Unreasonable hospitality: the value of a two-minute phone call

There is a moment when an idea stops being interesting and becomes useful. Alan Bookey’s email arrived after two four-hour flights.

Alan had been reading Will Guidara’s Unreasonable Hospitality: The Field Guide, a practical guide to turning the principle into action. Its challenge suits independent dentistry: service is what we do; hospitality is how the experience makes somebody feel.

Here is Alan’s note, reproduced exactly as he sent it:

WOW I have just spent two 4 hour plane journeys reading this and am hopping up and down 1 hour from landing about how I can get Andrada -my PM -and then my team onto this. I am bowled over over with this in a way few management books have ever done to me. I read the section" UH Out in the World" at the end of the guide giving some stories of experiences that his Instagram followers have experienced. I would like to add one.

I recently started seeing a family whose name I did not recognise. Her teenage children were exceptionally well mannered . At the second visit Mum told me who she was- a lady I had not seen since she was 10. I am in the middle of treating her, her teenage children and her husband each as polite as each other. I found her father's phone number as he is the brother of friend . He now lives thousands of miles from the UK where I have been.on holiday. I called him to say how special these grandchildren are and how well brought up they are. He could not believe I had called him to just to say this. I know it will go back to his daughter and I know she will tell her friends. Each family member needs large amounts of routine treatment - I guess £15+k in total before any fancy treatment which may come in. And before any referrals come in. All for the cost of a 2 minute phone call while waiting at an airport! Thank you so.much for introducing the EB100 to this book. Alan

What I love is not the £15,000. That is a commercial consequence, not the motive. The act was a two-minute call with no script, campaign, automation or discount. Alan noticed something, cared enough to say it and made a family feel seen.

How do we transfer that into an independent dental practice? Ask every team member to bring patient intelligence to the morning huddle. Give them permission to create thoughtful gestures. Keep an “unreasonable hospitality” log and review one story at the monthly meeting. Read the Field Guide together, one section at a time, and turn each lesson into one small experiment.

Independent practices possess an advantage that larger organisations struggle to manufacture: memory, discretion and human connection. The question is not, “What can we give away?” It is, “What have we noticed, and what can we do with that knowledge?”

Alan’s call cost nothing. Its value, to the family and the practice, may be immeasurable.