Episode 179: Your Office Tour

Naren: Hello everyone. Welcome to the less insurance dependence podcast, the official podcast of the reducing insurance dependence academy. www.rid.academy. This is Naren, your co-host. Today’s topic is your office tour. Before we get into the topic, I have a quick announcement. Many of you look forward to Gary’s three-part MBA on 10 elements of a thriving practice. We haven’t done one for like five months, So the very first one of 2022 is going to happen on the 29th, 30th, and 31st of March. Three evenings three hours 7 to 10 p.m. eastern. In this three-part MBA, Gary will go through, like the topic says, the 10 elements, and one of those 10 elements is the 24 systems that are so critical for the success of all of his clients. So, he’s going to go through all of that, and he sets it up as a workshop. So, you are going to be able to apply what he teaches every single day over those three days, and there’ll be at least two to three exercises you will do throughout the day, and then you apply it. For many clients, the feedback we get is that they can actually apply it when they go back to work the next day, and then they think about what he taught, taught them yesterday, and then they are better prepared for the second-day session. So, it’s a wonderful session. We have a limited number of seats. Every single one we have done so far has sold out. If you are interested, go to thrivingdentist.com/MBA, and you know, take advantage of it. If there are seats available by the time you listen to it, you know, book it quickly because they do run out now 

Gary, let’s talk about today’s topic of your office tour.

Gary: I’m excited about this topic, Naren, and thanks for talking about the upcoming thriving dentist MBA live stream workshop. A couple of things I’ll add about that workshop is it’s done live, it is virtual, meaning that you attend from the comfort of your home or office, but it’s done live, and because of that, we get interaction with our attendees, and we run it more like a workshop, and you do get nine hours of CE  for that So,  in one course that may meet quite a number of your state CE requirements. So, come join us for sure. Now the office tour. The office tour is something that I feel very strongly about, and it kind of goes back to a fundamental concept that likely all of us were taught in our youth, and that is that you have one time to make a first impression, right?

Naren: yes 

Gary: now actually, that first impression is not the first time you’re face to face likely the first impression is maybe through a google review, maybe someone’s looking for a dentist, and they stumble on a google review, or maybe they type something in, and they discover your practice they discover your website. So, maybe their first experience of you is either a google review about your practice or about your website, and then the second impression is what Naren?

Naren: The second impression is the phone call. The very first time they go to your website, find your phone number and call you, that’s the second impression.

Gary: So, what happens if the first impression was awesome, they, they, they, love the review reviews maybe they read four or five of them, and then they spend a little time on your website and think, oh yeah, this looks great, and then they call and what would happen if the call wasn’t didn’t meet their expectations 

Naren: yes, I mean putting myself in that shoe like if it doesn’t make me I mean at the end of the day the practice is a stranger right like they don’t know the practice yet they haven’t been there they don’t know any of the people, So, then my subconscious will say maybe not maybe 

Gary: maybe not 

Naren: you know, maybe not 

Gary: next 

Naren: next 

Gary: Next, but let’s assume that that call goes very well and now the patient shows up face to face what we used to call the first impression, they’re now first-time face debate, and it’s actually by our account the third impression, but again we want to keep that success train rolling right. So, we had a good first impression and a good second impression; now, we want to make that third impression and keep that success train rolling down the track.

Naren: I mean working with you, Gary, and looking at your success like many of your reviews on google are from new patients. So, literally, you guys make such an amazing, what you call the third impression that they become lifelong fans, and they are ready to write this love letter review. 

