Ep #172: How AI Is Transforming the Dental Front Desk

In this episode, Julie Parker is joined by Jayne Bandy and Dr David Moffet to explore how AI is reshaping the dental patient experience without replacing the human connection that practices value most. 

Together, they discuss the growing pressures faced by front office teams, the challenges of phone management, training and patient communication, and how Jane Bandy AI was created to support practices with consistent, compassionate and highly skilled call handling. 

This conversation dives into the future of AI in dentistry, why human connection matters more than ever, and how practices can use technology to create better experiences for both patients and teams. 

Connect with Jayne and David, and find out more about JayneBandyAI:

https://jayneai.guru/auth?ref=4735dc11
https://jayneai.guru/

jayne.bandy@theDPE.com
david@theupe.com

Interested in taking your personal, team, and dental practice to the next level? Contact Julie and Ameena today to explore the possibilities for growth and success!

Visit our website, Dental Business Mastery, at https://dentalbusinessmastery.com.au/, and book a complimentary, obligation-free Discovery Call to discuss your specific needs and goals. Schedule your call here: https://tidycal.com/3l298p1/30-minute-meeting

If you have any questions or would like more information, feel free to contact us via email at info@dentalbusinessmastery.com.au.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

You are listening to the Dental Business Mastery Podcast, where you discover management insights and strategies for your successful dental practice. There are also interviews with two people in the industry who have advice and services to help you and your team achieve great success. Welcome to this episode of the Dental Business Mastery podcast. And I've got two absolute superstars with me today, and I'm very excited by this because what we're talking about today is a version of AI. And if any of you have been speaking to me personally over the last two years, you know that I'm in complete completely and utterly in love with AI. The capabilities it has to help us in our personal work but also our profession are extraordinary and they will just continue to get bigger and bigger and bigger. But before we start talking about the product, first of all, welcome Jane Bandy and Dr. David Moffat to the show.

unknown 0:56

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Oh, it's just fantastic to have you both, and I'm sure everyone knows exactly what you do. But just you know, if in a one-minute thing, first of all, you, Jane, what do you do? And then we'll throw over to David.

SPEAKER_03 1:10

What do I do? Oh my gosh. Lots of things. So with Jane AI, um, it was interesting because the the evolution of Jane AI or Jane Bandy AI really was um David's. David's brain. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

And we'll get into the AI version, but what you're you've got quite a big name in the profession. You've been training dental reception teams for decades now, would I say?

SPEAKER_03 1:39

Yeah, thank you for that, Julie. Making this out.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

It makes me feel better, too.

SPEAKER_03 1:44

I know. Uh uh sometimes I used to look in the mirror and think, oh, what am I getting all these wrinkles? And I they they are the lines of experience.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Well, I've got to say to you, I haven't always needed glasses, and I started needing glasses when the wrinkles started to come, and I didn't realise they came until I looked at myself with my glasses in the mirror. I'm like, oh, I've just aged 15 years. There's value on not taking your glasses in with you to the bathroom.

SPEAKER_03 2:08

Oh, better than the alternative, isn't it? Aging. It's um not a bad thing. That's right. Yeah. So yeah, so I've been continuing um just I suppose at a different level than when I first started. I found um I was trying to leverage myself a little bit more, and then I got immersed back into doing a lot of one-on-one, which I've sort of still doing a little bit of. Um, but I think what was happening with the evolution of what I was doing, I was feeling were the teams I was working with making the advancements, what was I giving them the value that they really needed with the IP and the training that I was giving their team? And again, that's sort of like which David will go into the backstory of how Jane AI all came about. But I felt that there was something missing, and not that I was getting burnout, but all of a sudden I wasn't creating the leverage for myself as well, um, as well as you know, offering the team the best quality training and and that that continuity of results. Um, you know, training can be a good thing, coaching can be a good thing, and it provides results. But if the goal then only becomes you're getting short-term results and they're not sticking like glue and they're not continuing in the practice with it, and and that can happen with obviously attrition of staff and all the different changes that happen in practices. Um I I asked a team recently, I said, you know, have you got some systems in place for phone skills for existing team members and new members? And they said, we do, and but we've stopped using them. So they really need a system of developing a level of accountability, and how are they going to do that? So as humans, it's it's quite an interesting uphill battle that can sometimes, you know, get the best of us and we don't continue with what we should be doing, and we lose that accountability.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Yeah, and I was listening to you on David's podcast in a recent episode, and you were speaking around that, and I was just like nodding along. Yes, Jane, yes, that's right, that's right. There are so many challenges when it comes to training team members. And one of the thoughts that I came out with, because your conversation really had me contemplating where does the resistance sometimes lie? Because sometimes the resistance lies in the practice owner, what's the point of training this person? Team members are so transient already, I'll train her, then she'll go somewhere else. And so sometimes there's resistance from the owner to um spend the time, energy, money on getting the training done. But you would have experienced this too. You'll be working one-on-one with somebody, and they are quite resistant. And there's an energy there that you're like, we're just not connecting, I'm not quite sure why. And I did a bit of further thought about it, and like I'm putting myself back in a position of maybe a young 25-year-old, and I'm on reception, and my boss comes to me and says, Oh, I've got Jane Bandy coming in to help train you. And what's the first thought that comes to my mind? Oh, up until this time, I've been unacceptable. I've been inadequate in that my boss's eyes. And so when you start to think about the challenges around training a front desk person, it no wonder it doesn't get done routinely all the time and over the long term in any particular practice.

