Dr. Walter Kostrzewski is the Owner of The Center for Complete Health Dentistry Wilton, a practice dedicated to providing comprehensive, patient-centered dental care with a focus on cosmetic and sedation dentistry. Commonly known as Dr. K, he earned his Doctor of Dental Medicine degree from Tufts University School of Dental Medicine in 1992 and completed a General Practice Residency at University Hospital in Stony Brook, New York. A Fellow of the International Academy for Dental Facial Esthetics, he has served as a clinical instructor in cosmetic dentistry and full mouth rehabilitation. Beyond his practice, Dr. K is the Founder of The Winning Dentist, a consultancy focused on helping dental teams develop passion, leadership, and effective business systems.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [03:04] Dr. Walter Kostrzewski’s biggest growth breakthrough and why general practice drives success
• [07:27] How Dr. K rebuilt his career after foreclosure and bankruptcy
• [14:09] The key to outstanding customer service and how it sets practices apart
• [16:01] Making the transition from a single practice to multiple locations
• [17:06] Finding the right team, delegating effectively, and developing leadership skills
• [18:32] Why maximizing one office is crucial before expanding to multiple locations
• [20:38] The biggest hurdle in marketing and why answering the phone properly is critical
• [27:15] How patient availability and scheduling impact long-term practice growth

In this episode…

Many dentists struggle with scaling their business while maintaining high-quality patient care. So, what are the key factors that separate thriving dental practices from those that stagnate?

According to Dr. Walter Kostrzewski, a seasoned dental professional and industry mentor, sustainable growth starts with mentorship and smart business decisions. He highlights the importance of learning from experienced coaches and leveraging creative financing strategies to expand without unnecessary financial risk. By focusing on exceptional customer service and building a strong team, dentists can create a culture that attracts and retains loyal patients. Aside from clinical skills, Dr. K emphasizes that success in dentistry is about leadership, adaptability, and making informed business moves.

In this episode of The Marketing 32 Show, Brett Allen sits down with Dr. Walter Kostrzewski, Owner of The Center for Complete Health Dentistry Wilton, to discuss how mentorship and strategic planning fuel practice growth. Dr. K shares how he rebounded from financial setbacks, the mindset shifts that helped him scale his business, and why exceptional customer service is a game-changer. He also gives advice on finding and mentoring the right team to support long-term success.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Brett Allen on LinkedIn
• Marketing 32
• Dr. Walter Kostrzewski:LinkedIn | Email
• The Center for Complete Health Dentistry Wilton
• Dr. David Hornbrook on LinkedIn
• “Creative Strategies for a Profitable Dental Practice Exit With Elijah Desmond” on The Marketing 32 Show
• Dr. Larry Rosenthal
• Dr. Michael Apa
• Dr. Brady Frank on LinkedIn
• Transition Time by Dr. Brady Frank
• Dr. Howard Farran on LinkedIn
• Steven J. Anderson on LinkedIn
• Dr. Bill Dorfman
• Trapped in an OP: Dental Career Alternatives
• “The Secrets To Growing a Group Dental Practice With Emmet Scott” on The Marketing 32 Show
• Dentist Entrepreneur Organization (DEO)
• Dr. Michael Maroon on LinkedIn
• Jay Geier on LinkedIn
• Melissa & Doug
• The Madow Brothers
• The Madow Dental Podcast

Quotable Moments

• “You have to give the best customer service. The answer is always ‘yes, I can help you’.”
• “Getting a coach and mentor is huge for anybody at any point in their career.”
• “You’re not a marketing specialist; you’re a dentist. Find companies that know what they’re doing.”
• “Leaders go first. Leaders eat last. Your culture is what you do, not what you say.”
• “If you can’t get a new patient in today or tomorrow, you’re losing business.”

