Episode #354: New Patient Experience To Create Patients For Life

Naren Arulrajah: This is the Less Insurance Dependence podcast show with my good friend Gary Takacs and myself, Naren Arulrajah.

Gary Takacs: We appreciate your listenership, your time, and most of all, we appreciate your intention to reduce insurance dependence in your practice. Our goal is to provide information that will help you successfully reduce insurance dependence and convert your practice into a thriving and profitable dental practice that provides you with personal, professional, and financial satisfaction.

Naren Arulrajah: Hello everyone. Welcome to the Less Insurance Dependence podcast, the official podcast of the Reducing Insurance Dependence Academy, www.rid.academy. Membership to the Academy is a gift from Gary and I in appreciation for your listenership. Visit RID Academy and don’t forget to register.

• By the way, our annual summit is coming up on October 24th. Check it out—five hours of CE. This is gonna be a landmark event, our Fifth Annual Summit, so you’re gonna learn a ton.

Today’s episode is titled New Patient Experience to Create Patients for Life. I am Naren, your co-host. Before I jump into new patient experience, Gary, any comments on our annual summit?

Gary Takacs: You know, this will be our fifth annual Reducing Insurance Dependence Academy Summit. We did the first one in the fall of 2021, not knowing what to expect. We had a very large attendance, and I’m proud to say that every single year since, our attendance has doubled.

Now, it’s gonna be a heavy lift. We had big attendance last year in 2024, but I think we’re gonna double again this year. It’s literally turned into the virtual event in dentistry. It’s five hours. We’ll have keynote sessions, we’ll have a variety of different panels. Everybody associated with that event will have something to do with helping you successfully resign from PPO plans. It literally is like the encyclopedia of what you need to know and what you need to do to successfully kick PPO plans to the curb.

Come join us. It’s free. We cover your tuition as a gift from us, as a courtesy for your listenership. You’ll get five hours of CE. You do have to register. So to register and save your seat, go to RID Academy. And again, RID stands for Reducing Insurance Dependence—RID.Academy. Grab your seat and come join us.

Naren Arulrajah: Thank you, Gary. So the episode we are doing today, New Patient Experience to Create Patients for Life, is what we promised in our last episode—the last episode that just came out. And by the way, many of you have written to us about this and asked for this follow-up episode we promised because you loved it.

Last episode was How Do We Market to the Universe of Patients Who Don’t Go to a Dentist? And we talked about how half of the patients in the United States don’t have a regular dentist and don’t go to a dentist. Many of them don’t go because they don’t have that relationship. And we also talked about how when a patient has that relationship, they’ll even get on a plane and come see you once or twice a year, right? So when they don’t have that relationship, they just keep ignoring it.

Naren Arulrajah: Some people are afraid of pain. Some people are afraid of maybe some bad experience from the past repeating itself—whatever the case might be. So Gary gave us some amazing insights. Go back and listen to the last episode. And one of the things he said in that episode is, hey, we need to master new patient experience, because that’s a game changer. Once you master that, that’s what is the foundation of this lifelong relationship—where patients will even write love letter reviews for you on Google. But more importantly, get on a plane and come see you because you are just part of their life.

Gary Takacs: Yeah. Well, and I wanna start by speaking to the topic of this podcast, which is less insurance dependence. When a patient chooses you because you’re on their insurance plan—now, let’s think about that. Could we get a new patient—and I’m gonna use a very specific example—could we get a good new patient, a good one, right, that has Delta Dental insurance? They went to the Delta website and they chose your office out of the hundreds that were listed as providers in their community. Could we get a new patient, a good new patient that way?

Naren Arulrajah: Absolutely.

Gary Takacs: Yes. I would completely agree with that. However, many of them arrive with baggage, and the baggage they arrive with has a lot to do with their mindset. And the baggage many of them arrive with is an insurance mindset, where they’re only interested in having things done that are covered by their insurance.

Naren Arulrajah: Agreed.

Gary Takacs: Think about that, Naren.

Naren Arulrajah: Can I personalize this? I’ll tell you something that I think many of us can relate to—even dentists—because as a dentist, you don’t go to a dentist. So what Gary’s explaining might be difficult for you to kind of really experience. I’m sure many of us have heard of Groupon, right? I’m sure when it was very popular, we all had Groupon. I have gone to amazing restaurants, but the stupid Groupon deal is so restrictive. They’re like, "Okay, you get this meal, and the second guy gets a free meal because you just got the stupid Groupon meal." That’s all you do. You never use Groupon—

Gary Takacs: Is Groupon even still around?

