389- How to Make Texting Simple in Your Practice

Welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor where each week we deliver the latest chiropractic research and marketing strategies all in the time it takes to get to your office. Now here's your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid.

Hello and welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor. I AM your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid. On today's episode, I have a special interview with Kyle Rapp of Simple Texting. In it, him and I discuss the basics of text in a chiropractic practice, why it is so critically important to have these types of transactional messages going out and how it can impact your practice long term. I wanted to go right to the expert. So Kyle and his team were gracious to share some time and share their expertise with you you all around how texting can benefit your practice. Without further ado, here's my interview with Kyle Rapp of Simple Texting. You and I were talking offline a little bit and I want to catch docs up to speed that are going to be listening and, and watching. Tax has been an avenue that many docs have heard about. They know they should be utilizing it. I guess in a nutshell, let's just kick it off with why do healthcare professionals and specifically chiropractors need to be concerned with texting in their practice?

It's top of mind. I mean, as it relates nowadays, we just went through Covid and I think everybody nowadays is more attached to this. I think my friends and family probably laugh at me for saying this, but most of our hands are pretty much sewn to our phones nowadays. So um, I'm sure you chiropractors are out there shooting out emails and, and waiting for that response. And, and we're here to talk about how quickly you're going to get a response via that, that cell phone and that text message versus snail mail, post mail, email, all, all of the above. So I'm here to give all of the, all of the expertise that I have and knowledge that simple texting and resources that we can provide to show you guys how to accomplish it.

I love that you bring up the speed and I think that that's a really important component. I think of texting and I automatically think of appointment reminders, missed appointment reminders, things like that, where timeliness and moments matter in that transactional component. What are some of the top ways that you've seen. Am I on, am I on base with that? Am I off base with that? What are some of the top ways that you've seen chiropractors utilize texting in their practices.

The main one is just what you hit on right at the beginning is those appointment reminders. We've got stats, we have all of the testing and surveyings that we could pull out. The number one that jumps into my mind is we had a medical group management association, the MGMA, they conducted a survey and about 38% of people out of that survey did say that they want text reminders and they prefer it over email or any of the other phone calls because of the quickness, the promptness. It just goes straight to your phone and oh, hey, hold on a second, I have a reminder right here. So getting that set up so they can have that top of mind, maybe the day before, a few hours before setting that up. And we can discuss how that, that can help. You know, 20 minutes, 99% success rate and open compared to the typical 15 or less on your emails. So we could talk numbers all day.

I love that. And that's an important component because utilizing email for relationship building I always recommend is the best way. But you can't forget about text from a transactional component. And that ties into, as you describe the day to day of running a practice. Somebody misses an appointment, they're running late, a reminder that it's coming up. A text is by far in my opinion the best and easiest way to go about that. For docs that are listening that maybe aren't tech savvy, which there's a few out there, I'm going to say, do they need to be completely concerned is setting up a text based solution in their practice. Do you have to be a technology geek? Do you and your team help guide docs through that process? What's the technical level of expertise that a doc needs to show up with to maximize the opportunity via tax? Because I know it's an intimidating factor for many, many healthcare providers of all.

Kinds and definitely chiropractors, definitely we have, we have people of all tech skills coming in every single day and that's, that's me being on the front end of everything as an AE and you hit it right on the top of the head. We're here to guide you and walk you through. And I spend maybe 15 minutes usually on a call. We're going to dive in, we're going to hear what you're doing, take a dive into your tech stack if you haven't any at all. But also on the back end, if you've got a phone and you've got a computer or an iPhone or Android iPad, putting that in your office and getting it set up and running. We have different avenues that you guys can take and starting from the base, maybe somebody walking in through the front door, taking your client's information, booking an appointment, even even the checkups I did hit we, we went through a covered Covid times right. We all had to get used to QR codes. So taking the tech that we have available QR codes, keywords and setting those up and implementing them to start generating that data. You collect that customer or that patient's information and from the get go say hey scan this or say this this keyword to our number and get joined in to stay up to date to stay your appointment reminders and checkups as well. That's the biggest one. Just staying in touch and once you have that you got it all at a push of button or click.