Action Steps

1. Invest in mentorship and coaching: Learning from experienced professionals accelerates growth, helps avoid costly mistakes, and provides valuable guidance.
2. Prioritize customer service excellence: Delivering an outstanding patient experience builds loyalty, increases referrals, and differentiates your practice from competitors.
3. Maximize your first practice before expanding: Strengthening operations and optimizing capacity ensures financial stability and smoother scaling to multiple locations.
4. Train your team in effective phone skills: Proper call handling improves patient conversion rates and reduces missed opportunities for new appointments.
5. Create a culture of leadership and accountability: Establishing strong workplace values fosters team commitment, enhances efficiency, and drives long-term success.

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by Marketing 32, the only dental marketing agency with the Practice Impact Formula™ for predictable growth without financial risk.

With a focus on new patient generation, addressing missed opportunities, and expert scheduling, Marketing 32 has helped over 170 practices in the US, Canada, and Australia. Grow in 30 days, or you don’t pay — it’s that simple.

To learn more, visit marketing32.com and schedule a 15-minute discovery call. If you’re a visionary practice ready for impact, Marketing 32 is ready to help you grow!

Episode Transcript:

Intro 00:13

You are listening to The Marketing 32 Show with your host Bret Allen.

Brett Allen 00:18

Welcome to The Marketing 32 Show. I’m your host, Bret Allen, where I connect with leading dentists, dental influencers, and industry experts to uncover the latest strategies and insights and innovations that help dental practices to grow and to thrive. Of course, this episode is brought to you by our team here at Marketing 32. We’re the only dental marketing agency that I know of with a performance guarantee that will help you grow in 30 days or you don’t pay. We truly invest in the growth of your practice or we’re not winning if you’re not winning. Today I’m super excited to have a good friend of mine, Dr. Walter Kostrzewski. I may have butchered that, but perfect. I usually call him Dr. K, Everybody else calls him Coach K. Dr. K. If you guys are familiar with who he is. But he’s a phenomenal guy. Just some background on Dr. K. He bought a practice doing $275,000 and brought it to a million in the first six months. And now they’re doing almost 2 million or above that even. He’s also got a separate practice. That’s a different one. That went from $300,000 to $600,000 just in the last year, working only two days a week. So we’re going to go into how he did that today. But his reputation precedes him. He’s done a number of different coaching and teachings throughout the the industry at one time was with Pac Live and David Hornbrook doing cosmetics and full mouth rehabilitation teaching. New York Magazine once called him the best cosmetic dentist. And so we’ve got a lot we’re going to uncover here and unpack. Dr. K, welcome to the show. Thanks for joining us.

Dr. Walter Kostrzewski 02:01

Thanks for having me, Brad. I’m happy to be here.

Brett Allen 02:03

Yeah, yeah. So we got a shout out to Elijah Desmond. He’s the one who first introduced us a while back with Dentistry’s Got Talent. I think we were there together, but yeah, we’ve been working together. Marketing 32, has been working with you for a number of years now.

Four years or something like that. And.

Dr. Walter Kostrzewski 02:25

Yeah, yeah, I. Think, I think, I think Elijah Desmond’s becoming like the NYU of dentistry were like one in every five dentists went to NYU. I think Elijah’s connected like 1 in 5 people in Tennessee. He’s Mr. Connector, great guy.

Brett Allen 02:40

He is such a great guy. And we love Elijah. So let’s go into it. In your journey of practice ownership, we threw out some numbers there. You’ve obviously figured out some things. You’ve also gone through some hardships and learned a lot of different lessons. What’s been the biggest epiphany-like breakthrough that you’ve had for your growth?