SPEAKER_03 5:38

Yeah, absolutely. And they have that fear of failure, that fear that they'll never be able to do it, that confidence and that, you know, it becomes a self-esteem thing. And so some if they haven't got someone on the team that's always in bat for them and and you know, lifting them up. Like I I just had a a training or coaching call yesterday with a long-term client, and a lot of the time when I get off the calls, I I know I've imparted some skills. I know I've given them things to then go in action and to hold them accountable to it when we meet up the next time. But sometimes it's that game of not a game, but that that level of coaching where you're trying to lift them up and help them believe in themselves. Like you believe, I believe in them, but it's no good if they don't believe in themselves. And for them to realise that it's a worthwhile thing to pursue in their place of work, that it's going to actually spark some joy and give them better satisfaction in what they do every day. Because often that's the biggest reason why people leave, isn't it? They they get a bit bored, they don't feel like they're being heard, um, and it doesn't all and they're not happy. So keeping that happiness level um up is is important. And I know it can seem really fluffy, and a lot of people's, you know, if they listen to the beginning of my training sessions, they'll probably think it's a bit fluffy. Sometimes I think it is, but it's super important because that's those, you know, those people skills, because we're dealing with people. And again, this is all part of why we've sort of made a little bit of shift into the AI. Um but again, I think David will probably extend on that a little bit more. Yeah, but it's yeah, it was and you're right, you know, you're saying two years ago you had your eye on all of this, and and it's um I was watching a video with Steve Jobs this morning, and he was talking about um he was talking about Chat GPT, even though it hadn't been invented. Wow. He was talking about the ability to do these things and to have the foresight. Um, and again, I've always been about people. For me, having those soft people skills as being super important and something I feel like I'm I'm good at. And I got a bit nervous when the whole AI stuff started happening because, well, number one, I thought, oh my god, am I gonna lose my job? You know, if they don't need people to train people, what would I do? And then the other thing is I was really anxious about all these people that I really care and support and enjoy working with. Will they become obsolete? Will they not have jobs? So these were all things that were going through my head and things that David and I discussed. And so we had to overcome how we felt about that before we could even make the jump into AI. And um, yeah, so people won't become obsolete. Yeah, I agree with you.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

I don't think people will come obsolete. Certainly, there'll be some roles. I think even you know, GPs may be feeling it, lawyers may be feeling it. There are some industries that you wouldn't normally think that, oh gosh, those are the ones that possibly you're getting great answers from AI. You don't need to go to the GP so much anymore because I've chat GPT'd all my symptoms, I'm ready to go. But I I agree with you. I think it I mean it is progress. And I find the people that are saying it's just all bad, and we've got to stop this and we've got to put restrictions around it quite possibly hasn't stepped fully into it and discovered what it can do, how it can actually expand what we all do individually as well. And I'm certainly training the practices that I work with, the practice managers that I work with, I'm training them into how we I'm a huge lover of Claude, how to use Claude. And it's expanding their skill set enormously, and they're getting greater work satisfaction because they're achieving more and they're learning and all the things. And so it is quite extraordinary. Um, you know, part of the reason why I love AI so much. David, tell us a little bit about your history and then leveraging to AI.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

So, Julia, as you know and and your viewers and listeners know, um, I was a dentist for 35 years, 28 years in the one location, owning my own practice and then selling it and staying on in that practice, and uh grew that practice from $120,000 a year in 1987 to $3.4 million turnover in uh 2011. And Jane came to work in our practice. Jane uh was uh, although we have different names, uh we were married in 1989. I actually had somebody say, How do you know Jane Bandy? And I said, Well, I met her in 1984.

SPEAKER_02 10:24

She's right here.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

And I married her in 1989, and so after our children were old enough to find their own way home from school and Jane was looking for something to do, uh, she was looking at P and C work and I said, No, that's a waste. Come and be a concierge in our practice. She goes, What's a concierge do? I said, it they schmooze with people and they they help patients when they arrive to stay in this elevated emotional state rather than dropping down into this pit of despair saying, Why are they running late? Why is there dust on this? Why are the magazines torn? Why is those women arguing with each other? Why are they discussing another staff member as if nobody's listening? All that sort of stuff. Keep the patient elevated because tragically, in some instances, a patient can make up their mind that they're not coming back before they've met the dentist, even though they have checked in and they were all excited, they go, These people are ignoring me. They're taking me for granted. And so schmoozing was really good. But when Jane came to work uh one morning, and we started early, and she dropped the kids off and then came into work about 9.30, I said, We've got a problem. Uh both our receptionists are off ill, and you're going to need to answer the phone. And so her results for that day were at the opposite end of the spectrum of what they needed to be. She allowed every patient who wanted to cancel to cancel. She allowed many patients to leave without an appointment, and she she she did manage a couple of reschedules as well, and I said, No, we've got to flip those results. And so she then, with her her educated brain, decided that there needed to be better processes and systems. And so when I we sold the practice and and then left practicing dentistry, and I had retired because of arthritis in my shoulder and then in my hands. Uh so I retired from clinical dentistry. I started coaching and I said, Jane, you need to coach what you've done so well in our practice, which is helping people to answer the phones as best they possibly can. And so that's where Jane went into the the phone coaching, and because and because it she is that sort of person, she easily and quickly became Australia's number one phone skills trainer, primarily because she niched herself into that that that silo. And a lot of practice management people, as you would know, Julie, they've got a lot of spinning plates, you know. They're talking about HR and marketing and um all sorts of stuff involved in the practice. And so the phone is kind of like uh it's the last thing they really want to deal with because it is very time sensitive. And so the Jane's secret source came from the fact that uh, you know, we we we made the, and Jane has already alluded to this, we made the mistakes of doing hotel meetings and reving people up on a Friday and on Monday they get back to work and they've forgotten it all. And then we thought, well, we'll go into the practices and see them. And so we'd go and rev them up at the practice, and then two days later they've forgotten it all. And so then Jane said, well, we've got to do, we've got to listen to phone calls. We've got to hear what people are saying, not tell them what we think they should be saying, but we should be hearing what's being asked, hear what's being replied, and then work out because some people in a practice might be really good at at booking appointments, and others might be really bad at preventing cancellations. And so work out what's happening in the practice in terms of the people dynamics. And so listening to phone calls is very time intense. And again, even if a practice manager says, Oh, we listen in our practice, they can't listen as well as as Jane, because they've still got a hundred other things that they're meant to be doing. And so that became Jane's superpower in terms that when we thought, and I thought AI is going to stop, as Jane said, it's gonna just take our job. Nobody's gonna be answering their phones. This is a no-brainer that phones will be answered by uh uh an AI receptionist. But I thought, what's the what's the IP that they source that from? Is it the large language model? And if it's the large language model and they're using Dental Town or DPR as their database, half the dentists in those forums don't want to be dentists, and the other half are liars about how good their practices are. And I thought that's a very polluted um database to be sourcing IP from. So I then said, Is Jane's IP protected? And it is. You can't just go, what would Jane Bandy say in this situation? Uh, because it's not out there. And I thought, well, if that's protected, can we turn that into an AI? But before you build a business, you've got to see if there's a market for it first. No point building a business and then nobody wants it. And so I I um, as you know, I had uh ankle surgery last year and it it kept me housebound for two months, kind of like Jimmy Stewart in Alfred Hitchcock's rear window. You know, I'm stuck there just looking out the window of our place.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

