Last week I discussed a serious Customer Service Fail that I experienced at the Specialist Doctor’s Office, and how the staff there got caught up with minutiae in their office and dropped the ball with respect to me, their customer by not sticking to their systems.
I also mentioned that I had experienced another Customer Service Fail on the same day, of a similar type but with a very different lesson…
So here’s what happened when I met my wife for lunch at the Bookstore Restaurant.
There’s a bookstore, barn, situated on a vineyard, down near where my wife and I have our farm. A great bookstore, with new and second hand, pre-loved books as well. In the last two years or so, the bookstore has been overhauled, and books moved out, and a new kitchen and food/restaurant focus has seen the venue become a recommended and desirable place to dine.
We had yet to dine there, but we had heard glowing reports about the place. I also wanted to peruse their books, as I have a small collection of second hand books in a niche subject. More on that some other time.
So I arrived at the restaurant slightly earlier than my wife.
A sign at the door read, “Please wait to be seated”.
Well it was correct. I waited. And I waited. And I waited.
I re-read the sign. It did not read “Please wait *here* to be seated”. It just read, “wait”.
The restaurant was relatively full, well about, three quarters. Though small, it probably had seating for fifty. I had time, boy did I have time, to notice that there were no vacant tables for two, but there were two vacant tables for four people available.
I watched a waitress emerge from a kitchen area at a distant corner, serve a table, and then retreat back to that kitchen area. No eye contact with me. No looking around the restaurant. No recognition or sign to me, at all.
Finally, after what seemed like many minutes, a casually dressed maître de emerged from a second kitchen area in another corner to greet me. I confirmed our reservation, and explained that my wife was travelling from separately.
He ushered me to a table set for four, with two menus, then proceeded to remove two of the settings.
He did not ask me whether I had dined with them before, nor how I found out about them.
Nor did he offer any procedural information….who would be over to offer me drinks, who would be over to tell me the specials and take my order. Nothing was forthcoming.
Finally a waitress came to offer me a choice of still or sparkling water. I chose still, but also chose to ask her for an adult beverage which was brought promptly.
When my wife arrived, she entered and sat herself with me. The maître de was nowhere to be seen. My wife’s arrival was not noted by any staff, as she had to signal, finally, for someone to come and take a beverage order.
We ordered our meal at the same time. Interestingly, our meals seemed to take an eternity to arrive.
Firstly, we had to order replacement pre-lunch beverages. This is not a good sign. Secondly, we noted that not one, but two tables of diners who had arrived after my wife were enjoying their meals while my wife and I still waited.
An hour after arriving, our meals arrived. This was not good.
With regard to our multiple pre-lunch drinks, we had to ask and call out to our maître de for refills. This was sad. On one occasion he was clearing a vacated table. On another, he seemed to be just skimming the room, but not noting the detail, for example, that we were sitting with empty glasses.
Sadly, the food was good, but the service, on a not so busy Monday afternoon let the restaurant down.
We heard later, from elsewhere, that the regular maître de for this restaurant had been called away from his job, due to personal reasons.
Sadly, his replacement was a lower grade player, and was not up to the demands of the top league. And therein lies the problem.
What we need to do, in any business, is know that our replacement players are up to the task. At this restaurant, that was not the case.
So how is it at your dental office? Are there junior, or less experienced team members stepping up to the top jobs but without the runs on the board?
For the restaurant’s sake, we were lucky to have heard that the #1 Maître de had been called away. Otherwise, we may have thought that this “level” of service was their norm, or their “benchmark”.
Still, it’s not really good enough, is it? It’s not good enough to put someone less than best, when best is expected.
Why wasn’t best practice trained into the replacement? And who on earth thought that this restaurant could get away with it, without the customers discerning and recognizing, that there was a significant difference between their regular team, and their fill ins?
So again, I ask you, is this what happens at your office?
Are there times, either hours or days, when you substitute a B-player for an A-player, and hope that the job gets done OK?
Do you think your clients or customers or patients really deserve to deal with B-players?
How can you rectify this situation? Why are your B-players B-players at all? Why haven’t you trained them up the A-level?
There’s no reason at all that your office should even have B-players.
Everyone on your team should be an A-player, with an A-player game.
Your customers, clients, and patients deserve the best. Nothing but the best. Only the best will do. And must do.
All of the time. Every time.
The correct use of systems is just one of the many straight forward and easy to implement protocols and procedures that make up The Ultimate Patient Experience, a simple to build system in itself that I developed that allowed me to create an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.
Email me at david@theupe.com
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One of the great anomalies in dentistry is that for some strange reason the profession is scared to be charging and billing and receiving payment in advance for its time.
I have no idea why the profession is so afraid of this concept.
Last Thursday, August 1, 2013, while in transit at Singapore Airport, I purchased online, four tickets for my family to see Michael Bublè in concert.
In May next year!! Saturday night before Mothers’ Day!!
Next Year!!
Saturday May 10, 2014!!
Two hundred and seventy three days in advance!!
