Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: You're listening to the Doc Lounge podcast. This is a place for candid conversations with the healthcare industry's top physicians, executives, and thought leaders.
This podcast is made possible by Pacific companies, your trusted advisor and physician recruitment.
[00:00:19] Speaker B: Welcome to the Doc Lounge podcast. In this episode of our ask the Expert series, we're joined by Samad Syedden, CEO and founder of SRS Web Solutions. Samed's innovative McNsent is a leading dental patient engagement software used by over 10 million patients across the USA. He's a visionary in healthcare technology, using his expertise to enhance productivity and profitability and dental practices nationwide. Today, we'll dive into his book, the art of Patient re Engagement, and discuss transformative strategies for patient care, including the impact of AI in healthcare and ways to improve the patient experience. Get ready for a thought provoking session with one of the leading minds in healthcare technology.
Welcome to the podcast, Samad.
[00:01:04] Speaker C: Thank you for having me. Stacey, good to see you.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: Yes, we're excited to have you on. We have a lot of dental providers, which I know, you know, this will provide a lot of great information for them and the practices they're running or, you know, developing or thinking of, you know, maybe joining. And so I'd love to learn just a little bit more about your background and how you got into the health tech space.
[00:01:31] Speaker C: Awesome. We'll do that.
So my background is engineering background. I did my master's in engineering. I did my MBA from Indiana University, and I spent about ten good ten years in corporate world trying to understand how to improve the bottom lines by improving the productivity of the businesses. And it happened to be that my brother in law is a dentist, and he knows what I do. So he called me one day to his practice, and he took me to his wall and he showed me the wall of forms. It's not a wall of fame, but wall of forms.
On that wall, he had probably like about 25, 30 forms that the patients need to fill out before they could, the doctor can see them. It's like the patient check in forms, consent forms, financial policy, all those good forms, right? So I looked at it and said, like, this was back in 2014, 2015. And my question to him was that, why are we still using paper?
And his response was like, this is how it works, man. So what I did is that that was an initial thought that came to my mind, and I said that, listen, it has to be better than this. And I took that as a challenge. I created an iPad app with my friends, and we created a product called Mconsent, basically, which was a digital platform for removing all the frictions that the patient have to go through when they come to the office. And we developed the digital forms basically and fast forward. Now we serve 2500 plus offices across the US and we also have a complete patient engagement platform, basically, which has basically in three categories we serve them. One is serve the dental office. The first one is streamlining the patient intake process. Number two is patient communication platform and number three is patient growth. So we help dental offices in this three platform. So long answer to your questions on how did I get started into this?
[00:03:50] Speaker B: I love it. That's great. And it sounds like you guys have had great success and I really think that you're kind of getting to the crux of the problem here. But I want to hear, I know you are really passionate about this. The power of the database and dental providers and practices leaving money on the table and ignoring all these patients that they already have, that they've acquired and brought in at customer acquisition costs. Tell us more about that.
[00:04:21] Speaker C: Awesome. Yeah, so we did a survey a few months ago and we asked Dell practices in our network, hey, tell us what is the number one asset in your practice?
And the answer, we had multiple choice answers. And the people, people answered like, my location is the number one asset. Somebody said, oh, my equipment is number one asset that I feel. Some people said, Google reviews are my number one asset.
But there were very few who understood the power of database that they have in their office. Like literally, if you have 5000 patients, you are sitting on a treasure. But you don't realize that because 5000 patients means that you do have a power to get back to them and bring them back into your office with a proper communication strategy. With a proper communication methods, you would be able to bring back patient to practice on demand. So that's a power of patient database. The question I usually ask the dental practice is that, what do you think, which is better, 5000 patients database or 500 patients database? Which one get valued the most? Right. The patients that are sitting in your database, each one of them has a cost that you have paid to acquire them, meaning that each patient that you have in your database, there is somebody out there who's willing to pay four to $500, $600 to get them into their database. So know the power of that and start focusing on that. So people who are listening to this one message I have for you, the doctors, the office managers, is that don't ignore your patient database. If nothing out of this podcast, if you just remember that, you know, we got to do something about this database that's a success for me. That's a message that I'm trying to get to all the dental practices that.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: I know well, I love that. And coming from a marketer, I definitely appreciate that. And, you know, we're very familiar, you know, in the marketing side and technology side about customer acquisition costs. So I think that is a really great point. You've already somehow brought them into your practice or probably paid for them at some point to acquire them. And then really what they need are multiple touch points and kind of a nurture strategy to reengage with them.
