New Patient Group Podcast

Double your New Patients Overnight (w/out Advertising) by Mastering this One Skill

• Brian Wright • Season 8 • Episode 118

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New Patient Group - The Employee & Patient Experience Co. Learn Advanced and Cutting Edge Skill Sets Used by the Finest People Businesses in the World, such as the Ritz Carlton and more. We are experts in the following areas and found a niche in orthodontics, dentistry and other healthcare professions years ago. We teach this expertise to enhance every interaction your team has with people you want to become patients or those who already are patients. 

- Leadership
- Sales 
- Hospitality
- Consumer Psychology
- Verbiage
- Presentation
- Communication
- Much More 

The result of the above mentioned skill-sets is a much improved culture, new patients, treatment conversion, efficiency, profitability, treatment starts, revenue, patient referrals, patient compliance and more. 

Job Descriptions that will Benefit from this On-Site Workshop:

- Clinical Assistants 
- Concierges
- Doctors 
- Front Desk
- Receptionists
- Treatment Coordinators
-- And More!




Speaker 1:

Hey, new Patient Group and Right Chat Nation. Welcome inside the broadcast booth, brian Wright here, and welcome in to another edition of the New Patient Group podcast as we keep season eight rolling along, coming off. A fantastic one with Dr Bob Skopak. Hopefully you listened. If you didn't make sure, and do so, mastermind members out there, we are going to be using that episode as our topic for the February Zoom session that we have, so make sure that you have listened to that. It is a fantastic episode.

Speaker 1:

All of you out there should know your take-home dream number in a given calendar year. You should know what your time is worth per hour, how much are you making per hour and how many working days are you doing it in. And if you're making more this year, are you doing it in less time? All of you should be trying to master that when reimagining growth and redefining your success. Awesome episode. We got a lot of great feedback to kick off the year, so so excited we're going to be diving into a topic out there. Look pretty simple. If you are interested in doubling your new patients, without advertising, without increased costs, without anything no, there's no catch. If you're wanting to double your new patients, today's episode is a great one for you. Look, there's a skill set you're going to have to master. I'm actually going to have the great Dr David Boschkin and his wonderful TC, nicole Ahn. I think they do what I'm going to be talking about today better than any practice that I've come across, and they are wonderful people. We got to know each other very well during the Align Practice Development Workshops. They're customers. I believe a lot in what they talk about and they're going to bring a great perspective when I have them on as guests later in the season, about what I'm going to be talking about today, and I'll give you a great insight to.

Speaker 1:

Yes, it's possible. Yes, it's staring all of you right in the face on how we can double the new patients in your office, and I wanted to do this episode today because a lot of you are struggling with new patient calls. You're not getting the new patients that you're used to getting. So how can we do something unique to double the new patients that you are getting and help you through these difficult times? Yeah, you're going to get a lot more starts. You're not going to double your starts, but you're going to get a lot more starts. But, yes, you're going to double your new patients, and you can do it fast by implementing what I'm going to be talking about today. So we'll see you on the other side, but before we do, let's fire up the music.

Speaker 2:

The time for real change is now, when tough times test us, we overcome. When hardship hits us, we persevere. We innovate, we transform, we transform. If you're ready to achieve something special, buckle up and get ready for the ride of your life. Welcome to season eight of the new patient group audio experience, a podcast dedicated to revolutionizing lives, careers and business. So you, your team and your practice forever flourish in the new economy. And now your host. He's a husband, father of two, a founder and CEO of New Patient Group and RightChat faculty for Align Technology, and a trusted speaker for Invisalign and OrthoFi, brian Wright.

