I can’t remember the name of the movie, but I remember watching a movie many years ago about the commitment, or lack thereof, in a relationship between two young people living together.
It seemed that the male in the couple had noticed that his girlfriend never said the words:
“I love you”
to him, and had always used a flippant
“luv ya”
as a reply to him whenever he had said “I love you” to her.
And in my vague recollection, I believe that this flippant reply of “luv ya” as a throw-away reply to the boyfriend’s serious announcement of his feelings, became the nucleus for the deterioration of what seemed to be a fairly agreeable cohabitation.
Have you ever known someone who….
Have you ever known someone who can never say:
“I’m sorry.”
This sort of person usually comes up with a number of reasons as to why a certain situation or certain outcome has eventuated, despite the fact that it is something that they have done or not done that has been the primary cause of that situation.
This person always seems to look to blame others rather than accept that they have erred themselves, and often, in business, when we are discussing the delivery of their product or a service, they try to belittle the customer by telling them that their expectations are too high.
They often try to make the customer accept a defect, or faulty workmanship, by saying that it will take a long time or a lot of work to fix that small issue.
Even though the issue has occurred in the first place because of an error or mistake made by that workman, or their company.
I’ve even heard people who can never say “I’m sorry” use substitute phrases such as
“My mistake”
as a replacement, when the use of “I’m sorry” would be much more powerful as a defuser of the situation.
Do you know someone like this?
Aren’t they difficult to deal with?
Their self image of their own perfection is a constant source of irritation to all of the people they deal with, and is often the cause of this person or their type, having very few long term friendships.
It’s really a narcistic trait, because to a narcissist, them giving a sincere apology is seen by them as a weakness.
When you meet someone with this personal failing, someone who cannot apologise, don’t try to change them.
Simply view your association with them as being of a finite length, and make that time frame as short as you possible can.
And move on.
Don’t give them any more business than you have to.
And certainly, don’t give them any more of your valuable time.
*****
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 many of you know, after retiring from clinical dentistry, Jayne and I decided to sell our Sydney home and relocate to a small property about two hours drive outside of Sydney.
Our property is on the edge of a small village, with about a 15 minute walk to the two small businesses that operate from that village.
Those two businesses are a café, and a pub.
If we want anything else, we’ve got a ten minute drive to another small village where we can buy petrol, and there’s also a pharmacy, a fruit shop, and a small grocery store there.
There’ also a great pizza shop, a pub too, and a post office where we have our mail directed to.
The service at the post office is great. The two staff there are very personable and friendly, and they will bend over backwards to be helpful.
Last week when Jayne was down at the post office collecting the mail, there was a small box parcel amongst others to be collected.
This box parcel had an interesting story, because the person sending the parcel had come to that post office to post it, and so Mel from the post office said that she’d take the parcel from the sender and place it with our other mail, so that it didn’t have to be sent to Sydney and back on a truck or two.
Like I said, the staff at the post office are very personable…
So the box parcel, addressed by hand to me, was certainly a little bit of a surprise.
I wasn’t expecting to be receiving anything in the post from someone local…
When Jayne brought the box parcel home, inside was a small silver trowel, along with a company folder, that contained a letter, a business card, and a brochure.
The purpose of the letter was to introduce the owner of a local horticultural company to me, and to introduce me to that company’s garden maintenance services.
The letter explained that the trowel was a gift for me, and the brochure outlined and contained pictures of some of the services that the horticultural company offered.
What impressed me…
What impressed me was that the sender had obviously done some homework on me.
He’d probably spotted my home renovations occurring while driving past, and put two and two together to work out that whenever there are building renovations, then there’s always going to be a need for some landscaping work.
I’m figuring too that the horticulturalist had also researched that around my home there was already a reasonable amount of established garden.
There’s a backstory…
The backstory is that along the way, with our home renovations, Jayne and I are in need of some landscaping work to put in a couple of paths and gardens.
Sadly, we have had significant difficulty finding anyone wanting to do the work for us, because they all seem to be so heavily booked up into the future.
So this parcel box couldn’t have arrived at a better time for us.
And that’s the thing..
And that’s the thing with direct response marketing… you never know when that piece of marketing you send gets into the hands of a potential customer, you never know whether the action of sending that marketing is all that potential customer is needing to be reminded that it is time for them to investigate your company and its services.
