Howard: It is just a huge honor for me today to be podcast interviewing Lynette Conway and John Ross, the founders of Concierge Contact Center all the way from Athens, Georgia. Who you see on the screen right now is Lynette Conway. She's the co-founder of Concierge Contact Center. Lynette has dedicated her forty-two-year career to consulting in the mortgage compliance, and then in the dental industry. For more than a decade, she has consulted with the largest dental service providers across the United States and Canada. In 2010, Lynette decided it was time to establish a contact center specifically for dental practices. Using her methods, her call center has scheduled appointments for hundreds of thousands of new patients for their clients. The goal of the Concierge Contact Center is to teach dental offices to better handle phone calls and provide excellent customer service in order to convert more leads into more new patients during after hours, on holidays, and over weekends. Over the last seven years, the business has grown exponentially as John and Lynette have made groundbreaking phone services available to small, medium, and large dental practices. Her other co-founder, who you can't see, is John Ross. He's sitting at the other side of the table. He's the other co-founder of Concierge Contact Centers and claims he's the brains behind the organization. John has divided his forty-year career between business and academia. From 1977 until 1999, he co-owned and operated Evergreen Nursery, during which he earned his A.B., M.A., and Ph.D. From 2000 until 2016, he has taught Hispanic Business Language and Culture at the University of Georgia. In 2010, he and Lynette Conway partnered to open Concierge Contact Center, and I want to tell you that I contacted them because I think that's very important -- they did not contact me. There's no commercials here, no exchange of money, but when you call them, if you tell them that you heard it from Dentistry Uncensored, they'll reduce onboarding fee from $199 to no charge for this webinar only. Lynette, the reason I wanted you on this is because I love my homies. I love dentists. I'm a dentist. Even when dentists retire, they're still a damn dentist, you know what I mean? Once a dentist, always a dentist. You can't undo becoming a dentist. And they always spend all their time learning how to do the best dentistry in the world, and when they're back there doing a root canal, they have no idea that half the incoming calls went to voicemail. Many of these voicemails will never be answered. They have no idea that there's a hundred and sixty-eight hours in a week and they're only open Monday through Thursday 8 to 5, which is only thirty-two hours. It's only 19% of the week. So it's an 81% chance that these incoming calls are not even open, and then I would never go into the dental advertising business like New Patients Inc. or any of these people because they could go out there and generate a hundred incoming calls for you and get an A-plus on their job, but the dental office receptionist can't even convert ten of those to a new patient, and then they tell all their friends that that marketing company didn't even work because they don't even realize that the marketing company got a triple A-plus and your incoming calls. (inaudible 00:03:23) So here's a nutshell. It takes ten people to land on your crappy website before you convert one to call your office. It takes three people to call your office before your receptionist can convert one to come in. And if I go to any business in America, the highest paid people besides the CEO and senior management is always the sales department. The sales department makes more money than all the other people. And in the sales department in dentistry, it's the receptionist, and they're actually paid the least, trained the least. It's almost like an afterthought, like they named their career after a piece of furniture, like, "OK, we're going to name you front desk because we didn't want to name you after the door, the chair, or the refrigerator. So you're the front desk lady, go open the phone." In any other business, that's inbound sales. And then when someone falls off the schedule and you're calling someone who cancelled their appointment, that's outbound sales. And the people doing inbound sales and outbound sales, they're probably paid $100,000 a year, and then all the other people in the business are paid half of that. So why is dentistry got this upside-down?
Lynette: I have no idea. For one thing, they don't take a lot of business classes in dental school. Now, they may now. They used to not have to take any, so they have no idea how to market. Think about how many dentists you've had to work with just to teach (inaudible 00:04:49) they need a website. So they spend all this money on building a website. We have a lot of marketing companies that we answer the phones for, and they won't even let their offices answer the phones anymore. They come directly to us. But they go through dental school. They spend money, they're in debt, they come out of dental school owing money. Then they spend money to buy a practice or to buy a building, rent a building maybe, and spend all this money on equipment. They hire people, and the last thing they think of is, how we're going to answer the telephone. That's kind of a, "We'll think about that later." So they bring in, like you say, the person and pay them the very least, they're least trained, and they stick him on the phone and they get mad because their schedule's not full. The reality is not only do they need to be trained, they need to be there twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Marketing is not what it used to be. It's not a sign in front of the dental office. It's not something we put out there 9:00 to 5:00. Marketing is twenty-four hours, seven days a week. Most of our calls come in after hours and on the weekends, and we have been in so many dental offices that say, "Well, new patients leave messages." No, they don't. They hang up and call the next person on the list. It's not like it used to be. Everybody didn't go down to their local dental office, walk in the door, and schedule an appointment. They go to Google and Google dentists in their area and they start calling. So the answer to your question is, I don't know. I think they just don't realize how important the front desk is, as you say, a piece of furniture. They give them everything else to do. They're filing, they're taking payments, they're meeting new patients, they're greeting existing patients coming in. And by the way, the dentist is running out wanting to know where the supplies are that came in next week. All of this while they're trying to answer the telephone.
Howard: Yeah. And then the hygienist, she's back there for an hour, and she doesn't want to schedule the six-month recall because since she's been back there for an hour talking about her husband, her kids, her life, her holiday, her vacation she doesn't even want to be responsible for converting this person to schedule their cleaning six months, so she just wants to walk up front and throw you the chart, and you're talking on the phone. And then the scheduling, for the dental assistant, she'll go up there and schedule a crown seat and have the receptionist do that who's on the phone, and you can't schedule a crown seat because is this patient afraid of the dentist? Do they need nitrous? Is the tooth vital? Do I need a half-hour for this? Has the tooth been root canaled? They have no fear. I can take out the temporary and put on the crown with no anesthetic. And you've got to get back to do everything because when you pick up that phone call, I want you to have as much time as you need to convert that person to come in, and then when you got them scheduled to come in, maybe ask whether they have any children that need to be seen, ask them if husband. (inaudible 00:07:36) And how many people have to call a dental office before someone leaves a message? Do you have any data on that?
Lynette: No, we don't.
Howard: What would you guess it is?
Lynette: How many new patients leave a message?
Howard: No, how many people that call an office and get voicemail before one leaves a message?
Lynette: Six out of ten, is what you're saying, John? Six out of ten.
Howard: Six out of 10 what?
John: Won't do it.
Lynette: Won't leave a message. Will not leave a message.
Howard: So 60% will not leave a message.
Lynette: Absolutely.
