Letters from a Perfect Imperfectionist

In the ratings war for the attention of your potential new patients/clients, your marketing collateral is human interest.

It matters not how amazing your premises look, how well qualified your team are or how innovative your technical solutions (I don’t mean that you don’t need those things – I mean that they aren’t as important as you think in getting people IN the door, they become important after they have arrived).

What matters is the difference you have made to other peoples’ lives, how they have become happier as a result of working with you.

Marketing collateral can now be defined as:

• the selfie
• the friend request, like, comment or, most importantly, share
• the testimonial (written, audio or, most importantly, video)
• the patient who attends an open evening to tell their story

The advocacy and ambassadorship of your existing patients/clients is the most valuable asset in your business.

If your marketing consists of product advertising, price offers and promotional information about your own achievements – at best you will attract time-wasting strangers, at worst you are an unnoticed voice in the noise.

Here’s what we all have to get used to:

• this blog is an attempt to capture my pearls of business wisdom – I average 250 readers a day
• my email newsletters (back in October by the way) achieve a 25% open- rate on a good day
• when I post a 35-second video of my dog eating an ice-cream, it is viewed 2,000 times

Getting peoples’ attention in a world in which our TV/radio/desktop/laptop/tablet/telephone and (now) watch are interrupting us is the challenge that we all face, whether it’s Simon Cowell on a Saturday evening or you and I today.

How we do that determines our success at marketing.

Here’s something to think about:

Digital/Analogue Advertising – high cost, low return, low labour.

(all of my clients are telling me that the quality of “paid for” leads is poor).

Digital/Analogue Social Media Connection, Storytelling and Testimonial – low cost, high return, high labour (it takes an effort by your team to ask for, collect and collate information).

Do you want to throw money at poor quality leads – or enrol your team in the challenge of gathering human interest stories and, with consent, publishing them across multiple broadcast channels?

That decision is the single most important one you will make in your marketing plan.

I’m spending a lot of my time with clients showing their teams how to deploy low-cost marketing – it takes time but costs very little – the return on that investment is astronomic, once you get it right.

Stop paying to get attention.

Earn attention.

Day #3 of thoughts about Word of Mouth marketing in 2016.

I’m often asked:

“How do I get my team to ask for referrals?”

Many is the time that I’ve observed the associates whose business cards are gathering dust in a surgery draw, the hygienist who rarely refers work back to the clinical team (even though the patient has mentioned an upcoming trigger event) or the patient who reaches the end of treatment and is waved goodbye with no “end of treatment conversation” (see yesterday’s post).

“Should I incentivise the team to ask, to internally refer and to open sales conversations?”

No!

That type of carrot has never worked in the long term.

People soon return to their old habits – which include not asking.

Here’s the reality:

THE PEOPLE WHO ASK FOR BUSINESS ARE THE PEOPLE WHOSE NATURE IT IS TO ASK FOR BUSINESS

You know who I mean:

• the chatty receptionist who lights up the room
• the therapist who is the life and soul of the party
• the trainee nurse who has no problem communicating with patients of all ages
• the naturally gifted empathetic listener
• the people person

They exist at all points in the patient experience and can be clinical or non-clinical, customer focused or admin and back up.

Human nature is to be tribal, to be gregarious (latin root – herd) and to be genuinely interested in the other person’s back-story (even taxi drivers).

People who are not so inclined are:

• in the majority in dentistry
• odd

(yeah – most people in dentistry are odd)

There is absolutely NO POINT in sending odd people on training courses to give them scripts with which to become gregarious, or for that matter, financially incentivising them to stop being odd.

Better to identify the “people people” in your team (irrespective of their current role) and give them the responsibility for:

• getting to know new patients
• handing out referral business cards
• asking for selfies, likes, comments and shares
• requesting written or video testimonials
• encouraging digital reviews
• becoming brand ambassadors

Here’s a plan for you:

1. Let the odd people stay safely odd.
2. Identify those whose nature it is to be gregarious (go on – write their names down – now!)
3. Train them (ask me if you need help).
4. Monitor, measure and mentor them.
5. Celebrate your victories with them.

Carrying on with yesterday’s theme (and my current obsession) that Word of Mouth marketing (both analogue and digital) is far more effective than throwing money at the problem, here’s a conversation that was developed with my clients for either a Dentist or TCO at the end of some courses of treatment:

So Mr. Patient, now that we have arrived at the end of your course of treatment, I’d like to ask a couple of questions:

1. Are you happy with the clinical outcome?
2. Are you happy with the customer service that the team have delivered?

If so, I’d like to ask some favours.

1. we are growing the practice at the moment, we would like to see new patients and would love to see more people like you, because we like you! Would it be OK to give you three of my referral business cards to pass on to any family, friend or colleague who may be interested in visiting our practice?

2. is it possible that we could ask you for a short review on Google or Facebook?

3. we also love to collect testimonials from happy patients, they are great for our marketing and can also give confidence to others who may be nervous. We find that 90% of those who do consent to a testimony prefer a written commentary, as they are uncomfortable if there is a video camera recording, whereas 10% are happy to be filmed and photographed. May I ask – are you a 90%’er or a 10%’er?

