Hi everyone, this is Erica Spicer Mason with Becker's Healthcare.
Thanks so much for tuning into the Becker's Dental and d s o podcast.
Today we're really happy to be joined by Steve Wright,
who is the director of Enterprise Sales at Solution Reach.
Steve's going to talk to us today about how to leverage technology to scale
patient marketing and communication. Steve,
thank you so much for being here today. And welcome.
Thanks, Erica. Good to be here.
Great. Well, I'm excited to get into this topic today, but before we do,
I thought it might be helpful for our listeners, um,
if they could hear a little bit more about you and your background,
if you'd like to share a bit about yourself and your role.
Yeah, absolutely. Um, I, I've been with Solution Reach for,
uh, the last six, uh, almost seven years, and I've always,
you know, targeted, kind of working in this D S O space, um, strategic markets,
and, you know,
any of our larger healthcare groups and organizations around the
country. Uh, we work in the US and Canada, uh, currently. And, um,
our, my strategic focus is, is typically around the, uh, D S O and,
and large group markets.
Great. Thank you so much for sharing,
and I'm excited to have you on with us because I know there's a lot going on in
the dental service organization or D s O space,
a lot of consolidation and growth here, um,
which is exciting and it also comes with challenges.
So I'm curious if you can share with us a little bit about how this trend
of growth and consolidation is really impacting patient communication
and also how patients are engaging in our care.
Are there particular challenges that you're seeing DSOs looking at in this
regard?
Yeah, no, great question and,
and really we're definitely listening closely to the market.
We are seeing a large shift in the last, you know, five,
six years in particular for, uh, these support organizations. And, um,
the numbers are, are increasing every day, and it just makes sense.
You know, we, these, uh,
support organizations have a great model for, uh,
providing everyday support and alleviating that day-to-day task on some of
these, uh, certain, uh, requirements for these, uh,
practices and, and making their lives easier. And,
and really just tying themselves to a group that has a great vision and a great
partnership opportunities. And, um, so we we're, yeah,
we're absolutely seeing the, uh, the shift in the, in the market and we're,
we're innovating personally, you know,
with our product and trying to keep up with the,
the demand of these large DSOs and what features and functionality and what
industry market trends we're seeing. Um, we're, we're seeing a lot of,
of really exciting stuff with, uh, consolidation and,
and centralizing control and, you know,
how could they support each location, you know,
as if it's the location sending messages out themselves and, um,
making it very personal looking, you know, how do we,
how do we automate that process and, uh, from a,
from a corporate team perspective and,
and give them the tools that they can without having to hire a hundred new staff
members to, you know, for these day-to-day opportunities. So, yeah, that,
that's definitely what we're, what we're seeing today. I'd say the, the,
the biggest market trend right now is, is centralization,
is how do we bring everything in one, minimize training, uh,
make it easier to onboard these new locations, newly, newly acquired locations,
and, uh, get them as successful as possible, uh, quickly.
Yeah, I really appreciate you laying it all out like that.
I think that's a helpful, um, helpful perspective.
And I wanna go back to something that you said about how these really
big organizations are kind of striving to have a message or
communication that goes out to a patient,
feel personable or personalized despite it coming out from, you know,
a larger entity. So how does technology fit in there?
How does it help improve communications and engagement with patients?
Yeah, yeah. It's, it's, it's interesting because, you know, years ago, even,
even as, as short as, you know, five to 10 years ago,
we had a hard time trying to convince doctors and, and owners that, hey,
texting, simply texting with patients is a great way to, uh,
get them the information they need quickly. And you,
you'll be shocked how much pushback we had from those providers. And,
and the biggest thing we heard is, well, this takes away the personal touch,
right? So kind of going like, the theme of this conversation, right, Erica, is,
you know, leveraging technology. And I think for years that's been scary.
It's like, well, the more we kind of saw the,
the word technology lined up with robots and, you know,
how are we being less human as we go? And so I I,
I love that question because it's, you know,
we are seeing that today and the,
the idea is to build a technology that is so user-friendly and so easy to use
that the, uh, these receptionist roles are front desk, the, the patients.
So it looks like they're gonna get a direct text from these, these people,
and then we have to automate it in a way where it's, you know, very,
very simple to control and manage from the, from the enterprise level, right?
So yeah, it's, it's definitely, you know, years ago, but in our,
in our response to those doctors that would complain about, you know,
the personal touch, it's, you know,
really what's more personal than letting the patient choose how they wanna be
contacted, right?
