The Dental Billing Podcast

Maximize Your Schedule's Potential - with Lori Streeter

• Ericka Aguilar

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What if your dental practice's schedule management system worked like your most brilliant team member instead of just another piece of software? That's the game-changing perspective Lori Streeter brings to this episode as she unpacks how modern technology can transform dental scheduling from a headache into a powerful production driver.

From her beginnings as a 20-year-old dental employee to her current role as VP of US Expansion at Max Assist, Lori shares insights gained through decades of experience across multiple facets of dentistry. She illustrates the dramatic evolution from pegboard appointment books and manual recall cards to today's sophisticated AI-powered scheduling systems, highlighting how many practices still operate with inefficient processes that leave significant revenue opportunities untapped.

The conversation reveals a startling reality: while practices obsess over attracting new patients, they often overlook the approximately $500,000 in diagnosed but unscheduled treatment sitting in their existing patient records. With the right tools, this treatment can be efficiently scheduled, dramatically increasing production without requiring additional marketing efforts. Even practices that appear fully booked can benefit from optimized scheduling that ensures the most appropriate procedures fill each available time slot.

What distinguishes Max Assist from traditional patient communication software is its comprehensive approach to schedule management. Rather than simply sending appointment reminders, it integrates directly with practice management systems to provide actionable intelligence, identifies opportunities for filling appointments, tracks team performance for accountability, and functions as a virtual team member rather than just another tool. As Lori eloquently states, "Your tech should be part of your team."

Ready to transform your approach to schedule management? Listen now to discover how modern technology can help your practice maximize productivity while strengthening patient connections. Your schedule might be full—but is it optimized?

Schedule a demo with MaxAssist to unlock scheduleing potential here:

https://maxassist.com/book-a-demo-fortune-billing/


Join The Biller Acceleration Mentorship Wait List Here: (Only 5 Spots Left in 2025!!)

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Would you like to set-up a billing consultation with Ericka? She would love the opportunity to discuss your billing questions and see how Fortune Billing Solutions may help you.

Email Ericka:
ericka@dentalbillingdoneright.com

Schedule a call with Ericka:

https://calendly.com/ericka-dentalbillingdoneright/30min


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Delta Dental Locum Tenens Form:

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Speaker 1:

Before we start this episode, I want to ask you a simple question. Have you ever struggled to fill your hygiene schedule? Have you ever struggled to keep the restorative side of the schedule full? Maybe you're an office that is booked out by months and you think you don't have any areas of opportunity to help improve production. Friends, I'm going to interview Lori Streeter from Max Assist and she's going to talk us through all the opportunity that we leave on the table when it comes to schedule management. I know we talk a lot about dental billing and today we're going to spend a lot of time talking about how to better manage our schedules. Without further ado, let's dive into the episode. Lori Streeter, welcome to the Dental Billing Podcast.

Speaker 2:

Hi Erica. Thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited to be here.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh, I am so excited for the listeners. You guys are in for a treat. Lori brings a ton of office management experience, marketing experience, and we're just I'm excited for you guys to hear her story. So, lori, why don't you talk to us? Let's dive into your history in dentistry, and where did you start and where you're at now? I heard you talk about you know you had owned a marketing company at one point. So, talk to us about all that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, absolutely. So I'll give you the Reader's Digest version. So when I was 19, I was singing. I'm a singer. So I was singing in a bar in Fresno, california, and a dentist came in with his wife I was giving her son singing lessons and he called me over on one of my breaks and he said what do you do during the day? And I said I work for an ophthalmologist. And he said well, what are they paying you? And I think back then it was like $1,400 a month. That was something really silly. And he said oh, they're starving you. He said how would you like to come to work for me? I'll pay you more money and you'll have Fridays off. So he enticed me with Fridays off and that was really exciting. And I interviewed and went to work for my first dentist when I turned 20. And the rest is kind of history which I'll share. But I was there for 10 years in his practice and another two in a different general practice, and then I started kind of on a different journey.

Speaker 2:

I got hired at Smile Brands Back then it was Bright, now Dental. I was in the DSO space for five years. My job was to drive new patients into dental practices and I absolutely loved it. I had the best time working there. I'm a huge advocate for access to care. I want to make sure that everybody has the ability to go to the dentist. I love the term let's plant smiles, because I want them everywhere. People should be wearing them daily. We have too many people without smiles running around.

Speaker 2:

But from there my husband and I made the track and we moved to Minnesota and I was going to get out of dentistry and go to work for the American Heart Association. I'd already secured a position when I got this you know, immediate call from Patterson Dental that they wanted to interview me for a position. They had called their National Dental Market Manager of their office supplies division. So they flew me to Dallas, I interviewed in an airport, I got hired on the spot, which was exciting, and I started my trek into corporate, the corporate world. So I worked for Patterson for about a year.

Speaker 2:

But it was really purposeful, erica, because while I was there one of my team members brought me an Observer magazine which was the ADOM magazine. So while I was there I advocated for office managers. I tried to implement systems and protocols around marketing to office managers, because I knew how much say that the office manager has in the daily flow and the processes of the practice. So while I was there, I built a magalog. It was half magazine, half catalog and that was super fun and I launched it at ADOM number two, launched it at ADOM number two.

