THE MILLIONAIRE DENTIST PODCAST

EPISODE 6 TRANSCRIPTION

Announcer:

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Millionaire Dentist Podcast brought to you by Four Quadrants Advisory. On this podcast, we break down the world of dentistry finances and business practices to help you become the millionaire dentist you deserve to be. Please be advised. We do speak with an honest tongue and may not be safe for work. Now here's your host, Alan Berry.

Alan Berry:

Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Millionaire Dentist Podcast. I'm Allan Barry, your host. And today I have a very special guest Michael Reynolds from Spin Web Media. How are you doing Michael?

Michael Reynolds:

Hey Alan, what's up? Good to be here.

Alan Berry:

Thanks for coming by. Now tell me a little bit about yourself and Spin Web.

Michael Reynolds:

Sure. Spin Web's a digital agency. We build a lot of websites and do a lot of digital marketing for our clients. And we have a lot of healthcare clients, including some dental practices as well. So we're on the web at Spinweb.net and been in business 21 years.

Alan Berry:

Wow, that's awesome. So I want to tell you a story the other day I needed to find a new dentist. I got a new insurance program. I start looking through the network and one of the places they recommended, I gave them a call because I couldn't find their website and I called him and they told me that they didn't even use computers in the office.

Michael Reynolds:

Oh boy.

Alan Berry:

Yeah. So they didn't have a website at all. It just made me start thinking, do dentists even need a website or a digital presence? So I thought I'd have you on here today to kind of break this down. I think we're going to do it over three episodes and try to give the listeners some information that they can use to decide if they themselves need a website. And if they already have a website, maybe what they can do to spruce that up and better their online presence.

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah. I love it. I love it. So the question you asked is a good one. Do dentists even need websites? Well, no. No one needs a website. No one needs a lobby with nice furniture in it. No one needs a sign in front of your dental practice telling the name and your logo of your practice. No one needs that stuff. But is it beneficial to your brand? Absolutely.

Michael Reynolds:

I think we would all agree that if you open up a dental practice and you have no sign, no furniture, no plants in your office and stuff that normally people would say, "Yeah, that makes it a very aesthetically pleasing place. It makes me feel at ease. It shows they invest in their business." I mean, yeah, no one needs any of that stuff, but is it important? Most people would say yes.

Michael Reynolds:

And so the answer to your question would be no, but can you afford to not have a great website? So in your case, I'd love to hear the rest of the story. So what was your impression when you discovered this dental practice didn't even have a website? What did you think?

Alan Berry:

My first thought and my final thought was, if you don't even use computers in your office, then I don't want to come to your practice.

Michael Reynolds:

I know, right. Well, what else are you not investing in I'm wondering?

Alan Berry:

Well, I mean, the doctor may have been a great doctor, but that just tells me that there's no forward thinking at all. So I hung up on the phone with her and then I found another place around the corner that did have a website.

Alan Berry:

It was an okay website, but they did have a website. I called them. I was able to look at some reviews. I booked them and now I'm there until whenever my insurance changes or forever. So just by them having a website alone, who knows how many thousands of dollars they're going to gain over the next 10, 15 years.

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah it's kind of a minimum barrier to entry these days. I mean, I rarely come across a dental practice or any kind of business that does not have a website. So it's pretty rare these days. So that's probably an edge case that you found, which is really interesting.

Michael Reynolds:

First off your case was a good example. So when most people do research online nowadays, the phone books are dead. Actually, my team last Christmas party gave me a kind of a gag gift. They gave me a stack of phone books as a gag gift during our Christmas party. Its because of the running joke. Because they used to come drop off these yellow pages on your front step and they just take up space and they just make me angry.

Michael Reynolds:

And so most people, they don't open up yellow pages obviously. They look online, they Google things. And so, first of all, if you don't have a presence online, you're going to limit the ability for your prospective patients to do research on you.

Michael Reynolds:

So, patients do research, they do a lot of things to find a new dentist. They ask for recommendations from friends. That's a really common thing. And when they do that, their friends probably send a link to their website, "Hey, go to these guys" or whatever. And you look online and you look at the credentials maybe of the dentist or the dentistry team. You maybe look at their office where they're located. Stuff like reviews online as well if they're attached to the website.