And we found that most like text and most like an email response. And, uh,
that's kind of the simple process of leveraging technology is is making it
very personable for that patient to look like they're engaging with,
with a human being.
Absolutely. And it's really a testament to how quickly things have changed,
because, I dunno, just to share a personal anecdote,
I think I remember the first time I received a text from my doctor to schedule
an appointment, and I thought it was so strange at first,
but now I would never even think twice about receiving a text
from, you know, a care provider. It's just really, it's the norm now.
It's so true. Yep. Yeah, it's, it's, it's become the norm. Absolutely. You know,
everyone prefers text. It's a very simple way of doing it. And, and, you know,
not just to limit it to text, you know, there's,
there's lots of technologies that are added today and, um, you know,
automating processes and, and you know, from, from the clinical side and, um,
it's, it's just something new,
but it's something that people are adopting better each day.
Yeah, exactly. And, and so building on that a little bit more,
I know you said it, it goes beyond just texting, um,
but when communicating with patients and kind of building a technology-based
strategy for engaging them, in your view,
what are those key components or considerations for an effective strategy
and how does that ultimately affect DSOs,
like their operations and measures related to that and also outcomes?
Yeah, I mean, for, for a strategic approach, it's, it's hard because every,
every group is different. Um, they're all unique in their own way,
and we do have to figure out a very streamlined way for them to, um,
get this technology out to these locations and how to provide training
on those products and what are the responsibilities or roles that these people
need to perform with the technology, right?
So we do run into that a lot and it is, it is very, very unique per D s o.
So that, that's been kind of a big question in our heads is like,
how do we create a customized plan per, per group, uh,
to get this technology out to these locations and, and how do we make it theirs?
You know, cuz we can't come in and say, Hey, here's your training models, right?
We have to work with these groups on how to, how to perform and,
and how to send these out in the right way. So, um, they're very,
very customizable. And I,
I'd say that's kind of the biggest thing that we do is I think we have a very
good process where, you know,
we want to be the tool that we wanna be the, you know, the prepared,
you know, the owner of the technology,
but we want every data point inside the tool is theirs and it allows them
to go out and, you know, customize it according to their needs.
Absolutely.
So not just customizing communication preferences for patients,
but it also comes down to doing the same for DSOs as well.
Yep. Yeah, absolutely.
Great.
So with the trends of consolidation and growth among DSOs,
you know, they're trying to reach more and more patients,
as you mentioned earlier.
So for the D S O that's looking to scale their digital communication strategy
with patients, what's kind of the go-to tool,
resource or first step that you recommend? Um,
and maybe you could share some examples of successes that you've seen with your
partner organizations as well.
Yeah, so, and, and maybe I need to go back,
maybe I need to take a step back too. I, I, I don't know if, um,
some of the listeners have any idea of kind of,
I think most people have heard of us,
but just to make sure that we have the groundwork here. So solution reach,
it's a web-based application.
It's a product that focuses on patient communication.
So we specialize in automating certain
processes like the reminder process or recalling patients or
getting patients registration information or managing online reputation. And,
you know, the kind of, the theme of today's topic is marketing, right?
So we have a lot of marketing tools to, uh, reach patients at the right time.
Um, the big theme of our system is text. You know,
we do believe that text is the best way to reach patients nowadays.
So that's kind of the underlying, you know, that's the goal is,
is how do we automate through text, you know,
to reach patients at very strategic times during their journey with these
practices. So yeah, I just wanna make sure kinda listeners, you know,
saw exactly kind of how we function, um, to answer that question.
But yeah, I think what's really, really popular right now is we, we had to, uh,
release a product, um, over the last, you know,
several years called Location Hub. And,
and it's the ability for these groups.
Cuz what we're finding in very specific situations is they have a,
an in-house, you know, marketing team at the corporate side, um, and the, the,
the roles of these marketing teams are to, uh,
send out automated newsletters campaigns, um,
manage the reputation online for these, for these locations, right? So there's,
there's a lot. So pretty much any marketing that they could offer, maybe it's,
you know,
managing their social media or responding to reviews or sending out review
invitations for patients to, you know, help boost their online presence.
That's our, that's what we're hearing a lot right now is, you know,
with consolidation is how do we get the best of both worlds, right?
