I had a dentist ask me recently about whether they should display their fee schedule on their practice website.
This dentist thought that by sharing his fees publicly it would be a filter that allowed patients who only wanted to pay higher fees to choose his office over other lower fee charging practices.
An interesting thought.
Dentistry is a free market, in that dentists are free to charge whatever price they choose depending on what income they need to maintain their business, and also what they believe the market is willing to pay for their services.
And in that sentence just there is the key word that dentist business owners need to remember when working out what to charge patients.
The word is “services”.
We are in the business of providing a service to our patients and customers.
We are not in the business of selling a commodity.
A widget is a commodity.
A widget is something that a retailer purchases from a wholesaler, and passes on to the customer at a higher price.
A customer can go elsewhere and buy that same widget from someone else and its exactly the same widget.
Dental services are not widgets.
They are services, and experiences, with so many variations in the delivery of those services between one dentist and another.
Whether those two dentists are in the same town, the same street, the same building, or even in the same practice…. the delivery will be different based on each dentists’ levels of experience and knowledge, and their levels of skill, and even their facilities.
My take is this:
I never published a price list or a fee schedule for public consumption when I was a dentist.
I didn’t see the point.
I knew my fees were higher than most dentists, but I also knew that patients came to me and came back to see me over and over because of the way that my team made them feel valued, respected, welcomed and understood.
And the public, and especially those punters who have never visited your office, and have never sat down with your wonderful team and have never felt the warmth and compassion of your receptionists and have never shared a conversation with your dentists and care providers… those people will never be able to gauge whether your fees represent exceptional value because they have never experienced what your regular trusted and loyal patients experience and know about your practice….
A dollar amount for a dental code will never tell the full story.
Let’s do this with our patients and our new patients:
Let’s meet them first, so they get to know who we are, and they get to know our care and compassion for them.
And then, let’s discuss their problems wit them, and their solutions.
And then let’s work out the best way for them to solve their problems.
And putting it simply, that’s how we take price out of the equation.
And replace it with value….
*****
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.
“Does the left hand know what the right hand is doing?”
is often used as a term of derision to describe an organisation where different members or departments are pursuing opposing or contradictory goals.
With dire consequences.
Recently in an Instagram video post, Howard Farran described how a receptionist at a vein clinic near his office had been telling people who phoned that office that the Doctor doesn’t do varicose veins.
When asked by the doctor’s wife why she was saying this, when in fact the doctor did do them, the receptionist answered:
“Oh, I thought doctor only did spider veins here.”
Howard also mentioned that at his office the receptionist was telling callers for six months that the practice did not do Invisalign treatment.
When asked why she was turning these enquiries away, the receptionist said:
“Oh, I thought we only did clear aligners here, not Invisalign.”
In both these cases…
In both these cases, the receptionists had no idea exactly what their doctor did and did not do as treatments.
Who knows how many hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of treatment had been turned away because both of these office’s team education processes were not informing and keeping key workers up to date with everything that was going on in those office.
Another dental office that I know…
At another dental practice that I know, the owner is a very well-respected dental sleep practitioner, but he is having difficulty getting his associate dentists to identify, diagnose, present and refer patients from within the practice to him.
In fact, in my own practice, I used to wonder why my associates would tell a patient:
“You grind your teeth. You need a splint. Here’s a splint.”
I would diagnose and treatment plan a more comprehensive treatment for my patients because I would help the patient let me know the aetiology of their “grinding”, and because of this, the treatment plan I presented to them most often would address and relieve symptoms that that they experiencing that they were unaware was related to their “grinding”.
The results and improvements for these patients from the treatment that I proposed and completed for them were dramatically life changing.
Much better than issuing them with a band-aid treatment, or worse still, better than doing nothing.
In retail…
Imagine walking into a retail store, and being told that the store is out of stock of the item you are seeking to purchase, only to find out later on that the employee you spoke to had no idea whatsoever as to whether that item you were after was carried by the store, where the store had that item on display, and how many of that product were actually in stock.
As a customer you’d be upset.
As the business owner, you’d also be upset with your employee, because your store had missed out on making a sale.
Yet in dentistry…
Yet in dentistry, unless your dental practice is recording incoming phone calls and employing a professional person to review these recordings and listen to what’s being asked for, and what’s being said as answers on those phone calls, you’ve got NO IDEA WHATSOEVER how many callers and patients are not getting their problems solved and are not scheduling an appointment when they phone your practice.