Howard: And the number one search for dentists is actually dentists near me, so the six out of ten that won't leave a message, they probably Googled dentists near me. That's a number one search for dentists, they're telling me.
Lynette: (inaudible 00:08:21) would be more like 90% will not leave a message. Would you leave a message with somebody that you had never met and didn't have any reason to call?
Howard: No.
Lynette: I wouldn't either.
Howard: Absolutely not. So you're saying 90% of new patients wouldn't leave a message. OK, so there's a hundred and sixty-eight hours in a week. They're open thirty-two hours, which is 19%, and the other 81% would be one sixty-eight minus thirty-two, so that'd be a hundred and thirty-six hours. What percent of the incoming calls do you think come in during the thirty-two hours a week they're open versus the hundred and thirty-six hours a week that they're closed?
Lynette: 40% come in from 9:00 to 5:00.
Howard: 40% come in from when they're open.
Lynette: That's right.
Howard: And 60% come in --
Lynette: And that's giving them Fridays. Now, most offices are not open on Fridays, but we count Fridays in the statistics because we do have offices that bring in associates on Fridays.
Howard: OK. First of all, go to your background. How did you get into dentistry? Out of all the careers in America, how did you end up in dentistry? Did you get lost in the forest?
Lynette: Before that, I was in the mortgage business, so does that tell you what you need to know? I used to train for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac years ago, and enjoyed it. I loved it for years, but when things went south, I realized it was time that I wanted to do something else, and I had a chance to go into dentistry training. Training dental offices on telephone procedures.
Howard: But for who? For what? For who?
Lynette: For another company out of Georgia.
Howard: OK.
Lynette: And I left there and I was working with a dental office in New York and we were having meetings and the telephone was going to the answering machine. And I would listen to it ring and go to the answering machine and no one left a message, and this went on for, like, two days. So I called John and I said, "I want to start a answering service." Probably the most naive thing I've ever done in my life. So we thought we could start out with a couple of people and cell phones, and I was going to save the world with this technique. Well here we are six years -- seven years later? Six or seven years later, and about forty agents. We schedule for them. We pick up every phone call knowing that the goal of that phone call is to schedule an appointment.
Howard: And how did you find John?
Lynette: Oh, I found John just roaming around looking for somebody to go through life with and that's how we got hooked up.
Howard: Are you guys business partners or are you guys married, too?
Lynette: Yes, we're both. We're personal and business partners.
Howard: All right. So I contacted you because on this very program, some of the people I've interviewed have sang your praises.
Lynette: Really?
Howard: Yeah. So how is Concierge Contact Center going?
Lynette: Unbelievable. We're just doing a great job. We schedule a lot of appointments for a lot of great dentists. A lot of people see the need in what we do and absolutely love it. We answer the phones twenty-four hours a day for a lot of our offices. They may even have a receptionist, but they realize the revenue that they were missing. So a lot of them, we answer the phones for all the time now. A lot of them we answer their marketing calls, we answer after hours on weekends. But I would say it's beginning to be a majority that we're answering all of their phone calls. Yeah, we act as their staff.
Howard: I got to tell you that when I talk to my buddies who own over fifty dental offices, one of their most important things that they manage is their own call center. When you talk to Rick Workman, who is the CEO and owner of Heartland, he says that the only limits to their call center is because they're headquartered in Heartland, in Effingham, Illinois.
Lynette: Right.
Howard: That's only a town of ten thousand.
Lynette: Right.
Howard: He says so many of them say, "It's one of the most important core competencies." Scott Leune, I just went to his office in San Antonio and lectured to his group, and their call center is the most important thing because --
Lynette: Absolutely.
Howard: And the dentists think the most important thing in the world is what bonding agent they use, what composite they use, and how to do a perfect bone grafting technique, and they don't realize they have no idea what's happening at the front. So as far as software, do you log in to the dental office and schedule an appointment?
Lynette: Yes.
Howard: And which softwares are easier for you to work with? Which ones do you like the most to do this versus like the least?
Lynette: Kristy's in here, our office manager, and she was telling me that everybody likes Denticon better. What is the least favorite?
Kristy: SoftDent, Easy Dent --
Lynette: SoftDent, Easy Dent's probably the least favorite?
Kristy: But you at least have Denticon and Dentrix and they're probably the most user-friendly.
Lynette: Denticon and Dentrix are the most user-friendly.
Howard: And soft is the least user-friendly.
Lynette: Don't you agree?
Kristy: Yeah.
Howard: Nice, that's what I've been on for 30 years from 1987 to 2017, but I had switched to Open Dental. Does she like Open Dental?
Kristy: Yeah. This is agent feedback.
Lynette: This is just agent feedback, and of course, they're going to like the easiest.
Howard: This is not a commercial, you didn't pay to be on the show. Walk through, how does this work? If homie's driving to work and she says -- The dentists are crazy. They'll work 8:00 to 5:00.
Lynette: Sure.
Howard: And the consumers, all their patients, work 8:00 to 5:00. So they'll be calling in the morning before work and just hitting the answering machine, and then they finally go on their lunch break and then they call your office and you've rolled your phones over for the lunch break. And then they finally get off at 5:00 and they call your office and you've already enrolled your office. I've been in so many offices where they might get there at 7:30 and they don't even turn the phones on till after 8:00. They might be fine after 8:00. So how does this work? How much does it cost? How does my homie get set up with conciergecontactcenter.com?
Lynette: OK, when they sign on -- and I'm going to get Shea to help me with some pricing -- When they sign on, they'll do a form. They tell us all about themselves, where they're located, how they want us to answer the telephone, the times they are open, how they want to us handle emergencies. Do they want a text? Do they want e-mail? And then Kristy will have onboarding with them and learn all about their office and any specifics they have. We try to get them to keep it general because, again, we're answering their phones remotely. Then that is on a script. We'll assign them a number, we assign the office a number. When someone dials that number, that script pops up, our agent will read from the script and go by the script as to what the doctor wants us to do. If he wants us to take messages. He wants us to schedule new patients but not assisting patients. We try our best to never let anyone cancel. Of course, you and I both know we're going to have people cancelling, but we try our best to save appointments because you're talking about people calling before hours and after hours. Sunday nights, we just get flooded with cancellations. So they're trying to do their best not let those people cancel. But it's very simple to get signed up with us. We send an e-mail after every --
Howard: OK, so how do they forward their calls to you, though? How do they technically forward the --
Lynette: We give them a direct number. We'll give them a number and they will forward their calls to that number when they leave so that when someone calls their office, it rings two or three times in their office.
