Cory Pinegar founder of Reach, a groundbreaking dental start up service that helps dental practices increase patient engagement and revenue.
In 2016, at the age of 22, Cory purchased the company—then named Recall Solutions—from software giant Weave for just one dollar. Since then, COry has grown Reach to a workforce of close to 300 employees. Reach has been named one of the fastest-growing companies by Inc. 500 and has been recognized repeatedly by the Salt Lake Tribune as one of the Best Places to Work.
Check out https://www.getreach.co
They have some great articles and resources on their site.
7 Phone Answering Skills Every Dental Office Must Have
0:00 Intro Music
2:28 Intro to Reach & Cory Pinegar
5:30 Why Use 3rd Party Call Services?
10:45 Are 3rd Party Call Centers Less Personal
22:24 The Power of Exceptional Service
24:20 Statistics and Tracking Results
28:40 Training Employees and Quality Assurance
31:20 Recall Scheduling? Additional Services
34:33 Does Reach Use Practice Management Software
SHOW HOST:
As always Michael Dinsio your host Michael Dinsio is available to you as a Dental Practice Start Up Consultant.
You can reach Michael at: https://www.nxlevelconsultants.com/start-up-practice-consulting.html
You can learn more about what he does by scheduling a One-on-One call as well:
https://calendly.com/nxlevelconsultants-michael/30-minute-new-client
#dentalstartup #dentalpodcast #startupunscripted #dentalconsultant #dentalcoach
Intro Music: Do The Math: by SLPSTRM from Artlist https://artlist.io/artist/503/slpstrm
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Michael Dinsio (00:00):
Alright guys, welcome back to another episode of startup unscripted. Guys, thanks so much for being part of this program. And I just wanted to have a little grateful moment in that. Here we're at the end of 2023, heading into 2024. And super grateful for you guys. Thanks for plugging in and listening to what what we're saying on this thing, I really hope it's a benefit to you. And, and I just wanted to say thank you for, you know, being a part of the program and
(01:15):
being part of the community. But without furtherado, let's let's just get right into it. So this is startup unscripted. My name is Michael Dinsio, CEO, co founder of next level consultants. And on this program, it's all things startups. And we are walking all the way through the start for walking through the start of a startup all the way through the end. And then now we're getting ready to boot right back up. This is kind of part of the Encore series. So when I say encore, if you see encore,
(01:45):
that means that it's kind of a product or aservice, that's important to you after you're open. So again, understanding what we're trying to do episodes, you know from the very beginning was starting at the top of a startup and going through construction, architecture, demographics all the way through. And then we're starting back up at the top. But anytime you see that on core, that's a service that you probably going to be interested in, posts close. So and this is part of that
(02:17):
encore series. So today, without further ado, letme just get into introducing our guest, and we're gonna have a great conversation today is something super important to startups. But today I have Corey pine agar with reach, which is a very successful and large dental call servicing organization. Corey owns the company. And I've been referring to them for a while now. And it's so important because you guys need to have your phones covered. And Cory has a great solution for
(02:52):
that. Corey, welcome to the show, man. Thanks forbeing a part of the program. I know you're a little sick today. So if you don't bring the energy I get it. But thanks for being on.
Cory Pinegar (03:01):
No, now we will we're going to bring the energy and we're going to take a nap after it's
Michael Dinsio (03:07):
well, if I if I see a hit in the night called during, I'm not going to judge you. So if you take in Hey, you can little Nene later. That's fine. That's fine. No,
Cory Pinegar (03:15):
first of all, thank you for having me. It's a pleasure, worked in the dental community for the last nine years and really love what's happening in the progress that's taking place. So it's an absolute pleasure to be here.
Michael Dinsio (03:27):
Yeah, man well tell us a little bit about Reach. I know you guys rebranded. But Reach is the way the way it goes today. And just give us a little bit of what you guys do I know call servicing is kind of the one thing but you got some other things too. So what's the 30 second, kind of, elevator pitch?
Cory Pinegar (03:47):
Yeah, I so if we actually go beyond the call servicing, we're about helping practices, maximize their missed opportunities. There are so many mundane things that take place every single day in a practice that no one loves to do. No one loves calling Delta Dental and sitting on hold for 45 minutes or name and no one loves picking up every phone call that comes through. Those are not easy, but that's where efficiency and better patient experience is driven within a practice. So
(04:16):
as a company, there is so many sexy technologycompanies today. We're almost everything but that where we focus on simple missed opportunities and providing patients a great experience that drives into better revenue and better profit and more peace of mind within the
Michael Dinsio (04:36):
practice. Dude, amen. You just literally like if I were to throw a softball up, you just crushed you like you literally crushed that because that is totally talking my language. I don't think that my clients, our clients and startups in general appreciate how important what you said, how important that is. Because as a startup, you're not going to have a lot of opportunities. Because you're a scratch startup, you'll be lucky if you got 35 new patients, your
(05:14):
first month, you're used to 35 patients in a week,or maybe even some crazy practices a day. And so, like it like it's all about maximizing and efficiency, you just nailed it. I will add to that. wages. So as a startup, you have no revenue. So managing your expenses are that's like everything that's like so important. I guess my first gosh, I could go into 100 different directions. So Cory, give us like, if you're putting your startup hat on, and I think you said
(05:53):
you had over 300 employees picking up calls anddoing the services you do. Is that right? That's correct. So you're in the business of people. And so your overhead, we're sharing your overhead if we're, if we're taking on your services, we're kind of sharing that overhead with you. But like, what do you see as like the the one thing that why someone would want to hire you guys for a call service as a startup, what you give me are kind of like pitch because they could listen to me all day
(06:24):
long. But I kind of want to hear what what you gotto say.
Cory Pinegar (06:27):
Yeah, so most people actually are hiring us to start about six to four weeks before the practice even opens, because someone's going to be driving by your sign is going up at that time. And your first week, you want to have the most successful opening possible money is being spent starting day one. And so now having someone in the practice for 15 to $25 an hour in total, during that four to six weeks before is incredibly expensive. We charge per call. It's about $6 per
(06:58):
call that rolls through to us. And so it allowspractices to capture those new patient opportunities, while at the same time not be spending an enormous amount of money with an on site person, and not the highest level of demand being there yet. Yeah,
Michael Dinsio (07:17):
Totally. So that's interesting. So four weeks before you, you star,t so, before they start, you're picking up the calls, because I always get the question, Mike. When someone calls from the banner that says grand opening or accepting a bid, what do I say? And we coach them through that. But let's be honest, doctors aren't the greatest to taking those calls. Some, some are great, some are great, but most are not so. So it's a perk, but it's a per call. And it's not a
(07:46):
conversion, but it's a per call type situation.
Cory Pinegar (07:49):
Exactly. We charge around $6 per call. Now, the interesting thing is we report at the end of every month because taking calls is great. Let's say you pick up 81 calls in a given month. Well, what actually matters is how many butts did we get into the chair? How many patients didn't schedule and how many of them showed up? So we provide a comprehensive end of the month report where it shows here are the 81 patients we spoke with, here's their names, here's what we spoke
(08:15):
about. But then here's how many we scheduled. Andthen here's how many of them showed and how much did they actually spend so that it's not like you're in conversation.
Michael Dinsio (08:25):
So it's production per the person that you drove to the practice. Yes.
Cory Pinegar (08:29):
Yep, that we pull from the ledger in the practice management software.
Michael Dinsio (08:33):
Okay. Okay. Sorry, I interrupted you. I just wanted to get clarity on that. So So essentially, you're giving reporting on the calls that you're picking up? And how much and what the value of that particular call now? Do you guys get bonus? Or is there like some kind of win win situation where you'll get paid more per conversion? Or is it just is it just coverage? And that's okay, if it's just coverage? I'm just asking, like, is there motivation for folks to
(09:07):
drive people to the schedule? Does that makesense?
Unknown (09:10):
Really good question. So we don't change our pricing. on that. What we do is we actually spiff each one of our reps who are answering the phone calls for each new patient and existing patient that they scheduled. They also get saved or they get spiffed to save a cancellation attempt. We didn't want to I'm all about simplicity as a business owner. So if you came to our pricing, and it's like, hey, we charge $5.15 per call, but then if we schedule a treatment
(09:41):
appointment, it's $27. On top of that, we wantedto build a system where it's very easy to understand what's going on, but you're correct that our agents have to drive alignment of getting people scheduled.
