Chris Barrow’s Blog

A room with a view, originally uploaded by coachbarrow999.

Watching the game in my room at the Copthorne in Birmingham. Its the
only way I can get some food. I have driven 200 miles through
atrocious weather but it’s worth it.

A great day with the Breathe management team. We are at 61% of our
sales target for the year after 33% of the year and interest is booming.

Two days of practice visits to follow and then 2 days at the BDA
conference.

We are beginning to hear stories about FTA rates increasing due to
recession. You have to think smart about your marketing.

We are launching a brand new product at the BDA conference.

Breathe Breakthrough – a business school for associates who want to
buy/open their first practice or principals who want the basics on
business skills.

Just 20 places in year one. We are excited about the launch and
offering a special show discount. Come and see us on the stand.

Not quite as exciting as this game though!

We won!

I’ve just agreed with Dentistry magazine to start a “Dear Coach” column in their on-line publication.

The first “test” article is here (actually a previous post in this blog) – but I’m hoping to redevelop the Dear Coach theme that worked so well as few years ago.

Keep your eye on this.

Oh – and now I’m a marketing guru?

Working at the granary, originally uploaded by coachbarrow999.

Simon and Bonnie cranking up our new email server before we begin our
monthly management meeting.

Lots to do today – we haven’t had a chance to meet for the last 6
weeks and the “to do” list for Breathe is enormous.

All that and I must get to Birmingham tonight to watch the football.

A client in Scotland tells me today that his appointment cancellation rate has increased in the last 10 days because his patients are concerned that they will not have enough petrol to make the journey to his surgery.

This latest problem will pass, like all others, but we had to discuss ways to reduce the problem in the short term.

The answer harks back to last Friday’s post about loyalty.

There has to be a loyalty award to those patients who make the journey, even though petrol may be scarce.

Question is – what is the loyalty reward?

Any ideas?

10 years younger, originally uploaded by coachbarrow999.

Here is a photo of me in March 1998 on my way up to Everest Base Camp.

Apart from the Graham Norton hairstyle (not intended, I think I had been wearing a bobble hat for 2 weeks) it was a timely reminder of why I signed up for orthodontics the following year.

Which reminded me of how important it is to provide patients with “before and after” shots.

As to my trekking companion – I can’t remember what he was on about…

Is it me?

I just listed the loyalty cards I have with me a I travel:

Hilton Diamond VIP Card (my favourite – when I walk into a Hilton Hotel, the Red Arrows fly overhead)

Radisson Gold Points plus

Marriott Rewards

Waterstone’s Bookstore

The Falmouth Bookseller

British Airways Executive Club

BMW Recovery

Tesco Club Card

Nectar Card (Sainsbury/BP/Debenhams)

Tracker Stolen Vehicle Recovery

Pizza Express! (they send me vouchers after every 10th meal and on my birthday!)

That’s every day I walk out of the door – I carry them with me along with bank and credit cards.

Why do they work?

Because, as we all know, “points make prizes” – and I have enough Hilton points to take about 2 weeks free accommodation anywhere on the planet – quite apart from the pleasure of automatic upgrades and queue-jumping.

All of these organisations recognise two basic facts:

1. That I have choice as to where I spend my money and

2. That they have to REWARD ME FOR MY LOYALTY

So my question is – why don’t my dental practice do that?

And why don’t my dental practice give me prizes for my loyalty?

There are so many ways they could reward me:

Premium appointment times

Special discounts

Nice little gifts

Upgrades on materials

Surprises

Priority

I’m not pointing a finger at just MY dental practice – I’m looking at yours as well – do you have a loyalty card and a rewards scheme?

REWARD YOUR PATIENTS FOR THEIR LOYALTY

They have choice – and they chose you.

Make it worth their while.

You know the imagery here – a fire at an oil well, flames leaping into the air and a gigantic cloud shrouding the surrounding land.

Rather similar to what happens when gossip breaks out in a business.

An example of which was presented to me the other day as a coaching assignment.

“A new nurse has been appointed at a slightly higher salary than her established colleagues.

We had to do that because market forces, supply/demand, means that to attract the right person we had to pay a little over the odds.

Our intention was to “restore differentials” later in the year – but just now we are reinvesting £250,000 into the practice and there is no spare cash to give everyone a pay rise.

The new girl didn’t know any better – she blabbed her salary in the staff room.

We don’t talk salaries here – never have done in 25 years.

It has caused a commotion – none of the girls are talking to me and you can cut the atmosphere with a knife.”

Ever heard that story?

The principal sat in a city hotel with me the other day, head in hands.

“What do I do?”

The answer is to consider how to put out a burning well-head – although I’m going to slightly modify my metaphor.

Option 1 – starve the fire of oxygen

1. Call a meeting;
2. explain that discussion of salaries is not allowed;
3. issue a contract amendment that confirms the fact;
4. tell them all to go back to work
5. and that you refuse to take part in the conversation – now or ever
6. and that if people don’t like that then they need to be looking for another job.

Option 2 – create a controlled explosion, the force of which is large enough to extinguish the original fire

1. call a meeting;
2. ask them to explain their greivances in a team environment;
3. leave them alone for an hour and request that when you return they have designed a solution which incorporates the continued well-being and expansion of the business;
4. walk out of the room and shut the door;
5. return in one hour to listen to their business planning ideas;
6. having listened carefully – default to Option 1.

