I received an email last week from my good friend Winston Marsh, better known as Winno, where he related an experience he had recently when he decided to accept an invitation from one of his local political parties to attend a Sunday morning tea ….
If you want to learn how to lose patrons and infuriate people then you need to make a note of the things that happened to Winno when he attended this event.
And if you want to keep clients and make people happy, just do the opposite….
Winno wrote:
“I’ve never had much interest in politics so I thought it might be worthwhile and that I could learn something.”
“They did their maximum to guarantee I wouldn’t want to join up or get involved because they made a few basic mistakes when getting me along as a complete ‘newbie’.”
When Winno arrived, he said there was nobody at the door to welcome him and give him instructions for the event other than one of the caterers, who pointed vaguely in the direction of a book on a table and said, “You can sign in there.”
Winno decided he wasn’t going to be doing that, and so he bypassed the table and wandered into the meeting room. Here he found a bunch of people sitting around tables and talking amongst themselves.
He said nobody introduced themselves, showed him to a table or even took the slightest bit of interest in him.
Luckily for Winno, he spied a table with a vacant chair. So he sat down…
And just sat!
Fortunately, he said that he did strike up a conversation with a rather nice fellow sitting next to him, and they talked about their interests whilst nothing else appeared to be happening.
After about half an hour of pleasant, but really wasted time, as Winno put it, the politician visited his table to the adulation of the other people there who knew the politician. Having never met these other people, Winno shook their hands and introduced himself by name.
Then, for the next half hour, the politician talked about himself, using “I” or “me” many, many times.
There was no mention by the politician of anything that would affect the attendees, or anything at all about the party’s plans were for the upcoming election.
Winno wrote that there was nothing said that was of any interest or value to him, his family, or his community.
Nothing.
When the politician drew breath and started looking for questions, Winno decided to up and disappear… which he did with brisk and cheerful readiness.
Winno remarked that he thought there would have been someone at the door to thank him for coming, and to get his name and address.
But no, there was nothing!
Nobody saw him disappear….
Winno said that some time later he did receive an email from the political party giving him a link to follow should he wish to volunteer his services.
Winno felt that this wasn’t exactly the right way of getting him into the fold of the political party…
He went on to write that the better way of doing this is very simple, and in fact it is the exact same way as dealing with any new customer…
1. Make them feel welcome,
2. Be interested in them, and
3. Solve their problem.
Winno wrote that the first two steps are easy and the third one in the case of this political party was simple… look after him when he arrives, introduce him to other people and make it easy for him to feel part of the group.
It’s the same with new patients at your dental practice
When a new patient phones your dental practice, make them feel welcome and be interested in what they say.
It’s exactly the same when meeting someone for the first time at a barbeque or dinner party.
And when these new patients phone your practice, here’s a tip:
They always have a dental problem they are wanting you to solve.
Yes, it is very simple….
*****
LIVE Workshop: Dr David Moffet and Jayne Bandy:
“How To Easily Run, Maintain And Grow The Ultimate Dental Practice In 2022 and Beyond”
If you’re sick and tired of drilling all day long, and not having anything close to what you deserve, to show for it… or if you’ve ever wondered, “What can successful dentists POSSIBLY know, that I don’t?”… then register for this LIVE workshop Thursday April 28, 2022 in Brisbane QLD
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 2003 there was no dental hygiene school in the state of New South Wales [NSW].
If dentists in NSW wanted a hygienist to work in their practice, they needed to entice a hygienist to come from interstate or from overseas. There simply weren’t enough hygienists in NSW to fill the demand.
And that was really weird, considering that Sydney was the most populous city in Australia, and NSW was the most populous state.
The state where most hygienists were graduating was Western Australia [WA].
And in WA, there was an oversupply, or excess of dental hygienists.
So much so that often there were dental practices where three hygienists were employed each day.
But here’s the interesting thing….
What I found was that within those dental practices that employed three hygienists, there would be an unwritten ranking or seniority protocol for their utilisation….
Let me explain…. You’d have the senior hygienist, employed on a permanent basis. Then you’d have the “next” hygienist, maybe employed permanently, maybe employed as a part timer. And lastly, the third hygienist would be employed as a “casual”.
And here’s what would happen.
As each day unfolded, if any vacancies arose in the books of the more senior hygienists, the staff at the office would “move” patients from the schedule of the casual hygienist to fill those vacancies in the books of the more senior hygienists. And so the casual hygienist would end up with a half empty day, and so could then be sent home early when she was done.
This daily shuffling of hygiene patients saved the dental office from having to pay wages to any hygienists who were not actively busy.
To me, I found this “trafficking” of dental hygiene appointments quite cutthroat and ruthless…
What I saw here was that these dental practices were actively turning their hygiene departments into a commodity for all of their hygiene patients.
