Newsletter - July 2005

A Lesson in Customer Service from the Dentist

I went to the dentist recently. Unlike most people I actually look forward to visiting the dentist! Yes that’s right; I said I enjoy visiting the dentist. No I am not a masochist nor is my dentist a glamorous or attractive woman; in fact I would suggest he is just an average sort of guy.

The secret is I am constantly amazed at the service I receive when I go there. My dentist is a bloke called Steve Mc Gaughran, his office is at Chermside on the north side of Brisbane. My first experience with Steve was soon after he bought the practice from the nice old guy who retired. The old guy used to get you in, sit you down, find your problem and go to work.

Imagine my surprise when at my first visit Steve sat me down, then perched on a stool at my feet and began to talk about me, asking what I do, asking how my wife was (she is also his client) and how my two kids were going. I had never met this guy before but it felt like he knew me and was actually interested in me. After the small talk he established why I had come and then started work.

It turned out I had to have a root canal procedure done and I had to return for several visits to complete the job. Each time he sat at my feet and continued on the conversation we had left off from the last visit. He had obviously been taking notes.

After a particularly long and grueling session the work was complete and I went home. The next day the phone rang and it was Steve “How are you today?” he said. “Fine thanks, was my reply, Why?” His replied “Well we did a fair bit of work on you yesterday and I just wanted to make sure you were OK. If you have any problems, please call me. In fact I’ll give you my mobile number, so you can ring me at any time.”

As you can imagine I was a little amazed. No professional service provider has ever rung me to see how I was feeling without first having me make an appointment with them or without charging me money. He was genuinely interested in my welfare and took just two minutes to find out.

Here’s an interesting twist to the story. I was at a bar b que a few days later and happened to meet another dentist who turned out to be one of his competitors from across the hall. I mentioned how wonderful this new dentist made me feel and how he had gone above and beyond the call by ringing me after the event. His response “Oh, yeah, that’s all that new American rubbish, he’ll soon learn that it’s all a waste of time!”

I know which dentist I would rather do business with and from what I can figure out word has spread about Steve and his business as he has a thriving practice. I’ve since found out that a number of my friends also go to Steve and he gives them the same excellent service. Interestingly the way I found out is because they were raving about him at social functions commenting on the way he stands out in their experience of dentists.

What are you doing in your business to set your self apart from all the other “dentists” in the market place? What makes you memorable and gets your clients talking about you? Take a moment to think about some simple strategy that you can use to become the topic of conversation with your clients.

Ten Ways to Have More Fun at Work

1. Perform a random act of kindness, buy some one a bunch of flowers, buy a cake for morning tea and share it
2. If you travel with your job, send your co-workers a postcard from your destination.
3. Raffle a day off work, with the proceeds to go to your favourite charity. Every one enters the auction for a gold coin donation, all names are put in a hat and the first name drawn is the winner.
4. Everyone likes a different radio station, take turns at rotating the station so everyone hears their favourite music for at least one day.
5. Create a birthday Wanted Poster. Place a photo of the birthday person in the middle surrounded by the words, Wanted for getting older!.
6. Hide numerous birthday cards amongst the birthday persons work space, so they continually discover cards during the day.
7. Organise a worst sock or stocking day. Encourage everyone to wear their worst pair of socks or stocking to work for the day.
8. Give anonymous feedback. Write positive noted of thanks, leave them unsigned and deliver them secretly to co workers who are doing a good job.
9. Organise a paper plane making and flying contest. Award prizes the most stylish plane and the plane that flies the furthest.
10. Put dry ice down the toilet and wait for the reaction!

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