New Patient Group Podcast

Episode 100 - A Tribute to the Outcasts, Rebels, Forward-Thinkers and Innovators Transforming the People Business of Orthodontics

• Brian Wright • Season 7 • Episode 100

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www.NewPatientGroup.com
The Future of Online Marketing and Practice Consulting. There are three essentials to operating a practice and a business at the highest of levels. We include them all under one roof to help you streamline them all. They include: 1) Leadership and Culture. 2) Team Training. 3) Online Marketing. Leadership and culture services all include business coaching, life coaching, career coaching for your team, and much more. Team training focuses on training your team on skill-sets that include sales, hospitality, customer service, verbiage, presentation, consumer psychology and more. We then teach them how to apply those skill-sets to the new patient phone call, new patient experience, digital workflow, treatment coordinator exam, doctor exam, financial case presentation, pending treatment, observation and also every consumer interaction they will have with patients that have bought treatment from you. Online marketing services include a fully personalized approach that customizes everything according to the vision you have and the business you want to be. Services include custom website design, search engine optimization, social media marketing and management, youtube video marketing, logo creation, professional blogging and more!

www.WrightChat.com
We answer your new patient phone calls, speak just  like own your own employees, remote into your management software and schedule new patients according to your protocols. We can answer all your new patient phone calls or the new patient calls you are missing. We are a fully personalized new patient call answering concierge. All agents are USA based, highly trained and once you experience our service you will never go back.   

Trusted by the Best: WrightChat and/or New Patient Group customers include:

Dr. Stu Frost
Dr. Drew Ferris
Dr. Alyssa Carter
Dr. John Grahm
Dr. Regina Blevins
Dr. Jep Paschal
Dr. David Boschken
Dr. Bryn Cooper
Dr. Jamie Reynolds
Dr. Donna Galante
Dr. Bob Skopek
Dr. Sean Carlson
Dr. Boyd Whitlock

Today's Podcast:

Discover the playbook that's catapulting orthodontic practices to the top, as we celebrate a milestone 100th episode packed with reflections and revelations. Join us for an insider's look at our vibrant mastermind event and find out how a robust, playful culture is revolutionizing the New Patient Group. In this landmark episode, we draw from the discipline of sports to show you why continuous, repetitive staff training is your ticket to business and personal excellence. It's not just a podcast; it's a tribute to the dental pioneers who dare to reimagine every patient interaction and reach new heights in their practices.

Dive into the strategies that fortify your dental practice against economic headwinds and learn how to foster resilience and growth. We'll share stories of how a strong company culture, dedicated team training, and strategic organic digital marketing make all the difference. Hear how personalized patient experiences are shattering conversion and retention ceilings, and celebrate with us the power of community, as seen at our recent mastermind event. This episode isn't just about looking back; it's a roadmap to future-proofing your practice and ensuring your business thrives through thick and thin.

Ready to transform customer interactions into your most valuable asset, especially during challeng

Speaker 1:

Welcome aboard the new patient group flight deck. Less chaos Check. Less stress. Check Less advertising costs. Check More personal and financial freedom. Ah, check, all right. Business checklist completed. Let the takeoff roll begin. Welcome to season seven of the new patient group audio experience, a podcast dedicated to forward thinking doctors wanting to learn innovative ways to run their business today so your practice can achieve new heights tomorrow. And now your host. He's the founder and CEO of new patient Group, managing partner of RightChat and a trusted motivational speaker for Invisalign, orthophi and others, brian Wright.

Speaker 2:

Hey, new Patient Group and RightChat Nation. Welcome inside the broadcast booth, brian Wright here, and welcome in to episode 100 of the New Patient Group podcast. You've seen me or heard me talk about episode 100 and what I plan to do for it over the past couple seasons, as a tribute to our family members and just the outcasts, the people that think differently, the ones that are doing things completely different, challenging the status quo, taking what's always been normal in orthodontics and others as well status quo taking what's always been normal in orthodontics and others as well, other industries as well and really taking it face on to say no, it shouldn't be that way. Why is it that way? All the way from A to Z, from outside your doors, all the way through inside your doors, and today's going to be a good one. We're just getting back from our mastermind event a couple of weekends ago. As I do this podcast today it'll be. It was our third doctor and spouse event and I got to tell you, uh, and and speaking of that, rob Schaefer shout out, I am sporting your, let me put. Let me put the screen down If you're watching on YouTube, all right, that's a.