Speaker 1:

So I have an admission to make. Yeah, I do. When Bob and I were shooting that podcast, I was in the midst of the flu. Man, we got hit hard, for you know we get things, things come and go, but they're usually like, hey, I don't feel good for a day, it may knock you up or whatever, but you know, on the couch for a day or so, but man oh man, did our family all four of us get smoked by one of the worst cases of flu I've ever had? I haven't been this sick and I've never seen our kids as sick as they were. I have never, since I've known my wife Kristen, never seen her as sick as she was. And then I'm still dealing with symptoms myself. Mine kind of came a day or two later than everybody else's, but I mean 103, 104 degree temperature for all of us for like a week. And when Bob and I did the podcast I was about 100 right in there. I felt horrible and thank God we were thinking about shooting the next day because of how bad I felt. And if we would have postponed it and done it another day we'd have been screwed. I would have had to come up with some way for that first episode because I couldn't get up for the following few days, so we did that. Hopefully we pulled it off out there for sure for so many of you, but, my goodness gracious, it was something else to get through. But hey, everybody, I hope your 2025 has kicked off and gone well.

Speaker 1:

I have a simple rule that as long as you're still in January, you can say Happy New Year to people. So this may be the first time you're checking in first episode you've listened to Happy New Year to you, and today's topic is one you know. There is a multi-bajillion dollar industry out there in orthodontics. That is just insane. Today is not about how to go out on social media and capture it, but just to let all of you know you should be. It is a massive, massive industry within an industry, if you will, and it's the relapse industry, if you will, and it's the relapse industry. It is the amount of people that had orthodontics as a kid and didn't wear retainers for whatever reason, grew up and now they're a parent and they've shifted back to how they used to be. It is an enormous, enormous, multi, multi-million dollar industry just waiting for all of you to capture out there Now a lot of you, and this is where you can't let the clinical brain screw the business.

Speaker 1:

And I'm in the midst of a series I think we did one or two of those last season on how your clinical brain can really sabotage so many of you out there, because so many of you out there, you're trained perfectionists, you're engineers, so because of that, you can portray that onto your business, which is never going to be that way. It can keep you from implementing fast and procrastinating, but it can also hurt you on the clinical side, meaning that you're not even thinking about doing these social six type cases little midline corrections, little rotation of a bicuspid somebody's unhappy with, but they want to get ready for a wedding in eight months and they're not ready for the full case now. Maybe never, but certainly not now. This is a multi bajillion dollar industry for so many of you out there, and I see it. And it's very difficult, because part of the skill set that we're going to be talking about today that you do need to master is this being comfortable with having a conversation with people that did not show up to your door for them, right? So you have what I was talking about with that relapse industry.

Speaker 1:

You have these people that had orthodontics at an early age. They relapsed, didn't wear the retainers, whatever. Now they have kids and they're bringing their kids in to see you. Well, when they are there and they are in your door, right, that is a candidate for orthodontics, right? This is how, or just right off the top. This is how you can double your new patients overnight is mastering the dual start, is mastering the opportunities that are walking in and out of your office every single day, every single time. You have, you know, the seven-year-old coming in there, you've got the 15-year-old coming in there, you've got the 15-year-old coming in there, the 10-year-old, whatever it is. Every single time you have something like I just said. You have a parent, right, I get. Sometimes there's weird circumstances. It could be the grammar or whatever that's bringing them in there. But you get my point. You have the parent coming in with them and that parent is almost guaranteed to have been in relapse. Right, they had orthodontics as a kid or maybe off.

Speaker 1:

The one-offs is that they didn't have orthodontics at all. They've never done it, but they want to. But these people are not going to walk through your doors and they are not going to raise the flag and say, hey, over here, can you start me in orthodontics too, please? They aren't going to do that, just like they're not going to walk in and say, can I give you a video testimonial or will you please allow me to give you a five-star review? These are all scenarios that happen in your office every day, that somebody has to be trained how to engage these people to give you a video testimonial, engage these people to give you a five-star review, engage these people to refer their friends, colleagues, family, etc. But for today's purpose it's the same thing is that you've got to learn the skill sets on how to be very comfortable with your communication and your presentation skills.

Speaker 1:

Set up the new patient experience in a way that is unexpected. Right, a wows people along the journey, but is still set up for you to win in the sense of how do we get mom to start? Too? Right, and obviously there's sometimes dads involved in this, but usually in most cases, when you have the kids show up, mom is the one that is bringing them in. But we have and this is also for so many of you out there the opportunities still exist with patients that are in treatment. Right, you have a 15-year-old, a teenager that's in treatment in your office and or 14 or 10-year-old or whatever the heck it may be, anybody that doesn't drive themselves, that is an additional opportunity every single time mom and or dad are bringing them through your door. Those are new patients, everybody right.