Speaker 2:

So after that I met the president of ADOM and we struck a chord with each other and I went to work for ADOM in 2007 and kind of never looked back. But while I was doing that and I wasn't full time with ADOM, I started my own marketing company using some of the principles that I learned while I was at Smile Brands, which was kind of you, kind of built your own way to do things, and I implemented that in Minnesota and worked with several great practices there, which was amazing. And my marketing company was alive and well for 10 years until I moved here to Idaho. So, yeah, so I was with ADOM for 17 years. I left as the vice president back in March and my new journey with the company that I work for now began, which I know you and I are going to chat about. So that's the gamut. That's the gamut. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1:

So I learned about ADOM when I started the dental front office school and I was like I'm very curious about, you know, the American Association of Dental Office Managers and I just never really got involved. But you know, over the years I've learned more and more about ADOM and what they do. I really enjoy the magazine or the articles and you know everything about it. But yeah interesting. I never really got involved with them because I was so consumed with the school.

Speaker 2:

So busy.

Speaker 1:

So I mean, this is, this is one of the classes. You know, this is one of the workshops that I do and I really enjoy what you know. You know, this is one of the workshops that I do and I really enjoy what you know teaching people about dental coding and billing.

Speaker 2:

When I saw your TikTok, that's how I found you and you were singing.

Speaker 1:

You do, I know you do Wednesday Word of the Day, and I love that. I was interested to learn more about connecting with you, learn more about connecting with you, and that's how we started chit-chatting about something that I really feel strongly about in terms of helping offices as we move into this new era of dentistry, which is very techie, right. So offices have their tech stack and you know, part of that is, you know, ai, and I don't know that I feel like half of the individuals working in the front office don't necessarily know how to use all the tech stack that they have, because one of the things that I live by and I think I said this, I used to be part of my intro to the podcast was that dentistry is evolving at a very rapid rate and it's no longer just enough for you to know your codes. You now have to be able to keep up with your codes, which are changing every year.

Speaker 1:

And the technology as technology continues to evolve and the technology as technology continues to evolve. So some of us that have been in dentistry, myself included. I've been in dentistry since 1995. And I've seen it go from the pegboard which is where I started. Pegboard, you know that big appointment book.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we didn't have practice management softwares back then Some of my offices were just straight up using QuickBooks, and that was the technology that you used to collect payment. So you know, we've kind of done a full shift, with technology now being a very, very big part of our day.

Speaker 1:

So, when I saw what Max Assist does for offices and the reason I'm talking about this is because we went from postcards that get put in a little box by month. You know January, february and then you know the patient leaves from their prophy visit and then you have them fill out, because you know having them fill out the recall card made it more likely that they would look at it, so you then put it into the appropriate month and then, that's how you worked your recall system back then.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I have a funny card story if you'd like. Oh, I'd love to hear it. So I had a patient, you know, I did the CARNs too and I would look at the the smart something catalog. You know I would look at the catalog and I would pick out all the CARNs I wanted for the year, for the month or whatever, and I would order them in. And one of them was Garfield. You know Garfield the cat, and he had like an Explorer hat on and he had like a, a telescope, like he was looking through a telescope, like we haven't seen you in a while.

Speaker 2:

So it was obvious an attempt to get someone to rebook right their hygiene appointment. So I sent it and, excuse me, the woman walked in after the counter and that was back when I actually had a window. Things weren't nice and open but I had a window and she walked in and she said I brought your postcard in. You had sent this to Harold, whatever his name was, and I said oh, awesome. I said is he going to rebook? She said no, he died. So I sent a postcard to a deceased gentleman that had a we haven't seen you in a while, garfield on it and I had a bunch of egg on my face. So, yeah, you had to be really careful about who you sent your postcards to. So I totally understand.

Speaker 1:

It's so true, oh my gosh. And all those postcards we had. It was like it's time for your, it's time for your next cleaning. And if we didn't hear them, we would escalate the neck to the next postcard with something like Garfield saying we haven't seen you in a while. Oh my gosh, I remember You're bringing it all back to me, but that's where I started and to see that system go to what I saw with Max Assist. So I would love for you to talk to us about your journey with Max Assist and what you do there and tell us all the things.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, I appreciate that. So, as you know, when I left ADOM in March, there was a lot of thinking about where I wanted to land for the rest of my career and I had a couple criteria. One I obviously wanted to work for a very ethical company, because that aligns with my values. And you know, nowadays I think pretty much everybody's pretty above board and you know, and I knew so many companies because of my role at ADOM, because that was what I did was work with companies. So I knew I had a little bit of choice not to be sassy, but there was going to be opportunity. So I looked a lot and waited and had really, really great conversations and this opportunity with MaxAssist kept bubbling up for multiple different reasons. But the box that it ticked for me was I wanted to be able to help office managers at the practice level. So I always did it by. You know, I helped build a community. I helped companies get access to office managers so that office managers can be elevated. That felt really good. Now I wanted to get into the practice.

