Dalton Handy, VP of Marketing for GoTu, discusses the rebranding of the company and the reasons behind the name change. He emphasizes the importance of company values and how they shape the culture and success of the organization. Dalton also highlights the customer support provided by GoTu and the plans for expanding their services. He explains the fill rate and how GoTu makes it easy for dental practices to find temporary and permanent employees. Finally, Dalton shares his thoughts on partnership opportunities and the significance of core values in a dental practice.
Takeaways:
- Rebranding can help a company better reflect its services and differentiate itself from competitors.
- Company values are crucial in shaping the culture and success of an organization.
- Providing excellent customer support is essential for building trust and maintaining strong relationships with clients.
- GoTu’s fill rate is over 50%, offering dental practices a reliable solution for finding temporary and permanent employees.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction and Background
01:17 Reason for the Interview
06:23 Company Values
11:42 Customer Support and Future Plans
14:19 Fill Rate and How it Works
19:27 Importance of Core Values
21:02 Final Words and Contact Information
Listen on Apple Podcast:
Listen on Soundcloud:
Full transcript provided by Riverside AI, please disregard all grammar and spelling mistakes
Dayna (00:02.374)
Hey, welcome everyone to the high performing dental team podcast. And I have a very special guest on with us today. Dalton Handy is the VP of marketing for GoTu. And we actually met, oh gosh, it’s probably been over, it’s been over a year now, a year and a half, I guess, maybe get into two years now in June. We met at the speaking consulting.
network meeting. You remember that when was the first SCN meeting that we met? Was it a couple years ago?
Dalton Handy (00:39.406)
I think so we joined last year at about this time. So it might have just been last summer in Nashville was what it was. I don’t know. It’s been a whirlwind. Yeah.
Dayna (00:44.015)
Okay.
Yeah. Nashville. I know time flies, doesn’t it? But I was just so interested in what you guys do. So I’ve really been following you and your company. And recently we had a really great conversation during the Chicago midwinter meeting, which was just a couple of weeks ago. And I said, Dalton, I need to have you on my podcast.
and you’re like, yeah, just tell me when.
So the reason I wanted to have Dalton on the podcast was of course because of the, what do we call it? The great labor shortage of our country. And all my dental practices across the country are having challenges with hiring. And so I thought it would be really great to have you on and talk to us about GoTu. I know for many of the people listening,
they may recognize Temp Me, because that was your previous company name and you just recently went through a name change. So first kind of dive into that, tell us a little bit about the name change, maybe why that happened.
Dalton Handy (02:02.634)
Yeah, absolutely. Well, thanks so much for having me on. It’s been great to connect with you and honestly, everybody in the SCN community, a lot of us here at GoTu don’t have a super strong dental background. Myself, I have a tech background, not a dental background necessarily. And so to be able to lean on that community and people like yourself to get up to speed and to learn a lot more about the industry has been tremendously beneficial and really happy to be here today. So thanks again.
Dayna (02:30.778)
Yeah, absolutely.
Dalton Handy (02:32.478)
On the rebrand side, one thing that we found was that we’re just not a temp agency, right? I think we fill a similar need, but we also do a great amount of permanent recruiting. You know, we do over a thousand people every year and that number is only growing. So one of the things that we wanted to do with a new name was just, hey, really set ourselves apart from that. So it turns out it’s really hard to convince people you’re not a temp agency when your name is TempMe. So.
Dayna (02:59.695)
Yeah, that’s true. That’s true
Dalton Handy (03:00.958)
Yeah, it’s like, all right, cool. I got you. And when our permanent services people would be calling into offices, it’s like, no, I swear we do recruiting too. And it just so happens that that’s a best in class product on its own. So we really needed to differentiate there. And then we kind of came up with the idea internally actually for the new name. One of our designers that’s been with us since the very beginning, she’s been with us since 2018, I believe she had the idea for go to, you know, they’re.
a few different ways that we love this name, you know, go to, we want to be your, obviously your go-to solution for that. Um, but the way it’s spelled also, you know, very strongly in Sydney, you, it’s got you. So it’s, you know, go to, we got you. Uh, we’re also headquartered here in Miami. So there’s, you know, a lot of Spanish language, uh, influence. So, uh, for those, you know, that maybe don’t speak any Spanish to, to you is you, uh, so, you know, probably the most like lenient interpretation there is go you, which, you know, is really
Dayna (03:33.723)
Mm-hmm.