Howard: So they have to have a digital phone system?
Lynette: That's right. They do have to have a digital phone system.
Howard: And what percent of the dental offices calling you do not have a digital phone system, have an analog system?
Lynette: Very few. We probably have, maybe two out of -- Very, very few. And we can still do it. We've come up with ways that we can still actually do that, but we've only had probably one or two in the whole time.
Howard: And how much does this cost per month?
Lynette: OK. Shea, help me with pricing.
Howard: Or is it by the call?
Shea: We charge by the minute.
Lynette: We charge by the minute.
Shea: And we have different --
Lynette: What is the bronze package?
Shea: It's two hundred minutes for $260.
Lynette: The bronze package is two hundred minutes for $260.
Howard: That's the bronze. That's the bronze medal.
Lynette: (inaudible 00:16:52)
Howard: So the best would be the gold, and then the silver?
Lynette: Yeah, what's the silver?
Shea: Silver's $400 for four eighty.
Lynette: The silver is $400 for four eighty.
Shea: And the gold is $750 for eight sixty.
Lynette: And the gold is $750 for eight hundred and sixty minutes.
Howard: And what's the platinum?
Lynette: Shea will work with them. That's a thousand? And what --
Howard: Really, you do have a platinum?
Lynette: Oh yeah, we have a lot of people that use three and four thousand minutes a month.
Howard: They use how many minutes a month?
Lynette: Three and four. We have people that use four thousand minutes a month.
Howard: Well, I was just kidding on the --
Lynette: We call it corporate pricing, but yeah, we have a lot of those.
Howard: Now do you do any corporate chains? Do any of the corporate chains use your services or do they do it all in-house?
Lynette: Well, a lot of marketing companies use us and a lot of multiple office chains use us. You're talking about Heartland, and I did the webinars for 1-800-Dentist years ago, and I work with a lot of Heartland offices, and I knew they had their own call center, but most offices don't have that foresight. Again, they put somebody on the telephone in their office and pretty much hand them the phone and say, "Get me appointments." So, all the marketing companies that we work with say the benefit of -- how many offices do we got with Chad? We have one office that has fifteen and we just got an email today that he wants to add many more. So they get it. We schedule their new patients, so it pays off.
Howard: Wow. That is amazing. So is platinum the highest you go?
Lynette: We customize it for how many minutes they need.
Howard: Huh.
Lynette: We work with them. And we're also bilingual. We have Spanish speakers as well.
Howard: So is that very popular?
Lynette: It is. It is.
Howard: So platinum is not your highest program?
Lynette: No, like I said, we have one office that used about four thousand minutes a month, so we can work with them on whatever package they want.
Howard: Well you know what's more expensive than platinum? You know what the most expensive metal on earth is?
Lynette: Titanium?
Howard: Plutonium.
Lynette: Plutonium, yeah.
Howard: It's $4000 per gram, so I think after the platinum program, you should have the plutonium program.
Lynette: I like that.
Howard: Which is $4000 a gram.
Lynette: I like that.
Howard: So give away some of your secret sauce. What do you think -- So you go to your average dental office and your girl Shirley's answering the phone. What is some of the low-hanging fruit that could get her to convert more people that are calling? OK, the standard question is, "Yeah, I was wondering, do you take Blue Cross and Blue Shield? Or how much is a crown?" How come it takes three people calling before Shirley can schedule one to come in and put a butt in the chair?
Lynette: Because it doesn't matter how much the crown is. It doesn't matter what insurance you take. Now, believe me, I know people are insurance driven. Don't get me wrong, I'm not that simplistic. But I also know that when you're calling a dental office, the question that you ask is not really the question that you really want to ask. What you want to ask is, "how painful is this going to be?" I'm a dentalphobe. I'm a huge dentalphobe. When I call an office, the first thing I want to do is be welcomed into that office and treated well. So what you've got to get the receptionist away from, they're not the dentist. The dentist is the one in the back doing all the magic. What I've got to do is tell them how great that dentist is and no matter what their question is, the answer is, "I've got the most wonderful dentist in the world and they're going to take care of you. They're going to answer all those questions when you come in. This is the most wonderful place. I had twenty patients last week telling me how great I am." So what you've got to do is knock some of the dental terms out of their head and tell them how unimportant that is. What's important is how welcome I make you feel in this office. I've got to give you an example. My son is a therapist in Owensboro, Kentucky. So we went up to visit a couple weeks ago and he called and he said, "Mom, I need your help. My receptionist is just not doing a good job." So now, remember, this is a therapist office, so I go over and I sit down with them. My son was out of town and I sat down with her, and I said, "Tell me what's going on." The first thing she said was, "The real problem is, everybody that calls wants to tell me their problems." And I said, "Well, that's because you're a therapist. You're in a therapy office." She did not ever get the concept that her job every time she picked that phone up, it was going to be somebody in distress. Her job is to get them in and make them feel comfortable with the therapists that are there. It's the same way at a dental office. No matter what that first question ism the answer should always be, "I'm so glad you called us. You've absolutely called the right place. Now let's get you in to meet Dr. Foran," and tell them, "He's the most wonderful dentist in the world. He's been in practice for this long. He'll be able to answer any question you have. I can't wait to meet you." Now I'll tell you, some of our agents here -- We're like everybody else, we've got employees, so there's things that go wrong every now and then. But I can't tell you how many patients go into the dental office wanting to meet some of our employees here. I love walking through the office where they're answering the phones because you hear people say things like, "Oh, I'm so sorry you're sick. I hope you get to feeling better." How many offices say that to you when you call? So it's all about making them feel welcome getting into the office and making them feel accepted about coming into the office instead of worried exactly about what insurance they have or making sure they have the exact change for the first visit. So it's getting them past all the dental terms.
Howard: Every dental office I call, I have to call a dentist on their cell phone because when you call their office, for me personally, it's either voicemail or "Can you please hold?" Boom.
Lynette: Yep. Oh yeah, oh yeah. We hear it all the time. Absolutely. I really don't know how they get business and I get so --
Howard: Is there any digital phone system that you like the most to record calls so that a dentist can have a nice digital phone, record the calls, to be able to look at software to say, "How many of my incoming calls went to voicemail? How many of them..."
Lynette: FluentStream is who we use.
Howard: FluentStream.
Lynette: Yes. We can record calls. You can keep up with statistics on FluentStream. That's who we use.
Howard: So my homies could go to fluentstream.com and order a digital phone, or just software?
Lynette: That's digital phone and everything's built in, right? Everything's built in.