Dr. Walter Kostrzewski 03:04

I think the biggest epiphany I had in dentistry in business was that, you know, you mentioned me being named in the top cosmetic dentist in New York City and back in the boom of cosmetics and veneers. You know, a lot of my colleagues went veneers only. We’re just going to do smile designs only. That’s it. They’re like, you’re right outside New York City. Why don’t you just go open 100% cosmetic practice in New York City? I actually got to had an opportunity to look at Larry Rosenthal’s practice, which, you know, maybe there was a mistake because Dr. Apa has taken that over and taken it to the next level. And I think that’s become all these young dentists’ dreams is just, I’m going to open up this Taj Mahal practice and kill it. And you know, that beautiful Taj Mahal practice is going to cost you $2 million, and you’re worried about being $300,000 in school debt. So how are you going to manage that 200 to $2 million debt or more? I think that 1% of the dentists could be like that. And for most of the dentists out there, the 90% are going to be working in general practice, taking care of real people with real problems. And rather than worry about, you know, the first worry is these kids getting out of school, $300,000 in school debt. And I graduated in 1992. My average class had $90,000 in debt. You know, and now it’s over three, maybe close to $400,000. And you, you learn in school because the schools, unfortunately, will only have these corporate places come in and speak to the students about life after dental school. I’ve got a group of dentists, 5 or 6 of us, who went to my alma mater, Tufts University. We would love to get up on stage and talk to these students about. We’ve been in private practice since 1992 and we’re staying in private practice. Corporate is not your only way out. And as a matter of fact, I don’t. I’m pretty sure you can’t pay off your $300,000 in school debt or more if you just go work for somebody like you got to get in your own business. So, you know, we’ve got $300,000 in school debt. Then you got to buy a practice that’s $1 million. If you live on the East Coast, then you got to buy a house. That’s another million dollars. You’re not going to drive a crappy car, you know, because you deserve it. You just graduated from dental school, so you need a $75,000 Porsche, right? So you’re $3 million in debt now, and you’re going to run your own business and you’re going to get out of debt. It’s going to happen. You’re going to do it. But you got to get a mentor. You got to get a coach, and you got to figure some things out. And my biggest epiphany on that business side of it is that, you know, I had a fantastic practice. I opened in 1995. Unfortunately had to sell it in 2017 because divorce led me to foreclosure and bankruptcy. And, you know, there was no mentor, there was no coach, there was no friends for that. There was support. I can’t say my friends didn’t support me, weren’t there for me. I’m not saying that. But there’s no friends for mentoring or coaching. Divorce, bankruptcy. Foreclosure. Because there’s plenty of people out there who have been through it in the world, and there’s plenty of dentists and physicians that have been through it, and they don’t want to talk about it. I you know, I love talking about it because I learned a lot from it. And I know there’s a lot of lives that I could save knowing that I can talk to other people about it openly and want to be there for them. So anybody thinking about, you know, what the hell are they going to do with their life? God forbid they’re not thinking about suicide. Please, no. But what the hell am I going to do? You know, how do I get out of this? And how do I get a restart? So I reached out to. I reached out to my first mentor. Howard Ferrand, and said, this is what happened, and I can’t go to the bank, and I know I can start up a practice in a second because I know how to do it. I’ve done it. Do it again. It’s easy, but I can’t get the money. And he’s like, well, let’s put it out there on Dental Town. Of course, put out anything on Dental Town or Facebook and you get roasted.

Brett Allen 07:25

Yeah.

