The Dental Marketer

Hiring and practice management can be tricky for independent practices...

So today we've brought on Dr. Sarah Blair, a renowned dental consultant whose experiences and insights offer a masterclass in dental practice management. From her early days at Ohio State University to owning a practice of her own, Sarah's story is filled with real-world lessons. She shares how her experiences at two contrasting Milwaukee practices shaped her understanding of effective dental management. One was meticulously systems-focused, while the other embraced a laid-back, blue-collar approach—both offering valuable insights into the nuances of practice operations and the pivotal role of management.

Fast forward to 2020, Sarah made the bold decision to pivot from practice owner to consultant. With the co-founding of Indie Practices in 2018, she and her team have been on a mission to deliver tailored, cost-effective coaching that resonates with practice owners. Through this episode, Sarah candidly discusses essential strategies for successful hiring, onboarding, and accountability. Clear communication, well-drafted job descriptions, and intentional onboarding are her cornerstones. By implementing these strategies, Sarah argues, practice owners can enhance team efficiency and reduce stress, fostering a harmonious work environment.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• The impact of diverse practice experiences on management style.
• How to craft effective job descriptions and onboarding processes.
• Strategies for hiring and maintaining team accountability.
• The role of communication in preventing common managerial issues.
• Benefits of regular feedback and one-on-one sessions with team members.
• How to align team activities with your practice’s mission and values.
• Resources and tools from Indie Practices to streamline operations.
• The long-term benefits of a structured management approach.

Tune in now to hear Dr. Sarah Blair's tips on hiring and practice management in your indie practice!

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Sponsors:
‍CareStack: Modern, Secure, Cloud-Based Dental Software for Growing Your Practice! With state-of-the-art features including Online Appointments, Integrated Payments, Text Reminders and more. Click the link here for a special offer: thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/carestack

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Guest: Dr. Sarah BlairBusiness Name: Indie PracticesCheck out Sarah's Media:‍

Website: indiepractices.com

Resource Library: indiepractices.com/digital-resources

Get Your Scorecard: assessment.indiepractices.com/begin

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Love the Podcast? Let Us Know How We're Doing on Apple Podcasts!

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Other Mentions and Links:

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Education:

Ohio State University

Marquette University

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Books:

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business

Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect

By the Numbers: A Guide to Buy and Run Your Dental Practice

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Podcasts:

The Daily Dental Podcast ( Dr. Addison Killeen's podcast)

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People:

Patrick Lencioni (Author)

Brené Brown

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Tools/Services:

The Practice Launchpad

Indeed

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Groups:

Dentaltown

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Host: Michael Arias‍Website: The Dental Marketer

Join my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/‍

Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society

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Please don't forget to share with us on Instagram when you are listening to the podcast AND if you are really wanting to show us love, then please leave a 5 star review on iTunes! [Click here to leave a review on iTunes]

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p.s. Some links are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that we have experience with these products/companies, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions we make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money unless you feel you need them or that they will help you with your goals.

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Ever wonder why some patient interactions just click while others fall flat?

In episode two of the Ground Marketing Series, we explore the powerful intersection of human behavior and effective marketing strategies. By tapping into the science of trust and first impressions, you'll learn how to craft genuine connections that resonate. We delve into fundamental principles such as the Trust Formula, where credibility, reliability, intimacy, and minimized self-interest work in harmony to build a strong foundation. Discover why mastering the art of first impressions through nonverbal cues like eye contact and open body language is your key to rapid trust-building.

Harness the Reciprocity Principle by understanding the power of giving first to foster a sense of gratitude and trust among potential patients. We'll guide you through using the familiarity effect, social proof, and loss aversion to create compelling marketing strategies that emphasize connection and urgency. Transform your storytelling approach by weaving emotionally resonant narratives that leave lasting impacts. Additionally, learn how small commitments can pave the way for deeper patient engagement, setting the stage for success in practice growth.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• Techniques to establish trust with potential patients quickly.
• The importance of nonverbal communication in making a positive first impression.
• Tactics for leveraging reciprocity and social proof effectively.
• How familiarity and repeated brand exposure foster trustworthiness.
• How to evoke urgency through loss aversion in marketing strategies.
• Storytelling methods that create emotional connections with patients.
• The role of small commitments in building long-term patient relationships.

Tune in now to boost your ground marketing techniques with proven psychological insights!

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Learn More About the Ground Marketing Course Here:

Website: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/the-ground-marketing-course-open-enrollment/

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Other Mentions and Links:

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People:

Joshua Scott

Dr. Christopher Phelps

Robert Zajonc

P.T. Barnum

Daniel Kahneman

Amos Tversky

Robert Cialdini (Cialdini’s Six Principles of Persuasion)

Seth Godin "Facts tell, stories sell"

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Books:

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

The Trusted Advisor

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Marketing Tools/Services:

Google Ads

Studio 8E8

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If you want your questions answered on Monday Morning Episodes, ask me on these platforms:

My Newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/

The Dental Marketer Society Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2031814726927041

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Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors)

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Michael: The psychology behind ground marketing. So I hope you enjoyed the overview of ground marketing. Now, this is the psychology behind ground marketing, understanding human behavior and building trust. This is essential to know how to ground market effectively.

Now, ground marketing is more than just physically reaching out to potential patients. It's about forming genuine connections that lead to long term trust. Now to master ground marketing, you have to understand the psychological principles that govern human behavior, influence decision making and establish credibility.

Now here's some unique and profound and researched back insights into how psychology applies to ground marketing, ensuring a strong and lasting impact. First thing is the trust formula. Now this is the psychological blueprint trust. Equals credibility, plus reliability, plus intimacy and self interest.

Okay. That's by Charles H. Green in the Trusted Advisor. Now, the key to effective ground marketing is to maximize credibility, reliability, and intimacy while minimizing perceived self interest. The moment people feel like they're being sold to, they instinctively raise barriers. However, when approached with genuine care, expertise and value, they become open to engagement. Number one, credibility, right? Can they believe what you say? Do you have expertise, professionalism and brand presentation that all matters? Credibility, reliability. Can they count on you to follow through?

So showing up consistently fosters subconscious trust. This is why we say, Hey, be consistent with your ground marketing. It proves reliability and three intimacy. Do they feel safe sharing their problems with you? So that means you've got to have empathy and active listening. That's crucial. And then for self interest, if your motives seem profit driven, if you look way too ambitious, people withdraw instead.

Frame your marketing as helping rather than selling. So that's number one, the first principle, the trust formula.

Two is the science of first impressions. Now, this is amazing. Seven seconds to win or lose trust. That's all you have. Neuroscience suggests that people form impressions within seven seconds of meeting someone. These impressions are 70 to 80 percent emotional. And it's based on nonverbal cues, such as body language, tone of voice, and facial expressions.

