Introduction

In the rapidly evolving world of dental practice management, technological innovation serves as a cornerstone for enhancing operational efficiency and boosting financial performance. Founded eight years ago as a pioneer in conversational AI, Patient Prism has redefined growth strategies in the dental industry by integrating advanced analytics across marketing, sales, and operations. This article delves into how Patient Prism leverages its groundbreaking AI to catalyze significant improvements in dental practices, ensuring sustainable growth and competitive advantage.

Revolutionizing Marketing with AI

Marketing plays a critical role in the success of dental practices today, especially as the industry has shifted towards a B2C model for acquiring new patients over the past decade. With an increasing focus on various digital marketing sources, the ability to drive the right patient into the dental practice has become paramount. Numerous studies within dentistry have shown that the right mix of new patients is key to driving organic growth.

Marketing, when executed properly, emerges as the most predictable lever for practice growth; however, it requires a rigorous, data-driven approach to ensure precision and effectiveness in achieving this potential.

Patient Prism exemplifies this rigorous, data-driven approach by offering practices unparalleled insights into their marketing strategies, thereby ensuring the acquisition of the right patients at the optimal cost. Integration with platforms like Google Ads, Google Analytics, Meta, and Bing Ads allows Patient Prism to provide detailed analytics on key performance metrics such as cost per lead and appointment, enhancing the ability to optimize marketing spend efficiently. The AI-driven approach not only reduces wastage but also ensures that marketing efforts contribute directly to top-line growth, making marketing-driven growth more of a proven science than merely relying on old-world vanity metrics of marketing conversions.

Transforming Sales through AI-Driven Insights

Sales, the second pillar of Patient Prism’s strategy, begins the moment a patient calls to book an appointment. Traditionally, roles at dental front offices were viewed merely as 'order-takers' and not through a sales lens. However, today's consumer is empowered with technology and demands fast answers as well as empathetic and compassionate treatment. With marketing dollars driving these calls, failing to schedule the patient means wasted investment. The sales function thus becomes critical in ensuring that most patients are scheduling.

Patient Prism's sales enablement function, powered by its DeepLens technology, not only analyzes conversations in real-time but also provides a sophisticated analysis of why a patient didn't schedule an appointment. This real-time notification, sent via email or text, includes tailored training suggestions on how the conversation could have successfully led to an appointment. This enables practices to swiftly re-engage with the patient, offering another chance to convert the inquiry into a booked appointment, thus enhancing practice profitability and optimizing marketing investments.

Patient Prism has pioneered the concept of revenue recovery in dentistry, allowing dental offices to recapture a patient that was lost just a minute ago, thereby enhancing overall practice profitability and preventing the waste of marketing efforts. 

For dental practices nationwide utilizing Patient Prism, an impressive trend emerges: 25% of patients who initially did not book now schedule appointments upon follow-up. This remarkable conversion rate significantly boosts revenues, turning what might have been a good month into a great one for many practices.

Optimizing Operations for Enhanced Efficiency

Operations are the backbone of any dental practice, and Patient Prism’s AI capabilities extend into this domain by providing insights that help practices manage their operations more effectively. Sometimes marketing successfully drives the right patient to call, and the front office receptionist excels in winning patient trust, yet the patient may still be unable to schedule an appointment. Before Patient Prism, there was no clear understanding of why a patient didn’t schedule.

With the launch of the 'Reasons not Booked' feature, Patient Prism AI can analyze the context of conversations to uncover operational hindrances such as capacity issues, insurance compatibility, or pricing concerns. These insights are provided in real-time, enabling dental practices to make immediate operational changes like opening up schedules, prioritizing high-value patients and training on patient financing. This functionality has been a game-changer for thousands of dental practices across the United States and Canada, allowing them to enhance patient flow and optimize service delivery without increasing marketing spend. The real-time data-driven nudges from Patient Prism enable practices to adapt quickly, making it a critical tool for operational excellence.

Case Studies and Testimonials

Thousands of dental practices have benefited from implementing Patient Prism. Documented cases show improvements in patient acquisition costs, conversion rates, and operational efficiency. These dental practices report not only higher profitability but also enhanced patient and staff satisfaction, which is critical in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Thousands of dental practices today use Patient Prism to grab opportunities the AI determines will be of high-value and not miss leads for the services they target. Simply summarized:

• Patient satisfaction rises when calls are answered or rapidly returned due to Patient Prism follow-up alerts. 
• Patient satisfaction rises when the practice phone agent empathetically understands their needs, and expertly assists them.
• The AI platform is assessing all incoming calls within seconds, logging failed conversions, providing AI DeepLens insights into the nature of the call, and notifying the front desk with information about the call, the potential revenue value of the patient for follow-up, and details for appropriate call backs.
• Through feedback and linked advice, the AI platform is constantly triaging leads and training staff in best practices for overcoming obstacles to new patient engagement.
• Simultaneously, the platform is tracking key performance measurements, so the practice principals and managers can swiftly address the challenges of right-sizing and targeting marketing, achieving schedule balance, filling cancellations, and expanding operations to meet demand and capture potential revenue.

