246: The Real Reason Your Front Desk Feels Overwhelmed in Your Dental Practice

Every time that call goes unanswered, you throw in dollars away. So if you're spending money on marketing and you don't have somebody there to answer your phone 24 7, I mean, you might as well just put it down the drain because that's kind of what you've done.

Hi, I'm Emmett Scott, and just like you, I've had my ups and downs in the dental industry, but times are changing. The DEO has built a map of how to succeed in one of the most challenging industries to navigate. On this show, we talk to dental industry leaders, solve problems, and get you the answers you need to face these challenging times and thrive. Welcome to DEO's Secrets podcast for dental organizations. Now let's get started.

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the DEO podcast, the show where we dive into the ideas, people and innovation driving the dental industry forward. I'm your host, Kendall Hussain, and today we are talking all about my favorite thing, communication. Not just any communication, though. The first impression your practice makes, often before a patient even walks through the doors. And so I am excited to introduce two incredible guests from the Concierge Contact Center. I have Shea Davis, who's the director of marketing and sales, and Christy King, who is the general manager. And both Shea and Christy have been with CCC for over a decade, helping dental practices elevate their patient communication with professionalism, empathy, and technology. So what I know, though, is that the Concierge Contact center has been around for quite a while, right, ladies? It was founded in 2010 by John and Lynette Ross. And since then, it's become really the go to solution for dental offices seeking high quality, HIPAA compliant patient communication. And so I'm so excited to jump into this with you today. And so welcome, welcome, welcome, ladies.

Yes, thank you. Thank you so much for having us. We're excited to be here and, and be with you, Kendall, and all the DEO listeners out there.

Yes, yes, absolutely.

So go. Go for it.

Yeah. So like you had mentioned, Kendall, the company was established in 2010 by John Lynette Ross. And the idea came about when Lynette had, you know, done a lot of training in dental offices across the United States. She had traveled all over training front office staff, specifically on phone etiquette, you know, customer service, patient conversion. While she was in the offices doing the training, she realized that the phones were just ringing off the hook, going to voicemail, no one was answering. And so she came up with this idea to have this 24. 7 contact center with capabilities like we have and so here we are, 15

years later, she called John and he was actually a University of Georgia professor of Spanish, of all things. And she drug him into it and he did a total flip. So now they started the company, but. So that's the origin of the. Of the company.

That is so awesome. I have been a dental receptionist way back in my years. I remember the stress of the phones ringing. And you know, you're on the phone and you can see the other light flashing on your eyes and you're like, I need to answer that call or somebody's on hold and you've got a patient in front of you. And this would have been such a game changer. So what specifically does the concierge contact center offer? Dental practices.

So like I had mentioned that three the 24 7, 365. So we always have agents available to take calls, and we'll get into this a little bit later. But we've also integrated some AI capabilities as well into our services to make things a lot more efficient for. And so on. But yeah, we were basically a virtual receptionist, virtual front office for our clients. And we answer calls, we help patients, we schedule them, we. We handle their emergencies, we get those to the doctors.

And pretty much anything a front desk staff can do outside of really billing things, you know, we transfer all billing stuff over to the office. But other than that, we can do pretty much anything your front desk staff can do.

I love that. And so obviously, super exciting. I can't wait to hear about all the innovation that's happening with AI that you're bringing into the company, because that seems to be the way of the world. Yes, yes, Everywhere. And being able to work in an industry where we can really utilize and maximize AI to our greatest benefits is huge. But the CCC, right, with your 24 7, 365 live agents. And so you have real live people in the background answering these calls with bilingual support as well.

Tell me about that. Yes. So. And we're all located. I know this is always a question. We're all located in Athens, Georgia. Go dogs. Pre Covid, everybody worked in the building since COVID We have about 50% that work at home, but they're all in the Athens area. And about 50% still work on site. They've got to work here about a year before they can go home. And so like I said, about 50, 50 now on site versus off site, very live agents at all times.

I love it. How do you ensure that the phone calls and everything are still HIPAA compliant? Can you kind of walk us through that for our listener.

So of course we have a HIPAA compliant officer on, on site who does continual training on all the new HIPAA laws, rules, all the new fun things that come in. But the agents are giving HIPAA training every year reoccurring. So they're recertified, recertified every year. So they get certified when they start and then they're recertified every year. And then obviously all the technology, all of the different solutions we're using, we're always making sure they're HIPAA compliant as well.

Yeah. And we, we have actually built our, our own call center software, including the AI too in, in our aws, Amazon Web Services.

