Coach Barrow

So your patient writes:

Dear dentist

 Thank you for your letter 14 November 2008, in response to my letter 

 Tuesday 04 November 2008.

 I understand and acknowledge the comments you make.

 We greatly appreciate the quality of dental care we received, and thank 

 you personally on how you treat us as a family.

 As I am sure you can appreciate, as private patients our expectations are 

 higher than if NHS - however you and your team continue to deliver good 

 service and meet these expectations - thank you.

 For clarity, the question I was asking relates to how annual rises are 

 calculated/decided, etc. as they are clearly ‘excessive’ increases above 

 annual inflation rates.

 This has resulted in the the net rate of £17.31 per person from January 

 2009, compared to a starting point of £12.73 net per person in September 

 2005 (just over three years ago).

 Again thank you for your response - but I do not feel this addresses the 

 question I was trying to ask.

 To try and avoid ambiguity, there is absolutely no issue regarding the 

 quality of the service you provide - thank you - but a genuine surprise (? 

 concern) at the annual increases in the amount we pay - which each year 

 has been well above the rate of inflation.

 The question being asked is how annual rises are calculated/decide?

 I look forward to hearing from you.

 Yours sincerely

and you reply:

Dear Patient

Many thanks for getting back to me. I’ll do my best to answer your question.

When arriving at the calculation for current pricing, we are obliged to take the following influences into consideration:

1. The non-clinical operating costs and upkeep of the buildings;

2. The clinical operating costs and upkeep of the surgeries;

3. The recruitment, compensation and training of support staff in a competitive marketplace;

4. The recruitment, specialised training and compensation of self-employed clinical staff in an even more competitive marketplace;

5. The ability to take advantage of the latest advances in clinical technology, equipment and procedures:

6. The choice and quality of suppliers for clinical procedures and the quality and longevity of materials used;

7. The maintenance of robust systems for financial control, marketing and customer service;

8. The overall pricing strategy of the dental market;

9. The national and global economy;

10. The economic situation of the community in which we operate and the patients we serve and, by no means least;

11. The need to generate profits to remunerate the owners and to reinvest for the future.

It is self-evident that our prices have risen “faster than inflation” over the period to which you refer – due to the necessity to restore differentials that existed when we left the NHS. We had some “catch up” to do if the business was going to meet its customer service and clinical promises.

We believe that we now offer a dental practice that sits at the forefront of “best practice” in all of the areas mentioned in my list and we are very proud of that.

Yours

I’m using this medium to explain that if you sent an email to chris@thecoachinggym.com in the last 24 hours, it will not have reached me.

Can you please re-send or send to chris@coachbarrow.com

The reason behind this relates to the archaic systems and lack of effective customer service at Paypal, the on-line payment provider.

In this world of super-fast global web communications, you would have thought that authorising your IT consultant (the genius Kimberly Black) to make payments for you would have been a good delegation for a busy traveller like myself.

Not so with Paypal - I asked Kim to renew my web hosting service direct, gave her my Paypal access details - and as soon as they saw her trying to make a payment with my account they closed the whole bloody lot down.

Now, with hindsight, that was probably a good thing in the era of phishing - fair dinkum - but what I cannot seem to get anyone at Paypal to understand is what happened and why - or fix it.

At their request, I have:

1. written to authorise Kim to make payments;
2. sent them faxed copies of my passport and a utility bill;
3. re-entered my Maestro card details;
4. followed their instructions to re-activate my card;
5. answered 4 customer service queries in the last 10 days;
6. noted the deposits they have made in my bank account to test the system;
7. and all sorts of other minor stuff that has been the subject of emails in the last couple of weeks

Here’s a little letter that I ran off before breakfast this morning in answer to a cry for help:

Dear Mr___________

 

A chance to complete your dental treatment

 

We see from our records that you have items of dental treatment that have not yet been completed.

 

We understand that sometimes due to unforeseen circumstances there can be a delay before some of our patients are able to return to have their dental treatment completed, and that the reasons for such a delay can include:

 

1.    Concerns (particularly in these times of “credit crunch”) about the costs and how to pay them;

2.    Fears that the treatment itself may be uncomfortable or painful;

3.    Apprehension that we may be angry with you because you haven’t been back to us;

4.    Confusion as to what was originally agreed – you are not the dentist and the explanation that you were originally given may be a hazy memory.

 

The purpose of this letter is to invite you back to see us and discuss any concerns you may have.