When we listen to recordings from dental practices we work with, we always hear people who call the office being turned away from making appointments that they want [and need] to make because the reception staff are either undertrained, or careless, or apathetic.
These missed opportunities on the dental practice phones are costing these dental offices tens of thousands of dollars every week.
And they are indicative of what is happening on all dental practice phones.
And they don’t need to be happening.
At some dental practices…
At some dental practices we work with, the staff answering the phones don’t even know what’s on the practice website in terms of treatment modalities, specials and team members’ bios…
At your dental practice, is everybody there on the same page when it comes to knowing what’s going on at the practice, as well as who you can help., and what treatments your doctors do?
Because when your team knows this information INHERENTLY, the results for your practice, and for your patients, are indeed truly amazing…
When your reception team are not on top of what is going on at your practice there will always be losers.
Your practice will lose out on the opportunity of treating those patients who need the treatment.
Your callers and patients will lose because they will go elsewhere, and will miss out on being treated by the great doctors that work at your practice.
And your team members will miss out on being the heroes in this whole process who helped solve the problems of those people who called your practice looking for a solution…
*****
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.
When people are ill, or have an ailment, they can behave in a number of ways.
They can ignore their ailment, and hope it goes away.
They can ask their friends what they think might be wrong with them.
They can go searching for an answer online… by googling their symptoms.
They can go and see their doctor, and find out what he thinks.
If they do not seek medical intervention or opinion, here’s what happens to their ailment:
It gets worse and worse, and kills them or debilitates them.
It lingers, and is always present, and is embarrassing when seen by others…. kind of like a messy room in your house that you’re intending to go fix up one day, but you never seem to get around to it.
Your body can fix the ailment, and repair itself, and things will return to normal. Like when we have the common cold…. we’re told to rest, drink plenty of fluids, and the cold will pass…
Recently I had felt some dry skin inside of my left ear.
Well not inside of the ear hole, but inside of the shell of the ear.
I had all sorts of images going through my head that this was a cancer, and that I’d be losing my left ear ala Van Gogh style… I was terrified to bring this to the attention of my doctor… but in the end, I realised that it was probably best to get her expert opinion.
Fortunately for me, my doctor said that my ailment was benign, and innocuous. She zapped it with some CO2 spray, and that cleared up the ailment.
My visions of losing part of my ear were laid to rest, thankfully.
It’s funny, things are very similar when it comes to talking business…
A lot of business owners treat their business worse than they treat their body.
They don’t have routine health checks for their business, and when asked, they usually say something benign like:“I think we’re going OK”when in fact, they haven’t stuck a thermometer in their business since I don’t know when… and they have no real idea at all as to how healthy or not their business is…But, they think their business is going OK…
When they see something going wrong in their business, they often hope that the problem will go away of its own accord… they close their eyes and ignore the problem, and they metaphorically stick their heads in the sand, hoping that the problem fixes itself.
If the problem lingers, they ask their mates and family what they should do to fix it, despite the fact that their mates and family may not have any clue at all about running a business…
Or they go to Google looking for an answer to their problem, and try to DIY a solution.
In all these cases above, time works as the enemy while they are attempting to solve their problem.
And time is a perishable resource that can never be regained once it has passed by…
And wasting time is expensive.
In sport…
Elite athletes and sports people with focus, drive and determination, have coaches who they regularly check in with to ensure that they stay focussed and on track towards their desired goals and destinations.
And more than most, sports stars understand that time is their enemy, and they only have a certain window of opportunity to achieve their goals.
In health…
Some people have regular medicals and health checks to make sure their body is OK… In Australia, every adult over fifty gets sent a bowel cancer screening test to complete every two years.
Older people have flu-shots every year to reduce the risk of getting influenza in winter.
Regularly checking your PSA or your blood pressure can detect life threatening issues before they cause permanent damage or death.
In business…
In business it’s different.
Most business owners have no plan.
They make things up as they go along, and they don’t know their numbers until nine months after the end of the financial year when they file their tax returns.
If you own a business, you need a plan.
If you own a business, you need to be working with an advisor who knows business and knows your business and can guide you through the turbulent times and the calm times and keep you focussed on your goals.
Someone who can help you keep your business healthy and keep it away from distractions.