So keep these things in mind right now. One, eye contact and open body language. Studies show direct contact without staring, don't make it weird, this increases perceived trustworthiness. Open palms signal honesty. kind of like a hug, right? Or you're going in for a handshake. Two is mirroring. Subtly mirroring someone's gestures and speech patterns build subconscious rapport.

So if they're like, yeah, you know, I'm not feeling so Mirror that, Oh, you're not feeling so well. Yeah, kind of a thing. Okay. And then three is dopamine and the power of smiling. As you know, people can tell when you're smiling over the phone, right? A genuine smile releases dopamine, increasing positive emotional associations.

So how can you apply this? Well, When engaging with potential patients at local events or businesses, right? Your physical presence is just as important as your words. Approach with open energy, a welcoming tone and attentive listening to establish an instant psychological connection. So do those three things, okay?

That is the science of first impressions. Number three, this is something we talked about in the first episode. The reciprocity principle. Why giving first works. Christopher Phelps is huge on this. I know that This is a book influence written by Robert Childenny and it's the psychology of persuasion.

And he mentions people feel obligated to give back when they receive something of value. So one of the strongest psychological drivers in ground marketing is reciprocity, the social norm that compels people to return a favor. So in marketing, this means. Providing upfront value without expectation, which naturally triggers a desire to reciprocate.

Three things on how you can do this. Number one, tangible reciprocity. So like you're giving free samples, exclusive discounts, or helpful resources, right? That's one. Two, social reciprocity. Offering a warm introduction, referring someone to another trusted business or providing helpful advice that builds goodwill and three emotional reciprocity, expressing genuine appreciation and making the interaction about them rather than you fosters deep engagement.

So you can apply this like this instead of immediately trying to pitch a service, offer a small unexpected gift or insight. Maybe a dentist at a farmer's market might give away customized smile friendly snack packs while offering oral health tips tailored to the audience, right? Hey, have some snack packs on us for free as you tour the farmer's market.

You're doing this principle when you apply that. And so much more, right? So that's the reciprocity principle. Now, number four. the familiarity effect, how repeated exposure builds comfort. This is huge. Okay. There's something called the mere exposure effect. Now, the more someone is exposed to a brand, the more they subconsciously trust it, this psychological principle was first identified by psychologist Robert And he suggests that familiarity breeds likeability and credibility. Now there's three things to this. Number one, repetition, which equals trust, right? People need multiple positive encounters before making a decision. His community presence, repeated appearances at local events, schools, and businesses reinforce familiarity and three consistency in messaging using the same colors, slogans, and branding strengthens brand recall.

So that's huge, by the way, don't continue to change a ton of numbers based on I'm using this number to see the ROI. Now we're using this number for mailers and ads to see the ROI. Now we're using this number to see the ROI for Google ads. It's too many numbers. There's no consistency in that, be consistent.

Now, when it comes to ground marketing, successful ground marketers maintain a visible, non intrusive presence within their target community, instead of a one time event. Aim for monthly engagements at key locations, ensuring Potential patients feel comfortable seeing and recognizing the brand.

this is huge. So if you feel you went to an event and that event was great, fantastic. And you go another time and it was great, fantastic. Continue to show up at this event. So I'm going to give you an example. Let's just say you do an event at a daycare and every month they allow you to go in there and set up a booth and it goes good.

Continue to show up to that one. Instead of trying to do a ton of other events. One time only you could do one here and there, but make sure you build a foundation in specific locations, especially if that's where your target demographic is. So that's four. That is the familiarity Five is the social proof. People follow what others endorse. P. T. Barnum says nothing draws a crowd like a crowd. Now humans are wired to follow the lead of others. A concept known as social proof.

When people see others endorsing a business, they feel safer engaging with it. Three things you need to do with this. Number one, strategic testimonials. Instead of generic reviews, you story driven testimonials featuring real customer experiences. This is why video testimonials are huge. Video testimonials gone are the days where you write down the testimonial and then put the patient's name and no pictures there or anything.

It's just. A word and a random person's name, that's gone. That's dead. Don't do that no more ever again. If that's on your website, take that out I guess the second best thing you can do is picture testimonials, right? Like actually having the patient's face and then the wording, but video testimony, okay. So strategic testimonials, that's number one. Two is live demonstrations, publicly showcasing a positive customer experience creates a ripple effect. So continue to do that. And three is influencer and community partnerships. And we're going to talk about this later on.

In a couple episodes, but influencer and community partnerships aligning with local influencers, well known figures, or community leaders enhances credibility. And you can apply this like this. You can encourage happy patients to leave video testimonials at community events. Alternatively, showcase real time transformations right before and after smile previews in public settings to drive curiosity.

So show the before and afters, real life testimonials, show the video testimonials, but at the same time, if you're at a huge event you know, some of your patients are going to be there, take advantage of that they're on a dopamine effect right there. Endorphins are running.

They're excited to see you. Hey, can you do a video testimonial for us right now? So that is social proof. Number six. Loss aversions. Why people fear missing out.

Now, Daniel and Amos, Daniel Kahaneman and Amos Berski, they mentioned people are twice as motivated to avoid losses than to gain equivalent. The principle of loss aversion suggests that people hate missing out more than they love gaining something new. This is why time sensitive offers, exclusivity, and scarcity based promotions work so well in ground marketing.

Give me an example. It's a limited time offers, The first 10 signups get free teeth whitening. Watch when you do that, how quickly people will run and sign up. And it's up to you at that point to say, you know what? I'm going to extend it 10 more just for right now, just because of you, I'm going to give you one more free one, right?

One more free one. And you can continue to add that and say that to every single person. Everybody can get it. A hundred people can get it right. But you can say, I'm going to give one more free one just for you. They're going to feel extra special. The person signing up. And trust me, they're going to feel extra obligated to show up to that appointment to limited time offers.

Second is scarcity effect. We only have 20 appointments slots available this month. Scarcity, right? FOMO, fear of missing out, creating a social momentum, right? Join 200 plus families in our smile club. Things like this encourages action. So create something, the social momentum. And you can apply like this, use subtle urgency when speaking to potential patients.

For example, instead of saying we're offering a free consultation, say we have a few free consultations left this month. Would you like to claim one? And you can even get specific, we have three, we have two consultations left this month for free. What's your name and number? So I can put you down, right?

Because it's gonna run out. And then watch them put their name and number down. So that is the loss aversion. This you can call it FOMO almost, right? Why people fear missing out. Seven, the power of storytelling. Emotion beats logic. Now you hear Joshua Scott from Studio 88 talk about this quite a bit, So facts tell stories sell. That's by Seth Godin. People don't remember statistics. They remember stories. Ground marketing thrives on relatable, emotionally compelling narratives that make impact. Give you an example before and after patient stories. Share real experiences where treatment changed someone's confidence or life.