Speaker 2:

How can I affect change and what does that look like? So, from a tech stack you mentioned, you know I've led hundreds of KOLs now over the years. And the one thing that resonated with me over the years that I'd hear over and over again from office managers is that can you just give us one solution? You know they've got to buy eight different things to do 20 different things and they have to manage them all. And one's a tab over here and one's a tab over there, and this one I run from my phone. I mean it's a lot. And then you throw AI into the mix and when you have a majority of office managers are usually 35 to 65. Now we're going, there's some people go. I can barely use my cell phone and how do I get up to speed? And it's very nerve wracking for people. So, to answer your question clearly, what I loved about Max Assist is, I believe and I like the word tech sprawl because it's everywhere right, we can't turn around without using a new piece of tech.

Speaker 2:

The thing that I loved about Max was number one. I started with the company. So is the company the values that I cherish Right? Oh my gosh. I mean you've met several players. They're a wonderful, canadian born company, born of a dental consultancy. They only operate in dentistry. They don't have eight other verticals that they're you know. Oh yeah, wait a minute, our, our automotive guys over here, or our veterinary guys over here, right? Or you're trying to answer all of them and all of a sudden they're putting out, you know, veterinary ads to the teeth people, right? So I don't know if that's happened, but I think it would be funny. So, anyway, how's your dog today? I don't know, that's a good ad, I like that. So you know that's.

Speaker 2:

And also, from a tech sprawl perspective, they've given office managers the mentality that set it and forget it is the right mentality to have. Anything that takes something off your plate. They lead with the marketing message that you know, time is new time. Well, they also tell you, sometimes even, like the analytics companies, will tell you what your analytics are, but what they don't do is tell you how to fix it, tell you how to affect change in your practice. And it's really funny, erica, because the one thing when I saw my first demo and, trust me, I had multiple, if I would have known you, you would have taken the demo before I even took the job. So lucky thing I didn't, you know, tap you on the shoulder for that. But here's the thing I went into that job with. They gave me such grace. You know like, build what you want, build. Tell us who you are, what you want to do.

Speaker 2:

So my role is the vice president of US expansion. We are like a name brand dental household brand in Canada because everybody knows who Max Assist is. They train on it in the dental schools. There's Max Assist. You know certificates and badges and things where if you have a, if you're a Max Assist user, you're going to get hired easier in Canada because a lot of them have that right In the States. You know we have a lot of customers but not anywhere near like Canada.

Speaker 2:

So I was brought in to kind of march our brand across the US Because I know a lot of people and you know I have a voice and an ear for the office manager. I want to make sure that they know that this exists. So, from a product perspective and you've seen it I think the difference here is if I'm an office manager and I have a front office team or even if you're a single office manager or even if you're a DSO, I need to know what my people are doing. I need to know that everything I'm asking them to do to help fill chairs, get patients back, make sure quality of care is accessible for every single person A great stat, real quick. That I learned while I've been at Max.

Speaker 2:

There's two that I really resonate with the most. The first one is when you send out a text confirmation to somebody, they are 80 to 90% likely to respond back. See right, confirming that's. We got that part. That's licked, that's good. What they won't use that tech for is to book back. They won't use that tech to reach out. You know, maybe like 9, 10% of the time that works. So we still have to stay very involved in the process and a lot of people think that and I think again other companies are saying, oh, we'll do all the heavy lifting for you. So a lot it for.

Speaker 2:

The lot of what I've experienced is people think that max assist is a patient communication software. It is, and so much more, and part of the reason it's so much more is because it was built by dental consultants. It was built by people just like you who knew that these things needed to happen in the practice and that the practice, the people that are in the practice that are doing it needed to be monitored not checked on, but checked in Thanks, zach Shelley, for that reference. Checking in with your team and realizing oh, look like Sammy is killing it over here. Look at how many people they booked. What's Sammy doing? That we can emulate across the rest of the practice. So so many facets of it, but I hope that's a good start for us.

Speaker 1:

I absolutely agree with you. You know, again, with my background and with all the offices that we work with, one of the challenges that we see, which affects billing. As a billing company, it affects us because if payers are not filled, there's nothing to bill. So for us, when I saw the demo, I was blown away with how easy it is to, as an example, if we have a crown prep that last minute canceled, we can actually pull up equal production, I mean instantly, and find patients who may possibly want to come in and fill that, fill that position. I mean it just makes takes all the guesswork out of managing your schedule and filling it.

Speaker 1:

And I mean, yes, communication is is a biggie with any tool, but understanding, I think, the accountability part part of it. When I saw the backend and your ability to say, okay, I want to see who's spending time calling the missed appointments or reactivating patients, you know you can actually see on the back end who's doing what and that, to me, is the piece of the puzzle that is missing with offices, because accountability is what gets the needle to move in anything right. So Max takes that portion, that accountability aspect, and allows you to see it and you can see how many patients were contacted, how many appointments were booked, how you know all of those.