Michael Reynolds:

So there's a lot of ways you can do research. So there's a couple things that are kind of minimum barrier to entry. One of those is just getting found. So if you have a website that is structured well and structured properly, when people search in your area for a new dentist then you have a chance of showing up in those search listings. And therefore people click and discover that, "Hey, this is a real practice with a real story and information about them and pictures of the team and all this stuff." And, so again, getting found is just kind of the minimum level of accessibility.

Michael Reynolds:

Now, one other thing that's interesting is, and we're going to talk a little bit more I think two episodes down the road here an episode, the third segment of this series I'm going to talk a little bit more about some ways you can find new people for your practice and the website's going to play a part in that.

Michael Reynolds:

But even before that, let's say someone has found your practice. They come to your website. So the dental profession is one of those professions that image matters a lot. So everybody wants a winning smile with white shiny teeth and a beautiful smile. And I have seen so many dental practice websites that are just ugly, ugly as all get out. And what do you think when you look at an ugly website? "Oh, well, that doesn't make me feel like I'm going to have a great experience and a great smile and clean teeth. That looks ugly and very non aesthetically pleasing."

Michael Reynolds:

And so when you're putting together your website, I think it's really important for a dentist to create a beautiful presence because they want to send the message and evoke the emotional attachment of, "Hey, my teeth are going to be clean and beautiful and my smile is going to look great. And this website looks beautiful and that's going to kind of reinforce experience or my expectation anyway."

Alan Berry:

No, that's a good point. And I think some of those websites are ugly because of the fact that they did them 15 years ago.

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah. Possibly. Yeah.

Alan Berry:

So a lot of this is dated look, old pictures that were taken with less quality cameras and they could really update them. And I agree with what you're saying, but I think maybe give the dentist some practical reasons. And the one that I'm thinking of is, so I go to this new practice and I'm able to fill out online the new patient form.

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah. Yeah.

Alan Berry:

So when I get in there, I don't have to show my chicken scratch penmanship and it's all accurate. And I can do that before I get there so it's all ready to go. Do you have any other thoughts of practical things like that, that maybe the patients benefit from?

Michael Reynolds:

So as far as the technology? Yes. I mean, I'm amazed. I mean, healthcare in general is still struggling with getting away from paper. I mean we're kind of making some progress, but there's a lot of challenges still. And they don't have to be challenges because there are so many ways now to create HIPAA compliant intake forms on your website. Even Google forms lets you do it. You can create ... There are some free ways to make HIPAA compliant forms. We build our websites on HIPAA compliant platform that allows people to encrypt information as they fill it out. So just you said, when you go to the website, fill your intake form out in advance, and then once you show up the information is already there.

Michael Reynolds:

And that reinforces the brand of your dental practice because most people expect to go to the office, fill out a bunch of paperwork, wait forever, have to scrawl a bunch of stuff all over the page. And then their hand gets cramped and it's just a big, horrible experience. But if you show up and your information is already in the computer and you can just kind of hang out and be seen quicker and not have to worry about writing a bunch of stuff, it's going to make you feel a lot better. And you're going to have a better experience. And guess what? You're going to tell people, "Hey, this dental practice is completely paperless. It was fast. It was easy. It was high-tech. You should check it out." That's what's going to happen.

Alan Berry:

Another convenience factor that I thought of that my current dentist practice did not have that I'm wondering if maybe you could tell me if it's even possible ... I'm guessing that it is. Time is a factor for all of us. Everything is ... Time is in short supply.

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah.

Alan Berry:

So like you and I, for this meeting today, we did it virtually with a calendar. You sent me a calendar invite. I accept. It's on all my books. I know when it is. Our dental practices, would they be able to take their websites and add a calendar to where clients could book their own appointments?

Michael Reynolds:

Mm-hmm.

Alan Berry:

So you don't have to call in. You don't have to bother the receptionist. You can figure out on your own what times are open, what times aren't and book yourself. Is that even possible?

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah. Online scheduling is kind of becoming an expectation for a lot of people. I will say in healthcare, people don't expect it as much because we're just used to healthcare being full of paper and phone calls and waiting. And it's just kind of this experience we've kind of like accepted. But if you are booking an appointment for something else, a haircut, a massage, a meeting with a colleague or whatever, you're used to just going and picking a time and you're good to go.

