Chris Barrow’s Blog

It’s 5.00am in Cardiff and I’ve been awake since 4.15am. As usual, the air-lock door swings open when I wake and 101 thoughts come rushing through like sea water breaching a submarine compartment. The bells of the town hall ring out every 15 minutes and, after a while, I think “bugger it” and decide to get some work done.

There’s nothing wrong with the Cardiff Hilton – in fact I would go as far as to say it’s a good hotel for it’s genre – very modern, very clean – although why does every hotel in the world have a desk lamp that doesn’t work? Do they buy them especially?

Last night I used the hotel gym to “enjoy” a 5k treadmill run in exactly 30 minutes (not good but not bad) and then 15 minutes on the rowing machine. After a quick sauna and swim I avoided the hotel bars and restaurants (mid-week and full of lost souls like myself) and wandered a few streets away to seek out pasta and red wine – and to finish reading The History of Love.
There, a few hundred yards away, were Pizza Express and Zizzis – two doors away from each other (and owned by the same franchise company).

I have often said that, when I travel, I use franchise businesses because I can trust the brand (Hilton, Pizza Express, Tony & Guy for haircuts).

I own loyalty cards with most of these franchises – after all, what do points make? Prizes!

So, with my trusty Pizza Express Club Card, I wandered in, expecting the same service as I enjoy all over Britain.

But no.

A flustered young man walked in my direction and, before I could utter a “table for one please” he volunteered, “I won’t be able to sit you at a table for at least 10 minutes.”

If the place were rocking I could understand and sympathise – but looking around I saw that a good half of the tables were empty.

Pizza Express is often full to the brim with happy customers – so what gives here?

Well, I was to find out.

I sat by the door with a small group of equally confused potential diners, all of whom were getting the same story from Mr “Its more than my job’s worth to give you a table”.

As I waited I switched into observation mode.

He (the waiter) was working alone, trying to serve a host of tables – not another staff member in sight except for much further down on a lower floor.

He was working at one pace – and one pace only – calm, steady, slow and “I’m not going any faster than this.”

Behind the open plan kitchen, one chef diligently spun pizza bases – at one speed only.

Ah ha!

Short-staffed.

Maybe because of illness, maybe because of a recent departure – who cares?

Not a manager in sight and no sign of any improvement.

My potential “waiter” wasn’t waiting on table, he was making sure that we waited, so as to regulate the flow of his work.

“I’m off” I thought, as bad customer service and a late digestion problem were off my list for the evening.

I muttered something about “you can tell when a place hasn’t got it’s act together” to a confused couple stood behind me and I walked out of the door, turned right and, two doors down, walked into Zizzis.

“Can I help you?” said the cheery girl who greeted me.

“Yes – tell me you are not short-staffed and I won’t have to wait 20 minutes to get served.”

“No problem”, she said (magic words) “A table for one and we will serve you straight away.”

Within 10 minutes I was tucking in to penne, wild mushrooms, rocket and pine nuts (beautifully cooked in olive oil – plain and simple) with a glass of still water and another of valpolicella.

Great food, served quickly and a chance to finish reading my latest novel.

Settling the bill with a generous tip, I explained my previous experience to my waitress.

“Ah – well we are better then Pizza Express anyway.”

How true – and yet how sad.

Stephen Covey would say “if there is a problem with the team, the problem is you.” I wonder where the Pizza Express manager was last night?

Paddi Lund would say “blame a system, not a person.” I agree – the flustered waiter was doing his best, in the absence of the usual system.

I bet the boys at Pizza Express head office would be livid.

Anyway – its 5.30am now and I’ve had a cup of tea and the obligatory shortbread biscuit. I’ll catch upon emails and then get ready for my practice visit today.

My business manager for the last 2 years, Barbara Trotter, finishes work on Friday this week to take up a new opportunity in the South East of England.

I have written some reflections on our professional relationship in this week’s newsletter, due out in the next 48 hours.

So I’ll be visiting Barbara three times this week to work on the “hand over” of duties to my new business manager, Bonnie Mockett, who is due to start work in 2 weeks from now.

An interesting observation is that tomorrow I will visit Barbara’s office for the first time in the 2 years that she has worked for me.

I am also looking at rented offices, with a view to bringing Team CB under one physical roof for the first time since 1998 – since then the team has been virtual – as I feel that we cannot break through our current level of productivity without creating the dynamic of an “actual” team.

So – there is a lot to consider this week – as we take the financial, marketing and operational systems off Barbara’s desk and park them on my desk for a week (aargh!).

I am also looking forward to a dental practice visit in South Wales on Wednesday – a nice trip out – it’s not the most profitable use of my time but it does give me a great “feel” for what’s going on in the trenches of dental practice – the dental team I visit will become my R&D team for the day.

Monday is my business development day and, so far, I have written this week’s newsletter, written a controversial article for Dentistry magazine and organised my “to do” list for the day and the week ahead.

I will shortly be catching upon some operational emails and speaking with Paul Nelson (my sales manager) about PNC’s (potential new clients) that we have in the pipeline.

Busy, busy, busy.

Yesterday was what we call a “call-in day” – which means that we use www.appointmentquest.com as an on-line appointment manager that clients’ use to book themselves a 15-minute coaching call with me (I call them).

They are amongst my favourite professional days as the cut and thrust of so many conversations:

• keeps me very sharp;
• lets me put an ear to the ground and listen to what’s going on and
• exhausts me by the end of the day!