Speaker 2:

By the person, by the person doing it, would be very unique.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much so you add all your team members in there, I can. I'll never forget this. I was an office manager and we had multiple locations and I think I shared this with you. We required every team member to make 20 phone calls a day. For recall, it was a very you know, we had a spreadsheet. We had to write out who we called and what the outcome was and their next appointments. It was very archaic, right. And then they had to turn all the sheets into me and I would say, well, you know, you did great. Why did you only make three phone calls? So it was very much that accountability piece that Max inserts into this tech that would allow me to focus on other things as opposed to sifting through spreadsheets. And our doctor, our owner, was very Printing phone books of papers.

Speaker 1:

Yes, phone books, printing treatment plan reports and then highlighting you know which ones we're going to start with. And then we get, we pick up the phone and call. And I know, lori, so many offices are still operating like that.

Speaker 2:

I know, I know it's unfortunate and you know, if you bring in the AI component and that's one of the I think you know timing is everything I don't know if I would have looked at, you know, the software five years ago that I would have been as excited as I am now that there's an AI feature. So, yes, and everything that you talked about. But the interesting thing for me is that the AI feature in Max Assist you were talking about, you know, filling chairs Like if we wanted to do a one-for-one, we had a crown prep cancel. We want to fill it with a crown prep. When you hit that AI button, it automatically dives into the PM system and pulls everyone most likely to book. That's where the AI component comes in. Yeah, and so not only are we taking the guesswork out of it and the system's doing that part for us, but it tells us exactly how to be the most efficient in trying to fill that schedule.

Speaker 2:

The other part that I know this is going to sound archaic for me, but what I love is I'm a list person, so I love a good list. I like to. You know I just did. I filmed a video a couple of days ago about before you leave the office, write a win list instead of a to-do list, like all the things you crushed in the day, so that you could start the next day like super fresh and knowing that you really had some accomplishments from the day before. And for me, I love that Max does that for me.

Speaker 2:

So I go into the Max AI section and literally we call it actionable intelligence. But you can separate it from hygiene and or regular diagnosed treatment and you can work specifically on the things that Max says are the most important in your day. So literally, I heard someone say it yesterday on our team. They said you know, you could be two weeks before and you could sit down and have a full list of what to do and all you'll have to be coached on is a little bit of how to do it. So, yeah, it's, it's. It's a game changer. Yeah, it's a game changer.

Speaker 1:

You know that little. I know I keep going back to this little postcard system, but that system has survived, I mean for so long, because I still see offices. I really think this is truly the game changing tech that is not only managing recall, but managing your schedule, filling those appointments. So let me ask you this this may be something I've, I just thought of this, but what about those offices that are booked out, with hygiene right, like they're like oh, we don't need this because we're booked out three months?

Speaker 2:

So we don't need something.

Speaker 1:

no, how can Max help with those offices?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, that's a great question. I just we have a new customer and a good friend of mine that she has the same issue. She can't. Her chairs are full all the time. So what's the point, so to speak? Yeah, exactly, well, I like to call it the pie in the face moment. So we have this tool called Chart AI and we can actually prove you correct.

Speaker 2:

So if, let's say, you're working with someone and they're like we don't have that problem, we just need more operatories and more people, there is always and that was the other stat that I didn't mention that I said I had two favorite stats. The first one was about how many people use some type of messaging system to rebook. The other one is that people focus so much on new patients. I need new patients, new patients, new patients. I think doctors have the mentality that if they presented a treatment and the treatment didn't get accepted, that that person's never going to do it. So now I have to go out for new patients when actually 80% of the bulk of my potential revenue is sitting there with people I've already have a relationship with that. I've already had that one-on-one interaction and given a really good treatment plan to. So how do we get them to come back? What does that look like? Those are other types of tools. You know financing and things like that that you need in the practice.

Speaker 2:

But most practices that think that they have no incomplete treatment and their patients everything's flowing we call that the pie in the face. Like I said, we have a chart AI. We can put it in. It takes 48 hours. It goes into your PM system, it pulls out all the data that we're talking about and I'll tell you if your data looks great. We've got the pie in the face. That's us. We'll take it. But I guarantee you in most practices we find an average of over $500,000 of treatment sitting that could be booked back to the schedule. So I think that's the hard thing.

Speaker 2:

So the question that you asked me was why would somebody want this if they don't have a problem with recall? They're overwhelmed with patients. You know, maybe they don't, maybe they don't need that aspect of the software. We still have a great patient engagement software. I mean there's no doubt about it, even for the front office team alone. Let's say they're booked, but they still need a to-do list. They still need that help with. I mean people are going to cancel.

Speaker 2:

Just because your schedule is full doesn't mean that it's a perfect situation. So I would say, in those instances that you have a really busy practice, that we're going to be right there in the clutch when you have to fill an appointment quickly, you know down to. We ask the patient when do you want to come in? What's the best day, what hygienist, what doctor? We can facilitate all of those filters and then that AI is going to grab that perfect patient in that perfect slot. You shoot them a message and most of the time it's booked within five minutes. Most of the time it's booked within five minutes.

