Below, we’ve compiled some of the key points discussed in the Jameson Files Episode 130. To enjoy the full conversation between our very own Carrie Webber and Nate Porter, you can watch on YouTube or listen to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or Spotify.

https://youtu.be/R6tkUfzI8dg

Nate Porter Talks About Improvements You Need to Make on Your Dental Practice Website

Carrie Webber:

I'm so glad to be joined once again by my teammate and Jameson's Chief Marketing Officer, Nate Porter, because today we're going to be talking about a very popular topic in dental marketing. Your dental website. And what website mistakes to avoid. So if you're taking a look at your website and curious how you can make it better and what needs attention, this is for you.

Nate Porter:

Yeah, so I tried to pick some things that were really unique to 2021. It seems like every few years there's something that changes or shifts in web standards. Ten years ago we were talking about mobile responsiveness and now it’s become mainstream, crucial to your “core web vitals,” which is Google's tools to identify how your website performs on different devices and things like that. 

Website Mistakes to Avoid #1: Extras Penalized by Google

Pop-ups

But the first one that I want to talk about today is something I saw a lot during COVID, and that's interstitial screens or “pop-ups.” We know that when Google’s bot sees that someone came to your website and there was something blocking their user experience, they can penalize your website for that.

Carrie Webber:

What do you mean by a pop-up in this respect?

Nate Porter:

There's a couple of different examples that I see a lot. One is simply a notice about COVID changes. You see on a lot of websites that have a pop-up telling you what you can expect during COVID and how the office is taking these precautions. And it's blocking the user from seeing the website because it's covering a part of the screen. And that's something useful, and Google doesn't mind if you do that for a couple of weeks. But if it's a year later and you still have that on your website, you're getting crushed.

Carrie Webber:

So how is Google penalizing you?

Nate Porter:

Google looks at that and, you know, nobody knows exactly how things are weighted, but certainly on mobile devices, they penalize anything that's going to interfere with someone seeing or engaging with your website content. And there's different levels of penalization. 

Chat Tool

For instance, another example I've been seeing an explosion of recently is these chat tools. So you see these chat tools where you visit the website and this chat tool takes up, you know, 30% or even sometimes close to 100% percent of the screen, especially on mobile. And it's interfering with your ability to engage with a site. That's another thing that can be penalized. It's fine to have chat tools on your website. They just shouldn't take the screen. They should ideally load in a minimized view.

Carrie Webber:

When you use that kind of function, how do you feel like it should best be configured?

Nate Porter:

Google's algorithm always goes by what's best for the user. So you don't have to be a scientist or researcher to know, you just have to think about things from a patient's experience. And it makes sense, if you logically think about it, that if a brand new visitor comes to your website as a result of a search, interrupting them with a big pop-up that says, “Would you like to schedule an appointment today?” isn't the best experience for them. They're going to want to learn more before they decide when they want to interact with you. And so it’s  best to have it be minimized if you're going to have a chat tool.

Be Sure to Measure Effectiveness

Of course, your marketing team needs to be tracking how your site is being used. Did you used to get a phone call, but now people are interacting via chat? Or whatever.

Jameson Files Episode 129 - Dr. Todd Christy Discusses Social Media Success

https://youtu.be/Obe6Ta0tBHA

Below, we’ve put together a compilation of some of the key points discussed in Episode 129. To enjoy the full conversation between our very own Carrie Webber and Dr. Todd Christy, you can watch on YouTube or listen to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or Spotify.

Introducing Dr. Todd Christy—Social Media Champion

Carrie Webber:

You know, I have followed your journey and you have been such a fun presence on social media for your dental practices over the years. So I appreciate the chance to pick your brain because we at Jameson do a lot in the marketing realm as you know, and we’re firm believers in making the most of the channels and resources that we have available to us in our businesses, dental practices not excluded. But first I would love to have you share with our audience a little of your dental journey and how you started into industry and how you got where you are today in your practicing life?

Dr. Todd Christy:

Well, I know it's surprising for me, graduating 25 years ago from University of Detroit and moving out to a small town. I grew up in a big city outside of Detroit and moved down to this small town with two stop lights, got my dental license on a Tuesday, bought the practice on a Friday, and got married two weeks later. So it was always busy. But through the 25 years, acquiring four other practices, merging them into our original—the office I'm sitting in now, which is our main operatory facility here in Berrien Springs. 

