Elevating the Patient Experience in Your Dental Practice with Ryan Vet

Alec Goldman:
Welcome to How I Grew My Practice, a podcast presented by NexHealth. I'm your host, Alec Goldman. In this episode we have the Ryan Vet, entrepreneur, author, international speaker, a man of I feel like quite a bit of mystery. He's here to talk about the importance of the patient experience. Ryan, I'm so I feel so fortunate to have you on the show. How are you doing today?
Ryan Vet:
Doing well, Alec. Thanks so much for having me.
Alec Goldman:
Ryan, I feel like you've been in the industry for quite some time, but still for the audience, folks who may not know who Mr. Ryan Vet is, if you can give a little bit of background on who you are, what you're up to, and kind of how you got into dental.
Ryan Vet:
Absolutely. Well, my background is actually not originally in dental. It's primarily in the software startup world and cut my teeth there. No pun intended. Got to learn a little bit about startups and really about customer experience and creating experiences. We're sharing for every person that interacts with a brand. And in the early 2010s, I got introduced to a medical device company and The rest is history. We launched in dental and fell in love with the dental industry. Simultaneously, it just so happened that my wife was in dental school, which is why I ended up taking the job opportunity and ever since have been in the dental industry. That's the short version of it.
Alec Goldman:
That's very cool. And Ryan, I know that you also play a heavy hand in all the awesome work over at SCN. If you can give just a little bit of background on what you're up to over there.
Ryan Vet:
Yeah. So speaking consulting network is a organization that's been around, uh, for almost 30 years. And really what the organization focuses on is it equips and empowers speakers, thought leaders, KOLs, influencers to really move the dental industry forward through excellence and integrity in the way we teach, introduce new products, introduce new ideas and concepts, changes in laws, insurance, uh, changing in the dental landscape. what that all looks like. And so the organization has been around and really a driving force for many of the speakers that you see on these national stages, at your study clubs, for many of the articles that you read in the publications. A lot of those individuals are SCN members. And so we have a good time. We provide continuing education for our speakers and consultants, just like you have to go get a certain number of CE credits every single year to keep your license up to date. And so we really want to have the best. So if anyone has that SCN, uh, you know, official member seal on their, their presentation or in their bio or on their site, uh, we, we are, are confident that is the best of the best that, uh, the industry has to offer. And I think a testament to being around for, uh, you know, almost three decades and still being the, the number one booked, uh, organization for, for many of these major events.
Alec Goldman:
So cool. And obviously, it means from your perspective, you're being surrounded by experts in this industry and are really so knowledgeable of the latest technology, processes, different trends, things that offices are interested in. So when I asked you, you got 20 minutes on the show with us today, one topic that really holds dear to your heart, what would interest you? And you said that you wanted to speak of the patient experience. So I wanted to quickly ask before we jump into the topic, why did you pick this as a topic that you wanted to speak on?
Ryan Vet:
I think it goes beyond dental and really looks at the whole experience that we have as customers, whatever we're buying. We on average, studies show we make 35,000 decisions a day and we're exposed to over 10,000 forms of advertisements. So we're kind of inundated. But the question is, what took a 43 square mile swamp in central Florida and turned it into the happiest place on earth? or what makes a product, a work product, like a utility coveted by many when you put an Apple logo on the back of it. It's a phone, it's a computer. What are these things that have created an experience beyond just a utility or an amusement park? What makes them so magical, if you will? And I think dentistry has a huge opportunity because dentists, a lot of times, are not people's most favorite part of their year. Uh, they're not trying to get there, uh, you know, twice a year with, with bells on there, they're doing it because they have to. And so how do you change that patient perception from the time they first hear about your practice all the way through the time that you say, Hey, you've got these issues, here's a treatment plan. And you get to that. Yes. For case acceptance. So that's, uh, that's why I'm passionate about it. Cause it doesn't just touch dentistry, but it touches every area of our lives.
Alec Goldman:
Yeah, you can see a world where, especially in dentistry, if most of you go into the dentist as a requirement, baseline health,
Ryan Vet:
Right.
Alec Goldman:
no, I gotta get my teeth checked twice a year. You can see a world where there's things like Apple or more retail-oriented things, things like Disney, where it's a choice, right? So they have to go above and beyond, where dentists, because it's a requirement, they already get the patient demand, they may not need to. So given how many folks you're speaking over, at SCN and the thousands of practices that you have spoken to, what are the components, what makes a great patient experience for dentists? The ones that you see as successful, what separates them from the ones who may not be really making their mark?