We know it changes smiles, but how did it change their confidence? How did it change their life? Share that personal journeys. Why did you start your practice? Authenticity breeds connection. Always, if you are a startup, if you haven't opened up yet and you're listening to this right now, please share that in your social media, share that story, share your personal journey.

Why did you start your practice? Ask yourself that push record and just riff. Just talk why you started your practice. This is the beginning of your journey. You're going to see a lot of connections happen this way in a lot of new patients. And then three is emotional hooks, right? Use sensory language and patient driven success stories to make your message resonate.

I'll give you an example of how you can do this. Instead of simply listing services, tell a short, powerful story at community events. For example, Last year, a mother came to us worried about her son's self confidence due to his teeth. He was being bullied. After Invisalign, he now smiles in every school picture.

Look at the before school pictures. Look at the after school pictures. After Invisalign. Look at his confidence. Look how his life is changing. This kid will remember this forever. He will remember what you did forever. You changed his life. That's why we love what we do. And kind of continue with that point on right stories like these create an emotional anchor, making your brand more memorable.

So that's the power of storytelling. Eight is the commitment principle. Now these are all principles when I'm mentioning involved in ground marketing, okay, the commitment principle, small yeses. Lead to big yeses. This is so huge. Robert Chiodeni says people who commit to small actions are more likely to commit to larger ones later.

By getting people to say yes to a minor request, they become psychologically inclined to say yes to a bigger one.

And I'll give you three examples of this, right? Micro commitments, a small step like signing up for a free newsletter makes them more likely to book an appointment. So have that two surveys and engagements. Asking simple questions like, Hey, do you floss daily increases their investment in the conversation.

And it doesn't have to be about teeth either. It can be simple questions, open ended questions, right? That you're asking to the patient and then you want them to open up a little bit more, getting them to say yes in those situations or prime them to say yes in bigger situations, especially in real life when you're talking to them.

So I like that a lot. And then three is loyalty and follow ups, rewarding small commitments, Give them a welcome kit. Thank you for coming in. Here's your welcome kit, right? Kind of A thing. It builds long term loyalty. And you can apply this like this. Instead of immediately asking people to schedule an appointment, start with low stakes commitments sometimes.

Would you like a free smile assessment to see how your teeth could look? Once they engage, they're more likely to take the next step. So that's it. Those are the eight principles involved. In, ground marketing. Now the final thought, trust takes time, but it pays off, right? The psychology behind ground marketing revolves around trust, familiarity, and reciprocity.

Now, when you apply these principles strategically, you create a system where people feel comfortable, engaged, and naturally drawn to your brand. The psychology behind ground marketing when it comes to all of this is that you really want to make lasting connections that convert into loyal patients.

Every decision, a potential patient makes is influenced by subconscious biases, emotions, and behavioral triggers. Always remember that. I hope this is helpful, now I want to dive into some examples right now on how you can utilize some of these principles from the get go. Right? So number one was the trust formula, right? And we discussed what it meant, Credibility, reliability, personal connection. And then you want to have Less of a perceived self interest, So if you're marketing at a local school event, you know, you're wearing a branded polo display, a well designed clutter free banner, and you simple expert backed messaging, So you can say stuff like, Hey, did you know, 42 percent of kids have cavities by age 11. Let's help your child avoid that, right?

If you're doing a specific presentation and parents are there. You want to frame yourself as an expert without feeling like a sales pitch and something like that will help you, but you want to say it in an emotional way, right? From the other things that we, learned from. So that would be more of the credibility.

You're establishing yourself credible when it comes to the trust formula. Remember it's credibility, reliability, personal connection. So credibility, that's a good way. Reliability is, Hey, if you partner with a local pediatrician, don't just drop off business cards. Like I've told you, right?

Instead. Set a recurring schedule. Dr. Smith, would it help if I came in once a month to answer parents questions about kids dental health? Now, this makes you reliable and on top of mind for referrals. More times out of not, they will say, Yeah, you know, we can create something for the community or we can do that.

We can partner up. Reliability. You're building something together. You're seeming reliable. And third is personal connection, right? Now, personal connection, an example of application for this is if a parent at a community event expresses concern about their child's teeth, don't just push a service.

Instead, relate personally. Say something like, I totally understand. I have young kids too. I always remind them that brushing is like feeding their teeth good food. Now, this builds emotional trust rather than feeling transactional. You're giving them something they can use when they get home too.

And then finally, self interest, An example of this is, instead of saying, we're offering a special on teeth whitening, would you like to book? Say, a lot of people are surprised how much whiter their teeth can get with just one session. I mean, Look at the before and after pictures. Do you want to see a quick before and after preview?

For you, we can make that happen, right? This picks curiosity and engagement leading to an easier yes. So these are things you can utilize, especially with the trust formula. Now, when it comes to number two, first impressions are everything. Remember the seven second rule, an example on how you can apply.

This is at a local health fair. Don't sit behind a booth looking at your phone. Never ever do that. I can't tell you. And we're going to discuss this in further on how to perform for optimal results at a booth in a later episode. But this is my biggest annoyance when you see someone doing this.

Stand up, make eye contact and offer a warm greeting, approach people with a natural question even, You can approach them with, Hey, how's it going? That's a question. But approach people. Have you ever seen what your smile could look like with Invisalign? Let me show you a quick digital preview, right?

And then you show them. This makes interactions engaging and welcoming rather than, just pushy. First impressions are everything. Stand up, make eye contact and offer a warm greeting. No. You have to turn it on for those hours. Okay. And like I said, we'll discuss that in a later episode.

Reciprocity. Number three, give first and they'll want to give back, right? An example of this is at a local gym, instead of saying, Hey, here's my business card, call us if you need a dentist, say, Hey, would your members find it helpful if we provided free sports mouth cards for youth athletes? For the young ones, If this is one of those type of gyms where they have a sports team and things like that, this works fantastic. They now feel obligated to reciprocate by recommending your practice when you do this. And it happens. Be as involved as you can be. Push the limits when it comes to this. Don't just sponsor something.

Don't just make free mouth guards. The name of the game is never convenience in these things, right? Have them go to your practice, have them come to your operatory, get fitted. You know what I mean? Have their families come in because you want their families to become your patients too. There's so much involved in this.

And like I say, this is going to be in a later episode as well on how to do this effectively, especially with, want to sponsor like teams and things like that. So number four is the power of, Familiarity. So the more they see you, the more they trust you. An example on how to do this is if you want to create an ongoing partnership, you can say, Hey, we'll be at a local coffee shop every Saturday, offering free coffee for new patients.

When you do the coffee shop strategy, which is found in the ground marketing course, you're able to set up at the coffee shop as much as you want. And when you do that, you're able to bring people there as much as you want to, and the coffee shop loves it. And by showing up repeatedly, potential patients become more comfortable with your brand.

Now, that's just one thing. Imagine showing up consistently at a gym, consistently at a school, at a senior home, at an apartment, where you feel, hey, I'm going to get a lot of new patients. I saw great results the first event, I'm going to continue to go. Be consistent. You want to be familiar with them. Five was social proof, right?

