WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.600 Welcome to Bite Size Dental Marketing. In this 00:00:02.600 --> 00:00:05.620 episode, we talk to Dr. Leonard Tao, also known 00:00:05.620 --> 00:00:09.039 as the Reviews Doctor. In his career, Dr. Tao 00:00:09.039 --> 00:00:11.439 figured out that reviews are one of the most 00:00:11.439 --> 00:00:13.599 important things when it comes to new patient 00:00:13.599 --> 00:00:16.019 acquisition and managing the online reputation 00:00:16.019 --> 00:00:20.280 of your practice. We talk about why reviews are 00:00:20.280 --> 00:00:22.260 so important, what you need to be doing to get 00:00:22.260 --> 00:00:24.339 more of them, and how it's going to impact the 00:00:24.339 --> 00:00:32.000 success of your business. Enjoy. The reviews 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:37.179 doctor that not just anybody gets that name in 00:00:37.179 --> 00:00:40.219 the industry. I want to know your story. What 00:00:40.219 --> 00:00:42.840 inspired you? I know you're also a dentist. I 00:00:42.840 --> 00:00:45.700 know you have your fingers in multiple pies and 00:00:45.700 --> 00:00:48.420 you have a foot in this industry. But tell us 00:00:48.420 --> 00:00:50.579 a little bit about you and how you got into this. 00:00:51.399 --> 00:00:57.000 So I was an entrepreneur as a kid. I started 00:00:57.000 --> 00:00:58.880 a baseball card business when I was 13 years 00:00:58.880 --> 00:01:02.719 old. I was making about $60 ,000 a year and that 00:01:02.719 --> 00:01:05.599 was in the late 80s, early 90s. Sold the business, 00:01:05.680 --> 00:01:07.439 but I've always been an entrepreneur at heart. 00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:09.879 I actually wanted to be a lawyer and I always 00:01:09.879 --> 00:01:12.780 tell people this. I went to college in New Orleans 00:01:12.780 --> 00:01:16.519 at Tulane and I'm in my apartment. I'm watching 00:01:16.519 --> 00:01:19.000 TV and the headline news comes up with a stat 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:23.319 that says by the year 2020, there'll be 200 % 00:01:23.319 --> 00:01:25.859 more lawyers than there are right now. And at 00:01:25.859 --> 00:01:27.280 that moment, I decided I'm not going to be a 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:31.109 lawyer. OK, so and I called my dad and I said, 00:01:31.129 --> 00:01:32.969 I'm going to go into dentistry, you know, and 00:01:32.969 --> 00:01:35.049 he was a dentist himself. And he was like, that's 00:01:35.049 --> 00:01:37.189 great. The plan was to go into practice with 00:01:37.189 --> 00:01:39.209 him. Unfortunately, due to some medical issues, 00:01:39.349 --> 00:01:43.209 my dad had to sell his practice that I was that 00:01:43.209 --> 00:01:47.049 was earmarked for me. And I ended up by all by 00:01:47.049 --> 00:01:48.829 chances, I ended up in the Philadelphia area 00:01:48.829 --> 00:01:52.010 due to meeting a female and getting married and 00:01:52.010 --> 00:01:54.750 then staying in the Philadelphia area. So in 00:01:54.750 --> 00:01:58.579 2007. I bought a dental practice. I bought the 00:01:58.579 --> 00:02:00.879 building. I bought the practice, obviously. I 00:02:00.879 --> 00:02:03.239 kept the team. I gutted the building. I redid 00:02:03.239 --> 00:02:05.420 everything about the practice. So if you went 00:02:05.420 --> 00:02:07.680 in, you wouldn't even know it was the same office. 00:02:07.799 --> 00:02:10.639 Very, very different look to it. And I started 00:02:10.639 --> 00:02:13.360 to market my practice. And I always say I was 00:02:13.360 --> 00:02:15.879 very much in debt. I was about $1 .8 million 00:02:15.879 --> 00:02:19.039 in debt at that point. And I needed to really 00:02:19.039 --> 00:02:21.379 attract patients to my practice. I was paying 00:02:21.379 --> 00:02:25.830 about $18 ,000 a month in loans. to the companies 00:02:25.830 --> 00:02:28.349 that obviously helped me start the business. 00:02:28.909 --> 00:02:32.889 And I started marketing my practice by using 00:02:32.889 --> 00:02:35.530 a lot of the gurus out there. So I used resources 00:02:35.530 --> 00:02:37.849 like Dental Town. Facebook really wasn't a thing 00:02:37.849 --> 00:02:40.629 back then, but Dental Town and magazines to kind 00:02:40.629 --> 00:02:42.689 of pick those companies to help me learn to market 00:02:42.689 --> 00:02:44.949 or help market my practice. And honestly, they 00:02:44.949 --> 00:02:49.430 didn't do a very good job. And I ended up deciding 00:02:49.430 --> 00:02:52.490 to learn on my own, which I did. And I tried 00:02:52.490 --> 00:02:55.659 lots of things. I spent lots of money. I threw 00:02:55.659 --> 00:02:57.439 darts at a lot of things, hoping it would hit. 00:02:57.939 --> 00:03:00.900 And some of them did really well. One of them 00:03:00.900 --> 00:03:05.319 being online reviews. And when doctors had two, 00:03:05.479 --> 00:03:08.240 three, five reviews, I had 25 and 30 reviews. 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:11.340 And I heard from patients and the patients told 00:03:11.340 --> 00:03:15.039 me that I found you online and I'm coming in 00:03:15.039 --> 00:03:17.259 because you had more reviews than anybody else. 00:03:17.520 --> 00:03:19.900 And something just kind of triggered me and said, 00:03:19.939 --> 00:03:24.319 that's interesting to hear. Years went on. And 00:03:24.319 --> 00:03:28.580 again, this is about 2010. And I was asked to 00:03:28.580 --> 00:03:31.699 start speaking at dental events around Philadelphia, 00:03:31.900 --> 00:03:35.479 really. And I spoke at a local event and some 00:03:35.479 --> 00:03:38.960 dentist asked me to help them market because 00:03:38.960 --> 00:03:40.780 I was very successful at it. And I'm like, I'm 00:03:40.780 --> 00:03:42.840 not into that. I'm a dentist. I'm still practicing. 00:03:43.139 --> 00:03:45.500 I still have loans to pay. I'm not starting another 00:03:45.500 --> 00:03:48.439 career. But after about six or eight months, 00:03:48.520 --> 00:03:50.340 I had about 10 or 12 people ask me. I said, you 00:03:50.340 --> 00:03:52.250 know what? This may be something different. So 00:03:52.250 --> 00:03:54.689 I created a consulting company to help other 00:03:54.689 --> 00:03:57.069 dentists market their practice called iSocial 00:03:57.069 --> 00:04:01.150 Dental Consulting. And I didn't love the consulting 00:04:01.150 --> 00:04:06.009 model. I didn't love consistently reaching out 00:04:06.009 --> 00:04:07.270 to these dentists to make sure they were doing 00:04:07.270 --> 00:04:08.710 what they were supposed to be doing because I 00:04:08.710 --> 00:04:11.490 couldn't do it for them. And I just didn't like 00:04:11.490 --> 00:04:14.030 that model. So I changed something up. And one 00:04:14.030 --> 00:04:16.170 of the things I decided was I was going to start 00:04:16.170 --> 00:04:18.829 a review platform, something to make it easy 00:04:18.829 --> 00:04:22.709 for dentists to get online reviews. Because it 00:04:22.709 --> 00:04:26.389 was not easy to do. And I helped create a software 00:04:26.389 --> 00:04:29.529 which we called iSocial Reviews. I ended up having 00:04:29.529 --> 00:04:34.069 about 180 dentists using my software. And then 00:04:34.069 --> 00:04:37.009 fortunately for me, BirdEye, the company that 00:04:37.009 --> 00:04:40.050 I currently work for, bought my company from 00:04:40.050 --> 00:04:44.829 me in 2014. So I sold my company. We had about 00:04:44.829 --> 00:04:48.860 180 dentists. Combined then, we had about 220 00:04:48.860 --> 00:04:52.839 at the time. That was in September of 2014. So 00:04:52.839 --> 00:04:54.899 this September, I'll be at BirdEye for 11 years. 