Naren Arulrajah: That—

Gary Takacs: I think it started with Groupon, and then Groupon—next it became Deal Chicken. Remember Deal Chicken?

Naren Arulrajah: I didn’t use Deal Chicken, so I don’t—

Gary Takacs: Deal Chicken was like a worse version of Groupon. So really, you’ve got Groupon. Yeah. If you’re a PPO practice, it’s what?

Naren Arulrajah: That’s really what it is. That’s Groupon. And they’re like, "Whatever is in the Groupon, I’ll take it. Anything that’s not in the Groupon, I don’t want it." You know? I don’t want it. That’s what they’re thinking.

Gary Takacs: Yeah. So, how about you resign from Groupon—otherwise known as Delta? The one sentence that strikes so many dentists like a dagger in the heart is when we present dentistry to the patient and the patient says, "Does my insurance cover it? Because I’m only interested in having it done if my insurance covers it." And really, if I’m gonna translate that—

Naren Arulrajah: It’s kind of like, "I’m thinking if it’s in my Groupon, I’ll do it. Otherwise, I don’t want it."

Gary Takacs: "I’m only going to do this if it’s free."

Naren Arulrajah: Free. Exactly.

Gary Takacs: And how does that land on the dentist and the team? How does that land on them?

Naren Arulrajah: Like, I’m worthless. I’m being blunt. You know, like, in other words, my education, my 20 years of experience, my training—nothing. Because if it’s not free, I don’t want it. Like, people then give up. That’s why a lot of dentists—you know, I remember talking to Dental Intel, and you were on that meeting we had—they literally said PPO doctors are not even trying to present ideal presentations anymore.

Gary Takacs: Exactly. Well, it actually happens. There’s data on this from Dental Intel, right? Doctors stop presenting elective dentistry.

Naren Arulrajah: Right?

Gary Takacs: Because they’re so used to banging their head against—well, patient says, "You know, are those veneers covered by my insurance?" Nope. "Then I don’t want it." "Are those implants covered by my insurance?" Nope. "Then I don’t want it." Right?

And human nature is such that you bang your head against the wall—pretty soon you stop. You stop banging it against the wall. And what that means is you stop presenting it, right?

But let’s talk about a different world. How about a world where we create an experience for patients where they literally would never imagine ever going anywhere else, and they can’t wait to tell all their friends about it?

Gary Takacs: So we’ve developed a seven-step new patient experience. Let me walk through it real quick. Here’s the seven steps:

Step number one, we take the patient on a quick office tour. And I’ll explain these in more detail.

Gary Takacs: Number two, we then do a new patient interview in the consult room. Then we take the necessary records—whatever those are. It could be bitewings, full-mouth series, CBCT scan—whatever your records are that you do. And then we take six digital photos for patient education, the photo series that Dr. Frank Spear recommends. That all happens in the first 30 minutes. All of that is coordinated, is run by a new patient coordinator. They haven’t met the doctor yet. All of that happens with the new patient coordinator—that’s the first half hour.

The next half hour is the doctor part of the new patient exam. That’s where they meet the doctor. He or she now does their part of the new patient exam. The new patient coordinator stays in the room as the examining assistant. They’re not assisting like passing instruments, but they’re at the 12 o’clock position doing data entry. And the reason they stay in the room is they have the connection with the patient.

And then the last hour, we finish with a hygiene appointment of some sort. We can provide a cleaning if they qualify for a cleaning by pocket depths and bleeding points—by periodontal evaluation. If they qualify for a cleaning, we can do a cleaning. And if they don’t, we can do a debridement. And so they’re getting a hygiene appointment of some sort.

And then we finish with step number seven, which is financial arrangements and scheduling. In a quick nutshell, that is how we teach the new patient experience. And all this can be adapted and can be customized to your practice. It’s typically a two-hour appointment—the patient is in your office for two hours. However, it only represents 30 minutes of doctor time, and of course an hour on the hygiene schedule.

Now, most of you know that I’m an instructor at the Pankey Institute. And you know, there are some really great places to go to learn how to do brilliant and complex comprehensive dentistry. Pankey Institute is one of those. Spear Education would be another. Kois Center would be another. The Dawson Center might be another. And all of those postgraduate institutions teach the concept of the patient coming in through the doctor’s schedule, where the doctor does a comprehensive exam. And that’s an hour appointment typically, with records and a comprehensive exam—that does not include a hygiene appointment.