Howard: Nice.
Lynette: Who at FluentStream I need to talk to, John? Dave Hoffman is our rep.
Howard: Dave Hoffman. Where is FluentStream out of?
Lynette: Colorado.
Howard: Huh. I think they sold the company and went into the medical marijuana business, but I could be wrong. I think they're now called FluentWeed.
Lynette: They're probably on a vacation someplace we're not, so yeah.
Howard: How do you get a dental office to -- How do you get a dentist to --- Some dentists will look at me and they'll say... OK, imagine a restaurant sells hamburgers, fries, and Cokes, and they're going out of business. If they came to you and said, "Well, maybe we should add pizza. That will save us." That's what dentists do. They can't make money on cleanings, exams, x-rays, fillings, root canals, extraction, so they want to add Invisalign and dental implants and I'm like, "Dude..." Or they want to buy like a $100,000 laser, and I'm like, "OK, well, if half of your incoming calls went to voicemail, if you didn't even answer half the incoming calls, 40% coming in, or 60% coming in after hours. I've been in so many dental offices where I just I think the number one investment or piece of equipment you could get is have another Shirley answering the phones.
Lynette: Absolutely, absolutely.
Howard: Because think about Domino's pizza. If they doubled the number of calls answered by a human, what would happen to their pizza delivery business?
Lynette: Well, we were standing in Kohl's Saturday and the line was out the back and there was two registers out and John said, "Imagine the business if they would open up two more registers." But see, in their mind, they're thinking, "We can't pay two more employees. That's $20 an hour. How would we ever pay $20 an hour for people to check out thousands of dollars worth of merchandise?" They don't get it. So to add another Shirley would be, what, $15 an hour? We can't pay $15 an hour to bring in thousands of dollars an hour. So that's where we come in. Now, you say, "How do you convince people of that?" They have to know they've got a problem, and that's exactly what Shea and I were talking about this morning is to make them understand what their real problem is because they're convinced that people will leave messages on their answering machine or that they're just not calling unless they're -- that they're only calling the hours they're open, which is 8:00 to 4:00, 8:00 to 5:00, and then we take an hour for lunch and then you got smoke breaks and then you got vacation. And there's a lot of times you're away from the phone, but they're willing to risk all that.
Howard: And if you go up to any dental office and you say to the team, "Are you guys all just focused on yourselves? Are you guys all dentist-focused or are you customer, patient-focused?" They'll all tell you, "Oh, we're patient-focused." I say, "OK, well, here's what we're going to do. You have two receptionists that work 8:00 to 5:00 and you roll the phones over at noon, and I'm looking at the incoming call data and they start coming in at 6:00 and they're still coming in at 6:30 PM. So I'm going to move one receptionist to come in at six, she'll take a lunch 11:00 to 12:00, she'll go home at 2:00. The other one that comes at 8:00 will come in at 9:00, she'll take lunch 1:00 to 2:00 and stay till 6:30, and we'll be able to answer every incoming phone call." They say, "Are you out of your mind? I'm not coming in at 6:00." They're entitled. I go to these dental offices where the 11:00 will cancel, the whole staff sitting around posting on Facebook. Someone will call at 11:30 with a broken tooth and say, "Well, can I come down now?" "No, because we have lunch at 12:00." It's like, "What do you mean you have lunch at 12:00? You're sitting in the break room eating a sandwich right now. Why don't you work through lunch?" And they say, "I don't want to work through lunch." And then there's a thread Dental Town, "How do you temporize a toothache that comes in at 4:30 when you close at 5:00?" And I'm old school. I'm like, "Well, maybe you should just stay past 5:00. Maybe you should just do your job and do a (inaudible 00:27:29) crown." And they're flaming me like, "Oh, no one on their deathbed ever says, 'I should have worked more hours,'" and all this stuff. And our generation seemed like, "Man, they like to hustle." It seems like the only thing -- You're a Boomer, I'm a Boomer, John's a Boomer, and it's like we just thought, "If we just worked our ass off, it'd solve all the problems." And so many of these Millennials, I don't know if they see it that way.
Lynette: But I think the doctors do work hard. I think they're working hard in the back and have no idea what's going on in the front, and they probably want to work harder but they don't want to micromanage. They think the front office is covering them. Now, I'll tell you what we ran into, you were talking about moving these appointments around. We had a doctor that called us about all of his -- every Wednesday afternoon was clear, and he was very upset because every Wednesday afternoon, he had no patients. We started making phone calls to try to schedule on Wednesday afternoon, she wouldn't schedule it. She wanted her Wednesday afternoons off. She had been doing that for years and he had no clue that was happening. So, sometimes you just don't know what to say. But you've got to make them realize that these phone calls they're missing -- Now, we're also running into offices that say things like, "Well, we're taking the phone at home at night." Well, the IRS is looking into that because if they're taking the home, they're looking at how they're being paid to see if that's actually overtime, so the IRS is looking into that. So we're here twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and we're so much cheaper than an employee and you don't have to play pay matching. We don't charge for breaks or lunch or vacation. We're just here. And so, if you wonder why everybody doesn't get it, I don't know, because they just don't think the front is that important. They think it's working and it's not.
Howard: So, the dentists went to eight, ten, twelve years of college. I went to nine years of college. The hygienist went to four years of college.
Lynette: Yeah.
Howard: The front desk person, my assistant Jan of thirty years, went to a year of dental assisting school, the Apollo College here in Phoenix. The receptionist -- there's no training. How does my homie listening to you right now, she's commuting to work, how does she train her front desk on how to answer the phone?
Lynette: We can help her do that. We also how to train.
Howard: Is that a online module?
Lynette: Online, and then after they finish the online modules, we actually work with them. We'll do coaching calls. We teach, then we work with them on the telephone to teach them how to answer --
Howard: One of the best marketing you might ever do is on -- Dental Town has a quarter million registered dentists on the website, and then when Steve Jobs came out with the smartphone, when he came out with the app, and fifty thousands dentists downloaded the app. But what it turned out to be is the fifty thousand people on the app were born after 1980. They're Millennials, and all the old Baby Boomers like me are on the desktop. But anyway, we put up four hundred one-hour online CE courses and they've been viewed almost a million times. You should do our online CE program. I had to answer the phone calls.
Lynette: John is able to get CE approved because he's a professor, right?
John: Well, anybody.
Lynette: So we need to be CE approved, correct?
Howard: Are you talking about on the professor on Gilligan's Island?
Lynette: No, he's a real professor.
Howard: Does he want Ginger or Mary Ann?
