“People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”
It’s attributed to former American President Theodore Roosevelt.
The analogy is that people out there don’t want to know your opinion if they feel a lack of connection with you.
People want to feel that your answer, your solution, your precis is because you are invested in them and with them, and that you are not just speaking for the sake of speaking.
People want to feel that what you are saying is coming from the heart and has a purpose of adding value.
In dentistry, when we are conversing with patients throughout the day, we should always be coming from a conciliatory position rather than from a position of trying to influence or trying to be heard.x
This is why it is always best to listen more than you speak.
And why it is important to ask questions more than we offer opinions.
To be a good friend we should first try to be a good listener.
Here are some characteristics of a good listener:
Look at them.
Focus on them, and them alone. Don’t be distracted by background movement. Be in the moment.
Truly listen
Give all your attention to what they are saying and why they are saying things, with the purpose of understanding rather than with the intention of wanting to respond.
Give them visual and auditory feedback that you are in the zone with them.
Nod your head, make eye contact, agree.
Seek clarification on their meanings, as well as on how they are feeling.
Ask conciliatory questions to show that you are onboard with how they are feeling and the story they are sharing.
Remember, everybody loves to talk about their favourite subjects: THEMSELVES!
Those of us who can control our responses to being responses and not being opinions and statements will be valued and praised as true listeners.
Mary Kay Ash said everybody out there is walking around with an invisible sign around their necks that reads:
“Make me feel important!”
Including all of our dental patients.
And the easiest way to do that is to be a good listener.
*****
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’ll get started when we finish our renovations.”
“I’m waiting to hire the right person before I get started with your training.”
And guess what?
THEY NEVER START!
They say:
“Our renovations cost more than expected and now we’re having difficulty paying the bills.”
“I still haven’t filled that position.”
And guess what?
If they’d have started the training when they should have, their cashflow would have improved and their bills would have been easily paid.
And if they’d have started the training with the team they had at that time, they’d have upskilled a fair chunk of their team, such that the way their TEAM operated would have been considerably better.
But they didn’t.
And so things did not change.
My mentor Dan Kennedy said this:
“Conditions are never right at the right time. The timing is ALWAYS wrong. If you’re waiting for everything to be just right before taking action, you are in possession of a foolproof excuse for failure.”
And how right he was.
In my own experiences, this is one of life’s undeniable truths.
Conditions at the time that you want to start will never ever be absolutely perfect.
Kennedy went on to say:
“It’s my experience that, nine out of ten times, waiting for ‘better timing’ means waiting forever. A lot of lip service is given to ‘timing’ or ‘being in the right place at the right time’ but, in actuality, this just is not a documentable, major success factor.”
I have found the same thing.
My belief is that people who say they are waiting for the RIGHT TIME are more likely to be people who never take any action and so watch every opportunity pass them by.
The “timing” issue is simply a furphy that covers for their total inability to take action.
In life, there will always be times where your decisions may not be the best.
But the aim of life is to make the decisions and to have more wins than losses.
In 1987, a friend came to me and said he was looking at buying an apartment to live in, and that he thought that I would be in a position to do the same thing. [we had both been renting].
The following month, I inspected two apartments and placed a deposit on and subsequently purchased, one of them.
Twelve months later, I sold that apartment at an eighty five percent profit after the Sydney housing market had gone through a substantial boom.
And my friend?
He never bought…. he MISSED the boom.
One of the reasons that he never bought was because he thought that he had missed the boat as the market began to rise.
In hindsight, had he purchased even six months after I had, he still would have been better off.
The Sydney housing market never fell back to those pre-boom prices.
My friend learned the lesson, that TAKING ACTION was the key.
What about you?
Are you an action taker?
Or are you one who waits for the right time, the time that never quite comes….
*****
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.
Over the last three days I’ve been conducting my early morning walks around Sydney and the inner Eastern Suburbs of Darlinghurst and Paddington.
And boy, is the world changing….
And changing for the worse.
When I lived in Sydney’s North, I found that two walkers passing on the streets in the early morning were likely to smile and greet and acknowledge each other on about ninety percent of times.
In the country, where I live now, two walkers will ALWAYS greet each other when passing.
But this week, in the city, it seems to me that nobody acknowledges a fellow walker.
Nobody.
NOBODY.
Not once.