Gary: Well, the entire, entire goal of the new patient experience, and we do call it a new patient experience intentionally, the entire goal is to establish a patient for life. We want the patient saying I have found my dental office; I am never going anywhere else. So, I want to suggest something that is likely outside of your familiarity, and that is an office tour, and that’s likely not something you’ve ever experienced. It’s not something you’ve ever been taught in a CE course or a workshop unless you’ve been to one of mine, and there might be a little bit of pushback in your mind. Stick with me on this, and you’ll understand why it is; it can be very important, and it can kind of be a signature thing that you do. First, the tour let me start by telling you what it is not before I tell you what it is. It is not a Disney behind the scenes; open up every nook-covered nook and cranny and show everything off in your office. It’s not that. First of all, that would not be appropriate. There are places in your office where we shouldn’t be bringing patients and, secondly, the patient wouldn’t have an interest in that. So, it’s not that. So, we take the tour; you know you have to kind of flush out what your perception of a tour is today. think of it more as Naren if you were visiting my house for the first time, we’d show you around a little bit, we’d show you where to hang your coat, we’d show you where the washroom is 

Naren: right 

Gary: I used my Canadian language there. We call them bathrooms here in the United States; in Canada, we call them washrooms. 

Naren: oh, washrooms, yeah okay, yeah, I just called them washrooms; yeah, I thought 

Gary: Yeah, yeah, you thought I you yeah So, but we would show you where do I offer you something to drink you know to make yourself comfortable and so, really what the tour is all about is creating a great physical first impression of your office and secondly it’s about subtly let the patient know what’s available in your practice, without selling. Now think about that for a minute. To a layperson, someone in public, does a typical layperson know everything that’s available in dentistry today, or do they know everything that’s available in your practice today? Likely the answer would be no.

Naren: that is correct 

Gary: they wouldn’t know that, and so, we’re going to subtly let them know what’s, what’s, available, and So, we’re going to take them on a quick tour, and So, the tour itself is three minutes, and it could be four minutes if the patient is a talker. Now Naren, I’m going to test you for a minute, and I’ll test our listeners. We’ve talked about DISC D-I-S-C, with our listeners the personality styles, which personality style is the talker D I S or C?

Naren: I

Gary: I, So, if they’re an I, 25 percent of people in the world are I’s. High I So, statistically, one out of four of your new patients is going to be the talker. So, three out of four new patients, it takes three minutes, and one out of four takes four minutes, that’s it. So, rather than me just blabbing on about this and Naren, can I walk you through just kind of in a role-playing exercise can I walk you through and, in turn, all of our listeners through what our tour could be and what it might look like in our office and what it could look like in your own office, and then we’ll come back and talk about would that be okay.

Naren: yes 

Gary: Okay, So, Naren, you walk in. I’m going to play the role, play as if I’m Carly, one of the new patient coordinators. Carly’s going to walk around the front desk, and she’s to greet you with a nice warm handshake. Now, by the way, let me make a comment. For the last two years, the idea of doing a tour has sort of been put on the back burner because of COVID.

Naren: right 

Gary: and now as restrictions are, are, being released even in your country even in Canada as restrictions are being released, we can go back to doing this safely

Naren: Yes

Gary: And we still want to always do this very safely, of course, but we’re going to walk around the front desk. I’m going to greet you with a nice warm handshake, assuming that that would be appropriate in your climate in your community at this time.

Naren: right 

Gary: And now Carly’s going to say something like this. It’s So, great to meet you face-to-face. I don’t know if you recognize my voice, but I was the one that spoke with you the other day when you called. It’s nice to connect the face with the voice. Before you even sit down, Naren, I want to take a minute and show you around. I want you to feel comfortable while you’re here. 

We want you to think of this as your dental home. I know that sounds kind of corny, but we want you to think of this as your dental home. We want you to be comfortable while you’re here. Here let me let me show you around and we walk about five feet down the hallway and there’s two photos they’re family photos a beautiful family photo of Doctor Paul and  his, his, wife Aaron and their four kids and then right next to it is Doctor Tim  his wife Brittany and their four kids and So, now we’re going to say Naren we have two amazing dentists here at life smiles dental care that picture right there is Doctor Paul that’s his wife Aaron and that’s his four kids you’ll notice that he has three boys and a girl right next to him is Doctor Tim that’s his wife Brittany and their four kids now they did the reverse they’ve got three daughters and a son but you’ll have a chance to meet both of our doctors and they’re absolutely wonderful you’re going to see Doctor Tim today in your appointment then we slide a little bit further we, we, point into the consult room and at the back of the console room we have a lot of plaques and awards  CE certificates and such Naren, one of the things you’ll discover about Doctor Paul and Doctor Tim is they take a massive amount of continued education to stay up on the latest advances in dentistry you’ll see some of their  accomplishments and awards there on that back wall. Two, in particular, I’d like to point out to you the one on the upper left demonstrates that we have advanced training in adult orthodontics that we can help adults have beautiful straight, straight teeth and a beautiful smile. The one on the upper right demonstrates that we have advanced training in dental implants. So, if a patient’s missing a single tooth or even all of their teeth, we can help restore their dental health using dental implants. Now we slide a little bit further three feet down the hallway, and we have 16 individual photos of each one of our team members. 