Dayna (03:40.946)
Yeah.
Dalton Handy (03:58.666)
what we’re about, particularly on the professional side, right? We want to empower people. We want them to be able to live the best life that they can. And we want to be a part of that process. So we just felt like this name was a lot more true to who we are and allowed us to grow within the space as a better reflection of what we do.
Dayna (04:16.31)
I love that. I love how you just expanded on I didn’t know that that’s all the interpretations of the name. So, so that was just a learning experience just for me for learning how where the name came from. So that I really love that it really is a much more comprehensive view of what your company does. Yeah, yeah.
Dalton Handy (04:25.484)
Yeah.
Dalton Handy (04:39.23)
Yeah, absolutely. No, I think it was great. It was a lot of fun to go through that process. I’m way more gray now than I was going in, but like we’re getting there. No, oh, maybe not, but I’m just tracking here. It’s the before and after was pretty distinct, but yeah, it was well worth it. And we’re all really, really happy with how it turned out.
Dayna (04:49.512)
Oh come on, you can’t be more gray than I am.
Dayna (04:58.488)
Uh-huh.
Yeah, yeah, these gray hairs are earned, right? I mean, it’s all the hard work that we put in to what we do. There you go.
Dalton Handy (05:09.118)
I like it. That’s okay. That’s what I’m gonna start telling my wife. Yeah.
Dayna (05:12.754)
There you go. Well, I love that. And you know, the other thing that I really have enjoyed about working with your company and just learning more about who you are is because I surround myself and I refer to, to companies and solutions when they are in line with. Like.
the human side, you know, I really only partner with companies and vendors and solutions that also match up to our values, you know, and I’m never going to recommend a product or solution just because I get
an awesome referral fee, you know, it has to be really good for my offices. Like I am never going to recommend a company that isn’t in line with my core values or my company solutions. And so I know that, that you guys also share a lot of the same values. And so I’d love for you to share with everybody about a little bit more about your company and
you know, what go to is really means on the inside. You know, what do you guys speak to when you think about the values of your company?
Dalton Handy (06:32.266)
Yeah, no, absolutely. And it’s been quite the journey in keeping the same culture that we had when we had eight people in January of 22 to now. I think we’re almost at 160. Right. So you’ve got kind of all these natural opportunities for cultural dilution. But I think we’re very fortunate that, you know, our founders really set us up for success in this regard, because they sat down and they set probably the most intentional culture I’ve ever been a part of.
Dayna (06:45.822)
Wow.
Dalton Handy (07:00.982)
which is great and it all ties into our five core values. So number one is, it’s your ship. So there’s this really cool book. I don’t know if you’ve read it by Captain Mike Abrashoff, I believe. Former Navy captain, he took the worst ship in the Navy, made it into the best ship in the Navy. But his philosophy was, hey, it’s your ship. If you see something that needs to be fixed, let’s not mess with all this red tape. You just go do it, right? So.
Dayna (07:13.071)
Okay.
Dayna (07:26.298)
Yeah.
Dalton Handy (07:26.486)
We want to empower our people to make decisions in their field of expertise. Next one is hard work doesn’t have to be serious. Hard work is pay to play. I think that’s going to be part of it no matter what. But hard work doesn’t have to be serious, means you should like what you do and you should like the people that you do it with. So I view that very differently than like work hard, play hard, right? That says to me, you’re probably going to be miserable during the day, but we might have a great happy hour after. Like, you know, those, no, we want it all to be an enjoyable experience for everybody.
Uh, their run is leave it better. So I think there’s a very physical application to this where it’s, I’ve got my desk here that I’m down in Miami this week, so like, I’m going to leave my desk better than I found it, uh, when I leave, but I think there’s an interpersonal aspect to, of like with my work or, Hey, I hope that because we have this conversation, your day is at, you know, 5% better or whatever. So I think that’s the, there’s the way that you interpret that kind of constantly throughout. Um, we’ve got.
