Tiff and Kristy look into re-care and re-activation in practices, including adopting a healthy mindset about patient outreach, encouraging medical readiness out of those patients, and steps your team can take today to ensure scheduling happens every time.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:02)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are back at you today. I have Ms. Kristy back with me today in the, we'll call it the studio. We're each in our own studio. We are here just so excited to bring you guys more value and more information and doctors who.

 

Kristy (00:02)

you

 

The Dental A Team (00:19)

Listen to us who come every week, who diligently are here supporting us. love you and appreciate you and Teams exactly the same. love you and appreciate you. Doctors, if you find value in this one today, I am super excited for you to have information today that you can share directly with your team. We are talking re-care and reactivation today. And Kristy, how are you doing today? Let's start there. How's Kristy's world?

 

Kristy (00:45)

my gosh, wonderful. It's been a good day. The weather's nice, had lots of client calls, being able to help people. And then ending up in the studio with you today. So it's a good day.

 

The Dental A Team (00:57)

Awesome. It's a beautiful Wednesday. I appreciate that. And I think it's a little, I think it's just cloudy. I can't say gloomy because you know, I'm in Phoenix, so I'm quite positive there's no actual rain coming. I think it's just a little cloudy, which is making me think I need to be outside later because it, you know, 96 might feel a little bit better with some cloud coverage. We'll see. We'll see. So I'm excited for you, Kristy. And I'm really excited for the clients that you've been able to help already so much. You've had, you got

 

Kristy (01:16)

.

 

The Dental A Team (01:27)

a handful, two handfuls even, clients under your belt and they're just seeing some incredible progress and I want to give you some massive shout outs and some massive kudos. You have built really strong relationships really quickly and made some massive impacts on personal and professional lives all the way across the country. I know you've even got right now a client as far as New Jersey.

 

and we are West Coast, you guys. So Kristy, thank you for everything that you pour into our company and into our clients and to the people here listening that you pour into our non-clients as well. So Kristy, kudos to you. Thank you for being here today. Yeah, I am really excited, you guys, to chat re-care and reactivation with you all. Really, the thought process here is like patients slipping through the cracks and...

 

Kristy (02:04)

Thank you.

 

The Dental A Team (02:17)

and patients that are maybe forgotten about. And they're forgotten about, but we still love them. So patients that listen, that just every now and again pop into dental podcasts, we love you. But really just talking about this from a standpoint of team and doctor perspective, and What can we do to ensure that these patients don't slip through the cracks or when they do, that we catch them again. And I have to say, been in the dental field for quite a while.

 

And I was really young when I started in the dental industry. And for a long time, I worked for a really amazing, amazing man. He was, he's just one of my favorite human beings in the world. And this doctor was just incredible, but he is a bundle of energy. guys may have heard me talk about him before. He has so much energy and he's go, go, go all the time. And he is literally your true entrepreneur, right? Your true in...

 

just like visionary, right? Not integrator. He's your visionary. I was his integrator and constant idea factory and constant like fix this, let's do that, let's do this, let's implement. And I remember he harped on re-care constantly. He's like, we're not fucked out six months, then we're not doing our jobs right. And I used to, when I was young, be like, give it up. Like for the love, just let me live my life. Like stop telling me to make more re-care calls.

 

And I really just didn't understand. And I don't think he knew how to articulate, you know, the reasons behind it. And I think this comes up in a lot of practices for a lot of doctors and a lot of teams of making sure that we are making recare calls and docs. I have to tell you a little secret. it's a kept secret front office teams and back office teams alike. We like to keep it to ourselves, but we hate making calls. Nobody likes.

 

to make phone calls, okay? It's not fun. And we will do it for the right reasons and we will do it because we want you to have a thriving practice. But it's not like, gosh, guess what I can do right now? I have a couple minutes, I'm gonna pick up the phone, I'm gonna call some people. It's really the last thought. So I know it's shocking, I know it's hard to hear, but I think we have some tips and tricks today that will take some of that discomfort.

 

out and make it easy for team members. And also I think we can teach you how to articulate the reasons behind making sure that we have a really good re-care and reactivation program in place. And I want to speak to that first because I think it's the most important piece and the most important aspect of really getting anything done.