Yes, very cool. That's always a concern. You know, hipaa, everyone's like HIPAA when you know, have people that are outsourced or remote and making sure that works with patient information and things like that.

So since we're so dental specific, you know, obviously HIP has been a big part of our company from the beginning. So we're not a call center that just does dental, you know, we are. That's our bread and butter. So we know how important HIPAA compl appliances as well.

Awesome. Can you walk me through what a typical package looks like for our clients with the ccc?

Yeah. So we have lots of different packages, very flexible plans based on call volume. So, you know, there's a lot of changes coming soon, but right now we're charging by the minute. So you're paying for what is used and no more, no less. So yeah, and it's really hard to know what your minute usage would look like with us starting out. So I would provide a list of different plans that we offer. We can try to kind of guesstimate, you know, what plan would be best. And the good thing about it is we do monitor the call volume and the process and everything for the first three months. So if we choose a plan and it's just may not have enough minutes in it for your call volume, I would suggest other options and we could change immediately.

So very flexible, very flexible.

I love that. That is huge. For our clients that are trying to maintain our oi. Sometimes, you know, when we're looking at numbers and we're like, is it really worth it? We're only paying for what we use with the ccc. Like, how awesome is that? That is. That is so cool. I really love that. And make sure obviously that, you know, you're like literally paying for what you use. Right. And need more, you need less. You guys are Going to help us monitor that and make sure that we've got the best package. And so that sounds great. Why is it so important, though, that our offices are, you know, partnering with somebody like the ccc? Why should our dental offices consider using a dedicated call center for their patient experience?

Yeah, so, I mean, some things you even pointed out yourself when you were a dental receptionist, you've got a million things going on. So the first thing I would say is just good customer service. You know, number one, we're going to provide good customer service to your callers, but it's going to free up your front office staff to really provide good customer service to the patients that are right in front of them. You know, you've got people in your office, and now you're having to leave them to go answer the phone. So it's just going to improve the customer service for your patients overall. But again, you're also spending a lot of money on marketing. And every time that call goes unanswered, you've thrown dollars away. So if you're spending money on marketing and you don't have somebody there to answer your phone 24 7, I mean, you might as well just put it down the drain because that's kind of what you've done. And again, I'd say with the marketing conversions, you know, the conversion rate, I think around the country is about 30% for new patients, and that might even be on the high end. And we see numbers even closer to 60%. And that's for multiple reasons. You know, our agents are really able to just focus on that call and that patient. They don't have a million other things going on. But we also training train them in things like. Objection. Handling, you know, and phone phone customer service skills that somebody in the front office maybe not get that type of training. So things like that. And the last thing I would say, just to have peace of mind, you know, you never know when your office is going to flood. You know, you got to go on vacation. There might be another worldwide pandemic. And, you know, during the pandemic, we were able to pivot. Like I said, pre Covid, everybody worked on site. We took about a week. We sent everybody home, but we never went down for one second during that time. And even though, you know, a lot of our offices had to shut their doors for weeks at a time, you know, we were able to still communicate with their patients, reschedule their appointments and still keep their business going, even though they couldn't be in there.

Yeah, I think the ADA Actually shut down offices for a period of time and a lot of offices weren't. There was nothing they could do. Yeah. So luckily we were there and still able to let their patients.

Yeah. So lots of reasons why I think it's important.

Very cool. You touched on marketing and, you know, the marketing funnel and the volume perhaps sometimes of missed calls that sometimes even, you know, the offices don't even know what they're missing. From a coaching perspective, it's something that we look at when we're looking at marketing and how well that marketing funnel is, and I think that that's huge for our listeners is to remember that if we're paying for marketing and we're missing those calls, what's the impact to that roi? I'm super busy during the daytime. You know, by the time I get my kids to dancing, I do all the things that I need to do and I'm like, okay, now I can call and actually make this appointment. It's like 8:45. Right, right. There's like nobody there to answer the call. I'm just thinking, you know, for our practices and, and myself and the world pretty much, you know, as we get busier, how important it is to be able to pick up a call, a phone, make a phone call and have a real live agent there to help and support you and to, you know, get. Are, get yourself healthy. Because that's the world of dentistry that we, we live in. We're getting our patients healthy. And if we're missing those calls, not only are we throwing money down the marketing drain, but we're missing a huge opportunity to get our patients healthy that, you know, maybe built up the courage and they've been working on it all day to pick up the phone and make that phone call. And then they. 407 and the office is closed now.