Speaker 2:

That's a podcast for another time and it has become a well, somewhat of an ongoing joke inside the new patient group family and I, you know, I, I tell Kristen all the time it's my wife, for those of you don't know. I tell her all the time that the day I stopped making fun of you, the day I stopped giving you a hard time, is the day you need to worry, and one of the things and one of the ways I've always shown my love and appreciation is is just giving people a hard time. You know, making fun of them and and I look at the more and more our customers make fun of me and and shout out Mark Olson. So, dr Mark Olson, the other day I'm on Instagram and now our customers are started shooting content to make fun of me. And you know he's got shirt on and it's unbuttoned and extra buttoned down. He's got his hat on and he's mimicking me doing the podcast. And I got to tell you the funnest part of this job and what I still don't think so many people from podcast listeners to ones that watch us speak.

Speaker 2:

You know there are a lot of consultants in this industry that can get and they all can be compared and this isn't a negative thing at all, but they can be compared as apples to apples, oranges to oranges, where every single fruit there is. People have a very difficult time because we, we people with and I know this because I've been told by several out there that this is the reputation Our reputation is awesome. You are highly respected, highly looked after. People know that if they work with you, they are going to get amazing results. But and there's a big one is that you scare people because you reimagine every single interaction from A to Z under the roof and you challenge the status quo. And so what's happened over the course of time is that we've attracted very forward-thinking people. It's why our customers, many of them those are the ones speaking on stage all over the place. It doesn't mean that they don't have issues with their practice or that they're perfect Of course it doesn't mean that but they are very forward thinking and constantly wanting to stay ahead and do things differently, and those are the people that are attracted to us. And over time, what's happened and I didn't really intend for this to be exactly like this, but over time we've created a very niche, loyal, underground cult following, if you will, that stays with us.

Speaker 2:

We rarely lose customers and it's kind of like what I teach. You know you have a good culture if the crappy employees leave and the good ones stay. It's kind of the same way with us. The ones we lose are ones that we don't want to work with anyway. They don't listen, they're noncompliant, they're the first to complain about their patients being noncompliant, yet they're noncompliant whenever they hire companies like us or OrthoFi or DM or working with Invisalign or my other company, rightchat, whatever it may be. They're the ones that complain and moan and they're a disaster for a customer. And those weed themselves out when they work with us.

Speaker 2:

And what's left over are the compliant, forward-thinking people that that just want to be pushed to constantly get better but also realize and one of the things that this is probably the hardest convincing thing that I have in my career in any business is convincing people that your number one marketing investment always is the repetitive training of your people, not your training of your people. The repetitive training of your people and that is such a foreign concept because so many of you out there, training your people to begin with is a mess and you don't want to do it but the repetitive training of your people that's where it really gets like. Really, you want us to do this over and over and over? Yeah, I do, just like an athlete, just like an athlete. That's what I want you to do. I want you to pretend that your business is a sports organization and the same things that make athletes great, that win games, our culture, and how you train your people, your players, and how you repetitively train your people, your players, same way in business, same way in business. But, for whatever reason, this disconnect happens. Where I'm not going to practice with my people in business, but athletes do, there's just this disconnect.

