Working at a dental practice entails a lot, so we often stray from focusing on ensuring our patients keep coming back. This can be the mistake that prevents your practice from growing and reaching its full potential.
When patients are not making their recall visits, setting treatment plans, or scheduling their next appointments, there’s a serious issue within your practice. You must pay attention to how many patients are not coming back and try to tune into why that might be.
If you believe you have too many patients who don’t reschedule, here are three simple ways to ensure your patients come back.
1. Know how many patients are walking out the back door.
The first way to ensure your patients come back is to take the time to figure out how many patients are “walking out the back door” and not rescheduling appointments or continuing with treatment.
Keep analyzing your weekly metrics. Make sure you are tracking your accounts receivable week to week. Take note of whether that number is increasing or decreasing.
Once you know that, you can start to analyze why some of your patients aren’t returning and implementing systems to fix that.
2. Create an experience worth coming back to.
Next, put yourself in the shoes of your patients. Think about the experience they have when they come to your dental practice. How could you improve?
You want to ensure that your patients are getting a consistent and high-quality experience every time they come in.
This can be as simple as offering coffee and tea to your patients in the waiting room or setting up essential oil diffusers around the office. Maybe you invest in massage dental chairs or provide various snacks in the waiting room.
Don’t hesitate to ask your patients for feedback on their experience with you and what you can improve on. Providing the most comfortable experience for your patients is key, especially because many patients get anxious when they have to come in.
3. Focus on verbal skills and training for your dental team.
Many times, the issue lies within our lack of verbal skills. It can be intimidating to confront our patients and discuss what might be holding them back.
More often than not, the main reason why patients don’t reschedule is that their insurance doesn’t cover the entire treatment and they cannot afford it. This is when our patients need us to put things into perspective for them.
We can discuss how much insurance does cover and what the treatment will mean for them. You don’t have to seem like a sneaky salesperson, but be able to relate to your patients and truly connect with them.
Make sure your dental team is trained in verbal communication. This is an extremely effective way to get more patients to keep coming back.
Get more patients coming back.
Take action today and start to implement these three ways into your practice today to get your patients back in the office.
If you’re looking for training or coaching for your team to accelerate your growth, click here to learn more.
And if you’re not already in our Facebook group, join the Dental Boss Movement group today to get even more help growing your practice.
It can be way too easy to get stuck in your ways of doing things around the office, even if it isn’t necessarily the best, most effective, and productive way. But when things in your practice become stagnant, so does growth.
To kick start growth for your practice, you need a strategic plan and systems for holding your team members accountable and emphasize growth. That’s why we are sharing three systems that help you create more accountability and achieve even greater growth in your practice.
1. A Systems to Create a Healthy Team
Creating a healthy team is the most important part of having more accountability and growth in your dental practice. Without a trusting and understanding dental staff, you won’t be able to continue holding each other accountable.
Accountability comes from having everyone on the same page and feeling able to openly discuss their performance. This requires an open and comfortable environment. One way to build that open and comfortable environment is to start holding morning huddles. By their nature, morning huddles give you an opportunity to connect with your team members before the day gets hectic. This creates a healthier space to discuss any challenges than trying to catch someone for two minutes in between patients.
Another way to create a healthy team is to put systems in place for holding everyone, including you, accountable. When everyone is intentional in terms of accountability for themselves and others, and you have systems in place to help do so, accountability becomes much easier. This allows you to empower your team when they're successful and make sure that you are all on track to hit your practice goals.
2. A Circle of Focus to Create Clarity
Invest in something you can physically hang in your office that you and your team can write on to identify and track practice goals.
An easy option is to hang a whiteboard in your lunchroom. The focus of this whiteboard is to grab your team members’ attention and help them focus on achieving practice goals.
Having a whiteboard with production targets and other goals will force you to discuss your metrics with your team members and hone in on what areas need improvement. It also creates clarity in your goals and gives you a way to hold everyone accountable for the behaviors that need to happen to hit the goals.
For example, it can be as simple as looking at your patients who are unscheduled, looking at the services you provide, and what marketing techniques you are implementing, and whether they are working. The whiteboard gives you a snapshot of productivity and gives you an opportunity to praise what’s working and empower your team to perform while also holding them accountable for what’s not working.
Finally, a whiteboard helps your dental staff reflect on their performance and ask for help when needed. And you can even write down incentives on the board for when your team hits goals to make it even more motivating for your team.
3. A System for Becoming Intentional About Growth
Once you have your circle of focus, you can start to become even more intentional about growth.
Start by analyzing your metrics and records to determine where you could be making more money. Also, make sure you have systems in place where everyone knows their key performance indicators and where they stand production wise.
With that information, start a supportive and helpful conversation with your team about how you can grow. Growing your practice should be a team effort and a supportive exercise. Be careful not to blame any one person for missed opportunities. Rather, be supportive and helpful, ensuring the conversation is a safe one where you determine together what you can do as a practice to grow. From there, start shifting your focus into training your members on the skills they need to improve.
Be sure to have a system for having a weekly meeting where you can look at the goals from your circle of focus and plan any adjustments needed.
Are your systems structured to achieve practice growth?
You only need three types of systems to build more accountability and kick start practice growth. You need one system to create a healthy dental team, another to create focus, and another to get everyone more intentional about growth. With these in place, you’ll be well on your way to growing your practice.
If you're looking for solutions to grow your practice and take your practice forward, join me in the Dental Boss Movement Facebook group where you can connect me and thousands of other dentist professionals helping each other grow.
And if you’re looking for training or coaching for your team to accelerate your growth, click here to learn more.
As practices open back up from pandemic shutdowns, scheduling patients is becoming more of a challenge. We have to consider that we want to practice social distancing inside of our practices. We have production targets and financial obligations. And, of course, we need to safely care for patients.
As you begin to have more demand on your schedule, these challenges will become tougher to overcome. But tough doesn’t mean impossible. And with the right scheduling strategies, your team can take care of all the details. Here are four ways your team can schedule patients to remain productive and safe.
Utilize time blocks.
Just because we can’t have as many patients in the office at once, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be as productive. As we're looking at our post-COVID schedule, we want to have in our mind how we can see fewer patients while having higher production. You can have more production and collections in your business going forward because you’ll be focusing on getting more patients to do higher value procedures and to have fewer patients in the practice through time blocks.
The idea is to schedule out the procedures that typically take the longest first and work backwards in order to fit everything within your schedule. Be very strategic. For example, if you're using a third-party tool such as Dental Intel, create a filtered list of all patients below the age of 60 who have been seen within the last year and have unscheduled perio scaling and root planing. These patients are behind in getting care and need to get back in because they are the least healthy in terms of oral health. We want to give them priority as we essentially have a clean slate.
You can even color code your time blocks so that is easiest to read. In my practice, red is most urgent and so as we're filling our hygiene, we want to fill our red blocks first, and then we want to fill our yellow blocks, and then we want to fill our green blocks. Your longest procedures will be more urgent and therefore in the “red” and your quicker procedures will be either yellow or green.