Naren, this is my amazing team here at life smiles now, don’t worry, I won’t test you on their names. You’re going to see Kelly as your hygienist today; this is Kelly right here, but these are the people that will be taking care of you as you visit our office, and we literally just pivot, and we say here’s the patient restroom, you’ll notice in the restroom we have single-use toothbrushes floss rinse that you can freshen up any time before after appointment be our guest. We then literally turn the corner half a step, and we have glass shelves that have dental products on them. 

So, we say Naren; this is our dental products area. We carry products in our practice that allow our patients to have everything they need to take care of themselves at home. Many of our patients say they prefer to leave our office with what they need rather than having to go to Walmart or, or, Target or you know, to a store to pick these things up. By the way, we don’t make any profit on these things you’ll notice things like electric toothbrushes special floss special rinse we don’t make any profit on this we pass it along at our savings to you, for example, this toothbrush this electric toothbrush diamond cleans from Sonicare if you were to go to target it’s about 180 dollars, and we’re able to buy it at our price at around 100, and that becomes your cost. So, there’s no profit on this; we just want to make it available to you. So, you don’t have to make an extra trip. You’ll notice that we embrace technology in our practice Naren. 

This is our digital CBCT; it’s a three-dimensional cone beam imaging machine; it’s absolutely state-of-the-art, and that’s an example of the kind of technology we use. We love technology that allows us to identify any concerns at its earliest possible stage. At the end of the hallways is our hygiene department. Naren, we have four amazing hygienists; what you’re going to love about our hygienists is they’re gentle but thorough at the same time. 

You’re going to see Kelly today now; at the end of your appointment, Kelly’s going to recommend how frequently we should see you based on your health, and I’m going to encourage you to follow Kelly’s recommendations because if we see you on a regular basis, we accomplish two things we keep you as healthy as possible and we reduce your future dental expenses. Then we slide three feet down the hallway, and in our back office in the front office, we have some nice artwork in there in the reception room, and the artwork that we have is a local artist, and there are images of the southwest. Grand Canyon Sedona oak creek canyon lake Powell. They’re actually printed on metal, and if any of you ever see metal prints, they’re really cool because they, they, pop, they, they, really look like cool pieces of art. In the back office, any of them or anything hung on the walls, the only thing we have on the walls are after photos of actual patients of ours, after photos not before photos but after photos. These are beautiful photos. 

Now we stop at one of those photos, and we say, Naren, although we’re a general dental office our, our, doctors and, and, team members also have advanced training in things like dental implants, adult orthodontics cosmetic dentistry, all of the photos you see here actual patients of ours that we’ve helped have we’ve helped that patient achieve the smile of their dreams. Well, that’s the tour, Naren. I’m glad you’re here. So, there it is. Three minutes now, it took me a little longer to describe that because I had to stop and describe some things 

Naren: Right

Gary: But that’s three minutes if they’re not a talker, three minutes if four minutes if they are a talker. Now notice name something I’ll put you on the test here, Naren; what are some things that you now know that we do 

Naren: Well, I know the services you provide. I know that you have products in case you know I need those products even.

Gary: By the way, when we stopped at a price, I forgot to mention the tour. I was just ad-libbing it, but one of the things we have you’ll notice, Naren, there are some whitening products up on the shelf there, and our goal with our patients is to help you have the whitest, brightest smile in Arizona. So, add that to the tour. 