Ryan Vet:
Yeah, I think it really starts with that first impression. Um, and then it goes to your interaction. Then it goes to that patient internalizing their experience. And then if it's good, they'll give you introductions to others. And if it's bad, they'll probably give you a negative introduction to others, but word of mouth is still strong and stories do travel. So I think it's really those things and creating a first impression is so often overlooked in the dental space. And. A lot of the reason is people don't like investing in first impressions because they don't always amount to a clear ROI. But when you go to Walt Disney World or when you walk into Chick-fil-A for example, there's a first impression that's different. Chick-fil-A is no different than every other fast food place. They're serving you about six ounces of meat on a bun and that's about all. but what makes that so different than McDonald's or Burger King or Arby's or KFC or Popeyes, there's something more to that experience. It's not the subway tile and it's not the red logo, but there's something more that you're getting out of that. And so I think the same is true with dentists. What gets that patient from saying I have to go, just like jury duty, to I get to go? And that's the transition that I think a lot of people can do by investing in that first impression.
Alec Goldman:
So if I'm not a dentist, I'm not sure I'm smart, I'm not to be, but if I were a dentist and I'm sitting listening to this podcast and I'm asking myself, well, how do I improve my first impression? What would be a few ways that you would think through answering that question?
Ryan Vet:
Yeah, I like to liken it to going to a Marriott or Ritz Carlton versus going to a Hampton Inn or a Spring Hill. Uh, and not that there's anything wrong with those brands or, and then putting a Motel six on the bottom of it. Right. So you've, you've kind of got the spectrum of the middle tier hotels, the higher end hotels and, uh, the more budget friendly hotels. What makes your, where's your practice in that lineup? Where's your practice? And I think. Uh, when you go to a Ritz Carlton or a JW Marriott or even a five star boutique hotel, when you go to one of these, there's someone greeting you at the door, but you're not just greeted by a smile or by your name. What you're greeted with is more than that. Your five senses are doing the majority of the work. In fact, I walked in to our office this morning and this will translate, um, to, to what we're talking about. So I walked into our office this morning. And usually I'm the first one in our office and today I wasn't and I walked in and it had some smells going on. Like really strong coffee and like the citrus smell. I'm like, what in the world's going on? Well, the, uh, you know, the cleaners had left, uh, just left for, from coming, uh, over the weekend and someone had made and spilled a bunch of coffee everywhere. So it was a very, very strong scent of coffee. And I tell you that story because the, our first impression is often not. one that we see when we hear a name, our first impression happens way before. Our five senses are so extremely powerful in what we see, what we hear, what we smell, what we touch and obviously what we taste. And so when thinking about your dental practice, what are the five senses that your patient's experiencing? I know that sounds almost a little ridiculous or juvenile, but one of the big differences when you go to a Motel 6, they're not usually smelling great. They're definitely not always clean. They don't have a lot of the decor in something that a JW Marriott is going to have or a Ritz or a boutique hotel. When you walk in one of those they've got something called, you know, they've got air that's scented. I know in dentistry you've got scent air and that scent that will pump scents through your space and you're smelling that first. You're seeing lighting that's a little bit more dramatic. You're seeing decor. You're seeing people dressed well. That's a big one. What you're hearing is people focused on you. you're hearing subtle music in the background. And all of that, even if you ever come to my house at all, for any sort of social event, I always work on the five cents. What are people smelling when they walk in? Because if you're cooking something, not all cooked food smells great, so what are they smelling? What are they seeing is obviously everything clean. Even adjusting lighting and lighting temperatures and colors, what are they feeling? Is the temperature right? cool down your house before people come in, what are they hearing? I have speakers throughout my house, right? And I have music fitting for the occasion, and it's subtle. It's not so that they walk in and they hear, oh, this is my favorite song. No, it's not something that they have to recognize, but they know it's there. And so the same thing is true with your dental practice. What are you doing in your five senses to really make your practice stand out?
Alec Goldman:
I love the analogy to hotels. There's actually a book that I read a little while.
Ryan Vet:
Yep.
Alec Goldman:
Um, I don't know if you clearly,
Ryan Vet:
Chip and Dan
Alec Goldman:
there you go.
Ryan Vet:
Heath, yep.
Alec Goldman:
Um, but there is a hotel in that book that has stayed with me forever called the magic castle hotel based in LA. And if you go to their trip advisor, even to this day, I think they're ranked like number 12 out of, uh, 450 to 500. And this place does not look like the top 11 to top 20 hotels. And you ask, what is it that allows them to rank so high? And it is things like free. board games. They guarantee that their pool is at 88 degrees. They have a popsicle line next to the pool where you pick up an old looking phone and the whole purpose of it is to order a free popsicle. And it's those tiny little magical moments that allow for them to differentiate their product from the rest of the hotels in the LA region.
Ryan Vet:
Exactly.
Alec Goldman:
I think there's just a question of what is the magic, what is the popsicle idea for each of these brands?