Lynette: Either.
Howard: Either one would work fine? Yeah, I think he should. Yeah, well, we ours ADA approved because we're (inaudible 00:31:03) But I think this is very important. I'm looking at the most-viewed (inaudible 00:31:08) courses. It's like, "How to Place an Implant with Charles Schlesinger." It's always "Acute Medical Emergencies with Daniel Papa." I love my homies but they just always want to learn how to do dentistry. Jay Reznick extractions, Eight Dramatic Surgical Extractions. They just always want to learn how to do dentistry. They don't want to learn how to run the business of dentistry, and I think every business, no matter what you go into, it's 51% business and 49% your art, your craft.
Lynette: I would love to do that. As a matter of fact, that's something we've been checking into, and it kind of ignited my fire to get that finished.
Howard: Yeah. And what advice would you give them on a website? Some of these guys that build websites for people, they'll tell you a lot of the dentists, on their website, they can't even measure the conversion rate because they got all these hits and they'll go back six months and they can't track any conversions. Why do you think it takes ten people to land on the average dental website before one will pick up the call and call you?
Lynette: I think they really need professional help with their website and we don't have any recommendations for that. But I think they need contact forms, telephone numbers. I will tell you this: be careful with a company that you do marketing with to make sure that they're telling the truth. There are some marketers out there that are that market dental emergencies, call now. And we're open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. We've had some of those. That's really hard because you're lying to the consumer, and it's really hard to get them converted. Just be upfront and give them a call to action so that they -- We're here twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Let them know they can call and schedule their appointment any time.
Howard: But this is America. All the politicians say, "You never have to tell the truth.
Lynette: Yeah.
Howard: When you're caught in a lie, you just change the subject.
Lynette: That's what I've heard, but let them answer the phone here for a few days.
Howard: So what are some more interesting calls that you get? What are some of the call conversions that you think you're doing that probably wouldn't have got done if they did it in-house?
Lynette: Oh my goodness. I think there's a lot of those. Now, we have some interesting stories that we probably can't talk about on the podcast that get a few giggles in the office, but I think we convert a lot of calls that cannot be converted because, for one thing, most houses don't ask if there's anyone else in the family that needs to come in. And many, many calls, we schedule multiple family members. I don't even know of an office that even asks if there's anyone else that wants to come.
Howard: And if you go to McDonald's and order a hamburger, the sixteen-year-old says, "Would you like fries with that?" She's 16.
Lynette: That's right.
Howard: She's been trained, because to get a job at McDonald's, she's got to go online and go through like eight different modules of videos and answer questions. And then you hire a lady to work your front desk, no training, no modules, no nothing. They want just like, "Hello.
Lynette: That's right. That's right. So I think the multiple members of the family definitely a great conversion for us. I think we save a lot of appointments because you and I both know somebody will call and cancel an appointment because they want to have their nails done. We try to make it tough on them to cancel the appointment. We try to reschedule the appointment if at all possible while we still have them on the telephone. But I hear a lot of recommendations for the dental offices. I hear a lot of our agents talking about how great the dentist is and welcoming to the practice. And again, I think it's just the hospitality of letting that person know you're so glad they called your office, and tell them how great the doctor is. Give them a reason to want to come in.
Howard: So one of the biggest questions on these phone services is a dedicated line versus VoIP. If you have VoIP, it's Voice Over Internet Protocol. But the problem in some people is, some people worry if the Internet is up as well as their dedicated phone line through the cable company. What are your thoughts on the quality of VoIP versus a dedicated phone line?
Lynette: Hold on a sec, John's telling me something. Do what? Oh, he said AT&T no longer installs analog. But now, we have fiber here. We never have a lag. We never have an issue with that ever.
Kristy: We do we have clients with Weave.
Lynette: Kristy said we have clients with Weave.
Howard: Tell her to come around and tell us about that. That's a big question.
Lynette: Come here, Kristy.
Howard: Come on, Kristy.
Lynette: Yeah. She's going to kill me for this one.
Howard: Come on, come on. Show your face. My own mother told me I had a face radio and I'm doing video.
Lynette: She's so young and cute she doesn't need makeup.
Howard: We'll come here on set because some people -- You have clients with Weave. How does that work for you?
Kristy: So the front end of it, people love it because when the call comes in, it pops up patient information, so they love it for that reason. However, the back end of it is, if the Internet goes out, it doesn't work properly. So I think it kind of goes both ways. I have people that love it and have people that don't love it so much because if they have Internet issues, it doesn't work for them.
Howard: So the Internet issues, is it big city versus rural? Where is R.E.M. from in Georgia?
Kristy: They're from Athens.
Lynette: Right down the street. John was good friends with all of them.
Howard: Oh my God, that's the greatest song. That band has the greatest drummer in the world. But anyway, is Internet service better in Atlanta than Athens, Georgia, or is it that what's affecting them?
Kristy: I wouldn't say that. I'd say, if they have access to fiber, then they're in a better position if not. So we don't have a lot of outrage because now we have fiber, so unless a major storm happened and the power's affected, our Internet doesn't go out because of the fiber.
Howard: Somebody explained to me on this show the difference between fiber and cable, but there's a lot of technical reasons why fiber, not just the fiber optic but the connections and the way it's laid and all that stuff.
Lynette: Also the FCC backs that. They almost guarantee you're not ever going to be out of service.
Howard: So if a dental office could get fiber optic, then you would recommend Weave?
Kristy: I would. Or anything like Weave, I would. If they don't have access to fiber, it's still a good system. It's just the chances of it going out are going to be higher.
Howard: And what do you for Concierge.
Kristy: Well I'm the --
Lynette: Everything.
Kristy: -- director, so I deal mainly with the client, so when they set up, I'd be the one that kind of get them acclimated. We go over scheduling procedures. I'm the one that helps them help us access their schedule. We'll go over how they want things scheduled, emergency procedures. So I kind of start the whole process with the new clients. And then afterwards, when they have changes or want to discuss anything, I'm the one they talk to. So I deal mainly with the clients.
Howard: And are you mostly answering the phone and scheduling an appointment?
Kristy: Yes. The majority of our clients we do schedule for.
Howard: And do you guys have any data on your average client? How many new patients you'll schedule or how many appointments you'll schedule for them?
