioned that report and the numbers are just crazy. A lot of practices we talked to say, hey, I'd like to be around fifty new patients a month. Well, we talked to one, it was a three practice setup. So a little bit different, but they had about twenty thousand people in their inactive patient database. So if you cal if you get two percent of those people to come back, that's four hundred people. That's that's fifty patients per practice for two or three months. And you're just capturing that from people who have walked out the door and not scheduled to come back. Troy: what that looks like too, 50 new patients, if they're returning at a rate of 41, that's actually only adding 20 new consistent patients. And so it ends up being a lot of work and a lot of expense to get that 50 new patients. The question is, can we replace that production by reaching back out to other the patients that haven't been back? by making sure that our reappointment rate is a little bit higher, by maybe getting a few more referrals. So th the point is not only here's all these other people that could be coming back, but the focus there replaces what you're getting from those new patients a lot easier than most practices realize. Jeff: Yeah, I think those people reappointed at eighty percent. and so you look at you look at that and the cost, I mean, you're spending fifteen hundred, two thousand dollars for an agency and then three to six thousand dollars a month for ad spend. So if you're saying that's that's two months worth of new patients and then on an ongoing basis that's effectively four months worth of new patients. for your three practices Troy: It's a big deal. Jeff: across your three practices. That's thousands and then that's tens of thousands of dollars that's being saved from one campaign done intentionally. So again, the math is kind of crazy. I just wanted to point that out with that report that you said that we've put together and we'd be happy to send you that. Please let us know in the comments if if that's something you'd like to be made available. But I just want to end with one thing that a dentist could do this week to improve in any of those four areas. Troy: I would say the single most important thing they could do is actually get an understanding of what the op the magnitude of the opportunity is. I mean, really take a look at what is what's the number as it relates to treat treatments that we've prescribed that have never been scheduled? What is the number in terms of patients that haven't been in for say 15, 18 months? What's the number of those Who have not been in in the last six months and don't have an appointment scheduled. what what is the rate of as best we can estimate it, the rate of referrals. Really, if you I think most practices are just really surprised when they when they look at their numbers and understand their numbers, so many of them see, wait, all we need for the practice we want is right here. We have the practice we want. We just need more of it. we just need to increase those numbers a little bit. So I know there's a lot that that might be a little bit dissatisfying in terms of what's the one thing we can do? Do nothing that raises it. No, that's not what I'm saying. I'd I'm my point is if if you see what the opportunity is, you'll it it's extraordinarily motivating. And you'll also see some dynamics that might then point to. Hey, where is the area that we should tackle first moving forward? But I don't think there's anything that's more that's more beneficial to a practice than really taking a look at those numbers and saying and and and numbers I didn't even mention. What is your missed call rate? What is your, you know, either your your conversion rate, how many of the calls are converting to appointments, what's your last your no-show or last minute cancellation rate? Just understand what those opportunities look like. And most practices will realize I don't need to pay for more for ads. I just need to pay more attention to the opportunities that I already have in the practice. Jeff: Yeah, it's all the things that are easy to do, but just as easy to let slip through the cracks. Troy: Yeah. For sure. Jeff: Awesome. Well, we like I mentioned have been compiling all of our systems, trying to really get the entire team systematized and streamlined so that we can provide better service for our clients. it's allowing us to put together more intentional and hopefully more informative podcasts like this episode. And we will, as a result of kind of going through everything, be putting together a course that compiles kind of the basics, the the things that a practice needs and be offering that as a as a service and as as something that dentists who are looking to kind of do this themselves to build their own culture that they can at least get started there. And we we will be in the community, we'll be answering questions and connecting. More there. So we really look forward to launching that this upcoming month. So if you found value in today's episode, please leave a review or like and subscribe. If you're here with us on YouTube, leave a comment. As always, there's a link in the description to book a call with us. if you'd like to learn more about what this looks like for your practice, we appreciate you being here. and look forward to seeing you next time.