Speaker 2:

Well, I have found over the course of time, as we become closer and closer with our customers, that they are some of my and this is a shout out to so many of you as I consider you my closest friends Like, yes, it's a business relationship, but I still view you as my closest friends and I love you all. I love how you make fun of me on social media and, rob Schaefer, how you got me this podcast for another time t-shirt, because so many of you listen know I say that all the time on the podcast and I did envision when I first started this company, like I said 11 years ago as I do this podcast today, a group of like-minded people that thought differently than most others in their respective professions. Organically, we just kind of tripped into orthodontics and it's been a very interesting ride, very frustrating for me, but it's kind of a breath of fresh air. Watching our customers is, to me, so many things that are so common sense, so obvious on what you need to be more efficient, less chaotic, less stressful while charging higher prices and increasing your conversion. All of these things it's obvious to me, but for so many it's a foreign concept and that is why I love you all so much as a group. Because you're kicking doesn't mean again, it doesn't mean that you're having your record year, year in and year out, but it does mean that even in your, in your more down years, you're not as stressful, you're not as chaotic and you don't go down nearly as much as the rest of the industry. And during your up years you go up more than the rest of the industry and they're out spending worthless pay-per-click. Well, brian, I get patience from not saying it's a podcast for another time. Rob Schaefer there you go. Matt Josie there you go. It's a podcast Doesn't mean that you can't get new patients from it.

Speaker 2:

It means that if you invest in other places, you can become recession-proof, you can become automated, and if you have to spend money on advertising, it simply means you have leaky holes everywhere. You should be able to grow 10 plus percent every year the rest of your life without spending one dime on advertising. But for it to happen, you better be amazing with your culture, amazing with how you train your team. And three your organic digital marketing content must be dominant, and those three things make up new patient group. And for so many again, that is even rocket science, because you believe you need to go invest to train your TC. Guess what? Your TC is one ingredient to a recipe. You get new patient phone call training. That is one ingredient to a recipe. You get new patient phone call training. That is one ingredient to the recipe. I love these right chat customers that it's like.

Speaker 2:

Well, yes, our no-shows have gone down since using you, but not as much as we thought. And I say well because you email them paperwork that they have to print out. The paperwork asks ridiculous questions that have nothing to do with being a people-first business. You already asked them those questions on the new patient call, so now you're sending them paperwork that asks them the same stupid questions again. So now they're filling that out. They've scheduled it two or three other places. So now, when they see your paperwork being analog-based or asking or maybe it's digital but it's asking ridiculous, unnecessary questions that you want but they don't want to answer Clinical questions who's your dentist? That kind of stuff. That's the kind of stuff that we look at the industry and we tear it apart. It's like no, the question should be what are your hobbies? I play soccer. Okay, now you get to know the person before they come in as an example. Of course you've got to ask clinical questions, but the people business first.

Speaker 2:

Things are left out of most people's paperwork and that's one of the things I love. Transforming is just the paperwork, the questions and how the questions can lead to a conversion, how the questions can lead to them showing up. But they send out this paperwork that's analog, has to be printed out, it's 97 pages. When you do one thing move teeth, and there's all these obstacles that you create that get people to no-show. And again the point is is that, no matter how good the new patient call is, I know we will reduce the no-shows 30 plus percent if we are answering your new patient calls for you with RightChat. It'll be more than that if your downtime concepts, pre-arrival concepts, are good. But also the 30 percent number comes from people that are digital with their paperwork. But if you're not digital with the paperwork, the receptionist can be amazing. You're still going to have a no-show problem Not as bad, but it's still going to exist.

Speaker 2:

But this is my point is that nothing is a singular thing in business, nothing. Now, sometimes you have to have a singular focus, right? Sometimes let's concentrate for three to six months just on the new patient call, or three to six months just on presenting money, right, you can focus on one thing, but it's never about one thing. And so many people who hear this, I think the majority of it makes sense. But the new patient group family members out there and the RightChat family members out there, you're actually doing these things and I love you all so much.

Speaker 2:

But my favorite you know this mastermind event that we got back from. It was in Dr Kirk Speck's backyard over in San Luis Obispo, and what an area I mean. We stayed. I think it was a 12,000 square foot mansion. We rented out all the docs and spouses were all staying under one roof. It was amazing. A lot of activities and camaraderie and roundtables, and it's always about life, career, business, everything is, and for so many of you out there, if you have a, this sums up the industry, I think, really well.