00:04:55.620 --> 00:04:58.620 I run their dental division for them. I work 00:04:58.620 --> 00:05:02.660 with about 11 ,000 dentists over the years. Obviously, 00:05:02.699 --> 00:05:06.600 very big in the reputation space. But it's interesting 00:05:06.600 --> 00:05:08.680 because reviews have really become even more 00:05:08.680 --> 00:05:11.360 important than they were back then. And I always 00:05:11.360 --> 00:05:14.399 like to say we are a reputation society. every 00:05:14.399 --> 00:05:17.199 single thing we do in our society revolves around 00:05:17.199 --> 00:05:19.579 reputation. You go to the movies, you look at 00:05:19.579 --> 00:05:21.459 reviews. You go to a restaurant, you may go to 00:05:21.459 --> 00:05:23.819 Yelp. You go to Amazon, you buy something, you're 00:05:23.819 --> 00:05:25.720 not buying a one -star product, you're buying 00:05:25.720 --> 00:05:29.000 a five -star product. So reviews really affect 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:32.379 us in more ways than one. And I was, as I said, 00:05:32.399 --> 00:05:35.779 I tried lots of things. I did. I did radio advertising 00:05:35.779 --> 00:05:38.620 and I was spending $30 ,000 a year and didn't 00:05:38.620 --> 00:05:40.600 get a single patient from it. I mean, I tried 00:05:40.600 --> 00:05:42.459 lots of things as a dentist to see what would 00:05:42.459 --> 00:05:44.980 stick and what wouldn't. And the review stuck 00:05:44.980 --> 00:05:47.100 and stuck well. And I picked the right thing 00:05:47.100 --> 00:05:50.079 to go into as a career. And here we are, you 00:05:50.079 --> 00:05:52.720 know, I'm 51 years old. I retired from dentistry 00:05:52.720 --> 00:05:56.620 clinically in 2022. So I had not been clinical 00:05:56.620 --> 00:05:59.300 for just over two years now. I speak all over 00:05:59.300 --> 00:06:02.120 the country on online reviews. I have dentists 00:06:02.120 --> 00:06:03.819 from all over the country reach out to me via 00:06:03.819 --> 00:06:06.000 email and Facebook and text asking me for advice 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:08.879 on how to deal with this. And it's become like 00:06:08.879 --> 00:06:12.660 my thing. And, you know, I remember coming home 00:06:12.660 --> 00:06:15.959 one day back in 2012 and telling my wife, hey, 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:17.600 I'm going to start a review company. And she 00:06:17.600 --> 00:06:20.019 was like, yeah, have at it. You know, little 00:06:20.019 --> 00:06:22.019 did I know that, you know, many years later, 00:06:22.079 --> 00:06:24.990 my entire career would be different now. So I 00:06:24.990 --> 00:06:27.610 don't have my hands in anybody's mouths anymore, 00:06:27.790 --> 00:06:29.850 but I'm still very, very connected to the dental 00:06:29.850 --> 00:06:32.149 industry. You've been in this industry for a 00:06:32.149 --> 00:06:35.069 while now with where you spoke about from as 00:06:35.069 --> 00:06:37.410 early as 2010 with the reviews and stuff. Google 00:06:37.410 --> 00:06:41.350 was a very different place back then. So can 00:06:41.350 --> 00:06:43.490 you share a bit with us just this journey of 00:06:43.490 --> 00:06:46.389 the actual impact and those things from when 00:06:46.389 --> 00:06:48.009 you saw it? That's a great question. I mean, 00:06:48.029 --> 00:06:50.110 things have changed dramatically. So one of the 00:06:50.110 --> 00:06:52.389 big things that was happening back then was... 00:06:52.600 --> 00:06:55.019 Google was partnered with other companies and 00:06:55.019 --> 00:06:57.379 those companies could help get reviews on to 00:06:57.379 --> 00:07:00.519 Google for you. So there was a company called 00:07:00.519 --> 00:07:02.379 Demand Force. They're now owned by Henry Schein. 00:07:03.279 --> 00:07:06.019 When you got reviews on Demand Force, those reviews 00:07:06.019 --> 00:07:09.439 showed up on Google. And you had offices with 00:07:09.439 --> 00:07:14.399 a thousand reviews or more. And then in 2016 00:07:14.399 --> 00:07:18.740 or 2017, it was Google said, we're not using 00:07:18.740 --> 00:07:21.620 third -party reviews anymore on Google. Yelp 00:07:21.620 --> 00:07:23.860 reviews, Demandforce reviews, all these other 00:07:23.860 --> 00:07:25.680 companies, all of a sudden, all those reviews 00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:28.720 were literally dropped from Google. And dentists 00:07:28.720 --> 00:07:31.480 went from having thousands of reviews to having 00:07:31.480 --> 00:07:33.660 like no reviews because they weren't doing it 00:07:33.660 --> 00:07:37.040 any other way. Me, I had already had gotten a 00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:39.300 tremendous number of reviews. So I had a couple 00:07:39.300 --> 00:07:41.980 of hundred reviews at that time. And that's really 00:07:41.980 --> 00:07:44.540 what allowed patients to find me online. And 00:07:44.540 --> 00:07:47.300 that's why they came in. So that's a big difference 00:07:47.300 --> 00:07:49.879 as back then to where we are now. You know, Google 00:07:49.879 --> 00:07:53.660 only shows Google reviews. Okay. Back then when 00:07:53.660 --> 00:07:56.800 you search for a dentist in and around your area, 00:07:56.839 --> 00:07:59.079 so dentist in your zip code, dentist in your 00:07:59.079 --> 00:08:02.220 town, a map would come up. Back then it was A 00:08:02.220 --> 00:08:04.560 through G. There were seven dentists on page 00:08:04.560 --> 00:08:08.339 one. Okay. So visibility was a lot easier. Well, 00:08:08.500 --> 00:08:10.980 a few years, probably five years ago, they eliminated 00:08:10.980 --> 00:08:13.339 four of those offices. And now there's three 00:08:13.339 --> 00:08:15.860 offices on there and you can pay for it to be 00:08:15.860 --> 00:08:18.040 the fourth because you can do an AdWord on the 00:08:18.040 --> 00:08:21.670 listings. So the real estate has become really 00:08:21.670 --> 00:08:24.170 prime. And if you're not one of those three practices, 00:08:24.509 --> 00:08:27.730 you don't rank, you're not visible. And if you're 00:08:27.730 --> 00:08:30.410 below that three spot, people have to click on 00:08:30.410 --> 00:08:33.009 more places to be able to see you. And it's only 00:08:33.009 --> 00:08:35.789 like five to 7 % that actually do that. So if 00:08:35.789 --> 00:08:37.830 you're not in that three pack, we call it you're 00:08:37.830 --> 00:08:39.529 invisible. And that's what I teach. It's visibility 00:08:39.529 --> 00:08:42.750 and credibility. So the goal has to be that if 00:08:42.750 --> 00:08:45.169 you're not on that map pack in those three spots, 00:08:45.350 --> 00:08:47.690 you're invisible. And if you're invisible, people 00:08:47.690 --> 00:08:49.659 aren't finding you. So that was a big change, 00:08:49.779 --> 00:08:52.500 okay? And back then, I still remember, I was 00:08:52.500 --> 00:08:55.659 looking back at an old book I had given out, 00:08:55.720 --> 00:08:58.220 a workbook that I had given out back then. And 00:08:58.220 --> 00:09:00.279 I look back and I had written in there that, 00:09:00.279 --> 00:09:04.639 you know, Google collects and shows or sites 00:09:04.639 --> 00:09:08.820 show, there's 105 sites that can collect and 00:09:08.820 --> 00:09:13.879 publish reviews for practices or for businesses, 00:09:14.039 --> 00:09:16.779 100 plus sites. You had CitySearch, you had, 00:09:17.980 --> 00:09:21.600 Angie's List. You had, I mean, Judy's book. You 00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:24.000 had all of these directories that existed that 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:26.240 were collecting reviews. And over the years, 00:09:26.279 --> 00:09:28.120 it's really become the survival of the fittest 00:09:28.120 --> 00:09:30.559 because really all that matters right now is 00:09:30.559 --> 00:09:33.879 Google, okay? If you're in California or a very 00:09:33.879 --> 00:09:37.860 large city, Yelp, okay? And then maybe Facebook. 00:09:37.980 --> 00:09:40.460 And that's it. There's really no other directories 00:09:40.460 --> 00:09:43.019 or no other stuff you need reviews on. I mean, 00:09:43.039 --> 00:09:45.580 there's WebMD. Your dentists don't get... patience 00:09:45.580 --> 00:09:48.600 to go to WebMD that has reviews, but it's really 00:09:48.600 --> 00:09:50.559 become it's Google or it's nothing else. What 00:09:50.559 --> 00:09:54.600 about next door to you? Like those ones or is 00:09:54.600 --> 00:09:57.860 it Facebook, Yelp and Google? In my opinion, 00:09:57.860 --> 00:10:00.840 it's Google. Okay. Google is by far like it's 00:10:00.840 --> 00:10:04.559 number one by a hundred percent. If you are in 00:10:04.559 --> 00:10:07.139 those, if you're in California, you're in Chicago, 00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:12.419 New York, Miami, Dallas, Seattle, those areas. 