On all three days
Why Is This So?
What have we become?
Why do people walk past each other as if the other person is not even there?
As if the other person is invisible?
Is it due to supposed “political correctness”?
Has society become fearful of any form of interaction?
Are people scared that their actions may be misinterpreted?
Are people fearful that their courteous acts of acknowledgement may be incorrectly interpreted as an invitation to something more?
Has society now become fearful of sending the wrong message to strangers?
Does society now believe that sending no message is better than sending any message, when there is a slight chance of the message of acknowledgement being incorrectly assumed as an invitation?
Here’s my advice:
Be inclusive when you are out and about.
People are not invisible.
My philosophy is that I choose to smile and wave and greet all people that I encounter.
And in rural areas, for me, that includes passing cars and drivers.
For me, I believe that every opportunity I have of greeting and acknowledging someone is an opportunity of brightening up their day.
It’s amazing how easy it is to make someone’s day right then and there with a smile.
Sending out a smile can be so uplifting for the recipient of that smile.
What’s the point of a blank face?
To me purposefully sending out a blank face is an insult.
It’s offensive.
It’s true proof that you are bothering not to notice.
Where are we headed if this behaviour becomes the norm?
What does this behaviour say about our society as we know it?
What are the implications of this behaviour in dentistry?
If you come to work for me, don’t bring a blank face.
At my Dental Practice, we always practiced and lived by the edict of the Four Foot Rule.
What Is The Four Foot Rule?
Putting it simply, the Four Foot Rule is that whenever you come within four feet of another human being you MUST acknowledge their presence with a smile, or a wave or a greeting.
Every time.
And this is a Non-negotiable.
This is a non-negotiable condition of employment.
In the dental practice, the term “human being” includes co-workers, patients, employers, family and friends of patients, and all other people.
Regular respectful acknowledgement and interaction in the workplace has many benefits.
It shows respect for fellow workers and customers.
It shows others who observe these interactions that your organisation embodies and embraces a culture of respect.
It reduces and eliminates timidity and shyness.
It builds self-esteem and self-worth.
The Four Foot Rule is an easy rule to implement in your workplace.
But it is an easy rule to NOT DO as well.
My advice is to practice the Four Foot Rule until it becomes an inherent behaviour.
You’ll be amazed at the changes that will flow into your business as a result of its implementation.
*****
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.
One of the best things I was told by Dr John Martin when I bought his [my first] dental practice way back in 1987 was this:
“However you want your practice to be, begin that way from Day One.”
These were very wise words.
He said to me:
“Whatever days you want to work, start working those days from Day One.”
And that principle, the principle of ME being in control, carried through to a lot of things that I did in my dental practice.
So many times I talk to dentists who have painted themselves into a corner, or an imaginary corner, because they have failed to stand up for their principles when their principle beliefs and values have been challenged.
And they have always regretted those poor decisions that they made from that day onwards.
Remember, as the owner of your business, your name is the one on the door, it’s the name on the lease of the rooms and the equipment finance, and it’s the name on the bank account that pays the wages and salaries of the employees of the practice.
And that title does have rights.
And one of those rights is the right to choose.
It’s the right to make decisions.
Here are five simple decisions you need to make right now that will alleviate stresses and pressures in your business immediately.
1. Stop allowing patients to make “throw away joking style” comments about you, dentistry, and what you do.
In any other arena, these comments would be seen as acts of bullying.
Which is what they are.
In this day and age, patients need to appreciate you.
Not slag off at you for being a dentist.
Dentistry is what you do.
It is not what you are.
2. Stop giving patients discounts.
Why do you openly surrender valuable profits in your business by giving away financial concessions to your patients?
Often I see dentists give “discounts” [what a VULGAR word] to their patients without the patient even requesting a price adjustment.
Why?
Why?
If you feel your prices are inflated then stop discounting and slash your prices across the board.
And if you feel that you need to reduce your price because you have done a multiple of the same type of procedure at one appointment, just ask yourself this:
Does Michael Bublé give you a discount for buying more than one concert ticket?
Does American Airlines give you a discount for buying more than one seat on a plane at one time?
Do Hilton Hotels give you a price per night reduction if you stay longer?
And does your grocery store charge you the same price for the seventh tin of dog food as they do for the first?
The simple answer is “NO”.
