"Innovation To Drive The Next Best Business Decision" with Kyle Surratt from The Jetty Group

🫳 3...2...1...Season 4 of Kinda Different is dropping!

In our first episode of the new season, Matt is joined by Kyle Surrat, Chief Business Officer at The Jetty Group. They discuss how to bring innovation into DSOs and dental offices, the value of relationships and presence in life and work, and personalization in health care.

You can find more about Kyle and The Jetty Group at the following places:
Website: https://www.thejettygroup.com/
Email: kyle@thejettygroup.com

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Transcript
Hey everybody, welcome back to another, not just episode, welcome back to another season of Kinda Different, season four. We are just so thrilled to be back, so thrilled to be chatting with some of the most amazing people in our industry, providing insight on how we can all together innovate in dental care and how we can make dental care more human. I am Dr. Matt Allen, CEO and co-founder of DifferentKind, and your host for Kind of Different.
And I am thrilled to have somebody here who I just really enjoy chatting with, enjoy hearing his perspective. Kyle Surrat, who's the chief business officer at Jetty Group. Thank you for joining us to kick off season four.
Really excited to have this conversation today. Before we dive in, tell us a little bit about yourself, stuff that we can't find on LinkedIn. Give us, you know, what do you care about?
What are you interested in? What are you doing every day? Share.
Yeah, man. So excited to be here. Thank you for having me.
Obviously enjoy chatting with you as well. So I was excited to do this. Yeah, Jetty Group, man.
We are, you know, we're a few years old now coming up on three years and really focused on helping our clients make the best, most informed technology decisions that they can. The dental and DSO space has been great for us because it's all about really patient experience. And, you know, in this DSO space, you've got a lot of consolidation happening and technology and how to drive efficiencies and use technology smarter is a challenge for people.
And we really consider that our job to stay up to date on the latest trends and trends and threats these days and, you know, technology tools that can be leveraged. And so really helping our clients solve business problems by leveraging technology. And so really love doing it.
Love the whole dental world and the things that are happening and the care that people are putting into, you know, how do we do it better and leverage technology to do so.
Awesome, man. Well, I mean, I think you're just such a perfect person to chat about the innovation piece, right? Because obviously this is how you're working with your clients and how you're helping them understand what's out there, what's available and whatever.
And so the first question that I have for you, just, you know, from your perspective, you know, what is the biggest gap that you see? But then also the biggest, like, gap that's been closed, maybe over the past year or so, where you're like, oh, you know, most DSOs or most dental groups now seem to have X, like that gap has been closed. Like we're doing okay in that.
But then like, what is that kind of next hurdle where you're like, hey, you know, whenever we come in to start working with these groups, here is a big pain point that we still see existing.
Yeah, that's a great question. I think there's a variety of gaps. I think a big one is it has to do with just purely data.
There's a question that every DSO I work with has is, do we standardize on a specific PMS, or do we allow dentists in various offices to have the autonomy to make those decisions on their own? And the same holds true, not just PMS platforms, but your phone systems and your various tools that you're using in the office, and HR platforms, all that kind of stuff. And so there becomes this question of, how much standardization do you drive as a DSO?
And then if you're going to allow that autonomy, how are you then accessing the data from all of your practices and your network to enable you to make the next best business decision, right? And so those are conversations we have a lot. And I think that it comes down to a little bit of school of thought.
In dentistry, there's been a lot of advancements, I think, in terms of gaps that have been filled. There's been some advancements in the software that's available to you. So first of all, cloud-based PMSs are making progress.
I think there's been some gaps there. They're making progress. But then also kind of those middleware data aggregation tools.
There's a lot of progress being made there as well so that you can really figure out how to tie your systems together as a DSO. Because it all really comes down to how are you enabling your team to make the best next acquisition or whatever the next business decision is. And so you continue to see those advancements just in the technology and applications that are available.
And then the other thing I would mention too is, all the things, AI has been a bit of a catchphrase, but you're starting to see some really advanced things happening with AI, both from clinical stuff, but also to like your patient communication platforms and how are you using AI to enhance that whole process. So there's things there that are happening. So yeah, I mean, a little bit long winded, but those are some of the areas where I think we're making a lot of progress.
Yeah, no, that's great. And I think to go back to the kind of the previous point that you're saying, it sounds like you're seeing, hey, like the ability to generate the data or create the data sets, you know, some of those pieces, right? Like the technology is there now.
It's more of a like implementation, change management. Like how do you get people actually like going from, hey, you've never had this before to now you do have it. Like how do you actually engage with that, use it, you know, some of that?
Correct me if I'm wrong there, but that's kind of what I'm hearing from you.
