I was at my local golf club yesterday, and one of the golfers was talking about some of his recent experiences dining out.
He told us about the time he and his wife were out for breakfast at some fancy new breakfast eatery and the waitress told them that the eatery had no smashed avocado on this morning…. despite the fact that the eatery was located directly across the road from a fruit shop.
This same golfer also told the tale about a visit he made to an Asian restaurant that had run out of rice.
Another golfer then joined in with his own dining story about having to send a Steak Dianne back to a kitchen because it tasted odd, only to have the same steak brought back with the explanation that it was indeed a Steak Dianne, only without the garlic.
These sound like tall tales, and well may you laugh, but experiences similar to these can happen to anyone… even to me.
Last week I experienced my own real life version of The Pub With No Beer.
I ventured into the village where I live with my neighbour only to find that my local hotel, which doesn’t sell Guinness on tap, was also out of bottles of Peroni, and had no Carlton Draught available on tap either… on the Monday of a long-weekend. [For my American friends, a long-weekend is a three day weekend that includes a national or state holiday]
Imagine that, on a hot summer’s day, we are at the local pub, thirsty, and we are down to option four.
Another friend of mine has a small vineyard and has just produced his first harvest of Pinot Noir grapes, with raving reviews. In fact, the interest in his wine is so high that he feels as though he may not be able to meet the local demand.
It’s amusing that we laugh at these culinary and refreshment failures, because in reality, in our dental businesses, we are guilty of similar misdemeanours.
The number one failure in your dental practice.
The number one failure in your dental practice is not that you run out of avocado, or rice, or garlic, or beer…. It’s the fact that you run out of available staff to look after your valued customers and patients.
And you do that multiple times each day.
Day in and day out.
You know it….
The phone rings, but you let it go through to your service, because you’re receptionist is on another call, or she’s with a patient arriving, or she’s with a patient departing your office.
Or she’s acting as a concierge with a nervous patient, and then she’s needed to schedule an appointment and take a payment for a departing patient.
Or she’s entertaining a visiting dental supply company rep, and someone needs a chart, urgently.
And down the back it’s the same….
The dental assistants are needed to be tearing down and setting up a number of treatment rooms all at the same time, while still being available to escort a new patient in for their treatment, or help the hygienist with a charting, or escort a departing patient out following treatment, or organising laboratory cases going in or coming out…..
You see, while we’re in the act of working at dentistry, we sometimes fail to see the inefficiencies and the acts of unnecessary negligence that our valued clients and customers and patients are being subjected to.
In a manner not too dissimilar to an Asian restaurant running out of rice
Running out of staff, or running short on staff, or not staffing your business adequately, sends the same message to your customers as the Asian restaurant that runs out of rice sends to its customers.
At best, it’s considered to be a careless oversight.
At worst, it’s considered stupid. And unacceptable.
The Tale of Kerry Packer
The story goes like this…. Australia’s richest man turns up for lunch at one of Sydney’s new eateries, and asks for a steak.
When he’s told that the restaurant does not serve steak, Packer is incredulous….he says words to the effect:
“I own more beef cattle than anybody else in Australia, and I can’t even get a *blinking* steak in my own town?”
The owner of the restaurant thought quickly, and placated the angry diner, organising a steak be brought in from a nearby pub.
And all’s well that ends well….
In your dental practice…
In your dental practice, are you understaffing and hoping that your team will get by?
And hoping that your customers and patients don’t actually notice this?
Guess what?
Your team will get by for a while, and then they will get tired of the conditions, and the excuses, and they’ll leave.
And your patients?
They will tolerate it for a while, and then they will get tired of the waiting, and the delays, and the excuses, and they’ll leave too.
*****
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.
As a business owner, you should never miss the chance to market your business when the opportunity arises.
You know, it just makes great sense.
After all, your customers, and future customers are all in the mood for marketing and celebrating things at certain times of the year and it’s your business’s chance to ride the wave created by others and allow your business to shine.
Conversely, those businesses that fail to identify marketing opportunities can severely miss the boat financially as well as socially when these opportunities present themselves.
For example, we now see Australian businesses marketing BLACK FRIDAY SALES even though Black Friday is actually an American opportunity as it relates to the Friday following Thanksgiving, an American holiday celebration day.
Shamelessly, Australian retail has also embraced CYBER MONDAY as well, which [in America],is the Monday following Black Friday.
But you understand the concept.
With Black Friday Sales, it’s an opportunity for businesses to attract existing and new customers to them by proposing a financial inducement. Because so many businesses are participating in Black Friday Sales, it would be commercial suicide to abstain from participating in offering SALES on that day when the general public are so geared up to be buying.
Valentines’ Day is another day where businesses can “make themselves look good” by sharing the love with their existing and new customers.
In fact on Valentines’ Day, it’s so easy for a business to pamper all female customers with roses and flowers and chocolates and a glass of bubbly.
And when you do these things, your customers notice that you’ve gone that extra distance.
There are so many opportunities…. Grand Finals, Easter, Christmas….
Last weekend, on Sunday January 26th, my wife and I flew home from Hobart to Sydney with Australia’s national airline carrier Qantas.
Qantas is easy to recognise as an Australian business. After all, their emblem is a kangaroo, and the company is nicknamed The Flying Kangaroo.