Dr. Walter Kostrzewski 07:27

And just laughed at. So, you know, thankfully this one day, sitting at home miserable on my couch on a snow day, I was working in three different practices just trying to pay the bills, working for somebody else, didn’t know how I was going to make it week to week, and the office was closed because it was snowing. You know, even in New England, when it snows, we’re like, no, no, no patients come in, no staff comes in. Comes in, everybody stays home. It’s like these new New York and New Englanders could not live in Edmonton, Canada, where it snows from October to April every day. And people guess what? They still work. They are not New England, not New England and forget about it. If it snows like in the Mid-Atlantic states, it’s just like, oh my gosh, if it snows in Virginia, forget it. So I’m sitting at home and this thing pops up on my phone, Facebook Live today at 11, I had nothing to do. I love, see and sitting home on the couch and kind of depressed and very depressed, and it was Elijah Desmond and he was doing this interview wherever they were, Brady Frank and talking about business and real estate practice, development, growth, stuff like that. So thankfully I saw it, made a cup of coffee, sat down on the couch and listened to Elijah interview Brady Frank, and he talked about acquisitions and mergers and startups, and he talked about phenomenal implant practices, and he talked about rehabbing practices and stuff. And it just hit me and was like, I know what I’m going to do now. I don’t need a bank. I can’t go to the bank. I just filed bankruptcy. Banking wasn’t an option. This is now 2018. I’ve had a 25 year successful practice. And now I’m working for someone else because I have to believe Brady had a phenomenal book. Transition Time was the name of the book still out there. You can find it online. Brad. Frank. Transition Time. And I called him up that afternoon. And he answered my call and said, hey, let’s talk tomorrow. The next day, I got on the phone with Brady and his assistant Alicia, who was fantastic, and he said, hey, I’m starting this group. It’s going to be the small study club of about 50 doctors. I want you to be a part of it. I got some great ideas for you. I want to help you out, and I’m not going to charge you anything, you know. Just work with me. Tell me how you like the program. Tell me. I like this and that. And we started. I think I probably met him face to face, maybe 3 or 4 months later at our first little study club. And that was February by Mother’s Day. I had made a deal to purchase a practice no money, down 100%, financing on a six year note. To take over this practice. Wow. And that’s the practice I took from $300,000 to 4 and a half years later to over $2 million. The first six months we took it up to. We did $900,000 at the end of the first year and six months in, they had only done. They only did $200,000 on two days a week from three days a week. We got it up to nine. The next year. We did 1.5x and it just grew and grew and grew. And that note were that notes almost paid off, actually. Wow. That’s awesome. And we did some other things after that, but which we’ll get into. But the epiphany was that it didn’t need the bank. Yeah. And it didn’t need the Taj Mahal practice. You just need a machine to operate. And I just went back to, you know, my alma mater, not wanting a bunch of alumni that they have for 30 years. Now that we’re in private practice to get up on stage there and talk to these kids and let them know that there’s other options besides going to corporate and how they can get into business. That $300,000 debt is nothing. That’s going to be laughable. When you pay that off, you’re going to laugh at it. That was the smallest debt I had. I mean average that the average house in. I’m in Fairfield County, Connecticut, which is right outside New York City. It’s not a cheap area of the country. But you can’t get a house for less than $850,000, and the average house is a million and a half. So, you know, and cars, you know, so that, that, that that’s that, that’s nothing. Yeah. It’s going to be way more than that and you’re going to get out of it.

Brett Allen 12:28

Yeah, I think that’s brilliant. Owning your own practice, taking those steps to own your future is big. I’ve talked to a number of different dentists about that. And I think you’re hitting on something here that success leaves clues and that getting a coach. Having somebody walk you through how to do that. It’s possible people are doing it. You don’t have to do this. This other route you’re talking about.

Dr. Walter Kostrzewski 12:55

So getting on, getting a coach. Yeah, getting a coach and mentor is huge for anybody at any point in their career. And I started out Howard Farran was my first mentor. I thankfully met Steve Anderson and Walter Haley at the Crown Council. From there I met David Hornbrook and Bill Dorfman. I was lucky enough to be a mentor and coach with the Hornbrook Group and David Hornbrook. I had Gary Caddy was my coach for a few years. Yeah. Along the way in business and now most recently, Brady Frank. You know, having a coach and a mentor and emulating what’s already been done. Right. In dentistry, you’re not recreating. You’re not recreating the wheel.

Brett Allen 13:39

Right, right. Well, let’s talk about that. What’s been kind of the hardest thing? So if I’m going to get into practice ownership, what’s been the most challenging thing that you’ve had to learn? Yeah, there’s things on the front end of financing, finding the right practice to buy all of that. But once you’re in the day to day, what kind of things have you overcome? What’s been a hard thing that you can maybe give some advice to, to our listeners to, to overcome?