People follow the crowd. Instead of saying, hey, we offer family dentistry services. Say, did you know over a hundred families in this area trust us for their dental care? And this can be written in your marketing material because it leverages social proof and it makes people more likely to consider your practice.

Six with scarcity and urgency, people hate missing out. So instead of saying at a school event, we're offering free dental checkups. You can say, Hey, we're only offering 10 free checkup slots for families at this event. I can save you one right now. What's your name and number that creates urgency and drives immediate action.

So you can continue to do these things, When it comes to how to apply it, we're going to make specific episodes just for these events, just for these locations, just for these businesses. if you ever wondered. And wanted to know how to get into a school ground market and get the children, the teachers, the staff to come in.

We're going to do an episode on that, on gyms, on farmer's markets, on partnerships, on a lot of things, This is it. revealing it all here but if you want to know now and you want the strategies written down and you want the actual real life examples, you want to see me actually call some of these businesses, you want the Excel sheets, you want it all.

There's a ground marketing course, and in that ground marketing course, you're, it's like one on one with me, right? And I continue to add to that course as well. And I'm going to put a link to that in the show notes below. Or you can just Google the ground marketing course and see what everybody else is saying about it.

Now it's helped their practice as well. hope you enjoy this episode. Feel free to check out the ground marketing course. If you do, I'm excited to see you in there. And the next episode, we're going to be discussing setting up for success, ground marketing foundations, and we'll dive deeper into that.

Thank you so much for tuning in and I'll talk to you in the next episode.

Could your practice be unknowingly losing money through your website?

In this episode, I sit down with Ali Soufi from DocSites to unpack some of the most common yet costly misconceptions that might be holding your practice back. We dive deep into the often-misunderstood world of website costs, emphasizing the crucial roles of customization and local relevance in maximizing your online presence. Listen as we shed light on how vanity metrics can be deceiving and why a strategic partnership between marketing efforts and your website design is essential for boosting performance and cost-effectiveness.

Ali shares straightforward, actionable insights, including conducting simple audits to reveal hidden pitfalls and understanding marketing return on investment. He stresses the importance of seamless collaboration between marketing companies and dental practices, ensuring that websites don’t just exist but actively contribute to the bottom line. Discover how DocSites provides clear, affordable, and honest solutions tailored specifically for dental practices, ensuring transparency and consistency in pricing and service delivery. This episode is a must-listen for practice owners eager to optimize their digital footprint and secure a financially healthy future.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• How to identify and fix costly website inefficiencies in dental practices.
• The significance of customization and local relevance for website success.
• Why vanity metrics can mislead and how to focus on what truly matters.
• The importance of integrating marketing with functional website design.
• Tips for conducting simple yet effective website audits.
• How to accurately measure marketing return on investment.
• The benefits of collaboration between dental practices and marketing companies.
• Transparent and cost-effective website solutions offered by DocSites.

Tune in to discover how a well-optimized website can transform your dental practice's financial health!

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Sponsors: DocSites: Do you need a new website or marketing agency with no long-term contracts? Visit DocSites' website here and be sure to mention The Dental Marketer for $500 off! docsites.com

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Guest: Ali SoufiBusiness Name: DocSitesCheck out Ali's Media:‍

Website: docsites.com

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 818-616-3919

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Love the Podcast? Let Us Know How We're Doing on Apple Podcasts!

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Other Mentions and Links:

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Places:

Las Vegas ARIA

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Tools/Services:

Fiverr

Google Analytics

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Products/Brands:

Ferrari

Honda

iTero

Invisalign

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Host: Michael Arias‍Website: The Dental Marketer

Join my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/‍

Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society

‍
Please don't forget to share with us on Instagram when you are listening to the podcast AND if you are really wanting to show us love, then please leave a 5 star review on iTunes! [Click here to leave a review on iTunes]

‍

p.s. Some links are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that we have experience with these products/companies, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions we make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money unless you feel you need them or that they will help you with your goals.

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Dive into the world of ground marketing with our inaugural episode of the Ground Marketing Series, where I reveal its powerful impact in the dental industry!

Unlike traditional digital marketing strategies, ground marketing leverages face-to-face interactions to cultivate trust and boost brand awareness by meeting potential patients in their natural surroundings. This episode explores the psychological and behavioral triggers that underpin ground marketing's success, including the mere exposure effect, reciprocity principle, social proof, and emotional connection. These concepts are not just theoretical; I'm bringing them to life with compelling real-world examples, such as strategic daycare partnerships, corporate lunch and learns, and impactful community health fairs.

Tune in as I navigate through the tangible advantages of ground marketing, shedding light on how this approach consistently outperforms paid advertising in terms of cost-effectiveness and conversion rates. Ground marketing's sustainable practices pave the way for long-term growth, giving your dental practice a competitive edge. This episode is a treasure trove of insights that are not only actionable but designed to transform the way you think about patient engagement. Don't forget to tune in next week, where I'll delve deeper into the psychology that drives these successful ground strategies!

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• The distinctive value of ground marketing in the dental sector.
• How face-to-face interactions enhance trust and brand awareness.
• Understanding the mere exposure effect and its application.
• Insights into the reciprocity principle in marketing practices.
• Utilizing social proof to strengthen marketing efforts.
• Building emotional connections with potential patients.
• Successful case studies of ground marketing initiatives.
• The cost advantages and high conversion rates of ground marketing.
• How ground marketing ensures long-term sustainability over paid ads.
• A preview of psychological aspects in marketing strategies.

Let's jumpstart your practice's growth by listening to today's episode!

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Learn More About the Ground Marketing Course Here:

Website: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/the-ground-marketing-course-open-enrollment/

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Other Mentions and Links:

‍

Terms:

EDDM

PPC

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Marketing Tools:

Facebook Ads

Google Ads

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If you want your questions answered on Monday Morning Episodes, ask me on these platforms:

My Newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/

The Dental Marketer Society Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2031814726927041

‍

Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors)

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Michael: All right. So let's dive in to the first and foremost topic, which is introduction to ground marketing. We're going to get an overview of what ground marketing is and why it works. And then I'm going to give you real life examples of the success that ground marketing brings to a lot of our members. But I mainly want you to understand what ground marketing is.

So ground marketing. Is the practice of directly engaging with potential patients in their own environment, such as schools, gyms, coffee shops, and community events, and so forth, to create trust and increase brand awareness, unlike digital marketing, which relies on online advertising and social media ground marketing thrives on face to face interactions.

Relationship building and personal touch points that make businesses more approachable and trustworthy. It makes your practice, the go to practice in the community. It's approachable. They trust you. And there's a science behind ground marketing. Okay. It's not just, Hey, this is what a lot of us experience.