 

is the why behind it. And when you're asking someone else to do something for you, whether it's at home or it's at work or whatever, going into it with the attitude of because I told you to, like my mom used to when we were little, doesn't really work. People, especially adults, we've been hearing it our whole lives because I told you to, right? We didn't like it when we were little, we don't like it now. having that why behind it really stands out and makes it stand strong. And knowing why you want to

 

Kristy (05:09)

Thank

 

The Dental A Team (05:25)

pursue dentistry further, why you want to own a dental practice and why you are here impacting the community can really help motivate and drive a team. For me, and Kristy, I want your opinion on this as well, for me, when I think about re-care and reactivation, I think where are these patients going if they're not coming to us? And are they going anywhere else? So on the first hand, where are they going? I believe in the dentists that I work

 

for. I believe in him still today. And all the dentists that I have worked for all the dentists I have worked with, I believe in them and in you guys. And I believe that you are the best place that our patients can receive dental treatment. And I believe that because I don't know what they might get somewhere else. And I want to make sure that they are healthy. That's why I'm here healthy and happy and well taken care of. in order to ensure that I have to make sure that they are coming back to our

 

So for me, re-care, re-activation, I want to make sure that they're coming. Now, if they're not coming at all, they're not going anywhere. That's an even bigger scare for me because I want to ensure that if something were to happen, if something were to go wrong in their oral care, we can catch it very quickly. And so for me, when I come at it with a mindset of positively impacting our community, making sure people know

 

and are going to the safest best dentist in town, I'm making these phone calls from a much different state of mind because I'm not making them to help our practice. It is going to help. I'm making these phone calls to help the patients, to help the prospective patients because when you go at it from a help me, like, hey, I'm asking you for something, which is the unknown mindset is really come to our practice because it will help us.

 

That's the unknown subconscious mindset. But when we switch that and we say, hey, come to our practice because I want to make sure you're healthy, I'm doing this for you now. So when you can express that why, when you can have your team come at it from a different space of thinking, it feels better. And while still making 10, 20, 50 calls, whatever it might be, is not, you know,

 

I'm not jumping out of bed in the morning to make those calls. It is much easier to get through more calls and I'm gonna burn out slower than the other aspect of me asking for something. on the why, express that to your team. Why do you have all of these things and how can we shift their mindset to be coming from a space of helping the patients, like being an advocate for the patient rather than.

 

Kristy (07:57)

you

 

The Dental A Team (08:08)

really looking to fill the holes on the schedule is the only reason I'm calling you. As long as I'm calling you, it's also going to help that. It's a dual purpose. So, Kristy, that was my long-winded statement on it. How do you feel you come at those calls? I know you've made a million of these calls in your day as well. What was your mindset and how do you help train teams on that?

 

Kristy (08:30)

Yeah, I appreciate your sentiments on it. And I almost wonder if we work for the same doctor at some point. But with that being said, I'm with you. In the beginning, I think my doctor was more like he saw the holes in the schedule and then all of a sudden he came swooping up and kind of nagging almost, right? And it almost really dug our heels in for all of us that were up there.

 

Literally later when we sat down as a team and just like you were speaking at as a healthcare advocate we sat down and came up with our goal for our patients and You know, I hope you guys are doing this as a team too But one of our goals was to make sure all of our patients could be at medical readiness at any given time Right, and obviously we have to do that again within our patients lifestyle and budget but with that being said

 

if that's our goal for all of our patients and we understand why they're coming to the dentist, it just puts a different spin on it, right? And so even with that, when I'm looking at re-care and reactivation, I hope you guys will look at it a little bit differently too and see those patients that have outstanding treatment along with an unscheduled hygiene appointment, that they're not at that medical readiness and make it a goal to get them there.

 

you know, help them achieve optimal health, if you will.

 

The Dental A Team (09:57)

Yeah, that's a perfect

 

add on to the why is the patient goals. Like what is our, what are the goals that we have for our patients? And we talk goals all the time. So that should be a very easy concept to consider of those goals. That kind of makes me think of like our personal goals that we set every year, right? Like what are our, what are our goals for our patients? It's not monetary necessarily. It's really like, how are they feeling? What's our, our patient experience? So I think that was beautiful. Thank you for that addition. So you guys,

 

Mind frame is everything mindset is everything you guys hear me say all the time your words matter And I believe that with my whole heart so make sure that you guys are on the same page that your team is on the same page and that Team members that you are looking at it from the best view possible. You've got to make the calls regardless So how do you make it the most fun for you figure that out? either way, how are you gonna do it? How you gonna make it the most fun?