So I just think, yeah, and I would say, you know, it's 20, 25 people are here for the here and now. You know, when they make that call, they want to talk to somebody and get it done. And if they don't get it done with you, they're going to go to the next. And, you know, before there may have been one or two dentists in the town. And not super competitive. It's very competitive. I mean, Athens, although we have the university, so it gives us a lot of people here. I mean, the amount of dentists we have for the small community is pretty incredible. So the competition. So, you know, and they just have so many more options. They'll hang up with you and call to the next.

Absolutely. So how do you train your agents to sound like they're part of the practice? Do the office or do the. The offices have, like, a dedicated person? Do they just get to know the practice and, you know, the workflow and scheduling and things like that? Talk to me a little bit about how you train your agents so they sound like they're, you know, integrated with. With the practice.

So a couple things to touch on there. So the first thing I want to point out, because people are very wary of call centers. You know, they have a notorious reputation for having a lot of turnover, and I would say we have a very low turnover rate compared to other call centers. You know, we know that the longer an agent is here, the better they are. And, and, and so the longer we can keep them, the better they're going to be. So you are going to get a lot of repetitive agents and the offices get very familiar with the agents because we do keep employees for a long time. So that's one way. But we also do work off a script provided directly from very.

Yeah, I was going to say we have very detailed scripts. I mean, we're collecting, you know, as much information as the office is willing to give us so that we can appear as though we are part of the office. Working with the office, center of the office, whatever. Anything besides an outside call center.

Yeah, we. I mean, we'll take and give as much information as you want us to. I mean, we have offices that want us to take everything from insurance, birth date, who referred them, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And then some are just like, give me the name and number and we'll go from there. So it's really up to the practice. We're 100% customizable, and we consider ourselves really an extension. And that's what we even tell our agents to tell. You know, if a caller does question it, you know, instead of saying, yeah, we're a call center, we train them to say, we're an extension of the office. And we truly believe that we're here to help you. We are here to be an extension.

But, you know, we do have some doctors who don't want us to act as though we're part of the office. They want us to let the patients know we are the contact center. We are the answering service. So we can also do that if that's your preference, too.

It's really totally up to you.

Wow, that sounds amazing.

So it sounds like there's a full

onboarding process that goes into partnering with the ccc, obviously you are going to obtain a bunch of information about the practice, scripting, whatever it is that the office is looking for. What type of onboarding and training does the team or the office receive? And where my brain is going with this question is I can think that sometimes a team member, a receptionist, right, may have some either resistance concerns, things about, well, these, you know, filtered thought processes of like, oh, well, they're always going to book the appointment incorrectly or it's never going to be right. I mean, we could make up all the excuses. I'm sure I could probably come up with 50 of them. So what type of, of training or additional onboarding do you give the offices?

So we always feel like it's important for the office manager or the receptionist to be involved. Sometimes the doctor wants to handle it all. I don't really think that's the best approach. Number one, I think receptionist sometimes knows more about the practice than the doctor, you know, so I think it's really important. They're the ones really answering the calls, not the doctor. So it's really important to have them involved from the beginning. And if they're involved from the beginning, we're going to offer them the reassurance that we're not here to take your job or make it harder. We're here to make your job easier. And that is it. That is our only goal. And so if we can get them to buy into that, then, you know, a mistake here and there, you know it's going to happen. These are, you know, human people, you know, scheduling appointments. But so a mistake here and there isn't the end of the world because we've made so many other things easier. So really just having the people that need to be involved from the beginning of the process is most important. Then they understand our company. And the thing about us too is they're going to talk to the same account person every time. They're not going to have to talk to 10 different, you know, there's an issue or they need to change something. They don't have to talk to a million people. They're. They have an account manager they can get to directly at any time. So that, that also offers the comfort of, you know, that this is a partnership, that we're not just some random company, you know, that you're never going to hear from or talk to. We're available for you. We're here to help and we're personal that way. Right? And we want to know when things aren't going right because we can't Fix them.

If they're not, we don't have an issue. Yeah, we can't fix it.

So we, we really, we want the communication, we want the feedback and we want to be able to talk to the front office staff especially. I love it.

Great. We have great account managers here. They're awesome. Very experienced. They've also been here a long time too.

You said my favorite thing, working smarter and not harder.

Like if we could all just work

smarter and not harder, this world would be magical place, especially in the dentistry.

So.

Yes, so, so, so great.

And I feel like that's where we're heading with AI too.