Michael Dinsio (09:54):
Okay, so you guys are essentially doing some motivational factors. Behind the scenes, if some of these metrics are better, because essentially, like, you could just have a bunch of, you know, get a bunch of people on the schedule, and then they don't show up or, you know, fake calls, I mean, someone would have to go to some serious lengths for that. But essentially, you do have some things on the on the back end for your team. That's cool. That's cool.
Cory Pinegar (10:21):
And the reality is, we run month to month agreements, as I think most businesses should. And so if we're not driving butts in the chair, that are delivering revenue, and better health care to patients, practices have the right to walk away. That's so every month, we've got to go out there and earn our keep by delivering value, and not just scheduled names or booked phone calls.
Michael Dinsio (10:42):
That's exactly our model as well at Next Level Consultants. So I feel like, I feel like that's, that's where that's where it should be. I mean, look, I mean, the reality is, is you have to perform in this day and age, and I think I think competition is good. And so just all things, performance driven. third party services are I'm a big fan, because, you know, I half the time, I can't get front office folks to pick up the right way or to convert the right way. And to me, if I
(11:12):
if there's a company like yours, that takes callsliterally every single day, are they going to be better at it than probably your front office person? I mean, I'm saying your front office person is probably pretty good. Finding that maybe they're not their average. But like, if you do something every single day, you're kind of the specialist data. What am I am I crazy there? I mean, you guys should be better at it than the average person, are you?
Cory Pinegar (11:39):
Yeah. So this is actually a really good question. I would agree from a like, all we do is pick up new and existing patient phone calls and attempts to book them. So we're very good there. Where we can sometimes not match the level of the practice, to be candid is all of the nuances around minute questions. You had a question on a bill? Who does it get to? So there's some level of When Suzy calls the practice, and Mike is at the front desk, and he knows Susie,
(12:05):
there's a relationship already built there. Whatwe're very good at is taking new and existing patients and attempting to get them scheduled, where I would say we're not as good. And frankly, I've never seen a call center, or a call service, knock it out of the park is all of the minute relationship and practice nuanced details. We're working on getting there. I also not a big believer in selling a used car. We're good at what we're good at. And that's scheduling people and
(12:32):
getting them to show up to their appointments.
Michael Dinsio (12:34):
Yeah, that's right. That's right. So I think a lot of the confusion with or not confusion, that's the wrong word. I think a lot of like, the mind block is like having a company represent you. That's not you. And so like, how, how do you guys create that? That connection, so to speak, when you're not part in air quotes, part of that business or that practice? Like, do you? What's that process? Like? Because I feel like if if if people understood, it's possible to create
(13:16):
that, that that bond so to speak, then it's not ashard to hire someone that's outside the office.
Cory Pinegar (13:22):
So you're asking the the most difficult question of what we have to conquer. And it all comes down to how we onboard a practice. And it's the information that we collect, where we can act as a cohesive unit, how was the new patient scheduled? How's the limited exam scheduled? How is a consultation scheduled? What insurances are in and out of network to make that sound, then very natural, we use a piece of technology that leads a natural conversation, so
(13:51):
that when a person calls in Cory pinegar, as anexample, it would say, are you on the phone to our rep with a new patient, an existing patient or other such as Henry Schein, they click on that. And then okay, you have a new patient on the phone? Are they looking for a hygiene appointment? Are they looking for a emergency exam, and that leads through this very natural flowing conversation instead of having a one pager with 998 words on it? We try to lead our reps through a
(14:19):
very natural conversation where we're giving thempractice specific information that they can relate to the patients as they need it so that it's as natural and homey or family like as possible.
Michael Dinsio (14:32):
Yeah. Now, now, I'm like, when when the when the patient has specific information, or questions about something specific. How do you guys handle that? Like I'm okay, so I'm my patient. And I had a root canal last week, and I got some post op questions. That doesn't get answered. How do you guys handle those things? Right, like, because I think also that could help my audience understand how this all navigates and works without, you know, major
(15:12):
disruption to the, to the normal practice.
Unknown (15:15):
Yeah, so number one, we attempt to handle everything that we can, I am a very anti... We're not a glorified answering service or a answering machine. So 90% of what we get on the phone has to be handled by us, or we're doing a piss poor job. Now, what you just said is I had a root canal last week, and I have some post op questions that is outside our scope.
Michael Dinsio (15:37):
Well that's clinical.
Cory Pinegar (15:38):
Yeah, there's two different ways that we handle that. Number one is because we have the patient on the phone, we actually attempt to warm transfer them if during the business hours to the practice. So then, and it wouldn't sound clunky. But you would say actually, hey, let me get you over to Mike, who is going to be answered? You know better to answer these questions. Here. He is on our scheduling team or a patient care team, we would loop you know, get a hold of you on
(16:03):
the phone. Hey, Mike, we've got Cindy on the otherline. Here her questions. Great, we looped Cindy into the conversation and allow you to take it from there now on transfers are the best way so that it's not Oh, let me forward you to someone else. That's really clunky. Because someone's already explained to you, right? Number two in the situation where you're closed, or we can't get a hold of the practice, we are then sending a text message an email through our service saying urgent
(16:31):
matter. Here's the name and then they can log intoour portal where they're able to see everything that just took place who they should be calling back, so on and so forth. Ideally, it's a warm transfer. If not, we're sending out certain urgent messages to those who are responsible.
Michael Dinsio (16:47):
Nice, nice. Okay, cool. So big, big picture, like how I look, let's go back to how to ROI a service like this, because I think this is the, to me, like an ex banker. This is where my head goes, right? So I always I always think about like, okay, Mike, how do I, how many people do I hire, how many hours I can't miss phone calls, and their decisions of hiring team is always about covering, covering the phones, but but to be honest with you, and you've kind of already said
(17:17):
it. Like to have someone sitting around picking upyour phone at $22 or $25 an hour for five days a week is just not economical. So this is kind of like the game changer where you can hire someone up front for three days a week, and then have Coreys team cover all the rest of the days at a at $1 per call or whatever the dollars dollars per call, whatever that number is, is way more economical. So that to me, that's the game changer. Right. So do you find that startups are
(17:56):
following that model? Is that the biggest ROI inyour mind? Because I mean, I hope I'm not answering it. But I just want to have a discussion around the ROI of the situation.
Cory Pinegar (18:06):
An answering service is a no brainer, as long as the quality and the scheduling is done to the practice standards. And it doesn't matter if you have one person or two persons. There are just; if you look at call patterns during the day. If you look at the up and down curves, there's just fluctuations of calls during the day that one or two people cannot handle. And so how do you have a service that operates as a failsafe, that can be answering all those calls,
(18:39):
especially as you're new. We all know that if youcall somewhere, and they don't pick up the call the next Google listing. That's right. And there's there's very little loyalty unless it's a direct patient referral, unfortunately, in our current society, and so it's all about being there when your patients need it. And that also allows you as a doctor to come in and have a morning huddle and know that your phones are still getting answered. Patients are still getting proper properly helped.
(19:07):
The reality is if you look at all of dentalpractices 32% of all phone calls during business hours, go unanswered.
Michael Dinsio (19:16):
32% during business hours, get missed.
Cory Pinegar (19:21):
Yep. And that has been correlated by your Mango voices, your Weaves. And so that is marketing dollars that are just rolling down the toilet.
Michael Dinsio (19:30):
Litteraly,
Cory Pinegar (19:31):
It's hard to handle those patterns of calls when they spike and then they dip. There's no way to staff perfectly to that. And so we provide a service that helps maximize that at an efficient cost.
Michael Dinsio (19:44):
So are you guys open 24 hours is that no, that doesn't make sense to me picking up a phone call 1am Doesn't make sense, but go ahead.
Cory Pinegar (19:55):
We're open from 5am to 10pm. And the reality If I'm just brutally honest, we're open on the weekends and some later hours not because it makes us a ton of money. But because practices when we get calls on our sales line, Dennis go, I need an after hours scheduling service. That is the farthest thing from the truth. When you look at the numbers, you need a during hours overflow service from a number of missed calls. We're open seven days a week, because it is great from a
(20:25):
marketing perspective. And there's no reason tonot want to pick up a phone call at 3pm. On Sunday, the vast majority of work is done during normal business hours and peaks around three areas. When you open that eight to 9:30. Okay, when you're getting ready from lunch from 12:30 to 1:30, then the day begins to wrap up.
