Ep. 148: Front Desk As A Revenue Generator - Interview with Jessica Walker from Care Sherpa

WIW (00:00)
Hey, what's going on walk -ins welcome fam, Nick and Michael here. We're so excited to have a guest with us today, but as always, we are all about helping you triple your patient volume. do it through new patients, repeat visits, repeat visits. said that wrong. So new patients, repeat visits, scale and exceptional patient experience. We want to make sure that we knock those out and leaning into the patient experience. We brought on Jessica Walker from care Sherpa the day.

So the best way to describe CareSherpa, I'll let Jessica dive deep into that, but the way I would describe it is that as a healthcare facility, be it urgent care, primary care, anything retail wise, you have leads coming in, but sometimes they need to be followed up on. And you're too busy taking care of your current patients and you kind of forget about, well, CareSherpa is that last mile piece where...

Not only is not like a software thing only, but like it's a full service concierge process where they'll actually take that potential lead and do the conversion for you so you can keep taking care of your patients. Jessica, thanks for coming on today. right, Jessica. Yeah, we're excited to have you on the podcast today and learn more about care shepherd. Before we get started though, tell us one thing about you that nobody else knows.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (01:02)
Well, thanks guys. What a great introduction.

Okay, that's a fun question. So I think the one thing and it actually influences why I started CareSherpa. So I have the fact of being the youngest general manager in the history of Hilton Hotels. I managed my first property at 20 years old and then by 23, I had seven properties under management. So that influence around hospitality and the heart for service definitely influences where I am today.

WIW (01:19)
So I have the fact of being the youngest general manager in the history of Hilton Hotels. I managed my first property at 20 years old and then by 23 I had seven properties under management. that influenced around hospitality and the heart for certain. That's wild. A 23 year old running seven places? You know what? That's a good reflection though on Hilton from the standpoint of putting trust in a younger generation. So congrats on that.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (01:48)
Well, I'll tell you the funny story about that actually is it was a property that was failing. They're like, a 20 year old can't mess that up. So they gave it to me and I turned it around. So, you know, they're like, how bad could it be?

WIW (01:57)
I have to ask before we dive into cash, what was your secret sauce to running that's flipping around a failing hotel?

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (02:03)
You also would think that we set this up because I'll tell you it influences why I'm in with Kersherpa today. My secret sauce was 100 % my team. How I selected, hired, and built the team dynamic. We use that to this day when we hire Kersherpa and I say that because one of the things, the mantras we had is that everyone scrubs the toilets. And as gross as that sounds, what that means is that anywhere in my property, if you got hired, everyone scrubs it. Like people say sometimes everyone's the janitor, right?

WIW (02:12)
Okay. I'm writing that down. Hold on. Everyone scrubs the toilets. Go.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (02:32)
But for us, what that means is that if you came in and wanted to work at my front desk, you spent a rotation in housekeeping. Why? Because that is the hardest job in the entire property, and you had to place them on that pedestal of respect. But it also told me if you came in and you weren't willing to go scrub the toilets, you were not our person. So that dynasism of everyone coming together, being supportive and respect, and I hate to use the cliche of the family, but that's what it created. And again, I didn't know the science behind that.

WIW (02:33)
Right.

That is the hardest job the entire process.

But it also told me you came in and you weren't willing to go scrub the toilet.

of everyone coming together, being supportive and respect and I hate to use the term family, but that's what it created. And again, I didn't know the science behind that, but that's what led me to work for the Gallup organization and learn more about selection science. that's it for me and we very much carry that.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (03:01)
But that's what led me to go work for the Gallup organization and learn more about selection science. So that's it for me. And we very much carry that forward of like everyone is involved. It's everyone's job and we respect each other's job as well.

WIW (03:11)
respect each other's job as well. So if you applied one thing at all from the rest of this conversation today, take this back to your clinic. Everyone cleans the toilet. That right there was worth the interview. in my opinion, there'll be a lot more gold nuggets coming out of this. Yeah, we're only three minutes in, so we're doing pretty good. That's how you bring it. That's how you bring it to the podcast. There you go. No, hey.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (03:22)
you

Yeah. That's it. Sorry, I think it. Yeah, thanks. And again, maybe our application in the clinic is that everyone works the phones. Everyone's at the front desk. Like what's the hardest job in the clinic that everyone has to have respect for that you understand the lift and then therefore you support each other differently.

WIW (03:44)
Yeah. yeah. I mean, there's lots of operant, like as myself too, like going through like all the different departments over my lifetime of like, there's a level of respect. Like I know what this person's going through. I know what it's, what kind of pressures there are. I can relate from that standpoint, which then also I know how to properly help you when there's a situation that comes up. But let's talk about care Sherpa. So I gave like a quick one, two sentence overview, but in your own words, what is care Sherpa? Why do people care about it?

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (04:05)
thousand percent.

WIW (04:14)
What impact does it make on this community?

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (04:18)
Well, thank you for asking. So for me, it is born out of my early career, as I mentioned, hospitality. So that service heart, right? How do we take care of people and provide great, excellent service? But the second tier after my hospitality career is I got into helping health systems and partners think about patient acquisition, patient engagement, and that evolved into helping them think about really smart strategies such as marketing tactics and digital tools. Well, the number one thing I noticed is that these partners were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on the next silver bullet in marketing.

