Are you worried about what other people say and think?
Do you worry that your customers talk about you [behind your back]?
Or that your competitors have “labelled” you?
Maybe your community has an opinion about you and your business, and you are worried about that opinion?
This quote came across my desk again yesterday:
“A man of character does not expect to be liked by everyone, nor does he worry about being liked by anyone.” – William A. Welker
It is a pertinent quote.
It is a very specific comment about the nature of society in general, along with being a comment about what one must do to succeed while operating within such a society.
Do you think that Columbus worried about what others thought?
Or Einstein?
Or da Vinci?
Of course not.
These great men of great mind thought nothing of what others thought of them, and rightly so.
They thought only of the future, and of invention.
Can you imagine what the world would have been like if these greats, and other great minds, had been pre-occupied with the social opinions of their community and colleagues?
The world would be in a totally different, and far worse state, than it is today.
In business you need to take the hard lonely line some times.
Most times.
Most times the hard decisions, the difficult decisions, are the ones that you need to make on your own.
Without opinion.
Because statistics will tell you that 95-97% of the population have opinions that matter for very little.
Why is this so?
Only three percent of the population have goals, written down, that they read and review on a daily basis.
97% of the population do not have written down goals.
And 95% of the population are unable to afford to retire at age 65 because of poor financial decisions made during their working life… mostly, they have not saved well enough along the way to have accumulated sufficient assets that generate a replacement income of relevance.
95% of the population are poor money managers.
The trouble is, the 5% who do manage to create wealth for themselves by the time they reach age 65 are expected to support the 95% who wasted their way to age 65.
If you listen to the 95-97% you will end up just like them.
It’s a given.
Seek out the opinion of those who have a proven track record and ignore ALL opinions of those without “runs on the board.”
“Before you start following someone, make sure they are headed in the right direction”.
I won two sports tipping competitions without watching a game…. all I ever did was choose an expert in that field and copy his game tips and forecasts…. and I was successful.
Because he was an authority.
If you follow the predictions of Warren Buffet then more than likely you will be more successful than someone who listens to people of less authority.
Find your mentor.
Do not sit back waiting for a miracle.
That will not happen.
Most people who hope to win the lottery never actually purchase tickets.
And as such, their lives are destined for more mediocrity and failure…
Find your sage. Seek him. And follow him.
Hoping that things will get better is not the answer.
Action is required.
Don’t be an understudy, or an “extra”.
Be the central character in the story of your own life.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” ― Theodore Roosevelt
*****
Linda Miles is coming to Australia in August.
Don’t miss this once in a life-time opportunity to see and hear Linda speak first hand…
The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple to build complete Customer Service 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.
Do you know that great servers make great customers?
And in so doing, being a great customer helps to create more great servers.
This is because you, as a great customer, are a pleasure to serve.
And so your server enjoys your transaction with them.
As a customer, do you push the boundaries?
On a train, do you travel with your feet up on the seat?
Do you talk out loud in the quiet carriage?
Do you push in line at the checkouts?
Or do you wait your turn?
As a customer, are you pleasant to deal with?
Do you smile and say hello genuinely when you engage in a retail transaction?
At the petrol station?
At the corner store?
Do you engage your server on their agenda rather than yours?
“How’s your day been?”
“Have you had a busy day?”
It’s amazing the difference that you can make in your server’s day by simply acknowledging the fact that they are a human being performing a role and not simply a robot processing your transaction.
The problem with being an employee in a business is that you are often “taken for granted” by those that you serve as well as those that you work for.
Being a great customer can really brighten up the day of someone who sometimes has very little to look forward to.
What are the other benefits of being a great customer?
The thing about being a great customer is that it does make you stand out from other “less than great” or ordinary customers.
And the benefit of that is that you have created some positive recognition for yourself.
When the name of a great customer is seen on the patient list for the day it immediately lifts the feelings of the dental office employees.
“Betty Smith is coming in today. I’m so looking forward to seeing her.”
Being a great customer also invites better service from the people who serve you.
Which in turn encourages you to be a great customer.
Indeed it does.
It’s a case of continuing returns.
When you give, you receive.
And when you receive, you give.
There is really no point in being mean.
I cannot see the point in being a mean cranky person.
All you do by being mean and cranky is create more meanness and nastiness and hostility in the worlds of those you interact with.
And what’s the point of that?
Share the love.
Whether you are a server or a customer, go out of your way to enrich the lives of those you interact with.
Add value to your transactions and to your interactions.
Look at the differences that you can achieve.
The world will be a better place as a result….
*****
Linda Miles is coming to Australia in August.
Don’t miss this once in a life-time opportunity to see and hear Linda speak first hand…
The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple to build complete Customer Service 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.
The trouble is, I’m often not asked this question.
Often, I see dental practices spending a truckload of money on external marketing, in an effort to attract new patients to come to that practice.
And every dental practice needs a healthy stream of new patients coming to it.
This is because in a good dental practice, existing patients of the practice will basically have healthy mouths that are absent of pathology.
And so, existing patients will only provide the dental practice with “emergency” restorative opportunities when something fails, or breaks.
New patients will always present with a multitude of conditions that need treating. i.e. the new patients will have more dentistry to perform to bring their mouths to optimal health.
I say that a healthy dental practice needs only one new patient per dentist per day to maintain stability.
This means that a dentist working 180 days per year requires fifteen new patients per month to maintain the economic and financial health of that dental practice.
And fifteen new patients per month is roughly one new patient per day for a dentist working four days per week.
If you are attracting and seeing more than 15 new patients per month to your dental practice, then your practice should be experiencing some significant growth, because a large number of those new patients will stay and become regular patients of the practice….. if they indeed want to.