Michael Dinsio (20:46):
Yeah, because that's when everybody else is taking lunch, you're taking lunch? Like if I if I was going to call and try to make a dental appointment, I'm gonna call my lunch hour. Well, if all my dental client all the practice dental employees are taking lunch, no. picking up the phone. That makes total sense. Okay, so So right in the morning, because people are like driving their kids to school, or just all this stuff that it was in their head last night.
(21:12):
They're getting offloaded first thing in themorning during lunch? And then what was the other one? Was it after right after hours? Close? No,
Cory Pinegar (21:20):
right as the day begins to end. So four through 530, you do see a light spike, the biggest spikes are in those two sections in the morning. Your third biggest spike is as people head home for the day. What
Michael Dinsio (21:31):
I want people to understand is even if you have a team in place, they're missing calls today. You just said what did you say? 32%? Right. 32% 32%. So so so they're missing those calls and you have coverage, it's not necessarily your team. It's just not missing a call ever, which is to me the ROI on that. And you're you're exactly right. The marketing dollars that go into polling these call center is literally like burning dollars. If you missed the call, because
(22:07):
the call on the next Google listing to your point.
Cory Pinegar (22:11):
Oh, it's hard it is. It is amazing to look at the data. 14% of new patients they call a practice and go unanswered will leave a voicemail. So a lot of people like Oh Doc, we don't miss a lot of calls. We had three voicemails yesterday. Don't look at voicemails look at number of missed calls. And the last thing that I would know is people have no clue the loyalty that is built when you help people out in a time of need from a patient perspective. So years ago, when I
(22:40):
was starting reach, we were moving officebuildings one night, and about a Domino's Pizza on my way home. Okay? The best pizza out there. I took my first bite into that pizza, and my tooth fell out. Okay, front tooth. Oh, and the next day, I was supposed to speak to some front office rocks, users with Laura hatch, and I'm like, worst community to show up to in. Yeah, and I looked like a damn pirate. And I mean, I literally stayed up all night long. The business is brand new. I'm
(23:15):
like, I can't can't What did you do? What did youdo? I called around dental practices early in the morning, and finally got a hold of one close to me at maybe 7:05. And probably even slightly earlier than that. And they're like, hey, I'll get a hold of the doctor. We're gonna get you in. And they saw me by 8:50. And by 9:30, we were good to go. And the reason I say that story is I still go to that same dentist today. Oh, is he helped me in a time of need. So great story build, build
(23:48):
processes that allow you to build loyal patients.And now my family goes to the same practice. And this is not a hoity toity story. It's like he legitimately helped me out in a moment of panic. And there's so many people that have extreme pain or a root canal or need teeth whitening before their big wedding day three days before. That's what services like this can do. can drive.
Michael Dinsio (24:14):
I love it. So I do want to get to some of the other services because I think there's a lot of value here like recare recall. And, and I actually am getting some questions live here because we're live but I'll bring one of those in here in a second. But real quick, any statistics on new patient missed calls you said 32 of all calls get missed. I heard a statistic once that 33% of all new patient calls get missed. Any other fun statistics that you have that might be
(24:49):
alarming to the audience. I mean, as a consultant,you almost want to throw up in your mouth when you hear some of this stuff. But it's so it's like our clients are very driven by numbers and statistics. And so just those 230 2% are, what did you? Yeah, 33% of all new patients get missed. You said 32% of all calls get missed. So it's about the same, right?
Cory Pinegar (25:13):
Yep. And we've seen that number from the last five years, we track it every year fluctuate between 29 and 33%.
Michael Dinsio (25:20):
Wow. Any others that are fun? Like how many on average? What convert? Do you have that? How many of all the calls that come in? Just in general, how many convert?
Cory Pinegar (25:31):
Oh into new patients? That's actually a really good question that you could do a whole episode on. It is so dependent on the office's quality of marketing, because there was one thing to say we drove a lot of leads, and we drove a lot of calls. Were they the right insurance, were they did the practice, have the availability to schedule. So that's actually one of our more wider, varying numbers, I wish there was more rhyme or reason. But it really does
(25:57):
depend on practice, availability and quality ofopportunities that are coming in.
Michael Dinsio (26:02):
So we we've done a lot of mail for our startups and right i right out of the gate, and we find that a good converting ratios is 60 to 70% of all new patient calls. If it's lower than 60 to 70% of the new patient calls, then, then there could be something broke, right? But you're right, I mean that. With that statistic, it kind of goes into what you just said is is if 60% of all new patients get converted, that means 40% might not have the right insurance or whatever, it
(26:39):
might just not be a good fit.
Cory Pinegar (26:41):
When you see the numbers, they range from 35% to 80%.
Michael Dinsio (26:46):
Yeah, it is it is that I've seen that range on the mailers because our our mailing houses actually track converting. They don't take the calls, but they actually track mail to someone's house, to picking the phone up to missed calls, we got percentages on missed and then to converting and you're right, a practice that's not doing a good job is in the 40's (%). And the practice doing really good job is in the 60's -70's (%). So you're right, that is a pretty big
(27:12):
range.
Cory Pinegar (27:13):
One thing that I do want to know you asked for some additional statistics, what do people see if the service works? Well, at the end of the day, we're all in the business of ROI. If a practice is working well with us in our partnership, and they spent $100 in a given month, they should expect to see at a minimum and 8x. But we believe we're doing a better job at a 12. And instead of just saying those numbers, we need to go in there, run those numbers every month, and
(27:44):
then provide a comprehensive report to earn thepartnership going forward. So if a practice then spends $1,000, we would expect to be driving $12,000 in production and collections from those appointments that we scheduled.
Michael Dinsio (28:00):
That's huge. That's, that's absolutely huge. And of course, it probably varies on the the type of specialist and all that good stuff.
Cory Pinegar (28:07):
Medicaid, the availability, the practice, but if you look at our averages, they're right between 10 and 12. Wow, that's I'm concerned personally when we dip below an eight.
Michael Dinsio (28:17):
Oh, wow. Okay. Nice. And that's an annual value or per per visit type statistic.
Cory Pinegar (28:24):
That's taking our spend monthly versus the production and collections that come in from the appointments we schedule.
Okay, okay. Okay. Wow. Nice. 10 to 12. Cool. Allright, let's flip now and we're 30 minutes in but let's just take it to like ancillary services, because I am a big fan of third party services because of no payroll, taxes, no benefits, it's always performance. Your employees can't call in sick. Courtney's got you 100% of the time. I mean, there's so many employee issues, anxiety, oh, my gosh, I mean, I could just keep going on and on about why our team members do not perform or they
(29:03):
don't show up, why they're unreliable, why theymight be overpaid. bad attitude, not an owners mentality. And of course, Korea's team is going to have a little bit of that. I mean, come on, let's be honest. He's he's managing 300 people. But in general, if their whole job is to convert and be pleasant and Korea's listen to the calls, and he's got actually is that something you have as a quality control center where they're your or someone's listening to those calls, because of
(29:32):
course, you're gonna listen to some bad calls andalert you and let you know. Right? But I mean, what's the process for that real quick.
A minimum of four to eight calls per week arelistened to by our quality control team, we grade on a 34 point rubric for them to get their commission, such as booking those new and existing patients, they have to hit a minimum quality stamp standard as part of that process and then Also, we're not using the grading process to break people, but to build people so that they can take their commission and their service to the next level. So we have a full training team, and a full
(30:11):
quality and control team that just focuses ongetting people on the right foot before they ever hit the phone, and then helping us always hold to the highest standard.
See, see, this is exactly why you would considerthird party services because he has that whole system, training, grading commission, all of that on performance of taking calls, your front office person has to insurance verify they have to sell treatment, they have to post payments, they have to submit claims, they have to pick up the phone calls, they've got to just maybe run over and do perio charting charting as a startup, they've got to do all this stuff. Is it hard for you guys to
(30:58):
think that maybe Korea's team would be better atpicking up the phone and converting Of course, it just makes natural sense. So let's flip. Let's flip this over to like a service like recall or re recalling Maggie actually, our marketing gal, she popped in a question. I think it's a great question. Here it is Corey. So are there. Are there common challenges that dental offices face when it comes to recall scheduling? And how can those be overcome? So now we're talking about a
(31:32):
different service? Right? Do you guys do recarecalls for the good for the offices,
Yup, that's one of our main services beyond callanswering?