I know that I'm, you know, guilty of it, of not always going to my dentist in a timely manner. So tell us, how did you develop this platform and what, what can, you know, providers look forward to with the benefits of it?
[00:07:09] Speaker C: Yeah. So I'll give you an example we worked with a few months ago, we worked with the practice in Chicago and the doctor called me and he said that, listen, I need to get patients into my practice, man, it's getting too slow. And the question he asked me that, what do you think is the marketing budget I should put in place to get in ten to 20 patients? At least ten patients at least per day? 15,000? 20,000. Where should I start? And my question to him was basically that, okay, you're trying to get patient into your practice. Are you looking to get an all new patients? Because of course you got to work for new patients. Everyone has to try to get a new patients. But my. So he answered is like, obviously I'm looking for all new patients. Like, what about the patients that you have in your database? And he's like, what database are you talking about? I'm like, what do you use? Open dental? All right, did you look into open dental? How many patients you have for years that are sitting there haven't come back to you? Probably.
So he said, no, man, I need help on that. How do I look into that? So we connected to his open dental, we pulled the database and we saw he had 2800 plus patients that, that are literally in his zip code, that knows him, that knows the doctor's name, that knows the staff, that has been to your practice multiple times.
Why can't we segment to find out who haven't come back to your practice for past twelve months and see if we can get to them?
So we designed a very simple message. Sometimes you don't even have to give coupons, you just have to show you care, right? So a simple message like, hey, Doctor Khan was trying to find out everything okay? We haven't seen you for past one year. That one message, about 40 appointments in a week.
[00:09:13] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh, that's incredible.
[00:09:15] Speaker C: So that's a power of showing people that you care. That's a power of getting out there and telling people like, hey, this is something. So what we did is that we built a six month strategy for this practice. And we said that, okay, in this six month strategy, we're not just. So when you ask doctors, how do you get back to, how do you get to your patients? The simple answer is, hey, we call a recall system in place and I'll tell you that. Recall systems, yes, it's there, but they're not very effective these days because email open rates have gone pretty low. So what needs to happen is that we designed a six month strategy and we said that, okay, it's not just one channel, okay, you begin to use email, but you also need to use multiple channels here. So text messaging, email, postcards, direct mail, social media, remarketing people who come to visit your website, you need a proper chat, chat bot on that to talk to them.
So having the multiple strategy, multiple channels in place, we were able to consistently bring 40 to 60 patients per month for the six months. And that, I think, was a huge success. What he was trying to do by spending 15, $20,000, now, the question people usually ask is that, okay, let's say I got 100 patients in six months. What is my ROI? So usually this tool and your marketing spend is going to cost you about $1,000 a month. But what you're going to get 100 patients for, let's say, $6,000, what is your ROI? Ten hundred patients. So production per patient, if it's $702,000, that's between 50 to 70,000 hours. Is that worth to spend 6000 to get $50 to $70,000 worth of production? I think so. I think it's a really good investment if you start looking right into your patient database and start digging out, you know, those patients who haven't come back to your practice for a long time.
That's what I wrote in my book. So the art of patient engagement, which is available on Amazon. I'm shamelessly advertising it, but it is being done for dental practices to learn how to do it by themselves. If they can do it by themselves, it's manual, but still, somebody got to do it. Having a simple newsletter going out a month. Bring patience.
Now, people, what they usually do is that they take templated pictures to put on their social media, which is not an actual practice image or a doctor's image, but just sharing your personal stories. Hey, my staff member is having a baby shower. And congratulations, Stacey. Right? So there are people like that, people want to connect with your practice. People want to see what my doctor is doing. Right. So that, that changes then, because we are in, we are, we are living in a world right now where people are on TikTok, Instagram, social media, their attention span is weak and their attention span is so short that you got to be part of that attention span. 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 30 seconds. Videos, share quick stories, be in front of them. Whatever they're doing, be in front of them. Right. So that's I, that's what I think is going to continue to help you to bring in patients at a lower cost. Cost of advertising keeps increasing, so you got to be smart about how do I bring patients into my practice.