Ryan Vet:
Yeah. So the popsicle idea, I love that. And I actually, uh, that book is a fantastic book that I think a lot of people should pick up. Um, so after you get to the impression, right? The first thing that we talked about, what you're experiencing right off the bat, you have to get to that first interaction. And so this is where you're actually connecting with your patient. Um, so that's where the hotel really thrives. Their interactions with their guests at that hotel, the magic castle are the popsicle phone. Uh, they are the perfect pool temperature. They are. board games they those are the interactions but first they have to have an impression impressions are predicated on expectation which for the hotel people have a certain expectation going to that hotel that They're going to get all those things for a dentist people have an expectation that's gonna be horrible It's gonna smell like rubbing alcohol or you know, I spilt alcohol and it's gonna smell like mint stale mints, gonna smell like rubber gloves. And they have this preconceived idea. So once you get to that, past that impression phase, the interaction phase is key. And that's where you have the opportunity to create magical moments. And I think getting them to the door is half the battle, but once they're through the door, then what are they experiencing? So some things I've seen in a dental office, once they're first past that first impression, now they're moving on to the interaction phase, you know, what is their smell? That's one of the biggest complaints you can see time and time again, other than pain. Um, at a dental office is it smells bad. Uh, what are they smelling? Well, maybe I've seen offices do different things from having, uh, essential oils in the room to, um, even giving like a little two by two that they can, uh, pin to their, uh, lapel that has their own custom scent on it. So they, as they walk around, they're smelling what's pinned to their lapel, uh, with essential oil, not, uh, what's around them. So, you know, scent is a big one. Um, And then kind of, um, sound picking sound in a room. If you've got custom Sonos for their room or whatever the speaker is. So there's that side of it, but then what makes you different than every other practice? And I think that's where the popsicle moment comes in, right? Um, do you have a popsicle phone where people come up? And I think that's where the magic happens. Uh, is your practice known for being the five star, uh, quality practice where champagne comes up on, out on a silver platter before. your appointment and yes, I know a practice that does that actually. Or is your practice known for making sure that you maximize everyone's time and so you're efficient, there's no waiting in the waiting room, they get straight back to the chair. Is your practice known for one where it's more pain reduced or pain sensitive so you take more time with patients to make them feel more comfortable and you're gonna move a little bit slower. What is your practice known for? And then figure out what you can do to go the extra mile. Are you sending birthday cards on their birthday, not through one of your, you know, softwares, but are you actually sending handwritten notes? Are you giving a gift card if they wait too long? What are you doing to go that extra mile and take that ordinary opportunity and transform that into an extraordinary experience?
Alec Goldman:
So I know that you just mentioned the very gimmicky happy birthday text that every single human
Ryan Vet:
Yep.
Alec Goldman:
in the country receives from their dentist when it is their birthday. So obviously that is maybe a pitfall of software, but what are some ways that technology is actually playing a role in enhancing the patient experience?
Ryan Vet:
I think technology has a huge role of leverage correctly. I think there's so many tools that many other industries are using that healthcare as a whole, not just industry, haven't really adapted to maximize the patient experience. I think automatic treatment plan, or care rather, instructions via video that you recorded in your practice being sent as soon as the patient goes home, so they have care instructions. Uh, not printed out on a piece of paper. They can watch it on their phone. I think, uh, ease of scheduling appointments online. Now I know people, especially front office team members sometimes get frustrated or scared because it's going to mess up their whole schedule. But there are certain appointments, like limited, you know, when you can fit that in and how long that's going to take and all of that, um, you know, I switched eye doctors because I could schedule online, uh, terrible, terrible example, uh, meaning I'm a terrible patient and yes, I'm very consumeristic in that. but the other one was too impossible to schedule and you'd be on the phone forever. And I was like, you know what? I'm gonna go somewhere that fits my schedule. So I think that's a huge piece of the patient experience. And that goes to first impressions too. Can they find the information that they want? Are you answering the phone right away when someone calls? Technology has made it so easy that you can easily roll to the next phone down the line. You can send a text if the call has been missed. There's so many things that you can do to engage a patient. and just create a better experience.
Alec Goldman:
Yeah, a recommendation that we always give to dentists that we're working with. Um, obviously as NexHealth, we're providing tools to improve the patient experience, but we often are encouraging dentists to actually go through the process of the, if they're a patient. Right. Is it easy for you to understand your own service from your website? Is it easy to book? Try calling your practice, right? This is classically what's known as dog fooding your experience. Um, just to ensure that, you know, What are the small ways that you could be tinkering and improving? Could you be giving feedback to your staff? Could you be making changes to your technology? Really does make the difference when you go through it as opposed to just, you know, kind of being a second class citizen when it comes to the experience that you're offering. So I think it's really important for people to kind of walk in their patient shoes is really the recommendation.