There's actually four specific things that ground marketing does now ground marketing leverages, several psychological and behavioral triggers. That make it uniquely effective. But the foremost are number one, the mere exposure effect. Now people develop a preference for things they see frequently. The more often potential patients encounter your brand and their daily lives, the more familiar and trustworthy you become so.

This also doesn't rule out any social media ads, any Facebook marketing, things like that, Google ads. It just helps as well. Just like ground marketing helps those types of marketing, mediums as well, it's touch points, but this touch point ground marketing.

It's insanely strong. It's a human to human interaction touch point. It's in their life in real time like in person. So this is an insanely strong touch point that often converts within just one touch point. So the mere exposure effect is one to reciprocity principle. When you give people something valuable for free.

For example, maybe something educational, free dental consultation, branded giveaways, things like that. Your time. They feel obligated to give back. And a lot of the times, it's done so by booking an appointment. And so, you're going to see a lot of the reciprocity principle. And ground marketing. It happens.

This is a beautiful principle that never ever fails. Never once in the history of history has anyone said, yes, I love that you're doing all this for me. Thank you so much. I appreciate you. No, I don't want anything of yours. Just help me out. That's it. Boom. It's not human. The reciprocity principle works and that is delved deep into ground marketing.

Three social proof. When people see others engaging and trusting your practice, they're more likely to do the same. So if more people like on social media, you start becoming popular on social media. They're like, Oh snap, people are following you. My friends are following you. My family's following you.

They go to you more than likely. The other person is also going to go to them too, right? The person who's talking. So social proof, same thing in ground marketing. When you're at events, when you're at lunch and learns, when you're at. specific locations and your booth or whatever is popping and more and more people are coming to you and everything like that, more and more people are talking about you in the community.

Social proof more in your community will go to you guaranteed. Social proof is huge So ground marketing does provide a lot of social proof. I'm just going to give you an example. If you're out at a school, or at a daycare and you're doing an event there and then you decide to post.

Pictures and things like that and tag some friends, tag some teachers. I mean, That's just creating a lot of social proof right there that not only are you a dentist in the community, are you an established practice in the community and you're helping out the community and you're helping out the children in the community now, but at the same time, other people are talking about you and how in that one event.

You did so much for the school, the daycare, the community, the children, all that stuff. And so that brings a lot of awareness, a lot of social proof, and it builds up a lot of credibility. And of course you get appointments and you get people coming into your practice. So that's number three and four, it builds an emotional connection.

So meeting someone in person, as we know, creates a stronger, more memorable impression than an online ad. And I'm going to take this out of context a little bit. For example. My wife and I, it was a long distance relationship. I'm from Texas. She's from California. And when we would date, right. I met her in person first, obviously.

And then after that we would email back in the day, it was more emailing and then, writing letters and then it became texting, that became like a huge thing. do you remember when you had to push like four, four times and then three to three and then two to two, just to like, you know, back then BRB, LOL, all that stuff was a lifesaver.

But anyways that was cool and all, but then when you saw each other in person, the emotional connection was a lot stronger. so same thing, right? A lot of the times they may see you on social media, they may see your ads, they may see all these things, but when they see you in person, the emotional connection is a lot stronger.

Same thing with concerts, events. That's why we have in person events when we go to a lot of these symposium or events or summits for our industry. But at the same time, concerts, same thing, right? You can listen to the band, you can listen to their album. As soon as it drops, you can be their biggest fan, but if you're never at a concert, are you that much of a fan, right?

But when you get there at the concert, you experience a whole different environment, a whole different vibe. When you get there at those events, for CE credits and stuff like that, you experience so much more, a stronger connection. So meeting someone in person, creates a stronger, more memorable impression.

And so that's huge when it comes to ground marketing. And that is probably the biggest thing is you want to create that connection with each person you meet while you're ground marketing. And it's powerful and there's a lot of real life examples of this, right? We have a lot of members in our ground marketing course who, give us examples on what they're doing. And honestly, they become extremely fantastic at ground marketing. And here's some real life success stories with ground marketing, right? There was a pediatric dental boom through daycare partnerships. Now the problem was pediatric dentists, they were struggling with low new patient numbers despite running social media ads, specifically Facebook ads. But the solution, instead of spending more on ads, they developed a ground marketing plan targeting daycare centers and pre K schools.

Now here was the execution. They offered free tooth talk sessions for kids, right? It was quick, fun brushing demos and so forth provided free emergency dental care for school injuries, right? Positioning them as a trusted expert. And they left signup sheets for parents at the front desk with an exclusive deal for their first visit.

Now the results were incredible. 42 percent of parents signed up for an appointment within 30 days. The practice gained 110 new patients in six months. And the cost, get this, the cost, 0 in ad spend, only time invested and personalized out in ground marketing. Case study number two, the Lunch and Learn Takeover.

This was a corporate partnership. The problem was general practice in a competitive urban market was struggling to attract and share patients. The solution, they shifted focus from online ads, Google ads, to direct engagement with local companies. Offering dental insurance benefits and a breakdown to help them understand more of the insurance.

And you're going to see that with corporations, especially employees from corporations. They just want to understand their insurance a lot more and a lot better. Now, the execution was we set up free lunch and learn sessions at companies, educating employees about maximizing their dental insurance benefits, offered a free whitening session or discounted, right?

For those who scheduled an appointment on the spot and then created a direct contact within the HR departments to become the go to practice for the employees. So a lot of the times the HR department wants to answer their questions, but they can't, they don't have all the knowledge. Especially when it comes to this, you do, or someone on your team does, and now you're the direct contact.

You can even mention, hey, we're the direct contact, even if they don't come to us. We just want to help you out when it comes to these benefits. And then boom, people will get sent your way immediately. Results, 18 scheduled appointments per session on average. I mean, This wasn't just a one time lunch and learn type of deal.

It was consistent. The practice added over 230 new patients in a year. Became the official dentist for three corporate offices, generating steady patient flow, they honed in and targeted corporation partnerships, right? Specifically corporations. And then number three was, community health fair domination.

And I love this one. This happens all the time, by the way, a startup, Practice with zero brand recognition needed new patients immediately, and they needed new patient momentum. The solution. Instead of expensive mailers, they partnered with local health fairs, setting up an interactive booth. So they offered specific things, right on the spot, oral healthcare screenings, fun, educational games.

They use specific giveaway, signup sheets. They captured emails and phone numbers for followups, for raffles and things like that. The results doing these health fairs, right? Which health fairs happen all the time in your community. Be a part of them, please. But the results were 97 patient leads in one weekend, 51 percent conversion rates to scheduled appointments.

And the cost for this, I mean, the booth and the materials and everything was just a one time thing, right? Once you get the table, the cloth, all the other fun stuff you want to get in later episodes, we'll discuss the necessities of what you need to get in your booth. All that was under 200 bucks for booth materials.