Dr. Walter Kostrzewski 14:09

It’s funny, I don’t know about overcoming, but the most important thing in business, in every business. And to overcome. Excuse me, you can go to any business you want, any industry you want, and just be the best customer service and you’ll kill all the competition. Because customer service in this world is horrible. Horrible. Like, yeah, you have to give the best customer service. You have to be fantastic on the phone. You have to. The customer is not always right. Okay. But the answer is always yes. I can help you, all right? And you don’t have to work with everybody. You don’t have to please everybody. You have to have a fantastic team. You have to be a fantastic leader. Leader. Leaders go first. Leaders eat last. Your culture, people talk about culture. I’m going to show you a bit of culture. You know how you build culture. You do what you want your people to do. They’ll do the same if you give great customer service, if you give great. If you have great verbal skills, if you give great service, if you build great relationships, your team’s going to watch you do that and they’re going to do the same. Yeah. So you want to create culture. You’re the culture. You’re the leader. You’re the culture.

Brett Allen 15:32

It starts at the top. Sure.

Dr. Walter Kostrzewski 15:35

Definitely.

Brett Allen 15:37

Well let’s go into transition a little bit, going from one of like managing one office. Cool. You can get that down. Seems like you’ve got a number of things that you could help people out with in terms of like getting that practice, really firing and going on all cylinders, but going from 1 to 2. What’s a lesson that you can share with everybody about making that transition?

Dr. Walter Kostrzewski 16:01

You gotta again, you got to find. You have to find the right people. You have to find great people. You have to have a great team and you have to trust that they’re going to do the right things, and you have to let some things go. You have to delegate and you have to find good doctors. You have to find good hygienists. You know, another Elijah plug there. This is actually like a dig. Elijah’s got this group called get Me out of the app or what’s it called?

Brett Allen 16:32

Yeah, yeah, it’s Trapped in an OP Facebook group.

Dr. Walter Kostrzewski 16:36

Yeah. So give me the heck out of this. So we have a high. We have a hygiene shortage around most of the country as it is, and he’s trying to get all these hygienists out of the op. I’m trying to get him into the app where they’ll, you know, have a great place where they where they love to work. Right.

Brett Allen 16:51

And, you know, having the right boss is a big part of that, I think. Yeah, I think a lot of these people who feel like they’re trapped in the app are either part of the wrong culture, part of the wrong leadership. Yeah. But definitely.

Dr. Walter Kostrzewski 17:06

But definitely. Definitely you’ll find you got to find dentists as well. You can’t hear all the time like, don’t you know, don’t get a second practice because you’re just doubling your overhead. You are doubling your overhead. If it’s only you and you have two practices, 100% like that doesn’t make sense. But so you got to change your you have to change your mindset and be more of a leader, more of a leader, more of a coach. You have to find dentists and hygienists that you can mentor, that you can coach, that you can get out of their way and let them take over and become more of an organizer.

Brett Allen 17:49

Right. I was talking with Emmett T. Scott. I don’t know if you know him from the DEO Dental Entrepreneur Organization. Yeah. He was talking about they look at some things internally before they go to that second office, before buying that second location. You should try to maximize the throughput of the first location in terms of like you build out as many ops as you can, put associates into those ops, and kind of max out what you can do at that first office before taking on all the burdens. It’s essentially starting a whole nother practice, right? But yeah. What do you think about that?

Dr. Walter Kostrzewski 18:32

I am just as my first delve into multiple practice ownership. Really new at it. So I’m definitely not the expert on how to manage and organize and separate and and and not forget about your fitness and your health and your eating and your family. There’s a lot there’s a lot. There’s a lot of people that are better than me. I’m still trying to figure it out, I love it. Yeah, I love the differences in the two. And I love that I’m able to get the two teams together as well for a few times on my annual team meeting, how we get together with another practice locally. Good friend of mine, Mike Maroon, who used to who’s a smile source now used to run Generation Next and Ace, and we used to get our two teams together for our annual meeting. And it was great to have the feel of two different offices that kind of had the same philosophy, but were different. And when you had your team annual meeting together, it was nice to merge those two offices together. We did that a few times over the years, but yeah, I’m that. And it’s much better at that question than me. I’m still trying to figure it out and learn. No, I like to get 3 or 4 more.