WIW (04:25)
to take care of people.

to helping health systems and partners think about patient acquisition, patient engagement, and that evolved into helping them think about really smart strategies such as marketing tactics and digital tools. Well, the number one thing I noticed is that these partners are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on the next silver bullet in marketing to try to attract patients into the funnel. But then when the patient actually picked up the phone or filled up the web form or whatever that referral pattern was to then have no one respond to them.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (04:48)
to to attract patients into the funnel, but then when the patient actually picked up the phone or fill out the web form or whatever that referral pattern was to then have no one respond to them. And so that was the lost opportunity, that that last mile is the gap. And I saw time and time again that there was no solution to help providers manage that last mile. So for me, the equation of service heart,

WIW (05:00)
And so that was the lost opportunity. But that last mile is the gap. And I saw time coming in that there was no solution to help providers manage that last mile. So for me, the equation of service heart makes great business sense in terms of revenue and growth. And we have to do that by being very responsive with someone in that activation mode. So that's the core of what CareShop provides our partners is that intelligence around the sales pipeline.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (05:13)
makes great business sense in terms of revenue and growth. And we have to do that by being very responsive when someone's in that activation mode. So that's the core of what CareShop provides our partners is that intelligence around the sales pipeline, but also that real time support for the patients to help them get that last mile and get them to the point of the first appointment.

WIW (05:25)
but also that real time support for the patients to help them get that last violet, get them to the point of the first appointment. So you threw out a really good statistic just a minute ago, before we started our conversation here, and that's 81 % of the leads that are generated by, let's just say a marketing agency like us would go unconverted just basically because they're not being responded to. So that is a devastating statistic from a business owner.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (05:46)
Yes. Yes.

WIW (05:54)
and the investment they're making in their marketing dollars. Here we are screaming from the rooftops, do marketing, and you're saying marketing's great, but if you don't answer the call, or as you like to say, call the damn leads, right? If you don't do that, then what's the point of doing it? So let's talk about that for a second. This is a nasty statistic.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (06:04)
Why even do it? Yeah. Yeah.

it's actually gotten worse. So when I started the business, yeah, and I'll tell you, so when I started the company back in 2019, it was 79%. And so we based that on the studies that we do. We do a series of mystery shops within the market, both with our competitor clients and other clients. And we just do, know, referrals from folks like you to say, hey, help our client understand. So we'll do these mystery shops across the nation, different service lines, different from health systems down to private practices. And so that stat, like I said, was 79%.

WIW (06:15)
Awesome. But wait, it went to 83%.

And so that staff, like I said, was 79 % our most recent study. It was in the last 12 months. It's 81%. And so I'll give you an example. told you, gentlemen, like just this week, we've got a series of mystery shops in four different locations. And not a single one has responded to us yet. And so we think about the cost of that digital ad, right, especially Google. We all know that cost is going up. So you're going spend all that money to attract that lead and then leave it at the locked front door? That's insane.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (06:42)
our most recent study within the last 12 months is 81%. And so I'll give an example. told you, gentlemen, like just this week, we've done a series of mystery shops with four different locations and not a single one has responded to us yet. And so we think about the cost of that digital ad, right, especially Google, we all know that cost is going up. So you're going to spend all that money to attract that lead and then leave them at the locked front door. That's insane. So for us, like that's the

WIW (07:08)
So for us, like, that's the core of, like, the problem I want to solve, because it's almost like an insurance policy on your marketing. Yeah. Because I have gone to court and said, why are you spending this money if you're not going to close the deal? Yeah, we have, this past week, I was calling on some potential new urgent cares, and there was one in particular one. Every time I called, I would hear her pick it up and slam it down. Every single time. I'm like, what am I? They don't know who I am. What are they trying to do?

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (07:09)
of like the problem we want to solve because almost like an insurance policy on your marketing, right? Because I have gone before and say, why are you spending this money if you're not going to close the deal?

WIW (07:38)
It's amazing to me because at the end of the day, like you should always say hello, answer, you know, use the name of the where you are. Cause there'll be plenty I would call and they'll say, they wouldn't say the name of the company. And like, I don't know who I'm talking to.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (07:50)
it's my favorite. They say doctor's office. That's like the number one, literally the number one way that people answer when we mystery shop is they say doctor's office.

WIW (07:58)
That's how they answer the phone. All right. Well, so let's take a look. I want to take in the statistic a little bit, because if they're going unanswered or unresponded to you, what are the top reasons that you found in all of the studies over 20 years that you've been doing this? Why are they not calling them back? It's got to be more than just, I'm too busy. That's not the reason. That's gotta be something else. That's excuse, not a reason.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (08:01)
That's how they answer the phone. Yeah.

I think.

Well, I agree, it's an excuse. So here's what I'm actually gonna say. I do not blame the individuals at the front desk. Let's just be clear about that, right? I believe fundamentally it's really two things. Number one is that we are not setting them up for success, nor saying that this is a dedicated resource to do this, recognizing that this is a revenue generation activity. Bottom line, I could say nothing else the rest of this discussion. And so that's the big differentiation we believe, which is when...

this is the determination of whether or not you get revenue in the door. So why would you not dedicate someone to actually do this and do it well, right? And then that's what goes to my second point. The reason why this happens is that we're not setting expectations of how this should be handled. I talked to a partner recently. said, I'd much rather have you let that go to voicemail than to have someone call and make a bad first impression about your brand, right? And so if we're not going to, again, so we talk to partners all the time.