Speaker 1:

Now, granted, they're a different type of new patient. They're not a new patient that initially reached out for themselves, but these are people that are absolute slam dunk closes in many cases. If you are engaging them, if you are having the conversation with them, if the receptionist knows how to do it from the get-go, if the concierge up front knows how to engage with the wide smile photo and other things that we teach for that concierge front desk role, and reimagining how it's always been been getting the phones the heck out of there, reimagining how that front desk position, what it is, what it really entails in this new economy, and also, obviously, your treatment coordinator in the exam process, and if all of you can sit there, I mean this is something that can make you sick to your stomach. Like if you start looking at lost opportunities that happen every day, every week, every month, every quarter, every year, it can really start making you nauseous with the amount of people that you look back on and go damn, you know what, if our obs was a little better, our pending treatment was a little better, our receptionist converted a little better, our TC converted a little better? Right, those are all things that can make you really sick, but a lot of times those are also all things that you could put your finger on.

Speaker 1:

There are the lost opportunities, and all of you know that I talk about this. The most out of all of them is the lost opportunities that you can't put your finger on. This is technically one of them. Right, there's no management software that's going to spit out the data them. Right, there's no management software that's going to spit out the data. But all of you out there can start doing the data yourselves with just brainstorm. How many moms? Right, again, I get dads, et cetera, but just examples. How many moms in the year 2024 alone came in with their kid and the consult was for their kid? Right? Probably a lot. If you're a practice that averages 30 new patients and you do any kind of volume as it relates to teenagers, you know adolescent, younger kids you're thinking to yourself yeah, brian, there was a ton of ones that came in, for sure. Well, why don't you take a magic number let's say that number was 300 over the course of 2024, and ask yourself what if 20% of those started? Some of you might be out there going blah, but you may be wanting to throw up, you know, thinking about the amount of lost opportunities.

Speaker 1:

Now, this places an emphasis on a lot of things, and one of them is is being able to streamline your new patient experience. So you have time to do this right. But the way this all happens, like I said that today, is not and we are actually building an on-demand course around this topic right now as I speak. It's going to be a while before it's out, so I can't put a link in the description of this or give you codes how to get it or anything like that quite yet, but I will when David and Nicole, like I mentioned, are on. We will have the course ready to go by then.

Speaker 1:

But this is something where getting the iTero as part of your new patient experience not on certain cases, or should I do it here? Yeah, you should do it 100% of the time. Every single new patient that walks through your door today is not about the iTero, but this is part of the process. You have to be scanning your new patients period, all right, and there is a lot of podcasts that I have coming around the iTero. It is the best sales tool that you have. Through experience, it is also the most underutilized tool. I believe in orthodontics and we're going to talk about all kinds of different features, how to use them, things like that.

Speaker 1:

But back to the point. You have to be scanning, and when you're scanning the TC, or if you do have a records tech, the records tech whoever it is needs to be engaging while the wand is in the kid's mouth, needs to be engaging the parent with questions that identify have you had orthodontics right? Did you relapse right? Get to having questions, finding out those things, to make sure the parent starts talking and then communicating to the parent in a way that the next thing you know the parent is in the chair getting their scan too. Now you may be asking yourself and also, if you're running our concierge model, you know this if you do it at a high level, but the wide smile photo for the in-face visualization that needs to be taken at the front desk and as you're taking the kids, that's how you immediately start engaging mom to get one too, all right.

Speaker 1:

So this is all in verbiage, all in presentation, all re-imagining how all of you have done this standard, relatively boring new patient experience for many, many, many years. Right, this is, and this is how you all have to be thinking in this economy is when they walk through your door, right? How is it all different? Now, that should happen before with your digital marketing, receptionist downtime concepts right, so they should already expecting you to be completely different. But how can you redefine the job description, set everything up to be completely different when they walk through your door and this is part of it, right? Having that concierge role, that is a totally different job description and set of skill sets than the other two, three, four, five opinions that that family is getting right. Having the skill sets of a TC, that's totally different than the other TCs. Using the digital workflow differently than the other practices, in case they do use the iTero, etc. As part of the new patient experience.