4. If a 90%’er I’d love to organise a written testimonial from you

5. If a 10%’er, we would like to invite you to one of our quarterly video testimonial evenings here at the practice. Every 3 months we set aside some time early evening and invite 4-6 of our 10%’ers to come along for some light refreshments, to have their photograph taken professionally (at our expense) and to be filmed for 4 minutes or so. The questions we ask on video are

   1. How did you find us originally?

   2. what was it that had you looking?

   3. How was your customer service experience

   4. What difference did the treatment make?

6. It would be lovely to invite you to our next event – the dates are……

Manchester Airport Terminal 3, Friday morning at 06:30.

My flight to Belfast this morning is delayed by 30 minutes (so far) and I have an unexpected moment to observe the crowds around me.

Mainly holidaymakers, with a selection of intoxicated stag and hen parties and very few business travellers identifiable.

As always, I’m fascinated by people and by the standards of customer service.

An airport is a monopoly.

I can choose between Costa Coffee, WH Smith, the traditional English bar and grill and an “Italian” deli.

In reality, every place is rammed at this time of day and the prices reflect the fact that we are locked in here.

(I’m sat in Costa with a bottle of water – not enough time to make a trip to The Escape Lounge worth the £15.00 investment)

I use the airport a lot and have familiarised myself with the facilities and the people who serve here.

Terminal 3 is a microcosm of life:

• an 80/20 rule in terms of the people who work here – 80% of whom clearly see this as a tedious way to make a living and have no intention of engaging with their customers or enjoying the job. 20% for whom nothing is too much trouble and a smile is a passport to a good day that passes quickly;
• an 80/20 rule in terms of the passengers – 80% of whom treat the facilities and the staff with the opposite of love – indifference. 20% who have the manners to say “please” and “thank you” and smile back.

In a monopoly, the 80% are essential, you need to maximise profit by employing low-grade people to deliver minimum levels of service to an indifferent audience.

In a monopoly, the 20% are often considered troublemakers.

In a free market, the 20% are essential – you need to maximise customer satisfaction by providing the very best products and services and a memorable user experience delivered by epic people.

Shareholder and investor pressure prefers a monopoly. We see that every day in dentistry.

It’s a fact of business life and there is little point in complaining.

Better to use this to your advantage.

Better to invest your own time in creating a brilliant business that 20% of patients will choose to visit and 20% of team players will want to join.

The real secret is to flip that 20% into becoming 80% of your customers.

That’s never going to happen here at T3.

1st September 2016.

59 days to the Dublin Marathon.

Time to de-tox and prepare.

As of today:

• no more alcohol (except for my quiet birthday party)
• back on to Paleo nutrition (CLICK HERE to learn more)
• building up the miles in my legs – early morning runs in the cold and dark
• making sure that I get quality sleep
• avoiding stress wherever possible

The fact is, were it not for the marathon, my slide into self-indulgence during the summer would continue unabated.

That’s why we repeatedly enter these challenges, not because we want the medal on the day but because we want the successful habit of the training.

Perhaps the same has to apply in business?

Unless we are chasing a big goal, we don’t have to keep ourselves in tip-top shape.

The days can morph into a continuum, another day at the office.

Now is a good time to think about goals between today and the end of the year – and also start thinking about your list for 2017 – the sooner the better, so that you can make the decision now to get into training.

Goodbye summer, you were great fun.

Hello Autumn and Winter – we have much to do so let’s get started.

It can often be a tough decision, especially your first purchase of another practice, sometimes after years of commercial solitude.

The SWOT analysis above is a quick and easy way to evaluate the issues to be considered.

Far too often, it seems the ONLY conversation is about price. Hardly surprising as goodwill values have risen from sublime to ridiculous.

There is so much more to the conversation than just what you pay and when (even though I understand the relevance).

It really is important to consider the “Weaknesses” and “Threats” on this analysis as, in the long run, they can be far more important than haggling over a few thousands of pounds.

I’ve met dentists who have failed to conduct their due diligence properly (and professional advisors who have supervised that neglect in anticipation of early fees).

People like me get the call to sort out the mess post-acquisition and it can be tough work and ultimately more expensive in time, money and people than the victorious deal on day one.

The single biggest threat is changing the habits of the people (the team members) whom you buy.

The second biggest threat is supervised clinical neglect.

If your due diligence is poor it can take 2 painful years or more to solve these first two problems before you start to then build the satellite.

I’m starting to notice some dental entrepreneurs who are considering growth through cold satellite squats to be a slower route but with less stress.

There is something unsettling about being at the receiving end of:

• the dental patient who says “you said this treatment would work”
• the web developer client who says “you said this site would be ready by today”
• the coaching client who says “you said you would make a huge difference to my business”
• the digital marketing client who says “you said I would see a positive return on investment by now”
• the employer who says “you said you would have nailed this job by this time”
• the employee who says “you said you would give me a pay rise if I achieved this”
• the parent who says “you said you would be back at midnight”
• the train passenger who says “you said the wifi would work”

When the other person says “you said” you had better duck. Frequently, it’s already over.

Better still – be careful what you said.