The low hanging fruit, I believe, is that your current patient database, that's the number one asset. I keep saying that because that's the number one asset people ignore.
[00:13:01] Speaker B: Love that. Great advice. Definitely agree with you on the multi channel strategy and just, you know, always being in front with the patients. So I think that's such useful advice.
Now tell me, I mean, is this a, when dental practice onboards this platform, how is, you know, is it hard from a technology standpoint to get it up and running or how do you go about working with different clients on that?
[00:13:30] Speaker C: So m consent does have an option where the practices that you work with us, we are able to help them. Just as a first step, we are able to give an assessment to the practice, you know, telling them exactly what should they expect from their database. So when we start working with them, we connect their practice management system and we have a dashboard that tells us a story. Okay, they have 2500 patients. Then this many people haven't come back in the past four months. And three to 5% of those patients usually do come back and we know that and that becomes the target. So we design a communication strategy, step by step communication strategy for six months, and then we work with the practice to see if they agree with that. And then we initiate that strategy and we start measuring on how many patients came back, what is the weekly numbers look like, what is monthly numbers look like, and then reporting on the ROI. So we do have a team that is designed to do that on an integrity level.
[00:14:36] Speaker B: Love that. That sounds amazing. Tell us. I mean, I really want to pick your brain a little bit on the development of healthcare technology system like this.
What were some of the challenges you faced while developing this and how did you kind of overcome those?
[00:14:54] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, the most important thing to understand, you know, programming and writing code is, is not that challenging these days with AI. And, you know, availability of the most important thing, I believe, is that understanding what happens at the practice, you got to be with the practice manager, you got to be with the front office, you got to be with the doctor to see what are their challenges on a day to day basis that they're getting stuck on. What are their pain points?
Once you understand their pain points, then it's easy for you to use the technology that's available out there and say that, okay, this is possibly a solution that can be implemented in the practice and help the dental offices. So I'll give you an example of implementation of AI that our team is working really hard on, which is the dentists have to take notes about each patient, communication on, you know, what is happening with this patient, what did they do, what was the treatment proposed and all that stuff. And it takes time for them with AI in place, literally, the doctor can, on his phone, he can say record, and he can tell the story, and the AI will read it and properly format it to a point where it will be a standard notes where you can just push it into your eagle soft open with one single click. And that notes will also tell you if you're missing any points, like, hey, you didn't talk about what was the treatment that you offered. Hey, you didn't talk about, you know, what was the complaint of the patient that when he came in. So AI is going to help in that matter. And now you know what the pain points are because doctors spend a lot of time in taking notes after each appointment, and that's how you're trying to help them using the power of AI.
[00:16:47] Speaker B: Love that. Yeah, I think AI is just really going to kind of move the needle in so many ways in our society. But, yeah, when you're thinking of real world applications, that is, you know, one, a big one, because we hear that from the EMR systems on, you know, obviously the physician side, and then same thing with, with Dennis as well. So now, is that something that you guys are building into the platform itself or how would that work?
[00:17:14] Speaker C: Yeah, we are looking to build that into a platform. It's still in development phase, but it is something that, personally, I'm looking forward to see how the adoption is going to be in the, in the dental world.
[00:17:25] Speaker B: I love that. Now tell me, what about. I mean, I love to give advice to just general, you know, any of our healthcare providers that are listening, if they had an idea like this or some idea that they wanted to implement. Do you have any advice for, you know, providers that may want to, you know, start their own business or start their own?
[00:17:47] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. AI is going to open a lot more doors and I have seen people working on multiple ideas and the way they start, I'll tell you what I have seen, and maybe people can benefit from that. What I've seen is that when the dentist or the office manager, whoever has in the leadership position have an idea, what they do is they document their idea and they try to figure out what pain points that they're solving and they try to find if there is any, with a little investment, they try to find if there is any programmers that are available out there, there are any developers who they can hire and they put a drawing of what the idea is about and what pain points they're trying to solve and they hand over to them. And then the first step is to get it designed so they can see how it looks. And then they program that and then they test it out themselves and give it out to like 510 of their friends to test their idea out and then protect it legally with, you know, with the help of attorney or someone to patented. Or if the idea is so good that they want to patent it out or anything like that, and then, you know, go to production with, you know, with the 51st 50 offices is your challenge. They'll give you the real feedback. Friends will not give you the real feedback, but you try to, if you're able to get $1 out of that, then that's, that's a real deal.