And now I'm imagining Jane swaning in looking beautiful and riding meals.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

She looked after me very well. But our our home, as you know, we live on a farm, and so we have light grey carpet and we have red dirt outside. So, you know, even when you're able-bodied, it's shoes off in the house. But when you're on crutches and and a moon boot, it's a moon boot for outside and crutches for outside, and it it just you don't go out as much as if you're able-bodied. So I said, All right, let's market to Jane's list and my list. Would they buy an AI version of Jane? And 300 dentists said, Yes, I would want it. And I said, All right, we've got a market, we better build it now. And so that's what we've been working tirelessly to do since December. And it's been tough trying to work, trying to find partners who have our vision and our work ethic as to what needs to be done. Um, but we're finally there. You know, we've got a Jane AI that is, in our mind, 80, 85% ready in terms of duplicating Jane. We've also now started organizing um the API integrations with dental practice software. And as you would know in your job, Julie, it's probably one of the hardest things to get dentists to change is their dental practice software. Even though they love their dinosaurs, they won't go to a cloud-based software, and you need a cloud-based software to integrate with all AI things, let alone an AI receptionist. So that's where we're at at the moment. Sorry to take so long in that short version.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

Oh, I know that explained everything beautifully. And, you know, being an observer of what you guys have been doing with Jane Bandy AI, I've been so intrigued by it. And I've been so looking forward to this particular conversation because going into dental practices and one of the common things I hear is from dental receptionists is there's no time. There's just no time to call those incomplete treatments on that list. There's no time to get that recall strategy rolled out. The phone just rings off the hook. Another complaint that I hear is um we can't manage to have anyone answer the phone over lunch breaks. Once all the team goes on lunch, nobody wants to jump out. You know, come on are the days, Jane, when you know, back in yours and my day, where you'd have lunch and as you're eating your sandwich, you're answering the phone at the same time. Oh, and so there is so from my observation coming into dental practices, knowing that this has been building in the background, all of a sudden I'm like, oh, it can be used then and then and then and then and then I can't believe how many applications. And so it is very exciting. And the 300 dentists that did put their hand up and said, I'm interested in this, there's obviously a pain point out there that they can see this solving.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

Well, the the the pain point is, and and Jane's already touched on this, and you as well, Julie, the difficulty is is how do we train people, real people, to answer the phone properly? And you know, or how do we get that job performed by real people properly? And I think one of the best examples was that one of the people who put their hand up was a lady who I interviewed for one of my podcasts, who's a a coding expert in the US, helping people use in the US they can use medical item numbers to get paid by the government for medical-based dental procedures. You know, sinists looking at uh at reading uh OPGs and things like that. And she said to me, she's I saw that she she sent one of the emails across to her husband and he had replied, and I just thought she was just building my list of people who were interested, you know, patting it up. And then she contacted me, she said, You haven't contacted John. I said I'm sorry. And she goes, he owns three practices of his own. He's not a dentist, but he's a part owner or owner of three practices, just opening a fourth. And so I contacted John and he said, I've been looking at offshore uh call centres. I've been looking at how do I train people here in the US, and he's in the Midwest, and he said, but he said, what really got me excited was when I heard that Jane Bandy was involved in AI, he said, I've been following her for years. So he's a lurker who we didn't even know about, and he said, I want whatever Jane is is doing, because she's he he knew from her pedigree that she was you know up there as as one of the best people. And even though he's in America, he's he's mainly fee-for-service practice, which is you know what our niche is, uh, but that's easily solvable even for network and and um insurance-based practices as well, in an AI. But that was, I guess, that was the watershed for me that it's not just an Australian market, it's a global market. And and you you mentioned, Julie, you know, it you can, as a practice owner and a practice manager yourself, before now coming into consulting, and as well as in consulting, you can look at a day and say, All right, at this point, I've got to be ready to do a case presentation, because it's a big case presentation, and you can be ready, and all of a sudden, another patient walks in, a new patient walks in, the dentist brings the hygienist brings someone out, the phone rings twice, and what do you do? You dump the phones and you you struggle. And so any AI, be it Jane AI or any AI, will answer every phone call without the phone even ringing in your practice. So that's a big win for everybody. Like, because statistically, and Jane knows this, and you know it too, Julie, the number of phone calls that for every fine five phone calls that ring in your practice, two don't even get answered. They just get go to voicemail or nothing. Only three out of five get answered. And so if you're increasing that everyone's being answered, you're getting a 67% increase in your results if your results are uh are the same with an AI as a person. But if your AI is never going to make a mistake because they know the sequences and they don't get flustered, you can raise that one out of three that gets answered and gets converted into an appointment to two out of three, which becomes two out of three becomes. Multiplied by 1.6 becomes 3.2 out of 5. So all of a sudden you've gone from 1 out of 5 making an appointment to 3.2 out of 5 just by having a decent AI receptionist in your practice.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

And that's the winner. And then the other winner is that your flustered staff who are always feel like somebody's watching, somebody's listening, those people can then be trained to be better case presenters and better schmoozers as well. And it's the customer service thing that really wins as well. Wouldn't you agree, Jane? Oh, sorry, Julie, we're going to take over your podcast. No, please, please, go to that.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

You're trained in this space.