Because the opposite occurrence is even truer.
And that is that the marketing piece that you never send will have a zero result in building any relationship between your business and your potential customer.
Because the potential customer won’t know who you are if you never send anything to them!!
Any marketing that you engage in will have an impact on anyone who comes across it who just so happens to be in the need for your services… be those services horticultural, or dental…
And so, if you’re not marketing, the person out there who needs exactly what you are selling, will not know that your business even exists, or is right there and is ready to help them…. and so that potential customer will simply take their business elsewhere…
So, are you targeting your ideal customer?
And letting them know that you are right there, nearby, and offering them the services that they are in need of?
Because you should be…
*****
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.
For five days now I have been experiencing such incredible pain in my left leg, from my hip to just past my knee.
The pain is so intense, and unrepentant that I now truly understand how Van Gogh must have felt when he took a knife to his own ear [in order to rid his body of the pain that he was experiencing].
My sleep is very broken.
Extremely broken.
And my movement?
Despite having minimal back issues, I now couldn’t run out of sight on a dark night…. And for someone who has been so active for so many years now, the inactivity that this debilitation has created is driving me stir crazy.
So, here’s what has happened.
I made an appointment to see a local doctor so as to get to the bottom of this issue quickly, and to get better.
And so yesterday I was able to see her, and as you would expect, she referred me for x-rays of the back and hip and knees so we could find out exactly what is causing the root cause of my acute pain.
Following my doctor’s appointment, I immediately phoned the imaging practice to organise an appointment as quickly as possible.
I said to them:
“I’m available to come at any time on Wednesday. I’m available all day.”
The lady said:
“We can do the ultrasound on Wednesday, but I’m just having trouble lining up a technician to do your CT scan and your X-rays… that won’t be until Thursday afternoon.”
I said:
“That will be fine.”
And so the Ultrasound was scheduled for Wednesday.
When I arrived on the Wednesday morning, and was filling out my new patient form, a male technician standing at the front reception said that he would be able to do my CT scan that morning, then and there.
Of course that suited me fine, so after the Ultrasound, Michael the radiographer then showed me through and took the necessary CT scans.
At the completion of that procedure, Michael said that he did have time to also do my X-rays too, and so within a few extra minutes, all my scans and images were completed in one very short visit.
Following the scans, I waited in reception to receive a copy of my films.
The receptionist Alana asked me if I wanted to take a copy of the ultrasound as well, as some of the scans were being put on a drive for me, while others were being emailed to my doctors.
I asked if all my scans could be emailed to both my doctors, and then Alana asked me whether I preferred express delivery [3 hours] or regular delivery [3 days]?
Well of course I asked for express delivery…. I needed to find out as quickly as possible what was causing me this severe pain…. I needed to find out so I could begin necessary treatment as soon as possible.
What I loved about this place…
I’ve written before about the “less than ordinary” service that I used to receive at an imaging practice I used to visit in Sydney.
What was so great about this imaging place today was how nothing was too much of a bother for the team members, and they made sure that I fully understood all of my options, as they provided me with an ABOVE AND BEYOND World Class Customer Experience.
As a result of their promptness and efficiencies and their attention to PROBLEM SOLVING, I was able to organise a phone consultation with my doctor on that same Wednesday to discuss the images and to IMMEDIATELY start planning my treatment and recovery processes.
Best of all…
Best of all, this imaging place made me feel important, and valued.
And that feeling is worth bottling.
Bravo!!
*****
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.
I was on a coaching call this week with one of my coaches [yes, coaches have coaches], and the comment came up during a breakout session that one of the coaches in this session appeared to be “fishing in an excellent pond”.
The point of this turn of phrase is that if you are going to be fishing, you’re best to be fishing where there are more fish, and the fish are hungry and biting, so that catching these fish will be easier…. and so fishing in a pond where there are plenty of big fish biting would be far more enjoyable than fishing in a place with very few well fed fish.
This philosophy is very appropriate when considering attracting clients, customers and patients to a business. Being a cosmetic dentist and running a successful dental practice should be easier in a more highly populated area, and should be easier in an area where those people have more teeth than in other areas. [You would think so?]