Michael Dinsio (31:42):
Let's talk about it. Let's talk about it. This is awesome. Go ahead.
Cory Pinegar (31:46):
Um, so we and this is a paper for for performance, we only get paid if we book an appointment here. So I think is an easier pill to swallow. We call in the ideal hours pre COVID, those were about four to 730. At night when people were actually home. COVID is flattened that scale slightly. We're okay, they're often more home in the day, but we still have a lot of our resources from five to 730, where we can reach people when they're home, when they have an availability shot.
(32:16):
And when a dental office is usually not going tocall them.
Michael Dinsio (32:20):
So let me, let me, let me, hold that. Let me pre frame here. You guys are calling active patients and trying to get them back on the schedule. And you are calling in the hours that are most successful to the patient – not convenient for the practice. Right? Yeah, because what happens is, is what like dental assistants are running around, doing all these things, and front office doing all these things. And then we get a cancellation we got an hour of a free
(32:51):
minute. And that just happens to be maybe at 2pmwhen everybody's working and your success rate is terrible to make recare calls. So maybe hire Cory and his team to smile and dial during the hours that make the most sense. Yeah
Cory Pinegar (33:09):
100%. And the interesting thing is, if you look at most practice management software's 56% of all patients are overdue, that the thing that I think if I were a practice owner myself, before I come in and sing the bell, now startup is different here. But before I come in and sing the bell have new patients, new patients, new patients, is do we have a system where most of our existing patients are coming back? Those are the patients who get additional treatment who show up
(33:38):
to those appointments. That's who you should benurturing first. And so we're calling them and saying, Hey, Dr. Smith noticed you were overdue. And we have an availability this coming Tuesday and Thursday at 11:30am and 4:30pm. When works best for you, not just a text. Now you want to still do text and email. But I'm all about how do you have as little slippage in your funnel as possible so that you're driving the most efficient practice possible, not 100% Perfect, but that when
(34:09):
you then enter new patients into the system,you've got a system that takes care of them in perpetuity. And they're a long term patient going forward.
Michael Dinsio (34:20):
Hell yes. Yes. I love that. That's nailed so so you answered Maggie's question perfectly. It's really getting the most out of all the tools that you have. And this is this is a great tool. Miss Paula, my partner asked. So you guys schedule. So that's the first question is do you schedule? And are you familiar with all PM? Of course Paul asked this question because she's all things operations and helps helps our clients set up the systems and the protocol. So this is where
(34:50):
her brain goes. I love it. Do you guys actually dothe scheduling? And are your people familiar with PMS? If they do?
Cory Pinegar (34:58):
Yep, we do all scheduling in To the practice management software, again, we don't want to be a glorified answering service. Now we only work with about 80% of the practice management software. So all of your big players
Michael Dinsio (35:10):
Oh only 80% no big deal. Yeah, there's a lot of them out there.
Cory Pinegar (35:14):
Open Dental, Dentrix, Eaglesoft, the smaller nuanced ones, we don't.
Michael Dinsio (35:17):
Yeah, cloud, right cloud, this cloud that every everybody every brother and their mother has a cloud PMS version that everybody's super excited about. Don't get me going on cloud services right now. But essentially, you guys are pretty familiar with with the big boys course Opened Dental on Eaglesoft Dentrix. But then there's some cloud versions and some things that are pretty common. So I'm assuming you guys are pretty comfortable with that. But
Cory Pinegar (35:41):
We do Ascend, we do Denticon, we do Curve on our cloud side. To give quality to our customers, we have to minimize the amount that we have to train our team on because if they have to be aware of 17 different practice management software's we would diminish our value?
Michael Dinsio (35:59):
Yes, yes. Okay. So, Miss Paula jumps back in and says, she may have missed this part. But how fast if they were going to onboard you? How fast could you onboard them? So like I'm a startup. And you said you wanted? You said it's good idea to bring you guys in four weeks before they open? So how, let's say they call you late? How fast can you jump in and start rolling.
Cory Pinegar (36:27):
From the day that we hold the kickoff call, we're live in a minimum of five business days now sometimes quicker, just depends on, you know, working with the phone company and getting access through it. But that maximum timeframe, generally for us five business days.
Michael Dinsio (36:43):
That's great. That's great. I, I you know, it's not something that we normally throw in. But, like, setting you guys up earlier on? What's the pitfalls of that quarry? Because I think we think when we turn on marketing, that's when we need to have Korean reach going. But like with your pay structure, and we didn't get into and I don't want to quote you too much on the program. But I guess I'm thinking if it's if it's a cost per call, I mean, what are the downsides?
(37:18):
Are they paying a lot of money before they're evenopen? Because that's where my head goes. Are you with me with this conversation?
Cory Pinegar (37:24):
Not a significant amount. If I were to call out, and this is answering your question to the side, the biggest pitfall that can take place from having an answering service is still having your staff expected to pick up as many phone calls as possible. So what you don't want them doing as you've started your practice, and they know they've got a third party scheduler, behind the scenes, if they have that availability, they should be that frontline, because we cost
(37:51):
money when we pick up. And so what we don't wantto do is overburden unnecessary cost. If there's available people, we should only be used when people are busy or unavailable to get to the phone.
Michael Dinsio (38:04):
Yeah, yeah. I see. So so if you have coverage at the office, and they pick it up, we're good. No cost. But if someone misses it, or it's outside the hours, it'll cost them. But that's perfect. Because you're you're utilizing, I guess you're catching the slippage. So I love that. That's fantastic. So is there a monthly and you don't have to answer the specific amount because it can be chained. Podcasts kind of exist forever. You know, people listened to my episodes
(38:35):
from four years ago. So I don't want younecessarily to quote quote, quote, numbers because it could change and all businesses do change, and they deserve to change with inflation and all that. But is there a monthly plus a call a call cost? Is that the model?
Cory Pinegar (38:48):
Yes, we yeah, we do have a small monthly fee that covers the reporting in the portal and all of that less then $100 a month. But yes, there's a small monthly fee.
Michael Dinsio (38:58):
Right on. All right. That's cool, man. And, look, we've been at 30 minutes. That means this episode's been intriguing for me, I like to do these 35 We're over and that's because you're you're a great interviewer your core anything else that you want to give my, my audience my friends out there as their give, don't feel. Don't feel like you have to but like some people provide like documents or case studies or maybe a training document we can attach to the
(39:28):
description below or anything big give or any lastminute words of advice before we shut this bad boy down.
Cory Pinegar (39:35):
We've got some best practices that were more than happy to provide in white pages that we could provide to you and your team. Second thing is if someone is interested, we are more than willing to provide a $250 credit to get started. I believe we have to earn people's business and so we can do a lot of that initial work on our dime and build a relationship. It's an easier way to get started.
Michael Dinsio (39:58):
Oh cool. Dude, very grateful for that I started the episode of grateful I'm ending it it with grateful. So $250 credit to you guys, how do you? Do we just do hashtag or promo code Michael. So you are Startup Unscripted of some sort. So they know it came from the program looks something like that.
Unknown (40:21):
So we pre arranged this today. So if you mentioned it to our sales team, they are aware of it and we'll be honoring it for the next 90 days.
Michael Dinsio (40:29):
Sweet 90 days. That's awesome. Okay, so folks take advantage of that. Corey was in the giving, the giving mood today. Oh, last question. And one of our practice management coaches, Nicole, how often are the analytics updated and delivered? Is that is that through the portal? So it's kind of on demand? It sounds like?
Unknown (40:53):
It's on demand. And then our end of month holistic ledger summary comes once a month. But in terms of patient interactions, who's getting scheduled, all of that is live in the moment.