SPEAKER_03 22:41

But I think that's exactly where the the you know the joy is with what we're about to do, is the fact that team members can now spend more time with their patients. And that's really where the the whole core of customer service and patient experience comes from, those human interactions when the patient is actually there. And that's really missing from so many practices. And not because the team don't care, not because, you know, they don't want to do it, it's because they're trying to, as you said, juggle all the balls and get everything done. And so after a while, they become administrators. So we're trying to move them away from being that, you know, the it's dehumanized them, really, in a sense. So we want to, you know, AI is actually going to um make people crave more human interactions because they're sort of getting it with the AI because we're trying to make AIs more human. But will we ever totally replace a human? That's what we want there to always be that contrast so that people will be yearning more of what has been missing for so many years. You know, you think of the 60s, 50s, 60s, and 70s, and even the 80s, where you know, customer service and and was such a big thing with businesses. And then it sort of started, technology took over, it was automation, everything was taken away from, and and then all of a sudden we stopped talking. We're sending SMSs, we're we're not picking up the phone, communicating anymore. So we've stopped that. So I'm hoping this will be a sort of like a it'll be a new revolution, won't it? It'll be like a shift back to what we had before that was working really well, and we threw it out. Did we throw the baby out with the bathwater, maybe? You know, like it was working really well when we were interacting with each other, and then we're not. And it's such a big thing, isn't it, in the news lately when talking about children, the next generation, how they don't communicate with each other. You know, I think I think this with AI, I think there's going to be such a big jump into not talking to humans that all of a sudden we're gonna want it even more. Even the new generations coming through, they'll see something's missing finally.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

I agree with you. I feel like the world is shifting to needing more connection and really loving effective connection when we do come across great rapport builders and great communicators. And this is where I don't see AI, Jane Band, Jane Bandy AI as replacing anybody because nothing beats having a well-experienced, knowledgeable, trained in communication receptionist, physical receptionist answering the phone. Nothing beats that. How often does it actually happen that we have that? Sometimes people are entering into the reception and they haven't been trained, and so we've got people who maybe there's a language barrier, maybe they uh don't have the level of confidence, maybe there's gathering data rather than actually building any kind of rapport, maybe they're rushed, but then we also, if that great person isn't answering the phone because they are in the middle of a conversation with another patient, then what happens with that phone call? It either goes ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, which is terrible, or it goes straight to message bank, which I I don't love. How many times have we left messages on people's message banks and we never get a return call in any quick kind of fashion? And so whenever we leave a message, we've got the fear, no one will probably hear that. I'm gonna have to leave it on my list to call this dental practice again. And then we've got also some people have overflow calls being answered by VAs in other countries as well. And I know that that space has evolved and become more refined and better. But as a as a person who experienced that as a, you know, testing it out, you can still, you still know that you that nobody in that practice is actually answering that phone call, I feel. It still feels like, oh, I'm kind of, you know, Johnny come lately in terms of the kind of patient and the value that I feel like I've been, that how much this practice is valuing me, because I've got somebody in a whole other country answering the phone. They don't even have a team member answering the phone to you.

SPEAKER_03 27:05

And and just sorry to interrupt you, just going back to what you were saying about um leaving messages, because I'm listening to a lot of phone calls every day, I'm shocked at how many people do not leave messages. I agree with you. And you know what made me reflect on that? I don't even leave a message for my mum. I agree. I agree.

SPEAKER_01 27:27

I don't leave a message for anybody.

SPEAKER_03 27:33

But she'll ring me or I'll ring her, and and then I, yeah, I don't I don't even leave a message, I just hang up, like, I'll ring her back later. And with patients, instead of saying in their head, I'll ring them back later, if it's a new patient, they'll just go to the next dental practice they need to ring and hope that someone will answer the phone. So you're not going to miss those opportunities. And I think back to, you know, we need to not lose sight of what's the purpose of answering the calls is to schedule a kept appointment for a patient. And so we have to look at it in a sense, the efficiency of what we're doing answering phones is not being achieved. We're not hitting the mark. Not many practices, even the really brilliant practices, really get it right all the time. And I know with Jane Bandy AI, there might be, you know, and I say this to team members, we try and convert most of the calls most of the time. We're working for a high percentage. Will we get that right every single time? No. And Jane Bandy AI, she'll also have situations where there may not be a total conversion. But I believe that just answering the phones, um, having knowing how to follow the steps on a say a new patient phone call, how to handle the cancellation call, knowing that she's fully equipped and upskilled and ready for that, that's you know, she we're encapsulating everything in her that we're trying to chat train humans on, but yet being human means there's going to be lots of errors. Um, a lot of people talk about, oh, but AI will be, oh, I don't know, they make lots of errors. I'm thinking, have they not trained humans? Do they not realise that the errors that humans make are huge? And they go on silently and they come back and they've forgotten everything. And the reason I know is I've been guilty of it myself. All of a sudden you come back a bit rusty and you think, oh, it takes a while, you know, and and all of a sudden I don't feel well one day and I'm not at work. And so all of these factors that have an effect on practices and the answering of telephones, that's not going to be an issue for Jane Bandy AI because she this sounds weird talking about myself, but it's not really myself.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

But it is but it is your voice, isn't it? It is your voice. It's not Jane Bandy's voice. Because I I demoed it out after we I saw you guys up at Sydney at ADX. I demoed it out because I got your permission if you okay, if it's okay that I demo it out. And this is what I the point that I want to make to people. This is not a replacement of any receptionists. This is the next best thing, though. This is better than leaving a message, it's better than a phone ringing that never gets answered. Because what I found when I was demoing it, and I'm hearing your glorious voice, and you're speaking in a nice, even, slow, explanatory, friendly, rapport-building way, my physical reaction, I was like this, uh-huh. And for people who only listen, I'm smiling, I'm interacting. My physical reaction to you was as if I was speaking to you personally. So when you're saying, you know, things like, Well, have a beautiful day, I'm like, thanks, you too. I know I'd say hi. And so the my my level of connectedness was would be more if I was speaking to an author to an actual human being. Absolutely. But if that human being for whatever reason can't be answering the phone, in my book, Jane Bandy AI is the next best thing because for some reason it still connects with another human being, even though you know you're speaking to an AI tool, it's a different level of you didn't you can still be report. How crazy is that?