Speaker 2:

So and the great thing about MaxAssist is, we have 13 years of data around patient behavior and it's really shaped how we've built the software, so it's not been built on. You know, I need this and I need that. I think this would be cool. We have a double-tiered system. We use a platform where our own customers can write in and say I wish it did this, and then we evaluate those on a regular basis and then also from an industry trend perspective, we look at our data and we say what exactly is happening, where can we benefit, and then we give the analytics and the dashboard to show the office manager how they're faring. Then we give the analytics and the dashboard to show the office manager how they're faring, how they're doing in the industry overall, and that's super important information.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I agree with you, and earlier you mentioned how it was developed by dental consultants, right? So I hear the dental consultants coming through because, as a consultant myself, I have taught offices. You know, when you have a new patient, ask them what is their best day and what are they a morning person or an evening person and put this information into the system so that when you're using your ASAP list or you're trying to fill somebody who canceled, you know you match them with the right person. Somebody who canceled, you know you match them with the right person. Match the appointment with the person who's most likely to come in in the morning. Don't call somebody who prefers evening. You know so I hear how this is truly developed by consultants who know that. You know that data matters when you're trying to manage your schedule, and I 100% agree with you that dentists are very focused on having new patients come in the front door and then they just let the dollars walk out the back door.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's a problem.

Speaker 1:

It is a very big problem.

Speaker 2:

It is. And I think what's really interesting too and you know we've talked about, I've said it a couple of times because I think it's so important you know that set it and forget it mentality does not work. One of the really cool small things about Macs is that it bolts right onto your PM system, so that tab in our toolbar is right there. You don't have to go 500 other places to look for it. You don't have to open up a whole different browser in order to run it. It's right over the top of your PM and we do. You know. The nice thing is we have API above board integrations with all of our softwares. There's no bots breaking into things. There's no. You know we're partners with so many of the major softwares. But you know, erica, you brought up a really good point.

Speaker 2:

I think the last thing that I can say about Max that like drew me in is how many times did a patient say to you at the counter you know I don't have my calendar with me, but if you can call me on Thursday, I'll be home and I can look at my book that I have on the counter. And then what do you do? You write a flipping sticky note and you stick it on your, and we do have something very similar to a virtual sticky note which you know keeps things in their place and trains the AI about that patient's needs. So I mean just the fact that we can get. I think I filmed a video with like sticky notes all over me.

Speaker 2:

So and let me just say thank goodness for TikTok, because I actually had been watching you when I first started to aid on like the first 10 years. I was there. I'd heard your name multiple times and I was. I was. I literally was not. It wasn't my role to be the one to reach out, but I knew of you and the fact that we found each other on TikTok makes me so glad that I started my page. Amazing, my intention for that really was to just support office managers the best way that we can, and when I watch yours it's the same. We're literally just talking about the things that we know. I do try to throw a little bit of fun in. I think I had my 80-year-old parents do a mystery box unboxing, because I like to do fun stuff too, but at the end of the day, thank goodness for TikTok.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I agree with you, so I have a question. So there's a lot of people out there that maybe some of the listeners are thinking how is this different from my current communication tool? Because I have the ability to text, I can email them. What is different from something I don't ability to text, I can email them. You know what is different from something. I don't want to name names, but you know from other communication companies that focus on that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So, first of all, you know there are places for all of us. You know a lot of. I think that one of the biggest challenges we've had for a couple of years was that we didn't have a VoIP partner or a phone partner, and we have integrated and have API interaction with Mango Voice now, so we have all that covered. So here's the difference, you know.

Speaker 2:

That's the funny thing is that we get bulked with all those other products that we are similar to and right away, when I first started, our CEO basically said yes, and, and that made so much sense. Do we do all those things? Absolutely. But if you set aside the things that we do, I want to say better, I would say different. I think the, the bolt over toolbar, is huge, because if you're not using it, if you have to go, if it's hard to use, you're not going to do it, so you have to have your team engaged. So the and the really small feature that's kind of stupid, but I love it is that it's not stupid, but for me it's like even to even bring it up, like some people are left-handed, yes, and so the toolbar will both right-handed or left-handed. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I mean, I just that's such a small detail, but I'm sure there's a lefty in our in our dev team somewhere. So the that's one thing. That is the toolbar that it bolts on.

Speaker 2:

The second thing is that overall, there is no other software like ours that does what we do, like some others do, where you actually sign in individually, do where you actually sign in individually, and we do that so we can track the behavior. That's that's by far and away our big, you know, golden carrot. Then, if you go a couple more layers deeper, we really have the, the recall, recare, rebook, back. That process smokes. I mean, it's so good, there is like you're going to have a reminder service, but it's not going to give you the level of detail and the AI tells you how to do it. So that's the that's. The problem is that companies have built good products that do the messaging piece Well. They have not built something that teaches the front team how to affect their bottom line with the information that they already have. So those are kind of meet to me the shining moments, and if you don't have everybody rowing in the same direction, you are not going to hit goals.