Michael Dinsio (41:03):
Dude. I can't think of a better service for the startups because again, they need coverage. There's opportunities walking in the door. There's tons of marketing dollars being spent. I mean, it's just on and on. And so DSOs are hiring you guys. And I always think like if if DSOs are doing it probably makes sense if it makes sense, right? Like, another doesn't. I know that contradicted so but not everything that DSOs do makes sense. But when it comes to business,
(41:34):
sometimes you have to really consider it. Andthird party billing, insurance verification, which I know you guys do, picking up a phone call missed calls called phone coverage recare. I can't get my offices to do more recare calls. I love that service. So if you want to learn more about reach, you got it. You got to get a hold of Corey and his team. We'll put all that information below. And, man, thank you so much. I feel like we all learn something today. And it sounds like there's this
(42:04):
pretty big promotion that I want folks to takeadvantage of this. Well, thanks for being part of this.
Cory Pinegar (42:09):
Thank you. It's been a pleasure.
Michael Dinsio (42:11):
All right, man. Feel better. talk to you soon.
Cory Pinegar (42:16):
Thanks.
Alright guys, welcome back to another episode of startup unscripted. Guys, thanks so much for being part of this program. And I just wanted to have a little grateful moment in that. Here we're at the end of 2023, heading into 2024. And super grateful for you guys. Thanks for plugging in and listening to what what we're saying on this thing, I really hope it's a benefit to you. And, and I just wanted to say thank you for, you know, being a part of the program and
(01:15):
being part of the community. But without furtherado, let's let's just get right into it. So this is startup unscripted. My name is Michael Dinsio, CEO, co founder of next level consultants. And on this program, it's all things startups. And we are walking all the way through the start for walking through the start of a startup all the way through the end. And then now we're getting ready to boot right back up. This is kind of part of the Encore series. So when I say encore, if you see encore,
(01:45):
that means that it's kind of a product or aservice, that's important to you after you're open. So again, understanding what we're trying to do episodes, you know from the very beginning was starting at the top of a startup and going through construction, architecture, demographics all the way through. And then we're starting back up at the top. But anytime you see that on core, that's a service that you probably going to be interested in, posts close. So and this is part of that
(02:17):
encore series. So today, without further ado, letme just get into introducing our guest, and we're gonna have a great conversation today is something super important to startups. But today I have Corey pine agar with reach, which is a very successful and large dental call servicing organization. Corey owns the company. And I've been referring to them for a while now. And it's so important because you guys need to have your phones covered. And Cory has a great solution for
(02:52):
that. Corey, welcome to the show, man. Thanks forbeing a part of the program. I know you're a little sick today. So if you don't bring the energy I get it. But thanks for being on.
Cory Pinegar (03:01):
No, now we will we're going to bring the energy and we're going to take a nap after it's
Michael Dinsio (03:07):
well, if I if I see a hit in the night called during, I'm not going to judge you. So if you take in Hey, you can little Nene later. That's fine. That's fine. No,
Cory Pinegar (03:15):
first of all, thank you for having me. It's a pleasure, worked in the dental community for the last nine years and really love what's happening in the progress that's taking place. So it's an absolute pleasure to be here.
Michael Dinsio (03:27):
Yeah, man well tell us a little bit about Reach. I know you guys rebranded. But Reach is the way the way it goes today. And just give us a little bit of what you guys do I know call servicing is kind of the one thing but you got some other things too. So what's the 30 second, kind of, elevator pitch?
Cory Pinegar (03:47):
Yeah, I so if we actually go beyond the call servicing, we're about helping practices, maximize their missed opportunities. There are so many mundane things that take place every single day in a practice that no one loves to do. No one loves calling Delta Dental and sitting on hold for 45 minutes or name and no one loves picking up every phone call that comes through. Those are not easy, but that's where efficiency and better patient experience is driven within a practice. So
(04:16):
as a company, there is so many sexy technologycompanies today. We're almost everything but that where we focus on simple missed opportunities and providing patients a great experience that drives into better revenue and better profit and more peace of mind within the
Michael Dinsio (04:36):
practice. Dude, amen. You just literally like if I were to throw a softball up, you just crushed you like you literally crushed that because that is totally talking my language. I don't think that my clients, our clients and startups in general appreciate how important what you said, how important that is. Because as a startup, you're not going to have a lot of opportunities. Because you're a scratch startup, you'll be lucky if you got 35 new patients, your
(05:14):
first month, you're used to 35 patients in a week,or maybe even some crazy practices a day. And so, like it like it's all about maximizing and efficiency, you just nailed it. I will add to that. wages. So as a startup, you have no revenue. So managing your expenses are that's like everything that's like so important. I guess my first gosh, I could go into 100 different directions. So Cory, give us like, if you're putting your startup hat on, and I think you said
(05:53):
you had over 300 employees picking up calls anddoing the services you do. Is that right? That's correct. So you're in the business of people. And so your overhead, we're sharing your overhead if we're, if we're taking on your services, we're kind of sharing that overhead with you. But like, what do you see as like the the one thing that why someone would want to hire you guys for a call service as a startup, what you give me are kind of like pitch because they could listen to me all day
(06:24):
long. But I kind of want to hear what what you gotto say.
Cory Pinegar (06:27):
Yeah, so most people actually are hiring us to start about six to four weeks before the practice even opens, because someone's going to be driving by your sign is going up at that time. And your first week, you want to have the most successful opening possible money is being spent starting day one. And so now having someone in the practice for 15 to $25 an hour in total, during that four to six weeks before is incredibly expensive. We charge per call. It's about $6 per
(06:58):
call that rolls through to us. And so it allowspractices to capture those new patient opportunities, while at the same time not be spending an enormous amount of money with an on site person, and not the highest level of demand being there yet. Yeah,
Michael Dinsio (07:17):
Totally. So that's interesting. So four weeks before you, you star,t so, before they start, you're picking up the calls, because I always get the question, Mike. When someone calls from the banner that says grand opening or accepting a bid, what do I say? And we coach them through that. But let's be honest, doctors aren't the greatest to taking those calls. Some, some are great, some are great, but most are not so. So it's a perk, but it's a per call. And it's not a
(07:46):
conversion, but it's a per call type situation.
Cory Pinegar (07:49):
Exactly. We charge around $6 per call. Now, the interesting thing is we report at the end of every month because taking calls is great. Let's say you pick up 81 calls in a given month. Well, what actually matters is how many butts did we get into the chair? How many patients didn't schedule and how many of them showed up? So we provide a comprehensive end of the month report where it shows here are the 81 patients we spoke with, here's their names, here's what we spoke
(08:15):
about. But then here's how many we scheduled. Andthen here's how many of them showed and how much did they actually spend so that it's not like you're in conversation.
Michael Dinsio (08:25):
So it's production per the person that you drove to the practice. Yes.
Cory Pinegar (08:29):
Yep, that we pull from the ledger in the practice management software.
Michael Dinsio (08:33):
Okay. Okay. Sorry, I interrupted you. I just wanted to get clarity on that. So So essentially, you're giving reporting on the calls that you're picking up? And how much and what the value of that particular call now? Do you guys get bonus? Or is there like some kind of win win situation where you'll get paid more per conversion? Or is it just is it just coverage? And that's okay, if it's just coverage? I'm just asking, like, is there motivation for folks to
(09:07):
drive people to the schedule? Does that makesense?
Unknown (09:10):
Really good question. So we don't change our pricing. on that. What we do is we actually spiff each one of our reps who are answering the phone calls for each new patient and existing patient that they scheduled. They also get saved or they get spiffed to save a cancellation attempt. We didn't want to I'm all about simplicity as a business owner. So if you came to our pricing, and it's like, hey, we charge $5.15 per call, but then if we schedule a treatment
(09:41):
appointment, it's $27. On top of that, we wantedto build a system where it's very easy to understand what's going on, but you're correct that our agents have to drive alignment of getting people scheduled.
Michael Dinsio (09:54):
Okay, so you guys are essentially doing some motivational factors. Behind the scenes, if some of these metrics are better, because essentially, like, you could just have a bunch of, you know, get a bunch of people on the schedule, and then they don't show up or, you know, fake calls, I mean, someone would have to go to some serious lengths for that. But essentially, you do have some things on the on the back end for your team. That's cool. That's cool.
Cory Pinegar (10:21):
And the reality is, we run month to month agreements, as I think most businesses should. And so if we're not driving butts in the chair, that are delivering revenue, and better health care to patients, practices have the right to walk away. That's so every month, we've got to go out there and earn our keep by delivering value, and not just scheduled names or booked phone calls.