Brett Allen 19:48

Yeah, and there’s no wrong way to do it. But I think I think, you know, business is this constant journey of self-development and figuring it out. And it seems like you’ve done a lot of things right to get, you know, both of these practices more than doubling and in some cases quadrupling production. You’re doing a lot of things right. So let’s talk about a big topic that I love to talk about marketing the practice. What’s been the hardest thing in, you know, marketing growing the practice, getting patients calling, getting patients in the chair, accepting treatment. Like what of the whole marketing equation. What’s been a hard thing and lesson that you’ve learned.

Dr. Walter Kostrzewski 20:38

I think the biggest hurdle in marketing is you’re you’re I said this to a young kid who came into my office the other day, like, you’re going to dental school. Dental school job is to teach you how to pass the boards, period. Right. Then you got to take C. After that. You got to learn how to do dentistry. After that, they’re not teaching you how to be a business person. They’re not giving you an MBA. You’re not going to Harvard for your MBA. You’re going to dental school to pass the boards, period. Like maybe they’ll teach you some dentistry along the way, but their goal is to get you to pass the boards, right. Then you learn dentistry. But you’re not a marketing specialist. You’re a dentist. You’re not a business person. You know you want to run your own business. You want to learn debt. You got to do that on your own time, right? You got to figure that out, and you’re not a marketing specialist. So to think, I ran a lawn service when I was a kid before I went off to college and actually ran it through dental school. Hired a bunch of people to work for me. I used to — we didn’t have computers. Then I got my first computer in 1996. So we’re talking about the 80s now. And I used to hand draw my little flyers that I put in people’s mailboxes to get more clients, to mow lawns and build it up to 150 lawns a week. One of my buddies, when I left dental school bought the business, and he still runs the landscaping business now. And he bought all my client lists back then. So you’re not a marketing specialist, your dentist, and to find companies that know what they’re doing. And today with all this technology, like how can you keep up with dentistry and keep up with marketing? Facebook, Instagram, Google, all that? I mean, but that’s pretty obvious. But I think what you can do as a dentist and running your business is the most important thing in marketing is who’s answering your phones and how are they answering the phones? And one of my other mentor coaches along the way has been Jay Geier in the Scheduling Institute. Yep. And what I love about them is their phone skills. And I’m not saying we follow their plan 100%, but it’s a huge part of it. And until I started working with Marketing 32, I don’t think there was anybody that tracked — I think there was a lot of marketers saying, it’s like, it’s not our fault we’re getting the phones to ring. You’re just not answering them, right? You know, and you guys keep the team accountable to we’re going to get people in. But we also have to make sure you answer the phones right. And I’m lucky enough that my wife Kristen worked for a company called Melissa & Doug. So if you have little kids, you know, Melissa & Doug toys.

Brett Allen 23:26

Toys. Yeah.

Dr. Walter Kostrzewski 23:27

And they’re they’re they’re here in Wilton, Connecticut. They sold out. They were Melissa & Doug. And they sold off to corporate a few years ago. But she worked there. And she when she went from corporate to come work in private practice with me. Yeah. Like, she was like this private mom and pop shop. Like, I don’t get it. Like, I worked in corporate, like people don’t. People don’t, you know, act differently. And she got. It’s not the corporate thing, but she got so much positive phone skills. Oh, yeah. From that experience at Melissa & Doug that it was easy for me to talk to her about. Well, here’s the way here’s, you know, here’s the gyre system answering the phones. And here’s how we got to train. Everybody answer the phones. This is why here’s the answers to all the Questions. Teaching your teen the answers to all the questions. That is the most important part. And what I love that I had no idea when I started working with you guys, was that we were going to have, first of all, we meet every month and go over numbers, go over strategy, go over what do we want to focus on? And we probably spend 30% of the call going over phone calls. Yeah. And how many calls were missed? How were the verbal skills on the call? Yeah. And it’s the most important thing that every single practice owner can do to increase their marketing is make sure the phones are answered properly. I don’t, I don’t I know these guys. I don’t know them personally, but. The Madow Brothers they used to be the Richards Report in the newsletter. And they have a podcast at the end of every one of their podcasts. They do phone calls. Oh, and they’re hilarious. Like I played them for my team. I played them for the team all the time. It’s like usually people answer the phone like this.

