There’s a lot of people out there beating their own drums.
I sometimes receive phone calls out of the blue from people in Europe or USA with outstanding investment opportunities.
And I always ask them when they phone me:
“If these OPPORTUNITIES are so good, why are their companies not snapping up ALLbuying opportunities, rather than phoning little old me way across the other side of the world?”
Sometimes it is worthwhile to exchange money for expertise.
In 2008, just after I sold my dental practice, I decided to buy some shares.
What could possibly go wrong?
Commonwealth Bank. Rio Tinto. BHP.
All three successful blue-chip companies.
Sadly, the market turned south and I lost money.
And so I came to the realisation….
I realised that I was not an expert in the field of stock market investment.
And so I sought out a good investment advisory service.
An advisor who would help me to grow my assets over time with the purpose of providing for my future, and my family’s future.
Fast forward to today and I look back…. I made a great decision back then.
The advisor that I chose was someone I had known who had been successful as an advisor and as an investor.
You see, many years ago, way back in the early 1990s, I took investment advice from an advisor [another advisor] who had previously been a dentist.
And let’s just say this:
I later heard that his advisory skills were equal to or worse than his dental skills.
His advice to me was poor.
And I’m glad I recognised that poor advice for what it was as early as I did, and terminated our relationships.
Before he lost ALL of my money with his pathetically cliched advice.
The moral of this story is….
The moral of this story is:
Before you start following someone’s advice, make sure that they are headed in the right direction.
And make sure that they have a proven track record.
Years ago I won two tipping competitions in a sport that I rarely watch.
And I achieved these two years of wins by following the expert tips of someone who was a proven expert follower of that game.
Let me repeat that:
PROVEN.
There’s plenty of smoke and mirrors out there.
Look out for people with holes in their story.
I know of one so called dental practice coach who calls herself a self-made success as a dentist….
The trouble with her story is that she forgets to tell everybody that she was once feeling very burned out in dentistry, and hired herself a dental coach who she worked with for more than two years and who added over $1M to her annual production….
Frankly her practice would still be a universal mess if it hadn’t been for her coach’s advice.
How do I know?
I was that coach….
In other universes I see associations that trot out so called experts whose dental practices are bleeding because of anachronistic work practices and employees….
I know of one self-titled guru who had to sell his floundering dental practice in a hurry…
I see dental practices that couldn’t get one thing correct now sprouting themselves as gurus. More because they love the sound of their own voice than because of any significant dental business achievement.
The list goes on….
Watch Out For Thieves
There are people out there who steal other people’s ideas.
And other people’s IP.
And then dress those ideas up in all sorts of fancy garnishes.
The problem is, if it’s not their stuff in the first place, it doesn’t matter how much dressing you try to smother it with, it’s still not their stuff.
And then there are others who think that they can leave out great chunks of their story, or change their story dramatically….
Well, guess what?
It probably isn’t that true a story to begin with.
Years ago I heard of a suit salesman from New York who received a business tip from his niece the school teacher….
Funny thing happened… later on the same suit salesman was now pedaling the same story but the same business tip came from his nephew the motor mechanic…
Iguess he thought that some people may not have noticed…
My advice: Do your homework.
Due diligence
Wherever possible, it pays to do your due diligence.
Not to the point that the opportunity passes you by.
Nor to the point that you achieve stagnation due to procrastination.
But it can be wise to check the credentials of those you choose to follow….
*****
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.
Often I write about the benefits of travelling in the premium cabins when flying and the differences in service provided in those cabins.
I also write regularly about failings that airlines have when the premium service falls below the expected bar.
And I get pulled up occasionally by readers who feel that sometimes I am being too precious when I broach this subject.
In fact, after last week’s article, I received a personal email from a reader letting me know that they had recently travelled “down the back” on a long haul flight with two world renowned cancer surgeons who as the reader said, “seemed very happy”.
But did anybody on that flight say:
“Hey Charlie, what are you doing down the back here when you should be up the front?”
Would anyone have asked a similar question if they saw Charlie jumping out of an early model second hand used car as he raced into theatre to save a patient’s life?
Life is full of choices.
It seems to me with airline travel, that there are plenty of people who choose to travel down the back, but are happy to take a “Free Upgrade” when it is offered.
Do those people ever reject their free upgrades?