00:10:13.439 --> 00:10:15.860 Yelp may play a bigger role than in some other 00:10:15.860 --> 00:10:21.620 people. But if you're in a suburb in North Carolina, 00:10:21.879 --> 00:10:24.980 nobody Yelps there. So Yelp doesn't matter to 00:10:24.980 --> 00:10:27.720 those people. So Yelp to some extent. And then 00:10:27.720 --> 00:10:30.919 Facebook only has what they call recommendations 00:10:30.919 --> 00:10:35.000 now. They don't have reviews. So even to that 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:37.639 extent, Facebook is not that important. So you 00:10:37.639 --> 00:10:40.419 need to make sure that if you don't dominate 00:10:40.419 --> 00:10:43.389 Google, you're still having issues with visibility 00:10:43.389 --> 00:10:46.090 online. The goal here moving forward should be, 00:10:46.129 --> 00:10:49.429 I have to get as visible and I have to look as 00:10:49.429 --> 00:10:53.669 good as possible on Google. If I don't, it's 00:10:53.669 --> 00:10:56.590 not going to help me. So in my opinion, you have 00:10:56.590 --> 00:10:59.429 to go all in on Google at this point. I'm 100 00:10:59.429 --> 00:11:02.830 % on the same page with you there. I always say, 00:11:02.929 --> 00:11:05.029 I have this little saying I say to my dentists 00:11:05.029 --> 00:11:09.529 is, Google reviews are the bitcoins of dental 00:11:09.529 --> 00:11:12.799 marketing. That's my quote on that. And I say, 00:11:12.860 --> 00:11:15.899 it is the most valuable thing and it will compound 00:11:15.899 --> 00:11:18.559 over time and work for you as you continue to 00:11:18.559 --> 00:11:22.059 get more. And it's not just the reputation thing. 00:11:22.179 --> 00:11:24.840 It is, as you were mentioning a few times now, 00:11:24.899 --> 00:11:29.240 showing up the visibility side of it. And I was 00:11:29.240 --> 00:11:30.779 doing a little bit of research the other day 00:11:30.779 --> 00:11:34.960 in preparation for this podcast. And I saw that... 00:11:35.309 --> 00:11:39.929 I asked ChatGPT, pull surveys for me from 2023 00:11:39.929 --> 00:11:43.350 to 2025 of any type of dental survey where patients 00:11:43.350 --> 00:11:46.070 said why they find dentists, how they find dentists, 00:11:46.110 --> 00:11:48.710 what's important to them. The single most important 00:11:48.710 --> 00:11:51.970 thing that came up with every single patient 00:11:51.970 --> 00:11:56.009 was the reputation of that dentist, meaning the 00:11:56.009 --> 00:11:59.549 Google reviews. And 50 % of patients said they 00:11:59.549 --> 00:12:02.190 would not even consider a dentist with lower 00:12:02.190 --> 00:12:04.529 than a four -star rating. when they were searching 00:12:04.529 --> 00:12:07.370 in Google search. Have you had that same experience? 00:12:07.450 --> 00:12:11.070 Does the data agree with what you've seen? So 00:12:11.070 --> 00:12:15.169 100%, I agree with you that it's so important. 00:12:16.429 --> 00:12:19.590 Patients, when I asked my patients how they found 00:12:19.590 --> 00:12:23.309 me, I would say it was over 50 % said that they 00:12:23.309 --> 00:12:26.490 found me because of my online reviews. And yes, 00:12:26.529 --> 00:12:28.029 they may have said, I found you on your website 00:12:28.029 --> 00:12:30.690 or I found you, you know, your ad, but ultimately 00:12:30.690 --> 00:12:33.210 I asked, well, why did you come and see me? and 00:12:33.210 --> 00:12:35.250 they said it was because of the reviews that 00:12:35.250 --> 00:12:39.409 you had. And in particular, I was not a perfect 00:12:39.409 --> 00:12:42.210 dentist. I don't want a business to be perfect. 00:12:42.289 --> 00:12:45.309 If you have only five stars, it looks imperfect 00:12:45.309 --> 00:12:48.750 to me. It looks not genuine. I ended my career 00:12:48.750 --> 00:12:52.649 with over 2 ,000 reviews with a 4 .7 star rating, 00:12:52.769 --> 00:12:56.240 and I was very content with that. Okay. I think 00:12:56.240 --> 00:12:58.200 you need to focus. I think the goal should be 00:12:58.200 --> 00:13:01.519 4 .6 to 4 .9. That should be where you want to 00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:04.960 fall. I do agree that businesses with less than 00:13:04.960 --> 00:13:08.039 four stars, even if you're a referral practice, 00:13:08.419 --> 00:13:10.080 people, when they look you up, are not going 00:13:10.080 --> 00:13:12.240 to want to come in if they see a three in front 00:13:12.240 --> 00:13:15.799 of it, a 3 .9. So I think you need to get definitely 00:13:15.799 --> 00:13:18.490 over four stars. Anything less, you're in trouble. 00:13:19.029 --> 00:13:21.370 And a lot of times you may be busy and not knowing 00:13:21.370 --> 00:13:23.350 that you're actually losing patients because 00:13:23.350 --> 00:13:25.870 of your reputation online. You have to put your 00:13:25.870 --> 00:13:27.610 best foot forward. And unfortunately, you may 00:13:27.610 --> 00:13:29.690 be the best dentist in the world, but you're 00:13:29.690 --> 00:13:32.049 only as good as Google says you are. And if Google 00:13:32.049 --> 00:13:33.950 says you're not very good, then you're in trouble. 00:13:34.289 --> 00:13:36.929 So I agree wholeheartedly with those stats. I 00:13:36.929 --> 00:13:39.610 use stats all the time to project how important 00:13:39.610 --> 00:13:43.100 things are. But when you compare... dentists 00:13:43.100 --> 00:13:45.139 to all other businesses. There's a survey that 00:13:45.139 --> 00:13:47.559 was done and reputation mattered the most to 00:13:47.559 --> 00:13:49.860 which of these industries and dentistry was second 00:13:49.860 --> 00:13:53.419 just behind restaurants and cafes, which I thought 00:13:53.419 --> 00:13:56.419 was odd. But that was number two of all the industries 00:13:56.419 --> 00:13:58.840 out there, how important reputation was in choosing 00:13:58.840 --> 00:14:04.080 a business. Exactly. And then I always say, I 00:14:04.080 --> 00:14:05.840 would speak to a dentist when we were in a meeting 00:14:05.840 --> 00:14:07.720 and I would say, if you're going to take the 00:14:07.720 --> 00:14:09.639 missus out to a nice restaurant for the anniversary, 00:14:09.879 --> 00:14:12.759 are you just going to... Close your eyes and 00:14:12.759 --> 00:14:17.019 do this and then dot down? No, because if you 00:14:17.019 --> 00:14:18.700 choose wrong, you're in trouble. So what are 00:14:18.700 --> 00:14:21.139 you going to do? You're going to hear what other 00:14:21.139 --> 00:14:23.240 people had to say, what other women had to say 00:14:23.240 --> 00:14:25.600 about the place, about anniversary. Okay, this 00:14:25.600 --> 00:14:27.159 place, this is the one that's perfect. If you 00:14:27.159 --> 00:14:28.759 want to go to a new barbershop, if you want to 00:14:28.759 --> 00:14:31.740 find a law firm, and then I'd say, so why do 00:14:31.740 --> 00:14:33.759 you think, and I would ask the dentist, so why 00:14:33.759 --> 00:14:36.610 do you think you are any different? than how 00:14:36.610 --> 00:14:38.429 people think and they would say no no i guess 00:14:38.429 --> 00:14:40.009 we're not then i'm like okay then why do you 00:14:40.009 --> 00:14:42.330 have 60 reviews and you've been in practice for 00:14:42.330 --> 00:14:46.809 five years and you're complaining about this 00:14:46.809 --> 00:14:51.070 photo on the website that's wrong but you're 00:14:51.070 --> 00:14:53.509 not but you're not focusing on the primary thing 00:14:53.509 --> 00:14:55.090 that people are going to use to actually find 00:14:55.090 --> 00:14:58.639 your business You're speaking what I've been 00:14:58.639 --> 00:15:01.000 praising to people for 12 years now. This is 00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:02.960 exactly what I talk about is how important it 00:15:02.960 --> 00:15:05.960 is. And I always ask when I do like a lot of 00:15:05.960 --> 00:15:08.779 like smaller classes, I always ask practices, 00:15:08.879 --> 00:15:12.539 what makes them different? Okay. How does someone 00:15:12.539 --> 00:15:14.019 differentiate between you and the dentist down 00:15:14.019 --> 00:15:15.679 the road? Oh, we're great at customer service. 00:15:16.019 --> 00:15:18.279 Everybody tells you that they're great at customer 00:15:18.279 --> 00:15:20.200 service. That's not a differentiating factor. 00:15:20.730 --> 00:15:23.009 Okay. Treat you like family. Right, right. Everybody 00:15:23.009 --> 00:15:25.330 does that. We have technology. Everybody has 00:15:25.330 --> 00:15:28.309 technology. So honestly, it comes down to, unfortunately, 00:15:28.409 --> 00:15:30.669 it comes down to how you look online and reviews 00:15:30.669 --> 00:15:32.789 play a huge role in that. You have to differentiate 00:15:32.789 --> 00:15:35.950 yourself in what people say about your practice. 