Yeah, no, you're exactly right. I mean, a lot of it is that change management piece and, you know, maybe we've got to switch platforms, we've got to do some things a little bit differently. I mean, you know, Dennis and well, a lot of people can be creatures of habit, and Dennis are no different.
And so there's certain habits you have to break, and certain advancements you just have to embrace. So that's a big part of my job at the Jetty Group is is helping bring teams along to embrace new technologies, new things that ultimately drive efficiencies into the DSO.
Sweet, man. Well, I think, you know, my next question for you, I love this question just from the perspective of, you know, a lot of times we feel burdened by what's realistic, you know, what can we do, what's available now, you know, and even, you know, hey, like, what have we closed, and what's the next thing to close, right? But I always like to think of, hey, if those realism barriers were removed, and we could simply just, like, snap our fingers, and things would change, you know, from your perspective, if you could wake up tomorrow and change one thing about the dental technology ecosystem with which you're so familiar, what is that one thing for you that's like, man, this is, maybe we're not close to solving it now, whatever, but this is a huge problem, and this is, like, where we're gonna be going in the next 10 years, but if I could change it tomorrow, I would.
Yeah, that's a good question. The thing that, there's several, but the one that immediately jumps to mind is that is, is that kind of, you know, I'll go back to kind of cloud PMS platforms, and you're seeing some new evolutions there and some new things come along. One thing that I think is missing is that in dentistry, you've got a ton of innovation across all the kind of the clinical platforms that you're using.
Today, the cloud-based PMS platforms, in my opinion, have not really advanced far enough into including those new technologies. So everybody says they have open APIs, and, you know, they can integrate with these other things that doctors want to use in a clinic, but they don't really yet. So your doctors find themselves, I think, kind of limited in what tools they can integrate, or they maybe go to a conference and see a new technology and come back and tell their team, hey, we're gonna do this.
And then that thing doesn't integrate with all the systems that they currently have in place. So I think that, you know, in other verticals, other industries, you kind of see just more advancements from integrations. And so, you know, take the example of like, you know, Salesforce for business.
A lot of companies use Salesforce as their CRM. Well, Salesforce has an entire marketplace of tools that plug into it. So it makes it very easy to just plug it right in to your other business systems.
I think that, you know, if I could snap my fingers today and have an advancement in the dental space, it would be just those integrations across platforms that don't exist today. Because if you could plug and play tools and all have them work together, it would be brilliant. And I think provide a ton of efficiency.
Totally, totally. Well, even you see that in like the medical industry area with like, you know, lots of problems with Epic and the kind of, you know, monolith that it is, right? In terms of the medical PMS world.
But, you know, they have the app orchard and they have, you know, it's like the app store for, you know, Epic, right? And you're like, hey, this is just where you go to find those pieces. So yeah, no, totally.
That's a really, a really fascinating piece there. Well, let's move on to you. You're a fascinating dude.
Like I said, you know, I've always appreciated our conversations. You're just really thoughtful. Really present.
Something that we've talked about on the podcast a lot about the value of presence, which I think is really, is really crucial. But I always love to kind of hear, yeah, we want to hear more about you. So one of the questions that I have for you, just like tell us about some of the values and maybe how that plays out that like shape your daily life.
So you've got kids, you've got, you know, your job, you've got these things that are really important to you. Like what are those values that shape your daily life and the things that you try to say, hey, here's how I try to show up as a human based on what's important to me.
Yeah, for sure. My, you know, so you hit the nail on the head. I mean, my values, my schedule, everything is driven by my four daughters.
So, you know, four girls that are kinda the reason that we do all of this, right? Because they, and today they're all very active. They dictate my schedule.
And they're also the reason that I have to work because they're expensive. And so they're not the only reason I have to work, but one of the, they're the main reason now. So that kind of drives, that's kind of my why, I guess, is just providing for them and nurturing that, hopefully, being a model to them as they grow.
The two oldest are twins, they're 18. They go off to college next year. So that's gonna be a huge change in our household.
And it's kind of, it's interesting seeing them kind of grow wings and take off. So that's really cool. And kind of my big why there.
And then, in terms of more the business side of things, that continues to resonate. I mean, I think relationships are so important. My best client experiences are not where I have a customer, but where I've got kind of a partner client that, I'm part of their team, helping make decisions, helping drive change, helping just advance their business, and helping them ultimately achieve their goals.
Whether if it's a DSO that wants to be a certain size, certain number of locations, I want to help them do that. Or if I'm working with a director of IT that wants to be CIO, how do I enable him or her to get to that point by leveraging innovative technology and making change in their business? So those are the most fun relationships to me, and try to be impactful in any industry, any area that I'm working in.