When they check into a hotel, and get given a free upgrade, do those people ever say:
“No. I was looking forward to the parking lot view.”
Put a ladder in front of a man and he’ll always want to climb it.
It is a common human trait to aspire to improvement.
That’s why we jump on the scales each morning.
And given the chance of having a little more comfort, most people will take up that chance.
And some of those people will also pay for that privilege.
And that’s why you should always have a premium product to offer.
Because some of your clients who you believe are happy with your base product are actually “internally screaming out” for something better.
So that when that something better comes along, but is offered by another entity, those seemingly “happy customers” depart from your business in droves.
Like when Uber came along. And taxis.
And drive thrus. And fast foods restaurants.
Having mobile order takers with IPad was a game changer at fast food drive thrus.
Complacency is a killer.
Linda Miles once told a colleague of mine:
“If you don’t change you won’t grow”
One of the reasons I draw my readers’ attention to the successes and failings of other businesses outside of dentistry is because we can all learn so much from looking around at other industries and other things and imagine what could be within our own industry.
And sometimes our own customers do not know what is possible until it is made possible
As Henry Ford said:
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
And faster horses was not the answer.
Sometimes our customers don’t know what they want.
But often our customers do not want less.
And they do not want less than they have been used to.
Even if what they have been used to is a premium product.
So, when something better comes along, being offered by someone else, you had better be ready with your own version of better.
*****
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.
I’m writing this blog article while flying Qantas to Perth.
It’s a four-and-a-half-hour flight.
And as usual, I’m sitting in the front end.
And we have great service from Kylie and from Shaun and from John.
But….
The policies….or choices…
The Menu
You can eat anything you want, as long as you don’t want fish.
Or vegetarian.
For main course we have chicken, chicken laksa, beef, and pork.
Four choices.
No seafood.
You really are kidding me….
Not even a vegetarian or vegan option.
Talk about a way of offending your paying customers…
How difficult is it really to substitute one of the chicken dishes for a piece of fish?
Or to switch the pork for a vegetarian option as well?
It appears to me that pescatarians are being gastronomically bullied when it comes to menu selections.
Across the globe.
And Qantas is leading the charge…
But, in the case of Qantas, it’s up to the crew to make the apologies for decisions made for them by meat eating bureaucrats who never fly the routes…
No limes.
How small is a lime?
How many limes does a flight need to carry?
Really?
Why offer lemons as a substitute for limes?
Can Qantas really justify serving gin without lime?
Even after Qantas recently chose to NOT offer onboard duty-free goods, the extra space on the aircraft that was created by the removal of the duty-free goods would have been sufficient to house a few lime trees…. Let alone a small box of limes.
Gin and tonic without a lime is like meat pie without sauce.
Really Qantas, how big is a box of limes?
Back to the service.
Hats off to Kylie who took my order who’s radar was up and who recognised that I was struggling with the food choices [or lack thereof] on the menu.
And who went away to see whether there was the possibility of finding a piece of fish on this flight.
Sadly, there was not.
And I know I’m sounding precious, but, this same month, on a long haul flight from Dallas to Sydney, in the front of the plane, I experienced the same deficiency in the menu.
No seafood starter for First Class passengers.
And a piece of rubberised halibut for main course .
Hats off also to Shaun and to John for their wonderful food and beverage services on the way to Perth….
The problem is:
First class air travel is definitely THE most expensive real estate on the planet.
And that is why airlines need to get it so right.
And not offend their customers with their poor choices and their poor policies.
Really, how much extra do a few more pieces of fish and a few extra limes cost?
Compared to the price your first-class customers are paying?
And in dental….
What sort of short cuts are you applying in your dental office that are turning your valued and loyal customers away in droves?
Are you cutting corners on the coffee that you serve?
Or your biscuits?
Are you offering poor quality towels as refreshers?
Are your goody bags looking more like show bags from your local fair, rather than being quality gifts especially chosen?
What sort of subliminal message are you sending to your valued clients?
And are you relying on your faithful and loyal staff members to bail you out of your poor choice business decisions?
How long do you think those sorts of short cut decisions are going to stand up for you in the marketplace?
*****
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.
Here are two types of ways of speaking you should avoid if you are trying to be customer specific in your conversations:
Absolutes
Avoid using words that are absolutes.
Avoid blanket statements that aggregate all possibilities under the one umbrella.
“All men are bad people”.