So we have a patient communication system that that offers reminders and two-way
text and recall and, you know, all this functionality that we're all used to,
you know, in, in, in the kind of a dental atmosphere. But on top of that,
how do we bring another product in the mix for marketing tools like reviewing to
re you know, responding to reviews and,
and surveys and post appointment review invites and,
and mesh them together in a bundle that,
that is cheaper cost and easier to train, uh, moving forward.
So that's the biggest, uh, thing that we're hearing today. Um,
and, and you know, in particular the online reputation tool that we offer,
it allows these, uh,
centralized marketing teams to control all of the
reviews we have, you know, we work with several,
several of the largest DSOs in the country today and, um,
you know,
really large groups only have one person responding to the reviews because it
makes it so automated and so simple. So we, we are hearing that a lot. We're,
we're talking to a lot of groups every day who are saying they love the idea
of, of combining these tools together.
Cuz typically they're paying you 6, 7, 8, 9 different vendors for nine different
things. And the big question right now is,
can we have one all-in-one platform that does everything without sacrificing
functionality? So that's kind of the biggest thing I'm hearing today. Eric,
I hope that answers your question. Okay. But.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's helpful to hear how, you know,
you mentioned there is a way to kind of simplify this strategy,
um, through something like what Solution Reach is offering.
And then you mentioned how even some of these really big DSOs might
only have one person on their marketing team kind of on the back end.
And that's huge.
That seems huge because we know staffing shortages are one of the biggest
concerns of all healthcare organizations right now. So yeah.
Staffing shortages, but you know, on top of that it's, it, you know,
it's the goal for these DSOs are consolidation, right?
And so they, but lots of them didn't quite consolidate until it's, you know,
it's never too late, but it's kind of too late when you have, you know,
you have a hundreds of locations and you're not centralized. It's,
it's a really hard feat to change every single
vendor to a standard system, right? Right. So on top of training,
it's like these,
these people that we're talking to are stressed outta their minds trying to
figure out how,
how am I going to switch over all 400 locations to a standard system? And,
and not, not just what we do. You know, there's,
there's a lot of other vendors out there that they need,
they want to standardize as well. So what a,
this is an awesome first step for them, right? It's like we could come in,
we could work with pretty much any of the vendors you're using today,
and we could plug right in and this is gonna be your first step for centralizing
is through your patient communication. So it really is a stress reliever for,
for these teams, um, to, to hear like, cuz they're getting pressure, you know,
they, they, it's, it's part of it. They're saying, Hey, you know, from,
from a little higher up, they're getting some stress on, on them saying,
let's consolidate and let, let's simplify processes and standardize.
And we could offer them kind a an awesome first step to do that and identify
areas and gaps from it,
which helps them to kinda strategically focus on where to go next when they're
standardizing. Hope that makes sense. But.
Yeah, it makes a lot of sense and thanks for,
for elaborating on that a bit more. So considering all of that, you know,
this trend of consolidation organizations really, um,
feeling that relief from having some support in patient communications and
engagement, um, when you look to the future,
maybe the next five to 10 years out,
how do you see the role of technology evolving in this area,
especially for DSOs? Is there anything that excites you or anything,
um, you know, any exciting developments that you'd like to share in that realm?
Yeah.
Yeah, for sure. I, I think, I think, you know, good things to come are,
you know, really the, we,
we sit down and the way we kind of innovate and look towards the future for,
for example,
the next five years is what tools are we gonna have in the
future that are going to simplify the messaging process, right?
Or how are we gonna reduce staff time?
Like how are we gonna alleviate some of those day-to-day tasks that take them
time? So for example, one right now is
insurance verification, right? So we, we we're going out,
we're building a product and um, we have, you know, a,
a really great idea for verifying insurance and eligibility and,
um, that tool should save practices roughly five, four to five hours per week,
um, just in, in verifying insurances. And so that's,
that's one example of any of that. You know, we're, we are, you know,
again, we're, we're,
we're listening and we're identifying that over the next five years, it's,
you know, what could we do to reduce staff time, improve the patient experience?
Um, and, and that's one of them. The other thing that comes to mind is,
you know, everyone's buzzing about AI obviously.
And so how do we take AI and how do we, uh, incorporate it into our,
our messaging, um,
to provide responses to patients with questions?