This phrase would also be appropriate when seeking professional advice.
A lot of people believe that when “seeking professional advice” it is ok and appropriate to ask the advice of family, and friends.
This is despite the fact that the family members and friends are quite often inexperienced and unqualified to give the kind of advice that is being asked for.
In those cases, this “free advice” is worth every penny that is paid for it… it’s worthless and often harmful.
Really, when seeking advice, you need to find out if the advisor you are talking to has ACTUALLY done what you are looking to do, and has also successfully coached and taught others to have the same results that they had, and that you hope to also achieve.
Often, people seeking advice also seek out advisors who have been in the same profession or vocation, as opposed to seeking advice from someone who has never been a [blank] that they are seeking to advise, or that they have never actually practiced and applied the principles or techniques that they are now espousing as gospel.
This is called due diligence.
You wouldn’t just drop a fishing line in any old pond, would you?
Yet some people do…
Some people take the advice of friends and family, and often that advice is to not change…. usually because the friends and family have a secret desire to protect their friend or family member from “changing” as a result of actually achieving some degree of successful change.
There is a whole other world available outside of the perceived circle of activity, and there are trusted and trustworthy advisors available to help those who want to be better, to actually become better.
Before embarking on that journey, make sure that the person you are following is headed in the right direction, and has previously been there… that’s a good starting point…
*****
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.
I recently wrote about an experience with an Uber driver where a simple apology would have diffused and solved a very “uncomfortable” situation.
Sadly, there was no apology forthcoming….
And stories like this keep happening time and time again…
A friend of mine who is doing some home renovations is having “difficulties” with some cabinetry installations.
It seems that the cabinetry company and my friend have both signed off on some illustrations of work that is intended to be done, but the finished product varies in some instances from the drawings that the cabinetry company offered up as part of their signed contract.
The cabinetry company explained that the difference between the drawings and reality was because the drawings were “what their software program delivered”.
However, it has been proven in consumer courts that customer expectations based on drawings and pictures are valid and cannot be discounted.
In this situation, what we are talking about is a small length of timber kickback that appears in the drawing that has failed to materialise in my friend’s home.
And as my friend said, it’s only a small length of wood that the cabinetry company has drawn “a line in the sand” over, and in the whole scheme of things, the cabinetry company would probably have been better to have said “Sorry” to my friend and fitted the kickback and moved on.
Have there been times in your practice….
Have there been times in your practice when an instant apology has been the ultimate fire extinguisher?
Many years ago, my first patient on a Monday morning was a new patient to the practice requiring a relief of pain for a toothache.
The patient did not want to lose the tooth so I extirpated the pulp, placed a sedative dressing in the tooth and temporised a restoration and referred the patient for endodontic treatment.
After the patient had been transferred to the reception for the scheduling of the endodontic appointment, and to settle up our fee for the day, the receptionist came to me to say that the patient was unhappy about my fee.
I came to the front office and immediately apologised to the patient for our practice’s miscommunication to him when he scheduled, that had created this misunderstanding.
I then said to the patient that this was my solution:
“Obviously there has been a misunderstanding about our fee for today and as the owner of the practice I take full responsibility. Obviously we have performed some treatment and have gotten you out of trouble, so here’s all I ask… whatever you think is a fair price for you to pay for my services today, I’m happy to accept as full payment…. and if you think that zero is a fair price, then I’m happy with that decision.”
The patient was surprised.
The patient was looking for an argument.
But if this was a tug-of-war, sadly for this patient I had dropped the rope.
I repeated to the patient:
“Whatever you think is a fair price for you to pay for my services today, I’m happy to accept, and if you think that zero is a fair price, then I’m happy with that decision.”
And I left the patient with my receptionist.
And the patient paid zero.
Sometimes winning an argument is not the best result..
Don’t ever regret making an apology to resolve a small issue and get it over with.
The $405.00 that I gifted that patient for his treatment was probably one of the best apologies and one of the best investments that I ever made, because it got rid of that grub out of my practice and it shut him up.
Don’t ever regret spending a few pennies to resolve a small issue and get it over with.
Because those pennies are money well spent….
Maybe the cabinetry company that my friend is dealing with needs to have a little heart-to-heart with themselves about their tug-of-war philosophy…
*****
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.