This statement is inclusive. It is factually incorrect and it is impossible to prove its validity.
At best it can be described as a sweeping generalisation.
The use of a statement like this says more about the person speaking than they probably intend, or want.
I’d rank its use up there with the Bob Hawke “No child will live in poverty” comment on the scale of stupidity.
The reason why:
Comments that are polarizing should be avoided.
Avoid blanket statements, like:
“Michael Jackson? I hate his music!”
Instead, if asked your opinion by someone, ask a question in return.
Ask them the same question back at them.
“What do you think of Michael Jackson? Do you like his music?”
Then, once you understand their position, you can speak diplomatically.
I’d frankly offer more questions.
This avoids being absolute.
Broad general statistics
One of the questions I ask in my pre-interview questionnaire is the question:
“What is the average two-year value of a New Patient to your dental practice?”
What I haven’t asked is this:
“What do you think is a good rounded number that you can throw back at me that will make me think that you know this answer when you actually have no idea at all…”
People will often give me a number ending in three zeros. Or two.
“About $2000.00”
Or
“$1500.00”
Which shows to me that they have no idea of what they are talking about.
The solution:
Be absolute.
Speak in numbers like:
“Fifty three percent of….”
“I’d like to say the number is still sitting on sixty three percent…”
“$2430.00”
Rounded percentages and rounded numbers will be less believable than exact percentages.
If you want to be trusted and be considered as an “interesting” person, then you need to hang your hat on more of those more accurate and specific numbers as opposed to speaking in round numbers and generalities…
*****
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.
In 1998, my dental receptionist came to me and said:
“David, the patients are complaining that your fees are too high.”
Which was odd.
Because I had not increased my dental practice fees for about two years, and with inflation running at a rate in excess of 10% per annum, I was feeling that I was actually overdue for a fee increase, just to catch up.
Because, after all, if your fees are not keeping up with the rate of inflation, by NOT increasing your fees you are actually giving yourself a PAY CUT each and every time the Cost of Living Figures are announced.
So, what was I to do?
On the one hand, I was overdue for an increase in fees just to catch up.
But on the other hand, I needed to be aware of what the market was telling me… or in this case, what my dental receptionist was telling me that the market was telling me.
So I pondered….
And here is what I decided to do.
I decided that I needed to make sure that I was being told the truth by my dental receptionist.
I wanted to know what these patients were actually complaining about.
Because, I couldn’t figure it out… why would the patients be complaining NOW that my fees were too high, when I had not raised my fees for near upon two years?
It didn’t make any logical sense to me.
So here’s what I decided to do.
I decided that the only thing to do was to give my patients something to complain about.
If my fees were actually too high already, then if I decided to raise my fees [because a raise was well overdue] then this will be seen by my patients for what it is truly meant to be…. And that is market research.
So I decided to raise my fees.
And raise them immediately I did…. by 10%.
Can you guess what happened?
After I raised my fees by 10%, what I noticed was this:
Nobody complained about my fees.
Nobody.
Not a one.
Nil.
My practice experienced no reduction in busy-ness. In fact, appointments for treatment became more and more popular and more difficult for patients to obtain.
So prices went up, and more appointments were made, and kept.
Production and collections increased.
More patients were happy to receive and go ahead with more complex longer-lasting dental treatment.
I actually became busier, and collected more as well.
What I realised was that it wasn’t the patients complaining that my fees were too high….what it was was that my dental receptionist felt difficulty in collecting fees from patients.
So here’s what else happened….
What also happened was that my patients began feeling a “perceived” additional value with my dentistry, simply because my fees were higher.
And as such, my dental practice began to attract a more discerning and more affluent client.
And with time, from then onwards, I incrementally was able to increase my fees on a regular basis, in such a manner that I was actually unaware of what exactly my competitors were charging….
Because I had always used my own personal parameters for fee setting….and not relied on what I thought the market was thinking.
Do you think my counter-intuitive decision was correct?
As you know, roughly 20-25% of the population out there do not care what your competitors are charging because they perceive that what they are receiving from you is exceptionally good value.
And it is this 20% of the population that will provide you with 80% of your income.
This is the Pareto Principle.
A lot of dental practices spend a lot of their time trying to satisfy the 80% of the population that only provides them with 20% of their income.
And the valuable other 20% of the population leave and go elsewhere…
*****
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