By shuffling their patients’ hygiene appointments around from one hygienist to another, these practices were actually propagating the image of the provision of dental hygiene as being purely a faceless commodity, and not being a personal customer experience.
In reality, they were also creating an internal image within their own practices that hygienists themselves were also a commodity, employed to deliver that commoditised service.
As a result of this observation…
As a result of this observation, when I arrived in Perth WA to interview hygienists for a job in my dental practice in Sydney, I was able to quickly identify frustrated rockstar hygienists being exploited, and offer them employment based on permanency, respect, and appreciation.
And isn’t that all that any employee wants?
I shudder at the thought of dental practices that do not offer all of their staff the surety of permanent employment.
For staff, having the consistency of income week in and week out takes a load off their shoulders and allows them to plan out their personal weekly expenditures for housing, food, clothing and services.
Dental practices that pay staff different amounts each week that vary depending upon the dentist’s hours of attendance at the practice are skating on thin ice when it comes to creating any version of staff loyalty.
Your best team members deserve respect, appreciation, and an assurance of permanency.
To fail to provide them with these is sheer lunacy…
*****
LIVE Workshop: Dr David Moffet and Jayne Bandy:
“How To Easily Run, Maintain And Grow The Ultimate Dental Practice In 2022 and Beyond”
If you’re sick and tired of drilling all day long, and not having anything close to what you deserve, to show for it… or if you’ve ever wondered, “What can successful dentists POSSIBLY know, that I don’t?”… then register for this LIVE workshop Thursday April 28, 2022 in Brisbane QLD
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.
Last week I wrote about the use of the poorly worded and over-used phrase:
“What did you say your name was again?”
And how it’s use on a dental office phone call is totally wrong and out of place.
Finding out and remembering a caller’s name on a dental office phone call needs to be the NUMBER ONE PRIORITY.
And using that name back to the caller during the phone call is just as important.
This must be our first priority. We can’t talk to strangers.
As I said last week, I liken the answering of the dental office phone to being very similar to the meeting of a new “friend” at a barbeque, or at a cocktail party.
You want to find out a few things about the person you have just met, or been introduced to.
And you want to do this in a way that is comfortable to you, and is comfortable to the person you are speaking with.
So with the dental office phone call, one of the things we always teach is for the dental receptionist to announce their own name during the phone call greeting. By so doing it allows the receptionist to then ask the caller for their name, if the caller has not volunteered their name already. [By introducing yourself and your dental office when you answer the practice phone, you actually subliminally prompt the caller to introduce themselves back to you without having to ask them who they are.]
However, in the instance where the caller does not introduce themselves, it is very easy to find out who you are talking to by simply asking the caller:
“When was the last time you were in at our practice?”
And after they answer that question you ask:
“Do you mind if I ask your name please?”
And when they tell you their name, you reply immediately:
“Oh hi [NAME], how are you?”
And so immediately acknowledge the caller’s name, as you write the caller’s name down for your own reference.
It’s that simple
Once the caller has told you their name, you now have permission to use their name back to them in future dialogues moving forwards.
The last thing you want is to be progressing with a conversation with a caller and getting deep into a solution to their problem and having no idea at all with whom you are speaking.
I’ve heard recordings of phone calls where the receptionist has arrived at the time to schedule the appointment and they begin that process by saying:
“Last name.”
Followed by:
“First name.”
And then:
“Date of Birth.”
This is really a sub-standard response that turns a conversation into a DATA COLLECTION PROCESS.
You wouldn’t use these three questions at a barbeque or a cocktail party with somebody you’ve just met, would you?
“Last name.”
“First name.”
“Date of Birth.”
Of course you wouldn’t.
So why should that machine gun fire style of questioning now become totally acceptable, when solving a caller’s dental problem?
It isn’t acceptable.
The good news is…
The good news is that there is a better way….
And that better way can be learnt, and remembered.
And become usual, and customary….
*****
LIVE Workshop: Dr David Moffet and Jayne Bandy:
“How To Easily Run, Maintain And Grow The Ultimate Dental Practice In 2022 and Beyond”
If you’re sick and tired of drilling all day long, and not having anything close to what you deserve, to show for it… or if you’ve ever wondered, “What can successful dentists POSSIBLY know, that I don’t?”… then register for this LIVE workshop Thursday April 28, 2022 in Brisbane QLD
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.
Recently on a dental chat forum a question was posed from an Anonymous Contributor who supposedly was working as an Associate Dentist at a dental practice where the Practice Principal had recently sold the practice to a Corporate, and now, as part of the contract of sale, the selling Principal had some annual “targets” to reach for the new owner.
The Associate Dentist was feeling pressured by the Practice Principal to “over-produce” [the words of the Anonymous Associate], supposedly so that the Practice could hit these certain production targets demanded by the new owners.
The Associate dentist felt that their own clinical ethics were being compromised by having to achieve production targets.