Kristy: There's a lot of factors that go into that. One thing I've noticed that holds dentists back from getting new patients scheduled is their actual schedule and their scheduling procedures. They don't want more than two new patients in the morning, or two new patients in the evening, or you can get a new patient in for three weeks. That's going to cut them back from getting new patient. But I would --
Lynette: Another thing that she has found out is we get instructions from the front office sometimes and the dentist doesn't know we're getting those instructions. In other words, "We're only going to take this new patient here if the winds blowing from the north and the sun's shining and the temperatures over seventy, we'll put a new patient here." And the dentist is in the back thinking, "Everybody that calls, we're getting them in." And then Kristy all of a sudden has these instructions that it would take NASA to determine where to put them in the appointment book.
Howard: I know, and after that dentist -- love him to death, but after he gets done doing a root canal for an hour, what does he do? He gets up, walks back in his private office, and shuts the door.
Lynette: That's right.
Howard: Instead of walking the patient all the way up front --
Lynette: Oh yeah.
Howard: -- figuring out that you're running ten minutes late, and the lady sitting out there in chairs really pissed off that you're running ten minutes late. (inaudible 00:39:49) You walk out there yourself, own the problem, shake her hand, tell her you're so sorry that this root canal, and then blame it on the guy and he'll start laughing. "I can't believe that old Charlie's root canal... I should've taken him across the street to the vet and put him down, but it took me fifteen minutes extra." And then you get to hear those things where they're on the phone saying, "Well I can't get you in today." And then you're like, "Who can you get in today? Who did you just say that to?" They're not engaged. And then they watch these football feelings --
Kristy: When new patients call, they want to be scheduled.
Lynette: That's right.
Kristy: (inaudible 00:40:24) here and now. So if you can't get a new patient in within forty-eight hours, I'd say, even if you schedule them in two weeks, they're not going to come to that appointment two weeks later. They're going to find somebody that'll take them tomorrow or the very next day. When they call, they're ready to come in. They're ready to be seen. So forty-eight hours is the most ideal kind of timeframe to get a new patient in.
Howard: And what percent of the dentists of your clients can get them in within forty-eight hours?
Kristy: I would say 60% can get them in within forty-eight hours.
Howard: And 40% can't.
Kristy: Yeah, and I'd say the 60% are the ones that spend the money on marketing. They understand the process. They understand how important it is to get them in. The other ones don't necessarily spend money on marketing, don't necessarily see that if I schedule them three weeks out, they're not going to come, that kind of stuff.
Howard: What about the biggest controversy in all of dentistry? I'm a patient and I just want to get my teeth cleaned, and I call them and I want to get my teeth cleaned, and some office is saying, "Whoa whoa whoa, homie, you can't do that. The first appointment is exams and x-rays." What's your thoughts on the new patient cleaning versus have to have exam and x-rays first?
Kristy: I personally think that they should get the exam, cleaning, and x-ray in their first appointment because that's what most people want is a cleaning. And I know different people need different types of cleaning. However, I say you schedule them, you do the new patient exam and x-ray. If they cannot just get a basic cleaning, then you have that discussion while they're there at the office. You don't tell them on the phone, "Oh, sorry, we don't do a cleaning the first appointment," because what if they just need the basic cleaning? How hard is it going to be to get them in with the hygienist to get the cleaning done? And then you have a patient. I say you get them in, you do the exam and the x-ray and then if they need something more than the basic cleaning, then you talk to them at that time and say, "Hey, we discovered this, this is an issue, this is what you're going to need.
Howard: And how long does the average dentist schedule for a new patient cleaning, exam, and x-ray?
Kristy: Everything varies. I'd say it goes from forty-fives minutes up into two hours. And I think two hours is a long time for an appointment.
Howard: What do you think, the mean, the average, the mode is?
Kristy: Probably sixty.
Howard: One hour for a new patient cleaning, exam, and x-rays. And then, what percent of the calls are coming in new patients for a cleaning, exam, and x-ray versus an emergency? I'm in pain, my tooth broke, I have an odontogenic emergency.
Kristy: I would say 60% would be new patient calls just looking for a new dentist. They've moved, or their dentist retired, something to that effect. I'd say 40% are emergencies.
Howard: Yeah. And how many states are you guys operating in? Is this a regional plan in Georgia?
Lynette: We're from coast to coast and Hawaii.
Kristy: And Canada.
Lynette: And Canada.
Howard: Canada. Man, that is amazing. And would you say that your -- I would imagine that your average dentist would have to be far more sophisticated to be -- if you're smart enough to be using a call center to forward your calls to you, you can't be the average dental office. I couldn't imagine -- the average dental office is collecting $750 and the dentist is taking home about $140, $145, I would imagine you're dealing with a far higher sophisticated dentist.
Lynette: I agree. I agree. Most of them have had the training. They understand marketing. They may own more than one practice. But yeah, I think you're right, it's probably the dentist that understands how the telephone is and understands how important the front desk is, yeah.
Howard: So it sounds like -- what percent of your clients do you think the dentist is kind of detached and doesn't realize that the front office is playing by a bunch of different rules and regulations? Like you said, the dentist thinks that if someone calls, they're going to squeeze them, put them in somewhere versus the receptionist putting up so many barriers to entry that it retards patient flow, which equals cash flow.
Kristy: I would think most, a large majority of them.
Howard: So right now, I imagine you're talking to almost entirely all dentists and not very many office managers. What advice would you give them? How do you get these dentists to get in tune with what's going on up front?
Lynette: First of all they need to monitor their phone calls more. They need a way to know. We'll be glad to call their office for them. I'm not big on the mystery call thing, but something between us and the dentist, we would be glad to call their office and pretend we're trying to make an appointment just so they understand. Certainly not to be used against the front desk, but certainly so that they understand what's going on. But they've also got to wonder what's going on with their marketing. They need to be able to follow up on their marketing, know what calls are coming in. Look at their schedule, see what's going on with your schedule.
Kristy: And that is one thing we do inquire for new patients is how did they hear about the office, so that we can provide that information to the office and they can see where these calls are coming from and what marketing is paying off and what's not.
Howard: Well as a holistic coast to coast, Hawaii and Canada, what marketing do you think is paying off the best? Is it direct mail, is it Facebook, is it Google AdWords, or patient referral? What do you think is the top three?
Kristy: Well, I think in a lot of it depends on where you are located and your demographic. I think that makes a difference. Online marketing is obviously going to be for a younger generation, that's what they look to, Google especially. Like you said, people go in and they say, "dentists near me," and that's where the younger generation. I do think mailers work, but again, I think it depends on your demographic and what you're targeting. A lot of implants, maybe, an older generation, I think the mailers work for things like that.