Get help from your dental assistants.
Make sure you utilize your dental assistant anywhere you can. Have them help out in areas where they can so that your dental hygienists can focus on the tasks the assistant can't do.
Having dental assistants for our hygienists allows our hygienists to focus on what no one else can do, such as the scaling, and root planing. The assistants are typically doing things like taking x-rays, taking internal photos, showing videos if we want to show an educational video, having those discussions, finding out their chief concern, and then they transfer the information over to the hygienist.
Dental assistants are very important to your practice, especially if you use them to their full potential. In fact, without their help, it would be nearly impossible to recover from the pandemic. Make sure your dental assistants are aware of how much their help means to you and the whole team.
Make an overflow room.
Having an overflow room will benefit your practice beyond recovering financially. This is an efficient system that should be utilized in every practice.
Here’s how it works in my practice. We have an overflow room and so patient number one will be in one room. When the next patient comes in, the assistant will get them started in another room. This allows the dental hygienist to be able to go straight to that next patient and a team member can properly clean the first room to get it ready for our next patient.
The other thing to take note of here as well is the stagger between blocks, between our two hygienists. This prevents having a bottleneck at the front desk and waiting area. Make sure time blocks do not start and end at the same time. There's a staggered approach there.
With staggered schedules and an overflow room, you can better manage the flow of patients in your practice. You also ensure every room is cleaned properly before a patient goes in.
Communicate well with patients.
Communicating well with patients is a skill your dental team members should practice daily. Especially during times like today where we can’t schedule as many patients as we used to, it is important our patients understand this and understand why.
Make sure you’re honest with patients. Let them know you want to be able to give them first priority but you are doing the best you can. Tell them you have a new system and your practice is prioritizing the longer procedures so you can have fewer people in the office and keep everyone safe. Be honest with your patients and they’ll most likely understand.
Are you ready to help your team succeed in scheduling patients?
Once you implement these easy tips, your practice will be as efficient as ever. You and your practice will have adapted to the new changes and positioned to succeed. Even better, your team will be leading the charge to building a safe, productive, efficient practice.
If you want help, join our free Facebook group for dental bosses. In of that group, you will be able to mastermind and share with dentists and team members. And if you’re looking for training or coaching for your team to accelerate your growth, click here to learn more.
What are your goals for your practice in 2021? Do you want to grow and be more profitable? That tends to be on most dental practice’s goals list.
The issue is figuring out the best way to do that. Most dentists believe that by increasing production, they will become more profitable. While there is some truth to that, it is not the best way to grow a practice. The key is to focus on maximizing the revenue you’re already bringing in.
Increasing your production won’t affect your profitability if you don’t have solid systems in place. The problem a lot of dentists have is not that they need more patients. It’s often their collection percentage that’s at fault.
Your collection percentage is the percentage of funds that you not only produced but also collected. For your business to be profitable, this number needs to be as close to 100% as possible. Unfortunately, oftentimes it’s not anywhere near that.
How do you figure out where the money is falling through the cracks? Here are five key areas to check.
1. Investigate your adjustments.
Oftentimes, we don’t realize how much money we are throwing away just through adjustments. You should be taking a look to calculate how much money you are adjusting and determine if it is worth it.
How many times do you give discounts to friends and family or people in your community?
Be honest when analyzing your adjustments. Are you giving away too much?
2. Check your statements.
Are your statements being sent out efficiently? Our practices can get so overwhelming, and sometimes we forget to send out our statements for a while.
Your patients could be waiting on their statement for weeks and months and even forget about it altogether. They could be perfectly happy to pay, but they aren’t even aware of it.
If you’re looking at your collection percentage monthly and see that it’s dipping, this is one of the metrics you need to check.
3. Appoint someone to deposit checks.
If you have checks coming into the practice, are they being input in a timely fashion? Is your team busy doing other things that they don’t even have time to get to the bank?
Make sure that you have a specific team member who owns this process and a system for reporting on it regularly. This will ensure that your checks are getting deposited and you aren’t taking time away from your dental teammates.
4. Consider your electronic payments.
Maybe you have e-payments coming in, but they aren’t being entered onto the ledger. This means there’s a discrepancy between your bank statements and your practice management software.
When you analyze your collection percentage you may realize there’s a difference between your production and collections.
From there, you can look into why these discrepancies are occurring and fix them.
5. Take a close look at your fees.
It is possible you aren’t charging enough for procedures.
It can be shocking to calculate your profit margins for each of your different procedures.
Calculate your expenses and divide your monthly expenses into the number of hours you work. That will give you a cost per hour.
Then, you can look at the time it takes to do each procedure and how much the supply costs are. If you aren’t making a profit, or breaking even, there is an issue and you know to raise your fees.
Are you ready to grow your practice and become more profitable?
Make sure your money isn’t slipping through the cracks. You don’t have to get more patients and work overtime to increase your profitability. Make sure to check those problem areas to ensure you aren’t giving away money.
If you’re looking for training or coaching for your team to accelerate your growth, click here to learn more.
Many practices often prioritize getting new patients instead of focusing on their existing patients. While it is always a good idea to get new patients, if you don’t focus on the ones you already have, you’ll lose them and end up treading water, at best.
In fact, it takes about five to twenty-five times more effort to get new patients than it does to properly serve and retain your existing ones. Here are five strategies to make sure you get your dental patients to keep coming back to your practice.
Figure out what you want your practice to be known for.
This is the most important aspect of building your practice. When you know what you want to be known for, you can build your practice with that in mind and have an actual vision of your goals.
This will also help patients understand who you are as a dental practice. If you want to be known for offering high-end services and quick efficient appointments, you know you have to prioritize getting the tools and resources to make your practice high-quality and efficient.
As you're building your practice, you have this interesting and unique ability to manufacture what you want people to say.
If you want people to know your practice for being extremely comfortable and relaxing, you know it would be wise to invest in a massage dental chair and some essential oils.
Let patients know what you’re known for.
Once you know what your dental practice is known for, utilize this to your advantage. Go on Facebook Live and share on different social media platforms the unique characteristics of your office that make you “the most comfortable and caring dental office,” if that’s what you are going for.
This will not only attract new patients but also remind existing patients of what sets you apart. Make sure to explain to every new patient who you are as a dental practice and what makes your practice unique. And take the time to reinforce and remind new patients about what they get from you that they won’t get elsewhere.
Involve your patients in all of your community based marketing initiatives.
First and foremost, get involved with your community if you aren’t doing so already. This alone will get your practice’s name out there and attract new, local patients.
This could be anything from sponsoring a 5k race to volunteering at an animal shelter. When you show your local community that you are involved and caring, they are going to connect with you and likely tell others about you and your practice.
The best part is, you don't have to focus on Google ads that are $2,000 to pay Google at an agency. You don't have to worry about $5,000 mailers. You are attracting real, genuine people by getting involved.
Once you implement marketing within your community and your patients know what you're known for, and they're telling others, you can not turn that off. This is a continuous referral source that will help you gain loyal patients.
Directly communicate with your patients.