 

1.    We can arrange interest-free payments to spread the cost of treatment;

2.    We can explain how our procedures will minimise or eliminate any discomfort;

3.    We are not annoyed!

4.    We are happy to answer questions and explain procedures again.

 

The original estimate of fees that were provided to you can only be held for a period of three months from the date of your consultation after which it will subject to reevaluation.

 

If you call before ______ to continue treatment then we can hold the original price.

 

We would love to complete your treatment and give you the smile that you deserve.

 

Please contact our reception team who will be happy to arrange an appointment

 

Yours Sincerely

 

 

 

XYZ Dental

 

I’m in Enniskillin, Northern Ireland and I’ve found world-class customer service, a location to die for and a 6-star hotel at reasonable prices.

Check out Lough Erne Golf Resort here.

Beautiful. Get here as soon as you can (and before the Nick Faldo golf course opens and the prices rocket).

Since I arrived at 7.00pm last night, the attention to detail has been fantastic.

I’m facilitating a team training day for James Hamill, Dentistry UK Young Dentist of the year 2007 and the crew at Blueapple Dental - its going to be easy - we’ll just walk around and watch what happens.

Remember last week and the illegal alien camp in Southend?

That was £108 B&B - this is £110 B&B - unbelievable.

I am indebted to James Hamill of Blueapple Dental in Northern Ireland who
introduced me to the material of Design Innovation in Eire and their blog on
design, branding and marketing.

The most important knowledge I have gained from them is that what they call
a “customer touch point” is the moment of truth when you deliver an
experience of:

“disappointment or delight that produces a disproportionate effect”

That is sheer poetry and takes the concept of Critical Non-Essentials (thank
you Paddi and team) to a new level.

Having read their blog post and PDF download on the subject, I have been
heard, wandering around for the last 2 weeks, muttering “disproportionate
disappointment” and “disproportionate delight” as customer service has or
has not manifested itself.

I’ve noticed that we all have a greater ability to create a list of

disappointments than delights - probably because there is an 80/20 ratio on
the former to the latter?

It’s only Wednesday morning - and here are my disappointments so far this
week:

1. The rudeness of petrol station staff in Cornwall and Devon on Monday
morning;
2. The shower head in my hotel room that fell off when I turned on the
tap - and hasn’t been repaired 48 hours later;
3. The waitress in the hotel restaurant who told me that she couldn’t
supply me with a diet coke because she was not allowed to go to the bar when
serving diners;
4. The Starbucks employee who told me that I couldn’t have a spoon to eat
the yoghurt I had just purchased - because they had none;
5. Vista refusing to download anything at the moment - and my desire to
crush Microsoft until it expires;
6. Two internet payments that were made into my personal HSBC account
last week - which have not appeared yet, even though the funds have left the
payers account;
7. Discovering that a member of my family has been making comments about
me that are simply untrue and undeserved;
8. Hearing that many of our clients at the Aztec Hotel in Bristol this
week have had lousy service.

And the moments of disproportionate delight?

1. The other Starbucks employee who stopped what he was doing and washed
a spoon for me;
2. The demanding client who took the time to thank me for his coaching
yesterday;

So there’s the 80/20 at work.

It seems essential to me that we collectively should decide to operate a
zero tolerance policy on disrespectful, abusive and disappointing
performance and behaviour.

And that we each seek to deliver those moments of disproportionate delight
in our work and play.

Sometimes, just a thank you will suffice - or a respectful request to give
tough feedback - and every now and then, the odd cheer of support or box of
chocolates can make a world of difference to someone’s day.

Put a smile on someone’s face today - I dare you.

The exercise for you and your team here is to deconstruct your patient
journey or customer service experience and agree where the good and bad
moments have been - and what you intend to change going forward.

Sods law dictates that, 24 hours before I am due to drive to Antwerp,
I dutifully have my car serviced and Ocean BMW tell me that my rear
tyres are just inside the legal limit.

Shopping around for specialist tyres presents an interesting customer
service experience.

ATS tell me I have “no chance” and to not bother calling Kwikfit
because they will not be able to help me.

A local independent tells me that they do not have the right machine
for my alloys.

Kwikfit’s phone is answered by Chris (he gives his name) and he makes
it his personal mission to sort me out.

Less than 24 hours later he is fitting my Michelins as I wait - and
offers me a price at 60% of list.

Excellent and friendly service - absolutely first class.

The smarmy lads at ATS need a lesson.

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