.svg)
Share.svg)
Tweet.svg)
Post.svg)
MailAugust 2023
In a recent NexHealth: How I Grew My Dental Practice podcast, Alec Goldman asks Patient Prism's co-founder and CEO, Amol Nirgudkar, "How can DSOs improve the quantity and quality of new patients?"
Highlights from their conversation follow.
Make it a priority to schedule high-value new patients because they are the most profitable.
Implants are so profitable that if you are an implant dentist, you want to place more implants per month. because implants are highly profitable. You want to increase the velocity of new implant patients that come into your practice through marketing and referral. When the phone rings, you want the receptionist to optimally evaluate prospective new patients and be highly competent at scheduling those who inquire about implant treatment.
In addition to providing guidelines for qualifying patients for consultations (because your time is so valuable), you need to educate your receptionists about how to answer implant questions and sell your services.
It is critical that you have consultation appointment times available. If new patients have to wait more than just a few days for a consultation, they are likely to call one of your competitors. This is the same for dentists who provide orthodontics, especially aligners which are highly profitable.
Filling the practice schedule with general new patients who just want a cleaning and check-up, or filling the practice schedule with only existing patients, eliminates the opportunity for you to see and capture the higher-value new patients you want.
“So, what Patient Prism’s AI software platform does is understand your phone conversations to track opportunities,” says Nirgudkar. “It alerts your team to issues to be addressed and opportunities to call back and attempt to capture the new patients. Based on the words spoken on the call, the AI even estimates the revenue that could be generated from seeing that patient for a new patient appointment and from any treatment the caller mentioned during the call.”
The great thing about Patient Prism V3 is that you never need to listen to a call recording. The AI does it for you. You can set up special Triggers such as calls that mention implant treatment, ortho, or veneers. The alerts about these calls are elevated to a priority level for team response. Your team can read the real-time DeepLens call narratives from Patient Prism in priority order and do callbacks accordingly.
If a caller left a voicemail inquiring about implant treatment, that is a priority person to call back—within minutes if possible. If a caller spoke of concerns and was undecided, the AI narrative provides recommendations for a callback. For example, a callback can communicate financing options or a more immediate appointment.
Acquiring the right quantity and quality of patients isn’t always a “marketing” problem. Patient Prism AI gets to the root of problems.
“Patient Prism AI technology can be used to assess if your marketing is effective in sending the right type and quantity of leads to your practice phones,” says Nirgudkar.
“It can be used to monitor the phone performance of your front desk to determine if your front office is effective in getting those people in the door. And if you are not booking those leads, the AI helps you pinpoint why. Do you have capacity issues? Schedule issues? Front desk training issues? Team communication issues? Phone staffing issues? Phone system issues? Motivation issues? Because it isn’t always a marketing problem."
Nirgudkar continues to explain, "Your marketing may be making your phones ring but if the calls are not answered, if the conversations are not optimal, or if the schedule is already full for weeks out, you have other problems to solve. Patient Prism’s constant feedback alerts and recommendations improve receptionist competence. The alerts motivate follow-up calls. The typical results of calling back are at least 25% conversion."
“Your marketing may be doing such a great job that you need to expand your capacity in order to take advantage of the opportunities coming your way. Until you do expand your capacity, you might turn off marketing and save on advertising,” says Amol Nirgudkar.
Early adopters of AI technology have a distinct advantage.
“Early adopters have a distinctive advantage in growing faster and being more profitable,” says Nirgudkar. “And I absolutely see that with Patient Prism users. If you adopt technology earlier, you adopt marketing automation, you adopt some of the new AI tools, you are going to grow faster than dental practices that are not doing this.”
Nirgudkar recommends that DSO managers not be afraid of how their teams will respond to advancing technology. "Sure, dental teams are constantly having to learn new software and equipment and that takes focus, dedicated time, and energy but as seen with Patient Prism clients, higher efficiency is the result. Clinical and office teams can focus on what they love most, which is providing wonderful experiences and wonderful clinical results for patients."
Nirgudkar concludes, “The AI feedback empowers everybody to be their best selves, improve the patient experience, grow their practice top and bottom lines, and do their most important job: serving their patients and moving them to the best health possible. And if we have done that, as Dentistry, then we have all won.”
Free Checklist to schedule more patients!