Ryan Vet:
Absolutely, and I think experiences is incremental too. I think one of the risks is coming home from a conference or after reading a book, you wanna go implement all of the changes, and that was me for the longest time. But one of the things that I do, I still run a couple businesses, and one of the leadership tools I use is the 2% principle. What are you doing this week to be 2% better than you were? last week and there's a lot of different ways to quantify it and I think it should be quantified but everyone's like only two percent better and people bring these big ideas I said big ideas are great but I want two percent better something that's manageable and growing if you truly grew at two percent a week for an entire year that is a 171.12 rate of return so that means if you put 500 bucks in that means you'd make thirteen hundred fifty five dollars and 58 cents by the $855 of interest just by 2% increases a week. The effects are compounding. So what, what little increments can you do? You don't have to repaint your whole office. Although some of you do need to do that, um, or buy new chairs. Uh, but what are those little things that you can do every single week and challenge your team? What, how can we make someone 2% happier? Um, and there's a lot more to that, that we could unpack.
Alec Goldman:
Yeah. And I know that there's a whole episode that we can have about how to create a culture in which you want to enable staff to really make that 2%. I love the idea of this 2% just because it's so hard to make big changes. But if you were to approach every single day and say, what's the one thing I can do differently to make somebody's life different? What's the one thing I can do to make a process different, make it a little bit better? Your business becomes almost a different practice to your point with compound, the idea of compounding at the end of the year. Um, so staff who've often been in these jobs for anywhere between five, 10, 15, 20 years, right? People have habit. It's really hard to think about that 2% change when you're looking at so much day to day similarity over a long period of time. What's your advice to, uh, teams, practices, dentists, um, to kind of figure out a way to make that change, to enable staff to, to think about that 2%.
Ryan Vet:
Yeah, I think one is you can ask your patients and get feedback from them. The other part of it is take some tangible metrics. So time to check out, time to answer the phone, you know, some tangible metrics, time sitting in the waiting room, and start measuring those, and then do some of the fun things too. You know, if you've got a thousand patients, because that's an easier number for me to do. math on and you're to do 2% of that, that'd be 20 patients for the year. Um, what are 20, what can you do for 20 of your patients this week? Um, and then do 20 more the following week. Maybe that is a birthday card. Maybe that is a, Hey, we haven't seen you in a little while. Um, maybe that's a fun holiday card as a team. Uh, there's all sorts of things that you can, you can do to just do the 2%. That doesn't mean skimp out. Like if you have an opportunity to hit a home run and roll out the red carpet and bring the champagne. don't avoid that at the sake of saying, no, I can only do 2%. But instead of saying, Hey, we've got to, we've got to do these massive grandiose things, just focus on these little bite size, um, areas. It's like telling a toddler to clean their room. Um, or even maybe a teenager is a better example. You tell them to clean their room. They're going to say, no, if you say you clean your room for two minutes, they end up cleaning their room, the whole thing. Um, because now they have a time bound, uh, you know, it's like, Hey, I only have to do this for two minutes. Well, I've already started, so might as well finish. And I think the same thing happens too with that 2% roll.
Alec Goldman:
Yeah, totally agree. And even the idea of saying, Oh, you have a thousand patients. How am I ever going to get to a thousand? It becomes something that feels, you know, like walking, uh, or I guess hiking up to the top of Everest. It's impossible. It's something you'd say I could never do. But if you just kind of take the approach of one step after the next and say, let's just do 20 this week, it becomes
Ryan Vet:
Yep.
Alec Goldman:
a much more digestible.
Ryan Vet:
Exactly.
Alec Goldman:
Ryan, we are at the 22 minute mark. So we're coming up to time. I wanna just give you one last opportunity. Is there anything on the patient experience and really making magical moments? One last piece of advice that you wanna give for our audience.
Ryan Vet:
Yeah, I think the biggest thing is remember that an experience is made up of multiple moments, right? We're experiencing, they say the timeframe of an experience in and of itself is three seconds. So I can't do the math, but you've had a lot of experiences in this one podcast listening to this. The question is, how do those experiences create an experience worth sharing or that magical moment? So everything you do from the time they first see you online, visit your website, walk through the door the first time to the time they leave. Every single one of those things equates to an experience and it's going to either leave a positive or a negative impact in your patient's mind. So it's the sum of all the experiences that create an experience worth sharing.
Alec Goldman:
Ryan, this is a really awesome interview. Obviously it sits home for me. Power moments, branding, just customer experience in general. I think these are topics that I know a lot of dentists can leverage and use on a day to day to improve their practice. So thank you so much for jumping on today.
Ryan Vet:
Thank you, Alec.