Episode 51: How to Thrive When Volume is Down ft. Dallas Logan

Introduction and Background 0:00

Dallas, thanks so much for joining me today. I really appreciate you taking time to connect. For those who don't know who you are, maybe introduce yourself and kind of talk a little bit about your background. Sure. My name's Dallas Logan.I'm based out of Oklahoma City. And I work with doctors and ophthalmology, cosmetic surgery, and cosmetic dentistry to help increase their revenues, streamline their sales funnels and processes, you know, kind make their day-to-day lives easier. I come from ophthalmology.

I've been in ophthomology about eight years, came from a large practice here in Oklahoma and in Plano. And so I started my own consulting agency so i can just see more growth and work with more folks. Love it. And that really tees up kind of why I wanted to interview you perfectly because not only do you, are you a practitioner in terms of like a clinic side of things, but then now in your consulting, not Only now, But in the past, working with a different kinds of clinics, different health verticals, Different sizes, I'm really curious to learn from you today.

Handling Slow Seasons and Team Culture 1:01

So with all of your experience, what would you encourage a practice to do when surgical volumes down, consults are down? Maybe the market is tightening or has tightened and is tough. With all your experiences, would what you would encourage your practice consider to look at? What would have them do during a time like this? Well, yeah, it's, you know, when times are tough, It's really easy to get what I call head trash. It kind of those negative thoughts. And it starts from the top and it goes through everybody in the practice went slow.

Everyone kind gets lethargic and just kind mopey and It just spreads. So the first thing is to really work on your internal culture. And keeping that, you know, this is just a season. This is not forever and finding ways to keep the staff motivated and yourself positive. And just learning different things, taking advantage of the slow season versus feeling the negativity of their revenue, which we all. are worried about. But what can we do to prepare for the future? How can be ready when it does get busier?

Because we know in elective surgery that we have slow seasons. It's just part of it. And so some of the things I really recommend, you know, is working on the culture, finding ways to join the team together. Cross-training, this is huge. If I learned anything from COVID is that everyone should know someone else's job. So that, we never have that lull when something happens or somebody's gone or We can plan for a vacation, but we can't plan an illness or maybe somebody moves on to another role. And then so really doing that, taking that time to cross train and the staff gets a lot out of that.

They feel like you're putting something back into them when they're learning. So just really spending that cross training, really working on your sales funnel. It's a great time you dive back in. You probably haven't looked at those old emails. you haven' t looked those text messages that you automate. You maybe haven't followed up with patients that kind of went in the wayside a year or two ago. So just slowing down and taking that time, asking the staff what has worked in past, what they didn't like, involving them in maybe updating your cell's funnel.

Marketing, Lead Follow-Up, and Retargeting 3:08

And then, you know, another great area. Everyone hates it. is role playing. It's everyone's least favorite, but it's a great time to, you know, bring the staff together. And it does help build culture. You can kind of make fun of each other. Or you can pick on your supervisors. you Can do, a little bit of all of that, But you. Can really fine tune the words you say.You can involve the docs because they're bored too. Um, and really just make that patient experience better in every part of the way.

I think is huge. Phone calls, what it's like in the clinic as a clinic tech and a patient. What it is like when a doctor gives a recommendation. You can replay every single portion of it to see how you can improve it. That's really great stuff. What would you encourage your practice to consider related to their marketing? I know you talked a little bit about the sales funnel, and so certainly maybe that's kind of all encompassing, but from maybe a sales perspective or a marketing perspective, are there any really specific things that you would dive into during slow seasons or maybe at a time like this in the market?

What are you practically looking at from that perspective? Well, we lose a lot of leads and through not following up, they weren't high enough in the sales funnel. So this is a great time to reinvent the wheel or find someone to help you bring all of that money you've spent in years past, all those leads you gained that have gone nowhere and really retarget them because you already spent the marketing dollar to get them in your system. What can you do now to engage them. Another area or something very important about marketing is a lot of us, when revenue goes down, we want to suck back on our marketing.

We really want start tightening our purse straps. we get nervous and I don't truly believe that's the time to do it. It's more so to spend more when it's slow and less when its easy and just really be thinking about what avenues are working, seeking outside help if This is a time to make changes.

Auditing the Patient Experience 5:19

Like if you have a call center, but it's not working, maybe you ask Boost to take on some lead forms. If you use something in the past that you didn't love, this is the time slow down, think about it, and reinvent on your systems. But I wouldn't necessarily stop my marketing. That's so good. I've never thought of using a slow season. Even in our own business, we could do this where if you ever wanted to make any big sweeping changes, new systems, processes, technology, it is a good time to take that transition than when you're at the peak of your volume and you don't have time I had a couple of conversations at the ACO summer meeting, you know, with some physicians who were kind of asking this general question, which sparked this idea to create some videos with experts like yourself.

And I encouraged them, same things, like, certainly don't peel back. But it's absolutely fair to take a deep dive, audit what you're doing, understand where every dollar is going, what's working, And then as you identify what is working, now you can confidently spend more to kind of bump yourself out of this lull, but that at least you're doing it with intelligence. So I love that feedback. I also think people should mystery shop themselves. You kind mentioned the sales process, sales funnel. You know what it's like for a patient to experience the practice.

Do that with your digital leads. We recently started mystery shopping people's inbound calls and it has been quite illuminating. So we're documenting for the practices, what their phone system is like, how many steps you have to go through, and how long the hold time is.

Using Downtime to Build Content 6:54

Did I get a voicemail? If I left a voice mail, did I got a call back? How long did it take to get to callback? So I think really looking at yourself in the mirror during those low times is really good feedback. A lot of us were patients ourselves at one point, but it's been a long time since we've been patient. And so even though the staff knows, you're not technically secret shopping because the stuff all knows you. I still think it is good to go through the process. But then getting your friends and family people from outside to secret shop, I think is huge too.

Everyone has good feedback. Yeah. That's great. Okay. What other feedback would you give a practice? I mean, You've already shared some really, really helpful nuggets. Is there anything else that kind of is top of mind for you that a practiced can do when they're struggling? Yeah, well, this is one time of the year, you know, there's never enough time to do social media. We can never grab the dock. They're always busy. This is a time that you can pre-build your videos for social, media, your content.

You might not need it or use it all now, but do stuff. Don't just sit around. Like there is always something to and it's everyone sees you moving. and working even though social media generates all of our revenue. All of us know it doesn't, but it's so valuable. And if you have enough content for your team to create stuff in November and December when you're in surgery all day, all the more powerful to have it ready and going.

How to Connect with Dallas Logan 8:20

So good. Yep. I knew there was a reason I asked you to be on this. This is awesome. There's so many threads that if a physician or a practice team, leadership team is listening to this, so may different things from what you've shared that they could lean into in their own practice. And so this is everything I thought it would be. So thanks for sharing your insight. If someone wanted to connect with Dallas Logan, what's the best way to do so? Yeah, you can reach out to me on my website or my LinkedIn.

I do offer a free 30 minute meeting so we can kind of brainstorm and see what's going on in your practice. Maybe we could solve a problem or figure out a way to work together in the future. Yeah, love it. And I do follow you on LinkedIn. I find your content to be extraordinarily, you know, practical and helpful. Again, I think you're almost a decade of experience running a practice gives you a really unique insight. So for those of you watching or listening to this, should very much follow her on linkedin.

She's really good practical, helpful content. Dallas, thanks for joining me. Really appreciate you. Thanks, Kate. Have a great day.