Speaker 1:

And how do you know if you're not monitoring that, If there's no accountability piece, how do you know who's pulling south as opposed to pulling north Right, Exactly? You have a team member who's killing it. Like you said earlier, they're making you know three, four appointments. I don't know if that's good or bad, but they're doing their job. And then you have a team member who's not doing anything at all. But now you get to see it in black and white.

Speaker 2:

The other great thing that and again, I don't want this to be a commercial I think you and I are really we're really trying to talk about. You know what sets a software, whether it's mine or someone else's, what sets a software aside where it's really going to help the practice. Because a lot of times what happens is we demo the office manager, they get super excited, they take it to their doctor because the doctor hasn't seen it yet. They're like it's probably the same as X, y and Z when the office manager's going, but wait, but wait. There's all these tools that I could use. So the other point that I want to make that I think is really important is there's a lot of practices that are more than one. Now Now we have three practices, five practices these emerging small DSOs that are more than one. Now, now we have three practices, five practices, these emerging small DSOs that are coming. We have a dashboard.

Speaker 2:

So let's say, erica, that you're running 10 practices at one time. Let's say that your tech stack because you purchased a couple over here couple used Dentrix, couple used Eagle, couple used Open and you've got to work and you're like, oh God, how do I keep track of all this? Because the systems are all different Our dashboard it doesn't matter what software they're on it can track all the different ones by location. Then you can go in and see by location who your rock stars are that are actually working the system, working the recare, and then at the end of the day, if you're like, let's say, you're a coach or you're a regional and you're trying to affect change in a certain practice, our software allows you to pause when you flag the practice for coaching and pick it back up and look at it from the time you started coaching to the time you want to look again to see if you move the needle. That's what I'm saying when I met the coaches that built this and I know them personally now amazing.

Speaker 2:

One last thing I'll say that I loved because, again, I was had the wonderful luck of being able to look at ADOM's forums for years and the one thing I heard over and over again about patient communication software is their support stinks. You can't talk to anybody, you can't get anybody. So that was one of the other things I checked on before I even took the job with MaxAssist is, I said what does support look like? What does onboarding look like?

Speaker 2:

So, from our perspective, 78% of the time we answer the phone, first ring, first try. So you're going to get to talk to somebody that's literally four doors down from our CEO CEO. So this is not calling some other country, you're you're well, you're calling Canada, but it's, you're calling in right, and someone's picking up and answering the phone. They have all your information at their fingertips. And the other 12% of the time, when we're not answering the phone immediately, we call back within 10 to 15 minutes. So, and and those are the kind of things that office managers care about yes, when they have a problem, it's immediate. That's why they're jumping to Facebook groups and forums and things like that, because now they're trying to self-solve for a problem that should have been helped through their software support.

Speaker 1:

So you know, accountability is such a big deal and I'm going to kind of deviate from that but still kind of stay within the realm of how this can help office managers. So I'm a huge fan of the forming, storming, norming and performing in management and helping office managers to understand. Because I use this strategy myself as a consultant, as a coach, I really try and identify where are these teams struggling, and that's the storming phase and that doesn't always mean conflict.

Speaker 1:

It just means that's where the most coaching is needed, right? So when you're talking about this backend system, where we can see who our rock stars are and we can see the people that are struggling, that's the storming phase. That's where we can really see who needs coaching, right? So, as an office manager, you're only as strong as your weakest link. I had a professor when I went to school for human resources. That was his mantra. You know, you're only as strong as your weakest link and you've got to get your teams out of storming, and storming just means coaching, and, as an office manager, we are our team's coach, right? And so this tool can help. Well, let me back up as an office manager, if you're not familiar with the norm forming, storming, norming and performing concept, I think that's something that you should look into, because understanding that concept and then how that ties into tools like this and helps you coach better and really align yourself with the individuals who are truly struggling yeah for sure, love that element that we can.

Speaker 1:

Everybody gets their own username and then, as a manager, I'm able to log in and take a look either multi-location or single location. I can take a look at who's doing what and who needs help. So that is to me, that's the gold. As a manager, as a coach, that's really what excites me.

Speaker 2:

And and fun little history. That's why I mean we were called, we had, we had a. We went through kind of a brand evolution. We were Recall System Pro, we were Recall Max for a while. They've changed their names multiple times and part of the reason they took out the recall piece is because it scares people. They think it's like boring and old and all the things.

Speaker 2:

But if you really take apart that word, recall and recare are the same thing. That means that the patient is healthy and they're coming to the dentist regularly and it is our job as not only the practitioners and hygienists and assistants, but the office manager is the hub of where that happens, but the office manager is the hub of where that happens. So I want offices to be empowered with the best possible tool the easiest, the less friction. It's like what problem are we solving here? We're not saving time, necessarily. We're not. Like I said, we're not a set it and forget it. We are. We're going to show you not only what to do but how to do it, why you're doing it and who you want to do it with, and once you answer of the team right.

Speaker 1:

It's like a very, very smart team member who tells you what to do in that situation, right, yep.