Michael Dinsio (10:42):
That's exactly our model as well at Next Level Consultants. So I feel like, I feel like that's, that's where that's where it should be. I mean, look, I mean, the reality is, is you have to perform in this day and age, and I think I think competition is good. And so just all things, performance driven. third party services are I'm a big fan, because, you know, I half the time, I can't get front office folks to pick up the right way or to convert the right way. And to me, if I
(11:12):
if there's a company like yours, that takes callsliterally every single day, are they going to be better at it than probably your front office person? I mean, I'm saying your front office person is probably pretty good. Finding that maybe they're not their average. But like, if you do something every single day, you're kind of the specialist data. What am I am I crazy there? I mean, you guys should be better at it than the average person, are you?
Cory Pinegar (11:39):
Yeah. So this is actually a really good question. I would agree from a like, all we do is pick up new and existing patient phone calls and attempts to book them. So we're very good there. Where we can sometimes not match the level of the practice, to be candid is all of the nuances around minute questions. You had a question on a bill? Who does it get to? So there's some level of When Suzy calls the practice, and Mike is at the front desk, and he knows Susie,
(12:05):
there's a relationship already built there. Whatwe're very good at is taking new and existing patients and attempting to get them scheduled, where I would say we're not as good. And frankly, I've never seen a call center, or a call service, knock it out of the park is all of the minute relationship and practice nuanced details. We're working on getting there. I also not a big believer in selling a used car. We're good at what we're good at. And that's scheduling people and
(12:32):
getting them to show up to their appointments.
Michael Dinsio (12:34):
Yeah, that's right. That's right. So I think a lot of the confusion with or not confusion, that's the wrong word. I think a lot of like, the mind block is like having a company represent you. That's not you. And so like, how, how do you guys create that? That connection, so to speak, when you're not part in air quotes, part of that business or that practice? Like, do you? What's that process? Like? Because I feel like if if if people understood, it's possible to create
(13:16):
that, that that bond so to speak, then it's not ashard to hire someone that's outside the office.
Cory Pinegar (13:22):
So you're asking the the most difficult question of what we have to conquer. And it all comes down to how we onboard a practice. And it's the information that we collect, where we can act as a cohesive unit, how was the new patient scheduled? How's the limited exam scheduled? How is a consultation scheduled? What insurances are in and out of network to make that sound, then very natural, we use a piece of technology that leads a natural conversation, so
(13:51):
that when a person calls in Cory pinegar, as anexample, it would say, are you on the phone to our rep with a new patient, an existing patient or other such as Henry Schein, they click on that. And then okay, you have a new patient on the phone? Are they looking for a hygiene appointment? Are they looking for a emergency exam, and that leads through this very natural flowing conversation instead of having a one pager with 998 words on it? We try to lead our reps through a
(14:19):
very natural conversation where we're giving thempractice specific information that they can relate to the patients as they need it so that it's as natural and homey or family like as possible.
Michael Dinsio (14:32):
Yeah. Now, now, I'm like, when when the when the patient has specific information, or questions about something specific. How do you guys handle that? Like I'm okay, so I'm my patient. And I had a root canal last week, and I got some post op questions. That doesn't get answered. How do you guys handle those things? Right, like, because I think also that could help my audience understand how this all navigates and works without, you know, major
(15:12):
disruption to the, to the normal practice.
Unknown (15:15):
Yeah, so number one, we attempt to handle everything that we can, I am a very anti... We're not a glorified answering service or a answering machine. So 90% of what we get on the phone has to be handled by us, or we're doing a piss poor job. Now, what you just said is I had a root canal last week, and I have some post op questions that is outside our scope.
Michael Dinsio (15:37):
Well that's clinical.
Cory Pinegar (15:38):
Yeah, there's two different ways that we handle that. Number one is because we have the patient on the phone, we actually attempt to warm transfer them if during the business hours to the practice. So then, and it wouldn't sound clunky. But you would say actually, hey, let me get you over to Mike, who is going to be answered? You know better to answer these questions. Here. He is on our scheduling team or a patient care team, we would loop you know, get a hold of you on
(16:03):
the phone. Hey, Mike, we've got Cindy on the otherline. Here her questions. Great, we looped Cindy into the conversation and allow you to take it from there now on transfers are the best way so that it's not Oh, let me forward you to someone else. That's really clunky. Because someone's already explained to you, right? Number two in the situation where you're closed, or we can't get a hold of the practice, we are then sending a text message an email through our service saying urgent
(16:31):
matter. Here's the name and then they can log intoour portal where they're able to see everything that just took place who they should be calling back, so on and so forth. Ideally, it's a warm transfer. If not, we're sending out certain urgent messages to those who are responsible.
Michael Dinsio (16:47):
Nice, nice. Okay, cool. So big, big picture, like how I look, let's go back to how to ROI a service like this, because I think this is the, to me, like an ex banker. This is where my head goes, right? So I always I always think about like, okay, Mike, how do I, how many people do I hire, how many hours I can't miss phone calls, and their decisions of hiring team is always about covering, covering the phones, but but to be honest with you, and you've kind of already said
(17:17):
it. Like to have someone sitting around picking upyour phone at $22 or $25 an hour for five days a week is just not economical. So this is kind of like the game changer where you can hire someone up front for three days a week, and then have Coreys team cover all the rest of the days at a at $1 per call or whatever the dollars dollars per call, whatever that number is, is way more economical. So that to me, that's the game changer. Right. So do you find that startups are
(17:56):
following that model? Is that the biggest ROI inyour mind? Because I mean, I hope I'm not answering it. But I just want to have a discussion around the ROI of the situation.
Cory Pinegar (18:06):
An answering service is a no brainer, as long as the quality and the scheduling is done to the practice standards. And it doesn't matter if you have one person or two persons. There are just; if you look at call patterns during the day. If you look at the up and down curves, there's just fluctuations of calls during the day that one or two people cannot handle. And so how do you have a service that operates as a failsafe, that can be answering all those calls,
(18:39):
especially as you're new. We all know that if youcall somewhere, and they don't pick up the call the next Google listing. That's right. And there's there's very little loyalty unless it's a direct patient referral, unfortunately, in our current society, and so it's all about being there when your patients need it. And that also allows you as a doctor to come in and have a morning huddle and know that your phones are still getting answered. Patients are still getting proper properly helped.
(19:07):
The reality is if you look at all of dentalpractices 32% of all phone calls during business hours, go unanswered.
Michael Dinsio (19:16):
32% during business hours, get missed.
Cory Pinegar (19:21):
Yep. And that has been correlated by your Mango voices, your Weaves. And so that is marketing dollars that are just rolling down the toilet.
Michael Dinsio (19:30):
Litteraly,
Cory Pinegar (19:31):
It's hard to handle those patterns of calls when they spike and then they dip. There's no way to staff perfectly to that. And so we provide a service that helps maximize that at an efficient cost.
Michael Dinsio (19:44):
So are you guys open 24 hours is that no, that doesn't make sense to me picking up a phone call 1am Doesn't make sense, but go ahead.
Cory Pinegar (19:55):
We're open from 5am to 10pm. And the reality If I'm just brutally honest, we're open on the weekends and some later hours not because it makes us a ton of money. But because practices when we get calls on our sales line, Dennis go, I need an after hours scheduling service. That is the farthest thing from the truth. When you look at the numbers, you need a during hours overflow service from a number of missed calls. We're open seven days a week, because it is great from a
(20:25):
marketing perspective. And there's no reason tonot want to pick up a phone call at 3pm. On Sunday, the vast majority of work is done during normal business hours and peaks around three areas. When you open that eight to 9:30. Okay, when you're getting ready from lunch from 12:30 to 1:30, then the day begins to wrap up.
Michael Dinsio (20:46):
Yeah, because that's when everybody else is taking lunch, you're taking lunch? Like if I if I was going to call and try to make a dental appointment, I'm gonna call my lunch hour. Well, if all my dental client all the practice dental employees are taking lunch, no. picking up the phone. That makes total sense. Okay, so So right in the morning, because people are like driving their kids to school, or just all this stuff that it was in their head last night.