Speaker 2:

So I get a call from a referral. I think it was an Align rep. This was about two years ago and I've had this in my notes to talk about for a long, long time. And this is the industry what'm about to describe. You know, she has about a 35 percent conversion, which, to her credit at least she recognized it. Okay, it wasn't good. She doesn't get a lot of new patients through the door, but she gets enough. Right, it wasn't like five, she was getting 10 to 15, sometimes 20. So I'm going okay, so let's get the conversion to 45%, let's bump it up 10% and let's also work on pending treatment. You know obs, you know all these things that we teach. And also let's reduce the no-shows 30% and through that you're going to have your best year ever. But where's the mindset? Digital marketing that's what we want and we're great at digital marketing.

Speaker 2:

Many of you know you're not going to get a more personalized service, personalized website, photography, all the things we do. You all know that and it's why people are leaving these big names. They're just such crap and they don't treat people right, and when you leave them, it's a disaster on how hard they make it, you know, for us to gain control of the website. They just, you know, they have a presence everywhere you go, so they have the name recognition. But I just love when we don't advertise and people leave those companies for us. It just makes me smile.

Speaker 2:

And the problem, though, is that's what people want. You know, this is what she's like. Well, okay, and I know what she's thinking inside her head. Okay, well, let's get another five new patients through the door. We'll convert one or two of them right, or two of them, whatever it may be. Let's get another 10 or 15. That's what she's thinking, when, in reality, for all of you so you know, in order to build up a brand and build an online presence, especially when the previous company has totally crushed it and just disastered it, it takes time. It takes time.

Speaker 2:

So you're not going to see an overnight result from that, but where the new patient group customer's mind is, and why they are the outcasts, they are the special thinkers, the rebels, if you will is they're thinking okay, where can I plug leaky holes inside my doors? That is what their mind is always looking at, and sure is that difficult sometimes, because you're constantly looking in the mirror. That's the beauty of what I teach, what we teach and what all of you grasp and accept is that whatever problem you have, there's a mirror right in front of you that will help you fix it. The challenge is that getting people to look in the mirror to fix it is one of the most difficult things you could possibly do, especially in this industry, because many of you out there you make a lot of money but that doesn't mean you run your business very well. So, in spite of running the business not very well, you make a lot of money. So getting you to change it's hard. Getting you to understand that you have leaky holes everywhere when you're bringing home four, five, six, seven hundred thousand dollars a year or more is hard. So again, you have to be a very forward thinker.

Speaker 2:

To go huh, I'm probably missing three to five new patient calls a month. Well, one of the things, one of the things that that I have found since starting right chat, oh my gosh is is the only reason people say no to us is they think we're too expensive and I sit there and I go huh. So what stock are you ever going to buy? Ever that produces the return. Based on the statistics we just provided you, you know, if you're missing three new patient calls a month and that's low, by the way. So our average customer, we increase their new patients right under six a month Just by answering, remoting in, speaking to your employees, scheduling them in the software, people that would have never left a voicemail with an outdated answering service or would have just gone down the street and bought, you know, gone down the street, bought somewhere else. Those are instantaneous new patients. What you do with them, different story. But back to the three example. If you have three every single month that you're losing, that's 36 a year times $6,000. Average case fear. Whatever yours is times, whatever your conversion is today, do the math.

Speaker 2:

If you spent, you know, $12,000 a year with RightChat as an example, in order to get the return I just described, you are not going to find a stock that's going to produce that return. It's not going to exist. Yet so many people ah, it's too expensive. Didn't you just tell me that you actually had? And this is for the practices that have the. Ah, it's too expensive, didn't you just tell me that you actually had? And this is for the practices that have the data. There's some that call us and they know they're missing five, six, seven, eight new patients a month, because they have the data and they still think we're too expensive.