Making the wrong decisions, or not making a decision at all [which is really making a decision not to make a decision] can have dire implications for a business.
Before heeding advice, make sure that the so-called advisor is qualified to give advice.
Opinions are not always advice.
Investing in good advice, investing in maintaining the health of your business, is money well spent.
Sadly…
Sadly, in life, a lot of people wait until their body starts to fall apart before they make those hard decisions… and make the sacrifices and take the actions needed to get healthy.
And it’s often the same in the business world…
*****
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 talking with a dentist recently who told me that a couple of his employees had told him that they did not want to “groom” the patients after their appointment, and that they [the employees felt uncomfortable doing so?
When I use the word “groom”, what I mean to say is is it too much to ask the dental team members to help the patient rectify any makeup or wardrobe malfunctions that may have occurred during their time in the dental chair.
What do you think about this dental team’s interesting stance?
Here’s what happens [in reality]…
A patient attends our dental practice.
When they walk in the door they are well groomed and well presented.
At the dental practice, we take them to a treatment room, remove their coat, lie them horizontally, pull their mouth in all different directions for 30-60 minutes, pour all sorts of stuff into their mouth….and then we tip them back to the vertical, thank them, and push them out into the street?
Some dental offices check that the patients are presentable when they leave after treatment, while other offices do not?
And the patients pay us for treating them which way?
With care and compassion?
Or with lack of care?
Which way would you like to be treated?
Here’s my take….
If the patient walks into the dental office and presents themselves well, then that patient should expect that after their treatment, the least thing that the dental office can do is to make sure that they [the patient] leaves the dental practice perfectly presented.
Isn’t it our duty and obligation to make sure that our patients are well presented when they leave our office?
The patient should always be:
Perfectly groomed
Clothing straight and in place
No tell-tale signs lingering on their face showing the world that they had been to the dentist.
Is that too much to expect or handle?
I’m not sure…
I’m not sure which planet this guy’s staff had been living on, but if this is his team members’ reactions, they have a lot to learn about customer service systems and preferences….
At your practice…
At your practice… do you groom and prepare your patients to face the world, after they have attended one of your appointments?
Or do you just send them off to face the world without fixing any makeup or wardrobe malfunctions?
*****
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.
On Wednesday I received my weekly email from my golf club.
Every Wednesday afternoon I receive the email which includes reports from the Club Captain, the Course Superintendent, the Women’s Committee, the Clubhouse, and the Professional Shop.
Although I don’t get to play much golf at the moment, this regular communication keeps me well informed as to the goings on at this fabulous golf club.
Of particular interest to me this week was the report from the Golf Club Professional [let’s call him Ben].
I have copied and pasted Ben’s report below.
In a nutshell, Ben and his wife and children travelled to the USA and spent some time with one of our club’s members, who is now a golf professional himself, and this year qualified to play the USPGA Tour [let’s call this guy Harrison].
Harrison qualified this year for the PGA Tour after playing and winning last year on the Korn Ferry tour [the secondary tour].
Here’s what Ben said about his time in the USA on the PGA Tour with Harrison:
It’s great to be back after a few weeks in the US coaching Harrison….
While I was away with Harrison we worked really hard to get him back playing some great golf. We did a lot of work together and after Harrison had missed five straight cuts, my main objective was to get him moving it well and understanding what we needed to do in order to achieve greatness again.
Harrison made back-to-back cuts while I was there and posted the best score for the day twice in 2 weeks!
So I’ll say, mission accomplished!
The experience for me personally was amazing and I couldn’t thank the PGA Tour enough for having not only myself but my family as guests. They looked after us better than you could ever have imagined.
One of the funniest things I’ll mention was when my sons Nate and Noah were asked by Rory McIllroy, who sat with us one time at breakfast, who their favourite golfer was?
They straight away both said:
“Harrison Endycott is our favourite player”.
Rory realised very quickly that my sons were soccer players and not golfers, so he asked them:
“What about Rory McIllroy?”
Nate replied:
“Yeah, he is ok, but Harrison is still way better”.
Rory then said:
“Well from now on, Harrison is my new favourite golfer”.
So many of the PGA players, especially the younger guys, looked after my boys and gave them signed balls and talked with them when they realised I was Harrison’s coach. The PGA tour gave my family access to player dining, the range, locker room, and inside the ropes which was pretty special!