00:15:36.210 --> 00:15:38.990 Okay. The doctor called me ahead of time. The 00:15:38.990 --> 00:15:41.190 doctor called me afterwards. The doctor took 00:15:41.190 --> 00:15:43.129 me to my dental appointment at a specialist. 00:15:43.450 --> 00:15:45.529 Those are things that make the difference. And 00:15:45.529 --> 00:15:46.750 those are things that people are going to talk 00:15:46.750 --> 00:15:48.409 about because they're going to talk about things 00:15:48.409 --> 00:15:50.830 that are remarkably good. or remarkably bad. 00:15:50.970 --> 00:15:52.610 And if it's remarkably bad, they're going to 00:15:52.610 --> 00:15:56.289 go online and bash you versus when it's positive 00:15:56.289 --> 00:15:59.309 or remarkably good, you have to almost entice 00:15:59.309 --> 00:16:01.230 them to write about you online. But you want 00:16:01.230 --> 00:16:03.990 to capture those stories online. So you want 00:16:03.990 --> 00:16:05.850 to capture a star rating of five, obviously, 00:16:05.970 --> 00:16:08.610 but you want it to be a story being told, not 00:16:08.610 --> 00:16:12.169 just great experience. The patients should tell 00:16:12.169 --> 00:16:14.309 a story when they're writing these reviews. That's 00:16:14.309 --> 00:16:16.519 what separates you from the competition. You've 00:16:16.519 --> 00:16:20.039 touched briefly on the impact that online reviews 00:16:20.039 --> 00:16:22.820 has on dental practice growth and patient acquisition, 00:16:23.000 --> 00:16:24.600 why it's important. We mentioned visibility. 00:16:24.759 --> 00:16:27.220 We mentioned on the perception that people have. 00:16:27.360 --> 00:16:31.139 Can you give us just a summary for dentists of, 00:16:31.240 --> 00:16:34.299 okay, Len, I hear what you're saying. How is 00:16:34.299 --> 00:16:37.299 this truly impacting my patient acquisition and 00:16:37.299 --> 00:16:40.000 the bottom line of my business? So let's take 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:44.799 a practice that's investing in marketing online, 00:16:44.980 --> 00:16:49.080 okay? And I always tell people that unless you 00:16:49.080 --> 00:16:51.000 have a steady flow of reviews, you're wasting 00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:52.320 your money if you're spending a lot of money 00:16:52.320 --> 00:16:56.179 on marketing, okay? Because the reviews are the 00:16:56.179 --> 00:16:59.559 baseline. It's the foundation that exists, okay? 00:16:59.720 --> 00:17:01.860 And you have to have a great foundation in order 00:17:01.860 --> 00:17:04.259 to build that dental marketing up on top of it. 00:17:04.559 --> 00:17:06.539 If you don't have a great foundation of reviews, 00:17:06.900 --> 00:17:09.259 then I, in my opinion, the marketing that you're 00:17:09.259 --> 00:17:11.240 going to do is actually going to suffer. You're 00:17:11.240 --> 00:17:14.609 going to have negative ROI if you do not. have 00:17:14.609 --> 00:17:18.509 a foundation of reviews. So I tell people, don't 00:17:18.509 --> 00:17:21.289 get a new website. So I always say to them, well, 00:17:21.329 --> 00:17:23.670 I'm looking at a new website. Well, what's the 00:17:23.670 --> 00:17:25.089 reason that you're looking for a new website? 00:17:25.269 --> 00:17:26.630 And I say, I'm not going to give you the answer, 00:17:26.690 --> 00:17:29.690 but what's the reason? Well, I want to be more 00:17:29.690 --> 00:17:32.269 modern. I'm like, that's not the reason. The 00:17:32.269 --> 00:17:34.569 answer is that you want to get more new patients. 00:17:34.690 --> 00:17:37.950 Simple. The goal of a website redesign is you 00:17:37.950 --> 00:17:46.569 want more new patients. The website brings zero 00:17:46.569 --> 00:17:50.509 ROI. Also, let's say you're doing AdWords. So 00:17:50.509 --> 00:17:52.630 you're spending money for Google to advertise 00:17:52.630 --> 00:17:55.069 for you, okay? Ultimately, they're going to see 00:17:55.069 --> 00:17:56.670 this ad. They're going to think really highly 00:17:56.670 --> 00:17:58.549 of your ad. They're going to go check you out 00:17:58.549 --> 00:18:00.390 online, and they're going to see you have 18 00:18:00.390 --> 00:18:02.569 reviews with a four -point star rating. They're 00:18:02.569 --> 00:18:05.490 not going to come in. That is why I think the 00:18:05.490 --> 00:18:07.309 most important thing about reviews is it allows 00:18:07.309 --> 00:18:10.529 you to unlock what I call the key to be able 00:18:10.529 --> 00:18:12.569 to market your practice to bring more new patients 00:18:12.569 --> 00:18:15.539 in. So the foundation has to be set properly 00:18:15.539 --> 00:18:17.680 or else things are going to fail on top of it. 00:18:17.720 --> 00:18:19.740 So to me, that's one of the most important things 00:18:19.740 --> 00:18:22.220 as to why you need to focus on reputation because 00:18:22.220 --> 00:18:23.640 anything else you're going to do is going to 00:18:23.640 --> 00:18:27.839 fail. I met someone who's doing TV ads. They're 00:18:27.839 --> 00:18:31.140 literally spending about $3 ,000 to $5 ,000 a 00:18:31.140 --> 00:18:35.559 month on ads on TV. They have 3 .3 stars with 00:18:35.559 --> 00:18:39.380 28 reviews. I'm like, that's a waste of money. 00:18:40.760 --> 00:18:42.579 Well, we're getting patients from, I'm like, 00:18:42.619 --> 00:18:44.539 I'm sure you are, but I guarantee you're not 00:18:44.539 --> 00:18:45.880 getting all the patients that were to come in. 00:18:46.200 --> 00:18:49.119 So you got to focus on fixing those things first 00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:52.279 before you go into this huge expense on marketing 00:18:52.279 --> 00:18:54.240 your practice online. So I think that's one of 00:18:54.240 --> 00:18:58.180 the biggest things that this whole, you know, 00:18:58.180 --> 00:19:00.779 in terms of ROI. Now, how do you know it's actually 00:19:00.779 --> 00:19:03.099 working for you? You have to be very on top of 00:19:03.099 --> 00:19:04.700 things and you have to ask patients directly. 00:19:05.079 --> 00:19:06.759 Why did you, how did you hear about my office? 00:19:06.839 --> 00:19:08.759 Or why did you pick me over all those other offices 00:19:08.759 --> 00:19:13.250 near me? And when you ask enough questions, it's 00:19:13.250 --> 00:19:15.289 going to be, well, I read about you online. I 00:19:15.289 --> 00:19:17.630 read your reviews. I love what people have to 00:19:17.630 --> 00:19:19.150 say about you. And that's why I came into your 00:19:19.150 --> 00:19:21.569 office. It may have been I saw the ad and also 00:19:21.569 --> 00:19:25.470 I saw your website or I got a referral. But even 00:19:25.470 --> 00:19:27.990 when patients are referred to you, they no longer 00:19:27.990 --> 00:19:29.609 just pick up the phone and call. They don't do 00:19:29.609 --> 00:19:32.309 that, okay? They're going to go, okay, let me 00:19:32.309 --> 00:19:33.950 see what other people say about them. And they're 00:19:33.950 --> 00:19:35.589 going to look you up online. And if you don't 00:19:35.589 --> 00:19:37.609 have that reputation to support it, they may 00:19:37.609 --> 00:19:41.329 not come in. So that's really where I think the 00:19:41.329 --> 00:19:43.309 reviews are kind of the most important thing 00:19:43.309 --> 00:19:45.849 a practice has to pay attention to because it 00:19:45.849 --> 00:19:47.130 affects everything else they're doing in that 00:19:47.130 --> 00:19:49.410 practice, as well as how much the practice is 00:19:49.410 --> 00:19:51.190 earning from the marketing that they're doing. 00:19:51.589 --> 00:19:56.150 Would you go as far as to say that no other marketing 00:19:56.150 --> 00:20:01.009 or your effort really matters until you have 00:20:01.009 --> 00:20:03.029 solidified, until you at least, what would you 00:20:03.029 --> 00:20:05.170 say in the top three, top five, like what's my 00:20:05.170 --> 00:20:08.339 goal here? Because I can't just say. You can't 00:20:08.339 --> 00:20:09.740 just do any more because you're not there yet. 00:20:09.779 --> 00:20:11.920 Like, where do I need to focus on getting to 00:20:11.920 --> 00:20:13.720 the line before you're like, okay, you're in 00:20:13.720 --> 00:20:19.000 a better place now. So, you know, it's hard to 00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:21.140 say you're going to be in a certain spot. I would 00:20:21.140 --> 00:20:26.910 say that if once you get to 100 reviews. Let's 00:20:26.910 --> 00:20:29.970 say it's between 4 .6 and 4 .9. It can even be 00:20:29.970 --> 00:20:31.910 5 .0 stars. It doesn't matter. When you hit the 00:20:31.910 --> 00:20:35.269 100 to 150 reviews, I feel very confident that 00:20:35.269 --> 00:20:37.710 a practice can be successful marketing their 00:20:37.710 --> 00:20:40.630 business online. What if my competitor has 700? 