(21:12):
They're getting offloaded first thing in themorning during lunch? And then what was the other one? Was it after right after hours? Close? No,
Cory Pinegar (21:20):
right as the day begins to end. So four through 530, you do see a light spike, the biggest spikes are in those two sections in the morning. Your third biggest spike is as people head home for the day. What
Michael Dinsio (21:31):
I want people to understand is even if you have a team in place, they're missing calls today. You just said what did you say? 32%? Right. 32% 32%. So so so they're missing those calls and you have coverage, it's not necessarily your team. It's just not missing a call ever, which is to me the ROI on that. And you're you're exactly right. The marketing dollars that go into polling these call center is literally like burning dollars. If you missed the call, because
(22:07):
the call on the next Google listing to your point.
Cory Pinegar (22:11):
Oh, it's hard it is. It is amazing to look at the data. 14% of new patients they call a practice and go unanswered will leave a voicemail. So a lot of people like Oh Doc, we don't miss a lot of calls. We had three voicemails yesterday. Don't look at voicemails look at number of missed calls. And the last thing that I would know is people have no clue the loyalty that is built when you help people out in a time of need from a patient perspective. So years ago, when I
(22:40):
was starting reach, we were moving officebuildings one night, and about a Domino's Pizza on my way home. Okay? The best pizza out there. I took my first bite into that pizza, and my tooth fell out. Okay, front tooth. Oh, and the next day, I was supposed to speak to some front office rocks, users with Laura hatch, and I'm like, worst community to show up to in. Yeah, and I looked like a damn pirate. And I mean, I literally stayed up all night long. The business is brand new. I'm
(23:15):
like, I can't can't What did you do? What did youdo? I called around dental practices early in the morning, and finally got a hold of one close to me at maybe 7:05. And probably even slightly earlier than that. And they're like, hey, I'll get a hold of the doctor. We're gonna get you in. And they saw me by 8:50. And by 9:30, we were good to go. And the reason I say that story is I still go to that same dentist today. Oh, is he helped me in a time of need. So great story build, build
(23:48):
processes that allow you to build loyal patients.And now my family goes to the same practice. And this is not a hoity toity story. It's like he legitimately helped me out in a moment of panic. And there's so many people that have extreme pain or a root canal or need teeth whitening before their big wedding day three days before. That's what services like this can do. can drive.
Michael Dinsio (24:14):
I love it. So I do want to get to some of the other services because I think there's a lot of value here like recare recall. And, and I actually am getting some questions live here because we're live but I'll bring one of those in here in a second. But real quick, any statistics on new patient missed calls you said 32 of all calls get missed. I heard a statistic once that 33% of all new patient calls get missed. Any other fun statistics that you have that might be
(24:49):
alarming to the audience. I mean, as a consultant,you almost want to throw up in your mouth when you hear some of this stuff. But it's so it's like our clients are very driven by numbers and statistics. And so just those 230 2% are, what did you? Yeah, 33% of all new patients get missed. You said 32% of all calls get missed. So it's about the same, right?
Cory Pinegar (25:13):
Yep. And we've seen that number from the last five years, we track it every year fluctuate between 29 and 33%.
Michael Dinsio (25:20):
Wow. Any others that are fun? Like how many on average? What convert? Do you have that? How many of all the calls that come in? Just in general, how many convert?
Cory Pinegar (25:31):
Oh into new patients? That's actually a really good question that you could do a whole episode on. It is so dependent on the office's quality of marketing, because there was one thing to say we drove a lot of leads, and we drove a lot of calls. Were they the right insurance, were they did the practice, have the availability to schedule. So that's actually one of our more wider, varying numbers, I wish there was more rhyme or reason. But it really does
(25:57):
depend on practice, availability and quality ofopportunities that are coming in.
Michael Dinsio (26:02):
So we we've done a lot of mail for our startups and right i right out of the gate, and we find that a good converting ratios is 60 to 70% of all new patient calls. If it's lower than 60 to 70% of the new patient calls, then, then there could be something broke, right? But you're right, I mean that. With that statistic, it kind of goes into what you just said is is if 60% of all new patients get converted, that means 40% might not have the right insurance or whatever, it
(26:39):
might just not be a good fit.
Cory Pinegar (26:41):
When you see the numbers, they range from 35% to 80%.
Michael Dinsio (26:46):
Yeah, it is it is that I've seen that range on the mailers because our our mailing houses actually track converting. They don't take the calls, but they actually track mail to someone's house, to picking the phone up to missed calls, we got percentages on missed and then to converting and you're right, a practice that's not doing a good job is in the 40's (%). And the practice doing really good job is in the 60's -70's (%). So you're right, that is a pretty big
(27:12):
range.
Cory Pinegar (27:13):
One thing that I do want to know you asked for some additional statistics, what do people see if the service works? Well, at the end of the day, we're all in the business of ROI. If a practice is working well with us in our partnership, and they spent $100 in a given month, they should expect to see at a minimum and 8x. But we believe we're doing a better job at a 12. And instead of just saying those numbers, we need to go in there, run those numbers every month, and
(27:44):
then provide a comprehensive report to earn thepartnership going forward. So if a practice then spends $1,000, we would expect to be driving $12,000 in production and collections from those appointments that we scheduled.
Michael Dinsio (28:00):
That's huge. That's, that's absolutely huge. And of course, it probably varies on the the type of specialist and all that good stuff.
Cory Pinegar (28:07):
Medicaid, the availability, the practice, but if you look at our averages, they're right between 10 and 12. Wow, that's I'm concerned personally when we dip below an eight.
Michael Dinsio (28:17):
Oh, wow. Okay. Nice. And that's an annual value or per per visit type statistic.
Cory Pinegar (28:24):
That's taking our spend monthly versus the production and collections that come in from the appointments we schedule.
Okay, okay. Okay. Wow. Nice. 10 to 12. Cool. Allright, let's flip now and we're 30 minutes in but let's just take it to like ancillary services, because I am a big fan of third party services because of no payroll, taxes, no benefits, it's always performance. Your employees can't call in sick. Courtney's got you 100% of the time. I mean, there's so many employee issues, anxiety, oh, my gosh, I mean, I could just keep going on and on about why our team members do not perform or they
(29:03):
don't show up, why they're unreliable, why theymight be overpaid. bad attitude, not an owners mentality. And of course, Korea's team is going to have a little bit of that. I mean, come on, let's be honest. He's he's managing 300 people. But in general, if their whole job is to convert and be pleasant and Korea's listen to the calls, and he's got actually is that something you have as a quality control center where they're your or someone's listening to those calls, because of
(29:32):
course, you're gonna listen to some bad calls andalert you and let you know. Right? But I mean, what's the process for that real quick.
A minimum of four to eight calls per week arelistened to by our quality control team, we grade on a 34 point rubric for them to get their commission, such as booking those new and existing patients, they have to hit a minimum quality stamp standard as part of that process and then Also, we're not using the grading process to break people, but to build people so that they can take their commission and their service to the next level. So we have a full training team, and a full
(30:11):
quality and control team that just focuses ongetting people on the right foot before they ever hit the phone, and then helping us always hold to the highest standard.
See, see, this is exactly why you would considerthird party services because he has that whole system, training, grading commission, all of that on performance of taking calls, your front office person has to insurance verify they have to sell treatment, they have to post payments, they have to submit claims, they have to pick up the phone calls, they've got to just maybe run over and do perio charting charting as a startup, they've got to do all this stuff. Is it hard for you guys to
(30:58):
think that maybe Korea's team would be better atpicking up the phone and converting Of course, it just makes natural sense. So let's flip. Let's flip this over to like a service like recall or re recalling Maggie actually, our marketing gal, she popped in a question. I think it's a great question. Here it is Corey. So are there. Are there common challenges that dental offices face when it comes to recall scheduling? And how can those be overcome? So now we're talking about a
(31:32):
different service? Right? Do you guys do recarecalls for the good for the offices,
Yup, that's one of our main services beyond callanswering?
Michael Dinsio (31:42):
Let's talk about it. Let's talk about it. This is awesome. Go ahead.
Cory Pinegar (31:46):
Um, so we and this is a paper for for performance, we only get paid if we book an appointment here. So I think is an easier pill to swallow. We call in the ideal hours pre COVID, those were about four to 730. At night when people were actually home. COVID is flattened that scale slightly. We're okay, they're often more home in the day, but we still have a lot of our resources from five to 730, where we can reach people when they're home, when they have an availability shot.