Think about it? Concerts? We pay in advance!
We do it with airlines. We book our flights and pay in advance!!
Holidays? Movie tickets? We fork out our folding in advance.
Hotels? Happy to hand over our credit card numbers as security. No problem!!
So why not in dentistry? Why not indeed!!
Dentists and dental services are provided by university trained and board certified operators who have spent years, yes years, just learning their trade.
Yet the profession as a whole allows patients and customers to reserve time with our doctors, sometimes for months in advance, unsecured. That time is reserved.
Unlike airlines and hotels, dental offices don’t overbook. Patients make a time? We keep that time for the patient. Unsecured, usually.
We never double book and see who turns up first, do we?
Like the airlines? Like the hotels? No way!!
Then last minute, or even worse via SMS the night before, the patient cancels.
At no cost to the canceller. None! Zip! Zero!!
Despite having had that time reserved for them for weeks, or maybe months!!
What a hide?? And we let them!!
I believe it’s time for the profession to stand up for what it is!
A profession!! Not a commodity!!
Stand up for your values, and value what you do!!
Occasionally, my Dental Office will refer a patient to a Sydney Cosmetic Plastic Surgeon [“to the stars” mind you], for lip repositioning surgery.
This Doc demands and receives payment in advance for his consultation appointments at the time of booking!!
So if he can, why can’t you??
I know some of my colleagues offer incentives, like five or ten percent courtesy to patients who prepay their dental treatment in advance. Which is a good start. It’s an incentive to reduce last minute appointment changes. And it sure works.
So think about it? Will it work for you?
A non-dental business colleague of mine says he’d rather have ninety to ninety five percent of the money in advance sitting in *HIS* bank, than one hundred percent of the money sitting out there in hope.
That sure makes good business sense.
Dentists, the call is yours….
The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple easy to implement system I developed that allowed me to build an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.
Email me: david@theUPE.com
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Sadly today, I experienced another serious Customer Service Fail.
Well not just one, but rather two. Two serious customer service fails in the same day. Help me!! What is the world coming to?
I really believe in both instances, that the cause of the poor customer service was easily reversible.
However, in both instances, serious reputation damage has been done.
Systems. Systems failed. Systems were either non-existent, or were not followed.
And probably without the business owner, or manager being aware of this breakdown.
And there in lies the problem, or definitely, a major cause, of the problem. Sadly, when there is a system breakdown, these breakdowns can be easily remedied if there is supervision in place…
Being Customer Service Focused myself, I view the world through Customer Service Eyes. And most days I survive, I get by easily. But today was different, very different….
I had a specialist orthopaedic appointment about my right shoulder this morning at 10:00am. After an examination and consultation with the doctor, he brought me back to the front reception area. The receptionist who had greeted me before seeing the doctor was not there, but another woman was present, doing battle with a printer machine there.
The doctor asked her to book my surgery in three weeks time, as well as a consultation with him to review an MRI next week with him. This woman wrote these instructions on her hand and then told them to the receptionist, who had just appeared carrying a tray of four purchased coffees which she was intent on distributing. The receptionist’s instructions to me were to have a seat, and that the woman who was battling with the printer would see me shortly, in her office, to organise my appointments.
Fifty minutes later and I’m still waiting. During this time, there is a procession of patients being called by the doctor, as well as a handful seeing the “printer woman”, who I later find out, is a registered nurse.
Anyway, after fifty minutes, the printer woman emerges from somewhere to behind the front counter to ask the coffee receptionist what happened to Mr. Moffet as he had left without making his appointments?
At this point I rose and spoke up, that I was still here, fifty minutes waiting!! With some degree of flabbergastation [is that a real word?], I was ushered into the printer woman’s office with a very weak apology, if that, almost blaming the coffee receptionist.
I told the printer woman that her scenario was not correct, and leveled blame on her with both barrels. I told the printer woman that I had seen the doctor give her the instructions, and that I was expecting her to have acted upon them. She seemed to want to transfer blame to the coffee receptionist, seeing that once she had given the instructions to the coffee receptionist, then she implied that it wasn’t her responsibility any more.
I told the printer woman that she had been too busy with the printer and had failed to serve me the customer. I was also concerned that my parking meter had expired outside some forty-five minutes prior, and was concerned I would have a ticket. “Can I bring you the ticket if I have one?”
“Oh just give it to Nikki!” [the coffee receptionist]….
My appointments were made, and I left their office.
I had a lunch appointment meeting with my wife an hour’s drive away, and the fifty minutes stolen from my day had upset me.
Now the thing about this specialist’s office was this. I’d previously seen this doctor in 2005 and 2011. In 2011 he’d told me I needed an operation, and any alternative treatment, such as cortisone, or physio, would not improve my condition, as surgery was my only option.