For me, that's what it all boils down to, is who are those relationships and how are we impacting them? Then I get to do that by helping inform folks on different technology available to them, and again, just advancing their business towards the goals that they want to achieve.
Totally, man. Love it. Prioritizing people, I don't think it's ever going to be a bad value, right?
So I love that and certainly you've shown that to me in our relationship, so I certainly appreciate that. One of the things that I think is always interesting to hear about is something that's like a challenge, and that could be on personal side of life, on business side of life or something like that. How do you approach challenges in general, and how do you kind of apply that framework to like, hey, there's this specific challenge that we're dealing with right now, and here's how we're thinking about it, here's how we imagine operationalizing that strategy, whatever.
And that sounds like very business language, but at least I certainly do that in my personal life, where I'm like, oh, here's the challenge we're addressing as a family, here's how we think about it, here's the things we're going to try, whatever. So we'd love to hear that from your perspective of what's challenge, how do you imagine kind of overcoming that?
Yeah, for sure. I think I'm not the most organized, scheduled, process-oriented person. That's been an area of growth for me.
And because I do, I think it can be crucial. And not being that way can help or can create challenges, but being that way provides almost kind of just a peace of mind. I mean, if you've got a challenge with no plan, it's easy to feel like your hair's on fire.
If you've got a challenge and you've got some sort of process or plan in place, you at least have a path to overcoming it. And again, this is me speaking to myself because it doesn't come supernaturally to me. But when I'm speaking to my daughters or a client, I mean, that's how it comes down to you.
What steps do you have to get through to overcome this particular challenge? I don't know if you follow any stuff from Jesse Itzler. I just ordered his.
He's got this concept of he does a lot in terms of scheduling. And it's this whole concept of like, if you don't schedule your year, then things just fill the time. And then you get to the end of the year and you're left kind of going, what did I do this year?
And so I've started implementing some things. He's got this big A calendar that he promotes that I've ordered. So put, you know, kind of put my whole year on, which I'm saying that because it helps professionally and personally of just having things on the calendar, having a bit of a process and being able to work around the goals that I want to achieve versus being very reactive and, you know, achieving a goal, either not achieving or achieving goals that maybe weren't an initial goal, if that makes sense.
No, man, totally. I really appreciate you saying that. Yeah, that kind of piece on like reactive versus being proactive.
I mean, I think we all want to be more proactive in our life. And if we can find solutions that are helping us, you know, make decisions before they're made for us, like we we're all going to feel better about. Hey, we always tell people, we might not arrive where we all want to arrive, like, especially if you're making decisions at a company or, you know, like I think about, you know, we live in a small community and it's changing.
And you're like, well, there's a lot of planning that goes into that. Not everyone's going to agree, like what this town looks like in 10 years, right? But what we don't want to have happen is no one put any thought into it.
And then we're just where we're at in 10 years and everyone's unhappy, right? Like we might not all be like, hey, this, I'm thrilled with the results, but at least we can be like, hey, we tried something. That's a huge piece of, you know, learning, right?
Is like, we tried this thing, it didn't work. Here's what we're going to do to modify as we move forward. So I love it.
Well, let's move into making dental care more human. I think, you know, you have a really interesting role in this, right? As somebody who brings, you know, systems, technology systems into organizations, help them set them up, help them think about it, which, you know, you see a lot of this of like help be more efficient so you can spend more time with your patients.
And, you know, that sounds nice in theory. What I often find is that that doesn't end up being the case, you know, where it's like, well, even if you're creating business efficiencies, it's like you're not teaching people how to have conversations. And if you're a bad listener, it's weird to sit there with a patient and talk to them.
You need training in that specific thing, not just technology that gives you more time. So I think it's a really interesting way of conceiving of, hey, this is, I think, a goal of the industry, is you would hopefully be helping facilitate these relationships, right, that are important to you, obviously. And so when you think of patient experience in general, and answer this question from whatever perspective you take it from.
So this could be like, hey, here's how I'm taking it as a patient, or here's how I think our DSO should do it, or no, here's what I think of my role specifically. But when you think of patient experience, broad, what's a factor that you think is important but overlooked right now?
I think the patient experience starts really from before a patient walks into an office. And so if you're new to a community and you need a pediatric dentist for your kids, and you go to Google and search it, your patient experience is really going to start right there. And so for groups, dentists, DSOs, how are you thinking about that whole progression from initial searching of a certain practice to reaching out?
How is that person able to reach out? Are they doing it via text, chat, phone call, online submission, whatever it may be? And then how are they handled from that point forward?
And so when I'm talking to groups, I mean, that's kind of where we start is, I mean, everything from what's the performance of your website and your internet to how are they treated when they get into the office and what sort of environment is that off? Is it fun and friendly or is it more cold and clinical? All the way through to they see the doctor.