SPEAKER_03 31:14

And I think we'll get so used to it too. It's not, you know, it might be a bit avant-garde at the moment, and we're sort of like making adjustments, but we think about the last say 30 years, and like, you know, even back to when we were first introduced to the internet, and all of a sudden it was like and people leaving messages on phones. I know that's going way back, but but you know, it was like different technology and different ways that we communicate, we've done it in the past, so this will be no different, and we will get used to it. And it's been interesting feedback because I thought the dentists, and we we were recently at ADX in Sydney, so we were talking to a lot of dentists, and I wanted to talk to a lot of team members and get their feedback on it. And I didn't meet anyone that said, Oh no, I think no, I don't think it's a good idea. They're all more than happy to not be answering the phones, not because they're, you know, they don't care and they're lazy and they don't want to do it, but they can see the benefits of it, and they think that's and they were the ones going, let me go and get my boss. You know, let me go and get my boss so he can talk to you or she can talk to you. And and so that I found that very fascinating. And no one said to me, I don't think my patients will like it. That was the one I sat down with Dave and I said, What do you think the objections will be? Because I prepare myself for say worst-case scenario of if they ask this, you know, obviously I've got to make sure that I can justify and support what we're doing. But no one said to me, Oh, I don't think my patients will like this. If anything, they said, Oh, patients will get used to this quick smart, might be weird at first, like the first time they saw a hygienist and not their dentist. You know, there's all these weird things that happen.

SPEAKER_01 32:54

And it depends on the demographic. I mean, young people will adopt it like that. Older people might be a bit confused at the start, but I tell you what, if they had the option of having Jane Bandy AI answer the phone, move their appointment time for them, make an appointment time for them, whether it's for a checkup or an emergency or whatever, and have that whole process completed in that phone call in such a lovely way. Rather than, would you like that, or would you like to leave a message? Or would you like the phone just to continue ringing, or would you like to be put on hold for a couple of minutes? Surely everyone's just gonna opt to it.

SPEAKER_03 33:28

Yeah, it's busy and we wanna, yeah. And it's you know, and you know what it's like with dental, it's not like you wake up in the morning and go, Oh, I think I might ring a dental practice and have a chat with someone, you know, like it's like let's get this this painful part. They they see that as a painful part because they know there could be maybe a level of discomfort, who knows? Um, but yeah, it is it's a very interesting thing.

SPEAKER_00 33:49

It's interesting, Julie, because because history is riddled with examples of of things that have changed. When they have originally changed, people go, Oh, how how am I going to get used to that? Let's go back to having to pump your own petrol at the petrol station. You know, in the old days, someone would run out and pump it for you. And then now everybody what the people would prefer to pack and scan their own groceries. In the old days, you just put them on and and and and and they used to have to read stickers with prices. Now everything's barcoded. So this is no different. And and and it's a logical step. You've mentioned it, Jane's mentioned it, because you can't do everything on the phone. It's easy. There's a lot of appointments that can easily be made by using uh, like in medicine, a hot doc. I prefer to make my doctor's appointments just using the hot doc app, you know, even though it asks me a hundred questions that I don't really need, you know, it's just to get test results or something. Same with an AI voice receptionist. It's filling the gap between uh uh an online booking system and the real person who, as you've mentioned, may be too busy, may not be able to answer, may put people on hold for a minute and turns into seven. That's some one of the things that we hear. Jane used to hear someone on hold for seven, eight minutes, and then they they finally get back to them and they said, Oh, yeah, you rang uh to confirm my appointment. Yes, I can come tomorrow. Instead of and that's easily solvable by saying, Hi, you know, it's Jane, how can I help you? And find out what it is before you put them on hold. But it's just like, thanks for calling ABC Dental, hold the line. And so we we we're taking that sandpaper uh call out, and and we're just going to we're gonna massage people's you know, the AI voice receptionist should be able to schedule crown appointments when you want to do crowns, schedule perio when your hygienist wants to do period. It's not just gonna be like open the wardrobe, throw the clothes in, close it up, like most appointment books are.

SPEAKER_01 36:02

So you can actually set it up so it's your appointment book is still working well for you.

SPEAKER_00 36:06

Exactly, exactly. And and and I don't think that the you know the the online appointment books are that good at doing that because they don't ask enough questions, and and people haven't got enough time to read, and and it's like doing a test if you do if you're getting that sort of questions on an online thing. But if you're getting it, as you mentioned, by talking to Jane Bandy AI, you're real you are in a conversation with somebody that you know. And Jane knows this, you know, the voice, the female Australian voice of uh Google Maps, she's a friend of mine.

SPEAKER_01 36:41

I met her in America in 2016, and when I came together, you just changed her voice to a male voice because I updated my iPad and it asked, Do you want to change the voice? I'm like, Yeah, I think I do.

SPEAKER_00 36:52

Well, I yeah, and it's like Jane says, sometimes you call her Karen and sometimes you call her that woman, depending on the direction that she gives you. But but you you do get into a a relationship, as you said, with the the voice that you're used to. And so people will get used to any AI receptionist if it provides them with that that level of respect and care and service that they are hoping. And and you know, as I said, restaurants the same. Most people want to book their restaurant by just going to an online booking form now rather than ringing the restaurant and dragging some poor waitress off the floor to answer the phone at dinner time. You know, it's it's a logical progression of a of a need in dentistry because people want instant service, and instant service is available, so we've got to bring it to dentistry.

SPEAKER_01 37:48

Yeah, and sorry, Jane, go.