[00:19:14] Speaker B: Love that. That's a good way. Yeah. In the real world, testing, not just friends and family, you know, that, I think is very true of all technologies.
Well, one other question that I had when you were developing the platform, how much were you also thinking about the patient side as well? And is there pieces that the patient interacts with directly as part of your solution?
[00:19:40] Speaker C: Yes, our platform directly works with the patient. Whether you have to complete the patient forms, whether you have to answer your text messages for patient communication.
We try to understand from the patient perspective, is that how the doctor can educate patient with their messaging? We don't want to nag the patient with a lot of messaging and all that stuff, but in a subtle way, you just want to educate them so that they can come back. I'll give you an example of one of the feature that M consent have is the treatment plan reminders. The purpose of it is to improve the treatment plan acceptance rate at the dental office. And after the treatment plan gets completed, if you have a patient that says, oh, let me talk to my spouse, let me talk to my, you know, my buddy and my parents and I'll get back to you. And usually that get back to you never comes back if you don't follow up with them. And I know that there are practices who have like a manual, like they have a spreadsheet on which they're maintaining, who they need to follow up, that the doctor needs to call or the office manager needs to call, but you know, it usually gets slipped.
So we developed a system where we read the code of what the treatment plan was given about. So if it was about cavity, then we have subtle messaging that goes out after a couple of weeks that says that, hey, I know that you are struggling to with your cavity, but know that this is, this is just going to get worse, it's not going to get better. The cost of it right now is cheaper and it's easier for you to get it done now rather than procrastinating it and show them the images of what is the cavity? What does it do if you don't actually treat this on time? So those kind of messaging actually goes out to them reminding that, you know, this is, this is an opportunity for you to fix it now rather than delaying it. So that helps patients to get educated and also helps the practice because a message does their job of, yeah, you still need to call them because that's going to help you to close that. But the education part is done through automated messaging.
[00:21:58] Speaker B: So smart. Love that. And obviously, yeah, that is something where you're like, okay, I'll come back to get a cavity. And then you are like, well, do I, when am I prioritizing that? So such a smarteende to do and stay top of mind for the patients.
Lastly, just wanted to know your thoughts about anything else that you're working on or developing. Do you see your technology just sticking within dental world or beyond that?
[00:22:30] Speaker C: Yeah, very good question. So we do actually help optometrists and also some medical offices and some med spas and sleep centers. So there, you know, there are different verticals that are facing similar problems like dental practices when it comes to productivity, patient engagement, patient intake. So we do help other segments. But I will say that our major focus has been dentistry. Like 85% plus of our users are dentists and dental offices.
[00:23:09] Speaker B: Great, love that. Yeah, that makes sense. Those other verticals optometry. Yeah. I mean that I'm sure everybody, everybody needs help with getting in touch with their patients and making it a seamless, low effort way that they can keep bringing in that reoccurring revenue. So thank you so much. I would love for you to give information to our listeners about how, you know, they can get attention with you or learn more about your products and services if they're interested in your book.
[00:23:36] Speaker C: Sure. Yeah. So the book, the Art of Patient Engagement is available on Amazon. I'll send you a link, Stacey, if you want to share that with your listeners, and also if you want to connect with Mconsent, it's simple. Mconsent consent, formsconsent.net and on the website you can contact us through our forms or call us or email us. We have amazing team that's going to get back to you fast as they can. And if you want to connect with me personally, I'm available on LinkedIn. My name is S A M a d s y e d. I'm pretty active on LinkedIn and that's the best way to connect with me. And I can share that link with you, too.
[00:24:18] Speaker B: Thank you so much. Well, we definitely learned the power of the database today, so appreciate that. And I, we know where to find you now. So thanks so much.
[00:24:28] Speaker C: Thank you, Stacey. Thank you for having me.
[00:24:30] Speaker A: Thank you to all of our listeners. If you would like to be notified when new episodes air, make sure to hit that subscribe button. And a big thank you to Pacific companies. Without you guys, this podcast would not be possible. If you would like to be a guest, please go to www.pacificcompanies.com.
[00:24:48] Speaker C: Thank you.