Speaker 2:

And who grows smarter every time a patient gets entered and every time you put. So, as long as you put the information in and it's as accurate as can be and we're all in the dental office, we're all very careful because of regulations and things. You know you're going to have a product that's probably going to be with you Like and, like you said, like an extra team member all the time. I don't know about you, but I was really good at making the lists. I just necessarily wasn't always good at how to prioritize it in the best way, you know. I know now we're going to like chat GPT and saying here's the five things I have to do. Tell me what makes sense to do first. But we didn't have that when I was an office manager and we don't necessarily have that now because chat GPT is not running a dental office. But but re but recall is something that we've always had to do, but we knew that there was an evolution of what we wanted to be known for and it's terrible that we call our product max. I mean it's always say is max max, does this max does that? I mean he's like a person and I mean he, he, he gets talked about like he is to everyone and it's kind of creepy. But I will tell you. The other really cool thing about Max Assist is that our developers are all on site as well, so we are not partnering with a developing company someplace else and we don't have control. Our wonderful people there's a gal on our team named Heather and then our our main main consultant, leah, and then elise and the onboarding department. These people look at this and listen to every last thing that's said, everything that needs to be looked at, every problem. If a practice has a problem with anything or they're not learning, we we have tools to support people. I just have never seen anything really like it and it's counterintuitive to all the things I ever heard office managers complain about. They've got it, you know, down. You know, nothing's ever perfect, but when you're building your tech stack, this is a product to look at because it not only does the analytics but it also does the patient reminder and it also has a whole layer of this assistant piece.

Speaker 2:

You know, for me, when we talk about AI and I was just talking to a gentleman yesterday was talking to me about you know, he goes, I want, I'm doing this panel and it's like what the hell AI? Sorry for my French, but it's like everybody's confused. You know he goes. I want, I'm doing this panel and it's like what the hell AI? Sorry for my French, but it's like everybody's confused. You know, what exactly does AI in dentistry mean? This person answers your phone for you. This person schedules appointments. This person I think there's a place for that.

Speaker 2:

I really do. I think on the weekends, when offices are closed and we don't want to, somebody's calling on the weekends, weekends or at night, I think it's a really smart thing to have a process to filter those patients into the practice. But max assist is about connection. How do we connect with the patient and never let go and how do we support them throughout their journey? I don't know about you, but things used to be to write in the chart notes like patient had a baby in September. Yes, you know, those are the kinds of things that we did when we had the pegboards and we didn't have their trip to Hawaii and their next free call Exactly, and most of the time you remembered it anyway, if you're a really good office manager, but still it was that subtle reminder.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, Sammy and her husband went to Hawaii or they had a second baby. All those things are so important. We don't want to lose that as a society. In dentistry we want to keep connection and I think Max Assist was born of that because we knew that the connection piece in a practice was more important than everything else.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. I mean, we have offices that have 10,000 patients on file, but if you look at the true active patient base and I mean true by what you mentioned earlier- healthy patients that are coming in every six months or four months for their cleanings. They're regular patients. They accept treatment when diagnosed. That's your true active patient base and a lot I've seen offices who will say you know, we've got 10,000 patients on file, we're very healthy. But if you take a look at the true active patient base you've got like 1,000.

Speaker 2:

Exactly. You know totally, and I think that's the appeal of the chart AI feature is that, like someone for you as a consultant, you can actually say, well, let's see, let's see what that looks like, and I'm sitting there, yeah, and then you can tell them I'll take a pie in the face If it's as good as you say it. We're not doing that, but yeah, we're not doing that. But yeah, it's really surprising what people will tell themselves about their practice.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and that to me just screams hey, we've got a huge opportunity with a reactivation campaign. You know we can come up with that and Max can help out with that. That's right up his alley. So I absolutely love this. Lori, could you, before we close out, can you just remind us again? You had mentioned three things that Max helps with. So I know it was recare and what were the?

Speaker 2:

what were the others? So we've got the patient engagement covered. You know, we do all the text messaging, we do all the things. That's definitely for sure. The other piece is the front office efficiency. At the end of the day, you know, I don't want to be like everybody else and say, oh, we save you time, oh, we save you money, we save you headache. That's not exactly what you want. You want an efficient team member. Your tech should be part of your team.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. That is so well said, and I'm going to just reiterate that, friends, your tech needs to be a part of your team.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and we have a team member named Max. He's really great. He jumps into your PM system, you know, uninhibited. He jumps in and grabs all the information that you need and at clicks of buttons, like in seconds literally, you can search through your patient database to be able to determine who's most likely to book, who's gonna fill that chair for that crown, who needs to come back for their appointment. We've got missed, reappointed, everything all bucketed out. So it's. I mean, I don't wanna see. A child can do it, but a really healthy teenager could probably figure it out really quick. Or that person that worked at Applebee's last week. So we've got everything set for you there. And then, finally, on the analytics front, as an office manager, we can show you how to check in with your team. We have that single sign in. We have the ability to say you know, joe, susie, sally, they're all doing these things. This is how they're tracking, these are the patients they've booked, this is the percentages, this is where we're hitting. And then, over on the dashboard, we also have an area where an office manager might want to look for, like a morning huddle, like a big snapshot of everything that all complements and compiles everything on that toolbar that they show. So I could go on and on about all the things.

