How TeamCare Dental’s AI-Powered Incentives Generated $40,000 Monthly Returns
Adrian Lefler recently sat down with Colin Ambler from TeamCare for an in-person episode of Byte Sized Podcast, and what started as a casual conversation about dental marketing quickly turned into a revelation about one of the industry’s most persistent challenges: getting teams to actively participate in practice growth activities.
The discussion kicked off with Adrian sharing a frustration he’s encountered repeatedly over his 15 years in dental marketing. “The toughest thing when you’re doing social media marketing is getting authentic content from the team,” Adrian explained. “Some practices do great at that. Some practices don’t. But there’s only so much you can do in terms of marketing before you need authenticity.”
This challenge led to the discovery of TeamCare’s innovative solution that’s transforming how dental practices motivate their teams. Colin, whose wife is a dentist and who helped grow their practice from scratch to a seven-doctor, 14-chair operation, developed the platform after experiencing firsthand the struggles of getting staff to consistently perform growth-driving activities.
The $40,000 Monthly Problem Nobody Talks About
Colin revealed a stunning statistic from their own practice: “We make maybe a thousand phone calls a month across 20 different team members in our office. And the result is about $40,000 to $60,000 monthly revenue. We pay about $1,000 to our staff in that particular incentive, and when we track the return on investment, it’s a 40x return.”
This massive return highlights a fundamental issue in dental practices. As Colin noted, there’s an inherent problem with hourly pay models. During their conversation, they encountered a hygienist at a coffee shop who perfectly illustrated this challenge. She was booked out six months, seeing an extra patient per day compared to her colleagues, yet earning the same hourly rate.
Why Traditional Incentive Programs Fail Every Time
Adrian shared his experience with traditional review campaigns, describing a pattern he’s witnessed countless times: “You get the team all excited about using this tool, and they’ll go maybe 2 or 3 weeks gangbusters, and then everything else starts happening. Everything goes back to normal and nobody’s thinking about it.”
The traditional approach typically involves:
- Manual tracking of reviews
- Figuring out which team member helped which patient
- Waiting for the doctor to write checks
- Inconsistent follow-through on rewards
Colin identified the critical failure points: “There’s all those steps and they’re little steps, but it falls apart. The automatic payouts are crucial. There’s an inherent trust factor that everyone has shaken hands, enrolled a bank account, and these payouts will happen on a daily basis.”
The AI Solution That Changes Everything
TeamCare Dental’s platform uses artificial intelligence to completely automate the incentive process. Here’s how the technology works:
- Automatic Review Detection: The system monitors Google, Yelp, and Facebook reviews in real-time
- AI-Powered Attribution: When a review comes in, AI identifies the patient name and correlates it with the practice management system
- Team Member Identification: The system automatically determines which hygienist, assistant, and doctor worked with that patient
- Instant Rewards: Money is automatically deposited into team members’ accounts without any manual intervention
“The whole thing is automated,” Adrian marveled. “We would get on meetings with doctors saying you have to create an incentive for your team. They’d say, ‘Okay, we’re going to give $5 for reviews,’ but it required the team to get together, go through the reviews, figure out who did what, and then ask the doctor to actually write the check.”
What makes TeamCare’s approach revolutionary is its complete automation.
The platform integrates directly with:
- Practice management systems (Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental)
- Google My Business
- Social media platforms
- Review sites
Beyond Reviews: The Hygiene Reactivation Goldmine
One of the most powerful applications Colin shared was hygiene reactivation. “When someone engages in making reactivation calls, we track those activities and give credit for any time one of those patients comes into the office,” he explained.
The results speak for themselves:
- 1,000 calls per month across team members
- 100 patients reactivated
- $40,000-$60,000 in monthly production
- $1,000 in staff incentives
- 40x return on investment
This approach solves a common problem Adrian identified: “Nobody wants to make cold calls. I’ve got an employee whose dad is a dentist, and she’s worked in the practice since she was 11. That was her job – hygiene reactivation – because nobody else on the team wants to do it.”
Creating a Culture of Healthy Competition
The platform includes several features that foster positive team dynamics:
Instant Recognition: “As soon as we consume a Google review, an announcement email goes out or push notification to the entire team. There’s this cultural lift when someone sees that notification.”