A true believer is one as well. Hey, we’ve got really big aspirations, big goals. We want to make sure that, hey, you’re bought into that. And then the last one is whatever it takes. So it’s for, it’s, you know, a summation of the Hannibal Barca quote, right? Elephants over the Alps to sacro. Hey, we’re going to find a way or we’ll make one. So just encouraging people to be problem solvers, to be proactive and, you know, take everything on that they can.
Dayna (08:50.682)
I love that. I love that you’re just, you’re empowering everybody on your team to almost be like a stakeholder in, in the company, you’re not just an employee or not just a team member you are like you’re a stakeholder in this company and, and you want people to feel that when they come to work for you, which I love. I encourage all my dental teams that I work with to develop their own set of core values and
I love how you’ve put titles to each one of them, like really fun titles. And the first one was the it’s your ship or it’s our ship. What was that again? OK.
Dalton Handy (09:24.287)
Yeah.
Dalton Handy (09:33.002)
Yep. Yeah. So it’s your ship. Oddly enough, the author of that book now says if he were to rewrite it, it would be, it’s our ship. Because there are some things that just aren’t your ship, but like, it’s our ship. So yes, you had both were correct.
Dayna (09:44.842)
Uh-huh. Okay. I’m gonna have to find that book. And yeah, so I’m definitely gonna put that, that book in the show notes. So if people want to find it and want to read it, they could look that up. I think that’s a really great. We’re always looking for new books to read, right to
Dalton Handy (09:55.723)
Nice. Okay, cool.
Dayna (10:04.554)
to better ourselves and our goals and all of that. Perfect, I just love that. And so that’s why I really wanted to have you on because you share a lot of the same values that we share as well. And work is fun. I mean, we have fun every day and learning is fun. And I just love that about your company that every time I come see you guys, you’re always laughing, having fun,
know that you guys are I love what you do, you know, and I know you said you don’t you don’t have a dental background, but hasn’t dentistry been fun getting to know? Yeah.
Dalton Handy (10:44.362)
It has been, yeah. I’ve really enjoyed and felt welcomed, you know, by everybody that I’ve spoken to. And it’s also been really cool. You know, I’m from Colorado, so to go to like the Rocky Mountain show and actually see my hometown dentist and a lot of these people that I know from within the world and get to see them kind of in their space, you know, not just at the office, but it’s been fascinating to learn more about and the reception, you know, has just been tremendous.
Dayna (10:57.682)
Yeah.
Dayna (11:05.502)
Mm-hmm. Yep.
Dayna (11:12.474)
Yes, absolutely. 100%. And I know that before we started recording, I know we were also talking about customer service. And another reason why I love to partner with good companies like yours is that if I refer to someone, you know, my reputation is on the line. And if, you know, if you take good care of my clients, you know, then I continue to refer because I know that my
are going to be well taken care of. And so talk to us a little bit about, I know we were talking about this before we came on in recording about your customer support line, your customer support department and what might be coming in the future that people can take advantage of.
Dalton Handy (11:58.666)
Yeah, absolutely. It’s a fantastic team, right? So working in marketing, one of the things that you come across a lot are reviews online. We, you know, try to encourage people to post reviews whenever it makes sense, things like that. But you always keep an eye on where these things are. I have never seen a place or worked at a place that has way more positive than negative reviews about the customer success team. We’ve got a dedicated team in Miami that that’s, that’s obviously their position, but I think
they are inherently in a really, really difficult spot. You’ve got two different sides of our platform and at the core of our platform is people, right? So you’re going to have all of the nuance and all of the surprises and things like that comes up from working with people in a high stakes environment. And yet they’re able to absolutely crush it every single day. So there’s about a billion different ways to get ahold of them, call, text, email, chat, all of those things, but they’ve been…
hugely important to our success, and in particular, making sure that our offices feel heard, valued, and taken care of as a result. But one of the cool things that we’re looking at adding here is actually being able to go to a 24-hour support model. So as we continue to grow and we encounter different time zones, we don’t have quite as much coverage there as we’d like. So over the next couple of months, we hope to be able to roll out that support model, which should be just a great value add for all of our users.