Speaker 2:

I think if I was an office manager or a dentist, even honestly, a hygienist, who really was consciously wanting the office to succeed with a really full schedule. Our VP of sales, rita. She is a hygienist and the reason she works for us is because max assist filled her schedule over and over and over again. One really quick last story I'll tell you. So we have a new customer. I won't I won't say exactly where her practice is because I don't want to give it away, but she's she's a dpln, adom president, okay, and she's excited to use max and what.

Speaker 2:

What I loved about her demo because I was on the first one what I loved about it is that she went in and built a spreadsheet to do a portion of what Max does. So that's how smart some office managers are. They know what they need. We just have it for them. They just don't know it yet because we're not well known in the U? S. So that's my job is to make sure everybody knows, and now you're going to be helping us with that. So that's good, just by getting the word out.

Speaker 1:

And huge fan of Matt. Thank you, I can't. I know that we're talking about a lot of the features, but really it all comes together when you actually see it in a demo. I mean that's. I don't. I don't know if you remember, but I think my mouth was like hanging open and I just kept saying, oh my God, wow, wow, wow, like I was just so impressed. And then we got off and I was like immediately I need all of my clients to clients to use this. So I know that sounds really woo. You know like I'm trying not to sound too woo-woo about it, but it is truly an amazing tool that takes the guesswork out of what to do next in scheduling, schedule and engagement and maintaining that relationship with the patients.

Speaker 2:

I love that. It takes the guesswork out of what to do next. That's a perfect way to say it, and the two things I think you and I are coming away with today for sure is your tech needs to be like a team member, yes, and you need to trust your tech. You have to be able to use it like it's a person sitting right next to you. That's just making your job more efficient and I think, at the end of the day, you're going to end up with a happier, more efficient team. You're going to end up with an office manager who's more empowered to coach and mentor people who are struggling. You're not going to kill trees by printing 10 million reports out of your PM system million reports out of your PM system and you're not going to get you know analysis, paralysis by looking at so many data points that you don't know what to do with them. And I think that's the big thing you ask yourself does your tech help you, fix the problem, and does it tell you how to fix the problem?

Speaker 1:

I think that's where I agree with that, because I think that's where a lot of technology, some of these companies that give you all the data, there's information and then there's transformation, but in between information and transformation you have implementation.

Speaker 1:

And I guess that's where a lot of offices fail, like when you come to a workshop and you get all this information to get a transformation but you fail, you miss at the implementation of that, and I think that's where Max comes in, where he helps facilitate the implementation of all this information that you're being given so that you can experience that transformation. So I really enjoy that about this tech. Lastly, I just want to say I encourage offices to look at your tech stack because I can assure you that there's tech in your stack that you're probably not using to the max. You're probably probably you don't even, maybe you don't know how to use it. But I know that there's a lot on the back end in the tech stack that probably can be eliminated and you know just just reviewing that. So I always encourage offices to look at their tech stack that probably can be eliminated and you know just just reviewing that. So I always encourage offices to look at their tech stack every six months and determine whether or not it's useful for you anymore.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I know for sure, and maybe in your show notes we could put your demo link, can put mine, and we also would be willing to do a chart AI for someone. If they want to really dive in there and see if we can do the pie in the face moment, we could give that to them. At the end of the day, I don't want to talk pricing, but it's competitive pricing. The nice thing about Max is 95% of our customers are not on contracts. We earn their business every single month, which I love.

Speaker 2:

During COVID, we did not lose one single client. I mean, there's so many wonderful things about this product. There's an office manager named Sherry who I love, who's been on Max for a long time, and she will tell you that we made her PM system shine Like we just, you know, took it up another level. So I really appreciate you talking about this really important product. I think that you know my experience as an office manager and working for ADOM and now being at Max Assist really puts me in a really good position to help practices understand how important it is that they stay connected to their patients, and this is a great tool to do that.

Speaker 1:

So important, and I mean we could go on and on, but I'm just going to close this out with you know, thanking you for coming on to the show and talking about this with our listeners who, if they want to have a demo which I encourage everyone to do they can go to the show notes and click on that link and get connected with you, have a good chat in addition to the demo. I mean, it's every time I talk to you, lori, it's so fun. So I appreciate you being on the show.

Speaker 1:

Is there anything you would like to say before we sign off?

Speaker 2:

You know, just as a depending on if you're a dentist or you're a team member, you're an office manager, I just remember to take care of your patients. I mean they should come first, and anything you can do in your practice to make take the focus off of how much you have to do and how much you have to think about what you're doing so that you can put more focus on your patients. I think we're all going to win and really, at the end of the day, my favorite thing I have this big sign that says plant smiles. It's my favorite thing. I wanna plant smiles everywhere, and the less friction we have to be able to do that the better. And I thank you, erica, for your time and for what you're doing for educating people all across the country. I will keep watching your TikTok videos and I'm here for anyone, and if people just want to have a conversation, we're totally up for that too.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely Well. Thank you so much, lori, for being on the show.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, thank you.

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Ericka Aguilar

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