DSOs Benefit from Patient Prism AI

All sizes of DSOs are adopting Patient Prism. One of the nation’s largest, Heartland Dental, uses Patient Prism nationwide to help deliver the best patient experience for new patients. 

One rapidly growing DSO that uses Patient Prism is OMS360, an oral surgeon support organization that operates 17 practices in five states and is headquartered in Atlanta. OMS360’s CEO, Trevor Maurer, has attested that Patient Prism increases front office training efficiency and the effectiveness of their marketing and sales to such a degree that they do not initiate marketing a new location until Patient Prism proves they can manage a high volume of calls.

“We implemented Patient Prism which records our new patient phone calls and provides almost immediate training on how to provide better customer service, convert more appointments, and improve practice performance,” he said. “It’s a valuable tool in our integration of new partner practices. If they are not seeing a high conversion rate, we will delay deploying marketing resources until the Patient Prism statistics prove the practice is ready for higher call volume and can service those patients who want to come in to see our doctors.”

Myles McAllister, COO of SGA Dental Partners, another rapidly growing DSO in the Southeast, has attested that Patient Prism’s AI gives them the ability to instantly assess their capacity to serve patients and adjust marketing and operations accordingly. It has been especially informative for making expansion decisions.

“Only Patient Prism’s AI is capable of giving me the data I need to maximize our growth,“ he said. “Once immersed in Patient Prism, my eyes were opened, so we scaled Patient Prism to all our locations in Georgia, then scaled Patient Prism to all our locations in Mississippi, and KPIs that are critical to practice growth in each of their practice locations.”

Independent Practices Also Benefit

Growth-minded private practices using Patient Prism acquire 25% to 40% new-patient growth within six months. These statistics are not anecdotal. They are AI tracked.

“With Patient Prism, I know what’s happening with every call, almost in real time. It’s the best way to see how calls are being handled without micromanaging my team,” said Melissa Smith, DDS, who owns Washington Smiles, a dental group with four affiliated locations in Missouri. Dr. Smith had used another call tracking company for years and only listened to two calls that entire time because it was so time-consuming. With Patient Prism, she can scan the information quickly. “We’ve gone from booking 65% of new patient calls to booking 92% of callers. It’s definitely increased new patient revenue; there’s a direct correlation,” said Nicole Struckhoff, the Office Manager at Washington Smiles.

Even a single-office practice can benefit. “I had a gut instinct that our conversion rate was not where it should be,” said Marcelo Mattschei, DDS, who owns Dental Crown in an Hour, a dental group in southwest Florida. “The RELO alerts have made a big difference. We find that we have a more satisfied customer because we answer the right questions on the call. We’ve hired two more associate doctors because the business is much more robust. There’s absolutely a correlation between our growth and Patient Prism.”

Future Outlook

As AI technology continues to evolve, Patient Prism remains at the forefront of this transformation, continuously updating its features and functionalities to address the changing needs of dental practices. Over the past year, Patient Prism has integrated its analytics with platforms like Google Ads and Meta Ads, adopted an API approach for seamless integration with other technologies, and enhanced its ability to target high-priority leads. Moving forward, Patient Prism is developing new updates that will further leverage AI to enhance patient engagement and optimize practice schedules.

Drawing inspiration from Jim Collins's Hedgehog Concept, Patient Prism focuses on the three critical pillars of growth—marketing, sales, and operations—to position dental practices for sustainable success. By calibrating these areas, practices can put their growth on autopilot, becoming true hedgehogs of their industry. As more practices adopt this innovative platform, the landscape of dental practice management is set to transform, promising better outcomes for practices and patients alike.

About the Author

Amol Nirgudkar, Co-Founder and CEO of Patient Prism, brings a wealth of experience and a deep understanding of both the technological and operational aspects of dental practice management. Under his leadership, Patient Prism continues to inspire and lead the market in AI-driven dental practice enhancements.  Reach him at amol@patientprism.com.