I love it when when considering transactional text the reminders versus marketing. Is there a place for marketing and text messaging is do you recommend doc stay on the transactional side with the appointment reminders? Is there opportunity for marketing with text? I know there's some legality around that. I guess at a high level we don't need to dive into every state's law. But in general what do you recommend and is there a place for both in many chiropractic practices there.

There's always a place. It's all part of setting it up and setting expectations. When you're talking to your, your client or patient, gathering that information and letting them know upon the opt in once you've got it saying hey we're going to give you these alerts to stay up to date. Closures, reminders on appointment information, client, you know, check ins results, maybe any result information, a follow up and once you actually have that putting that expectation a couple messages a month pertaining to those specific reminders or jumping into the alerts, we don't all have to do marketing but a little sprinkle here and there jumping in saying hey we have this, this summer summer summer splash, jump into summer. Like don't get hurt while you're doing it but let's, let's just get you in here so we make sure that you're ready to take that splash into the summer. So you know building rapport and sprinkling in that customer service aspect of it is going to go a long way and we're here to kind of coach you through without jumping into date. Right. We can, we can all accomplish it and we're here to show you how to do it.

Beautiful. When I think of texting one of the challenges I believe that many docs are probably thinking that are listening and watching right now is regarding their ehr, their emr, where they're keeping their health records. Can simple texting work regardless of what platform I'm using for my ehr? Or is there only a certain number of platforms or certain named platforms that you guys will work with?

Yeah, great question Jeff. As far as your guys current tech stack we we take a look into all of that and I we have capabilities of integrating your current solutions to transfer contacts over to streamline and set those targeted appoint date reminders. In a nutshell we do have capabilities to do that and we want to brainstorm with you and partner, gather all of that information and see what that looks like in the background to streamline all of that and get it all into our environment to get those alerts out.

Great, great. That's that is super helpful because I know there's so many docs listening that have various ehr. So I'm going to encourage everybody listening and watching as we continue to go through this. If texting is something you're not utilizing or underutilizing, schedule a call, have a call with Kyle and his team at simple Texting we're going to drop that link down in the show notes and I'll it out later as well. Made it super easy for you to hop over and have a conversation so that you can optimize text solutions in your practice. And in line with that Kyle, what's what's up with Doc vs team? Is this something that once it is built and up and running that a team member typically like a chiropractic assistant can manage from an administrative capacity? Does the doc needs to be all hands on deck? Is it all automated? Is it a combination of all how's it play out after text begins to.

Be utilized in a practice we got everybody utilizing it. I I understand that these docs or you docs listening you're going to get busy and majority of my calls. We do have some of the doctors implemented and involved in the conversations but majority of the assistants are on here learning for them because they're going to be taking those ropes and running with it when we do get set up. So a great, great lead to segue in here Jeff because we're going to take all of your guys components in that office and we're going to set each user up with a seat depending on how many users need that and if the doc wants to have an account owner user seat typically that's how we set it up with the assistant below them. We can set up multiple user seats on the account for you guys to access it virtually through our web app too on simpletexting.com or we actually do have a mobile device via the Apple or Android marketplaces that you can download and from there you guys can initiate conversations and alerts from anywhere. I do not recommend texting and driving, but if you guys are on the side of the road, you know, you could just push that, push that message out, send that reminder. And we didn't touch on this, but we don't have to be talking to clients all the time. We can implement this in the office as well. And stay up to date with your employees and make sure that everybody's on time and, or you know, just staying, staying in touch with the team.

Yeah, that's a really interesting point and I want to dig a little bit deeper into that and on a reframe what you just said because this is the first time I'm hearing it and as soon as you're saying this, this makes a ton of sense. Docs communicating with your team via text can be, as Kyle just said, an incredibly impactful way to ensure that everybody's being efficient. To ensure that everybody is, as you said, on time. And certainly I'm going to say especially docs with larger teams and or multi practice locations. This, these com. This complexity can get out of hand really quickly. Whereas a solution like simple texting, Kyle, it sounds like, can make it really easy for the doc to really become that CEO and to manage the team in a much more effective manner. Is that what you've seen?