Howard: I agree. I agree. The Millennials hate direct mail. It's a eco-friendly deal. They don't believe in cutting down trees, and they're on Yelp. I'll be 55 next week. I've never seen one of my friends ever on Yelp before. I can't imagine Grandma needing an implant on Yelp or Google AdWords, but she goes to her mailbox every day and she'll pick up the Sunday paper off her driveway. People always say, "Well, half the country's girls, half are boys, or some are Asian, or some are Irish." But the hardest thing to figure out is how the different groups think. How a Baby Boomer thinks versus a Generation Xer. You can see skin color, you can see which church they're going to, but you can't see how they think. And we have four different types of thinkers walking around between Generation Xers, Millennials, Baby Boomers, the greatest generation ever, and you're right, it depends on demographics, depends on age group. So what are the --
Lynette: We know that referral programs work. We get a lot of phone calls from patients that have been referred by other patients.
Howard: Yeah.
Lynette: So we really promote referral programs.
Howard: Yeah. Well, what other tips could you give the dentists on patient flow equals cash flow? What other tips would you give? Well, first of all, how do they contact you? If they're thinking, "I want to look into this." how do they contact you? They go to Concierge Contact Center. I don't think anybody on Earth can spell concierge so I'll spell it for you. C O N C I E R G E -- It's got to be French -- Contact Center. How do they contact you? Is it best to go to Concierge Contact Center? Should they call you, e-mail?
Lynette: 877-827-4152.
Howard: That's 877-827-4152.
Lynette: Yes.
Howard: And if they sign up and they said they heard it from me, they'll get to fly to Athens, Georgia, and have dinner with R.E.M.?
Lynette: Yeah, John'll take them down to, where did they get started? We went there the other night.
John: 40 Watt.
Lynette: At the 40 Watt. We'll take you to the 40 Watt and hang out and drink beer at a nasty place.
Howard: What's your favorite R.E.M. song? "Shiny Happy People?"
Lynette: No, mine is -- what is that one I love that...?
John: "This One Goes Out."
Lynette: "This One Goes Out to the One I Love."
Howard: Oh, that's classic. I love that one. And he was married to that girl who sings "Carnival." Natalie Merchant.
Lynette: Who was? Who's married?
Howard: The lead singer of R.E.M.
Lynette: Michael Stipe?
Howard: Yeah.
Lynette: I didn't know that.
Howard: Google that, Ryan. Google "Was Michael Stipe ever married to Natalie Merchant?"
Lynette: Well, tell Ryan that -- who's that group from here, John? The Widespread? Tell Ryan that Widespread and B-52s from here and he'll know Widespread.
Howard: Oh man, B-52s. That's another awesome one. What was their big song?
Kristy: "Love Shack?"
Howard: "Love Shack.
Kristy: Yeah.
Howard: Does it say he was married to her? Oh, according to Wikipedia, I'm wrong.
Lynette: Well, it was the first time.
Howard: Well that's the friend zone.
John: Yeah, they were friends.
Lynette: Yeah, John said they were friends.
Howard: Yeah. Friends and wrote songs (inaudible 00:49:23) Yeah, that was another classic. Yeah. So again (inaudible 00:49:30) Thank you so much for spending fifty minutes. Any other low-hanging fruit for the dentists here? You're talking to a lot of dentists right now, what would you tell them?
Lynette: Every time someone says, "I'm looking for a new dentist," or, "I saw your number on Google," any time you can tell it's a new patient, assume they want an appointment, have an appointment ready. Offer them an appointment, get them in the door. Then let's worry about all the intricacies such as their insurance and that kind of thing. Just quit qualifying them before they walk in the door.
Howard: Quit qualifying them?
Lynette: Yes.
Howard: Just try to get them in the door, quit qualifying?
Lynette: Absolutely.
Howard: What do you mean qualifying?
Lynette: We want their name, Social Security number, address. They'll spend ten to fifteen minutes on the telephone getting all this information, and then they'll get to the end of the call and say, "Oh, we don't take that insurance." Give them a chance to decide if they want to be with that dentist or not. Get them in the door. They don't need to answer questions about, "Do you do implants?" Even if the doctor doesn't do implants, he's got someone he can refer to them to. They may not even be a candidate for an implant. So quit letting the front office diagnose and determine whether that patient needs to be there or not.
Howard: I remember I was a little kid, I thought I had all Saturday off to go play and my dad woke me up told me, "Great news, Howie. My buddy who owns a car dealership's got a car training seminar starting today for some new hires, and he said I could bring you down there and let you sit in the back row if you just promise to shut up and not say anything." So, here I was crying. I wanted to hang out with my neighbor and ride bicycles and all that stuff. But anyway, I'll never forget that class. I sit in the back and he says -- Like, "Someone will walk in and they'll say, "Oh, I want to get this car because it has a sunroof." Then the idiot would say, "Well, actually, that is not a sunroof, that's a moonroof." And then the patient's all confused, and then she's wondering, "Well, I need to go back home and talk to my girlfriend because she loved her sunroof and I don't even know what a..." And it's like, "Why the hell did you say that? It's a hole in the roof. Who gives a shit what it's called? It could be a star roof." But I see it in treatment plan presentation where a person needs a root canal, but after a twenty-minute explanation, they talk the patient out of it.
Lynette: Oh, absolutely. I've seen many dentists talk their patients out of treatment. Absolutely.
Howard: Yeah. And why do you think that works?
Lynette: Because they don't know when to shut up. They don't how to sell.
Howard: Right, right. I agree.
Lynette: Talk them out of it. Yeah, they talk too much. And they take it upon themselves to worry about how much it's going to cost.
Howard: Well, I think John should -- we only got two minutes left. I think John should come around and sit in that chair and show us, please. (inaudible 00:52:10) Come on, John. Come on, John. If I'm handsome enough to be on the on the video, you got to be.
John: Well, get ready for a shock.
Howard: Get ready for a shock/ How are you doing, buddy?
John: Doing fine, thanks.
Howard: First, tell us your favorite R.E.M. song.
John: Oh, I don't know. I've been at too many of their concerts to have a favorite.
Howard: Yeah. Who retired first, their drummer?
John: Yeah. He had a stroke on the golf course in Spain at a very young age and just said, "Enough." Mike Stipe and Michael Mills still live in Athens, and you can go down to the Heirloom Cafe and have lunch with them if they're there that day.
Howard: Now do they still tour, or did the drummer retiring close down the band?
John: They both record with people every now and then as guests artist, but no, they're not doing much any more.