Speaker 2:

And this is the challenge with the mindset, you're never gonna think a stock is too expensive. If the stock is run by a great leadership team, a history of producing a return for their customers, you're not going to think a stock is too expensive. Why does that mindset change whenever you run a business? It makes absolutely no sense. Now, with our customers, again, they get it because it's beyond the numbers on paper. Right, if we schedule you 36 new patients in a year as an example, that's great, but that's not even what's awesome. What's awesome is is the referral stream that those 36 are now going to bring you that you would have lost too, and their referral stream and their referral stream, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But see, you all can't see that on, mindset prevents you from being able to think like an infinite-minded leader. Those two terms I'm very passionate about. We're going to be talking about that more in other podcasts.

Speaker 2:

There are so many things that our customers do how close we are to them, the relationships, because when I founded this company 11 years ago is a stance today. I wanted people to understand. We are not a consultant, we are not a digital marketing company. All right, yes, while we're both, what we are meant to be is a division of your business to provide ongoing support, ongoing training, the digital marketing that you need, so you don't have to go to an event and buy here, an event and buy there and there and there and there. You've got it under one roof with a mastermind group that works on clinical things as well as business marketing, et cetera things. But our whole program requires you to look in the mirror and say to yourself okay, I got a problem, I need to fix it. It's me, I got a problem, I need to fix it. It's me, I got a problem, I need to fix it. It's my team. I got a problem, I need to fix it. Our digital marketing needs to be better and I am so proud New Patient Group and Right Chat family members out there I am so proud of all of you because you stick with it during good times.

Speaker 2:

During rough times, you know, when the economy's crap. The reality is, you need to be 10 times better at interacting with potential customers and customers, potential patients and patients, than you do. When people have money, period, it amplifies the holes that exist in a good economy. But you just don't feel it. Because when people have a ton of money to spend, they're less picky, they shop less, they look around less, they overlook little interactions that don't go as well when they don't have money to spend or money's very tight. All of those things are amplified tenfold, if not more. This is why the repetitive training that the new patient group customers commit to. It's so beautiful to see the employees just blossom in their skill sets.

Speaker 2:

But this is such a foreign concept to so many of you because you get people hop on stage and they blame corporations for your failures or whatever it may be. Nobody hops on stage like I do and says your failures are because of you. That's a tough thing to hear and I'm okay with the people out there that get offended by that. I'm okay because at least I'm telling you the truth. At least I'm giving you proper guidance on what you need to do. You need to get better at things inside your doors and your digital marketing presence. Yeah, it's outside your doors, but it's created by the culture and the team and you inside your doors, so it's still an internal thing inside your doors, so it's still an internal thing.

Speaker 2:

If all of you could just get into the minds of the new patient group customers, the RightChat customers many or both. I think 90% of our RightChat customers are also new patient group customers because it takes a mindset to not think it's expensive to understand. It's an investment to understand the difference between something you spend money on and you get a return. And that return could be your time, it could be your efficiency, it could be reducing your chaos, or it could be more money in your pocket, or a combination, ideally, of all the above versus a cost that's just going to help keep your doors open for the day. And those are two very different things and unfortunately, many of you out there cannot differentiate between the two.

Speaker 2:

Again, it's no different than a stock. If you invest in a stock and it produces a 10, 15, 20 plus percent return in a year, you're happy with that. A 10, 15, 20 plus percent return in a year, you're happy with that. But why in the world does that change when it comes to your business? It's ridiculous. And these are the things. Again, new patient group shout out I love you so much. The relationships, knowing your kids eating dinners together. Joking, you guys making fun of me eating dinners together, joking, you guys making fun of me and no, just your mindsets are so far ahead of other people in this industry it isn't even close and the other people are falling further and further behind, to the point where, if you're running a marathon which our lives are a marathon employees, your careers are marathons, doctors, your businesses they're all marathons.

Speaker 2:

None of them are a sprint. Unfortunately, a lot of you make decisions like it's a sprint. You got to make decisions understanding it's an ongoing, infinite journey, marathon race, and there is no finish line. It doesn't exist. There's always places to get better, there's always places to refine, there's always things to repeat and train on again. It's an ongoing, forever infinite journey and so many of you out there just can't wrap your head around it. And you haven't had to wrap your head around it in the past because you could run any kind of practice you wanted and make money. Those days are over. There's still some of you out there that are getting lucky.