WIW (08:58)
And then that's opposed by a second point. The reason why this happened is that we're not setting expectations of how this should be handled. I talked to a partner recently and said, I'd much rather have you let that go to voicemail than have someone call and make a bad first impression about your brand. And so if we're not going to, we talk to partners all the time, like, I want the next builder bullet in marketing, give me the chat bot, give me the AI tool. But fundamentally, if you're not going to have that assistance and that pathway to help the patient.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (09:17)
with like, I want the next silver bullet in marketing. Give me the chat bot. Give me the AI tool. But fundamentally, if you're not going to have that assistance and that pathway to help get the patient through, then why do it at all? So we do that by committing to dedicated on purpose with a plan, resources, and then accountability for those resources to perform.

WIW (09:28)
through, then why do it at all? So we do that by committing to dedicated on purpose with a plan, resources, and then accountability for those resources to perform. that's really good. So I think what would be fun to do is if a clinic took a month or maybe took three months or maybe just opened up their call log, right? Whatever company they use for their calls and just say, here's how much money we made. Here's how many times the phone rang.

So every time you don't answer the phone, it's costing this much money to the company. I mean, that, that, that alone, you were saying setting up understanding that that phone call is a revenue generator. That concept. Well, and maybe, maybe it's also an incentive. Now I very much appreciate the fact that you said, don't blame the front desk. Okay. But also they, they get nothing if they answer the phone or not.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (09:57)
Absolutely. Yeah.

Yeah.

I agree with this too, yep. So you have to tie it to, well, but that's complicated, right? So I'll tell you for me, for Keira Sherpa, my agents are incentivized on performance. So they, you know, as patients move through the process and there are milestones that are achieved, then that's how they win. Now that is a complex kind of performance management system that I realize most providers can't do. But at the very least to your point, like let's celebrate the wins of, hey, how many times did we answer the phone, you know, within X amount of time?

WIW (10:20)
How do we fix that?

Okay.

system that I realize most providers can't do. But at the very least, to your point, let's celebrate the wins of, how many times did we answer the phone within x amount of time? We know you're going to lose an opportunity to leave people on hold. And what are those standards? And then the second piece is around having some celebrations that they do have wins of people that are able to come in and move forward. Simple tracking is another way to do this.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (10:48)
Like we know, you you're going to lose an opportunity if you leave people on hold, right? And what are those standards? And then the second piece is around like having some celebrations with, you know, that they do have wins of people that are able to come in and move forward. Simple tracking is another way to do this. And I'm not saying give the front desk yet another spreadsheet to fill out or a post -it note to make tallies. You've got great systems in place that are simple call recording that can use AI tools to tell you, you know, was this a lead, was it not? There's things out there, but the foundation.

fundamental part of this though is are we shifting that mindset that this is not a cost center, but this is a revenue generation activity.

WIW (11:25)
Right. Yeah, that's good. I am, I'm really wanting to dig into this front desk.

Okay. Because I think like at the end of the day, while it may not be a fault or a blame to go to the front desk, it is a linchpin. Like it all hangs on the success in my opinion of whether or not that front desk is effective. So I'm going ask the question the way I wrote it. Can you explain what it means to position the front desk as a revenue generator and why this approach is so important for healthcare providers? How do you position this well?

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (11:57)
Yeah, that's a great question. So I first start by expectation setting, right? So do we have an expectation of what our team, like when we expect them to answer the calls, right? And to what the answer rate should be or the, you know, kind of first call resolution. So the other part of that, though, is what I find often is that we might set standards. We might give them scripts. I don't get me wrong, scripts are valuable, but, you know, they're not used to validate. Then what's the point? So we give them scripts, we give them expectations.

WIW (12:11)
So the other part of that though is what I find often is that we might set standards. We might give them scripts. And don't get me wrong, scripts are valuable. They're not used to validate the points of point. So we give them scripts. We give them expectations. And that third part is the verification. Did it actually happen? Who's coaching? Who's listening? Who's given that performance? So you have to start with that foundation. So let's say that we have that. That's great. Now the next level is let's celebrate the wins. So hey, because you answered the call and because we had.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (12:24)
Then that third part is the verification of did it actually happen? Is who's coaching, who's listening, who's giving that performance? So you have to start with that foundation. So let's say that we have that, that's great. Now the next level is, yeah, let's celebrate the wins. So hey, because you answered the call and because we had this many new patient consults booked in this time and it was above our monthly average, yeah, where's the celebration back to them and their hard efforts and recognition?

WIW (12:41)
this many new patient consults booked at this time, and was above our monthly average. Like, yeah, there's a celebration back to them and their hard efforts and recognition, right? And it doesn't have to be monetary. We find I have one client partner that just had a leaderboard. They would look by each individual front desk member and have a tracker each week of how many new patient consults were they able to book. That alone just draws attention to it. It's like an old like go into like a sales room type of thing. And he's had the sales leaders lined up and who's

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (12:49)
And it doesn't have to be monetary. We find, I have one client partner that just had a leaderboard that they would look by each individual front desk member and have a tracker each week of how many new patient consults were they able to book. That alone just draws attention to it.

WIW (13:10)
up toward the top. And there's a lot of rewards that go around that too. recognition is a big thing at the end of the day. Because I do believe that front desk people sometimes probably feel unrecognized because they're just getting bombarded with stuff on a daily. And when I was doing those calls this week, one of the receptionists that picked up, she sounded exhausted. Like she sounded tired. Hello. And then I said, I sent something to you guys. She said, I don't remember three days ago. I'm sorry.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (13:29)
Yeah.