How do we automate a response based on what their texts say? You know,
how do we, you know, how do we align with a lot of the new, uh,
and I'm sure you guys are, Eric, I know,
I know you guys said you've had other podcasts I've listened to about, you know,
ai, uh, reading and, and diagnosing treatment, right?
So that's big right now. Lots of lots of groups are investigating that. And,
and it, it also was kind of scary, you know, like a year ago.
It's like some of the, I I talked to a lot of different doctors who they,
they read, they had, you know, some red, red flags up and, and saying, Hey,
this is kind of discrediting our, our, you know, our,
our schooling and our ability and to, uh, you know,
read an X-ray and diagnose treatment, um,
cuz these AI systems are doing it so accurately and so fast and, um,
it's hard to, hard to beat. So that's another area where we're,
we're hoping to innovate more through is, is, is AI and you know,
what can we do to help deliver the messaging from this, uh,
this this treatment and unscheduled treatment? And how do we,
how do we deliver a very seamless, you know, secured message to these patients,
uh, with results. So.
Absolutely. You know,
it's really interesting what you were saying about insurance verification and
the possibilities there of saving, you know,
hours a week for staff time and we know that trickles down to patient experience
and other efficiencies too. So, um, right. Yeah,
thanks so much for sharing a little insight on that. And then of course, ai, um,
the ubiquitous topic of the day. So, uh, yeah, it's,
there's lot to consider there and, um,
not surprised to hear that solution reach is also thinking about that. So, uh,
thanks so much again for sharing and yeah, Steve, I,
you've shared so many great thoughts with us today on patient communication and
engagement and what's possible with the digital strategy.
So is there anything else that you'd like to share today just to kind of close
us out? Anything else that you think listeners might like to hear?
Uh, yeah, no, I, I think, you know,
as far as really everything comes down to the patient journey, right? It,
it's just how do we improve the patient journey? And, you know, a lot of this,
and this, this is why I love the idea of these dsso standardizing their,
their vendors, um, cuz it creates kind of a unique message, right?
It creates kind of a one track mind, um, that works, right?
It's, it's customizable enough where we could have, you know,
a lot of the different locations and different demographics setting out
different messaging, but at the end of the day,
it's all about communicating with patients and they just want that quick
response and they want that ability to, to have a channel of communication,
you know, preferably through text. And we just are, it,
it is just amazing how much, you know, open up where we're like, oh, hey, we,
that could go through text or hey, we could automate that through text, right?
, and it's like mm-hmm. , yeah, text is,
is by far the most intimate, you know, form of communication.
It's you're texting your, your mom, your dad, your, your siblings, your, your,
you know, your family. It's a very, very intimate form of, of communication and,
and email even is, is kind of, you know, becoming a little old school and,
and not as personal and not as, um,
researched in the sense where pa patients aren't really,
they don't see those messages as often, right? So really we just focus on,
on text and then how do we improve that communication ability with the patient
journey. So yeah, that's kind of the last things I'd, I'd, I'd love to add and,
and just make sure is from a, from a leveraging perspective with technology,
specifically with marketing, it's, you know, how do we standardize,
how do we get data to the right place at the right time? Um,
lots of these groups are really heavily invested in,
in kind of a BI solution or some type of data base where they could compile
certain metrics that are relevant for them to see. Um,
just kinda have that dashboard approach where they could have their entire,
you know, company's metrics in, in one area. And, you know,
we want to help supply all the thi all of the things that are relevant from
solution reach and to get into their system. So that's another really,
really big topic that is coming up quite a bit in our conversations is,
you know, what could we do to help compile some of these metrics that are key?
You know, of course we can't give reports on things we're not connected to,
but we could give, we could provide reports on, you know, our, our,
our specific product and, and the different features that we're offering.
And it's very in depth and very automated and easy. So yeah, that's,
that's another, you know, area of, of focus for us is,
is getting the reports to these DSOs quickly and effectively and letting
them have a simple way of,
of viewing it and putting all their metrics in one spot. So.
Yes, thank you for sharing all of that. I, it sounds like there's so much,
there's so much on the horizon for solution reach.
There's a lot of exciting things coming up,
but then also in the moment you're responding to a lot of the key
concerns that we're seeing among DSOs right now, like efficiency, staffing,
patient engagement. So, um,
I really appreciate you sharing all this with our audience and with me today.
Thank you so much again.
Of course. Yeah. Thanks for having me, Erica.
Thanks Steve.
And I'd also like to thank Solutionreach today for sponsoring this episode.
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