And then, seven years ago this September, my partner Eric and I bought another practice. Then he wanted to sell the building. And so we bought one in town and now have two locations. Recently we merged again and brought another dentist in, so we now have three dentists within the Berrien Dental ranks. 

And it's fabulous to work in a group practice. I never thought I'd get into that, but it really is great to have those assets and other team members. So each of us in a group practice has their own kind of specialty areas that we cover. And for me, I have been honed in on social media and team training, which I learned a lot from working with you and the team there at Jameson. The social media is something that I really enjoy and am always trying to do better.

Carrie Webber:

You know, when I look at your social media channels and your content that you post, you have this great combination that I love. It's a combination of education and of fun that I believe represents your personality and, more than likely, your practice personality. When you really started getting serious about your social media as an arm of communication for outreach to your community, what were (and what continue to be) your primary goals of what you hope to accomplish through your efforts?

Dr. Christy’s Primary Social Media Goals

Personality and Brand

Dr. Todd Christy:

Well, I think you're right. We try to have a blend of not only the clinical side, but also really connecting with our patients. I've learned over the last few years the importance of looking at what the culture is of our practice. Actually, in the last few weeks we hired new team members. And I said, “Please go stalk us on Facebook or Instagram, or look at the website, because I want you to understand what the culture is here at our office.” Anyway, when we went too far with clinical stuff, it got a little bit too boring. because one thing about social media that I've learned is, it's social, and people want to be able to respond to something.

And even now after 10 plus years that we've been on, before I post anything and hit send, I always just read it to somebody else to make sure it sounds right, so it's still on brand. Even though my name's on the sign, I still want to make sure we're sticking to what our core is and what our culture is. And that's a big thing for me as to what I focus on.

Heaven forbid if the doctor was to pass away. Many are surprised to know that a lot of the leases are binding to the successors or heirs. So just like a will in an estate planning exercise, if they haven't put in the proper protections to cover themselves or their estates, what happens?

Heaven forbid if the doctor was to pass away. Many are surprised to know that a lot of the leases are binding to the successors or heirs. So just like a will in an estate planning exercise, if they haven't put in the proper protections to cover themselves or their estates, what happens?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F8S_pGqR_s

Carrie Webber:

Welcome to the Jameson Files. I'm Carrie Webber, and I'm so glad that you're joining us today for another episode. If you're a part of our Jameson Files community, thank you so much for staying connected with us. I'm excited to be with my teammate and friend Dru Halverson, the chief of advisor development here at Jameson. I really appreciate you being with me again, Dru.

Dru Halverson:

You are welcome! Thank you so much for having me.

How can you improve the hygiene aspect of your dental practice?

Carrie Webber:

You know, what I wanted to talk about today is something that we haven't really started diving into in the podcast. And I know that it is a top area of concern or opportunity. A lot of doctors that I talk to, one of their big questions is how do they improve the hygiene aspect of their practices? And that’s not necessarily the actual care that's being provided. We know that they're going to give good care, right? It's more about how do we do this more effectively, more efficiently, and how do we become more productive in the hygiene departments of our practices? How do we engage our hygiene team at another level to help us with the overall patient experience and relationship with us? So I wanted you to come and join me today so that we could talk about high-performing hygiene, what that means in general terms, but also how we can take our practices from being good in the hygiene realm to being great.

So Dru, when practices share that they want to improve in hygiene, what are some questions that you ask them? When they share that as a goal, that they want to go from good to great in hygiene, what are some questions that you ask to really start getting a sense of where their opportunities are?

Determine what your practice’s hygiene strengths and weaknesses are.

Dru Halverson:

Well, I want to know what weaknesses and strengths they see in their hygiene department. And I can always get a lot of strengths and some really good weaknesses from that question alone. So if you can draw a line down the middle of the page and put strengths on one side and weaknesses on another or opportunities that you see, then you can have a really good list of what to work on and what to pat yourself on the back about. And that makes a big difference. I always want to know how patients feel at the end of their appointment. Are they checking in with their patients? Are they always asking the patients, how was the appointment? Also do they continue to stay with you and return on a regular basis? Do they love coming to the practice for their hygiene appointments? That is a good question to ask them: what is the retention rate and how many patients are past due? And then also, I like to know treatment acceptance from not only restorative care, but also hygiene care. Is it where you want it? Is it high enough? And if it isn't, what's causing that problem?