And it yielded over 30, 000 in revenue. Health fairs are extremely profitable, especially when it comes to new patients coming your way. So these are just a couple case studies of what some of the members in our ground marketing course have experienced. But I mean, there's many, many more experiences.

Facebook and ask what. Have you experienced with ground marketing? You'll see, or just type in ground marketing in any of these Facebook groups or, community forums, right for dentists and type in ground marketing, you'll see just exactly what these partnerships and health fairs and community events do for their practice and continue to do. So it's amazing. By implementing ground marketing practices can create trust, build stronger patient relationships, and see measurable growth without relying solely on expensive digital ads or billboards or EDDM or traditional marketing methods, right? Not to say that don't do all that stuff, but just see ground marketing as a strong, powerful arm in your marketing plan.

Now, ground marketing isn't just an alternative. Two digital marketing. It's a psychological driven human centric approach that leverages face to face interactions. It's building trust and community integration to drive business growth, right? It doesn't rely heavily on ads or passive outreach.

So I want you to keep that in mind. It's not about passive outreach. Ground marketing taps into real world engagement. You're forming lasting relationships that lead to higher conversion rates. Stronger loyalty and lower patient acquisition costs. It does require energy and effort and time. That is one thing.

Okay. It will require energy, effort, and time for you to go out there in your community and do these specific strategies. But ground marketing will always succeed, especially when you have those four things always in mind, right? The principle of reciprocity, the mere exposure effect, trust through personalization, right?

The emotional connection and then the power of social proof. These things are incredible, highly, highly, highly, integrated into ground marketing. as you're going to see, there's a lot of factors in this, right? I'm going to give you pros and cons on this. Why ground marketing works better than paid ads.

A lot of the times, trust building, ground marketing, right. it has high personal interactions. It creates deep trust and paid ads is low on that. On the trust building ads are often ignored or distrusted, right? How many ads have you ignored today? Probably a lot. You don't even keep count. But then how many people have you ignored who try to interact with you?

Maybe less than the ads, right? So especially if it's something that you need, the cost ground marketing is low. The only thing you need is time investment, but minimal spending, paid ads tie costly PPCs, right? Social media ads, mailers. That's high. So the cost is high on that. Ground marketing conversion rate is high, extremely high.

You get personal connections. You increase the likelihood of booking. And at the same time, you increase the likelihood of not just booking one person, but their family in that moment. When it comes to paid ads, it's low to medium, Ad click through doesn't guarantee conversions a lot of the time.

again, the cost is high and then the longevity of results. Ground marketing is sustainable. It has to be sustainable. I mean, They need to see you all the time. It's a relationship based marketing and it has long term value. Never stop ground marketing. Even once you're doing fantastic, you're doing amazing.

You're getting in as many new patients plus 10 every single month that you want. Continue to ground market. Maybe you can tone it down a little bit. But continue to ground market always, right? It's just good for the community. It's good for them to see you. And obviously at the same time, it's building stronger loyalty.

Now, when it comes to paid ads, longevity of results, ads stop working once the budget runs out. So as soon as your budget runs out, your ads. Won't be working. But ground marketing will always work, even if there is no budget there. So ground marketing is not just an alternative. Like I said, it's a fundamental shift in how your practice engages converts and retains customers.

It's a low cost, high impact and backed by human psychology. Okay. So that means it's not just the study of marketing. It's the study of humans and those two things, the study of marketing and the study of humans is what's implemented in ground marketing. That's why it works.

Real world interactions create stronger trust than any online ad ever could. So whether you're launching a new practice or you're looking to expand your patient base or solidify local dominance in your community, ground marketing should be a core strategy in your playbook. I hope you have a better view of what ground marketing is, and I'm excited to bring this series to the podcast.

next episode, we're going to be discussing the psychology behind ground marketing. And once you understand this, once you understand the formula, you can pass it on to whoever you're also teaching the formula to and ground marketing too.

But at the same time. Once you understand the psychology behind ground marketing, the principles, it will be a lot easier for you to do every single day, whether you're doing the specific strategy, or whether you're just engaging in your everyday life outside of your practice, you'll be able to start attracting new patients to your practice.

So I'm excited to discuss that with you in the next episode.

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Want to hear from someone who's been through it all, from associateship to acquisitions to a successful startup?

This episode dives into the remarkable journey of Dr. David Rice, who masterfully blends the art of dentistry with entrepreneurship. Based in St. Petersburg, Florida, Dr. Rice travels to East Amherst, New York, where he practices, providing a firsthand account of his dynamic lifestyle. He openly shares his transformative journey from being an associate to expanding through strategic acquisitions and establishing his own practice. Dr. Rice highlights the critical role of diverse experiences in refining his professional skills and how meticulously planning his career steps, from securing loans to choosing practice locations, formed the backbone of his success.

In our conversation, Dr. Rice provides valuable advice for budding dentists eager to navigate starting their own practice. He underscores the necessity of loan pre-approvals and efficient demographic targeting for marketing success. Teaming with trusted partners like Patterson and utilizing solid cash reserves are among the pillars he emphasizes for achieving sustained growth. Dr. Rice dives into common pitfalls, such as emotional attachments to locations and shallow decision processes prompted by social media allure. As the discussion nears its close, he turns adversity on its head by advocating for practice startups during economic downturns to capitalize on reduced costs.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• The intricacies of balancing career and location for optimal practice function.
• Proven strategies for successful dental practice acquisitions.
• How to leverage loans and cash reserves for business growth.
• Importance of detailed demographic targeting in marketing.
• Building beneficial partnerships and reliable business relationships.
• Essential preparation steps to avoid practice ownership pitfalls.
• The unique opportunities available when starting a practice during a recession.

Tune in to discover strategies and insights that could redefine your journey in dental practice ownership!

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Guest: Dr. David RiceBusiness Name: Ignite DDSCheck out David's Media:‍

Website: ignitedds.com

Instagram: instagram.com/ignitedds

Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/igniteddsinsiders

Email: [email protected]

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Love the Podcast? Let Us Know How We're Doing on Apple Podcasts!

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Other Mentions and Links:

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Podcast episodes:

David on Episode 159

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Groups:

The Making Of Facebook Group

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Businesses/Services:

Henry Schein

Benco

Bank of America

Patterson

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People:

Sandy Pardue (Classic Practice)

Jon Miller (Patterson)

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Host: Michael Arias‍Website: The Dental Marketer

Join my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/‍

Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society

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Please don't forget to share with us on Instagram when you are listening to the podcast AND if you are really wanting to show us love, then please leave a 5 star review on iTunes! [Click here to leave a review on iTunes]

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p.s. Some links are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that we have experience with these products/companies, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions we make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money unless you feel you need them or that they will help you with your goals.

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Did you know that up to 40% of calls could be going unanswered even during working hours in your practice?