Speaker 1:

But this, everybody today, is not a huge long message, but if you want to double the new patient opportunities that you have overnight, you need to master the dual start. The new patient opportunities that you have overnight, you need to master the dual start right Now. Mastering the dual start is how you really turn as many of those into actual patients actual starts as possible, right? Today's episode is just letting you know. They're there Every single time they walk through your door with a kid, you have a potential relapse patient. You have a potential just patient that could be interested in orthodontics. If you engage them Now, you can't and you'll have a hard time engaging them if you're running around with your heads cut off because you've got 8,000 appointments, you're not outsourcing, you're not doing the things we teach. All that allows for is a time suck and then excuses that follow. Right, it's like, oh, that sounds nice, but when will we have the time?

Speaker 1:

The other thing you could be thinking about and today is not what the topic is about, but I think it's a worthwhile discussion for a second is Brian right, we've got a down economy as it stands today. As you do this podcast, we're already having a conversion problem with the 12-year-old. Now you're wanting us to also find a way to convert mom, which is obviously going to be a higher cost than what it would just be for one of the kids of mom. But we're not even starting those. And my response to that, as always, is if you have a conversion problem, you need to be coached on how to do things differently, right? So reach out to us and allow us to help you get the coaching and the skill sets to increase your conversion and also teach you how to increase your conversion while capturing mom.

Speaker 1:

Right, but you can't get and this will be something that I talk about with David and Nicole, because they fully get this, and I remember them talking about this at the Align Practice Development Workshops when we used to speak together, and when I heard them talk about this, I instantly knew look, we're dealing with an infinite-minded, we're dealing with infinite-minded people here, right, because a lot of you out there, like, you're not going to get mom. Let's say you charge for a full case for an adult. Look, I'm just making up the number. Let's say it's 6,000, right, you're not going to get the full case almost positively most likely, right, and your goal should not be how to try to get the full case. Right, these are cases on. How can? These are relapse cases, right? How can we do a social six touch-up in six months, seven, eight months, tops? Right, pop them into remote monitoring and they're there in your office for the start appointment and you see them one other time. Right, it's a couple appointment process, right? These are many cases that you could be knocking out with efficiency, very high profitability, low chair time.

Speaker 1:

And the other part of doing this is is imagine last year, let's say, you got 20% of the moms that walked through your door to start. Right. Now you have 20% more people out in the community that should become your sales force, right, they should be talking and that should be your goal is how do I get more moms to start? So there's more moms at the soccer game talking about me and where they went. And this is all the infinite mindset. If your goal going in is how do I get 7,000 from the kid, 7,000 from mom and dual stardom, forget it, it's not going to happen. That's not the idea. That's not the goal. The goal is to how can you get the kid to buy at full price and then mom to buy at a significantly discounted price? Because once mom's out of there and goes into your pending list as an example, you're not getting her. Life is going to get in the way. She wasn't even there to begin with for her.

Speaker 1:

So there is an art to this Today. It's not teaching you the art, it's not teaching you the A through Z process. Most of that is for our customers, one but two. Most of that we're going to be talking about when David and Nicole are on. We're going to dive in more to the process and actually making it work. But something all of you can immediately leave as an action item today is you can immediately start engaging the parent that is there with the kid.

Speaker 1:

So many of you let the kid go back and mom's just sitting in your waiting room watching your big screen TV that you know. Meanwhile you have a mini TV in the TC room. Bring that big screen TV back into the exam room, but they're just sitting there and they're not engaged, they're not paying attention and you are letting money walk in and out of your door all day long by not capturing. The mob should be with the kid. You should scan the mom 100% of the time. You should at least ask mom if she wants to get scanned too and if your TC understands how to communicate, how to present, how to interact, psychology, all the things that we talked about.