This morning, I had walked in to see him, saying, “I’m back” and “book me in”. Now maybe he tainted me, as his examination showed to him that the deterioration of my shoulder since 2013 was not so significant. He explained to me that surgery might not give me more mobility, or the mobility that I had lost. He explained to me that he preferred to operate on people in more pain than me, because he could bring them down to the pain level that I was tolerating. But my pain level was not so severe. Maybe my pain threshold was higher?
So maybe I was tainted….
My own doctor, had referred me also to another specialist for a second opinion, who I saw four weeks ago, prior to a holiday I just had. Nice friendly specialist. Had explained to me I needed a joint replacement. This second specialist knew I was seeing him for a second opinion.
After leaving the rooms from today’s specialist, I rang the second specialist’s rooms to talk to the doctor, as I had confusion now with two opinions.
I have made arrangements to talk on the phone tomorrow. The service from the second specialist’s receptionist has been professional and friendly and courteous. And did I say professional?
So what’s my hang up with the printer woman and the coffee receptionist?
They lost me. They physically lost me within their office. In a large *waiting room* of probably twenty seats and possibly ten people, [mostly elderly patients with an accompanying person], they forgot I was there. Too busy with their printer and their run to the coffee house to ensure that the customer was served.
Fifty minutes is a long wait. A long wait indeed for a two-minute process to make a couple of appointments.
But we’ve all been guilty of this. Getting distracted by our own small world that we forget about the customer and satisfying them…. yes, we’ve all done it!
Well let me tell you. There are plenty of specialist orthopaedic surgeons around, just like there are plenty of dental offices and plenty of restaurants. There is plenty of everything!
What there is not, is an endless supply of customers. Customers are gold! They need to be valued.
The printer could have waited. The coffees? Who know what went on there?
Certainly for me, visiting this specialist’s office was not a *WOW* experience!
“Make me feel important”, as Mary Kay Ash said? Did not happen for me today!!
At this specialist’s office, the minutiae got into the way of the systems. The systems that need to be rock solid for creating an Ultimate Patient Experience.
Hopefully they’ll learn from this, the way they let their customer down. Maybe they don’t care? From the way they failed with their Service Recovery, I don’t think they will learn. Or do care?
How sad is that thought?
P.S. I’ll discuss my other Customer Service Fail of this day, next week…until then…
The correct use of systems is just one of the many straight forward and easy to implement protocols and procedures that make up The Ultimate Patient Experience, a simple to build system in itself that I developed that allowed me to create an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.
Email me at david@theupe.com
Did you like this blog article? If you did then hit the share buttons below and share it with your friends and colleagues. Share it via email, Facebook and twitter!!
During tougher economic times I often see dental offices and dentists trying to reduce overheads.
One of the ways that they attempt to lower their overheads is to change to a less expensive alternative product, to reduce dollars spent.
A better way to reduce overhead is to look at reducing wastage within the dental office.
Look at what you throw out or don’t use during the course of a day, a week, or a month, and decide whether there is room for improvement there.
Manufacturers are of no help in this process.
I once read, or heard, a story that bottle sales of a particular brand of eye drops went up significantly when that company increased the size of the hole in the bottle. This sales increase was despite the fact that no customer ever got to the end of the bottle [before the expiry date], either before or after the change in size of the hole in the bottle!!
Look at the size of the holes or apertures in the bottles of products that you buy. Can these products be dispensed more economically?
Some tubes of composite resin come with apertures so large they are wider than an MOD cavity on an upper molar! Obviously, with care, there is room for significant savings by reducing wastage when dispensing this product, just by being careful.
Similarly when using capsules, analyse what volume of product is being discarded.
Look at whether you really need automix tips on your temporary cement? I’ll bet there’s more cement being discarded in the tip than actually being used intra-orally!
Look at better ways of delivering your adhesives and bonds. Similarly, significant amounts of these products end up as unused wastage!
Several years ago some colleagues of mine calculated the price dentists pay for adhesive at being in excess of $21000.00 per litre!
Think about it….small volume bottle, high price tag? Do the math!
If you were to purchase one litre of that product in a three year period, imagine the savings to your office bottom line if you could reduce the wastage! Think about how much product is left behind in those dispensing wells…
And the significant savings in dentistry are not just for one product. Savings in wastage can be significant right across the dental clinic spectrum!
I saw in one office where Dental Assistants were using gauze squares to wipe instruments and bowls. This is far more costly to the bottom line than using paper towel or facial tissues.
Look at whether a suitable less costly alternative is close at hand and is more appropriate at achieving the same results…
So, if you’re going to make savings on outgoings, look at your wastage, rather than your costs.
Your customers and clients will certainly notice the quality of goods you use on them, so don’t buy thin bibs, small bibs, or scratchy rough tissues. Always maintain your qualities, especially your visible qualities.
Investment in quality will always return healthy dividends to your office.
Be sensible with quality investment in visible product. Don’t be mean here.
But do be sensible with wastage on consumables. Dental supply houses are in the business of selling more product, so be alert about unnecessary wastage.
Trim the waste!!
The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple easy to implement system I developed that allowed me to build an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.
Email me: david@theUPE.com
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