Yeah, absolutely, 100%. And so I'm assuming that a dental practice as well working with the CCC is also going to see a reduction in like their no shows and just help improve like conversion and people showing up. I know one of the most frustrating things for me as a receptionist was to come in first thing in the morning and see, you know, that, that flashing light on the message that was sitting there blaring at me. And I knew with certainty that there was five people calling in to cancel, you know, their appointments today. And so does, does the ccc, you know, help with reducing those cancellations in the process? I would assume yes, because now when that call after hours, they're going to talk to a person who's going to work their magic and reschedule and not give them the out of just leaving a message. But talk to me how that works for you guys.

Yep, exactly. So, yeah, so we, we get verbiage from the office, but also our verbiage is we don't allow, we like to not allow them to cancel. We'll take a message. We'll have, we'll let them take it

up with the office. The goal is to redirect them to reschedule.

Yes.

You know, well, the goal is to get them to keep the appointment. That's tough. But then, then we want to get them rescheduled. But we also do things prior to people calling in and canceling to ensure they're going to come. You know, we train the agents to get them in, in 48 hours, like we want them in those books. And we also pay attention to people's schedules for them. You know, we see that we can't get an appointment for 30 days on the books. You know, that's going to lessen the chances them showing up every day that goes by. So we can communicate that back to the office. Like, you know, these people are not scheduling because they're saying it's too far out. Like, you got to open some stuff up. So we do things prior to them, even scheduling the appointment to. To help lessen that chance. And like I said, to get them in as quick as possible is one of those things.

Awesome. So what sets CCC apart from other call centers, specifically when it comes to the dental practices? Because, you know, there's. There's some others out there. And so how, how is CCC different than, you know, other people that we've heard along the way?

Yeah. So, you know, over the years since the company was established, we've gained a lot of knowledge in the dental field. You know, we're able to communicate efficiently with patients. Aside from that, just our capabilities of that virtual front office and being able to schedule 24 7, I mean, having that service alone, I say, is the biggest investment, or, you know, that's where you're going to see the biggest return of investment is with that scheduling feature, because you're automatically going to see an increase in patients. Yeah.

And although we have obviously can answer for any type of industry, you know, dentistry has just been our bread and butter. So we're so familiar with it and our agents are so comfortable with it. You know, they leave here and go answer for dental offices all the time, you know, because they're so familiar with dentistry. And we answer for all, all fields in dentistry. Pediatrics, oral surgery, you know, you know, you name it, we've been in it. So it's just really been the foundation of our company from the beginning, which is why it's just kind of continued that way.

Yeah, I mean, they know that all the different dental emergency. What consists of a dental emergency, you know, they know the dental terminology, they know how to act in emergency situations. They know what to do. It's just that knowledge, I think, is so important.

I love that.

Okay, ladies, I want to pivot to AI.

Thank you.

So how are you currently using AI to improve efficiency without perhaps sacrificing that human touch? Because that's what everybody worries about, you know, especially reception side of things, administrative side of things is like, you know, we're going to lose that human touch. And so how is CCC starting to work with AI and what kind of innovations are you guys bringing to the table?

So the one thing that we know is that AI is, is more efficient and more consistent than humans. I mean, that's just the way it is. So the way we're looking at AI is to bring that in to improve our efficiency and consistency, but never losing our human touch. Because we think that's just what the most important thing is for the customer experience. So we're looking at AI as more of a partnership with our current practices. So we'll use it for things like data intake, you know, taking the name and phone number or providing information, office hours, the address, giving directions. You wouldn't believe how many people call to get directions to an office, you know, and although we have maps and things that we're reading off of as a human, and, you know, we don't live there, so it's not as easy for us where an AI could probably give perfect, easy directions, you know, so these are the ways we're going to use it. But our human agents are always going to take the complex calls, the scheduling, the emergencies, and our AI will be able to transfer those calls seamlessly to the agents. I love that.

So AI is coming in really as a support tool, not to replace any type of communication. So what, what would you say from your perspective, just kind of looking from the outside in or the inside out? What, what are some of the misconceptions that perhaps some dental have around AI

in communication, that robots are taking over and they may. The verdict is still out. They may be cleaning your teeth in five years. I'm not sure yet. Well, I just think with anything new, any type of new technology, it's always, it's scary. And honestly, everything people say about AI, 50% of it is it's the best thing ever. And 50% of it is we should all be terrified, you know, and so that's just an honest reaction to it. But, you know, we're not going to let technology take over our business, even

though it is coming full force.

Yes.

And it's coming fast.