(32:16):
And when a dental office is usually not going tocall them.
Michael Dinsio (32:20):
So let me, let me, let me, hold that. Let me pre frame here. You guys are calling active patients and trying to get them back on the schedule. And you are calling in the hours that are most successful to the patient – not convenient for the practice. Right? Yeah, because what happens is, is what like dental assistants are running around, doing all these things, and front office doing all these things. And then we get a cancellation we got an hour of a free
(32:51):
minute. And that just happens to be maybe at 2pmwhen everybody's working and your success rate is terrible to make recare calls. So maybe hire Cory and his team to smile and dial during the hours that make the most sense. Yeah
Cory Pinegar (33:09):
100%. And the interesting thing is, if you look at most practice management software's 56% of all patients are overdue, that the thing that I think if I were a practice owner myself, before I come in and sing the bell, now startup is different here. But before I come in and sing the bell have new patients, new patients, new patients, is do we have a system where most of our existing patients are coming back? Those are the patients who get additional treatment who show up
(33:38):
to those appointments. That's who you should benurturing first. And so we're calling them and saying, Hey, Dr. Smith noticed you were overdue. And we have an availability this coming Tuesday and Thursday at 11:30am and 4:30pm. When works best for you, not just a text. Now you want to still do text and email. But I'm all about how do you have as little slippage in your funnel as possible so that you're driving the most efficient practice possible, not 100% Perfect, but that when
(34:09):
you then enter new patients into the system,you've got a system that takes care of them in perpetuity. And they're a long term patient going forward.
Michael Dinsio (34:20):
Hell yes. Yes. I love that. That's nailed so so you answered Maggie's question perfectly. It's really getting the most out of all the tools that you have. And this is this is a great tool. Miss Paula, my partner asked. So you guys schedule. So that's the first question is do you schedule? And are you familiar with all PM? Of course Paul asked this question because she's all things operations and helps helps our clients set up the systems and the protocol. So this is where
(34:50):
her brain goes. I love it. Do you guys actually dothe scheduling? And are your people familiar with PMS? If they do?
Cory Pinegar (34:58):
Yep, we do all scheduling in To the practice management software, again, we don't want to be a glorified answering service. Now we only work with about 80% of the practice management software. So all of your big players
Michael Dinsio (35:10):
Oh only 80% no big deal. Yeah, there's a lot of them out there.
Cory Pinegar (35:14):
Open Dental, Dentrix, Eaglesoft, the smaller nuanced ones, we don't.
Michael Dinsio (35:17):
Yeah, cloud, right cloud, this cloud that every everybody every brother and their mother has a cloud PMS version that everybody's super excited about. Don't get me going on cloud services right now. But essentially, you guys are pretty familiar with with the big boys course Opened Dental on Eaglesoft Dentrix. But then there's some cloud versions and some things that are pretty common. So I'm assuming you guys are pretty comfortable with that. But
Cory Pinegar (35:41):
We do Ascend, we do Denticon, we do Curve on our cloud side. To give quality to our customers, we have to minimize the amount that we have to train our team on because if they have to be aware of 17 different practice management software's we would diminish our value?
Michael Dinsio (35:59):
Yes, yes. Okay. So, Miss Paula jumps back in and says, she may have missed this part. But how fast if they were going to onboard you? How fast could you onboard them? So like I'm a startup. And you said you wanted? You said it's good idea to bring you guys in four weeks before they open? So how, let's say they call you late? How fast can you jump in and start rolling.
Cory Pinegar (36:27):
From the day that we hold the kickoff call, we're live in a minimum of five business days now sometimes quicker, just depends on, you know, working with the phone company and getting access through it. But that maximum timeframe, generally for us five business days.
Michael Dinsio (36:43):
That's great. That's great. I, I you know, it's not something that we normally throw in. But, like, setting you guys up earlier on? What's the pitfalls of that quarry? Because I think we think when we turn on marketing, that's when we need to have Korean reach going. But like with your pay structure, and we didn't get into and I don't want to quote you too much on the program. But I guess I'm thinking if it's if it's a cost per call, I mean, what are the downsides?
(37:18):
Are they paying a lot of money before they're evenopen? Because that's where my head goes. Are you with me with this conversation?
Cory Pinegar (37:24):
Not a significant amount. If I were to call out, and this is answering your question to the side, the biggest pitfall that can take place from having an answering service is still having your staff expected to pick up as many phone calls as possible. So what you don't want them doing as you've started your practice, and they know they've got a third party scheduler, behind the scenes, if they have that availability, they should be that frontline, because we cost
(37:51):
money when we pick up. And so what we don't wantto do is overburden unnecessary cost. If there's available people, we should only be used when people are busy or unavailable to get to the phone.
Michael Dinsio (38:04):
Yeah, yeah. I see. So so if you have coverage at the office, and they pick it up, we're good. No cost. But if someone misses it, or it's outside the hours, it'll cost them. But that's perfect. Because you're you're utilizing, I guess you're catching the slippage. So I love that. That's fantastic. So is there a monthly and you don't have to answer the specific amount because it can be chained. Podcasts kind of exist forever. You know, people listened to my episodes
(38:35):
from four years ago. So I don't want younecessarily to quote quote, quote, numbers because it could change and all businesses do change, and they deserve to change with inflation and all that. But is there a monthly plus a call a call cost? Is that the model?
Cory Pinegar (38:48):
Yes, we yeah, we do have a small monthly fee that covers the reporting in the portal and all of that less then $100 a month. But yes, there's a small monthly fee.
Michael Dinsio (38:58):
Right on. All right. That's cool, man. And, look, we've been at 30 minutes. That means this episode's been intriguing for me, I like to do these 35 We're over and that's because you're you're a great interviewer your core anything else that you want to give my, my audience my friends out there as their give, don't feel. Don't feel like you have to but like some people provide like documents or case studies or maybe a training document we can attach to the
(39:28):
description below or anything big give or any lastminute words of advice before we shut this bad boy down.
Cory Pinegar (39:35):
We've got some best practices that were more than happy to provide in white pages that we could provide to you and your team. Second thing is if someone is interested, we are more than willing to provide a $250 credit to get started. I believe we have to earn people's business and so we can do a lot of that initial work on our dime and build a relationship. It's an easier way to get started.
Michael Dinsio (39:58):
Oh cool. Dude, very grateful for that I started the episode of grateful I'm ending it it with grateful. So $250 credit to you guys, how do you? Do we just do hashtag or promo code Michael. So you are Startup Unscripted of some sort. So they know it came from the program looks something like that.
Unknown (40:21):
So we pre arranged this today. So if you mentioned it to our sales team, they are aware of it and we'll be honoring it for the next 90 days.
Michael Dinsio (40:29):
Sweet 90 days. That's awesome. Okay, so folks take advantage of that. Corey was in the giving, the giving mood today. Oh, last question. And one of our practice management coaches, Nicole, how often are the analytics updated and delivered? Is that is that through the portal? So it's kind of on demand? It sounds like?
Unknown (40:53):
It's on demand. And then our end of month holistic ledger summary comes once a month. But in terms of patient interactions, who's getting scheduled, all of that is live in the moment.
Michael Dinsio (41:03):
Dude. I can't think of a better service for the startups because again, they need coverage. There's opportunities walking in the door. There's tons of marketing dollars being spent. I mean, it's just on and on. And so DSOs are hiring you guys. And I always think like if if DSOs are doing it probably makes sense if it makes sense, right? Like, another doesn't. I know that contradicted so but not everything that DSOs do makes sense. But when it comes to business,
(41:34):
sometimes you have to really consider it. Andthird party billing, insurance verification, which I know you guys do, picking up a phone call missed calls called phone coverage recare. I can't get my offices to do more recare calls. I love that service. So if you want to learn more about reach, you got it. You got to get a hold of Corey and his team. We'll put all that information below. And, man, thank you so much. I feel like we all learn something today. And it sounds like there's this
(42:04):
pretty big promotion that I want folks to takeadvantage of this. Well, thanks for being part of this.
Cory Pinegar (42:09):
Thank you. It's been a pleasure.
Michael Dinsio (42:11):
All right, man. Feel better. talk to you soon.
Cory Pinegar (42:16):
Thanks.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.