Oh yeah, definitely. And you, you hit it right on the head there too. The multi location is, is number one, you're going to set up your, your account and from there you can set up multiple numbers, multiple users and have that ease of just monitoring what every person's doing. Staying up to date with your, your employees if there's a day that maybe you're going to be arriving late because we all have those days rolled over on the wrong side of the bed, kid had a bad morning traffic number one and sending out that alert and letting them know even if you're not going to make it to your first appointment, putting out those, those alerts to your employees, staff and patients to stay top of mind to make sure that they're on board with everything going on as well.

Yeah, utilizing this as an, as an external and an internal tool I think just adds in that extra layer of value for sure. Question. As a doc is communicating with your team. What's the process like? So let's say I'm out there and I'm like, I know that I need to have texting. I want to optimize the text based solutions available to me. You know, they understand the value, I understand the value. What's the process look like if I come on board with simple texting? Is it a multi month process? A multi week process? Do I hop on a discovery call? What's the process like?

Yeah, we mentioned that link that's gonna be posted below. Getting that process and getting that booking done is, is key, right? We're gonna jump on a call. I'm gonna be super excited to meet you guys and talk about how quickly we can get set up. Because it is quick. It's not multi week, it's not multi month. The multi month aspect is you getting used to and using me to help become a simple texter or texting extraordinaire. As I would say. From there we're going to get the account set up, we're going to apply a number, whether or not we want to use your office number or a local number. And from there we're going to get those users associated with your account. And you know, I can usually say in about 30 minutes depending on how quickly and ready you guys are to go. As long as we've got the data. Whether or not you have in a CSV or an Excel spreadsheet to import those contacts that you just need to get those alerts out immediately or you've got some employees that you need to stay in touch with, we'll get all of that data imported and get you guys up and running.

Sweet. Sounds streamlined and easy. Once DOC gets up and running, are they able to monitor results? You know, is the reporting what, what's, what's, what's available from a reporting perspective, if a DOC wants to see who's been taxed, you know, is there a dashboard? How does the DOC monitor what's going on day in and day out or have a team member do it for them? How does that process work?

Yeah, I mentioned the application as well as our dashboard online through the app too. You will have a dashboard with analytics that you'll be able to track based off of your outbound campaigns or one on one texting in your dashboard. If you're just simply texting somebody and reminding them or sending them a campaign, we're going to be able to track that success rate and make sure that that was delivered. And from there we're going to monitor that with you every step of the way.

Love that. Well Kyle, it has been great to explore text. I'm going to encourage everybody listening and watching. Click down below. Have a conversation with Kyle and his team over at Simple Texting. One of the things that I've notice with simple texting is there is a deep product knowledge. Simple Texting was not, you know, developed by me in my garage last week. This is a team and a company that works with some of the biggest companies out there yet has specialized solutions even for small businesses like us as chiropractors. So this is an opportunity to leverage far more advanced expertise than you than you normally have available with a product set that's been specifically built from or by a chiropractor. Kyle and his team really have extensive experience at large scale enterprises and you can bring and utilize some of that expertise as he outlined by building the text automation specifically for your practice. That is a fantastic way to go about things. It's a great way to leverage others knowledge base for the benefits of your practice. But it all starts with connecting with him and his team, having a phone call, getting asking questions that you have about your specific case and letting him guide you towards the next best step. So Kyle, thanks so much for taking time out of your day chatting with us. We're going to drop those links down in the show Notes to Connect and I look forward to hearing some success stories from listeners as they connect with your team and get going with Simple Texting in their in their practice.

Awesome Jeff, I appreciate you having me on all the listeners. I look forward to connecting and we're going to have some fun texting spam. We're going to learn how to stay in contact with your clients clients and better your experience and get more feet in the door.

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