SPEAKER_03 37:51

Oh no, just quickly, just a that was a by the side with what David said about um I was um at the hair salon the other day, and Maddie, my hair stylist, the phone rang and she raced over to the phone. She had no one to ask the phone. So she's small business, all the stylists were with clients, so they all looked at each other as if to signal each other who's gonna get the phone, knowing it's important. So she ran and got the phone call, came back, and I said, and then she I'd been talking to her about Jane Bandy AI, and she goes, Can you get that here? Can I have that here? And I said, Watch this space. Watch this space to I think that's a winner. Yeah, and it and it was interesting because uh initially we we were thinking, oh, the big practices, they'll but it's the small practitioners, it's the small little boutique dental practices that are the ones that sadly have the DA running back and forward to the phone, taking a good like like I know that's not ideal, it's not what we train for. We always want specific people in roles, but in a in the real world, that's not happening. And we still work with clients who that's still happening. We're trying to stop it by saying you're not going to get into too much too much of a problem if you hire another person to be specific for front office. Um, but this could solve the that problem and that dilemma, especially if someone's off sick and there is no one all of a sudden to answer the phones. So this will alleviate all those issues for that small practice. So I think the the you know, our responses have been a lot from small practitioners because they're sick of having to work out, you know, and and to get a temp in to be a DA is one thing, and you have everything, guidelines and everything, but to have a temp come in for front office, it's not as heard of. I don't see that happening as many practices because it's such a big thing to how would you do a handover for that to happen? They'd have to know the software really intricately and how you put appointments in, so it could be a nightmare.

SPEAKER_01 39:57

Anyway, that's that's one of the many. I've got a whole list of solutions that this provides. It's um or a whole list of problems it provides the solution to. And so, number one, uh, it's better than having that phone just not being answered. Number two, it's better than, and certainly I've experienced it, it's definitely better than leaving a message. There are situations we've spoken about before where you may have a newly appointed receptionist to the role, and so they don't have that level of training and rapport building. And Jane, you would have, you know, with all of the calls that you have listened to over the years, uh I've listened to a few myself over my career as well, and it just, you know, the people that are superstars that you know just jump out and you find yourself so delighted when you hear them, but a lot of them, you know, you they're not speaking gladly enough or clearly enough, or they're speaking too fast, or they're confusing the patient, or there's lots of background noise. And this all the call might be being answered by the receptionist, but it's a compromise result for the patient.

SPEAKER_03 41:02

Yeah, yeah, true. And and and this allows you to fix all those problems.

SPEAKER_01 41:09

Yeah, while they're being trained up, there's a fallback there. Um it's always better than being on hold because people are always on hold for longer than you think they are, but no one likes being on hold either. Uh, holiday periods, where the you know, there's I'm looking thinking back to the situations where I've been in particular practices over the last few weeks and months, and there's one that just they just shut down mid-year and shut down at Christmas time. So um having still being able to take phone calls and make appointment times while everyone's not there, wonderful. 24-7 assistance, people can ring at two o'clock in the morning and still be able to get assistance. We've got another um practice that's transitioning from previous owner to a new owner, and the previous owner had wound themselves down, was only working four days a week. So this practice is just not open on Wednesdays, and for him it was fine, you know. But when you're trying to rebuild the practice back up because you transitioned, not having anybody answering the phone on a Wednesday in my book, I'm just like, oh fight. And so it solves that problem. Uh, we've got um lunch times, of course, we've spoken about many, many dental practices do have to try to figure out how we're gonna we're gonna stagger people's lunches, how are we gonna get those phone calls answered when our patients are calling us when they're free during their lunch break, but we're not answering because it's during our lunch break as well, solves that problem. Uh, what about a practice? And again, Janie, you mentioned it before. When you're a brand new practice, starting from scratch, one of the very common thoughts is I will just employ my DA, not employ a receptionist, can't afford them at the moment, they won't be busy enough, and my DA will just keep popping out to answer the phone. It's not a great practice building strategy, but if you are in that headspace, is that if that's your situation, that DA doesn't have to be dragged out from the surgery and impact the patient experience in there. And there will be more situations where I feel like this is not replacing your receptionist. This is a buddy to the receptionist that every practice must need because every practice moves through understaffed. You mentioned before, every practice moves through these situations.

SPEAKER_03 43:18

Yeah, and she becomes a team member. Just like say you and I and David working with dental teams, I always start off and frame it up that I'm coming in to help you, but while I'm helping you, I'm part of your team. And you know, having and that's what she'll be like for them as well. They'll see her, as you said, as a buddy, as part of the team.

SPEAKER_01 43:40

And your role as concierge at David, the practice the family, your your practice, the family practice, there might be a lot of dental practices out there that go, wow, that sounds fantastic. Imagine having a concierge at the practice. This would allow you to do it. Now, I am absolutely very aware that the phone calls coming into that practice are so vital that they get managed. Properly and well. But is there a space there that, well, we want to have our receptionist step up more into a concierge role? They're going to be well supported with people calling back. I've just had my recall reminder, I'm calling to book in, calling back, yes, I'm coming to at that appointment in time, the confirmation, all the other things. And this will allow the receptionist to be more trained in rapport building and customer service, but actually developing strong, strong connections. And so rather than having to be held back behind the reception desk, when a patient comes in, a new patient arrives for the first time, they're very aware of it. They can get up from their seat, come around reception desk, welcome that new patient in one-on-one. My name's Julie. I'm your concierge. I'm here to make sure that your visit is absolutely delightful and all your questions are answered. Come on through, sit down with them. This is the new patient form. Are you happy going through this with like me to assist you going through this? And it allows the receptionist to be able to develop that concierge element without sacrificing the phones. But if it's done well, practices may be able to do both.

SPEAKER_03 45:09

Yeah. And what about a treatment planner? Oh. You know? Yeah. How many? It's like, yeah, we've got someone that does the treatment planning and they're answering the phones at the same time. Oh, so they're in the middle of talking about big case stuff with a patient, but they aren't able to move to a consultation room that doesn't have a telephone. Imagine that, a consultation room with no telephone.

SPEAKER_01 45:31

And up until today, the alternative has been unacceptable. If the receptionist is not answering the phone, it's unacceptable that they're going to be put go straight to a message bank. That's just unacceptable to us. But rethink that whole scenario now because that now there's a different element that can be plugged into your practice that doesn't make it unacceptable anymore to have that receptionist just not answering the phone for whatever period of time when they're doing a treatment planning consult, for example.