Carrie Webber:

I love the recommendation of starting from where you are right now, in terms of where do you find yourself to be strong? Where do you find yourself needing to work on things? I think really high-performing teams start to rise to the top, because they have this openness to not only give themselves pats on the back, but they're comfortable with being uncomfortable, meaning they're not afraid to talk about and be vulnerable about the areas that they need to grow. 

Dru Halverson:

We all tried really hard to be great hygienists and doctors, right? However, that doesn't mean that we're perfect. And yet, it's sometimes hard to accept that maybe I could improve. Maybe I could do better. Maybe I could do something else to elevate my care of the patient.

Carrie Webber:

One hard conversation that I've been having quite a bit recently is that team members who have been on a team or have been practicing dentistry for many years can develop a resistance to changing the way they do some...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3QIJ3Zy-9o

Carrie Webber:

Welcome to the next episode of the Jameson Files. I'm Carrie Webber and I'm your host. And I'm so glad to have you back with us for another informational, exciting, and what I think is going to be a very fun episode. I'm really thrilled to have a good friend as our guests that I'll introduce in just a moment, but I do want to encourage all of you that support the Jameson Files community to continue to bring guests and resources and topics that are most important to you. So I want to encourage you to reach out to us here at Jameson and give us your requests and any guests that you want to see in the future. Any topics you want us to cover and tackle for you and with you. That's what we want to be here for.

Also, we appreciate you introducing the Jameson Files to others in the dental community. You can follow us on our Facebook page and watch us live, just like those of you that may be joining the live stream today on the Jameson Facebook page, or you can watch the videos on Facebook or YouTube. And then if you are a podcast person, you can subscribe to the Jameson files anywhere that you listen to podcasts, iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, you name it. So join us, stay tuned in, and let us know what you want to hear in the future. 

Digital Dentistry with Dr. Chad Duplantis

So today we're talking digital dentistry and I'm really excited to have my friend, Dr. Chad Duplantis of Fort Worth, Texas, joining us today to talk about this and talk about his journey and what successes he has experienced over time, and perhaps some of the lessons he's learned. So Chad, thank you so much for being with me today.

Dr. Chad Duplantis:

I'm so glad to be here, and you know what? I gotta tell you a story. I'm so glad that we finally got this worked out because I'm sitting here in a closet and I'm watching live on Facebook. And you know, we’re having some technical difficulties and I'm watching you on Facebook and I'm getting this delay. But now all of a sudden it worked out, and I can see you, and we're both actually moving at the same time now on my screen. And so I think the technological difficulties have gone beyond us. So we're good.

Carrie Webber:

See technology, technology. It's a part of our world these days. I mean, we just got to live with it and go with it. Right?

Dr. Chad Duplantis:

Exactly. And I usually don't wear this silly headset.

Carrie Webber:

You look so serious. I mean, you look legit, like, you've got the headset, you've got all the things. So the backstory on Dr Duplantis and how we know each other—we've known each other for several years now through times when we were speaking on the same courses. A lot of opportunities have come your way in the last several years as a speaker, as a key opinion leader, as an instructor. And I've had the privilege of seeing you speak and spending time with you out in the world and watching you teach and seeing what value you're bringing to the dental community. A lot of what you speak on and teach on is digital dentistry. And I'm curious to learn a little bit of your backstory about your journey in dentistry. What led you to incorporate so much digital dentistry, the technology that you have in your practice? What is it that you find led you to make those decisions for how you practice? And how do you go from making that decision to being the teacher and leader in those topics that you are today?

Dr. Duplantis’ Backstory

Dr. Chad Duplantis:

Yeah. So digital dentistry for me goes back to about 2004. I graduated from dental school in 1999. And at that point in time, you know, same-day dentistry was really becoming a hot topic. It was fun. It was a way to possibly eliminate a lab bill, and you know, I learned a lot because in 2004 we incorporated our first piece of digital technology in the office, which was a scanner and a mill combined. But it was an ultimate failure.