The name Qantas is actually an acrostic for Queensland And Northern Territory Air Service, reflecting the humble beginnings of the company.
January 26th each year in Australia is a public holiday, recognising the arrival on that day in 1788 of Captain Arthur Philip and the First Fleet [of convicts] who sailed from England to settle in Australia.
It is Australia Day.
However, what was noticeable to my wife and I was that on this day this year, last Sunday, Qantas ground staff in Hobart, and our Qantas flight crew, failed to mention Australia Day.
Nothing.
Zip.
Nil. Naught.
Nada.
Zero.
Duck egg.
We asked our flight attendant about this. [Who by the way was an exceptional server attending to us on this ninety minute flight]
He said, that the crew had not received any instruction to say anything extra about the fact that they were flying on Australia Day.
He did not say whether or not that they had been instructed to make no mention of Australia Day.
To me and my wife, we just think that it was an opportunity lost.
I believe that Australia Day 2020 is a day to celebrate how far our great country has come since the arrival of white settlement 242 years ago.
And yes, sure there are a small percentage [very small percentage] of our population down here who like to label Australia Day as “Invasion Day” because the arrival of the British is seen by some as actually that, but really, the history of the world is really just a series of expansions and invasions by countries and empires and nations.
To me, and to many other Australians, the opportunity to celebrate Australia Day and WAVE THE FLAG, is an opportunity that needs to be taken.
I felt embarrassed and ashamed that my national airline carrier had ignored the opportunity of celebrating my National Day.
I am an Australian, and I am the son of someone who fought for our country.
I am also mindful and respectful of the celebrations of all countries that I visit, and the countries of where my friends around the world reside.
I’m proud to be an Australian and I’m proud to live in this lucky country.
The lack of celebration of Australia Day by a private company that piggy backs itself and makes enormous profits on conveniently exploiting a connection to our country when it wants to, and then chooses to ignore the National Day, well to me that’s heinous.
I think it’s no accident that Qantas has failed to celebrate.
I think that Qantas and its board need to revisit its past, and to celebrate its origins and its connection to Australia.
Not ignore it.
*****
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.
As you know there are lessons to be learned everywhere in life if you just open your eyes and look around.
Sadly, there are so many people who need lessons who are walking around with their eyes shut and their heads in dark places that they miss so many of these simple life lessons.
And when things go wrong for these people they sit and wonder why?
And they wonder what just happened?
Recently Jayne and I visited Hobart for work, and enjoyed a few extra days and nights there sightseeing and dining out and stimulating the Tasmanian economy.
On one evening, after a long day of touring and sight seeing, we ventured to eat at an Italian restaurant nearby to where we were staying.
This restaurant had been recommended to us by a couple of different people, and although Italian food was not really on our radar, on this evening it was convenient for us because it was late and we had been out all day, and it seemed like the easiest thing for us to do.
When we entered the restaurant, late in the evening, the first thing we did was announce that we did not have a booking and we asked whether they could fit us in?
The immediate response from the owner was:
“Of course we can. Just give us a minute.”
And in no time at all we were shown to a table.
As we sat there dining, leg weary and tired from our long day out, we were treated like royalty by the wait staff who attended to us.
When placing our orders we asked:
“What do you recommend?”
And our waitress immediately advised the dishes that she enjoyed.
We chose our wine:
“Great choice.”
we were told.
And it was.
At the end of the evening, as we sat contemplating our desserts, satisfied and contented, the owner came over to us and asked whether we would like a limoncello complimentary, on him.
As we respectfully declined, he offered an alternative, a Tasmanian Single Malt Whisky, which we graciously accepted.
As we sipped on these post dinner drinks, we discussed with the owner how impressed we had been with the service we had received from his team this evening.
And he let us in on his secret.
And that was this:
He tells all his staff that for the evening to be successful for the restaurant diners, his restaurant needs to nail three things.
The food.
The ambience.
And the service.
He said he tells the staff that the food is the responsibility of the kitchen team, and that the kitchen team will get the food right.
That’s their job.
He said, that he tells the staff that the ambience is his job. As the owner and the maître de it is his responsibility to create the atmosphere in the restaurant that keeps the patrons engaged and keeps them coming back.
And with these two things in mind, the wait staff only need to worry about the service and providing great customer service to the diners.
And that’s what they did.
The little things, like asking diners how their meals were and engaging with the diners, as if they were long time best friends.
It was easy for them to do.
And it also would have been easy for them to not do this.
What we enjoyed about our meal there was the fact that the team all looked like they enjoyed working there, and that they worked together well as a team.
As one big happy family.
This dining experience was in distinct contrast to our experience the previous night at another restaurant where our service had been distinctly disjointed and our experience was significantly disappointing.
Great service is easy to do and is so rewarding to the customer and to the restaurant when the establishment gets it right.
[As an aside, Jayne and I returned to this Italian restaurant the following evening, our final night in Hobart, and the service and the food was just as great].
The moral of the story is that when your business focusses on getting the little things right, and doing that continually, each and every time, then customers and potential customers will beat a path to your door.
Get it wrong and you fail to create an experience, and you fail to create repeat business.
It’s really that simple.
*****
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.
