I love the month of June! The snow and cold of winter and the dreariness of spring turn into eye candy with flowering trees and bushes, spectacular annuals, and emerald green grass. It is also the time for graduations from high schools and colleges. Kids with their life and future before them – the world their oyster – listen to inspirational and motivational themes: Don’t be afraid to shoot for the stars. Don’t ever give up – the old story of if you get knocked down seven times you get up eight. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you won’t succeed.

So what if you could imagine yourself now –working in the dental profession – attending that very same graduation, listening to those same themes. Of course you are now older and hopefully a lot wiser with years of life experience under your belt. But maybe you are burned out, or tired, or jaded. Why not use this as a good time to rededicate yourself to being the absolute best dentist you can be. Or the most talented and helpful team member – whatever your job in the practice.

Mohammed Ali recently passed away. One of the greatest fighters all time, Ali is even more famous for his courageous battle with Parkinson’s disease. He wrote these amazing words that totally reinforce the graduation message. “Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”

The lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein from The Sound of Music convey the same indomitable spirit. Climb every mountain. Ford every stream. Follow every rainbow. Till you find your dream.

Hopefully good food for thought for all of us – no matter our age or station in life.

Over the past five to seven years in the dental profession, there has been a significant increased awareness and utilization of marketing automation and reputation management companies. These companies automatically and professionally connect with patients via email, text, voice and social. These companies sync with your practice management software to analyze patient data and send the right message to the right patient at the right time.

The savings in time and the increase in efficiency are huge! Instead of front desk staff spending hours on the telephone, scheduled appointments are automatically confirmed in real time by email or text. Other value added services like re-activating overdue patients, collecting reviews, online appointment requests, family messaging, birthday and holiday greetings all happen seamlessly and contribute to keeping a full schedule of patients.

I would like to suggest that one of these companies – RevenueWell – has separated itself from the competition. Here are the reasons why.

• No contract – with the exception of Lighthouse 360 and Yapi, RevenueWell is the only company that operates month to month with no contract. Everyone else requires a one or two year commitment.

• Exclusivity – RevenueWell is built solely and specifically for dentists.

• To my knowledge, RevenueWell is the only company that is able to notify patients of expiring dental insurance benefits.

• RevenueWell has the capacity to send out a welcome packet to all new patients prior to the initial visit.

• RevenueWell has a large library of pre-built campaigns to promote elective services.

• All communications can be customized and edited for any campaign.

While these six features are important, there are two more that alone make this company worth way more than the monthly fee of $299.

• Treatment plan follow up – RevenueWell is the only solution in the industry that monitors your practice software for unscheduled treatment plans and automatically communicates with patients to bring them back into the office. Other companies can send an email telling a patient the practice offers crown services, and maybe attaching a promotion to this communication. RevenueWell can send the patient an email telling them that they need a crown on the lower right first molar, include detailed cost and insurance breakdowns – and even links to relevant Caesy videos that illustrate the procedures you’ve proposed. Very cool.

• Patient reviews – all of the companies automatically encourage patients to post a review following an appointment. These reviews get posted to a microsite hosted by the company with some, but rather minimal, SEO benefit. RevenueWell has a system that explicitly and easily helps the patient to re-publish their review on Google or Yelp. Reviews posted on these sites are called “direct reviews” and carry much more weight and relevance.

RevenueWell integrates with the three most popular PMS systems: Dentrix, Eaglesoft, and PracticeWorks. My clients report a high level of satisfaction with the product and are especially impressed with the consistent customer service experience and technical support. Michelle Gabrielson at 770-840-5342 will be happy to schedule a demo.