 

I think a couple of pieces that are super actionable, #1 make sure you know your why, make sure you know this mindset thing, but #2 making sure every patient leaves with an appointment is massive. And I know that sounds so kindergarten level, everybody leaves with an appointment, I hear you, but it's still happening in the world that patients are leaving without an appointment. So let's make sure that our patients never leave without an appointment. And then contrary to that or flip side of that, if a patient calls,

 

#1 we don't use the word cancel, delete that, cancel that from your, you know, verbiage. We don't use the word cancel because patients don't cancel. Patients move appointments. They reschedule and they barely even do that. We barely let them do that. We advocate for them and we make sure that they're seen in a timely manner and we go through all the steps. That's a different podcast. Today's podcast is make sure no one leaves without an appointment. And if they do call to reschedule or move the appointment,

 

make sure that that's what you're doing. I was in a practice the other day and I had so many phone calls. I'm like, where are all these patients? Why are they falling off the schedule? And then I hear, okay, got it. You want to cancel that? Okay, we'll call you. We'll call and follow up with you in a couple of weeks or we'll wait for you to call. And I was like, couch my eyes out. That's so much work you just created for yourself later. Golly, that might.

 

My jam, you guys, is efficiency and a life of ease. And I am telling you right now, I would rather spend the time advocating for the patient and fighting to keep them on the schedule right now than having to make that phone call to them later because I have to do re-care calls. If I can make sure I don't have a re-care list, like, hallelujah, I don't want to make those calls. So I...

 

would advocate for making sure that you keep them on the schedule. So, oh, totally understand that that time won't work. I've done my due diligence to try to save them on that time. Totally understand that time won't work. Let's work to find you an appointment time that will work. Is there a day or a time Monday through Thursday that typically works better for you?

 

Or is this, you know, one off occasion? So now I'm building the relationship with the patient, asking them why they can't come in, what's going on, how do we work around that? Now, where can we put the appointment that we know they can come in? Because that recare list gets longer, longer, longer, the more patients you allow to cancel off the schedule. So if we're asking our back office team, our hygienist and our dental assistants to schedule next visits, our front office team taking those phone calls needs to be really diligent about making sure that they stick on the schedule. So recare and reactivation starts

 

starts with making the appointment, it starts with keeping the appointment, and then next step is going to be really truly making those phone calls, making sure that you've got the automation set up. know most everyone is set up on some sort of a system that does confirmation calls or confirmation texts. All of those systems also do automated emails and text messages for re-care. So that's massive and making sure that those patient, you know,

 

the timeframes are chosen correctly, so it's going to those actual patients and that they're getting multiple reminders. And Kristy, how do you suggest those re-care, you know, that re-care touch point once they do follow the schedule or they weren't scheduled when they were, you know, supposed to be when they were in the office, et cetera, how do you suggest that re-care program really gets put into place?

 

Kristy (14:13)

Yeah,

 

just like you, I mean, I didn't enjoy making those calls and I know our teams don't, because we hear it every time we're there. Yet, it's a necessary thing. So because we all agree it is necessary and if those patients aren't on our schedule, are they truly healthy? We already talked about that. So I truly like to make daily efforts.

 

Print your reach your list. Look at not just who was past due, but look at be proactive and look at who's becoming due. If we're really working those lists and we can simultaneous, you take one, I take one, depending on who's making those calls in your office, but print that past due list and look at it. If there's a hundred names, because you know those lists can get pretty long and you just look at it like it's so daunting, but if there's a hundred people on that list,

 

Look at how many days this month we have, divide it by the days you're working and chunk it out and just make a goal. If that equates to two calls a day or five calls a day, make that your goal. When I think of it that way in a daily effort of phone calls, two or five calls a day is a lot easier than looking at a listing going 100 people. So that's how I tend to chunk it down with Teams and it seems like it goes over a lot better that way.

 

The Dental A Team (15:28)

Yeah.

 

I agree. I think that's brilliant. And as you're talking, I was thinking of a different podcast that we've done on the billing and adding it to the morning huddle. And as you're talking, I'm like, my gosh, yes, as you're pulling those lists, and as you're looking at your day, I know this is something, Kristy, that you've added within Ralph slips and morning huddles is looking to see is the patient coming in. So doctor side treatment, maybe that patient coming in, limited exam or a crown that was previously diagnosed, or they were here yesterday for their cleaning and they didn't

 

get rescheduled for their next cleaning. So making sure you've been as simple as looking at the patients that are coming in, do they have an upcoming visit and then family members. I would love knowing every time I walked into any establishment, they were here to take care of me and Brody.