In this Monday Morning Episode, I chat with Miles Beckett from Flossy, whose challenging the status quo with an audacious question—should you fire your staff to make way for cutting-edge AI technology? We explore the persistent staffing hurdles in dental offices and unveil how AI can redefine efficiency and service quality. Miles introduces us to Flossy's AI receptionist, Fiona, who skillfully handles appointment scheduling and patient inquiries while significantly reducing no-show rates. This conversation promises a riveting insight into the practical and financial advantages of incorporating AI into dental practices.

We examine how incorporating AI like Fiona not only economizes but also enriches team dynamics, fostering a more cohesive and productive work environment. With Miles’ expert insights, we tackle the looming question all dental entrepreneurs grapple with: How can AI propel my practice forward while maintaining high standards of human interaction? As we explore the potential future developments in AI, Miles provides a visionary roadmap that could very well be the blueprint for modernizing your practice. Get ready to rethink your staffing strategy, elevate your service offerings, and embrace the future of dentistry with open arms.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• The rationale behind considering AI technology in dental staffing.
• Challenges faced by dental practices regarding staffing and scheduling.
• Insights into Fiona, Flossy's AI receptionist, and her functionalities.
• Strategies for integrating AI to enhance team dynamics.
• Potential future developments of AI in dental operations.

Tune in now to discover how AI could augment your dental practice operations!

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You can reach out to Miles Beckett here:

Website: Flossy.com

Twitter/X: x.com/mbeckett

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Other Mentions and Links:

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AI Tools:

ChatGPT

Gemini

DeepSeek

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Education:

Board Exam

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If you want your questions answered on Monday Morning Episodes, ask me on these platforms:

My Newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/

The Dental Marketer Society Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2031814726927041

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Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors)

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Michael: Hey Miles, so talk to us. What's one piece of advice you can give us this Monday morning?

Miles: Thanks for having me, Michael. My piece of advice that's controversial is fire your staff.

Michael: Interesting. Fire your staff. Why so?

Miles: I'm obviously being a little bit facetious, but I think you should raise your bar.

I know that one of the biggest issues in dental right now is staffing challenges, both finding good staff, retaining staff, dealing with churn. And you know, it's oftentimes a rotating door at dental practices. And the way we think about things at Flossie is that we can help bring AI workers to help you out.

And those AI workers really make you reassess How good is this person doing? Do I really need them on this task? Maybe I can have them do something else instead.

Michael: So then what was the specific problem that you saw in practices that inspired you to create? I guess or the suite of it, right? Like Fiona and how does AI solve challenges that traditional front desk systems can't?

Miles: the new technology around generative AI, which is really the most recent type of AI that we're seeing out there. We've had things like machine vision and learn machine learning and stuff for a while now. It's created voice technology that allows you to build these agents that really sound like you're talking to a human.

So I would say over the last year the technology has improved dramatically such that a year ago we were looking at some of this stuff and it didn't really work. But within the last six months or so, all of a sudden, you could really build these agents that you could talk to that sound like you're talking to a human.

So we were kind of playing around with this technology. We had already built out a dental discount network that was kind of our core business before. so we were looking at it for some of our own uses. And we sort of had this aha moment where so many of the dentists that we work with were complaining again about this rotating door, particularly with the front desk.

And we were like, wow, actually, we could build a receptionist that would sound and function basically like a human. And so that was the first pain point that we really wanted to solve. And it's kind of shocking the amount of calls that go unanswered. not just nights and weekends where typically people are just getting a voicemail that kind of just goes nowhere.

But also during the day, about 30 to 40 percent of the calls coming into a dental practice during the day actually go unanswered.

Michael: Really interesting, yeah. That's a good, stat right there. Now when it comes to that, did you kind of see, okay, hey, these calls that are being unanswered, the nights and weekends and everything, it can kind of cover all this?

Or was there hiccups, problems with that? I mean, I would assume there's like a ton of questions that AI has to be prepared for, right? That a human can do, but I mean, how did you kind of overcome that?

Miles: it already works for nights, weekends, overflow. We have practices that, are starting to use it to fully replace the voice reception duties and to be able to have that staff focus on people that are actually in office.

And oftentimes front desk workers aren't just answering the phones. They're usually doing a ton of other things. So, I mean, the short answer is that there's an approach in AI development called rag, which basically allows you to marry, Specific proprietary technology databases to the LLMs that are already out there.

So things like chat, GPT or Gemini, for this new model that China released deep seek, these are all generic models. And then there's other. Companies that have built specifically models that generate voice for the conversational aspect of the call. But obviously they don't know anything about dentistry.

They don't know anything about your specific practice. and they certainly don't know anything about scheduling or scheduling software. So a lot of what we've built is leveraging those generic LLMs. And then adding in dental specific knowledge that comes from, hundreds of thousands of data points that we have from patient visits and patient interactions with dentists over the years.

And then also with the practice, ingesting their data to fine tune it even further to their practice. Both in terms of taking, like all their call log data and actually use that as part of the training for the model, and then also basically taking their rules around scheduling and their rules and information about the practice when they're open, when they're not, when the dentist is there.

And all of that is loaded into a database that is available to the AI in real time as a person is talking to

Michael: them. Have you seen any. Like hesitation on this as far as people taking it on were you kind of hesitant a little bit as far as taking it on And then like it, blew your mind out of the water kind of a thing

Miles: Yeah, I think definitely there's a lot of interest.

So, you know, we immediately had people signing up for the product right off the bat. However, in the initial conversation, for sure, there's a lot of skepticism. Part of that is because the technology is so new that if I were to tell you what I'm telling you now, that There's an AI you can talk to, and it knows everything about your dental practice and can book you.

Sounds a little bit science fiction. And then second, there are, you know, a lot of people broadly in the industry saying, Ah, we have an AI receptionist for this vertical or that vertical, for dentists, for doctors, for plumbers, blah, blah, blah. And frankly, a lot of that technology is not very good, so if people have had some prior experience, they've maybe had sort of a negative experience.

And the big reason for that, again, is that if you just sort of slap together a receptionist on top of a generic model, it's not going to work very well. You have to train it on the data brought for that industry. And even specific, like, the model that we have for a pediatric practice is different than the one for an orthodontics practice, as an example.

And then again, Providing other data, that is specific to that practice itself. So there's some like initial skepticism, but once they hear it, once they interact with it, once they talk to other customers that have been using it, they're like, Oh, wow, this is pretty awesome. And then once they actually get it live, you know, they're pretty blown away.

Michael: Yeah. So patients now expect, and you've seen this I'm sure, 24 7 communication, right? Right. Whether it's like, but on their time. Like, hey, I need it now, emergencies, whatever. So then, how does Fiona personalize patient interactions to improve that satisfaction of patients? And also, how does it help reduce no shows, or does it do that?

