Last time I looked it up I found that no baby had ever been born with a telephone handset in their hand.
Nor had any newborn arrived and been able to speak at birth.
This means that speech, and the ability to speak, are learned skills.
They are not inherent.
Nobody is born as a “natural speaker”.
Nor is there such a thing as a “born salesman”.
Speaking, and selling, are therefore learnable skills.
And therefore everybody has the ability to choose and attain their own levels of accomplishment when it comes to speaking, and conversation.
And speaking on the phone.
You have the ability to choose how good, or how bad you want to be when it comes to how you speak to people both face to face and on the phone.
On the dental office telephone, your primary role is to help the caller.
You need to be able to solve the caller’s problem.
The beautiful thing about a dental practice telephone is that nobody ever phones up a dental practice just for the fun of it.
Nobody.
Everybody who phones a dental practice has a dental problem or concern that they need help with.
And our role as a dental phone answerer is to help the caller.
Our role is to find a solution to the caller’s problem.
And more often than not, the solution required is for the caller to come in to our dental office and see one of our highly skilled dental professionals.
The difficulty is that most callers to a dental office do not enunciate their problem in a clear and concise manner.
They often try to disguise their dental issue inside a price enquiry or a technique or procedure enquiry.
Our role needs to be to help the caller move towards the solution of their dental problem.
And we do this by being courteous and friendly and concerned for their well-being, when we speak with them on the phone.
Statistically, only one in five callers to a dental practice schedules an appointment on that first call.
And that is a horrid statistic.
Four out of every five callers end their call without scheduling an appointment.
Of those who do schedule an appointment, only two out of every five of those people actually end up attending.
Yes, three of every five people making a dental appointment at a new dental office either fail to show, or cancel, or go somewhere else.
What this means in total is that only eight percent of callers to a dental office actually end up in the dental chair.
And the silly thing is, that most dental offices do not have any systems in place for managing and recording these vital statistics.
And then, most dental offices do not have any processes in place for reviewing what is said on their dental office phone and improving on what is said.
Most dental offices have no accountability processes for what goes on on their dental office phone.
What gets measured gets improved upon.
If you don’t know your numbers, you don’t know whether they are going up, or going down.
So firstly, you need to measure.
What exactly is being said?
Are you recording the calls on your dental office phones?
Are you listening to those recordings?
Are you receiving written transcripts of all the phone calls to your dental office?
And are you reading those transcripts?
Training.
With those recordings and transcripts, are you sitting down with your team and reviewing their numbers?
Are you reviewing exactly what is said on each call to your dental office?
Are you keeping your team accountable for their numbers?
Are you keeping your team accountable for what they are saying on your dental office phones?
Who has time for all that?
After all, you’re a dentist.
You have teeth to fix.
You haven’t got the time to be bothering with all that….
“Either you do it, someone else does it, or it doesn’t get done.”
How would you like to stop wasting all that money you are wasting because your phones are not being answered as best as they can be?
Wouldn’t it make sense to spend a little bit of money employing an expert to listen to your calls, AND read all your transcripts, AND train your team to be better on the phones?
AND keep your team members accountable for the numbers they are achieving?
What if that EXPERT SERVICE cost YOU only a small fraction of what a new patient is worth to your dental practice?
And what if that service were to result in your phone conversion numbers improving, so that MORE new patients were making appointments with you, and keeping those appointments with you, and then going ahead and getting their diagnosed dental treatment done?
Wouldn’t it make sense to be employing a DONE FOR YOU service that brought you more new patients than you could imagine?
Well, wouldn’t it?
Because guess what?
Here is the kicker….
If you don’t improve your dental practice phone numbers, you can bet that one of your neighbouring dental practices is going to, and when they do, their new patient numbers are going to go up, and yours will probably go down as a result?
And that’s not a very clever thing for you to allow to happen?
So why not act now and do something about it?
Remember, it’s always wiser to be ahead of the trend, than be behind the trend, trying to play catch up….
*****
Need your phones monitored?
Are you concerned about the number of calls that are not being answered as best they can be?
You need Call Tracking Excellence.
For the cost of a less than one cleaning per week, you could have your phones being answered much much better….
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.
One of the reasons your valued and loyal customers leave your business and go elsewhere is because the product that they have come to expect has been diluted or altered away from “the usual” product that they have become accustomed to.
If your business thinks that it can cut corners and short change its customers and “hope” that the regular customers do not notice, well let me tell you this….. you have a sudden and rude awakening coming.
And yes, all businesses can and will drop the ball with its regular loyal customers on occasions…. but it is the true “small businesses” that recover, and pick up the ball quickly, and make amends unconditionally, that survive in this very, VERY, competitive market place.