Dayna (13:23.642)
Yeah, yeah. So, you know, the doctor that gets the text message from their, their team member that isn’t going to be in tomorrow, you know, they’re texting the doctor at, at three o’clock in the morning. And then now the doctor needs to get a temp into the practice.
Dalton Handy (13:38.314)
Yeah, exactly. Or even better. So like they could in that instance, they could just hop on the app and try to book somebody for tomorrow. But, you know, if something came together and something got canceled and you know, need to need us to step in, we’ll be available for that.
Dayna (13:43.01)
Yeah.
Dayna (13:51.078)
Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s so great. I mean, so many of our offices are in need of finding permanent and temp employees, you know, team members in the practice. And I know that you guys are in all 50 states with your permanent placement model and in about 30 states in your temp model.
And also we were talking about like your, the fill rate. So, you know, if one of my offices needed somebody, kind of walk us through what that looks like and then talk to me a little bit about the, we were talking about the fill rate. So I wasn’t really sure like what that meant exactly. So give us a little bit more about what that means to everybody that’s listening in.
Dalton Handy (14:45.238)
Yeah. So fill rate for us is one of our primary measures of success. It’s basically saying that for every shift that gets posted on the, on the temp side of our platform, how many fill, right? So when I came into this industry, I had no reference point for what that might be. I think if you’re using kind of more old school ways, right? Like a sub list, Facebook groups, you know, some job boards, things like that. You’re probably going to be in the like.
maybe five to 20% range is what we typically see. Our national fill rate right now is over 50% and has been for quite some time. So we’ve got a great footprint across the country now that we hope to continue to grow and expand. But one of the things that we pride ourselves on is, hey, we actually deliver in a lot of areas where people haven’t had that type of success. So to get to that end result, to get to that filled shift, all offices really have to do is
You pull up the platform, you can have it on your phone, on your iPad, or there’s the computer version as well, which most offices prefer, which is very understandable. But you log in and you say, hey, I need somebody, whether it’s a single day or multi-day, you just select that option. And then you fill out the necessary information. So the time we guide you on the rate too, which is one really cool thing about the platform. So we take local data from within our platform to say, hey, we’re filling at Denver.
is 60 to 65 an hour, that kind of range. So we help guide you on the pricing, you add any specialties that you need from the person that’d be coming in. You’ve got parking information, you know, just basic stuff like that. It takes about a minute to fill out, and then you click post shift, and that goes out to all the professionals in the area. You’ll get applications, counter offers, things like that. And then you can just confirm anybody that looks good, and then they show up and work. We take care of the rest, right? So we take care of the payment, all of that good stuff.
Dayna (16:12.363)
Yeah.
Dayna (16:24.158)
Okay.
Dayna (16:38.218)
Oh, so easy. I mean, you guys make it so easy to fill those shifts, when we’re short on team members in the practice. So it’s so important. Go ahead.
Dalton Handy (16:39.81)
That’s the goal.
Dalton Handy (16:48.126)
Yeah, it is. And I think that that’s one of the key value adds for us. It’s just how easy it is of, you know, sometimes we’re working these trade shows or in any other circumstances, we’ll talk with somebody that’s in, you know, maybe a less populated area or maybe even an area that we haven’t really gotten to yet. And I can very genuinely say, Hey, you can sign up for an account. It’ll take you about five minutes. You won’t pay us anything, nothing like that. Post a few shifts. And if it works amazing.
That’s like, you know, we helped you out. If it doesn’t, all right, you burn five minutes. Like, you know, it’s one of those things where people can really give it a shot and try to get a feel for it, even if it’s not the strongest area for us.
Dayna (17:16.126)
Mm-hmm.
Dayna (17:26.278)
Yeah, yeah, definitely. You could try it on and see if it works for you. Yeah, definitely.
Dalton Handy (17:30.538)
Yeah, I’d rather do that personally. Maybe it’s, you know, being in my thirties, I’m a little hesitant to call people on the phone to try to come in. So I’d much rather spend five minutes on the app and post than call a bunch of folks.