Speaker 1:

You're going to open up a conversation while scanning the kid, where mom opens up and said yep, I had braces when I was a kid, didn't wear the retainers, kind of resorted back to where I was. And you know, I've been thinking about getting it for me, but there just hasn't been a right time. And blah, blah, blah, boom, you've engaged them into that conversation. Now's the time. Right Now you've got to be comfortable with hey mom, we hear that all the time and let's get you up in the chair. We can scan you, show you what you're going to look like.

Speaker 1:

If we do orthodontics on you and we've got great options we could probably knock out your case in six months, seven months, one or two visits, easy slam dunk Doctor does it all the time. Boom, you are going to get moms go. Okay, let's do this. All of them. No, just like your new patients that walk through the door, all of them don't buy from you. The goal shouldn't even be that. The goal should be is to plug the holes, create as many opportunities as all of you can possibly create. Then this is how you do it right. It's not rocket science. But going back to what I've said so many times in this podcast and what we teach is it is rocket science because 99.9% of you out there aren't doing it. You're out there doing pay-per-click radio billboards, muffin drops to the dentist, etc. Etc. Billboards, muffin drops to the dentist, et cetera, et cetera. Meanwhile, you have new patients walking in and out of your door that are candidates all day long.

Speaker 1:

Right, multi-bajillion dollar industry in orthodontics, the relapse industry all day long, but you're not capturing them. And guys, that's free, there is no cost. Right, outside of your little iTero sleeve, there is no cost. And that's not a cost, but that's an investment at the same time, because the more of those you're using, the more starts you're going to get, because that is the best sales tool there is. Period in orthodontics right, there isn't a better one. And, like I said, tons of episodes to follow.

Speaker 1:

So let's start engaging the parents better. Let's start getting them engaged in the exam process. Let's get them to get scanned as well. Those of you running our concierge model up front, let's make sure the wide smile photo is talked about, and this is something I'm going to have Dr Regina Blevins on. I don't know when, I don't know if it's going to be this season or next, but the concierge front desk model they run is one of my favorites and, again, it gets people engaged in a way like we're talking about today, right, if you just have standard procedures up front, it's boring, it doesn't do anything. Imagine what that role up front and what your front desk can look like, how they interact with people. Man, it makes such a huge, huge difference. So if we can take the wide smile photo up front which all of you should be doing gives more time to load in so you can pop it into the outcome simulation in the back with the iTero scan, now mom's going to get engaged from the get-go, right? And yes, there are things the receptionist can do and the new patient call.

Speaker 1:

We're not going to be talking about that today, but everybody point today, let's start engaging more of the moms and the dads that are walking through your door every single day and this will double your new patient count, just by engaging the opportunities that are walking in and out of there every single day. Hope it makes sense. Everybody, this is something you can start right away. You don't need to be perfect at it, you don't need to be even halfway decent at it. It's just a question to start asking the parents and see if they'll get scanned too. It'll give you more opportunities, more at bats Now what you do with those right. That's going to be for future podcasts, but hopefully you enjoyed it. Hopefully this gets you excited about the opportunities that are walking in and out of there every single day. And look guys, I see it with the new patient group customers that do this well, you can add so many starts a month that otherwise would have walked right out your door by learning the skill sets and engaging the process A to Z. All right, hope everybody enjoyed today. Until next time.

Speaker 1:

We appreciate your support. Make sure to give us a nice comment on YouTube, a nice five-star review on whatever podcast outlet you are listening to this on. Share this with at least one colleague of yours out there reps listening. Share this with all your doctors. As always, we appreciate the support as we keep growing and, man, we had an unbelievable download year last year. I mean we are all over the world, in Asia, australia. It's just amazing. It's so cool, it's beyond my wildest dreams. So let's keep it up. Everybody Spreading the word, keeping this underground quote following rolling and master the dual start. Double your new patients right. Get more opportunities, and when times are tough, this is far easier than trying to draw in other new patients. In some form or fashion, they're already walking through your door. Learn how to master the skillset and master that dual start. Till next time, everybody, take care of yourselves, your team and your patients, and we'll see you soon. Bye-bye.