And we, and we know it can be a great tool and that's how we're going to use it as a tool. You know, we are not an AI company. We are a call center of human beings that uses AI to make those people more efficient and to make your customers experience better. That is our approach to it. So we don't think it's going to ever take over, especially in the dental industry. You know, these patients, you know, they want to be heard. You know, they need empathy, they need reassurance. And as of now, we still believe the human agent is the best person for that particular job. But the monotony stuff, the data collection, you know, that's something that the AI can do very efficiently, very consistently and very fast.

Yeah, brilliant. To those practices that are out there that are perhaps hesitant about Outsourcing or you know, using AI in their, their call, you know, funnel. What would you say to those listeners today to kind of put them at ease?

Well, first I would say you don't have to use AI here, you can just have human agents. That's the one thing that we always want to do for our clients is offer them the option so you don't have to use it. So if you are just completely against the AI and we've had that feedback from some of our clients, they're like, we're never going to use AI. Totally fine, you can just have your human agents. I would suggest just trying it. You know, the good thing about it is we don't lock you into a year long contract. You know, you can try it, you don't like it, we can change it for you, we can just go straight to human agents. But I almost guarantee you will see such a return on your investment that you will be satisfied and your patients will be happy. You know, I call places sometimes and sometimes I'm like, I do not want to talk to a person and sometimes I get a robot and I'm like agent, agent, agent. So we, we want it to be an option for your callers as well. So they will have the option to talk to a person or, or the, the AI agent as well. So that would be my, my spiel to them that we know it's scary, but it's coming, it's here, it's going to be everywhere anyways. It already is even if you don't know it. I mean, and truthfully they're so good now, sometimes you don't even know it. I mean, I don't know that if I wasn't in this industry and, and was so familiar with it if I would even know that I was talking to an AI agent sometimes. Love it.

So what trends, if you are looking ahead, what do you see coming in the call center space specifically for our dental world?

So the AI is obviously the biggest thing coming around the corner first off tonight. Yeah, I mean you're seeing it everywhere. I know they're getting emails about it everywhere. My what I would say to them is it's, you know, you're going to get a ton of emails about let, let the AI do your, all your calls, that's great. But they're not going to have the backing of the human agents like we do. And also just from the last six months of, you know, working building the, you know, our agent, our AI agent, it's not as easy as it appears. And if it's not something that, you know, you have the capabilities to handle in house, I would highly suggest outsourcing to somebody like us to handle so you're not having to update yours or do anything to it. You just call us, you tell us what you want to do, and we will do it for you.

And just talk about our agent. Her name is Cece, and we do have a test number if you are interested. I can give you that number, and you could interact with Cece yourself.

And we can. Yeah, we can also put even some of your own office information, give her some scripting that you provide, and kind of treat it as if it would be working for your office and see how it does.

Ooh, I like that. Cece, give her a test, see how you like. She sounds so awesome. Well, my friends, before we wrap up, I would just love for each of you to share one key takeaway or piece of advice that you'd like to offer the dentist or the practice managers that are listening today.

So I would say, obviously, you guys know how important your patients are and just keeping that communication. That's why we're here. Yeah.

And I would say I want people to take away that we're not a typical call center. I know people have a preconceived notion of call centers. I always say we're a big business with a mom and pop shop heart. So, you know, don't be too weary of us. Try us out. I promise. Great customer service, great conversion rates.

Amazing.

And we're in the south too, so I'm sorry, We're in the south, so we're very nice down here.

You get a southern accent for free. Complimentary.

I love it.

I love it.

Finally, how can our listeners learn more about the concierge contact center or get in touch with the team?

So reach out to me. And I also have a good partner, Mark. He would be a good person to speak to too. You could reach me. My name is Shay. It's s h e a concierge contact center and my direct con. You can call us at 1-877-827-4152.

And our website's just www.conciergecontactcenter.com.

amazing. Well, Christy and Shea, thank you so much for joining me today. It's been a pleasure learning more about how you're helping practices stay connected, efficient, and most importantly, patient centered to our listeners. If you're ready to transform how your office handles calls, scheduling, communication, definitely check out the conciergecontactcenter.com and you can follow them on Instagram and Facebook and all those fun places as well. And so than thanks for tuning in to the DEO Podcast. Until next time, friends, keep smiling.

Thank you for listening to deo's Growth Secrets podcast for dental organizations. Continue the conversation on our Facebook group and meet other dental leaders. Get questions answered and the strategies you need to succeed. Plus, we have some free resources for you right there on the Facebook page. Remember, you're not alone. Let's do this together. Join DEO's growth Seek secrets group on Facebook and until next time, keep smiling.