And this is why, when you do six fillings, you need to be reimbursed full freight for each of them.
3. Stop allowing your dental lab to deliver your lab jobs after the patient is seated and in the chair.
Make sure that you schedule your patients outside of your lab’s schedule.
If your lab tells you the crown will be back in fourteen days, then put the date [fourteen days out] on the job sheet and schedule the patient for twenty one days out.
And do this every time.
Always ask the patient this:
“Betty, now that crown will be back here in three weeks, so I’m going to organise your next appointment then, but if it comes back sooner, would you like to come in earlier than the three weeks to have that seated?”
4. Stop seeing patients who do not value and respect your time.
If you have patients who regularly cancel, and reschedule their appointments with you, and continually disrupt your appointment book, you need to read them the RIOT ACT.
You need to tell those patients that they cannot be patients of your dental practice any longer, unless they show respect for their appointments, their health, and your time.
5. Stop seeing patients who can’t behave like patients.
Do you have patients who cannot lie all the way back for dental treatment?
Yet sleep in a bed at night?
And others who need to sit up and rinse repeatedly ad nauseum?
What about patients who continually shut their mouths while you’re changing burs?
And other patients who want to crane their necks out of the chair and peer at your bracket table?
All these annoying behaviors by patients slow down your processes, and extend your appointment times, raising pressures for you, and for your future appointments with others.
Set your appointment guidelines and let these patients know that this sort of squirming around and disruptive behaviors will not be tolerated.
And when you eliminate these annoying behaviors….
When you eliminate these annoying behaviors you will find that practicing dentistry, on your terms, becomes far more enjoyable and far more profitable.
Remember, you should be the one in control….
*****
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.
The arrival of the dental patient at the practice is one of the two forgotten ULTIMATE BUILDING BLOCKS of the patient visit that can make or break the dental office to patient relationship.
Most consultants and advisers out there spend an inordinate amount of time discussing lead generation and marketing, as well as case presentation, but they neglect the very important steps that go on between the marketing and the case presentation.
And believe you me, if your practice is falling down on any of the intermediary steps between what’s getting people to call your office and when they learn about what they actually need to be getting done, it really doesn’t matter how great your case presentation skills are, nor how schmick your marketing is.
The three intermediary components that will make or break your dental practice and which MUST BE mastered are:
How well your phone is answered
How well presented your office is and how the arriving patient is managed
The performances of the ancillary staff who triage the patient from the lounge to the treatment rooms
Today we’re going to look at the experiences of the arriving patient….
The Ultimate Arrival.
The arrival of the dental patient can be broken down into three smaller stages:
The physicality of the arrival and what the patient sees, hears, experiences, and smells.
The greeting of the arriving patient
The management of the patient following their arrival
For each of these stages we need to create a list and define what we at the practice consider to be our standards, both operational and experiential, as well as our opportunities to go Above and Beyond.
Our practice also needs to clearly recognise what can go wrong during each stage as well as what is needed to rectify any disappointments and errors that the patient may experience.
We should also be looking to document any opportunities we may have to Offer the OfferTM to any patients.
How Does Your Office Present?
What does your dental facility look like when patients arrive for their appointment?
Does your building present professionally when viewed from the street?
How does your facility appear as patients get closer to your front door?
Is your entrance clean? Is your doorway clean and swept clear of leaf litter and dust and dirt?
Are your glass and chrome areas kept clean?
How does your office smell? Is it pleasant?
Are your carpeted areas clean and are your surfaces free of dust?
How about your reading material? Is it neat, tidy and current?
And are your bathrooms clean and well stocked?
Do you have fresh flowers at reception?
How about a welcome board welcoming new patients to the practice?
And what about something that REALLY differentiates you from every other dentist in town.
Incents
Mood lighting and music
Lounge room chairs
Coffee table books and magazines
Privacy
How each patient is made to feel when they first come in to your practice sets the tone for how they’re going to act with you, and your team during their appointment. Including… how receptive they’re going to be, to accepting new (and sometimes expensive) treatments.
Our goal should be to make our patients feel like welcome guests at our homes, rather than be treated like they are nameless, faceless “strangers”….
When we achieve this, we will go a long way towards truly differentiating our dental practice as being DIFFERENT from not only other dentists around us, but also being different from most other businesses around, in the way that we treat and respect our customers.
*****
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.