 

I want you to advocate for both of us. that's brilliant. I love printing that and splitting it, splitting it amongst the teams, splitting it amongst the days, and then making sure that someone is responsible for making sure we have that addressed on our route slips and that morning huddle because...

 

Again, I'll say this time and time again, podcast and podcast again, it's easier to get the results from the patient standing in front of you than it is to get the results you're after over a phone call. You're basically trying to reconvince them of whatever it is. So if it's on scheduled treatment, re-care, anything you can think of, we're reconvincing them when we have to call them.

 

I think that's brilliant and it really sparked my thought there. making sure we know why, making sure we have the right verbiage on re-care and the right mindset. I think that mindset also plays, Kristy, into everyone leaving with an appointment because I know some hygienists that have stated to me that they feel like it's invasive and it's pushy and it's salesy. And as long as we have the right mindset, you guys, as long as we're advocating for the patient's health, that's what we're here for. So mindset, verbiage.

 

pull your re-care lists, make sure that you've got everybody who's coming, who's due and coming up due, can do past due, make sure you've got your automated services in place and that those are going out as well, you guys.

 

They, their studies, I put air quotes around, they say that it takes, I think this year they said 13. I've, you know, been working with seven times. I think it's 13 times now, but they say it takes anywhere between seven to 13 times hearing something before you're ready to purchase. And so you guys were working in a world of sales are everywhere. They're on our phones, they're on, you know, our

 

social media apps, they're on billboards, it's on commercials, it's on our music streaming services, everywhere we turn somebody's trying to sell us something and we're in a constant state of no.

 

And so in order to get people in the state of yes, we have to make sure that we're advocating for it and that we're doing a really great job to continue to remind them. It takes so many times for my eye doctor texting me and calling me and emailing me. It literally takes me being almost out of context when you're like, okay, fine, I'm ready to schedule, but they do it and I love it. And as aggravated as I might get because I'm like, stop.

 

I know that I need it because I'm your worst patient, you guys. I am the patient that requires 20 reminders to schedule the appointment because I'm busy. I'm on the road. I'm on calls. I'm in meetings. And I'm not the only one. I'm not alone in that.

 

So always look to treat Tiffanie and know that it's going to take a lot of times you guys are reminding. So making sure you've got your wire, your verbiage, your tool set, your automations up, and you've got a clear plan and directive for route slips and warning huddle slips for who's due, and then a clear directive on how are we going to make those calls. Reactivation real quick. We'll slide this one in there too. Reactivation is really easy and it's huge.

 

huge. I actually utilize reactivation in the marketing world because I think that there's nothing easier than bringing a patient you've already paid for back into your office. You paid for them once, there was marketing dollars spent somewhere that they came into your office and then they inactivated, which you guys means they haven't been seen in 18 months or longer.

 

Kristy (19:36)

We hope you a great summer. Happy New Year.

 

The Dental A Team (19:52)

So you've already spent the money on them. We're spending dollars on new patients. Why not reach out to these patients who just were forgotten about. They slipped through the cracks and get them back in the practice and add them back into your active patient count. So I think it's huge. I think it's a marketing effort. I think it's easy to add into your Recare program. It's just a reactivation program. We have a really easy one. If you want to reach out, [email protected]. We'll be happy to share it with you. And we've got verbiage tips and tools on there. And then as well as different

 

dates to set for making sure that those go out. And Kristy, re-care reactivation, it's just a massive, massive part of active patient count success in a practice. Is there anything you feel like, gosh Tiff, if we don't mention this one last thing, they're just without a loss. Is there anything else you can think of that we need to make sure we slide into today's podcast?

 

Kristy (20:45)

No,

 

think just I challenge you to look at it differently. I mean, you made mention earlier about monetary things and, know, from a patient perspective, if we're really looking at the patient, we know if they stay away, the cost gets greater. So if we're really being a steward to them monetarily, even fighting their fear, right, getting them in is the best thing to do. So.

 

I just challenge you to look at it a little bit differently, have fun and be in service to your patients.

 

The Dental A Team (21:19)

Beautiful

 

and we're gonna wrap with that you guys that was wonderful Kristy. Thank you so much Thank you for doing this podcast with me and going on this journey listeners Thank you for being here whether you're a current client a prospective client or someone who is just here to support the podcast We value you we appreciate you and we want to pour so much love and support into you There's anything that you guys heard today that you need more information on or you just want to comment on? You want us to know what your thoughts were? Please. [email protected]

 

is our email and we will be happy to hear from you and we'll catch you next time.