Doctor's office.

bless her heart she was honest but

WIW (13:40)
You'd remember those cookies. I promise you that. If you got a cookie, you'd remember it. Right. Well, so when I worked for Eddie Bauer, which is a clothing store, if you're unfamiliar with it, like I had a million different jobs to do while I was there, but at the cash register, was required, required. It wasn't a request. It was a requirement to offer a credit card. Like sign up for the Eddie Bauer credit card. That wasn't up for debate. Now.

Who was good at closing those? Well, we celebrated that and there were incentives behind that. Now there was the requirement didn't change. You got to ask these people if they want a credit card. But the better and more effective you were at it, the more you were celebrated and rewarded for it. And as stupid as it sounds, you get free pair of jeans, right? Now, where am I going with this? And maybe you can help me with this as well is, you know, what if there was some kind of incentive, like you're required to convert these into appointments.

But now we're going to celebrate who converted the most appointments in all of this. So is that, is that an effective way that Kara Sherpa delivers or is this way out of reach? I don't know.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (14:45)
No, I mean, I think that we go back to the power of positive psychology. I'm a much bigger believer in the carrot than the stick, right? Unfortunately, I think sometimes we say we have this expectation and then we like use it as punitive where like to get folks excited about it to your point, like where's the reward? Obviously in healthcare, we can't give you a free, you know, rhinoplasty because you're, you know, work with a cosmetic surgeon or something. Well, actually one of my surgeons do that. You get, you get a higher rate of employee discount on products, but.

WIW (14:52)
Fortunately, think sometimes we say we have this expectation and then we like either punitive where like to get folks excited about it to your point like where's the reward? Right. Obviously in healthcare we can't give you a free know, final class D because you're - I mean maybe.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (15:12)
Again, I mean, I think I heard on your guys's another episode we talked about, there are just simple things like, you know, it could be a Starbucks gift card if that person drinks coffee. It could be like, we have these awesome care shirt brush shirts and it's as simple as like, I have different colors and you hit different milestones, you earn your shirt, right? So think about your front desk team. Like we know if you require them to wear branded, you know, material at your front, well, why not let them earn, you know, a jacket? Why not let them earn a different, you know, kind of, also becomes a status symbol. These things don't have to be

WIW (15:12)
That's

be monetary compensation. Now, I will tell you, like, you if you want to go to that graduate level of performance, you do all those things and you tie compensation to it, there's a game changer. right now, with the epidemic we have in healthcare, I want you just to first focus on like really committing to doing this with a really efficient and effective, consistent way.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (15:42)
monetary and compensation. Now, I will tell you, like, you if you want to go to that graduate level of performance, you do all those things and you tie compensation to it, there's a game changer. But right now in the epidemic we have in healthcare, I want you just to first focus on like really committing to doing this with a really efficient and effective and consistent way. Then let's go to the next level of like tying compensation to it. Let's just start here and say that this is important and to your comment.

WIW (16:04)
Then let's go to the next level of like tying compensation to it. Let's just start here and say that this is important and to your comment, dollars to it. Every time that phone rings, it's worth $5 ,000. Yeah, mean, in tying it and we had an experience once with a non -healthcare situation. was a daycare and this was probably four, probably about four years ago. And they were getting tons of volume. We were recording calls and I noticed that

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (16:10)
tie dollars to it. Every time that phone rings, it's worth $5 ,000.

WIW (16:31)
there was no action in the answer. They would just say that it would be a, what's Shell's current rate? Are you taking on, yeah, we are. Here's our rate. Okay, thanks, bye. And that was it. Do you want to come visit the school? There was no scheduling. when would you like your appointment? Yeah, so I went to the client and I said, and they had like five locations. And so they had like 200 on staff, like big outfit. And I went to the owner, I said, I need you to listen to a couple of these calls.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (16:45)
Yes. Yeah. No.

WIW (17:00)
And he listened to him. by the third call, he's like, you can stop. as and so don't make me listen to this. he's and so we calculated out and every time they didn't say anything or ask for a schedule, that was a $200 call. Basically, I was being wasted. And so so he's like, can you email me these like, sure. So the following week, he had a leadership training on all the leaders of all the locations. So he said he said he went got in the van with his 10 leaders.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (17:04)
painful.

WIW (17:29)
And he said, I want y 'all to listen. And he just sat there and played on the van radio, three of the calls or four of the calls, and they started getting angry. And he said, there's no reason to get angry. We got to fix this. it was, and then, we even gave them a script. Here's the script, the follow. You modify it, of course, but here's the script you need to follow, and you're going to convert more. And they magically got more schedule, like actual appointments, people coming in.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (17:56)
And it's one too that I believe, again, going back to like if you hire the right person with that right mindset, and again, we need to say revenue and sales and healthcare can feel like a dirty word, but let's be real, right? No money, no mission. We want to serve more patients, we need to have that money. And so ultimately when we tie to like here's the why, here's why this is important, you answer the call the way you do, but then also give them those basic skills. So I'll use the example, you're spot on, the number one thing that we hear in mystery shops is that no one's asking for the business.

WIW (18:02)
Yeah

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (18:25)
We call that the Assumptive Close. So if your listeners take nothing from our conversation today, teach your front desk Assumptive Close. And I'll tell you what this means. What this means is we go through, I've qualified you, you have intent, you have a clinical eligibility, you have financial eligibility, awesome. Instead of me saying to you, do you want to book an appointment? What does that give you? A chance to say, right. Versus if I say,

WIW (18:32)
That's good.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (18:51)
I'm so excited for you to meet Dr. Jones. I have an appointment next week Tuesday. Does that work for you? That's a simple tactic. That's it. So literally take nothing else from scripting, like teach your team that, that you've already know they're ready. already, you know, give them that gentle nudge. And that's such a small persuasion tactic.