One thing I will say, after playing holes with golfers Max Homa, Tom Kim, Jason Day, Scottie Scheffler etc. is that I know for a fact, Harrison can become the best golfer in the world.
We have a long way to go to achieve this but it’s definitely possible!
He hits the ball straighter than any other player.
Harrison’s ball strike sound is a sound Scottie Scheffler would die for.
I’m looking forward to spending more time with Harrison in the US over the coming years and can’t wait to keep you all updated on the progress we make.
Here’s what I thought about Ben’s comments:
Firstly, it was obvious, that working closely with a coach can really be beneficial when compared to trying to figure things out without a coach.
When Ben turned up to work with Harrison, he was quickly able to re-establish some important parameters and to get Harrison striking the ball straighter and better than he had been recently.
[I’ll bet Harrison was very grateful for the instruction from his coach].
Secondly, looking to the future, Ben has explained that coaching Harrison is not a “one stop fix-and-go” process. Rather, it is a process of evolution: Build and solidify. Build and solidify. [Rinse and repeat]. Isn’t that what true coaching is?
Improvement is a never-ending goal…
Thirdly, the way that the PGA and the players welcomed Ben and his family into their inner sanctum was great. It’s nice to see that reaction from an “industry” to their fellow members.
Grinding it out on the Tour can be a lonely life. Grooving that perfect swing day in and day out, uprooting and travelling each week to a new town to work, can be tough.
The public, and the viewing public, sometimes only see the “glamour end” of the PGA tour. The work, and the “do-the-work backstory” are often not so glamorous.
Fortunately, the rewards for those who do “do-the-work” are worth it.
And isn’t that the case with most things?
*****
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.
Yesterday Jayne and I were driving home from Sydney when we had a “choice” of route to take…
The reason we had a choice was because this time, unlike other times, we’d been to Sydney on a weekday for a specific event. This was very different for us because on the rare occasions we do drive up to Sydney, it’s usually on a weekend day and not on a weekday.
And on this particular weekday, we had chosen to return home during daylight hours rather than after sunset. And this decision in itself presented us with a couple of obstacles to negotiate.
The first obstacle was that we wanted to avoid passing through school zones when traffic must obey school zone speed limits.
The second obstacle was because we were travelling in the early afternoon, we also had roadworks to contend with.
So here’s what happened:
Heavy rainfall that our local area received last year had resulted in serious pothole damage to a number of roads. As a result, a couple of arterial country roads were still being repaired.
In fact, part of one major arterial road had been closed for a reasonable amount of time while road repairs were being carried out.
So yesterday, when we chose to join this road at an access point that last week was operational, we found that the road was closed in both directions and we were unable to join the road.
This left us with two choices.
We could either return to the town where we had come from along the road we had travelled, or we could take the crossroad that had been restricted to local traffic only for quite some time due to pothole damage, and had been undergoing pothole reparation and maintenance.
We chose the latter…
I decided to chance the crossroad, figuring that the repairs along there would have been long finished by now…
I should have known better…
About three miles down this road, we encountered traffic controllers in action.
Road barriers. Traffic cones. And a lady in high vis.
I asked her politely, in a joking manner, if there was any way she would allow us to drive through the roadworks zone.
With a smile on her face she said there was no way.
She said that the only people allowed to drive through were people who were residents along the road.
She explained that if she let me through, she would also have to let the two cars behind me through as well. [These two cars had followed me along this road as I drove past a “Road Closed” sign.]
I told her that I wouldn’t tell the drivers behind that I was not a resident.
She told me “No” again.
And then she said this:
She told us that today drivers had sworn at her, and that one driver had even told her to “go and kill herself”.
Can you believe that?
And all this lady was doing was she was doing the job she’d been employed to do.
That was all.
It’s pretty embarrassing to believe that someone doing their job can be abused and harassed by another member of the human race, simply because they are doing their job.
It makes you wonder…
Are people out there really so insensitive and that abusive that they would swear at a total stranger and suggest self-harm?
As the lady said to us, this week she was dealing with the fact that on a personal level she was going to be attending two funerals.
And it got me thinking… we never know what sort of stuff is going on behind the scenes in the heads of the people we encounter each day…
Everybody has their own story, and their own backstory, and you can’t imagine what some of those stories are doing to the minds that they are occupying?
So before you speak, maybe, you should hold that thought, and wait for the second thought.
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.
