Don’t Compromise – Part Two

I was in a client’s office a few weeks ago and I overheard one end of a conversation where someone at the front desk was trying to explain to a patient why there was a $35 charge for a broken appointment. As you can imagine, the conversation did not end well. This relatively inexperienced staff member broke two cardinal rules: never disrespect or disappoint a patient and never use the word “policy” as the explanation or answer to a question. Dentistry could easily qualify as a business where the average lifetime value of a patient is $15,000. How insane is it to lose that patient over a $35 charge for a broken appointment?

The above situation doesn’t happen when the doctor has created an exceptional workplace culture. That means an environment where employees love their work and are empowered to do whatever it takes to please a patient and make them happy. That means an office where the doctor has built a team and not just a group of people that work together.

I recently wrote about how difficult it has become to assemble that team. The value of building that team was reinforced in a recent article in Dentaltown authored by Howard Farran.  “When we plot highest net income with all the variables that can be associated with it, we don’t find it related to where you went to school or what institute you did some training at; we find it linked to longevity of the average staff member”. Interesting.

I don’t want to sound like a broken record. You need to do whatever possible to build that team. One of my mentors – the incomparable Seth Godin – says this so eloquently. “Building an extraordinary organization takes guts. The guts to trust the team, to treat them with respect and to go to ridiculous lengths to find, keep, and nurture people who care enough to make a difference”. Amen.