WIW (19:07)
Yeah, personally, that's that idea has impacted me for a long time now, because I've been in like professional sales, B2B sales for years. And probably nine years ago, I discovered instead of asking, would you like a book of time? I became how about Tuesday at 9am? And what it does, it forces them to look.

Cause at that point, if they're looking into their calendar, they're already committed mentally. And if they say that doesn't work, great. How about 2 PM? I can do that. Let's go.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (19:39)
The next level that you can teach, again, so this is, we'll talk about different, like, you know, high school, college, graduate level, but like even in the high school level, like if we give the assumptive close and the person is like, know, the heminine high, the next question, like, is there a reason, you know, that you're not comfortable to move forward? So like, let's get their objections. What's that reason that, you know, is there something I can answer for you that would help you feel better, you know, to move to the next step, right? Something along those lines. But again, it's just changing because right now the average clinic, when you call, it's a transaction.

WIW (19:53)
Is there a reason that you're not comfortable to move forward? So let's take our objections. Is that reason that, is there something I can answer for you that would help you feel better to move to the next step? Something along those lines. But again, that's just changing. Because right now, the average clinic that you call is a transaction. It is a cost center. What's your name? What's your date of birth? What's your insurance? When do you want to come in? That's the extent of the conversation. You didn't differentiate me. You didn't talk about why Dr.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (20:09)
Right? It is a cost center. What's your name? What's your date of birth? What's your insurance? When do you want to come in? That's the extent of the conversation. You didn't differentiate me. You didn't talk about why Dr. Jones is amazing. You didn't tell me like why this procedure is going to solve my concerns. But then the last is, you didn't try to actually close me and move me forward.

WIW (20:32)
So I'm going shift gears just a little bit because you're bringing on really good information. And now that we're talking about appointments and scheduling, I want to talk about one of our core tenants and how you apply to that. And that is repeat visits. Okay. I went to the dentist. I want to say it was, what's today, Thursday. So yesterday I went to the dentist.

And when I, when I was done with the dentist, what's the first thing they put in my hand when I was ready to go? Anybody know? Next appointment. Shut up. And they didn't even ask you. There was no question about it.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (20:56)
appointment. They closed you without even assuming there was a beyond assumptive close they already did it like here you go yeah make you mm -hmm I know that drives me nuts though but yeah I I'm still I'll appreciate the hustle so yep yep

WIW (21:06)
It wasn't even, they didn't even ask me when they just said, here's your appointment. Yeah. I mean, they just handed it to me. Like here's this date at this time. And now, well, they hand it to me already dumb, but they say, can you confirm that that works for you? They will say that, but they've already written it down and scheduled it. It wasn't up for debate. So one of the things that care Sherpa is about is repeat visits. So I want to talk about that. How are you delivering on repeat visits for your clients?

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (21:22)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Yeah, so we believe in the power of proactive, right? So versus reactive. So we know based on, so let's use aesthetics practices as an example. So patients that get Botox or other injectables, there's a time window that they're gonna be thinking about that as well, right? So if we didn't close them to get them to commit before they left, right? Cause that's on the clinic team, but then we'll come back and say, okay, within this period of time, I should see an appointment already hit the books for this patient. If it's not there,

WIW (21:45)
So patients that get Botox or other injectables, there's a time window that they'll be thinking about that as well, right? So if we didn't close them to get them to commit before they left, right? Because I found the clinic team. But then we'll come back and say, OK, within this period of time, I should see an appointment already hit books for this patient. But it's not there. Then it is just that gentle nudge. And it is that personal outreach. Now, if that's my service model, a little bit more conscientious and supportive, right? But the very least, I know most good EMRs

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (22:04)
then it is just that gentle nudge and it is that personal outreach. Now, again, that's my service model, a little bit more conscious and supportive, right? But the very least, I know most good EMRs have a task. So teaching our front desk at time of checkout, if the patient declines, right, then how are we then, the next process is that we go ahead and set a task or reminder two, three weeks out before the time we'd expect them to come back, right? So.

WIW (22:16)
So teaching our front desk the time of checkout, if the patient declines, right, then how are we then the next process that they go ahead and set a task or reminder two, three weeks out before the time we expect them come back, right? So what I would tell folks is that none of this is rocket science, but this is about consistency and it's about process and then teaching your team and verifying that they followed that process.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (22:31)
What I would tell folks is that none of this is rocket science, but this is about consistency and it's about process and then teaching your team and verifying that they followed that process. So if your listeners are like, my gosh, this is so overwhelming, I can't imagine it, then then you work with partners like Care Sherpa that can just turnkey it for you.

WIW (22:42)
So if your listeners are like, my gosh, this is so overwhelming, can't imagine it. But then you work with partners like Kira Sharpa that can just turn key it for you. Okay. So I want to take that all the way back to the beginning where you brought up the secret shopping. Shopping. My apologies. So there's a mystery shop. Let's figure out where the problem is. All right. Let's come up after the mystery shop and we'll talk about that, of course, toward the end of the episode as well. But after the mystery shop.