Brett Allen 25:38

You would be surprised. Yeah, that’s a big part. You mentioned it. Call tracking, call analysis, call training, front desk training is a huge part because in any marketing company you work with, if they’re good at what they do, they’re going to drive the leads. But if they’re if they’re exceptional, they’re going to help you make sure you close those leads. And that starts at the front desk. You’ve got to have somebody that’s able to talk to the patient, get them in the schedule. And then after that there’s all these sequences and things to get the patient to show up. After that it’s what’s the patient experience like when they come in. What’s it like when you’re sitting there with them in the chair? How are we presenting treatment? That’s the whole marketing equation. There’s things we can do as marketers and we do really well at marketing 32. And then there’s things that, you know, it really is a partnership. There’s things you guys have to do. And I think you said it right. Our team.

Dr. Walter Kostrzewski 26:33

Yeah. Besides, besides the proper phone skills is the mental flexibility to see a new patient. I can’t tell you how many new patients I see. Yeah. They couldn’t get me in for three weeks. I’m like, and they’re not even new to the area. No. I’ve been seeing this dentist for ten years. They couldn’t get me in for three weeks. Yeah.

Brett Allen 26:59

The availability.

Dr. Walter Kostrzewski 27:01

The first time I went to Howard.

Brett Allen 27:02

That’s one of the first times. Yeah, that we’ve noticed that. So we’ve tracked that availability is the single highest metric that you need for growth. If you put people in a month out. Yeah.

Dr. Walter Kostrzewski 27:15

You have to have the mental capacity. I say mental because there’s probably a chair open. All right. You can say I don’t have room for him. I couldn’t fit him in. But, you know, an emergency. Well, that you get him in today or tomorrow. They like if you get a new patient emergency in today, and they have to wait in the reception for 90 minutes, they’re happy. If you have a patient that’s scheduled a month out for 12:00 and you don’t see them at 12:00, they’re pissed. Right? Right. So you have to also understand that an emergency patient is going to be okay waiting. Because they called for other offices. They couldn’t see them for a month. Right. And if you don’t think that’s true, call the dental office right now. See if they even ask you to make an appointment. They’re like. It’s like. It’s like dental, dental 401. But nobody knows what 401 is anymore. It’s like dental Google, like you’re calling up and you’re just answering questions, you know, how much is it cleaning? It’s $39. How much does an extraction is it. Oh, I can’t tell you. The doctor has to see you like. Hello. It sounds like you’re looking for a dentist. Would you like to come in sometime today or tomorrow? Right. Well, you can’t get them in today or tomorrow. We don’t have any room like you. If you can’t, if you can’t get them in today or tomorrow or hey, I’m off from work next Wednesday. That’s when I really want to come in. Okay. Next Wednesday. What time?

Brett Allen 28:32

Right.

Dr. Walter Kostrzewski 28:33

Morning or afternoon? You know, it’s like they.

Brett Allen 28:36

Yep.

Dr. Walter Kostrzewski 28:36

Yep. A new patient called your office. Yeah. They’re not going to the library or Google for information. They’re trying to schedule an appointment with a dentist.

Brett Allen 28:46

They have a need. Be the one to do for sure.

Dr. Walter Kostrzewski 28:50

Get them in, get them in the office and not a month out.

Brett Allen 28:54

Let’s talk a little bit more about us and our relationship together. I know we’ve helped to contribute to a lot of that growth. What’s it been like from your side of the equation? What’s it been like to work with our team?