I randomly decided to keep a note of the questions asked on the 13 calls booked yesterday – here is what I dealt with:

1. How do I set bonus targets that my team can relate to?
2. How do I enrol my team in the process of writing a practice mission statement?
3. What questions should I ask Isoplan before we instruct them to start working for us?
4. How do I measure associate profitability?
5. How do I measure hygienist profitability?
6. What external marketing ideas would you recommend for National Smile Month?
7. How should I approach an associate who doesn’t seem to care or want to be a part of our team?
8. Should I bring my associates on your leadership retreat?
9. What should I do – I have bought a Denplan practice and I am living in a world of inherited supervised neglect and litigation!
10. I have allocated the time for your business planning retreat – what preparation do I need to do?
11. I am depressed and have no motivation – help.
12. I have just joined The Dental Business School – what next?
13. I am struggling to complete the sale of my practice because the purchasers are dragging their feet – can you suggest tactics to move the sale forwards.

Phew!

So that was a day in the coaching life of Chris Barrow.

Most of these questions were answerable in the 15 minutes – some will require follow through – especially “9″ as this client is in deep trouble and I intend to visit his practice with a potential new accountant and a lawyer – he is in great danger.

After all of that, at 6.00pm about 10 of us joined a conference call to discuss further issues, notably:

1. Associate remuneration under nGDS and
2. Provision of services for children under nGDS.

A really enjoyable day of coaching.

Went shopping in Central Manchester yesterday lunchtime – ostensibly just for a pootle around (and a ride on the Manchester Eye) but also to replenish my travelling stock of Aveda shampoo and conditioner.

I know I sound like a real tart – but I like their Rosemary Mint shampoo and conditioner. After all, I’ve now reached the point where there may be less hair on my head than anywhere else on my body (too much information) and I have to look after what’s left.

So after I had been whisked up into the air for a lunatic’s eye view of my home town, I emerged from the pod shaken and trembling and walked over the square to Selfridges and the Aveda counter.

The assistant was one of those jolly girls who is rather larger than a supermodel but very attractive with it – and with a personality to match.

I asked for my usual products.

The normal bottles are £8.00 each but she offered me the chance to buy the 1 litre refills (with free plunger) that would “save me money in the long term because I could use them to refill my travelling bottles” – so that was a litre of shampoo and another litre of conditioner at £24 each.

She then asked me if I wanted to join the “Aveda” club – that for a one-off payment of £10 I would enjoy lifetime membership, plus a free gift of a bag full of creams to rub on various parts of my body, plus points on future purchases, plus a gift voucher on every future birthday.

I politely refused on the basis that:

• I don’t especially have any body parts that I want to rub creams on;
• With my current hair loss, the points system may not work out too well and
• A quick actuarial calculation convinced me that the number of extra birthday cards wasn’t attractive.

So then she asked me if I would like a cup of tea.

At a cosmetics counter?

Ah – no ordinary tea. Aveda have now started to produce their own herbal tea – a combination of liquorice and fennel that she promised would help me to reduce my caffeine intake and aid my digestion.

I do drink too much coffee (which is why I spend most of my days searching for rest rooms) and my stomach rumbles when its empty and when its full – so this seemed a good idea.

After a discussion of the relative merits of leaves or tea-bags (I’m not carrying a cafetiere around on workshops) we settled on 2 packets of tea bags at £8.00 each.

“ooh!” she said.

“what?” I said.

“well”, she said, “you have now spent £64 – and if you spend over £70 I can give you a free aromatic candle, normally priced at £24!

“ooh!” I said.

Not knowing what to spend the extra £6 on to qualify for this valuable gift – she spotted my 2 daughters loitering nearby.

“Why don’t you buy some lip gloss for the girls – its (and off she went into some description of how it was organic, caffeine free and no seals were culled or something).”

A few moments later, the girls were having free lip gloss applied, they looked like child hookers and I was another £16 lighter.

But I did have a free candle.

“So that will be £80 please.”

She handed me my bags, with a catalogue of all Aveda products, on which she wrote her phone number in case I had any questions (was that a come on?).

I have a feeling that if I had stayed any longer I would have ended up buying a time-share property on Aveda Island or something.

My last comment was to congratulate her on an excellent customer service experience.

Seldom have I been relieved of so much cash with such flair – it was quite brilliant.

Looking back as I sip my herbal tea, I reflect upon an enthusiastic individual following a carefully constructed system – and wonder how many of us would employ that lady?

How do I create and keep a great and well-motivated team around me in this practice?

That was the number one question asked by UK dentists in a survey of 4000 readers that we conducted last October. I genuinely thought that nGDS would be the main issue – but the order of questions was

a. keeping the team motivated and well managed;
b. keeping associates profitable and
c. what to do about nGDS

Looking back over 8 years of telephone calls and email correspondence I can vouch for the truth of these statistics. Leadership is the principle issue in dental practice ownership and nobody ever taught dentists how to do leadership until now.

I’ve been threatening to run this Intensive for years and we have finally gotten around to it – we being Simon Hocken and myself – yes – two coaches for the price of one!

• Chris Barrow – The UK’s best dental business coach and recently voted by Dentistry magazine as one of the 50 people in dentistry sad enough to get all his mates to vote for him in a daft popularity poll and
• Simon Hocken –dental practice owner for 20 years, fully Barrowed up, successfully sold his practice for a sum of money worth having and now a qualified, licensed and dedicated personal and business coach who knows exactly what it is like to show up as the owner.