I agree with that 100%. Intellectually, I agree with that. However, the part that’s missing is: what do most new patients want on the first visit to a dental office, Naren?

Naren Arulrajah: They want hygiene, Gary. They want their teeth cleaned at least, because—

Gary Takacs: They want their teeth—

Naren Arulrajah: Now let me ask you this. If somebody hasn’t been to a dentist for a long time, they may not want it as much. But the ones who are, like, let’s say, moving into your town and, you know, or whatever—they would definitely want it. So I guess, would you offer it as a default, or would you offer it if they want it?

Gary Takacs: Well, you know, it depends. There’s not a generic answer to that. It depends on the circumstances with the patient, right? But I like the default method to be an appointment—a new patient appointment—that combines three big functions: comprehensive records, comprehensive doctor exam, and a hygiene appointment of some sort (cleaning or debridement).

Now, we tried to do all of that in an hour and a half, and we failed at it, Naren. Couldn’t do it in an hour and a half. And it had more to do with the photos—not the taking of the photos, but reviewing the photos on the tablet. Because now the patient was asking all kinds of questions about their teeth. "Oh, what’s this? What’s that? What’s this?" And the last thing in the world we wanted to do is cut them off—"Oh no, we don’t have time to talk about that today."

Gary Takacs: Right? You wanna talk about that! And so we tried for a year to do that in an hour and a half, and it didn’t work out. So we said, you know what? We’re just gonna bite the bullet and realize it’s gonna take us two hours to do all that.

But, you know, there is an option. There is a pivot that could be made where they come in through the doctor’s schedule, and we do records and a comprehensive exam. Sometimes the doctor’s schedule is more available than it would be if we combined it with a hygiene appointment. Does that make sense?

We might be able to get them into the doctor’s schedule the next week or two, but to include a hygiene appointment might be much farther out. I want to offer a new patient appointment within a week of the phone call.

Gary Takacs: And the way you’re gonna do that, guys—if you’re sitting here listening, saying, "Oh my gosh, we’re not even close to that"—well, that’s true of a lot of practices today. Then the way you’re gonna solve that is you’re gonna go out in the future, in your appointment book—your digital appointment book—and you’re gonna block new patient appointments. You are gonna block those. Whatever your appetite is—if it’s two a day, one a day, three a day—whatever it is, block them.

And I’m gonna challenge you: at the time we’re recording this, we’re in the middle of summer 2025. Go out and schedule those for the rest of the year in 2025. And now here’s where I’m gonna stretch you—go out and put those in the schedule for all of 2026. Now we’re proactively planning. So we’re planning our new patient flow to be able to offer patients a new patient appointment within a week of the call.

And what we do is, we release those—we hold them until two days before. If it isn’t filled two days before, then we open it up and schedule it with whatever we can as productively as possible. But that’s gonna allow us to consistently be able to accommodate new patients in your practice. Does that make sense, Naren?

Naren Arulrajah: That makes total sense, Gary.

Gary Takacs: And now we’re gonna be meeting the goal of at least offering the patient a new—"I’m so glad you called. We love seeing new patients. You called the right office." And now I’m gonna offer you an appointment within a week.

If the patient says, "Well, hey, I’m right in the middle of a big project at work. I was thinking more like the end of next month," then fine—go ahead and put it out there. But if you can offer them a new patient appointment within a week, you’re gonna be better serving the patient, better serving your practice. You’re gonna be rolling out the red carpet for new patients. This new experience is powerful. It’s powerful.

Naren Arulrajah: I got a lot out of this. I mean, I know as a business owner the benefits of this.

One—it’s one way to convert all those half of the population who are not going to a dentist into lifelong patients. Of course, convert everybody into lifelong patients. And once they become a lifelong patient, they’re much more likely to accept treatment recommendations. They’re much more likely to tell their friends. They’re much more likely to write five-star reviews.

Because I know you know this, Gary—in our work, we have 80% of our clients who are cruising, crushing it. And they have a few things they do really, really well. You know—the Google reviews, the new patient experience—and that’s why they’re cruising. Others are struggling, right? And that’s because they don’t have these core components working really, really well. So it’s like climbing up a hill with a thousand feet of weight on them every day, versus the other people—they’re like, "What? This is fun. This is easy."