00:20:41.029 --> 00:20:43.250 Well, of course. People always ask me how many 00:20:43.250 --> 00:20:45.250 reviews is enough, how many reviews is too much. 00:20:45.490 --> 00:20:48.569 They're never too much. You may be in a small 00:20:48.569 --> 00:20:51.609 town. There's a dentist in... in a town in Georgia, 00:20:52.250 --> 00:20:54.990 McDonough, Georgia, they have like 7 ,000 Google 00:20:54.990 --> 00:20:57.549 reviews, an insane number of reviews. So if you're 00:20:57.549 --> 00:20:59.849 in that small town, you have to, that's your 00:20:59.849 --> 00:21:01.910 competitor. And then there's towns that are much 00:21:01.910 --> 00:21:04.549 bigger that have 25 reviews. So it really depends 00:21:04.549 --> 00:21:06.789 on how your competitor, how many of your competitors 00:21:06.789 --> 00:21:09.529 have definitively. But there's nothing wrong 00:21:09.529 --> 00:21:12.410 with, you don't have to be equivalent in number 00:21:12.410 --> 00:21:16.670 of reviews. If you want to market yourself, Key 00:21:16.670 --> 00:21:18.750 to unlock that is somewhere between 100, 150. 00:21:19.069 --> 00:21:22.509 Even if your competitor has 250, 500, 700, to 00:21:22.509 --> 00:21:24.029 be able to market, that's the number I want you 00:21:24.029 --> 00:21:27.750 to be at, okay? To really have success in driving 00:21:27.750 --> 00:21:31.190 those patients organically that are just looking 00:21:31.190 --> 00:21:33.990 for you, the goal has to be in the map pack. 00:21:34.150 --> 00:21:36.410 I mean, that's really where you need to be because 00:21:36.410 --> 00:21:38.049 you could have 800 reviews and you don't have 00:21:38.049 --> 00:21:40.109 visibility and nobody sees those 800 reviews, 00:21:40.329 --> 00:21:42.390 then you're wasting it. Then it doesn't matter 00:21:42.390 --> 00:21:44.650 for you. So it's a hard thing to answer. It's 00:21:44.650 --> 00:21:46.529 a combination of those things. But that's why 00:21:46.529 --> 00:21:48.230 I teach visibility and credibility. If you have 00:21:48.230 --> 00:21:49.890 both of those things, you have a really good 00:21:49.890 --> 00:21:52.329 reputation and you're visible, that's where things 00:21:52.329 --> 00:21:55.390 really work well for you. And do you have a case 00:21:55.390 --> 00:21:58.029 study of somebody that you've worked with that 00:21:58.029 --> 00:22:01.250 you've seen when we really put in the work on 00:22:01.250 --> 00:22:03.210 the reviews, we build systems in the office to 00:22:03.210 --> 00:22:08.130 regularly get into, if someone enters the office, 00:22:08.329 --> 00:22:09.430 this is how we treat them, this is what we do, 00:22:09.490 --> 00:22:11.009 before they leave, someone needs to ask them 00:22:11.009 --> 00:22:13.319 for a review. Like those type of systems where 00:22:13.319 --> 00:22:15.240 you can share with us, okay, the practice went 00:22:15.240 --> 00:22:18.859 from this to this. You mentioned it earlier, 00:22:18.940 --> 00:22:22.279 actually. How do you measure this? Well, I'll 00:22:22.279 --> 00:22:24.619 give you an example of an office. So I met an 00:22:24.619 --> 00:22:26.160 office. I don't want to call them out, but I 00:22:26.160 --> 00:22:29.740 met an office in 2020 doing a demo on BirdEye. 00:22:30.180 --> 00:22:32.980 And they were a startup practice in January of 00:22:32.980 --> 00:22:34.759 2020, which was probably like the worst time 00:22:34.759 --> 00:22:36.799 for someone to start up because COVID shut them 00:22:36.799 --> 00:22:38.759 down for a couple months after that. And I met 00:22:38.759 --> 00:22:42.359 them in September of 2020. and they loved what 00:22:42.359 --> 00:22:44.579 I had to offer them. They were very hesitant 00:22:44.579 --> 00:22:47.079 to move forward simply because they had just 00:22:47.079 --> 00:22:49.099 been out of a shutdown. They were a startup practice. 00:22:49.559 --> 00:22:52.779 Financials were very difficult. So this particular 00:22:52.779 --> 00:22:54.759 practice was a startup. They had really poor 00:22:54.759 --> 00:22:57.279 listings, is what we call it, and they didn't 00:22:57.279 --> 00:22:59.240 have a ton of reviews. They made the decision 00:22:59.240 --> 00:23:01.779 not to move forward, and that was fine. And I 00:23:01.779 --> 00:23:03.359 am the least pressure salesperson. I always tell 00:23:03.359 --> 00:23:05.720 people that. And I said, here's my contact information. 00:23:06.099 --> 00:23:09.500 You reach out to me. However long you need, I'm 00:23:09.500 --> 00:23:11.599 happy to help you. They also said they wanted 00:23:11.599 --> 00:23:13.819 to do it themselves. Okay, and I'm like, okay, 00:23:13.839 --> 00:23:15.660 try to do it yourselves. You can't, but you can 00:23:15.660 --> 00:23:18.200 try. So I never heard from them again. Never 00:23:18.200 --> 00:23:20.819 heard from them again. Three years later, I met 00:23:20.819 --> 00:23:22.220 them at the Greater New York Dental Meeting. 00:23:22.619 --> 00:23:25.140 And I remember who they are. I pulled them up 00:23:25.140 --> 00:23:26.980 on the map and showed them that in the three 00:23:26.980 --> 00:23:29.200 years, they only had gotten 30 -something reviews 00:23:29.200 --> 00:23:32.700 and the listings were not improved and the ranking 00:23:32.700 --> 00:23:34.539 actually got worse than when I first spoke to 00:23:34.539 --> 00:23:36.339 them. And I have a program that I use to show 00:23:36.339 --> 00:23:38.619 them this. So then they realized that they couldn't 00:23:38.619 --> 00:23:40.680 do it on their own. They were obviously in a 00:23:40.680 --> 00:23:42.500 better financial state and they decided to move 00:23:42.500 --> 00:23:44.559 forward with the software. And they were not 00:23:44.559 --> 00:23:46.299 making any other changes. They weren't getting 00:23:46.299 --> 00:23:47.980 a new website. They weren't adding any type of 00:23:47.980 --> 00:23:51.079 marketing. And in three or four months, I think 00:23:51.079 --> 00:23:54.480 was the numbers, the ranking online on the local 00:23:54.480 --> 00:23:57.519 ranking on the maps significantly improved to 00:23:57.519 --> 00:24:00.319 where they had, they went from a 4 % local search 00:24:00.319 --> 00:24:03.640 volume to a 60 % local search volume. And they 00:24:03.640 --> 00:24:05.960 went from having 13 patients a month, new patients, 00:24:06.059 --> 00:24:08.819 to almost 25 new patients a month. That is because 00:24:08.819 --> 00:24:10.900 they had the visibility and the credibility. 00:24:11.140 --> 00:24:12.859 And when you have both of those things combined, 00:24:13.119 --> 00:24:15.000 you end up attracting more new patients to their 00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:17.019 practice. And they had reached out to me to find 00:24:17.019 --> 00:24:18.720 out how they looked because they saw a dramatic 00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:20.200 increase in the number of people that were calling 00:24:20.200 --> 00:24:22.059 their office. That's how this all takes place. 00:24:22.680 --> 00:24:24.759 So that's a huge success story that I talk about 00:24:24.759 --> 00:24:27.180 almost every demo that I do and every session 00:24:27.180 --> 00:24:29.480 I do because it's a dramatic change in how they 00:24:29.480 --> 00:24:31.740 appeared online and all of a sudden saw a huge 00:24:31.740 --> 00:24:33.119 increase in number of new patients they were 00:24:33.119 --> 00:24:35.339 doing without actually adding any other type 00:24:35.339 --> 00:24:38.700 of marketing, which is the key. Yeah, because 00:24:38.700 --> 00:24:42.359 often people would think, if you think about 00:24:42.359 --> 00:24:46.539 dental marketing, you see this, how much this, 00:24:46.720 --> 00:24:48.960 that, that. But I agree with you. There's certain 00:24:48.960 --> 00:24:50.940 things that if you can at least just focus on 00:24:50.940 --> 00:24:53.390 that. starting out on some of the things that 00:24:53.390 --> 00:24:54.970 you mentioned now then that's going to make a 00:24:54.970 --> 00:24:58.930 big difference so you spoke about the the impact 00:24:58.930 --> 00:25:01.049 that it can have you spoke about a case study 00:25:01.049 --> 00:25:05.950 now I come to you and I say I agree with you 00:25:05.950 --> 00:25:08.890 Len it is important I know what you mean it's 00:25:08.890 --> 00:25:13.769 uh you made your point how do I get this operating 00:25:13.769 --> 00:25:16.809 in my office what do I need to do to actually 00:25:16.809 --> 00:25:20.940 because I'm I'm struggling. I mean, dentists 00:25:20.940 --> 00:25:23.619 wear many hats. I'm struggling. I'm under stress. 