When you are about to post on social media or go on Facebook Live to share something about your practice, you should be directly communicating with your patients.
You can go to your patient email list and email everyone a link to your Facebook live. This will increase the views and visibility. And part of that is asking people when you're on Facebook live to actually share this video with everyone that they know who are their Facebook friends so that others can participate as well.
You can directly send or hand out flyers to patients. This will allow your patients to see that you're doing something great for the community. This is a great way to let patients know of any events you are having and to keep them updated and involved.
Another great way to involve your patients is by sending a monthly email. This can be photos from last month's community and campaign announcing what you're going to do in the next month or the current month, and also sharing an educational article.
Earn, collect, and share glowing testimonials.
When you are running your dental practice the way you envisioned it, you may begin to notice patients are more eager to share their amazing experiences.
If you’ve invested in making your practice uniquely good, don’t be afraid to ask your patients to honestly review their experience in your practice. If they have some concerns or suggestions, consider them, and make your practice even better. If they rave about the wonderful experience they had, don’t hesitate to ask them for a testimonial.
Once you have these testimonials, they are just yet another thing you can share on your social media platforms or in the monthly email newsletter.
Are you confident your patients will keep coming back?
It's one thing to be able to do marketing campaigns, to be able to get in front of our patients. It is much harder to learn how to keep them.
Make sure that you join us inside of our Delivering Wow Facebook group, dentalbossmovement.com.
And if you’re looking for training or coaching for your team to accelerate your growth, click here to learn more.
Dental Intelligence is the smartest software ever built for dentists. Their innovative technology helps dentists keep on top of tracking, analyzing, and growing their dental practices.
Dental Intel has recently launched a new Morning Huddle software that helps practice’s make the most of their morning huddles. The morning huddle is arguably the most important time of your day because it gives the entire team the opportunity to come together, review targets, celebrate victories, track progress, and so much more.
I was so excited when I found out about Dental Intel’s Morning Huddle that I couldn’t wait to invite my good friend, Jarom Dastrup, onto the podcast to talk about this amazing new software feature in more detail.
In this episode, we discuss:
What a traditional ‘morning huddle’ usually looks like
Why your practice needs to start every day with a morning huddle
How morning huddles can help you reverse engineer success
How Dental Intel’s new Morning Huddle software works
The importance of having a morning huddle
New features included with Dental Intel’s Morning Huddle software update
How Morning Huddle can help your practice drive more revenue
Want to find out more about Morning Huddle and how to make your next morning huddle a complete success?
Download Dental Intel’s e-book – a 30-page document that explains everything you need to know about morning huddles, including why they’re so important and how to structure a morning huddle for maximum impact.
Sleep apnea is more common than you might think. If left untreated, sleep apnea can lead to potentially serious health risks, which is why it’s so important to target the root cause of sleep-disordered breathing.
To help further understand what sleep apnea is and how we can help treat patients suffering from the condition, I invited Bryan Ferre, Chief Evangelist at Vivos Therapeutics Inc., on this episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast.
The Vivos® System is a clinical breakthrough in the treatment of sleep-disordered breathing for individuals of all ages. Their treatment even includes more difficult cases of sleep apnea, including mild-to-moderate obstructive sleep apnea resulting from underdeveloped upper and lower jaws.
But, how does the Vivos® System work? And, why should you consider integrating sleep medicine into your dental practice? Bryan explains all in this episode of the podcast!
In this episode, we discuss:
How sleep apnea treatments can help increase production per visit
The touching story about why Bryan is so passionate about sleep apnea treatment
The percentage of people who suffer from sleep apnea
How the Vivos® System treats the underlying condition of sleep apnea
How to seamlessly implement sleep medicine into your practice
The real value of sleep medicine and helping patients to overcome the issues that come with sleep apnea
Reasons why underdeveloped jaws have become so common
If you’d like to learn more about the Vivos® System, you can check out their website and visit their conference website, breathingwellness.org.
What’s your story? Every dental practice has a story and sharing your story with patients can do remarkable things for the growth of your practice. But, how can you tell your story in the most authentic way possible?
Joshua Scott, the CEO of Studio 8E8, believes that creating authentic stories and bringing your story to life is key if you want to ‘captivate and connect’ with people. Studio 8E8 is dentistry’s story-driven marketing agency.
I’ve always believed that stories are the heart of a great dental practice, which is why I’m a huge fan of Studio 8E8 and how they can help dentists create incredible campaigns and strategies. I’m thrilled to have Joshua Scott join me on this episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast to learn more about his business and how they can help propel growth.
(On a side note, we recorded this episode just before the last Delivering WOW Summit in New Orleans. Joshua had some great insights, so I wanted to share this episode with you and who knows, maybe you’ll catch Josh at the next Delivering WOW Summit!)
In this episode, we discussed:
How Studio 8E8 helps dental practices tell their stories
Discovering your story and learning how to tell it the right way to the right people
The importance of using authentic story-driven marketing and how this type of marketing can help grow your practice
Using video to tell your story, gain credibility, and engage with patients
Why you need a stand-out website to catch patient’s attention
Want to learn more about Studio 8E8?
Head over to the Studio 8E8 website to find out how they can help you bring your story to life!
Waiting rooms are far from being the most exciting places in the world. However, there is a way that you can make your practice’s waiting room entertaining, educational and even (dare we say it) fun for patients.
On this exciting episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast, I’m joined by Dr. Michael Sernik, the CEO of Channel D, a company that creates fun, engaging, and customizable videos to play in your dental office reception area. Their bite-sized videos are high-quality and designed to stimulate interest in the treatments your practice provides. You can even customize videos to incorporate things like your team’s photos, names, logo, and a call to action that drives engagement and practice growth.
Channel D is so creative and unique. By showing short, fun, and informative videos to patients as they wait in your reception area, you can keep them entertained while showcasing a consistent message that educates patients on your latest treatment options. This is an incredible service that I highly recommend, especially if you want to make sure your patients come back to your practice for their next dentist appointment.
In this episode, we discuss:
How Channel D was founded and what they are known for
How dental videos can create interest in your treatments
How to drive patients to accept treatment by focusing on the damaging result of the existing condition
The importance of using videos that contain emotional triggers and humanize the dentist
A brief overview of the process of working with Channel D
Tips to get patients to pay attention to your videos
How dental videos for your waiting room can help improve your team’s clinical knowledge
You can sign-up for a two-month FREE trial with Channel D by heading over to their website and subscribing (no upfront fees and no commitment – you can cancel your subscription at any time).
Patients who have periodontal disease often struggle the most between office visits, which is why I invited Tanya Dunlap, the Managing Director at Perio Protect LLC, onto this episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast to talk about their non-invasive trays.
Perio Protect LLC use Perio Tray Therapy to give patients with periodontal disease an effective option with prescription tray delivery of a low concentration of hydrogen peroxide gel deep into periodontal pockets. Using this type of non-invasive tray therapy delivers treatment deep below the gum line, helping patients achieve much healthier gums.