Gary Takacs: So Naren, I know you’re not quite the same level of sports fan that I am.

Naren Arulrajah: Yes

Gary Takacs: Except for Michael Jordan. You can hold a candle with Michael Jordan.

Naren Arulrajah: Yes, I love that guy.

Gary Takacs: You got Michael Jordan. But what was Babe Ruth known for?

Naren Arulrajah: Baseball.

Gary Takacs: Yeah, but what specifically?

Naren Arulrajah: I don’t know, Gary… oh—home runs!

Gary Takacs: Home runs.

Naren Arulrajah: Home runs. Yeah.

Gary Takacs: Babe Ruth smacked a lot of home runs, right? That was his secret sauce. But you know what else Babe Ruth did a lot?

Naren Arulrajah: Strike out.

Gary Takacs: Right. But what do we remember?

Naren Arulrajah: The home runs.

Gary Takacs: Home runs. So what’s your home run? Your home run is your new patient experience.

Naren Arulrajah: Yes.

Gary Takacs: That’s your home run. That’s one of those things that, if you master that, your practice is gonna feel the benefits of it.

Now, hey, if you’d like to learn more about the new patient experience, I’d invite and encourage you to schedule a coaching strategy meeting with me. Go to 

• thrivingdentist.com/csm. 

That’s a Zoom meeting. You’ll meet with me. I’ll share different ways you can adapt this to your practice.

And I’ll leave you with a teaser. When I first created the new patient experience, I didn’t own a practice yet. But I tested this with a client of mine that wanted me to use his practice as a beta—as a beta to completely revamp his new patient experience. He felt like his new patient appointment was… eh… okay. But it had opportunity for improvement.

And so he let me design this for him, and we tested it. And this was a very, very, very strong practice. And I’ll give you some—I won’t use the name—but I’ll give you some numbers. This was a practice when we did this in the year 2000—so we have to go back now 25 years. This is a practice that produced and collected $2 million.

Naren Arulrajah: Even now, that’s an impressive number.

Gary Takacs: Yeah.

Naren Arulrajah: Today it’s probably like five, right?

Gary Takacs: At least. Maybe even more if we adjusted for inflation, right? But certainly in the year 2000, it was remarkable. The only thing—and this was an owner doctor, associate doctor, and strong hygiene department. So, owner doctor full-time, associate doctor four days a week—both doctors—strong hygiene department.

We initiated the new patient experience, and in the next year—same team, same hours—the only thing that was different was the new patient experience. The office produced and collected $3 million. We had 50% growth. And this was an office that had been at a plateau. They had been stuck at $2 million for the last four years—from ’96 to 2000, they were stuck. Doctor couldn’t figure out how to get it out of the mud. They were just stuck.

Gary Takacs: Now, not that that was a bad place to be stuck at, right? But he was a growth-oriented dentist and wasn’t growing. And all we did was change the new patient experience, got the entire team on board, got it dialed in. And that same practice produced and collected $3 million.

And a lot of it had to do with setting patients up to be more interested in ideal care—instead of just necessary stuff.

Well, we’ll leave you on that teaser. If you wanna know more about that, just set a coaching strategy meeting with me. If you wanna learn more about how to market quality new patients, set up a marketing strategy meeting with Ekwa.

Closing Thoughts 

Naren Arulrajah: Thank you, Gary. It is ekwa.com/msm. We spend six hours researching you and your competition. You get a very detailed report card on how you’re doing and how you stack up versus your competition. And more importantly, you’ll get a roadmap—like exactly how do you dominate Google? How do you dominate the internet when it comes to attracting new patients?

You know, I really can’t stop reinforcing what Gary just said, which is once you figure out what those home runs are for you—and it’s not 17 things, it’s like two or three things—then your practice would be just a joy. But till you master those home runs… I think NPE is one of those home runs. I think, Gary, you teach your clients that. Then I think, once you master those home runs, life is fun. It’s not like—

Gary Takacs: We forget that Babe Ruth struck out.

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah.

Gary Takacs: Well, hey, I wanna thank our listeners for the privilege of your time. But before we go, remember to mark your calendar for Friday, October 24th for the Fifth Annual RID—Reducing Insurance Dependence—Academy Summit.

And better yet, go reserve a seat. Go to RID Academy and reserve your seat now. Hope to see you there. Thanks, guys.