00:25:24.299 --> 00:25:27.200 The staff, I have to hire a new hygienist and 00:25:27.200 --> 00:25:30.859 it's costing me more than ever before. How do 00:25:30.859 --> 00:25:35.519 I do this now? So I think the first thing I always 00:25:35.519 --> 00:25:39.039 teach offices is they have to decide, they have 00:25:39.039 --> 00:25:42.539 to commit themselves to doing this. So you have 00:25:42.539 --> 00:25:44.500 to make the commitment, number one. Number two 00:25:44.500 --> 00:25:45.839 is once you make the commitment, I think you 00:25:45.839 --> 00:25:47.779 have to create a reputation culture in your office. 00:25:48.279 --> 00:25:51.779 And what I mean by that is when someone comes 00:25:51.779 --> 00:25:52.960 into the office, they're going to have their 00:25:52.960 --> 00:25:56.759 teeth worked on. They're going to then be asked 00:25:56.759 --> 00:25:58.759 at some point to write a review. You have to 00:25:58.759 --> 00:26:01.359 almost know that you're being observed and watched, 00:26:01.500 --> 00:26:03.400 and someone's going to report on your behavior 00:26:03.400 --> 00:26:05.940 through a review. That's what it is. And if you 00:26:05.940 --> 00:26:08.599 create this reputation culture and you know this 00:26:08.599 --> 00:26:10.859 is going to happen, you treat the patients with 00:26:10.859 --> 00:26:12.680 the best customer service. So the customer service 00:26:12.680 --> 00:26:16.390 has to be top -notch, okay? Remember, most dental 00:26:16.390 --> 00:26:19.150 reviews that you see don't talk about services. 00:26:19.910 --> 00:26:22.410 They don't know if their dentistry was bad. They 00:26:22.410 --> 00:26:23.970 don't know if they have an open margin on their 00:26:23.970 --> 00:26:26.509 crown. They know if they were treated well and 00:26:26.509 --> 00:26:28.410 they're happy and they had no pain. That's what 00:26:28.410 --> 00:26:29.890 people talk about. If you ran late, they're going 00:26:29.890 --> 00:26:31.450 to talk about it. If there was a money issue, 00:26:31.609 --> 00:26:33.730 they're going to talk about it. That's what they 00:26:33.730 --> 00:26:35.769 talk about in these reviews. They also don't 00:26:35.769 --> 00:26:38.769 really mention team members' names. So they talk 00:26:38.769 --> 00:26:41.289 about the doctor and team. Or the staff at the 00:26:41.289 --> 00:26:43.650 office was great. The doctor's great. Dr. Tao 00:26:43.650 --> 00:26:45.549 and his team are great. They don't mention individual 00:26:45.549 --> 00:26:48.309 people all that often, okay? So knowing that, 00:26:48.430 --> 00:26:51.269 I think it comes down to, one, you have to ask 00:26:51.269 --> 00:26:54.369 patients. Now, if you're uncomfortable, the verbiage 00:26:54.369 --> 00:26:56.170 changes. You want to ask for feedback about the 00:26:56.170 --> 00:26:58.150 experience. You don't want to ask for a review 00:26:58.150 --> 00:27:00.769 directly. It sounds like you're begging for it. 00:27:01.150 --> 00:27:03.190 So you want to ask for feedback about the experience. 00:27:03.450 --> 00:27:06.269 If team members ask, the more they ask, the more 00:27:06.269 --> 00:27:08.410 you should get. Unfortunately, it comes down 00:27:08.410 --> 00:27:11.650 to... When a patient goes online to write a review, 00:27:11.769 --> 00:27:13.890 there is a lot of steps involved to write a review. 00:27:13.990 --> 00:27:17.630 It's like 14 steps long. And a lot of patients 00:27:17.630 --> 00:27:19.670 are not going to go to that extent. So in my 00:27:19.670 --> 00:27:22.250 opinion, I work for BirdEye. I mean, this is 00:27:22.250 --> 00:27:24.289 not a BirdEye sales pitch, but you need to use 00:27:24.289 --> 00:27:26.650 an automated system that will do the work for 00:27:26.650 --> 00:27:29.049 you. And then all you need to do is ask because 00:27:29.049 --> 00:27:31.410 these services make the process really easy for 00:27:31.410 --> 00:27:33.390 the patients. But if you don't ask and don't 00:27:33.390 --> 00:27:35.490 inform the conversation and let them know that 00:27:35.490 --> 00:27:37.250 they're going to get a text message that's going 00:27:37.250 --> 00:27:38.930 to make it very easy for them to write a review, 00:27:39.470 --> 00:27:43.410 It's very difficult to see success, okay? When 00:27:43.410 --> 00:27:48.630 I had my software, iSocial Reviews in 2013 and 00:27:48.630 --> 00:27:52.269 14, mine was a fully manual -based system. There 00:27:52.269 --> 00:27:54.670 was no automation there, okay? We have automation 00:27:54.670 --> 00:27:56.329 with BirdEye now because we integrate with the 00:27:56.329 --> 00:27:58.569 practice management software, Dentrix, EagleSoft, 00:27:58.589 --> 00:28:01.430 OpenDental, all the cloud -based stuff. And when 00:28:01.430 --> 00:28:04.269 I had my software, I would see jumps. So when 00:28:04.269 --> 00:28:06.240 they first started, you see a huge jump. I would 00:28:06.240 --> 00:28:07.619 have a meeting with them three months later. 00:28:07.680 --> 00:28:08.960 It would go down to here. I would meet with them. 00:28:08.980 --> 00:28:10.680 It would go back up again. You want a steady 00:28:10.680 --> 00:28:14.059 stream of reviews. One of the biggest ranking 00:28:14.059 --> 00:28:17.180 factors now is the velocity of reviews, how many 00:28:17.180 --> 00:28:20.299 you're getting. And there's case studies being 00:28:20.299 --> 00:28:22.000 done, not necessarily on dental offices, but 00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:24.279 even restaurants. And they showed three restaurants 00:28:24.279 --> 00:28:27.099 that had a very similar number of reviews, but 00:28:27.099 --> 00:28:28.940 one was clearly outranking the other ones when 00:28:28.940 --> 00:28:31.319 you did search. And it showed that they were 00:28:31.319 --> 00:28:33.339 getting higher velocity reviews than the other 00:28:33.339 --> 00:28:37.099 businesses. Okay? So velocity of reviews is very 00:28:37.099 --> 00:28:39.220 important. You want a consistent flow of reviews, 00:28:39.339 --> 00:28:41.759 not five one day and then, you know, you wait 00:28:41.759 --> 00:28:43.619 a month to get more. That doesn't work well for 00:28:43.619 --> 00:28:45.259 you. As long as you end up with this consistent 00:28:45.259 --> 00:28:48.079 flow of reviews. It also looks better. I've seen 00:28:48.079 --> 00:28:50.279 if it's like every two day, every third day, 00:28:50.299 --> 00:28:52.539 every fifth day, every eighth day, like four, 00:28:52.640 --> 00:28:55.279 that looks way better in terms of public perception. 00:28:55.759 --> 00:28:57.700 Correct. So you want a steady flow of reviews, 00:28:57.900 --> 00:28:59.700 ideally every day. It's going to be hard, but 00:28:59.700 --> 00:29:01.259 ideally every day you want at least one review, 00:29:01.319 --> 00:29:04.420 in my opinion. So the goal should be at least 00:29:04.420 --> 00:29:06.660 three plus a week. So at the end of the month, 00:29:06.680 --> 00:29:09.140 you have 12 to 15 reviews. At the end of the 00:29:09.140 --> 00:29:11.000 year, you have 150 reviews. I mean, that's the 00:29:11.000 --> 00:29:13.880 way to look at it. So, but you know, it's asking, 00:29:13.940 --> 00:29:18.140 it's hoping and praying if you, if you, if you 00:29:18.140 --> 00:29:21.039 just rely on them asking, cause a lot, the, I 00:29:21.039 --> 00:29:22.900 mean, you ask a hundred patients to write a review 00:29:22.900 --> 00:29:25.319 online, 98 % of them are going to say they're 00:29:25.319 --> 00:29:27.740 going to do it, but only five to 7 % actually 00:29:27.740 --> 00:29:29.819 do it. compared to asking someone and saying 00:29:29.819 --> 00:29:33.279 yeah yeah i will do it you know that like um 00:29:33.279 --> 00:29:34.900 remember to leave us a review and then you're 00:29:34.900 --> 00:29:36.740 in that moment and you feel guilty so you're 00:29:36.740 --> 00:29:38.819 like okay yes of course i will but then as soon 00:29:38.819 --> 00:29:40.619 as you leave the door it's like okay cheers so 00:29:40.619 --> 00:29:43.539 i know that happens as you said now i want to 00:29:43.539 --> 00:29:48.500 ask you though did you see a difference in the 00:29:48.500 --> 00:29:52.440 bird eye system because if i play devil's advocate 00:29:52.440 --> 00:29:55.190 i'll say Hey, if the doctor asked me and showed 00:29:55.190 --> 00:29:57.269 me a QR code in the office and said, hey, you 00:29:57.269 --> 00:30:00.630 can just scan it and go. Is that success rate 00:30:00.630 --> 00:30:02.450 higher in what you've seen in internal efforts 00:30:02.450 --> 00:30:05.369 or getting that text? Because I get it from restaurants 00:30:05.369 --> 00:30:08.950 often and I would just be like, no, it was a 00:30:08.950 --> 00:30:12.589 good thing, but I'm not getting it. So what's 00:30:12.589 --> 00:30:15.009 your opinion there on those two types of efforts? 