Another Nordstrom Story
May 22, 2013
Last week my wife drove to the Mall to try to purchase Mother’s Day gift cards for our daughter and two daughters in law. Her destination was an upscale boutique cosmetics store where she had shopped many times before. To her disbelief, she discovered that the store had closed. Undaunted, she went next door into Macy’s where they sold these cosmetics, and asked to buy a gift card for the particular product she was seeking. “I’m sorry,” said the sales clerk, “we can’t do that–I can only sell you a Macy’s gift card.”
My wife then went to Nordstrom at the other end of the Mall. The salesperson at the cosmetic counter had a different response when asked about the gift cards. “We can only do a Nordstrom gift card–but I’m going to put five small samples of the product with each gift card so that your daughters will know exactly what you are trying to do.” That Nordstrom employee scored a nice sale by being creative and understanding the need of the customer. Of course, Nordstrom customer service is legendary – no surprise there. The Macy’s saleswoman said “No.” The person working at Nordstrom figured out a way to say “Yes”.
I believe this tale is relevant for everyone who works in your dental practice – but especially so for the staff members who answer the phone. Whomever is answering the telephone at your office just might be the most important person in your employ. She creates the first image in the patient’s memory bank. She is the face and the voice of the practice. Her job is to figure out how to never say no to a patient. Rather, she should say “The best way I can help you is…” Eight words. Memorize them.
Getting new patients in the door promptly and keeping the schedule full requires great communication skills, understanding of customer service, knowing how to make people feel special, and a recognition that you will do whatever it takes to make things work out for the patient. How can I help you get what you want? How can I make visiting our office convenient for you?
When people are happy, they tell others, and you will certainly be rewarded for your efforts. In this day and age, patients have options, and patients have choices where to have their dental treatment. In order to be sure that the dentistry gets done in YOUR office, you need to routinely go above and beyond the call of duty – in every patient interaction – and consistently exceed–not just equal – people’s expectations. Learn to always say yes!
PS – The girls loved their Mother’s day gifts!!
Asleep at the Switch
May 9, 2013
One week prior to the April 15th deadline for filing tax returns, a client of mine called me with real panic in his voice. He had been informed by his accountant that he was going to owe eighty thousand dollars more in taxes than he had withheld! This doctor’s dental practice had experienced tremendous growth in 2012–by far his best year ever by a large differential–and his salary draw had increased substantially. My question to him was “How could this happen? You and I review income and expense reports every quarter that are prepared by your accountant.” Someone was obviously asleep at the switch!
This unfortunate incident serves to illustrate the need for continuous reassessment and reevaluation of your business plan. Every October, I meet with my clients and we identify strategies for growth in the upcoming year. We make projections and set realistic goals that are based on a combination of historical performance and future potential. Once we identify the growth areas, we assign an actual dollar amount to each one.
But making this grand plan is just the first step, and it is not acceptable to think that your job is done just because you created a blueprint. During the year, we run detailed reports to see how each growth area is performing. Is the revenue projection on target? We recalibrate and tweak and re-examine. What is working, and what isn’t? And if it isn’t working, what can we do fix it? It is more than okay to make a mid course correction. It is often imperative.
And when a piece of the master plan doesn’t pan out as projected, difficult decisions might have to be made. Perhaps a staff member didn’t grow in her job performance as you had hoped and needs to be dismissed. Perhaps a marketing project that was supposed to bring in more new patients is not working and you need to cut your losses. I have observed that doctors in general have a great deal of trouble taking the emotion out of these decisions even when it is clearly in the best interests of the practice.
As everyone says, doing the dentistry is the easy part. The management is where all the headaches are. So do not think that you have failed because you needed to reassess. On the contrary, you have failed big time if you wait until the end of the year to see the results of your planning. Reassessment equates to success!