Here's a set of solutions, right? And then here's a follow up. Like here's how we're going to follow up. If I were listening to this episode and I wanted to know what to expect if I called Jessica with Kara Sherpa, like tell me what to expect from that phone call with you from day one.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (23:28)
to see if Care Sharp is a fit for you and your practice. yeah. So, I mean, for me, so the solutions, again, service heart, let's just lead with that, right? I have my full service turnkey. I take over your entire sales pipeline for new patients. Obviously, that is a premium service. Not everyone's ready for that full kind of concierge. But if you are, we can talk about the benefit you get and how I pay for myself and go at risk. That aside, maybe you have a team. So you're like, I'm not ready to outsource it, Jessica.

WIW (23:30)
Yeah, just what's gonna happen. What's gonna happen on that call?

Okay.

Maybe you have a team, so you're like, I'm not ready to outsource it, Jessica. So our conversation first starts with what's going on? What prompted you to reach out today? What was that trigger moment or that compelling event that made you think, huh, I should explore something different? Is it staff turnover? Is it competitive threats? Is it you have a growth mindset and you're ready to grow and you don't feel like you can scale it? So I'm going to just hear, where are you at in this journey? And then depending upon that, let's go to the first one. You've had staff turnover.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (23:57)
Our conversation first starts with what's going on? What prompted you to reach out today? What was that kind of trigger moment or that compelling event that made you think like, huh, I should explore something different? Is it staff turnover? Is it competitive threats? Is it, you you have a growth mindset and you're ready to grow and you don't feel that you can scale it. So I'm going to just hear where are you at in this journey? And then depending upon that, so let's go to the first one. You've had staff turnover. Then is that something that, you know, we can help you with from?

WIW (24:22)
then is that something that we can help you with from better onboarding, better training, better follow -up and performance management? If it's the secondary that we have competitive threats, so how can we help you think about how to better sell yourself? So it's really kind of, it's not a one -size -fits -all, because I recognize that not everyone's ready for a full turnkey solution. But at the very least, I can just modify our solution offering.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (24:25)
better onboarding, better training, better follow -up and performance management. If it's the secondary that we have competitive threats, so how can we help you think about how to better sell yourself? It's not a one size fits all because I recognize that not everyone's ready for a full turnkey solution. But at the very least, I can just modify our solution offerings that are going to help you plug that. Sometimes it's a one short -term project, and then we check up and I'll mystery shop you again in a few more months and see how you're doing.

WIW (24:46)
that are going to help you plug that. So sometimes it's a one short term project. And then we check up and I'll just reach out to you again in a few more months and see how you're doing. And then we start the conversation again. That's good. I mean, at the end of the day, it's one of those, if you, if you're listening to this and you feel like you have a, you feel like there's money left on the table, that should be enough to have a conversation with Jessica. Just because at the end of the day,

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (24:54)
and then we start the conversation again.

WIW (25:10)
We know this too as our own company, like we're a marketing company. We know what selling looks like. We know how to talk that, but we've seen drop balls internally before where somebody wasn't followed up on like they should have been, or it's amazing what a phone call can do. I think a lot of people like to hide behind a piece of software that messaged somebody for them and they're afraid to pick up the phone. Cause I've had it happen time and time again. email them three times like, did you call? Well, no, call them.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (25:32)
of totally.

WIW (25:40)
it worked. I know. out they answered the phone. exactly. Or they answered the text, answered the phone.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (25:40)
Amazing.

Well, and if nothing else, what I like to say is that we measure the entire patient journey pipeline. EMRs do not, right? They have no concept of you until you actually show up for the consult and beyond. And so what we ultimately, if nothing else, can offer is that intelligence. So partners like y 'all, where you're doing those digital ads, I can go back and say, yeah, here's the value of that Google spend because we can directly attribute, here's where those leads came to opportunities to come to patients, right?

WIW (25:52)
Right. Right.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (26:13)
I'll drop another quick fact on you. 81 % at the top of the funnel. Do know where the second biggest leakage is in revenue for clinics and partners?

WIW (26:23)
I don't know

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (26:24)
52 % of opportunities are lost post first consult or first appointment. 52 % on average. Some are worse depending upon service line. And what that means is you might have patients who show up and come to your appointment, but then they do not commit to move forward for the procedure or they do not come back for repeat visits. So that's a fact when we think about this and really understanding your pipeline and where those leakage points are.

That's where you can say, how do we fix our operational barriers? How do we fix our patient experience barriers? That's graduate level kind of like think about revenue optimization. I call it revenue actualization. How do you fully actualize all the revenue? And you do that through the intelligence. So all that to say though, you do you have your listeners thinking about their pain points in their clinic that may be impacting their revenue growth? You know, those are two big areas to look at. And if you don't have data points to understand, you know, that's a great place to start.

WIW (26:49)
That's where you can say, how do we fix our operational barriers? How do we fix our patient's variance barriers? That's graduate level kind of like about revenue optimization. I call it revenue actualization. How do you fully actualize on revenue? And you that through intelligence. So all this data, you do you have your listeners thinking about their pain points in their clinic that maybe impacted their revenue growth? Those are two big areas to look at. And if you don't have data points to understand, that's a great place to start. I wonder what that total loss

is you're talking about 81 % that never make it. And then the ones that do, so there's 19 % of that, we're over half of that. So you're looking at what? Eight out of a hundred that make it through the door?

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (27:32)
It really depends on service line and the complexity of the sale, right? So we work with fertility as an example, we work with a cosmetic surgery, bariatric general surgery, anything that's elective kind of procedures where we fit. so, but it's interesting, by the way, like a simple GI procedure, let's say it's a GERD treatment, even that has actually some of the most fluctuation because what we find the variable in the room is how is the provider talking to you about this treatment or procedure?