Michael Reynolds:

And so again, we're talking about really interesting competitive advantages. So if people are looking for a dentist and have maybe three they're looking at and two of them you have to call and make an appointment and fill out paperwork and play phone tag with a receptionist or whatever. And the third one you can click a button on their website, fill out, maybe pick a few times and confirm online an appointment time and it's easy and simple. That's the one you're going to go to. That's the one that's going to stand out. And so it's kind of there's this blue ocean strategy of dental practices kind of being progressive with technology and marketing and the ones that are doing it are standing out because no one else is doing it.

Alan Berry:

It sounds to me, I'm going to kind of say it back to you what I think I'm hearing from you is that you don't have to have a website, but if you don't have a website, you kind of don't exist in 2017.

Michael Reynolds:

That's pretty dramatic but I would say it's fair. I would personally say that. I'm biased obviously. It's kind of like you open up your dental practice and you leave the lobby, bare of no furniture or plants or anything. You're kind of walking into this empty space. It's kind of weird to not have it. And there are so many opportunities to invest in these image enhancing tools that can help your practice.

Michael Reynolds:

And so before we wrap up, do you mind if I had a couple more things before we wrap up?

Alan Berry:

Please. Please.

Michael Reynolds:

So I mean the bare minimum for a website for a dental practice to me is one, intake forms. HIPAA compliant intake forms online. That's a tool that people are going to want to use. Information about the doctors, making sure that you put their credentials out there, their history, their story.

Michael Reynolds:

People are anxious a lot of times by going to the dentist. And so if they come to your website and there's no photos of anyone there it's just a bunch of texts saying, "Hey, here's our hours of operation." It's really boring and bland. It's going to reinforce that stereotype that going to the dentist is this scary kind of stark, non warm and fuzzy experience. But if you have images of your doctors and the team out there smiling, looking friendly, fun facts about them, their hobbies and a really nice, well thought out presentation of your team looking very inviting that can play a little part in lowering anxiety.

Michael Reynolds:

Putting information out there about, "Hey, what to expect at your first visit." Putting articles online about how to take care of your teeth and how to maybe avoid having bigger dental problems. Information about, how to find the office easily. Testimonials. All sorts of things.

Michael Reynolds:

Your dental website has a great opportunity to reinforce or to ... I'm sorry. To rather kind of work against this fearful stereotype we see a lot of times where going to the dentist is kind of scary for some people. Instead, make it fun, make it friendly, make it inviting. Look like the dental practice that wants to make you feel at ease. That's the one we're looking for.

Alan Berry:

And yes. And that's the one I would go to.

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah. Exactly.

Alan Berry:

Again, we're going to do three parts of this. This is the first part and-

Michael Reynolds:

Love it. Love it.

Alan Berry:

Michael, if it's okay with you, I'd like to ask any listeners if they want to send any questions in, any marketing dental questions in to a podcast@4quadrant.com.

Michael Reynolds:

Podcast@4quadrant.com. Number 4. 4quadrant.com, right?

Alan Berry:

Yeah. Yeah. And maybe we could do a show notes on this one.

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah. Yeah.

Alan Berry:

And so please, if you're listening to this and you're contemplating putting up a website or improving your website or if you have questions on how this relates to the dentistry world, please send me an email and maybe on the next one or the one after we can bring up your questions and answer them.

Michael Reynolds:

Sounds great. Looking forward to the next episode.

Alan Berry:

Me too. This is Alan Berry from the Millionaire Dentist Podcast and Michael Reynolds from Spin Web. Thank you so much for coming by.

Michael Reynolds:

Thank you.

Alan Berry:

And we'll talk to you next time.

Announcer:

But that's all the time we have today. Thank you to our guests for their insight and for sharing some really great information. And thank you to you the listener for tuning in. The Millionaire Dentist Podcast is brought to you by Four Quadrants Advisory to see if they might be a good fit for you and your practice. Go on over to FourQuadrantsadvisory.com and see why year after year they retain over 95% of their clients. Thank you again for joining us and we'll see you next time.