Ep 373 AI Clinic Software: Speed to Lead, Patient Retention and AI Employees with Podium | Shannon Blake
54 min
What happens to the enquiry that lands at 9pm, when your clinic is closed? Shannon Blake is Director of Aesthetic Partnerships at Podium, the software company whose all-in-one platform is used by aesthetic practices in the USA and Australia. She joins Dr Jake Sloane and David Segal from Utah to explain how a company that began by helping a family tyre shop collect Google reviews came to build AI employees for medical spas and aesthetic clinics. She covers speed to lead, how an AI front desk answers messages and books appointments, using AI to find patients who never rebooked, data security, onboarding and migration, and what to ask before believing any software company's AI claims. This episode was made in partnership with Podium. Get clinical and business education, practical tools and access to all of our WhatsApp chats with a 14-day free trial subscription to our IA Community app: insideaesthetics.com/app What you'll learn: Why speed to lead matters, and how long clinics really take to reply to after-hours enquiries How an AI front desk can answer texts and social media messages and book appointments around the clock How to train an AI employee on your brand, your rules and when to hand over to a human Why patient retention should come before spending more on marketing How tracking inventory properly gives you true month-to-month profit figures What to ask a software company before trusting its AI claims Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 02:27 Who Is Shannon Blake and What Is Podium? 06:02 How Did a Tyre Shop Become an Aesthetics Software Company? 08:28 Why Have Aesthetic Clinics Put Up With Old Software? 11:13 What Is an AI Front Desk Employee? 16:32 How Do You Train an AI Employee for Your Clinic? 19:52 What Happens When a Clinic Misses a Call? 23:53 Why Fix Patient Retention Before Spending More on Marketing? 28:51 How Secure Is Patient Data, and Is It Really AI? 32:06 What Can't AI Employees Do? 36:21 What Clinical Tools Are Included? 42:07 Why Does I...