Dayna (17:43.774)
Well, well, we do know that the generations are now they live on their phones, like all day, you know, and, and having the app available, you know, 24 seven so that they can look for jobs, post jobs, all that I mean, that’s what everybody wants is, is accessibility. And that’s what’s really important.
Dalton Handy (18:03.787)
Mm-hmm.
Dayna (18:06.458)
Well, I would love to be able to, you know, partner with you guys a lot more. You know, of course we have a platform with online courses where we could really help.
the team members that maybe are coming in to work in a in a Dentrix office that maybe need a little bit of help. So we’re gonna have to talk about that in the future. Because I think that could be a really good value added service for people looking for looking for jobs and want to up their skills on software. Yeah.
Dalton Handy (18:36.918)
Definitely. I think that we’re always trying to encourage our users to become the best professional that they can be. And we believe that they are already pretty close, but to be able to provide any additional opportunities for people to get better and for offices to run even more smoothly when those professionals step into the office, it’d be a huge win. I like it.
Dayna (18:59.878)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, Dalton, this has been a great conversation. I loved learning about your rebranding and I loved hearing your core values. That was just really special. And I encourage all my dental practices to come up with their own core values as well. I encourage that a lot because it really does develop the culture in the practice. And you know that it’s developed the culture in your company as well.
Dalton Handy (19:27.498)
Yeah. Can I actually offer one tip on that? In core value development, one of the really cool things that I learned about how they came about here was they weren’t aspirational. It was, Hey, let’s look at ourselves. What makes us special? That is really good. Right? So from the very beginning, I think to everybody involved, it felt authentic. It wasn’t just something plastered on the wall that, you know, maybe makes sense, maybe doesn’t, but was rooted in that authenticity. And I think that really made a huge impact.
Dayna (19:29.562)
Yeah, absolutely.
Dayna (19:48.637)
Mm-hmm.
Dayna (19:55.938)
I agree with you. I have a practice up in the state of Washington and their core values, their vision of their practice, they have it posted up in three different places in the office. So as soon as patients walk in the door, they’ve had it like etched on this glass door, which is really beautiful. And then they also have it posted up kind of as patients are checking out.
Dalton Handy (20:09.23)
Mm-hmm.
Dayna (20:26.512)
They have a whole kind of frame of every team member in the practice and then they have their core values posted in the middle of this beautiful framed picture. And I just think that’s really important because then you see it every day, you know.
Dalton Handy (20:41.258)
Yeah, absolutely. Get it posted everywhere. Get it right. And then yeah, show everybody.
Dayna (20:47.478)
And then I love that you really work towards those core values every single day. You know, it’s not just something that’s posted and then you forget about it. You know, you guys live by it every single day and I love that about you guys. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, Dalton, this has been great conversation. Anything, any last final words that you’d like to share with our audience about?
Dalton Handy (21:02.25)
Yeah, well, thank you. That’s certainly the goal.
Dayna (21:14.29)
about what you guys do and how you can help their own practices. All right.
Dalton Handy (21:17.622)
Nothing too crazy. I think that, you know, I just recommend everybody check out the website. It’s joingotu.com to is spelled G-O-T-U dot com. And then we can, you know, help you out from there.
Dayna (21:28.582)
Yeah, great. Well, I really wanted to have you guys on because of the challenges that all my teams are having with shortages. So I will definitely have the contact info in the show notes and then any other information that you want to share, I’ll put in the show notes so everybody can get in contact with you guys.
Dalton Handy (21:49.218)
That’s perfect. Thanks so much, Dana. Thanks again for having me. I really appreciate it.
Dayna (21:53.21)
Absolutely, and then I will see you in June. Yeah, that’s gonna be fun. All right.
Dalton Handy (21:56.426)
Yes, for sure, Injun.
Dayna (22:01.518)
All right, thank you everyone for being online with us today. I really appreciate you spending. Well, we went about 20 minutes today. Normally I go about 15. We went a little bit longer today, but that’s okay. And I hope you enjoy the rest of your day. If you enjoyed this podcast today, please rate it. Five star review will always help get, help us get our information out to more dental practices. And I look forward to watching your journey of becoming a high
performing dental team.