Tanya joins me for a highly educational discussion about tray therapy, how you can help patients get healthier gums and how you can implement this type of treatment in your own dental practice.
In this episode, we discuss:
How Perio Protect helps patients get healthier
What type of patients would really benefit from Perio Protect’s non-invasive trays
What makes the Perio Tray Therapy different to anything else on the market
How the Perio tray works and what drugs you can use with it
How to select patients to be a candidate for tray therapy
Financial aspects of Perio Protect’s Tray Therapy including insurance and billing information
To start implementing Perio Protect’s Tray Therapy treatment in your own practice, head over to providers.perioprotect.com or email support@perioprotect.com – remember to mention Delivering WOW to get the discounted rate and receive your first set of Perio Trays for FREE!
Check out this short video trailer of the episode below:
I recently had somebody reach out to me for advice on training new team members. This doctor was feeling frustrated because they had just hired a new team member and they found themselves having to repeatedly tell the new hire what to do.
I understand that hiring someone new and training them over and over again can be super frustrating and time-consuming. As a result I wanted to talk about the steps you can take to get through this process much quicker.
In this episode of the podcast, I reveal why so many dentists struggle to train new team members. And, what you can do to document your practice’s processes so that you don’t have to keep repeating yourself every time you welcome new team members into your practice.
In this podcast episode, I discuss:
A lesson we learned at my practice when it comes to developing new processes for the future
Why it’s so easy to get frustrated with new team members
How to document your practice’s processes and save time training new team members
Why you should create training videos and use them for onboarding new staff
The importance of providing clear guidance and direction to your team
Do you want to grow, scale and market your dental practice, FAST?
The Delivering WOW Platinum Mastermind Program is the #1 program for dentists and teams to help scale and market their practices to new heights.
Inside of this Game-Changing Program, you will learn unique practice growth systems, how to manage your time, the best strategies for building a Rockstar Team, how to market your practice and so much more…PLUS…you’ll get NEW practice marketing campaigns every single month!
To find out more about the Delivering WOW Platinum Mastermind Program, click here!
Watch a short trailer video for this episode below:
On this episode of the Delivering WOW Podcast, I’m thrilled to be joined by Dr. Paul Etchison. In this episode, Paul reveals the secret to building a powerful dental team and preventing employee turnover.
Paul is the author of ‘Dental Practice Hero: From Ordinary Practice to Extraordinary Experience’. The book details how dentists can grow startups to $1m in collections the first year. As well as explaining how to de-stress the day to day running of a practice and how to become a leader that influences practice culture so positively that practice growth becomes organic.
Paul owns a large office in the Chicago suburbs and only does two days per week clinical dentistry. He is also the host of the Dental Practice Heroes Podcast. During our conversation, he talks about dealing with team power, culture and running a great practice. The practice is likely to collect a staggering $4.5 million in collections this year. And, if that’s not enough, Paul has never lost a single team member throughout the eight years his practice has been running, and as a result he has zero employee turnover.
On the podcast, we discuss:
How Dr. Paul Etchison got into dentistry and started his own dental practice
Why Dr. Paul Etchison has experienced zero turnover and what he attributes that to
Tips for hiring the best team members, no matter where you are positioned
How to grow demand for your services and why block booking is so beneficial to your bottom line
The importance of creating an amazing patient experience and getting referrals from your existing patients
How to keep your team happy, engaged and accountable for practice growth
Dr. Paul Etchison and his good friend, Dr. Justin Bhullar have released an amazing online course called ‘Dental Business Mentor,’ which includes over 175 videos and 50 documents relevant to dental practice management. So, if you are interested in taking part in this course, you can learn more about it here.
To watch a short trailer video of the episode, click play below:
I’m super excited to welcome my good friend, Jared Parente from Dental Warranty Corp, onto this episode of the podcast. We discuss how you can grow your dental practice by giving your patients peace of mind with dental warranties they can trust.
Jared Parente is the CEO of Dental Warranty Corp and has committed the vast majority of a highly-entrepreneurial career to growth opportunities in healthcare. His work has helped to generate results through a focus on better patient experiences delivered through unique and disruptive concepts.
Dental Warranty offers nationwide, life-proof protection for restorative dentistry and appliances. It offers a unique practice growth opportunity with typical practices seeing an acceptance rate between 40% and 80%.
In my discussion with Jared, we talk about how your warranty can act as a powerful practice builder to help you not only grow your practice, but boost hygiene consistency, treatment acceptance and revenue.
On the podcast we discussed…
How Dental Warranty can help increase case acceptance
What happens when you present a claim with Dental Warranty
How payment for the warranty works
Procedures that are covered in the warranty
How to present warranties to your patients
The on-boarding process of getting started and training your team
The dentistry industry is competitive. If you’re not offering the latest products and services that your patients are looking for, you risk losing their custom to another practice that does offer those things. And, one of the most sought-after products in today’s market is Invisalign, which is why I’m so excited to have Nancy Ward from Invisalign on this episode of the Delivering WOW podcast.
Invisalign.com pioneered the world’s first clear aligners, helping people to straighten their teeth to achieve the smile they’ve always wanted – in as little as 3 months! Nancy has been an Invisalign provider for 12 years and is part of the US and Global faculty for Invisalign.
In my discussion with Nancy, we talk about how dentists like you can utilize Invisalign to enhance restorative outcomes and grow your practice.
On the podcast we discussed…
How to integrate Invisalign in your practice when you aren’t a trained orthodontist
The process of learning how to be an Invisalign provider
Tips for training your team on Invisalign
How to utilize your team to help increase consults and case acceptance
How Invisalign can help boost your bottom line
Advice for getting started and certified with Invisalign
Invisalign treatment can be used to treat mild to complex teeth straightening issues from slightly crooked teeth to gapped teeth, crossbite, open bite, underbite and much more.
To find out more about Invisalign, go to: invisalign.com
To watch a short trailer of the episode where Nancy is explaining how to integrate Invisalign into your dental practice, hit play below:
On this exciting episode of the podcast, I welcome my good friend, Mike Buckner, onto the show to talk about how you can increase patient retention, with help from some powerful technology.
Mike Buckner has been working in the Dental Technology Field for eight years. He has worked as a Business Development Executive for Solutionreach, as well as a Director of Business Development for Dental Intel.
He is currently the Director of Business Development for Weave, and speaks at various meetings about patient retention and building patient loyalty. And, on top of all that, he has twin baby boys that keep him on his toes!
On the podcast we discussed…
What makes patients reluctant to come back to your practice
How to improve patient retention by focusing on relationships
The action steps you can take to maximize relationships with your patients
Why you should use text messages to bond with patients and increase case acceptance
Using the Weave App to help improve efficiency and communication
Weave is a powerful and unique platform that improves your customer response, team workflow and revenue generation. Go to try.getweave.com/deliveringwow/ to save 50% off activation!