Speaker 2:

You may be in the right place, maybe the only opinion in town, I mean, I know, and this is why and this is definitely a podcast coming and I've had this in the notes for a long time is that you can't get immersed in other people's data. This drives me nuts, like you get on stage and you know people. This drives me nuts Like you get on stage and you know people are reading out their highest converters in the nation. Those people aren't the highest converters, like when I hear some of those names being called out, I know they're the only opinion in town, right. And then you've got you know, and they're converting at 95% and they're all proud of themselves, but they're the only opinion. And then you've got somebody with a 70% conversion and on paper the 95 is better.

Speaker 2:

But I will tell you, you know somebody like Brynn Cooper. Shout out, shout out to her. You know one of her two locations in Houston. You can roll a quarter down the street and hit. You know 10 orthodontists doing clear. You know doing orthodontic work, as well as five GPs doing Invisalign, and they are one of five opinions. Well, guess what? If you're converting it higher than 70%, you're higher than the national average, first of all, way higher. And also that conversion is more impressive than the person. That is the only opinion in town and that's why the data on the paper. You can't tell who is actually doing better by comparing yourself to others. The other data is the. Is you know the, the, the compliance data through DM, dm insights plenty of podcasts coming because I love DM insights but again, that is not apples to apples. You know, if you have a compliance stat and a and a practice is 80% braces, 20% aligners, and then you're looking at the same group and one is 80% aligners, 20% braces, that data is going to be completely different because they're totally different types of practices and this is why the on paper data is a bunch of crap a lot of times.

Speaker 2:

And these are all kinds of stories and analogies that the new patient group, customers so get. It Like, everything you should do in your business should be producing a return. You should be investing in companies left and right to help you produce a return on your investment. You've got to shift your mindset. The new patient group family members, rightchat, family members your mindset is a beautiful thing to watch. I'm so proud of all of you. I'm so proud of all of you being customers. I'm so proud to have gotten to know you and your families. I'm so proud that you fully understand that we're a division of your business. We're an employee, we are not an outside consultant there to help you for three months or for a year and then leave. We're there to coach you, guide you, always be working on something new and you know all that. And this is the mindset the rest of you out there. Stop moving from company to company. Find your vision and hire companies that help you achieve that vision. Keep and retain those companies. Stop switching into the flavor of the month, like so many of you do.

Speaker 2:

New Patient Group family members, right Chat family members I love you all. Thanks for your support and for those of you who listened today. I hope that this shout out to the New Patient Group and Right Chat family members. Hopefully it resonates with you Because if it does, there are some great, great things that can come from it. If you switch your mindset, take action, find your vision, hire tools and companies that will help you achieve it, and we look forward to you becoming a part of the New Patient Group and Right Chat family member and family excuse me, because we can help you do great things. All right Again.

Speaker 2:

New Patient Group customers, right Chat customers, keep up the great work. You are even on days and months and even years where you don't feel like it. You are still moving further and further and further ahead of your air quotes. I'm doing competition. Okay, because, again, why do I do air quotes for those who may be new listeners is because your true competition is you and your team.

Speaker 2:

Overcoming I don't have time, overcoming we don't shoot social media content, overcoming the lack of repetitive training of your people on people, skill sets, sales, hospitality, customer service, verbiage, presentation psychology. Your competition is getting a better digital marketing presence, a better patient experience, a better culture through learning how to become a better leader, and those are a minuscule amount of really everything I could list out, but that's your real competition If you focus on that as much as you try to focus on the guy down the street, girl down the street doing this or what are they doing, or going to events and listening to what other people are doing, blah, blah, blah. If you just took care of your own, you know what. You would be better off than you can possibly imagine. Never spend another nickel on pay-per-click because you had to. If you want to. Those are two totally different things. All of you out there can have this mindset. Love you all. Talk to you soon. Bye-bye.

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