If your dental practice is seeing more than 15 new patients each month, and your practice is not growing, then you need to take a good hard look at your internals, including your systems, as well as your internal marketing.
Because if you are doing things correctly, these new patients that you see and treat should be so enamoured by your good looks and charm that they should be beating a path to your door to become regular patients of record in your dental office.
This is where it becomes interesting:
Good [and great] internal marketing and systems help to retain new patients as patients of record.
Poor internal marketing processes will burn these new patients so badly that they will choose not to return for any treatment recommended to them.
Poor internal marketing systems will also burn away existing patients of record as well.
And because the cost of implementing great internal systems is minuscule compared to the price involved in acquiring new patients for that first visit, wouldn’t it make sense to have some basic internal principles in place to decrease the financial burden of attracting a large number of new patients into your dental practice, only to see them leave quickly?
Yet despite this logical scenario, the vast majority of dentists out there throw bucket loads of money at new patient marketing, when all they need to be doing is fixing their internal processes, so that their patients actually stick around longer and remain patients of record.
It does seem wasteful throwing more and more money at marketing to attract new patients to visit your dental practice with its lousy internals that drive these people away as quickly as you can attract them.
It makes a lot more sense to be fixing those leaks and cracks, before paying for, and importing more new patients.
You do need “some” external marketing
Despite the sprukers for “word of mouth” referrals, there will always be times when relatives, best friends, and work colleagues end up at your dental office and say to each other:
“I didn’t know that you were coming here?”
External marketing will keep your dental office “out there” in front of the community for those occasions when it is time for people to find a dentist, or a “new” dentist.
But it will be your internal processes that will keep those people as long-term raving fans, instead of them being “one-off” visitors to your dental office.
*****
Linda Miles is coming to Australia in August.
Don’t miss this once in a life-time opportunity to see and hear Linda speak first hand…
The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple to build complete Customer Service 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.
There is plenty in the world for all of us to share.
The world is not built on scarcity.
It is built on love and generosity.
I’m a firm believer in growing the pie, so all can share, rather than rationing the pie, so most are still hungry.
What does this mean?
If we give, then we shall receive.
Zig Ziglar said:
“You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”
I’m a strong believer in adding value to your communities and circles.
And that means to your business circles as well as to your social communities.
If we help our patients to have a memorable experience at our dental practices, those patients will return because they appreciate the difference between how we are making them feel and how other dentists have made them feel.
When our patients feel comfortable, important, welcomed and understood, they are more likely to return for treatment and to even accept significant treatment plans.
When our patients do not feel any one of those feelings, of feeling welcomed, or valued, or comfortable or important, they are more likely to fail to attend, to cancel their appointments, or to not schedule ongoing work at all at all…. if they are made to feel like a “number”, then they are not going to be keen to return.
Our behaviours towards our valued patients, and towards each other in the dental practice, must be behaviours respective of the feeling of abundant generosity and of abundant respect.
All acts of respect and generosity will be reflected back at us with interest attached.
“Give and you shall receive”
Don’t be a miser.
Be a giver, not a taker.
The givers of the world will be the ultimate receivers.
It is a gift to be giving.
*****
Linda Miles is coming to Australia in August.
Don’t miss this once in a life-time opportunity to see and hear Linda speak first hand…
The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple to build complete Customer Service 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.
“You should think of yourself as a business owner first, your profession or trade second … i.e. You are not a doctor, you are the owner of a medical business …”
These are very powerful words.
I often hear people introduce themselves in this way:
“I’m a dentist”
“I’m a plumber”
“I’m a lawyer”
“I’m a financial advisor”
Instead of saying:
“I own a dental office and we create beautiful smiles”
“My business solves all your plumbing problems”
“I’m a partner in a law firm that specialises in wills and estates”
“I help my clients get wealthy”
Do you see the difference?
Someone once told me you need to be a better marketer of what you do, than a doer of what you do.
And when you concentrate on telling people what your business does for its customers, as opposed to telling people what your trade is, you are indeed making yourself and your business stand out from your competition.
Why do people label themselves, and allow themselves to be labelled?
Have you ever heard someone say about someone else:
“Oh, he’s a dentist.”
Or
“What a TYPICAL dentist”
Or
“You’d expect that from a dentist”
Nobody is born a dentist.
They learn how to drill teeth and fix them.
Nobody is born a plumber.
They go to technical college and learn their trade.
I used to say:
“I’m not a dentist. Dentistry is something that I do”
And it is my trade that I perform.
It is not what I am.
With regards to your business….
James Malinchak said:
“Always remember – you are NOT in business to run a business! You are in business as an entrepreneur to create FREEDOM for yourself!”
A lot of people decide to go into business but have no concept regarding what the purpose of their business is….
They simply create a look-alike job, except this new “business” is really just them doing a job with them being the boss of them as well.
The purpose of owning a business is to be rewarded for what that business provides:
Services. E.g. Dental services
Employment to members of the community.
Business for other businesses to provide to your business. E.g. Flowers, cleaning, laundry, stationery, phones, etc…
If your business is not providing you with profit and therefore reward for owning the business, then all that you have is another job, and without the benefits of being employed by a proper entity.
So ask yourself this question….
“Why Are You In Business?”
But ask it five times.
“WHY Are You In Business?”
“Why ARE You In Business?”
“Why Are YOU In Business?”
“Why Are You IN Business?”
“Why Are You In BUSINESS?”
What’s your answer?
*****
Linda Miles is coming to Australia in August.
Don’t miss this once in a life-time opportunity to see and hear Linda speak first hand…
The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple to build complete Customer Service 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.
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