Dr. Walter Kostrzewski 29:09

Like I said, the feedback is excellent. You know you don’t just get ads. This is what we’re doing. Like there’s numbers there’s metrics. There’s. You know, there’s call tracking. There’s how many calls are being picked up. You know, there’s also monitoring of the verbal skills that are being used on the call. If, you know, if the conversion isn’t good. Well, what’s going wrong.

Right. Maybe the phone skips off. Maybe you got a new person that just started and you haven’t trained them up on the phone yet. Yeah. In. In my original practice of 25 years. You know, the team used to joke that we just hired a new person and they’re not allowed to touch the phone for a month. Do not answer the phone. On the flip side, you know, we have in the office now, it’s like the phones ringing and like, well, I’m clinical. I’m not admin. I’m back office. I’m not front office. If you’re not with a patient, the phone is ringing. You better answer the phone. Right. If somebody if the phone is ringing and you’re not taking care of a patient. Answer the phone.

Brett Allen 30:22

Yeah.

Dr. Walter Kostrzewski 30:23

And guess what? Leaders answer the phone. I answer the phone. Yeah, right. The first time I told Laurel that at Marketing 32, she’s like, oh my God, don’t ever let the doctor answer the phone.The doctors don’t know what they’re doing. I’m like, I teach phone skills. I better know how to answer the phone. So right now, right now.

Brett Allen 30:41

I’m answering.

Dr. Walter Kostrzewski 30:43

Right now. Lauren and Alfonso. Alfonso has a challenge. He he. His challenge this month is to find a call recording of me picking up the phone and trying to catch me.

Trying to catch me making a mistake.

Brett Allen 30:56

Nice.

Dr. Walter Kostrzewski 30:57

I love it, but you got. Yeah, that’s the other thing. Besides closing the phone. You have to. You have to answer the phone.

Brett Allen 31:06

Yeah.

Dr. Walter Kostrzewski 31:08

You’re Marketing 32 is going to make my phone ring. You gotta answer the phone.

Brett Allen 31:11

Right? Yeah. We had one guy with our call tracking software. We call it call Cat. Phenomenal.

By the way, if you want to test it out, we’ll give you a free month, so let us know. Everybody who’s listening, it’s got some AI behind it. It basically categorizes the calls so we can see what your booking rate is and what areas of improvement need to happen at the front desk to book more. We had one doctor in Chicago who we started working with uncovered that they had 90% voicemail rate. 90% of their colleges going right to voicemail. And so it’s like, how do you that’s the bottleneck of the business right there when you have something like that. But front desk in general is like you said, it’s a key part of the marketing equation. But so patients.

Dr. Walter Kostrzewski 31:53

Patients active patients, active patients leave. Most active patients hang up and call back. Right. And the second time maybe they’ll leave a voicemail. New patients don’t call back. They don’t leave a voicemail. They go click and they call the next dentist on the list.

Brett Allen 32:09

That’s. Yep. Yep. Exactly. Well, we’ve covered a bunch. We’re out of time today. But thank you so much for sharing the wealth of your knowledge of, you know, going from 200,000 to almost above 2 million. Now with one of your practices and doubling the other, there’s a lot of gold nuggets here. Thank you for your time. And we love you as a client. Love the relationship. Got tongue tied there.

Dr. Walter Kostrzewski 32:34

That’s I love what I love what you guys are doing for me Brad I love the relationship and this has been a lot of fun. Let’s do it again.

Brett Allen 32:40

Yeah. If anybody wants to reach out to Dr. K, he’s really easy to find on Google. But we’ll also put his contact info in the show notes. If you want to reach out for some coaching or some advice. And as always, if you’re looking for a marketing company, we’d love to work with you. And let’s hop on a call and see how we can help you out. But until next time, thanks. Thanks again for joining us today. Thank you, Dr. K, and we’ll see you next episode of The Marketing 32 Show. Take care.