Obviously, that's a very obvious patient experience point, but then going beyond that, paying to follow up to post-visit surveys and all those things, how are you making them really feel welcome? I don't know that there's a lot of things that we can touch there that enhance that experience. I think any of them are overlooked.
I mean, quite frankly, I think in dentistry today, some of the basics are overlooked sometimes, and it's just purely a phone conversation.
How important are you making that person feel on the phone? Because we're all super busy, and so you've got multiple things going on, and does that patient know that, or do they feel like you're the only person they're talking to? Those are some of the types of things I think about, because there's obviously phone systems and things out there now that really help enhance that.
They can kind of take some of that burden off the office. And then also there's tools that help ease contact options. So we're seeing a change from patients or customers that used to always want to speak on the phone.
Now, for our generation, but then especially for our kids' generations, they probably never want to speak to anybody. They want to do it all from their iPhone. So how are you enabling that and just providing them options?
And so those are some of the things I think get overlooked. And they seem basic and simple, but they're, in my opinion, super important. So how do we think through those things and make that patient, A, have access to us in the way that they want, and then B, feel like they're important when they do access us?
Yeah, totally empathetic approach there, right? Not necessarily just how I want to be communicated with, but how am I, you know, this person, right? So I love that.
One last question for you. I love this question because I think we're all patients, right? We all access health care.
We all access dental care, generally speaking. And I like putting ourselves in that seat because I think we always are, you know, viewing dentistry from this, like, profession lens, this systems lens, all these different pieces, right? And so what's one thing that you feel like, you know, when you go to see a health care professional, it could be dentist, medical, whatever, that just, like, helps build trust with you?
Like, what's that one thing where you're like, hey, to me, this is one of the most important things that can happen, you know, in this visit, and what is it? Tell us about it.
Yeah, great question. For me, probably the way I'm programmed or whatever, it's, for lack of a better term, I'll call it personalization. It's purely how is either the office staff or the doctor themselves making me feel from a personal standpoint?
You know, is it just, you know, am I just a patient there that they want to get to my symptoms and help address those symptoms and move on to the next patient, or do they want to know a little bit about me, my home life, daughters, you know, what's going on, that kind of thing? I think, you know, I think that's important, and that's what's most important to me now. I may be different from the next person that wants to just get in and get out.
They don't want to talk about any of that. But for me, those are the types of things, because, you know, I'm of the age, man. It's good.
I mean, I went a very long time without having any relationship with a doctor, just because I never went to the doctor, and I've got some family history of some heart health stuff, and so now I'm at the age where, like, that starts to feel very real to me. And so, you know, how do I get a little more proactive, I guess? And for me, that is, whether it's dentistry or health care, it's somebody that wants to help me invest in a proactive approach to health care versus just addressing the issues.
Totally, yeah.
Understanding your goals, like, understanding, you know, I heard this term of, like, your next marginal decade, like, for the next 10 years for you, right? If they understand that for you, like, what are your goals? What do you want to be able to do in 10 years?
You know, cool. Like, let's start there, and then we'll work backwards to help you, like, achieve those things, right?
Yeah, well said.
Cool, man.
Yeah. Awesome.
Well, this is, I mean, we, I love, I think you have such an interesting role in our industry, you know, and what you bring and the perspective that you offer really felt like just a great fit to kick off this season in terms of, hey, here's, here's how we can kind of frame and shape this, because we're gonna, you know, talk to some people who are solving very specific problems and whatever, but you're gonna have this big broad perspective of, hey, like, what does technology look like, you know, in the industry and how are we thinking about it and how is that enabling these trusting relationships or not? And so I love, I love your perspective, and I would encourage anyone who sees Kyle at a meeting or whatever, please, you know, I'm sure he'd be happy to say hello and he's just a really humble, thoughtful, kind-hearted human. So if someone does want to chat with you more or wants to find out more about Jetty Group or whatever it is, tell us where is the best place to find you, find out more about Jetty, et cetera.
Yeah, absolutely. So first of all, I appreciate all of that. You know, it is, it's a fun place to be in an exciting time.
And, you know, we really want to ultimately help achieve business outcomes for people, and we do so by leveraging technology. But we love those conversations. thejettygroup.com is our website.
Kyle at thejettygroup.com is my email, so easy, easy way to get me and would love and welcome any of those conversations with anybody that may find interest or find value.
Awesome, man. Well, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks so much for being just a great, great guest to kick off season four of Kinda Different.
We are so grateful for your time. We are excited to dive in with you listeners over the course of the next 10 or so weeks in season four. So thanks again, Kyle.
We really appreciate it.
And thanks everyone for tuning in. Hope you have a great day.
Thanks so much. Appreciate you having me.