Big businesses are like big ocean liners. They take an eon to change direction and let alone, turn themselves around when changes need to be made.
You all know the story about the restaurant that Jayne and I visit regularly for our special celebratory lunches. And how the service, the food, and the experience there are always totally exemplary. But, on one occasion, the service was a little askew…. And when we brought this to the attention of the head waiter, he had no hesitation in “making it up to us” in a manner that was well and truly ABOVE AND BEYOND our expectation in every sense of the words….
Which brings me to today….
I’m flying to the USA today.
And as you know, I like to purchase a Business Class Seat, and where possible, upgrade that seat to into the First-Class cabin using my Frequent Flyer Points. And most times this process works well for me….
And today was no exception.
So one of the benefits of travelling First Class is the curb side assistance that Qantas offers for travelers with their luggage.
And although I was travelling solo, I thought I would avail myself of this service because I had a set of golf clubs with me as well as my suitcase and carry -on, and all that can sometimes be awkward to maneuver through a busy airport terminal.
Well, the protocol for availing yourself of the curb side assistance is to phone ahead prior to your arrival at the terminal to ensure the curb side assistance can do exactly that…assist you. And I did.
But the phone call rang out….
And although it was only a short fifty metre walk, and although I’d maneuvered this amount of luggage through airports elsewhere around the world…and for greater distances, I just felt as though I had been short changed by my airline….
And when I arrived at the check in there was no mention of the assistance, although there was an assistant there at the check in….
Which seemed quite odd?
Was there anything else David?
Well, come to mention it, there was….
And I know this is a First World Problem….
When my upgrade was confirmed I was allocated seat #1A.
Which was very nice, as the A Row is the premium row in the First-Class Cabin.
And when the airline called me the day before to offer me some of the extra First-Class travel comforts, my seat allocation was again re-confirmed.
So after checking in, and as I proceeded through Customs, I glanced at my boarding pass and noticed that my seat had been changed to #1K.
Yet I had not been told why?
So when I arrived at the lounge, I asked at the counter as to what had happened… because on a previous occasion thisunannounced seat re-allocation had happened to me before and I had been gazumped out of a good seat for no logical reason.
Anyway, on this occasion after some research by the counter staff, I was informed that there had been a mechanical issue with seat #1A on my aircraft, and it had been de-commissionedfor the flight.
My thoughts were that it would have been much nicer to have received this information at the check in than to receive it by translation at the lounge….
And like I said, it is a First World Problem.
But, and I make it a big BUT…… if you are going to make changes in your business that impact poorly on the product that your regular customers are expecting…. then you had better adjust and adjust quickly.
Otherwise you may find and discover, that your regular customers and patients start going elsewhere.
Now although this was not a life and death issue by any stretch of the imagination, and although the ground staff member checking me in may not have been made aware of the seat re-allocation, the simple fact is that somewhere ion the system there needs to be checks and balances put into place to make the SERVICE RECOVERY processes seamless when a SERVICE DEFECT arises.
My radar is always up when it comes to cost-cutting measures being taken by seemingly “successful” and profitable enterprises.
Because it either means that they are being mean, for profit’s sake, or they are cutting corners because they are starting to do things tough.
Which could be a whole different story.
And a sad story.
Remember, your loyal customers will happily pay your price so long as they feel that they are receiving excellent service and value.
And these same loyal customers will notice, when that service and value begins to be compromised….
*****
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.
It is really sad that there are businesses out there employing people who are not digging in.
People who “turn up” physically but fail to turn up mentally.
People just going through the motions.
But they are doing it on someone else’s dime.
To me, that is tantamount to stealing.
In reality, employees turning up and not working hard are stealing on three parts.
Firstly, they are stealing from their employer. They are stealing salary that they have failed to exchange toil and sweat equity for.
They have failed to give a “hard day’s work” in exchange for a hard day’s pay.
Secondly, they are stealing from their fellow employees. Their fellow employees are putting in more effort, but both the “underperformers and the regular employees are receiving pay for a full day of effort.
And what happens is that the lazy employee is being carried by the more diligent employee.
Thirdly, the lazy employee is stealing a position of employment from somebody out there looking for work who is willing to work harder.
And lastly the lazy employee is stealing from the customer. Because the customer is paying to be well attended and looked after. And instead the customer is receiving a half-baked effort at service. [is that correct? Should it be called an effort if the effort is not absolute?]
There is absolutely no reason on earth to be tolerating underperforming team members.
Why would you even contemplate having people on your payroll who are not giving their job with you their 100% best effort?
Employing people who fail miserably to give their best in the workplace only creates frustrations that harbor growing resentments amongst your team towards you, the business owner.