It is an interesting question
What I found during my thirty five years of dental practice was that the treatment that lasted the longest and was better for the patient was in most cases, usually more expensive than inferior choices.
And after all, DOING NOTHING for a patient, and WATCHING things [whatever that means], is always going to be inexpensive compared to restoring something with the best materials.
So when it came to treatment, it was quite apparent that what was going to be best treatment option for the patient’s health and well-being, was also going to be good for the financial health of the dental practice.
If you had a hole in your roof…
If you had a hole in your roof, would you
Watch it and see how it goes
Put a tarp over the hole, and see how it goes
Fix the hole with the best possible materials?
If you were having a heart attack…
If you were having a heart attack, would you like the paramedic to say:
“Let’s just watch you for a while and see if you get better…”
“Try not to over-exert yourself and see how you go…”
“Let’s get you to a hospital and get this thing fixed…”
Are you offering “supervised neglect”?
Whenever you fail to offer a patient the best possible treatment, are you actually participating in supervised neglect?
Are you selling third-rate parachutes?
If you were about to jump out of an aeroplane, would you like to hear:
“This parachute you’re wearing ranked three and a half stars out of five in recent quality tests…”
Or would you rather know that you were wearing the best-made parachute ever?
You should always be offering your patients the best treatment
You should always be offering your patients the best treatment.
And if you can’t provide them with the best treatment, then refer them to someone who can.
Don’t let patients talk you into giving them a treatment that is not in their best interests
Years ago I stopped letting patients talk me into doing deep subgingival fillings where I knew that I wasn’t able to get 100% marginal integrity.
I started to reject the question:
“Oh can’t you just fill it Doc?”
Because to “just fill it” was not in the patient’s best interests.
Sometimes best treatment will cost the patient more.
But trying to make second-rate treatment be as good as best treatment will wear out your soul and erode your own moral fibre.
To be truly honourable to your patients you must learn to get out of your own way and learn how to ethically offer your patients best treatment always.
Ethically and morally, it will be a WIN-WIN for all concerned.
*****
LIVE Workshop: Dr David Moffet and Jayne Bandy:
“How To Easily Run, Maintain And Grow The Ultimate Dental Practice In 2022 and Beyond”
If you’re sick and tired of drilling all day long, and not having anything close to what you deserve, to show for it… or if you’ve ever wondered, “What can successful dentists POSSIBLY know, that I don’t?”… then register for this LIVE workshop Thursday April 28, 2022 in Brisbane QLD
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 often liken the answering of the dental office phone to the meeting of a new “friend” at a barbeque, or at a cocktail party.
You want to find out a few things about the person you have just met, or have just been introduced to.
And you want to do this in a way that is comfortable to you, and is comfortable to the person you are speaking with.
The end result of an “introduction” or first conversation at a barbeque should be that both people end the conversation feeling that they are glad that they have met each other, and that they are hoping to meet up with each other again some time.
The end result of phoning a dental practice should be very similar.
The caller to the dental practice should end the call feeling that the dental receptionist they spoke with is a very nice person and has been very helpful, and that the caller is looking forward to meeting the receptionist in person, and that the caller is even looking forward to the possibility that the dental receptionist will phone and bring the caller’s first appointment forward, should there be a change in the dental practice’s schedule.
It’s quite sad…
With that outcome in mind, one of the things that really disappoints me when I phone dental practices, and when I listen to recordings of dental practice phone calls, is when I hear the dental receptionist talking and failing to find out the caller’s name.
Or worse still, I find it very poor form when I introduce myself by name at the beginning of a call, and then later on in the conversation I get asked by the receptionist:
“What did you say your name was again?”
Whenever a dental team member finds themselves having to say this question, they need to reprimand themselves.
If you just met a person at a cocktail party that you had never met, one of the first things you would find out is their name, isn’t it?
Yet I listen to dental practice phone call recordings where calls go on for several minutes before the receptionist bothers to connect or reconnect with the caller about their name.
Dale Carnegie wrote that:
“A man’s name to him is the sweetest sound in the language.”
And it is.
Everybody loves to hear their name used in conversations they are having.
So don’t be lazy.
When the phone rings at your dental office, find out as soon as possible who you are talking to, and bother to remember the caller’s name so that you can use their name back to them as many times as you can.
Never allow yourself to be in a position where you have to say:
“What did you say your name was again?”
Because the use of that phrase is totally wrong.
And the words that make up that phrase are totally wrong as well.
*****
LIVE Workshop: Dr David Moffet and Jayne Bandy:
“How To Easily Run, Maintain And Grow The Ultimate Dental Practice In 2022 and Beyond”
If you’re sick and tired of drilling all day long, and not having anything close to what you deserve, to show for it… or if you’ve ever wondered, “What can successful dentists POSSIBLY know, that I don’t?”… then register for this LIVE workshop Thursday April 28, 2022 in Brisbane QLD
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 can order your copy here: 