Howard: Yeah. Well, what legends. So what's your low-hanging fruit for these dentists. They're driving to work right now, they're commuting, they're listening to you. What words of wisdom would you part with them as the co-founder of conciergecontactcenter.com.
Well, you can't do everything so let people help you. Truly. There are a lot of people out there that know a lot of things that they know well and they can help you with. The idea of having a phone system that is dependable. That should be so easy. It took us years to find FluentStream as a partner that we could depend on, but they know their stuff. So let the people do what they do.
Howard: Do you think it would bring value to my homies if the CEO of FluentStream did a podcast and followed you, or do they not need to know much more about --
We've worked together on marketing before and I'm sure that if I made the call, he'd be happy to.
Howard: Well email him and then CC me, Howard @ Dental Town because this is a big pet peeve of mine. It's one of those things where thirty years ago when you got out of school and I come to Phoenix, there's no water, there's no fluoride in the water, there's no dental schools. It was a whole lot easier to get things going thirty years ago, and today, you can still crush it, but when you come out of school today in this competitive environment and $350,000 in student loans, you really can't make too many more dumb mistakes.
John: That's true.
Howard: And missing two out of three incoming calls is a really bad idea, and I love the fact that they went to school eight years to learn how to fix teeth with their hands. I get that. But you can't go to where they don't need you. You can't have bad demographic. You can't miss two out of three incoming calls. You can't make a lot of mistakes in 2017 and have the same success the average idiot could have in 1987.
John: Right. And I wish that it were not that way. I'm glad that dental schools are teaching more basic business and marketing. It helps. We can talk with younger dentists and they know we're talking about a lot easier than we can a Boomer.
Howard: But I'm still trying to find out, who is your average client? Because they got to be smart enough to have calls roll over. Are they more likely to be rural versus urban, older versus younger, women dentists versus male dentists? Is there any demographic profile among your homies that make them smart enough to do this?
John: Oh, I think it's definitely the urban client, the New York, the L.A., the Dallas, Chicago. Those are concentrated numbers and that makes sense.
Howard: Because it's far more competitive in L.A., Chicago. So what would you say, New York, Chicago, L.A.?
John: New York, Chicago, L.A., and Dallas.
Howard: Yeah. So see, there's our point, so since that's massively more competitive, they've got to do smarter and smarter things like not miss any of these organic calls or inorganic for marketing calls coming in. So you're saying that they'll more likely be urban in a competitive environment.
John: Yeah and younger. I would think that most of our clients are below fifty, forty-five.
Howard: Wait a minute, I'm fifty-four. I'm young. What are you saying? Are you saying I'm an old dog?
John: I said younger. That's what I was saying.
Howard: So you're saying your average client is younger than fifty?
John: No I would say -- but forty-five to fifty is a big swath of our people. The younger ones, of course, are easier because they get it but that's (inaudible 00:57:01) for a different reason. The ones that have overcome prejudice about -- they think that a call center is an answering service, it's not. It's a contact center. We can do chat email at 2:00 in the morning, which we do. That's when Millennials will do their heavy shopping, by the way, is after midnight. We can chat with them. We can talk to them on the phone. We can do whatever they want. That's what they're used to. But when an older dentist comes to us, it's usually because their practices have ground down. They've not been able to replace existing patients that leave with new patients, so that's where we help a lot.
Howard: So you guys are open twenty-four hours a day. Are you getting calls? Is it pretty much dead between like 1:00 in the morning to 5:00 in the morning? From 1:00 to 5:00, is it pretty much a zero or are there still people calling?
John: I wish it were at zero because we wouldn't have to man those hours. But we get multiple calls.
Lynette: Emergencies.
John: We get a lot of emergencies, of course. But then we get when, like I say, when a Millennial's looking for braces for their kid, they'll do it late at night.
Lynette: But also, people will call and think they're going to leave a answering... voice... Oh, crap... a message on an answering machine to cancel and appointment and they get us, too.
John: Right. And we take time to tell them, "The doctors cut out this time just for you. We really wish if there were any way to make it." We work against simple cancellation without being insulting, of course.
Howard: Right.
John: Yeah, we try to make them feel like it's a special time set apart for them. So we're not ugly but we want them to see what they're doing has consequences.
Howard: All right. Well, on that, I thank you so much for coming on my show today and trying to convince these dentists that there's more to a restaurant than being the chef. There's more to dentistry than being the dentist. You still, at the end of the day, got to run a business and incoming inbound calls and outgoing outbound calls, when it comes to Economics 101: The Business of Dentistry, that's gotta be the most important part of the whole business of dentistry.
John: By far.
Howard: Yeah, by far. So thank you for all that you do for dentistry. I hope you guys get on -- You should talk about this more on Dental Town. I just went on Dental Town. Are you guys members of Dental Town?
Lynette: We are. We are. Yeah.
Howard: Because I just did a search for call centers. Oh my God, the threads on call centers go to the end and back. You should go answer all these questions about call centers because you're not allowed to go in there and post, "Well, you know, you should use our call center," but you can answer the question but in your signature, it could be "John Ross and Lynette Conway, founders of Concierge Contact Center, your website, your phone number. But you should do this because I think people are starting to figure this out.
Lynette: We can answer the questions. Just answer the question, but our signature is kind of our marketing. Is that what you're saying?
Howard: Yeah. And most of these consultants tell me their number one marketing is answering questions on Dental Town. Then people see how they think, and then they see their signature, and then they call them. Whereas a lot of practice management consultants, they're always spending all their time posting on Facebook to their three hundred other friends.
Lynette: You're right.
Howard: They're always in Facebook preaching to the choir instead of on Dental Town preaching to a quarter million dentists. And people like Sandy Pardue, they subscribe to all the practice management threads and the whole day, they have a computer and then she's got Dental Town pulled up and anytime anyone asks a question on practice management, boom, she's right on it.
Lynette: OK.
Howard: And that's where she finds all of her leads. And the reason I want you to be successful is because I want my homies to be successful. They're coming out $350,000 in student loans, then they go buy a practice for $750,000. There are twenty-six, twenty-seven years old, they're a million in debt, and that stresses them out, and I don't want them going home beating their cat and kicking their dog and drinking Listerine. I want them to be successful and I think how you answer the phone and how you handle inbound calls on outbound calls is just so important. It's just amazingly important. But on that note, John Ross, Lynette Conway, and who was that other little girl that stuck in?
Lynette: Kristy King.
Howard: Kristy King?
Lynette: Yes.
Howard: Thank you so much for coming on the show today.
John: Thank you, Howard.
Howard: Alright, have a rocking hot day.