My client decided that option 1 was his favoured choice.

The points being:

1. don’t wrestle with the pig;
2. don’t give oxygen to a situation you cannot tolerate;
3. never justify the decisions you make to a aggrieved party
4. nobody is indespensable – nobody.

Harsh?

Yes.

Effective?

Yes.

The fire is out.

A client emailed me asking for suggested wording to a patient whose rude and disrespectful behaviour could no longer be tolerated.

After initially responding that my client should submit a first draft, I remembered that the letter had already been written by a different client a couple of years ago.

It goes like this:

Dear Mr Meldrew

The purpose of this letter is to inform you that we have today written to the Area Health Authority to request that we deregister you as a patient at this practice.

In order to fulfil our contract with the Health Authority we are obliged to:

a. Complete any outstanding treatment and/or
b. Treat you for emergency care only for the next three months.

After this time, you will need to either find another dental practice that are prepared to accept your request for membership either as an NHS or private patient, or contact the Health Authority for a list of practices accepting new NHS patients.

A customer buys off you once.

A client invests in your products or services for a lifetime.

Is your marketing and customer service attracting customers or clients?

I walked into the reception at The Marriott Forest of Arden yesterday for the first time in 5 months.

The head receptionist looked up at me and said “welcome back Mr Barrow”.

It was awesome.

If they have a magic trick I don’t want to know – I just want to enjoy the magic.

They have created a client for life.

It was a brave member of the reception team who offered the “confession” at yesterday’s practice visit that she answers the question “are you accepting any new NHS patients?” that way.

Brave because her admission was in front of the whole practice team, including the principal – and me!

Her authenticity can only be attributed to the fact that she trusts her principal and feels safe around me – that because I have been working with the team for three years.

So you might ask what the hell I have been doing as a business coach to let that happen?

The answer is working with the owners on a million-pound conversion of their other practice from NHS to private – so that we could start the whole process again here, at practice number two, on 1st January 2008. What we will be another massive re-branding, refurbishment and re-niching.

My receptionist was one of 4 or 5 people who answer the phone regularly and they tell me that the current marketing funnel looks like:

10 “walk-in” enquiries per month (the practice is hidden off a city-centre main street and up a narrow flight of stairs in a less than salubrious area).

40 telephone enquiries per month asking for membership or treatment from people who are either looking for private treatment or don’t mind paying.

60 telephone enquiries per month asking for NHS treatment.

This is currently translating into:

40 new patient consultations booked and attended per month.

Leading to 30 new patient registrations per month.

Which wouldn’t be too bad, except for the fact that the three (equivalent) full-time dentists in the practice require at least 20 new patient consults per month to reach what Breathe Business believe are acceptable production figures.

So they require a 50% increase in new patient consults.

We are in the process of creating a new marketing funnel – probably upwards of £20,000 of investment into a new brand image, literature, web site et al – PLUS a physical refurbishment that could require a capital investment of over £150,000.

That will take 18 months.

But, in the meantime, could we do anything to improve new patient numbers?

Well – we might start with what’s being said on the phone.

Which brings me to a point.

The team in this practice are all enthusiasts. I would employ any of them myself – and they have diligently attended our workshops and my personal visits and soaked up the material like sponges.

There is no lack of willingness to perform.

But what they are doing is (a favourite quote of mine) “THEIR BEST IN THE ABSENCE OF A SYSTEM”.

There has simply never been any in-practice training, consultancy or coaching on how to answer the phone and and, more especially, how to respond to questions like:

“Are you currently accepting new NHS patients?”

“How much do you charge for a crown?”

“Why are you more expensive then the practice down the road?”

“Why should I join your membership scheme when I can just pay per visit?”

“If I sign up for a new patient consultation at £80, what will I get for my money?”

And so on.

So we invested a couple of hours yesterday in creating answers to these questions that increased the probability of converting the enquiry into a consult – and the telephony team will be practicing them over the weeks ahead.

If necessary, I have offered to jump onto a conference call with them in a few weeks time and check progress.

We have decided to ban the following terms from telephony:

1. Unfortunately
2. Sorry but….
3. But
4. Sadly
5. We only….
6. No!

Here is my challenge to any business owner reading this.

To take some time out and listen (perhaps unseen) to your telephony team – and find out for yourself how often these phrases are being used.

Or if you feel that is too intrusive – just call a team session and ask them outright.

Oh – a final point – why are the team in this practice using language like “unfortunately” when they are so enthusiastic?

1. They cannot afford private dentistry themselves – so they assume nobody else can
2. They have never experienced concierge class customer service themselves – so cannot comprehend what it is like
3. They have no script

One decision we have made with this client is that, in future, once a month, the principal is going to take all the team for lunch or after-work coffee to a list of local retail outlets in the city where we know that they have it nailed.

Restaurants, hotels, coffee bars, clothes shops – even a local BMW dealership.

We are going to arrange an hours meeting with the customer service manager in each of these outlets, so that they can hear “how they do it” in each place.

Good idea.

1. Listen to your team
2. Get your language right
3. Show examples
4. Increase opportunity