Miles: Yeah, no, for sure. Yeah. So I mean, there's kind of a few ways that she works. So, most calls coming into a dental practice are for scheduling. majority of the calls are about I need to schedule an appointment. So the primary use case for Fiona, In general, but then really specifically for after hours and overflow is There's a huge amount of call volume that dental practices are getting that literally goes unanswered and goes to voicemail. And what is that person doing? They're calling the next dental practice. That's what we all do. You don't get an answer. You go to the next one. You go to the next one. And so it's giving these dentists an opportunity to actually capture that patient and book them for appointment.

Yeah. And she can perfectly book appointments for new patients, answer questions about the practice. Again, it's, uncanny. The second is, as you're saying, no shows. So, people call in a lot and say they're running late or saying they need to reschedule or whatever. typically, that, happens during the day.

It also happens, interestingly, a lot before the practice opens in the morning. So, practices will often see a lot of morning no shows and it's because they didn't, hear from the patient. So, She's also capturing those and rescheduling the patient, and so when the doctor gets in, their calendar is actually correct.

So I would say those are kind of two of the main use cases. And then there's a lot of question answering, right? So there's, in a pediatric setting, there's, know, how's the first visit going to be? Is it going to be painful? What's it going to be like for my child? They've never been before.

If it's a person that has like an immediate issue, can you get me in today? What is your schedule look like? What's the procedure going to be like? I've never had a root canal before. And she can answer all that. So she's actually trained on again a massive clinical data set as well.

In fact, she technically passed the board exam. so she's very knowledgeable about dental information as well.

Michael: Wow, that's incredible, man. So then I can see how this improves the call, right? It also, I'm assuming saves the practice owner, the business, a lot of money. in some many ways. So can you share a quick example of numbers that illustrate how fast practice could see the ROI?

With Fiona.

Miles: Yeah, I mean, the ROI with Fiona, literally, if you get one patient booking that you otherwise would not have gotten, she pays for herself that much. Okay. also to give you another example, Fiona costs about one tenth of What a human employee would cost, okay, to answer the phones.

So we're talking about a massive cost savings. Above and beyond even the alternative that some practices do, which is like outsourcing to other countries. It's less expensive than that as well. So, the ROI is effectively immediate, especially given the are getting such a large percentage of calls going unanswered.

Michael: Interesting, man. So is it like tiers?

So,

Miles: yeah, we, and again, we really think About these A. I. S. As employees as co workers. And so it basically comes down to like hours of utilization effectively. But you know, like the lowest here is basically nights and weekends and overflow coverage. The middle tier is sort of during the day in a copilot capacity.

And then the highest here is just fully taking over all the calls being the first point of contact broadly. That's how we sort of think about it. Yeah. And as we think about all these agents too, I mean, the thing that's kind of cool is that you can interact with them as well. So you can actually have a one on one with Fiona, just like you would with an employee where you can provide her feedback in chat or in talking to her.

And then that feedback that you give actually gets incorporated to how she functions going forward.

Michael: Interesting. I like that. So then how does this, I mean, maybe you might've seen it miles. Maybe you haven't, does it improve like the team dynamics? Is it more like, Hey, this may take over your job and then the team members are iffy about it, you know what I mean?

Miles: Yeah, no, I think it's been fine. I mean, we think of each of these A. I. S. as being co pilot to the workers that are there. And I think the reality is for any practice in particular that's growing or if you're buying other locations, you're constantly hiring more staff. You also, again, there's, a huge amount of churn with dental employees.

So oftentimes you have people quitting and then you're hiring new people. So I think what this really lets you do is have a leaner team, not because you're firing people, but because you don't have to hire quite as many people. And for the staff that's there, they can focus on what they, you know, ultimately got into the business for, which is on patient care.

You know, most of the staff in the practice are dental techs or hygienists. And oftentimes even front desk people like might even have a credential like that, and they're sort of doing double duty. And so now they can really focus on delivering patient care and also the in office interaction.

So talking to the patient that's actually there at the front desk and that you know is getting a treatment, right there in the practice

Michael: Yeah, I can definitely see this also a benefit for the startup practice, right? Like somebody who's on a lean budget starting up and then They just need to have someone in the front right now, kind of covering, maybe somebody last minute didn't show up for work because that happens quite a bit.

They ghosted him, right? Or something like that. Yeah, right. They just show up and this, is a really good, do you feel like this can a hundred percent replaced? The front desk or more like, Hey, no, we're still going to need somebody there.

Miles: I would say that within six months, 99. 9 percent of the phone calls will be able to be handled fully by Fiona.

cause she's already can handle. 80 percent of the use cases right now, because again, most of the calls are scheduling related. There will be some edge cases, of course, and those edge cases will require a person, but it's going to be very few and far between. I think it'll be a question of how the practices want to use her and some may be.

Just want her in an overflow capacity, regardless of her capabilities. And that's fine. And obviously there's very large DSOs that have call centers. I think we're going to see heavy adoption by them. You know, we're talking to all the major DSOs, rapidly. Yeah. And I think as we think about these other agents that we're building, we really think of it as a suite.

Of AI agents for dental practices that all work together. So as a simple example, we'll be launching an insurance verification AI that will automatically verify insurance either through direct connections with insurers, or actually by calling, because sometimes you still can't get the data via their APIs or publicly available sources.

And you actually need to call well, great. We have call technology where that AI can just call. The insurance company and now get the verification. And so you can imagine where a patient calls. They talked to Fiona. They're booking to give their insurance info now behind the scenes. Our insurance AI is verifying that data and providing it to the dentist.

So they now have a package all ready to go for when that patient shows up. And so for each of these different ones, we're thinking about them working together. And I think in different domains, they'll be able to do, you know, more or less of the work. Some things are more complex, the one that we're thinking about for helping you run your practice, which is kind of like, Sort of a business intelligence product.

But again, in the form of like an AI that's actually giving you recommendations, it's not going to be perfect and you're still going to have to run your practice, but it may actually take over the work of, you know, some of the consultants that you use and maybe you can do it a little more efficiently.

Michael: Wow, man. Oh, so you guys got a lot, got a lot going on, which is great. It's exciting. So for practice owners who want to explore this further, where can they learn more about Fiona and Flossie? And do you guys offer any type of like demos or trials?

Miles: Yeah. Yeah. So they can just go to flossie. com F L O S S Y.

com. there's a bunch of info about Fiona on there right now. We offer demos. And we have like Sort of a trial period that we can offer people in, some cases as well.

Michael: Awesome, Miles. I appreciate your time. And if anyone has further questions, you can definitely find them on the Dental Marketer Society Facebook group, or where can they reach out to you directly?

Miles: I am on Twitter or X, I guess it's called. I feel like we'll always call it Twitter. Um, and my handle should be M Beckett on Twitter.

Michael: And so all that's going to be in the show notes below. So definitely check it out. And Miles, thank you for being with me on this Monday morning episode.

Miles: Awesome. Thanks so much, Mike. I really appreciate it.