WIW (27:36)
Right.

with a cosmetic surgery, bariatric, general surgery, anything that's elective. so, but it's interesting by the way, with a simple GI procedure, let's say it's a bird treatment, even that has actually some of the most fluctuation because what we find, the variable in the room, is how is the provider talking to you about this? Yeah. And in bariatric practice, one provider had an 80 % success rate, one was at 45. They had no idea.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (27:59)
And I had one bariatric practice that one provider had an 80 % success rate, one was at 45. They had no idea because it all got lost in the long pipeline, right? But we saw the 45 % guy was scaring the bejesus out of patients about the treatment and the post -op. And we heard that by doing the post -consult follow -up meeting. So again, that's that proactive outreach.

WIW (28:07)
because it all got lost in the long pipeline. But we saw the 45 % guide was scared that the G is on patients about the treatment and the post -op. And we heard that by doing the post -conflict follow -up meeting. So that's that proactive outreach. You know, it's interesting because I imagine as a doctor or provider that there's a fine line where in their mind, like, I don't want to just sell somebody on this because I feel like I should sell them this. Right. Like, because I mean, we've

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (28:33)
No, right. You got to qualify them to, yeah.

WIW (28:37)
I mean, we've literally heard a phrase from like a plastic surgeon, I just need a couple more of those jobs and they'll take care of whatever this cost is. Like, that's not the mindset we want to go for. But at the end of the day, if you want your clinic to survive and keep growing over time and then allow you some freedom, you got to be just conscious about what you're saying. Because I like right now I've mentioned on the podcast, I've had some back issues in my spine surgeon, he came up to me and just said, I don't want to operate on you, but

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (28:45)
So.

WIW (29:05)
this is what we're going to do first before we even look at that. And that's a good conversation. It's not the, all right, we're going to cut you right now. Just sign this form, let's go. that's, and because it feels dirty, right? That feels super dirty and feels wrong. And then you feel, as a patient, you feel like a dollar, an actual dollar amount. but yeah. So like I understand like a provider's hesitancy toward, I don't want to sell them. It's not really a sell. It's more of like,

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (29:14)
Yeah.

a number and not an index.

WIW (29:33)
You're listening to the patient's problems and you're identifying this is the best solution. And let me tell you why. And I'm not here just to force it down.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (29:41)
Yeah, and I would actually say the way that we think about it is the highest and best use of the provider's time, right? The provider is the most expensive hourly rate in a clinic or environment. And so why are they the ones sorting the patient at the point of the consultation? So if we, again, if we go back upstream to have our lower cost resources that are still valuable, right? So our front desk team are dedicated, let's say new patient impression team. If they're the ones to understand, are you clinically eligible?

WIW (29:47)
The provider is the most expensive hourly rate in a clinic or environment. And so why are they the ones sorting the patient at the point of the consultation? So again, if we go back upstream to have our lower cost resources that are so valuable, right? So our front desk team, dedicated patient impression team, if they're the ones to understand, are you clinically eligible? Are you financially eligible? And are you motivation eligible?

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (30:10)
Are you financially eligible and are you motivation eligible? So you as an example, if we heard from you, you're like, I really don't want surgery, right? Okay, no problem. So I'm gonna make sure that when you talk to the provider, that's the conversation that you're having of like, what are alternative treatments, but you're still moving forward with the practice. And so, preparing that provider to have a more personalized conversation with you, or sometimes what does happen is you're not a good fit for this practice.

WIW (30:13)
So you as an example, if we heard from you, like, I really don't want surgery, right? Okay, no problem. So I'm gonna make sure that when you talk to the provider, that's the conversation that you're having of like, are alternative treatments, but you're still moving forward with the practice. And so, preparing that provider to have a more personalized conversation with you. sometimes what does happen is you're not a good fit for this practice.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (30:37)
or maybe not for this provider. And so how do I help navigate? So again, better experience for you as a consumer, but then making sure that when the provider sees folks in the room, those are the ones who are most likely to move forward and have some sort of treatment procedure.

WIW (30:37)
or maybe not for this provider. And so how do I help navigate? So get better experience for you as a consumer, but then making sure that when the provider sees folks in the room, those are the ones who are most likely to move forward and have some sort of treatment procedure. Yeah, mean, ultimately you're trying to set the provider up for success. Right. Where they're doing, there's less effort on their end to make it push forward where it's just, they've been, it's like how we said we pre -positioned the buy type of thing. So they're being pre -positioned as a patient to say, is the route we really want to go.

Because we talk about when we have people come on because talk to us about doing work for them, and they came from the podcast, it's a conversation of I believe in what you guys are doing. And you just tell me which route I need to go and we'll be very honest with them. And so it's just a lot easier conversation.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (31:23)
Yeah, and I think the other thing too that as we talk about like little nuggets for your team that thinks about those who are doing their call handling their first impression management, right? So today I think one of the sins of not treating this as a consumer experience. There are what we're training our people on is like what's your name? What's your insurance? What's your date of birth? When do you want your appointment right? Or the ultimate sin is when I call and maybe there's a physician order that needs to happen before I could be seen. They put that back on the patient.

WIW (31:32)
gosh.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (31:51)
say you need to get the order and then call us back. And there's right, there's no ownership of you and your needs. so again, that simple mindset, that's a, you guys spent all that money to get them there from the Google ad. Now you said, go get your physician order and come back. you know, that's dollars just got flushed on the toilet.