Don’t do it.
Don’t bother with those who don’t value the opportunity that you are placing in front of them.
*****
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.
People don’t come to the dentist to buy a bushel of crowns.
Or a dozen Class I composites.
Your customers come to you to have their particular problem solved.
Or to prevent a problem occurring.
So as dentists you are in the problem solving business.
And the problem prevention business.
When you buy a drill bit, you are not buying a drill bit.
You are actually buying what the drill bit will do for you.
The drill bit creates a hole. And it is the use of that hole that is the problem that you are solving.
You might be trying to secure a heavy item on a rendered wall. Such as a large picture, or an electrical appliance.
The problem you are solving is the hanging of that picture or of that appliance.
In the same way, your dental customers do not buy fillings. What they really buy is the ability to eat foods comfortably without food getting caught between their teeth and in cavities. What they are purchasing is the ability to consume all foods without pain [caused by hot, cold, and sweet foods].
They do not come in and say I want a filling.
They come to see you and let you know that they have a dental problem.
And they want you to solve it.
Similarly, patients do not come in and purchase crowns for their teeth.
You offer the crown as the viable solution for restoring their tooth with the strongest material with the greatest prospect of longevity.
It is when we see our role as a problem solver rather than as a tooth panel beater, it is then that we truly realise our purpose in the community.
Imagine you had a hole in your roof and you called a roofer.
When the roofer arrives at your home he inspects your hole.
The first thing the roofer says is:
“It’s not that big a hole”
Then he says:
“Let’s give it a couple of weeks and see if the problem just goes away on its own”
He might also say:
“Well, if it only rains on the other side of your house, well that will be OK…”
And he can also say:
“We have three options of fixing this:
I could put down some plastic sheeting and that will be OK for light rain. As a stronger alternative, I can tie down a tarp, which will last for three months or so, while you save up.
“The best option is for me to fix that hole with tiles or tin like you had there before, but that’s the most expensive option, and you probably don’t want to spend that much money. Let’s try the plastic sheeting and see how it goes….”
And you’re thinking to yourself:
“Just fix this blinking hole so my carpet and walls don’t get wet again.”
The last thing you probably really don’t want is the roofer giving you a long list of options and you having to choose the solution.
After all, you are no roofing expert.
And he is!
What you want is the leaky roof fixed right, the first time.
You probably don’t want a lecture on the five hundred different solution options.
You just want it fixed so that the roof doesn’t ever leak through again into the inside of your house.
Why do dentists take it upon themselves to give patients with no dental knowledge a crash course in dentistry and then ask them for their educated opinion?
Let’s simply fix things right the first time…
After all, when asked, your patients would probably choose:
“Fix it so I don’t have to keep on coming back”
Over
“Well, let’s see how long that lasts…”
*****
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.
When your business needs invigoration, you need to take action.
HOPING that things will get better at your business is not the answer.
Doing nothing to change your situation is not the answer.
You need to change course.
You need to decide, and implement.
Because what got you in to the state that you need to change, is NOT going to get you out of that state.
Something else needs to be done.
A different course of action needs to be put into place.
But there must be commitment.
When change of direction isneeded, the business must COMMIT to doing all that it can to follow that course of change.
There is no safety in standing still.
Before following someone, you need to make sure they are headed in the right direction.
There is no point in following someone who does not have a proven track record of success.
Years ago, I won a football tipping contest in in Australian Rules Football.
The interesting thing about that contest, which ran for nine games each week over a twenty-five week period, was that during that season I never watched one game of Australian Rules Football.
What I did do was to seek out an expert and follow the tips of that expert.
I followed the advice of someone with a proven track record.
Most tipsters in tipping competitions think that they can work things out better than the experts.
But they never do.
And it is the same in life.
Some people try to pick winning stocks on the stock market.
Others just follow the advice of reputable investment advisors.
Who has already achieved the results that I am wanting to achieve?
Most people out there follow no advice or bad advice.
95% of the population end up broke and dependent upon others or government handouts for their retirement.
Because they do not seek out the advice of other successful people.
They ask their mates.
And they ask their family for advice.
And their mates and their families act as moral saviours to prevent their loved ones from “becoming different” or successful.
And so the status quo is maintained.
Others out there follow herd mentality.
They do things because everybody else is doing it so it must be the right thing to do.
And I guess that’s what the 95% choose to do…..
If you do want to be successful, find out what your competitors are doing and just do the opposite.
Most of your competitors are just doing nothing.
Or they’re following the advice of people who have never done what needs to be done.
Remember, what got you here is not going to magically get you out of here…
*****
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.
Click on this link for all details