If you’d like to get in touch with Mike to learn more about Weave or to ask him any questions, you can email him at mike.buckner@getweave.com
For a sneak peek into the episode, watch this video trailer where Mike explains how to improve patient retention and conversion:
I’m delighted to introduce Dr. Anne O’Donnell to the podcast and talk all about how dental practices can use aftercare chatbots to connect with patients and offer ‘Care beyond the Chair.’
Anne is a dentist based in Ireland and has been in practice for ‘more years than she cares to remember.’ She has had her own dental practices and sold a small corporate in 2018. She then became the groups Clinical Director. In 2013, she bought a failing practice and completely turned it around. It is now a multi-disciplinary general and specialist practice with a tenfold increase by 2018.
Anne is passionate about dentistry, her team, and her patients. She and her team have even developed a patient aftercare messaging service using Facebook Chatbots called “Care beyond the Chair.”
On the podcast we discussed…
How ‘Care beyond the Chair’ works and how it helps make patients feel appreciated
Why chatbots have a higher open rate than email
Recommending dental hygiene products using chatbots
Tips for scheduling automated chatbot messages
How personalized messaging can help dental practices connect with their patients
How to get patients to opt-in to receive chatbot aftercare messages
The process of setting up ‘Care beyond the Chair’ in your practice
If you’d like to get in touch with Anne and find out more about how you can introduce her aftercare chatbot service in your practice, you can email her at dranneodonnell@gmail.com or reach out to conor@socialmediaelite.ie for more information.
Here is a short video trailer of the podcast episode where Anne explains how to use aftercare chatbots to connect with patients:
I’m thrilled to welcome Steve O’Leary, the Project Consultant at APEX Design Build, onto the show to talk about the best processes for designing and building your ideal dental practice.
Steve is a natural born leader and dedicated to delivering high levels of customer satisfaction with help from his positive outlook on life and great listening skills. He has worked at APEX Design Build for almost three years and is super passionate about the company and what they stand for.
Apex Design Build is a fully integrated design, architecture, and construction firm that specializes in creating state-of-the-art healthcare facilities. Their motto is as enduring as it is simple: Your practice made perfect.
On the podcast we discussed…
Everything you need to know about APEX Design Build Vs. Design Bid Build and what each involves
The importance of having a high level of communication during the new buildout process
Questions you should ask before hiring a team to help you build a new practice
The impact that a well-designed dental practice can have on your patients
What to expect when you hire a firm like APEX Design Build
How long a typical build project tastes at each phase
An estimated ballpark figure of building a typical dental practice
Taking the first steps towards designing and building your own practice
If you’d like to learn more about APEX Design Build and how they can help design the dental space of your dreams, go to: apexdesignbuild.net/the-apex-continuum/
To watch a video trailer where Steve talks about the process of designing and building your own dental practice, hit play below!
I’m thrilled to welcome Ian Miller onto the podcast to talk about all the ways that you (and your patients) can improve oral hygiene and enjoy a wider, brighter and healthier smile.
Ian is the Director of Global Sales for both Plaque HD and Steraligner. His passion for getting premium oral hygiene products into the mouths of your patients is only surpassed by his drive to make it as easy as possible for all your patients to have maximum oral health…oh, and his love for baseball and getting into the Guinness book of World Records!
On the podcast we discussed…
How Ian transitioned from the world of B2B business to oral hygiene
How Plaque HD got started and what inspired its creation
The benefits of using a plaque identifying toothpaste that’s suitable for the whole family
Ian shares a compelling story about how Plaque HD helped improve a child’s oral health
Teaching patients how to brush their teeth properly
Using Plaque HD to achieve a brighter smile, whiter teeth, and a healthier body
How Plaque HD can help reduce the High Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hsCRP) levels in your body
The possible impact that using this toothpaste can have on your oral hygiene in just 60 days
What Steraligner is and how you can use it to keep your toothbrush clean and sanitized
You can find out more about Ian and get in touch with him by calling 8776775277 or emailing him directly at imiller@plaquehd.com
If you want to find out more about Plaque HD toothpaste and their new Plaque HD Whitening Toothpaste, head to plaquehd.com
Here’s a short video trailer of the podcast episode where Ian reveals how Plaque HD can help improve your oral health:
I’ve got a wonderful guest on the podcast who is also a key member of my inner circle, and that’s none other than Dr. Erin Issac. Dr. Erin Isaac is a Pediatric Dentist in Winning Smiles Pediatric Dental Care in Pittsburgh.
Winning Smiles Pediatric Dental Care is a welcoming, relaxing and fun space for children, helping to make the experience a lot less nerve-wracking. Their mission is to provide kids with high-quality dental education and treatment needed to grow into happy, healthy adults.
Dr. Erin attended the prestigious Ivy League, University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, in Philadelphia. To further her knowledge of dentistry for kids, Dr. Erin continued her education with a rigorous residency program at the nationally ranked Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, where she earned a certificate in pediatric dentistry.
Besides making kids smile, Dr. Erin enjoying playing sports, spending time with family and friends, cooking, photography, fashion modeling and empowering young girls to be whatever they want to be and traveling the globe.
On the podcast we discussed…
What inspired Erin to become a Pediatric Dentist
Empowering women and young people to go after the job they want
The importance of doing a job that you really love
How Erin chased her dream of being a model alongside her career in dentistry
Why you shouldn’t be afraid to share your story with others
The problem with comparing yourself to others
How sharing your story and being your ‘true self’ can actually help to bring more patients into your practice
Overcoming challenges and motivating yourself to keep moving forward
Understanding that it’s okay to reach out to people for help or support
The benefits of having a mentor, coach or being part of a supportive group
How to increase your team’s accountability and boost productivity
If you want to find out more about Erin’s practice, head to the Winning Smiles Paediatric Dental Care website or follow Erin on Instagram @dr_erin.
To watch a video trailer of the episode where Erin talks about how sharing her story helped to attract more patients to her practice, hit play below:
On this episode of the Delivering WOW podcast I am SO excited to introduce you to a rock start dentist, Dr. Ashley Joves.
Ashley is the Founder of Smile & Company, located in Folsom, Ca. Ashley announced via FB Live that she was officially doing a start-up, and that she was not going to “let fear and uncertainty” hold her back anymore. That post went viral with over 10,000 views. Ashley was able to become a local celebrity in her community, getting over 1100 people following her Facebook page, and 50 plus new patients booked prior to opening.
On the podcast we discussed:
Why Ashley decided to launch a new start-up practice, rather than buy an existing business
Her vision of how her new practive would look and feel
How that one social media post about her planned start up changed everything, paving the way to a succesful launch
How she focussed on developing high-end dentistry skills before she launched her practice
How Ashley used social media to make her practice a success and why setting up a Facebook Business page was key
Why dentists embarking on a start up need a mentor
How her business start up was chronicled by Michael Arias of the Dental Marketer in the podcast series ‘The Making of Smile and Co'
The Facebook group Ashley set up to help other startups – The Making of a Dental Startup
This week on the Delivering WOW podcast I spoke to Dr. Evelyn Samuel.