WIW (32:09)
Well, it's been my experience with, with medical professionals in general, that they're medical professionals. They're not business owners. And so they just don't think that way. But I'll tell you in, in order to set people up for success with your program, they first got to know where they are. Right? So you were talking about a mystery shopping experience.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (32:16)
Yeah.

a thousand percent.

WIW (32:31)
What does that look like if somebody wants to do that?

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (32:34)
Yeah, I mean, that's a great opportunity just to learn. So what we would do is someone would contact me and say, I want to know, but I don't really want to know how bad it is. so we'll go. Yeah. So what our process. Yeah, exactly. And then we can also talk about like, what's the need? Do you also want to know how you're comparing to your competitors? That's another level of really interesting insights. Right. So what we would do is to actually find your digital assets anywhere in the digital sphere. So if you have a Google business number, you have a website, you have a Facebook, any

WIW (32:43)
Yes. Head in the sand.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (33:03)
call to action that you have out there, we go and we actually hit it as a potential patient and see what is our experience. So if you have a Google ad, we'll hit that, kind of follow up what happens and just give you the measurement of how long did it take for us to talk to a human? Did they actually book us an appointment? And what was the outcome, right? Then the next level is also I'll shop your competitors and say, here's in comparison to what your competitor happened in my experience. So we draw the insights from that.

and then I'll give you a score against our best practices that we see that help you maximize revenue. And it's a great conversation starter. All of it is documented so you can hear and see exactly what happened with the interaction. And then from that, again, you'll have a good sense of where are those baseline leakage opportunities that I could plug a hole rather quickly.

WIW (33:33)
best practices that we see that help you maximize revenue. And it's a great conversation starter. All of it is documented so you can hear and see exactly what happened with the interaction. And then from that, again, you'll have a good sense of where are those baseline leakage opportunities that I could plug a whole project into. That's impressive. I love that offer. So if they wanted to take advantage of the mystery shopping experience, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you,

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (34:00)
So my email is jessica at carersherpa .com. is C -A -R -E -S -H -E -R -P -A .com. I'm also very active on LinkedIn. So I'd love to connect with you on LinkedIn, easy to find there. And then you can find us on our website too.

WIW (34:10)
very active on LinkedIn, so I'd to connect with you on LinkedIn, and you'll find there. And then if you find us on our website too. So what we'll do is we'll leave your email and your LinkedIn and your website in the show notes. So if you're listening or you're on YouTube, go ahead and click on that and get connected with Jessica. She'll set you up with a mystery shopping experience. And I can't encourage our listeners enough to take advantage of this because it,

You being on that end that you're in, Jessica, telling like, here's what's happening with what you're generating. We tell people all the time as a marketing agency, when we come in and we serve you and we serve you well, I tell my team this all the time. If they can't sell, we lose. Yeah, we always lose. We lose because they're going to cancel us because they're incompetent. And then we have the other side of, we'll find out real quick.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (34:55)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

WIW (35:05)
your problems in your business because we're going to turn up the volume. We had one client once that they had a partner, they were partners and they were doing pretty well business. Things were going well. Well, then they hired us and we slowly increased their volume. And then the one of the partners says, I'm out. I can't handle this anymore. I never wanted this. And then they were badmouthing us the whole time. And then when the partner left, there was no more badmouthing. So it was like, we forced the partner out because we just turned up the volume, turned on the hose and he started drowning.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (35:22)
Mm.

weren't ready.

WIW (35:32)
And we like to tell people a great marketing campaign makes a bad business model fail faster. Yes.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (35:38)
Amen. Preaching the choir here. Yeah. And I'll say one thing, just if nothing else, my favorite, every time I do a mystery shop, we always have a shock and awe, I call it, where I discover something you didn't know. Two quick little stories. One is I found that one phone number that was linked on someone's Yelp profile went to the J .Co. patient safety line. They had no idea, right? Then just recently, had a text, their website was plastered, text me at this number.

WIW (35:40)
you

too quick.

We had one that they're online. So they gave us the right number. We did all that.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (36:05)
So apparently whoever built their website fat fingered the numbers and no one ever tested it. And so like those are those examples. And so again, this is a great way, like having someone come in as an outsider looking in and saying, what's your digital consumer experience? And is it really helping you set up for success to win? Love to help anyone with that.

WIW (36:26)
but their online scheduler, they had put in their fax number. Technically the right number, just going to the wrong place. Yeah. So like, cause I wouldn't number that call. It's like, well, I'm pretty sure they were upset with us because their call volume. Yeah. Anyway, that's what happens. Jessica, thank you for coming on the podcast today. We enjoyed talking with you.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (36:30)
yes. Yeah.

Yeah.

WIW (36:51)
I want to encourage everybody to reach out to Kara Sherpa. Yeah. That's listening who may not fully understand what their patient lead process is doing. You know, you're spending money on it, but you don't know what's happening. That is a great resource for you to be able to go and figure out where to clean up your marketing mess. Or if you just want to feel good and like she does it and then they come back, you got a pretty good process. It's a good feel good type thing. to go. You don't suck. Yeah, exactly.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (37:15)
Yeah, I did actually say that to somebody yesterday. I'm like, you know, in comparison, you're doing okay. Still could be better, but yeah.

WIW (37:22)
Exactly. Everybody's got room for improvement. know we do as well. Jessica, say bye to our audience. Thank you for coming and we hope to have you on again here in the near future.

Jessica Walker - Care Sherpa (37:31)
Thanks everyone, bye.

WIW (37:32)
All right, we'll talk to you soon. Bye.