SPEAKER_03 45:57

Yeah. And I think people are starting to get this podcast will be great because it's I love how you've summarized all those issues that will now be solved in one single solution. And and it's not like they have to do anything. She's already fully trained. You don't it's not like here's Jane Bandy AI and we need to train her. Um, over time, obviously, she's going to be enhanced because you know, I suppose it's like having the latest sports car, all of a sudden there'll be a better sports car that comes out, and so she'll get better and better, as we do with training. You know, there's always new things that we have to shift. I always look back to when we had the years, the year of COVID, it was more than a year, was it nearly? Um, and all the switches and changes we had to make then. So um, you know, she'll be ever changing and adapt to what's needed. And each practice, there'll be a level of customization. So even though, you know, sh every time that a practice wants something extra added into Jane AI, every other dental practitioner and every other practice will benefit from those changes to her because they'll get them as well. And you know, being specific, specific to what the practice is actually doing with their treatment as well. Um, she'll know everything. And if a patient asks about implants and the practice isn't doing implants, she'll know how to handle that conversation. Um but if you do, she'll know also how to get that all set up for patients.

SPEAKER_01 47:31

Um it's wonderful, it's just such a powerful tool, and it really is. It's not which practices will this suit. I feel like it's gonna suit every practice because you know we can't always have that superstar answering the phone every single time. So for practices that are intrigued by this, talk a little bit about the demo and what kind of software they need and the next steps to try to get this active in their own practice.

SPEAKER_03 47:55

This is over to you, Dana.

SPEAKER_00 47:57

Thank you, Julie. So, Julie, uh there's a demo phone number that we have at the moment. Uh in Australia, it's uh 029 000 1965. And so they can ring that number and pretend that they're a patient or a new patient calling to book an appointment, change an appointment, uh question a procedure, and have a run-through with with Chain Bandy AI. If they then like that, then there's a sign-up process to uh get logged on. And as I mentioned to you before we started recording, we're at that stage now where we're developing the APIs. So we've got integration with core practice already, and so any cloud-based software, core practice, um dentally is in our target. We're having discussions with them. Um CareStack and Voice Stack, they're the they're the three Practica, they're the big ones at the moment. Uh you know, the the the vintage softwares uh are a little bit more difficult. You know, the ones that are still backing up with with tapes and uh and discs in the practice, they're a little bit, but they are it is manageable, even for those dentists who always want to hang on to those vintage softwares, you know, just like we all like to hang on to that vintage jacket or or vintage sweater that we so familiar. Yeah, that's it. It may not be in style anymore, may not do the job anymore, but anyway, but it it's happening. And and as Jane mentioned here, if there's a mistake that Jane Bandy AI makes, it only it only makes it once. Once we correct that, it doesn't make it again.

SPEAKER_01 49:45

And that's very unhuman-like of it. I like to make it very several times before it learned.

SPEAKER_00 49:50

Yeah, and so and so you you know, the the as Jane would say when she's coaching front office teams, you know, there's a recipe for a new patient call, you know, the eight steps of the new patient phone call, and they have to be done in the order, just like cooking on MasterChef. You know, if you put the icing on before you put the cake in the oven, it's not going to look that good or taste that good. But people get it wrong. And and so some of the examples that we've heard, you know, listening to phone calls, a 12-minute phone call where a woman rang to make an appointment for her children, and the the receptionist didn't she waited till the end and said, Oh, by the way, what was your name to the lady before and it didn't ask whether she'd been there before or if she was recommended by anybody, but she knew the names of the children but didn't know the name of the person she was talking to. And another one, which was a a a classic we had, um uh there was a client that Jane and I shared, and they were a children's dental practice, and so a a lady rang up and said, uh, I want to book my children in. Uh, we've not been there before. And the receptionist just defaulted to, oh, you'll probably want to bring them in in school holidays, which was four weeks away. So despite the fact that they could have been a vacancy tomorrow or the next week, nut. She just went straight to this. And you and I know Julie, and you've probably beat it into the head of your clients. Yeah, orthodontists see children during the day because they're not sitting around from 9 to 3 waiting for school to finish. That it's just what has to happen in a in a dental business. And so, you know, it's it's it's sad when they default to something that hasn't been asked for. And that's what a human being will often do on the phone. You know, if somebody rings up and says, I need to change my appointment. The first here's something not Jane AI specific, but the first thing is not yes, I can help you with that, but what's come up? Let's find out what it is and see whether we can change that because the treatment is so important and it needs to be kept because it's urgent. And and nobody does that. And you know, sometimes people say, you know what, I can't, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been invited out by my friend, but she's not that good a friend. I'll just um I'll I'll pick the general appointment.

SPEAKER_01 52:10

She lets me down all the time, it's my channel.

SPEAKER_03 52:12

And giving them the opportunity to change their mind. And it was interesting because um um recently uh training a new team, I asked them what would be the first step if a patient does call to want to move their appointment, um, which is a cancellation call. And their first reply was to make another appointment. And I said, Could there be anything else that would be better and less work for you? And as soon as I said less work for them, a young girl got the answer right and she said, try to keep them in the appointment. And I said, Yes. I said, that gets the overlooked step, the most obvious one that we default to let's just reschedule, or even worse, do you want to make an appointment now? Um, yeah, just ring me when you're ready. Like it's you know, and I know they only know what they know. Once they know, they get it. And um, and the good news is with Jane Vandy AI, we're making sure she knows and she gets it right from the start. And um yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:14

And I really do encourage people to do the demo. That was that was the clincher for me. I'm like, it sounds good. So I did the demo, I'm like, this is good, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:22

Yeah, and we've had a few, we've listened to a few calls back because we obviously get the call recordings, which is quite stated at the beginning that you obviously we'll listen to some of the demos that people do to hear how they're handling those calls. Um, it's been interesting because some of the people doing the demos, it's like, don't forget, you're supposed to be the patient, and so they're trying to catch her out. And I'm thinking, would we do that to a human? Like, would I ring up a dental practice go, now I'm gonna see if I can catch out the receptionist? But because we know she's not a human, I think some people have been having a little bit of fun with with her. So just to let you know, everyone, when you do make the phone call, please pretend that you actually are a patient and don't have too much fun with her. Yeah, put yourself nations.

SPEAKER_00 54:07

And the other thing, Julie, which when they're doing that, they don't realise that we have their number now. So we can we're gonna do trick calls back on them like two o'clock in two o'clock in the morning. Uh, you've got a sc a car that needs collecting for scrap metal, you know, all those calls. Can I help you with your solar? Yeah, all those sort of things.