00:30:15.410 --> 00:30:20.920 So I want to be clear. So QR codes work. The 00:30:20.920 --> 00:30:23.039 patient still has to do a lot of the work. The 00:30:23.039 --> 00:30:25.519 problem is if they're doing the QR code in the 00:30:25.519 --> 00:30:27.180 office and writing the review in the office, 00:30:27.359 --> 00:30:29.839 then because of location services being on their 00:30:29.839 --> 00:30:32.799 phone as well as Wi -Fi access in the office, 00:30:33.039 --> 00:30:36.180 Google and the other providers will see that 00:30:36.180 --> 00:30:37.920 the reviews are being left in the physical office 00:30:37.920 --> 00:30:40.720 space. And based on what I see over time is they 00:30:40.720 --> 00:30:43.650 lose reviews when that happens. So I don't like 00:30:43.650 --> 00:30:47.509 the fact that offices use the tap device, one 00:30:47.509 --> 00:30:50.029 of those pop devices. Those are not good for 00:30:50.029 --> 00:30:53.170 business. I mean, I've seen many offices really 00:30:53.170 --> 00:30:54.970 get in trouble using that over and over and over 00:30:54.970 --> 00:30:58.029 again. The why I like the text after the appointment 00:30:58.029 --> 00:31:00.170 is because they're not in the office space at 00:31:00.170 --> 00:31:03.180 all. Okay, so it's done at home. There's no issues 00:31:03.180 --> 00:31:06.400 of people thinking that they're being, or you're 00:31:06.400 --> 00:31:08.700 manipulating them, the reviews. Because again, 00:31:08.819 --> 00:31:10.740 if you ask a patient to do a review and say, 00:31:10.799 --> 00:31:12.539 here's a QR code and you're watching over them 00:31:12.539 --> 00:31:14.539 to write the review, do you think they're going 00:31:14.539 --> 00:31:16.859 to write something negative? Of course not. That's 00:31:16.859 --> 00:31:21.299 why when you use Google Maps to go to a restaurant, 00:31:21.500 --> 00:31:24.240 okay, you get a review request from Google, but 00:31:24.240 --> 00:31:26.079 it doesn't happen until the next day. It doesn't 00:31:26.079 --> 00:31:27.700 happen while you're physically in the restaurant 00:31:27.700 --> 00:31:29.500 eating. They want to wait until there's no bias 00:31:29.500 --> 00:31:32.480 anymore. So the best time, I think, is to send 00:31:32.480 --> 00:31:34.720 a text message at the end of the day, just inform 00:31:34.720 --> 00:31:36.619 the patient that they're going to get one, and 00:31:36.619 --> 00:31:38.680 then let the automation from the software take 00:31:38.680 --> 00:31:42.740 over, and you'll get significant success that 00:31:42.740 --> 00:31:45.380 way. I have a last question for you. I want to 00:31:45.380 --> 00:31:49.779 know the future. I know AI is obviously a hot 00:31:49.779 --> 00:31:53.180 topic right now. Technology is moving fast. Dentistry 00:31:53.180 --> 00:31:56.930 is moving fast. You've had quite some time in 00:31:56.930 --> 00:31:58.950 this industry now, and you've seen it grow. Where 00:31:58.950 --> 00:32:03.069 is this going? Well, I think a tremendous amount 00:32:03.069 --> 00:32:06.930 of it is going to be AI, 100 % so. And I'll give 00:32:06.930 --> 00:32:10.250 you an example. So I do Google searches a lot 00:32:10.250 --> 00:32:12.369 for offices I speak with. I mean, not that I'm 00:32:12.369 --> 00:32:14.289 practicing anymore. I'm not an owner of my practice. 00:32:14.490 --> 00:32:17.950 But the practice that I sold, I just did a search 00:32:17.950 --> 00:32:19.750 for, and I just typed in Pennsylvania Center 00:32:19.750 --> 00:32:23.359 for Dental Excellence reviews. The first thing 00:32:23.359 --> 00:32:25.339 that comes up is the AI overview from Google. 00:32:25.420 --> 00:32:27.400 I just want to read you what it says. It says 00:32:27.400 --> 00:32:28.619 the Pennsylvania Center for Dental Excellence 00:32:28.619 --> 00:32:30.559 receives highly positive reviews with patients 00:32:30.559 --> 00:32:32.180 praising the friendly and comfortable environment, 00:32:32.440 --> 00:32:34.359 knowledgeable and general staff, and thorough 00:32:34.359 --> 00:32:36.339 and efficient dental work. Many reviewers highlight 00:32:36.339 --> 00:32:37.900 the team's ability to address patients' concern 00:32:37.900 --> 00:32:39.279 and make them feel at ease during procedures. 00:32:40.440 --> 00:32:42.119 Here's a more detailed breakdown of the positive 00:32:42.119 --> 00:32:45.740 feedback. And they list literally, it goes on 00:32:45.740 --> 00:32:48.279 and on and on about what basically the reviews 00:32:48.279 --> 00:32:51.859 show. So it's using AI to come up with this detailed 00:32:51.859 --> 00:32:56.160 report summary on Google. So this is the future. 00:32:56.319 --> 00:33:00.339 If you don't make yourself look customer -friendly 00:33:00.339 --> 00:33:02.859 and have great reviews, the AI, when they ask, 00:33:03.000 --> 00:33:05.640 is not going to look too highly of you. So I 00:33:05.640 --> 00:33:07.259 think that's a big thing you have to pay attention 00:33:07.259 --> 00:33:09.900 to. And you don't want bad reviews to appear 00:33:09.900 --> 00:33:11.779 in the review snippet that's on the Google business 00:33:11.779 --> 00:33:14.220 listing. So again, this is where this whole reputation 00:33:14.220 --> 00:33:16.980 culture comes in. It's making the reputation 00:33:16.980 --> 00:33:19.640 a priority for practices because with AI, if 00:33:19.640 --> 00:33:21.440 you don't look great, it's going to really hurt 00:33:21.440 --> 00:33:25.009 you, okay? Now, again, I don't think the visibility 00:33:25.009 --> 00:33:27.589 part is ever going to change. I'll go over real 00:33:27.589 --> 00:33:29.349 quick a couple of the big ranking factors so 00:33:29.349 --> 00:33:32.970 people understand. Number one is total number 00:33:32.970 --> 00:33:35.210 of reviews. Number two is velocity of reviews. 00:33:35.470 --> 00:33:37.930 Number three is the total score you have, which, 00:33:38.009 --> 00:33:40.690 again, 4 .8, 4 .9, all the same thing. Another 00:33:40.690 --> 00:33:44.490 big ranking factor is looking at your primary 00:33:44.490 --> 00:33:48.009 category. So if you're a dentist, you want your 00:33:48.009 --> 00:33:50.490 primary category to be a dentist. If you're an 00:33:50.490 --> 00:33:52.150 oral surgeon, you want your primary category 00:33:52.150 --> 00:33:54.609 to be oral and maxillofacial surgeon. If you're 00:33:54.609 --> 00:33:55.950 an orthodontist, you want it to be orthodontist. 00:33:56.170 --> 00:33:58.089 But you also want to make sure you have secondary 00:33:58.089 --> 00:34:00.950 categories as well. So for a dentist, it could 00:34:00.950 --> 00:34:02.849 be cosmetic dentist. It could be dental hygiene. 00:34:03.049 --> 00:34:04.970 It could be teeth whitening services, dental 00:34:04.970 --> 00:34:06.869 implant provider. There's a lot of different 00:34:06.869 --> 00:34:08.730 services that you want to select as your secondary 00:34:08.730 --> 00:34:11.610 categories. Okay. And the other ranking factor 00:34:11.610 --> 00:34:13.409 is making sure this name, address, and phone 00:34:13.409 --> 00:34:17.690 number is consistent. There is another aspect 00:34:17.690 --> 00:34:22.449 of visibility that's On top of the reviews. So 00:34:22.449 --> 00:34:24.829 just having reviews is only one way to get visible. 00:34:24.929 --> 00:34:26.670 You actually have to have something else incorporated 00:34:26.670 --> 00:34:29.309 in that. And that's making sure that the practice's 00:34:29.309 --> 00:34:30.929 name, address, and phone number is consistent. 