Dr. Samuel became a Dental Practice and Small Business Efficiency coach by chance. After achieving her life-time goal of becoming a Dentist, she set out to provide excellence within her chosen field. She had a unique experience after her residency. She worked in many different types of practices as a contractor and saw first-hand that although many of the owner dentists were excellent clinicians, they didn't have systems in place to run their businesses effectively. In fact, she continued to see the trend of dentists who were hands-off with their businesses, many times hearing them say, “I just want to do dentistry.”
When Dr. Samuel opened her first dental practice from scratch, she discovered she had a gift for running the business and even hired business coaches before opening her doors and ‘hanging her shingle.' She and her team continuously read books on and took courses to enhancing the experience of her practice's customers/patients.
How she gained unique experience working in many different practices before setting up in private practice, and how she realized many practices lacked systems
The lack of education in dental schools on being a CEO and a business owner
How important it is to know everything about your practice – you shouldn’t do everything but you should know about it
The most important systems that dentists need to focus on first
How effective it can be to role play out systems with your team
How to get your team on-board with systems
How to get started with developing systems
Evelyn’s new course – How to Start a Practice From Scratch
Getting started with opening a dental practice and why you should work out what your life goals are and ensure your practice aligns with them
Techniques for achieving our goals and the importance of learning about business and having a coach
What efficiency means to Evelyn
Evelyn can be contacted at info@drevelynteaguesamuel.com and you can head to efficiencyinstitute.com to find information about her ‘How to Start a Practice From Scratch' course and virtual workshops.
This week on the Delivering Wow podcast I had the pleasure of talking to Dr. Cyndi Blalock. Dr. Blalock passionately believes in ‘finding your tribe’. By finding your ideal patients and team, you can create the practice of your dreams.
Dr. Blalock completed her Bachelor of Science degree at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, MO and completed her Doctor of Dental Surgery training at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentistry. During her training she completed an externship in oral and maxillofacial surgery at Truman Medical Center.
Dr. Blalock is an active member of the American Dental Association, as well as the Missouri Dental Association and Greater St. Louis Dental Society. She has spent time at the Missouri Capitol educating Missouri state representatives and senators about issues effecting the field of dentistry. She also writes a column that appears in The Arch magazine and is proud to provide dental care to the service men and women in the Army, Navy, and the Missouri National Guard.
On the podcast we discussed:
The journey that led her to where she is today
What ‘find your tribe’ means and why she follows that philosophy
Why you should define the kind of patients that you want to serve and then ensure that you focus on finding them
Having team members who are onboard with your philosophy
The process that Dr. Blalock and her team follow to define their tribe
What to do if you have patients that you would rather not have
How to find your ideal patient – from asking for referrals to using social media
How powerful Facebook advertising can be when trying to define and find your ideal patient
The culture of Dr. Blalock’s dental practice and importance of leading by example
One of the best parts of leading dentists around the world in the Delivering WOW Platinum Mastermind program, my Inner Circle, and the free Dental Marketing and Profits Facebook community is celebrating with my students, clients, and community members as they get better results for their practice in less time and for less money.
One surefire way to get better results in less time and for less money is through implementing and optimizing dental marketing funnels.
Even if you’ve developed a high-performing, leak-free funnel, you can still improve your results and lower your costs by optimizing the way you attract people into your funnel.
Send People to Your Dental Marketing Funnels
The best way we’ve found to do that is through targeted Facebook ads that send people into your funnel by delivering a highly relevant guide or promotion to people to encourage them to give you their contact information.
The most basic form of Facebook ad that gets people into your funnel is a simple post presenting your guide or offer. Although the technique is predictably effective, results can vary from time to time, even if you use exactly the same text, image, and audience—for two reasons.
First, people are often unpredictable. What works in one demographic might not work in another. Also, people tend to act in groups, so if one ad gets many likes, shares, or comments, others will join in. Second, Facebook’s algorithm is set to build momentum in similar ways in order to ensure their members are shown the most relevant ads. Thus, Facebook will give more exposure to ads that get more engagement, and Facebook will do that at lower costs.
The most effective Facebook ads take advantage of both human behavior and Facebook algorithm tendencies in order to reduce costs and increase results.
Get More People Into Your Dental Marketing Funnels (While Lowering Your Costs)
Because it’s impossible to predict which posts will get the most engagement and better results, the best way to get more people into your funnel at a lower cost is to test multiple versions of the same ad, making only minimal changes to each version in order to find the best ad for your goal.
In marketing terms, this is called split testing, or A/B testing. With traditional marketing, split testing is expensive and difficult to do because you need to either print multiple versions of the same physical mailer or place multiple ads in different newspapers, television programs, and more. It’s also difficult to get reliable statistics quickly or to run ads without spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars.
With Facebook marketing and dental marketing funnels, split testing is super simple and can be done with a few clicks. Even better, you can get reliable data in a matter of a few days for just a few dollars.
For these reasons, the most successful marketers split test every Facebook ad they post.
Here’s how to split test your Facebook ads to get more people into your funnel for a lower cost.
Set Up Your Split Test
The good news is everyone who sets up a Facebook ad to send people to a funnel is already doing the first step of a split test. That first step is to set up a Facebook ad. We recommend setting a budget of between $3 and $10 for the ad. That’s plenty of money to get reliable data.
Once you have your Facebook ad set up, you need to duplicate the ad. You can choose as many copies of the original as you would like and keep your budget for each ad the same as the original. Usually, we advise people to choose one, two, or three copies; so they have two, three, or four versions of the same ad running. Some people choose to have eight versions of the same ad running.
Once you’ve duplicated the ad, edit each of the ads to change one element. The most frequently tested elements include the headline, copy, images, audience, or the offer itself. For example, you might send two ads to the same audience, with one offering a free guide and the other offering a deal, to see which converts better. You can also test two, three, or even four different images with the same audience and ad copy to see which one resonates better. You can even test two different audiences with the same elements. We recommend keeping it simple when you’re starting out or outsourcing your Facebook ads to an experienced ads manager, as we do with our clients, to help you.
Evaluate Your Split Test
After a few days, you check the performance, go back into Facebook Ads Manager or Power Editor and check how each ad is performing. You may find that all ads are working well, producing similar, great results. In that case, you might choose not to change anything. You may also find that one or two versions are performing at significantly higher costs or attracting significantly fewer leads. In that case, with one click, simply shut off the ones that aren’t doing well, and let the ones that are performing best keep going. It’s that easy!
Start Testing!
Split testing your Facebook ads can push even your best-performing funnels to new levels. Imagine setting up a split test and discovering your originalad performed at double or triple the cost of your other versions and attracted fewer people. Had you not split tested, you’d be stuck with those results.
With split testing, you can click one button after spending less than $10 on a $3/day budget and let the other versions continue to perform at levels your original ad couldn’t touch.
If you’re running Facebook ads to your funnel, I challenge you to conduct a split test this week!
Debbie Seidel-Bittke is the founder of Dental Practice Solutions and helps the dental practice uncover their true potential without working any harder. She is also a top leader in consulting according to DENTISTRY TODAY.