Carrie Webber: Welcome to the next episode of the Jameson Files. I’m Carrie Webber and I’m your host. And I’m so glad to have you back with us for another…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMAdvjuh28o

Carrie Webber:

Welcome to The Jameson Files. I'm your host, Carrie Webber. And thank you for joining us once again for another episode, thanks to our Jameson files community for continuing to follow along with us. However, you listen to podcasts, whether that's iTunes, Spotify, Google play, or if you're following, following along with us on YouTube or on our Facebook page. Thanks so much if you're with us live today on the Jameson Facebook page, happy St. Patrick's day. And thank you for being with us during this busy time of the year. Today. I'm thrilled to have with me, my friend, my teammate, and an amazing student and teacher of the subject we're talking about today, Amy Logan Parrish. So thank you for being with us.

Amy Logan Parrish:

Thanks for having me. It's my lucky day on St. Patrick's day to be here.

Fanatical Passion for Customer Service Excellence

Carrie Webber:

For those of you that may not know Amy, Amy is our chief development officer here at Jameson. She helps us lead our team in striving for excellence in the work that we do. and she also speaks on the subject that we're going to be talking about today, which is customer service. This is a subject that both Amy and I are a little fanatically passionate about—not only for our own business, but in helping dental businesses, dental teams across the country learn how to improve their customer service, to see the value in pursuing excellence in customer service and the impact that it can have on their patients’ experiences with them and the practice’s health and success overall. 

What do your patients really want?

So the subject today is what your patients want. Customer service must for your practice. Now, Amy, I have lots of questions for you. and I think I know what most of your answers will be, but I'm looking forward to being pleasantly surprised in some of those questions. 

But first I thought we could start on what the patients want. There are some studies that we had discovered about patients' perceptions and expectations in the medical realm in general. I think it's safe to say a lot has come to the forefront in terms of customer service and care and has adapted through the past year, but a lot of the reasons why that’s getting such a positive response from patients remains the same over history. Meeting expectations, if not exceeding expectations has an impact on your practice or on your business. 

So let's start with a few of the research organizations that we have found surveys and results from. Deloitte is one that does a lot of research in the medical realm about patients' experiences, and the impact that has on the organizations that the physicians work for. They did a study on the value of the patient experience, and what they found was that hospitals that were receiving high ratings for patient  experience had higher profitability. Overall, they were earning disproportionately more than those organizations with lower ratings, and they also found that a highly-engaged staff boosted those overall experiences, which really supports what we at Jameson teach. Each and every member of your team can make or break your patients' experience. So we're not just making that up. That is founded in what they are discovering and conversations with patients with the consumer of what they want and need from their care. 

Now, in addition, in a separate research study by Deloitte, they were asking questions about what patients were looking for in their experience with physicians. And the results came back that they again were looking for customer service-oriented care. They wanted high touch. They wanted that engagement with their doctors, with their team members. They wanted high quality. And not just in the care itself. In the tools and the technology in the facility, they wanted and were seeking out high quality. And they wanted highly interactive,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njyJl1hlf1o

Welcome to the Jameson Files

Carrie Webber:

Welcome to the Jameson Files. I'm Carrie Webber, and I'm your host. Thank you so much for joining us once again for another episode. We're thrilled. If you're here joining us live on Facebook, thank you for popping in and being a part of our live stream. If you're following us on our podcast channels and listening to this through iTunes, Google Play, or Spotify, thank you for being a part of our Jameson Files community. We would encourage you to please subscribe if you haven't already to follow when we get updates, and invite your dental peers to join the community as well. We want to provide content and information that is helpful for you and your continuous growth as a dental professional. So thank you for joining us and for spreading the word. I am so excited to have with us today Jameson's founder and my mother, Cathy Jameson.

And I asked Cathy to join us today because what we have all gone through—as a community, as a society, as a whole—over the past months has been nothing less than extraordinarily stressful, both in our personal lives and in our professional lives. We’ve experienced a great deal, even continuing today, and whether we realize it or not, the results of extensive stress in our lives have a long-term impact. A lot of things that people, practices, teams, groups are experiencing now are the results of long-term experience with stress.

And for those of you that may not know Cathy, Mom has spent the majority of our lives studying stress and how to control stress. And we're very fortunate that she chose dentistry as her point of focus on how to manage stress and control stress in our daily lives. And so I asked you to be a part of today's episode so that we could speak of your lifelong study on stress and talk about not only what we are seeing happening in our dental realm, but also talk about some ways that we as individuals and as teams could do some work, manage it more effectively to get it under control. So let's start with what stress is and share with everyone, if you could, what you've learned in terms of how we could start to identify what stress is and how we may be experiencing it in our lives.