00:34:31.449 --> 00:34:33.170 This is something that's referred to as listing 00:34:33.170 --> 00:34:35.829 management or citation claiming. All of these 00:34:35.829 --> 00:34:38.289 directories Google looks at for trust. And if 00:34:38.289 --> 00:34:40.449 the information isn't consistent, no matter how 00:34:40.449 --> 00:34:42.530 many reviews you have, you generally don't rank 00:34:42.530 --> 00:34:45.230 high on the maps. And I have offices galore that 00:34:45.230 --> 00:34:47.630 have 600, 700 reviews, but their listings are 00:34:47.630 --> 00:34:51.170 not very consistent and they don't rank. So you 00:34:51.170 --> 00:34:53.230 need to make sure that that's information, the 00:34:53.230 --> 00:34:54.989 name, address, and phone number is consistent. 00:34:55.269 --> 00:34:58.929 Now, just to be very clear, where we see a lot 00:34:58.929 --> 00:35:01.210 of issues are for people who started up a practice 00:35:01.210 --> 00:35:04.409 and didn't do it before. We see issues with people 00:35:04.409 --> 00:35:06.849 who moved their practice to a new address recently. 00:35:07.489 --> 00:35:09.190 We have people who bought a practice recently. 00:35:10.159 --> 00:35:12.440 And again, the starter practices, that's where 00:35:12.440 --> 00:35:15.980 we see the biggest concerns. As an example, if 00:35:15.980 --> 00:35:21.280 your address is 100 Southeast 22nd Street, Suite 00:35:21.280 --> 00:35:24.139 A, there's so many different variations of your 00:35:24.139 --> 00:35:27.019 name that you can have. So you have street, ST, 00:35:27.199 --> 00:35:29.320 you have avenue, you have suite numbers, unit 00:35:29.320 --> 00:35:32.480 numbers, STE. There's so many different variations 00:35:32.480 --> 00:35:34.300 and that's where things are going to be problematic 00:35:34.300 --> 00:35:36.920 for you. So you have to ensure that this data 00:35:36.920 --> 00:35:39.699 is consistent online because if it isn't, Okay. 00:35:39.820 --> 00:35:41.980 No matter how many rubies you have, you aren't 00:35:41.980 --> 00:35:44.340 going to rank online. Okay. Because Google sees 00:35:44.340 --> 00:35:46.719 it as different businesses because it's not matching. 00:35:46.840 --> 00:35:49.179 Well, Google looks at it as a big trust factor. 00:35:49.239 --> 00:35:50.940 And if things don't match, they don't know which 00:35:50.940 --> 00:35:53.519 is the true address and phone number. And then 00:35:53.519 --> 00:35:57.059 they have problems ranking. Okay. One of the 00:35:57.059 --> 00:35:59.159 ranking factors you can't change. And that's 00:35:59.159 --> 00:36:01.780 how close the business is, how close the office 00:36:01.780 --> 00:36:04.820 is to the center of the city. And Google selects 00:36:04.820 --> 00:36:07.329 that and you can't change that. Okay. Most other 00:36:07.329 --> 00:36:10.070 ranking factors you could control. All right. 00:36:10.210 --> 00:36:12.829 So if you have, if you check all those boxes, 00:36:12.869 --> 00:36:15.210 you generally rank higher than your competitors. 00:36:15.329 --> 00:36:18.250 That's really what it comes down to. So in the 00:36:18.250 --> 00:36:19.989 future, I think it's going to exactly the same. 00:36:20.090 --> 00:36:22.590 I think there's going to be more put on reviews 00:36:22.590 --> 00:36:24.789 because again, reviews have always stayed the 00:36:24.789 --> 00:36:26.010 same. And I think it's going to only increase, 00:36:26.070 --> 00:36:28.690 but if you don't put a focus on reviews in your 00:36:28.690 --> 00:36:31.670 practice, even if you are. very satisfied with 00:36:31.670 --> 00:36:33.769 the number of patients you're seeing, you will 00:36:33.769 --> 00:36:36.329 see a steady flow of a decrease in flow of new 00:36:36.329 --> 00:36:38.449 patients, in my opinion, because there's going 00:36:38.449 --> 00:36:40.389 to be a competitor who comes in. They're going 00:36:40.389 --> 00:36:42.809 to have something that I call social capital 00:36:42.809 --> 00:36:46.369 and not monetary money capital, but social capital. 00:36:46.650 --> 00:36:48.130 And they're going to take advantage of the social 00:36:48.130 --> 00:36:49.869 capital and they're going to pass you in the 00:36:49.869 --> 00:36:52.510 rankings. You're going to wonder why. Len, that 00:36:52.510 --> 00:36:55.050 is a perfect note to end it off. Before we go, 00:36:55.130 --> 00:36:58.039 I want to ask you. If people want to get a hold 00:36:58.039 --> 00:36:59.579 of you, of course, we will leave it in the show 00:36:59.579 --> 00:37:01.840 notes too. If you have anything interesting coming 00:37:01.840 --> 00:37:05.300 up, courses, where people can find you, please 00:37:05.300 --> 00:37:09.960 let us know. Sure. So I am very active on social 00:37:09.960 --> 00:37:12.980 media. So if you simply look me up, I'm on LinkedIn, 00:37:13.159 --> 00:37:16.940 I'm on Instagram, I'm on Facebook, but you can 00:37:16.940 --> 00:37:19.809 look me up. Message me on social media. I am 00:37:19.809 --> 00:37:22.409 uber responsive. I'll share my cell phone with 00:37:22.409 --> 00:37:23.909 you because it's all over the internet. I'm not 00:37:23.909 --> 00:37:25.630 saying something that isn't there, but if you 00:37:25.630 --> 00:37:27.550 want to text me, you can text me. My phone number 00:37:27.550 --> 00:37:33.630 is 215 -292 -2100. You can also go to my website, 00:37:33.730 --> 00:37:38.630 which is drlentow .com, drlentow .com. On there 00:37:38.630 --> 00:37:40.869 is all my contact information as well. My email 00:37:40.869 --> 00:37:46.639 address is len, L -E -N, at drlentow .com. If 00:37:46.639 --> 00:37:49.420 you want any information about BirdEye, you certainly 00:37:49.420 --> 00:37:52.480 can go to BirdEye's website. I run their dental 00:37:52.480 --> 00:37:54.000 division, so you're going to get assigned to 00:37:54.000 --> 00:37:56.219 me as well. So you're going to speak to someone 00:37:56.219 --> 00:37:57.559 there and they're going to put you on my calendar 00:37:57.559 --> 00:37:59.159 anyway. So if you have interest, you can always 00:37:59.159 --> 00:38:01.059 reach out to me directly, but you can go through 00:38:01.059 --> 00:38:02.579 BirdEye's website to learn more about what we 00:38:02.579 --> 00:38:05.900 do. And I do have an event, my events in September, 00:38:06.059 --> 00:38:09.440 September 26th and 27th. It's the third year 00:38:09.440 --> 00:38:11.159 we're doing it. It's called Supercharge Your 00:38:11.159 --> 00:38:14.739 Dental Practice. It's 13 amazing speakers. It's 00:38:14.739 --> 00:38:17.429 not. just me. It's 13 amazing speakers. We've 00:38:17.429 --> 00:38:20.510 got two panels, one on increasing practice revenue 00:38:20.510 --> 00:38:23.969 and one on AI. We've got a ton of sponsors. It's 00:38:23.969 --> 00:38:27.010 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida at Pier 66 Resort 00:38:27.010 --> 00:38:31.809 on September 26th and 27th. And we expect 250 00:38:31.809 --> 00:38:34.329 plus people there. It's the third year we're 00:38:34.329 --> 00:38:36.250 doing it. It's at least at this resort for the 00:38:36.250 --> 00:38:38.670 next three years. One of the most beautiful resorts 00:38:38.670 --> 00:38:41.309 we've ever seen. You can go to superchargerdentalpractice 00:38:41.309 --> 00:38:44.090 .com. And check out what it is. And if you want 00:38:44.090 --> 00:38:46.570 to save $100 on registration, you can use the 00:38:46.570 --> 00:38:49.789 code RAVING, R -A -V -I -N -G, which relates 00:38:49.789 --> 00:38:53.429 to my podcast called Raving Patients. But that's 00:38:53.429 --> 00:38:55.269 the information I have to share. And like I said, 00:38:55.369 --> 00:38:57.690 bring in the questions. I'm happy to answer things. 00:38:58.170 --> 00:39:03.570 And hopefully I can continue to lay the framework 00:39:03.570 --> 00:39:06.590 in the industry for dentists who want to focus 00:39:06.590 --> 00:39:10.780 on their reputation. Fantastic. Again, this is 00:39:10.780 --> 00:39:13.000 such an important part of the success of your 00:39:13.000 --> 00:39:16.780 practice. Listeners, dentists out there, listen 00:39:16.780 --> 00:39:19.039 to what was said today. Go and put it into work. 00:39:19.980 --> 00:39:22.880 I promise you, Len has a lot of experience over 00:39:22.880 --> 00:39:24.739 me. I've been in this space for five years now. 00:39:24.860 --> 00:39:27.360 We have seen so many dental practices and this 00:39:27.360 --> 00:39:30.019 is one of the most important things. So get out 00:39:30.019 --> 00:39:32.000 there, go get those reviews, focus on your reputation. 00:39:32.239 --> 00:39:34.059 And if you need more help, you know where to 00:39:34.059 --> 00:39:36.099 go. Thank you so much. Have a good rest of your 00:39:36.099 --> 00:39:36.239 day.