Debbie is also a former clinical assistant professor for the dental hygiene program at USC in Los Angeles and a former hygiene program director at a college in Portland, Oregon.
Dental Practice Solutions takes a holistic approach to creating sustainable profits in a patient-centered environment, by improving systems, services and inefficiencies in the dental hygiene department.
Is this episode, we discuss
The one simple system you can implement today to be more profitable
The importance of relationship building and communication
Simple ways to increase the retention rate of the hygiene department
How to ensure that your patients keep coming back
Debbie also shares exactly what you can do when patients say they don't want treatment..
Many dentists want to know, do Facebook likes matter. Is focusing on growing your Facebook community worth your time and investment? Well, after building a phenomenal dental practice that has over 50,000 Facebook followers and consistently getting a 1500% ROI on Facebook, I have to say it absolutely matters!
So why are Facebook fans so important? Well, there are several reasons. The first, and perhaps one of the most important, is that once you grow a large community of loyal fans, you increase your chances that your Facebook page will be seen. It's all about numbers!
The more fans that you have talking about you, sharing your posts and liking your content, the more your posts will go viral. Facebook allows you to build a tribe of raving fans!
By the way, building your Facebook likes will build social proof. Once people come to your page and they see that you have thousands of fans, they think, “Ok, this practice is doing something right.” and then they want to know more! Also, the more fans you have, the more your posts get shared on Facebook, which helps to build your community, and ultimately your new patients.
In this lesson, here’s what you'll get:
In this lesson, I’ll share with you three incredibly simple, but extremely valuable, Facebook fan attracting tips. Implement these strategies and you will start to see more fans today. It's that simple!
Strategy #1: The Facebook Page Plugin
The Facebook page plugin lets you easily embed and promote any Facebook page on your website. Just like on Facebook, your visitors can like and share your Facebook page without leaving your site. To keep it simple, when visitors are browsing your website, there should always be an objective. There should always be an action that you want your visitors to take. One of these actions should be for them to like your Facebook page. Your website visitors will see a small box which includes your Facebook cover photo, a list of their friends who like your Facebook page, and a button to like your page. They also have the ability to watch the featured video attached to your Facebook page.
Here’s why you should add a Facebook Page Plugin to your website:
Visitors to your website are warm, which means that they have chosen to find out more about you. This means that they are likely to follow your Facebook Page too.
A Facebook Page Plugin is one of the most effective ways to grow your fan community. It is super easy to implement (takes less than 5 minutes!) and will allow first-time visitors to your site to keep in touch with what is going on in your practice.
Strategy #2: Target Friends of Fans with Facebook “Like Ads”
A very easy, inexpensive way to get more likes is by targeting friends of your current Facebook fans. The reason this strategy works is that friends of your current fans will likely have similar demographics to your current fans. They live in similar communities, have similar interests, and are likely to make similar decisions when it comes to which restaurant to explore or which dentist to visit.
Here’s why “Like Ads” work:
Like ads are the simplest to set up and are super cheap. These promotions can be boosted right from your page without having to go to the ads manager and take seconds to set up. When you attract friends of your existing fans, you are more likely to attract a “quality” fan.
Strategy #3: Target Your Existing Patients
This strategy is huge! A very easy way to boost your likes, and fast, is to target your existing patients. This means that your posts get seen in the news feeds of people who already know, like, and trust you. Once you create an engaging post that talks about great things that are going on behind the scenes in your practice, they will very likely react to the post and like your page. You do this easily by creating a custom audience within Facebook Ads Manager.
Here’s why you should target your existing patients:
Your existing patients are going to be the cheerleaders on your Facebook page, no matter if you are just getting started or when you grow thousands of fans. They will like and share your posts, and provide social proof that your practice is the best as well as share stories with their friends of why they should become a patient of your practice.
Strategy #4: Target People Who Have Similar Characteristics To Your Current Patients
This strategy is taking growing your fan base one step higher! Once you have created your custom audience of your existing patients, the next step is to create an audience that has similar characteristics to your existing patients. You do this by creating a lookalike audience. So basically you say “Facebook, create a list for me of people who have similar characteristics to my current patients. This is easily set up in Facebook Manager-Tools-Audiences-Create Audience-Lookalike Audience.
Here’s why you should create a lookalike audience to your current patients:
Lookalike audiences, created by Facebook, are those people who are most like your existing patients. This one is a no-brainer! This means that your posts are seen in the news feeds of people who are not current patients, but because of their likes, interests, or demographics are likely to become patients.
Strategy #5: Create a Website Custom Audience
Website Custom Audiences (also known WCA) allow you to create Facebook ads to target people who have previously visited your website.
Why is this so amazing??
Website Custom Audiences is one more way to reach an incredibly warm audience. People that have already been to your website are already exposed to your brand. Once they see your posts showing up in their feeds, they are very likely to become a fan and keep engaging with you. Website Custom Audiences allows you to target your visitors organically. Custom audiences allow you to target your patient list, but now you can reach people who may not be a patient nor a current Facebook fan but they have visited your website.
Another very cool feature is that you can focus on those who visited a particular page or a section of your site. You can also concentrate on those who visited pages that included a particular keyword in the URL.
This customization potential for such ads is incredible.
Strategy #6: Increase Your Engagement
Here’s how engagement will help you attract more fans:
One of the most common reasons why people struggle to grow their Facebook fan base is that they don't have any engagement on their page.
If you don’t have engagement your posts won’t be seen in the news feed that is where all the action is on Facebook! You want to make sure that people are liking, reacting, commenting and sharing your content, and you must be responsive. You never want people to ask a question, and no one is there to respond.
When you get your fans to comment and share your content, their friends will also want to jump on the bandwagon. Lots of people like to follow the crowd, and when their Facebook friends are sharing your posts, they want to know why and will want to be part. (These shares also mean that you don’t have to pay for the engagement, it just happens naturally). If you want to increase your fan base, increase your engagement!
Strategy #7: Be Consistent
The final step to increasing your fans on Facebook is to be consistent. Far too many dentists post way to infrequently to see any real results. You must create a consistent schedule for posts, and make sure that they are posts worth sharing. I recommend posting at least once daily, especially while you are growing your fan base.
Tips to help with consistency are to share the posting tasks with a member of your team using the Facebook Pages app, schedule your posts within Facebook itself, or use a scheduling automation software like Meet Edgar.
Jeff Gladnick is the Founder and President of Great Dental Websites (GDW), a dental focused local marketing company. Jeff started GDW in 2007 to help his father and other relatives (he has 7 dentists in his family) create effective dental websites for their practices. He created a publishing platform to enable Dentists to successfully market themselves to potential patients in their service area. GDW has since evolved into a full-service online marketing agency which has worked with over 400 clients in 3 countries.
Jeff has over 15 years in marketing & software engineering, particularly in the development of content management systems and publishing systems. Prior to founding GDW, Jeff worked on projects for companies such as Adobe, The Gap, D&B, and Taylor Farms, and others.
Jeff has a degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Rowan University, holds a US patent (US20040000529), and resides in Denver, CO with his wife and 2 children.