Learn to Identify and Manage Stress

Cathy Jameson:

Great. It's a great place to start. Stress. We often use the term "stress" and the whole, "I'm so stressed; this is so stressful." And so it is important to start with what is stress. Stress is a person's response, either physiologically or psychologically to anything that's impacting them from the outside. And an interesting point about stress is that each individual responds to different stimuli in different ways. Your response may be totally different than my response when we face the same thing. There's nothing good or bad about that. It's just that because we are different different people and we're individuals, we're going to have a different response. And so one of the first things that each of us needs to do is to stop and identify what causes stress for us.

Identify the Source

Now you would do this individually, but you would also do this as a practice. If you're having problems in practice. If you're having discomfort in the practice, just stop and say, “What is causing this discomfort? What's causing the commotion? What's causing the disharmony?” Because the first step in problem solving is to identify what is the problem in the first place. That's the first step in stress management to identify what is it that causes stress in the first place. Once you've identified what's causing stress, the next step is finding ways to resolve that. 

So why is so-and-so upset? Not to judge that person, but to realize that each person's going to respond differently. That doesn't make them good or bad, strong or weak. We're just different.

Types of Stress Responses

And so now let me also make one other point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJxNygKrOXo

Carrie Webber:

Hello everyone. And welcome to another episode of the Jameson files. I'm Carrie Webber with Jameson and I'm your host. And I'm so grateful to those of you that are joining us live on Facebook, but also to those of you that continue to be a part of our Jameson files community and follow along through our podcast channels, YouTube, and even the Jameson website. I am so thrilled on this frigid February day to be joined by the one and only Dr. Richard Madow. And for those of you that, if for some reason you don't know who Dr. Madow is Dr. Madow and his brother, Dr. David Madow have founded the Madow center for dental practice success, where they continue a lifelong purpose in pursuit of helping fellow dentists in our profession, fulfill their careers to the best of their abilities. for those that work for me. 

So, my greatest memories of the Madow brothers is through their 25 year run of the best seminar ever, a KCBSC. and through that great memories have happened for many, many dental professionals, and they are continuing their pursuit of continuing education and helping to support dentists through Dr. Madow's articles webinars, and through his support in the work they do that you can find on Madow.com. but today I have him for us on the Jameson files as a very special guest. So Dr. Madow, thank you so much for being with me today,

Dr. Richard Madow:

Carrie, it is absolutely my pleasure to be here. I'm really excited. I've known Kathy and John for decades. They've always been just the most upbeat, kindest, most ethical, most meaningful people, you know, in dentistry, they're all kinds of crazy people in dentistry, of course. And, I've just always been, you know, always had the greatest respect for them. Always been so much fun to be around them. And you and Jess have done an amazing job of taking Jameson management into the future for the next generation. you know, staying relevant, all these other great things that many businesses aren't able to pull off. So congratulations on the fantastic job you've done.

Carrie Webber:

Thank you. And, you know, before we get into content and education, I do have to make a nod to the instruments in Dr. Madow's background. and just say, as a fellow musician, it's going to be all we can do to just not turn this thing upside down and start singing songs and naming off bands and music, history and trivia. So from one musician to another... much respect for you and your brother and all the work that you do and continue to do for our profession. we're honored to, to know you and to be able to have this time together, and many hopes for great success and continuing work in the future.

Carrie Webber:

You know, and if you give me about a week, I might be able to bang out a song on a piano, but then, you know, I've seen your stuff on social media. You have me be on the instrumentation without a doubt.

Dr. Richard Madow:

Well, yeah, but it's all about the Sidney and it's, I have great memories of Kathy belting out this song, Oklahoma, from the great play on stage at TBC. I think it was after she had finished an incredible lecture was about to get a standing ovation. And she said, I just want to let everybody know where I'm from. And then boom took it to the next level. That was great,

Carrie Webber:

Which was the perfect platform to do it. You and, and Dr. David were notorious for some really great musical numbers and bits during that. And you continue that now I've seen some of your great stuff that you're putting out on Facebook. So it's fun. I love that about you guys. I love that.

Dr. Richard Madow:

All right. So I guess we better start talking about dentistry a little bit, huh? Yeah,

Carrie Webber:

I know. I know. Sorry, everybody. You've just got to hang with us. We have a lot of shared interests, like music and dentistry. You don't see a lot of that. A lot of those common,