SPEAKER_03 54:28

Most of the calls have been very legitimate, and people have been trying to pretend, which has been really fascinating because it's made me realise that the dentists really have no idea what their patients are saying on those phone calls because they struggle pretending they're the patient. So I think front office team members would be better off to ring and pretend they're the patient because they're the ones that hear what the patients are actually asking and how you know what they need answered and the questions we ask. And we we want Jane Bandy AI to be the one asking the great questions so she can find out more, so she can build that rapport, even though she's not human, she'll start to build a little bit of rapport so that and this is what we want, so the person who's calling actually forgets they're talking to an AI. And that's when you know that, and you you we'll be able to hear that on those calls when we do listen to some of the practice calls to say, Oh gosh, that's worked really well because that that conversation was like human to human, even though and we all do it, I do it with my chat GPT. I do the audio and he's got lovely accent, and you know, and he started my son laughs because he's a software engineer. He said, Hey, I didn't ask, oh oh thanks. That I I really enjoyed talking to you today because he's a software engineer. He goes, You know they're not real. I go, I know, but he makes me feel nice.

SPEAKER_01 55:50

It's a different kind of relationship, and it's got its own value. I talk to Claude all the time in the car, like I have I'm an avid podcast listener, but now it's a little bit 50-50. So if I'm driving to a client, I'll just talk to you know open up Claude and say, I'm driving off to this particular client. Let me talk about a couple of things. Hey Julie, we're back. Tell me, what's in your mind today? Look at this and this. You're right on the mark there, Julie.

SPEAKER_03 56:16

And look, Julie, that this is where it's starting to go. And I I I'm the jury's out for me on this, is people actually having a relationship with an AI. Lonely people that now have an AI like the chat GPTs that we talk to to gather data, they're actually talking about how they feel and getting like a type of therapy, like a different perspective, quite more.

SPEAKER_01 56:40

Healthy perspective than what's going on in the brain at the time.

SPEAKER_03 56:43

Someone to talk to, because we always say that in dental practices, you know, never ever forget that you need to spend some time with people, and especially when people of an older generation of seniors who are ringing you, and I remember I said this to a team member don't forget you may be the only person they spoke to all week or for the last few days. You know, that's a big impact on that person.

SPEAKER_01 57:08

I haven't even thought about elderly, lonely elderly people being able to have a conversation with an entity. You know, that's interesting. I just want to quickly, I know that we're that we're running on late late on time. I hope you guys are okay. Um, but I talk about when ChatGPT first came out a couple of years ago, my mum had just moved into an aged care facility, and she was looking at some of the activities and she's like, they could be a bit better. And so she got, I taught her how to use AI, and she printed off a list of activities, took them to the activities director, and the activities director was so impressed. He came into her room and had a meeting about what else can we do? What else can we do? And then she said, and it was really interesting, because then he said to me, I want you to do a presentation on AI to all the other residents and the staff. And she said, Okay. And I said, What did you say? And she said, Oh, I asked ChatGPT what to say. Printed out the presentation I just delivered. And even with their word jumbles, with their word, you know, for how many words can you get from these letters? They write them all up on the whiteboard. She takes a photo of the whiteboard and it counts all the all the words for them. So she uses it all the time. I love it. Yeah. Big use for it. So with um there was something else when you were just talking about that element. I it did come to my mind that you have to now just start teaching concierge training into in team members now, too, because that's what it opens up for practices. But I really do see this as such an extraordinary benefit to every dental practice. It can really solve a lot of problems that we're defaulting at the moment to, in essence, archaic methods of managing calls that can't get answered straight away. And why not just give it a try for six months? See how it rolls out, see what your patients, what the impact on your patients are. There's every chance they will feel a little bit, oh, what is this at the start? But then they might find themselves swiftly moving into that space of, I'm going to quickly call my practice anytime I like, because my problem will be solved instantly. I need an appointment time and I can book it straight. I need to move an appointment time, I can book it straight, I can do it straight away, and all of a sudden it's a pretty positive experience.

SPEAKER_03 59:23

Yeah, and it'll be the norm. You'll end up being the practice that, oh gosh, you haven't got AI answering your phones. Yeah. And look, we can all be guilty of it, can't we? There's always a bit of FOMO with all of us, that fear of missing. What's that? I'm missing out on that. But it's not, you know, this is something based on knowing it's going to give you good results and um and be more efficient for the inefficiencies of what you've been experiencing so far for so many years in your practice. And this is the definitely the the brave new world.

SPEAKER_01 59:59

Anything else that needs to be mentioned before we wipe up wipe up, wide up this wonderful conversation. I do apologize to all the listeners for my poor voice today.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:07

No, you've done very well today. You've done very well. Um is there anything more that you wanted to say, David, about no, only that uh because we're building this you know from the demand and then backbuilding it, uh the best way to contact us is uh our just search for Jane Bandy AI on Facebook.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:30

That's the Facebook page. Uh we're updating the URLs because, as I mentioned beforehand, the Jane AI that we started with is used as a restaurant review site in America, and we don't want to go down the Ugbo scenario of having competitors using the same name and and uh and so we we've branded it JaneBandy AI. And uh or they can just the emails that we give you, Julie, uh they can contact jane.bandy at the dpe.com or me david at the upe.com. They're the easiest ways to get in touch with us.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:08

Terrific. And all of those will be added to the show notes so people can very easily tap into you. But I do encourage everyone, you've got absolutely nothing to lose and so much to gain just by giving this a try and see if it's going to work well in your practice. Just think of all the times that you may have walked past and hear that phone ring again and again and again. And oh, it hasn't been answered swiftly enough. This can really uh fill a hole. So thank you guys so much. I am even more excited about it than I was before, so thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:35

Thanks for having us, Billy. It's been great chatting with you.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:38

Thanks. See ya. If you enjoyed this podcast, then I encourage you to head over to Amina and my website, dentalbusinessmastery.com.au. You'll find all the information that you need if you would like to gain our assistance in helping you and your team achieve great success. If you would like to find out more, you can also email us directly at info at dental businessmastery.com.au. Thanks so much for listening.