The number one reason to have a website is to attract new patients. A website should also serve as a resource for current patients as to refer people to your practice. One of the most important steps in building a great website is to know your ideal audience. This allows you to better serve them. What’s most important is sharing yourself, your personality. Share your culture on your website, share your practice’s story through your website. Share before and after pictures. That’s what people connect with.
When creating your website, decide what type of practice you want to be and present that on your website as well as on social media.
To get your social media right you have to get your website right. Cookie cutter websites don’t cut it. It’s also very important to keep a consistent branding on your website, on social, and in your practice.
Here’s What Makes a Great Dental Website:
·A Customized design that is unique to the practice
·Posts that allow site visitors to emotionally connect with your practice
·The website should be responsive for mobile
·It should have a quick button for people to contact you
·It should have unique content and copywriting
·It should share the office philosophy
·It should provide value
·It should have video integration
·It should have your before and after pictures
·It should never have duplicate content from other websites
·It should have a map and directions
Here are a Few More Tips to Use in Your Website Design:
Every once in a while, there is a major change that effects how businesses reach their customers. And guess what? Facebook has just changed the game.
Facebook has just rolled out Facebook Live, and this new feature is going to change the game for dentists as they are trying to market their practices.
So what is Facebook Live?
Facebook “Live” offers the ability to create and watch live videos within Facebook as the action happens. While you’re recording the live video, your fans are able to comment and interact with you. Once you are streaming, your fans are able to comment on your video, and you are able to respond while on the stream. Your fans can also subscribe to get notifications of when you come on LIVE.
But here's how Facebook Live is a game-changer! Once the livestream is complete, the video will post on your practice's Facebook page just like your regular videos. This means that your fans can continue to engage with your video and ask questions even after the live stream is complete. You can also boost your replay with ads. And here is the kicker. Your fans can SHARE your video. (Talk about going VIRAL!)
Here's How I see Dentists Using Facebook Live:
•Q and A Sessions about Dental Services
•Live Office Tours
•Demonstration of New Equipment and/or Technology
•Announcement of Promotions
•Chat with the Dentist/Hygienist
•Patient Financing Chats with the Front Office
•etc…
On my FIRST day of using Facebook Live, here were my stats: After 5 hours, the video replay reached 1345 people, was viewed 245 times and had a ton of engagement. All WITHOUT being boosted.
Two days after going live, I created an ad for a later stream replay to be seen in the newsfeeds of friends of my current Facebook fans. I set my ad budget at $10.00. Here are the results: 8966 Views, 47 likes, 11 comments, and 11 shares.
With every stream that you do, your subscriber numbers will increase, your videos will be shared, and there will be a ton of new likes to your page as well as plenty of engagement. And guess what happens when you get more engagement? Facebook sees your page as relevant, and more of your posts get seen organically in your fan's feeds.
Here's How You Start a Live Stream
To Create a Live Stream, Click Publish From Your Mobile Device.
The next step is to tap the Live Icon.
The final step is to choose an eye-catching headline (including emojis), and tap Go Live!
Once you complete your stream, you can always edit the video title, add in video tags which help with search, and create a call to action.
Here are some of the latest features that are rolling out:
·Live reactions. This makes it easy for your viewers to express their feelings in real time during a live broadcast. Viewers can select Love, Haha, Wow, Sad or Angry, and the reactions animate right on top of the video. Live Reactions appear in real time and disappear quickly so broadcasters and other viewers can get a sense of how people are feeling at different points during the live video – it’s like hearing the crowd applaud and cheer.
·Filters and Doodles- you will be able to draw on the screen in different colors to personalize your broadcast.
·Dedicated Place for Discovery- The Messenger icon will be moved and replaced with the Videos icon. This will allow people to find and search for videos by topic.
·Invite Friends- when viewers are watching the videos they will be able to invite their friends to watch the stream live.
·Replay comments as they happen. As you are streaming, viewers’ questions will be available for the replay in the order that they were asked. This will allow for a natural flow of the stream.
·Live Broadcast Audience. This will allow you to track the total number of unique people who watched the video while it was live
·Viewers During Live Broadcast. You can see a visual representation of the number of viewers during each moment of the broadcast. This will allow you to see how long it would take to build momentum and how long you should broadcast.
Here's How to Make the Most Out Of Facebook Live:
1.Let your fans know when you are going live. A great example is letting your fans know that you will discuss dental implants on Friday at 12:00 p.m.
2. Write an eye-catching description before going live. This will let your fans know what your broadcast is all about. This is also what your subscribers will see when they get your notifications.
3.OK, so this one is huge! Ask your viewers to subscribe. During your stream tell your fans to tap on the subsribe button to get notifications the next time you go live
4.People feel more connected when you acknowledge them. Call your fans by name and answer their questions when you are live.
5.Broadcast for longer periods of time to reach more fans. The longer you broadcast, the more likely fans are to discover and share your video with their friends on Facebook.
James M. Dahle, an emergency physician, learned the hard way that growing your wealth begins with having good advice and understanding the wealth creation process. In general, James says that doctors like him save too little, buy too much house, rush into employment contracts rather than seeking an ownership position, get bad financial advice from commissioned salesmen who are usually peddling loaded mutual funds or whole life insurance, pay too much for good advice, and have disorganized investing plans. To help his colleagues, James started The White Coat Investor, a blog that offers doctors and other high-income professionals advice on personal finance and investing.
In today's episode, James and I discuss the first steps that dentists should take to start to grow their wealth. We discuss the ideal percentage that should be saved and invested to ensure financial freedom, as well as the mindset that someone must have to be financially free. James shares investment strategies as well as strategies that you can use with your kids to start them on a path of investing. This episode is packed with lots of value, and you'll want to make sure that you listen to the very end.
Grab Your FREE Copy! “Top 7 Financial Errors Doctors Make (and how to avoid them)!”
Dr. Lisa Knowles writes daily and has contributed articles to Dentaltown Magazine, Dr. Bicuspid.com, The ProDentist, Dentistry Today, Dental Products Report, and Dentistry IQ. Lisa has a wealth of information that inspires dentists to look at dentistry and health in new ways. Encouraging leadership, communication skills, personal growth and practice management are some of her strongest subjects.
Dr. Lisa Knowles’ interest in dental care Beyond32Teeth® grew throughout her extensive educational background beginning at Alma College, as a Communication major, and then next at the University of Michigan where she earned her DDS degree. After 15 years in practice, and seeing a need for communication expertise in private practices as well as in dentistry as a whole, she decided to marry her two loves: dentistry and writing/communication. With these skills, she helps dentists strengthen their teams & find more personal satisfaction as a business owner, a clinician, and a leader.
In this episode, Lisa and I discuss why communication is so important when building your dental practice. We discuss the role of being an effective leader, as well as the importance of delegation to multiply your results. Lisa discusses the importance of taking the time to train your team, as well as the importance of providing feedback for your team so that they can perform. She discusses the importance of checklists so that everyone knows what to do, as well as to have a specific person on your team to ensure that all systems are implemented.