Naren: perfect

Gary: right

Naren: perfect 

Gary: So, now you know we do whitening, you know you know we do adult orthodontics, and now we know we do implants you now know that we do smiles we can help with cosmetic dentistry and none of it was pushy or salesy

Naren: yeah

Gary: They will know what’s available

Naren: right because you know, like they’re coming in for one thing, maybe an emergency, maybe crooked tooth, but now you’re telling them we can help you with what you came in for, plus we can also help you with lots of other things

Gary: now I’m going to put you back on the spot; we talk a lot about Robert Cialdini 

Naren: yes 

Gary: The founder of and the world authority in the science of influence 

Naren: right

Gary: Naren, when I said all of the photos here in our office are actual patients of ours that we’ve helped have the smile of their dreams which influence principles that play here?

Naren: social proof social experience 

Gary: explain that 

Naren: yes So, social proof is that if people like us are happy, we will be happy. So, this is the reason you get into a uber taxi even though it’s a stranger who drives a car with no license no, no, training because you see that he has 700 reviews 4.9 stars and yeah, yeah, I’m going to be safe because 700 people have been safe. So, that’s a very powerful idea that humans have. We are willing to trust things when other people trust things. We trust governments, we trust you know people who have lots of google reviews like you have 878 the last time I checked google reviews, five-star reviews. 

I mean, if I’m on that website within seconds, I know this is going to be a safe place; this is going to be a good place; it doesn’t take me two minutes, three minutes, just seconds. So, that’s what social proof is. Now imagine seeing six pictures, and one of them looks like my husband or looks like me with a beautiful smile; let’s say I’m old, you know, like a 65-year-old lady, and my husband has some challenges with his smile, and I’ve seen this 75-year-old guy who has the million-dollar smile. I’m like, oh john can have that same smile too because someone like john has

Gary: it’s social proof, and it’s subtle and, and, oftentimes when, when, Carly or Marty says you know all these pictures here are actual patients of ours that we’ve helped have the smile on their dreams, oftentimes they’ll say you know I heard you talk about dental implants, my grandmother is, is, interesting to have a dental implant and So, oftentimes it sparks conversation we would love to meet your grandmother. We, we, we, love helping our patients restore their smiles with dental implants. Well, So, that’s the tour. So, I want to make this actionable for our listeners. I have a homework assignment for you. We’re going to put you to work, and I want you to do this because you know information without application is merely entertainment. I’d like to think our podcast is entertaining, but more importantly, I like to see results. So, here’s your homework assignment. I want you to design seven or eight stops, office tours in your practice seven or eight stops. Notice I didn’t say six, and I didn’t say nine. 

Naren: Right

Gary: six is too few; nine is too many

Naren: Right

Gary:  So, seven or eight and I want you just to think about the cool things you could talk about in your eye it doesn’t have to necessarily be technology, it doesn’t necessarily have to be you it could be your own signature, what are the things you’re going to talk about and, and, I want you to design that and then I want you to start doing that tour in your practice and watch what happens. It’s three minutes; it could be your best three minutes you spend with that patient because they’re really developing a connection with your practice. So, it’s seven or eight stops. Think of it as lolly the trolley going down the main street that has seven or eight stops and notices that we didn’t; we walked; if I could actually show you this physically, we’re not moving more than 15 steps throughout all of this, it’s about 15 steps all together. It’s not a behind-the-scenes tour. 

Hey, on that note, I want to take a minute and say thank you. First of all, Naren, I want to thank you, and your amazing team at EKWA for all you do to supply my life smiles practice with not only the number of new patients that we want every month but the quality of those new patients.  By the way, if you’re listening and, and, your marketing is in need of more new patients, I’d strongly recommend you jump on our shoulders and, and, do what we did work with equipping we’ve been over five years now and consistently see about 90 90 quality, new patients, a month. So, Naren, thank you and thank your team for all that you do. I also want to thank our listeners. We love what we do here at the less insurance dependence podcast, but we couldn’t do it without you. So, thank you for the privilege of your time today, and we’ll look forward to connecting with you on the next less insurance dependence podcast.