Hi, guys. I hope that all is well. I actually wanted to jump on. Something really interesting happened to me when I was looking at the podcast stats, and it was quite interesting. It really related me to what happens inside of our practice where we really drop the ball in terms of looking at what is happening in our business, looking at what drives our performance and our success. So, I wanted to tell you a quick story.
So, I actually, as many of you guys know, we're starting this new podcast format, right? Where I am giving you quick tips, telling you what's going on behind the scenes in Delivering WOW. So, I actually went into our podcast audio player.
What's up, guys? It is Anissa Holmes. Wanted to jump on really quick. Hey, guys. What's up? Wanted to come on and tell you a quick story about the power of tracking, looking at numbers, and how it affects your performance as well as your behaviors. So, I actually want to start off with a quick story. So as many of you guys know, I decided to take you behind the scenes of Delivering WOW, let you know what we're working on, why we're doing certain things. What's interesting is that when we decided to shift over to doing more podcasts and using this format, I actually went into Libsyn, which is the place where we store, upload all of our podcast files.
Interestingly, I actually ... I no longer upload my podcast. I have someone that does that for me on my team, and so I haven't actually looked in there in a really, really long time. Now, I looked in there actually today, and it was really astounding. So number one, it was really, really cool to see that we typically have about 9,000 downloads per episode of our Delivering WOW podcast. But what's really interesting is I looked at our stats for December. Now, in December, we actually had half of the number that we typically had. We had almost 4,000 downloads of our podcast in December.
So, you might be asking, "Okay, well, what happened in December?" Well, what happened in December is December happened. I was on vacation with my family. A lot of things were happening with Delivering WOW wrapping up the end of the year. Quite frankly, I probably was just tired and needed a little break after traveling so much in the months of October and November. So, we actually only released maybe one or two podcasts in December. And when you look at the metrics, it really tells a lot. It shows us that, number one, if you're not being consistent, you're not going to get the same results.
But what was really interesting as well is it really showed me the power of looking at numbers and metrics really in any area that you want your business to grow. So with Delivering WOW, we're tracking all sorts of things. We're looking at how many email subscribers do we have, how many people are joining our Facebook group, right? Because if we can get in front of more people, we can help them. The same thing in our dental practice. We're tracking how many new patients are we're getting. We're looking at the reappointment rate, how many people are getting a next appointment. It happened for me with the podcast, and I was like, "What if we were looking at this number more often, right? Would we have decided to be more consistent in terms of not only doing our normal four podcasts, but even starting this program a little bit earlier where I'm podcasting a lot more often and taking you behind the scenes?" And you know, what's interesting is that now that we are adding on this new section of podcasts, these short little bites where I'm coaching and giving you strategy to grow your business, it'll be interesting to look at the data and see based on data what happens if you guys like it, if you don't like it.
And the numbers actually tell the truth, you know? So, looking inside of our practice, the same thing is so important, and not just in a dental business, but any business. Again, with Delivering WOW, we're tracking lots of little things and it's not necessarily money that we're tracking, but it all ties into the profitability of the company because many times it's those specific things that you focus on that really make the biggest difference. One thing that I've learned from my mentor, Russell Brunson, is, what is the one domino that if you just tip over that one domino, it makes them all fall down? That's the power of metrics. That's the power of using scorecards.
So what we decided to do about, well, maybe it was the middle of last year, was to start using a weekly scorecard inside of my practice. Not only did we start using it, but we started using it within our inner circle coaching program. We also, toward the end of the year, released it for Dental Profit Academy so that they could also get access to the template.
But what was really neat is we started tracking specific numbers, and those numbers were things like, again, new patient numbers, the dentist production per visit, the hygienist production per visit. We were looking at, again, the reappointment rate, how many patients who have not been seen within the last 18 months are now being scheduled, right? Are now being rescheduled. We started looking at the number of visits. How many visits were we actually getting done per week? We were looking at our accounts receivable over 30 days.
What's really interesting is that we decided to, again, use that scorecard. We had a team member and their job, not only in my practice but in all of the practices that we work with, was to go in. We actually use Dental Intel for just about all of our inner circle practices. The office manager or the scheduling coordinator, someone on the team goes in and pulls that number or those numbers. And then what they do is they quickly, from a weekly report, just enter them on the scorecard.
Now, a lot of times people will say like, "Why are you having your team do that? Can't that be automated?" And interestingly, I spoke to Weston, who's the founder of Dental Intel, and he was like, "You know, if you want, I can actually get this custom created for you and all of the people that are in your program so that it's automated." I was like, "No, Weston. I really want to have a team member to go in and look at the numbers. That's going to drive them back to Dental Intel every single week to really dig in and see what's happening, make sure that they're using the software to be able to dive deep, get the numbers, and names of the people that need to be called, and just take action, you know?" And it's also, again, a form of accountability versus just having a number that they are actually physically having to move. It means that you're going to look at it, you know what I mean?
But anyway, sometimes I go down a rabbit hole. So anyway, the purpose of the scorecard really is to look at the numbers. What was really interesting is that many times goals were set. So, say for example, a production per visit goal. I know I said it in my practice that we would double it, and I mean maybe I was a little bit aggressive, but I just wanted to see if we were tracking it, if we could actually do it. The interesting thing is that we actually met that goal, which is crazy, before the end of the quarter.
But, I started looking at, again, not just my scorecard, but the scorecards of all of our inner circle members, and the same exact thing was happening. The hygienist production per visit was increasing. The new patient numbers were increasing. And the reason why is that instead of focusing on lag measures or looking at things that happen after, you actually were using data and real information, real, real, real useful information to make decisions. So again, if the hygiene production per visit was consistently low and in the past nothing was done, now they were able to go in and say, "Okay, the production per visit is not where we want it to be or it's not as much as it was last week. What's gotten us off track?"
And then you can say, "Okay, let's make sure that we're talking to all of our patients about why scaling and root planing is absolutely necessary if they want to make sure that there's further destruction of bone. Or, let's really try to make it convenient for our patients and instead of scheduling one quadrant at a time or even two, we just block time out and we get the patient in and we get the treatment completed in one day. Or you know, let's go ahead and run a report to see all of our patients who have unscheduled scaling and root planing and let's get those people as a priority, even over perhaps people who have unscheduled hygiene, right?" Because again, the production per visit would be more by actually scheduling those patients versus, say, for example, a prophy patient, right? So, it's really interesting what happens when you start to look at numbers and you allow it to influence your decisions or really hold you accountable to things that you need to be held accountable for.
And again, going back to the podcast, if I had been looking at the number of the drop of podcast downloads, I probably would have not let a week slip, you know? But, we all learn. It's a lesson here. Hopefully this will encourage you and inspire you to start looking at your numbers again week by week. It's something that can be done very, very quickly. And if something is off inside of your weekly team meeting or in your morning huddle, a quick mention can be made of what one thing or one or two things that need to be focused on for that week and it will significantly improve the profitability of your practice as well as patient care because things will not be dropped. The ball will not be dropped.
And again, looking at the numbers, which is all that to me is the truth, right? It reveals the truth. When I looked at the performance of the practices that we're working with that are using scorecards, it was like a massive, drastic jump in performance in the quarter once they started implementing scorecards. If you haven't started tracking your numbers, you definitely want to go ahead and do that. We're here to help you if you need us. But again, I just wanted to make light of this because it's super important, super critical, and it can really change everything for you inside of your practice.
All right, guys. So, that is it. I will talk to you guys really soon. And again, I look forward to chatting with you inside of our Facebook group, so make sure you head on over to http://www.deliveringwowhangout.com.