Transparent Leaderboards: Team members can see who’s earning what, creating what Colin calls “healthy competition.” Adrian noted, “Amanda got another five bucks! What are they doing that I’m not doing?”
Merit-Based Rewards: The system allows practices to reward high performers appropriately. Colin suggested a hybrid model for hygienists: “Instead of $60 an hour, you’re going to get $55 an hour and $10 per patient. Every single time you see a patient, you’re getting $5 more than you would have otherwise.”
The Social Media Breakthrough
During their conversation, Adrian and Colin unveiled a new development that addresses one of marketing’s biggest challenges. Adrian explained how My Social Practice has struggled for years to get teams to submit photos for social media campaigns.
“All you’ve got to do is take a photo and text it or email it to us. That’s the simplicity. It doesn’t get done,” Adrian said. The new integration with TeamCare now incentivizes social media posts automatically, tracking when team members post photos to practice accounts and rewarding them accordingly.
This solves a critical problem for dental marketing companies. As Adrian pointed out, “The quality of that entire marketing campaign is dramatically improved if you get actual photography.”
The Bottom Line: Stop Managing, Start Incentivizing
The conversation revealed that practices using TeamCare’s system are seeing transformative results not just in metrics, but in culture. When team members start thinking like business owners, actively working to fill their schedules and deliver exceptional patient experiences, the entire practice dynamic shifts.
For practices tired of begging teams to ask for reviews, making cold calls nobody wants to make, or submitting photos for social media, TeamCare’s AI-powered platform offers a solution that turns these challenges into opportunities for team members to earn more while driving practice growth.
Interested in leveling up your review game? Check out the new partnership between My Social Practice and TeamCare to incentivize social media content and Google reviews aggregation by dental teams:
In This Episode:
Colin Ambler, MBA, CEO & Co-Founder of TeamCare
Colin Ambler is the CEO and Co-Founder of TeamCare, a dental software company transforming how practices engage and motivate their teams. Before launching TeamCare, he built a $7M+ dental practice with his wife, Dr. Sharon Bleiler, and consulted in hundreds of offices.
Adrian Lefler, CEO and Co-founder of My Social Practice
Adrian Lefler, CEO of My Social Practice, is a seasoned expert in the dental marketing industry with 14 years of experience. He is widely recognized for his engaging and informative presentations. Based in Suncrest, Utah, Adrian shares his life with his wife, four children, and a lively mix of pets. My Social Practice is a leading dental marketing company, and Adrian is passionate about helping dental professionals succeed in this dynamic field.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I really need to pay my team extra for activities that are already part of their job?
While it’s true that activities like asking for reviews or making reactivation calls are technically part of the job, the reality is they often don’t happen consistently without incentives. As Colin Ambler explained in the podcast, “You get what you incentivize.” His practice sees a 40x return on investment from their incentive programs. When you pay $1,000 in monthly incentives and generate $40,000 in additional production, it’s not about whether you “have to” pay extra – it’s about whether you want those results. The choice is between hoping team members do these activities (they usually won’t) or guaranteeing they happen through small rewards that generate massive returns.
How does the AI technology actually know which team member to credit for a Google review?
TeamCare Dental’s AI system uses a multi-step process to ensure accurate attribution. First, it automatically detects when a new review is posted on Google, Yelp, or Facebook. The AI then identifies the patient’s name from the review and cross-references it with your practice management system (Dentrix, Eaglesoft, or Open Dental). Finally, it determines which hygienist, assistant, and doctor worked with that patient during their visit. The entire process happens automatically without any manual tracking, and payments are deposited directly into team members’ accounts. This eliminates the traditional hassles of tracking reviews on spreadsheets or asking doctors to write checks.
What kind of ROI can a dental practice realistically expect from implementing automated incentive programs?
Colin’s practice consistently sees 40x returns on their hygiene reactivation incentives alone. They invest about $1,000 monthly in staff bonuses for making reactivation calls, which results in $40,000-$60,000 in monthly production from approximately 100 reactivated patients. Individual results vary based on practice size and implementation, but even conservative returns of 5-10x make these programs highly profitable. The key is that dental services are high-value. One crown or implant can be $1,000+, so even small incentives ($5-15) that motivate team members to secure these appointments generate substantial returns.
