By Jeffrey B. Dalin, DDS, FACD, FAGD, FICD
Dr. Dalin: Weave is a relatively new company that has developed a unique product. The company offers dentists a phone system that integrates with practice management software. This month I’m talking with Brandon Rodman from Weave. Brandon, let’s start with the basics. Will Weave become our phone service provider?
Rodman: Correct. Dentists typically use the same phone company at the office that they use at home. No phone company offers a compelling reason to use its service over someone else’s. This is where Weave enters the picture. Weave pushes the limits on what phone systems can offer industries, such as dentistry. It has not been easy to develop what we have, and there are a lot of technical aspects of our service that will dramatically change the industry. Weave is a phone company for dental practices that will replace a practice’s current phone provider.
Dr. Dalin: As I understand it, dentists can drop their present carrier and get local and long distance service through your company. How about the phone sets? What makes these phones different?
Rodman: The phones that you can buy through Weave are made by Polycom and offer next generation features and technology. The phones are more like computers than traditional telephones. They can be programmed to do different things by introducing different lines of code. The phones offer HD voice and have countless features, such as caller ID, extensions, transferring calls between workstations, parking calls, built-in music, or messaging on hold. When most people see the phones, they’re impressed and think they look nice. Believe it or not, the actual phone is the boring part of what we’ve developed.
Dr. Dalin: Let’s walk through a typical Weave phone call. My phone rings. My staff members then see a window pop up on their computer monitors. This window provides all types of information about who’s on the line.
Rodman: Exactly. This is where the software that Weave has developed comes into play. The software syncs three items — our phones (the hardware), the computer (our software), and the dental practice management software. Anytime you get a phone call (or place a call), you will get a pop-up window on your screen that gives you information about the patient you’re speaking with.
The software window that pops up will provide a high-level overview of who you’re talking to (name, family members, age, patient status, last visit, insurance provider, remaining benefits), a log of your recent communication with that patient and/or household, the ability to schedule follow-up communication, and a task list that shows you what needs to be accomplished on the phone call.
Dr. Dalin: Would you provide more details about the task list? I know this information can be used to keep dentists’ schedules full and practices running efficiently.
Rodman: The task list is where Weave really shines. When you’re on a call, Weave will search inside your practice management software, perform several calculations, and tell employees what they need to do on the phone call. For example, if you get a call from Johnny Weave, the task list might remind Johnny of his upcoming appointment next month, to schedule his overdue wife for her next appointment, to collect $50 of overdue balance Johnny and his wife, Jane, owe, to wish Johnny a happy birthday tomorrow, and to collect an email address and cell phone number. The best part of this is that Weave automatically checks inside a practice’s practice management software to see if employees have completed these tasks. The more tasks completed, the more revenue generated in the practice. It’s about having the right information quickly, and then being held accountable to the information you’ve been given.
Dr. Dalin: Besides the task list, what reports can be generated daily, and what can I do with them?
Rodman: This is a major feature currently under development. I believe the phone is the single most important thing in the dental office. A dental practice cannot operate without a phone system to communicate with patients. Because we are the phone provider, and because we sync the phone with a practice’s dental software, we can generate communication reports.
For example, we can tell a dentist how many scheduling opportunities a front desk employee had that day (new patients vs. overdue patients), how many appointments were scheduled, how much revenue was generated for the practice that day, and what the show rate is for the patients who were scheduled. The reports create a layer of accountability for employees. It will encourage them to work harder and smarter. It will help a practice be more successful. Since Weave has this information, we can route calls from new patients to employees with the best statistics for scheduling, show rate, and revenue generated per patient.
Dr. Dalin: Does your system send patients text messages from computers?
Rodman: Yes! Phone calls are only a part of the communication that takes place between an office and patients. Weave has built in the ability to call, text, and email patients with one click from the desktop. We are proud that Weave is the first company in the dental industry to offer true two-way text messaging. This means a patient can be sent a text message from the computer desktop, and the patient can reply to the text in real time. When patients send text messages, a pop-up window appears on the desktop computer’s monitor. Just click the reply button to reply to the text message. Some dental practices that use our system regularly schedule appointments via text messages.
Dr. Dalin: How can this system be used for after-hours phone calls?
Rodman: Weave also offers a scheduling service to help dental practices schedule their overdue recall patients. This is a source for additional revenue. Weave plans to incorporate many of the tools we use in the evenings to schedule patients into the software and phone service for no additional charge. Weave has called more than one million overdue patients for dental practices throughout the U.S. and Canada, and has learned much about how to be effective in these efforts. The hardest part is getting someone you trust and who wants to work in the evenings to make these calls. I would encourage anyone who has not hired someone to specifically call overdue patients in the evenings to call Weave to find out how we can help you.
Dr. Dalin: Brandon, is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
Rodman: Weave is not your typical, boring dental company. We are pushing the envelope on technology, and we plan to change the dental industry by helping dentists manage and improve their communication through technology. It is surprising how much interest we’ve had in our system after our launch some three months ago.
Anyone interested in our phone system and software can get a free, live online demo. Call us at (888) 579-5668, and we’ll let you use the software, call the system, and send yourself some text messages. Thanks, Jeff!
Brandon Rodman founded Weave in 2008, establishing a new category in a market that had not previously existed in dentistry. Rodman is an entrepreneur with a passion for technology. He has a strong background in graphic design, marketing, advertising, business development, and business strategy, and is a graduate of Brigham Young University. Reach him at [email protected].
Jeffrey B. Dalin, DDS, FACD, FAGD, FICD, practices general dentistry in St. Louis. He is a cofounder of the Give Kids A Smile program. Contact Dr. Dalin at [email protected].
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