August 2015

How You Make Them Feel!

Many of us believe it is our level of skill and knowledge that determines our success! When the truth is that there are many highly skilled and knowledgeable people that struggle to succeed. There is an abundance of skill and knowledge available in our society today. In fact we may often feel inundated with too much information! How many product, service or training emails did receive just today and deleted without even opening? Yet most of us will open an email from someone that we like and trust regardless of the topic.

Many of us continue to be customers of certain establishments because we value the relationships we have developed even when other establishments might be better or less expensive. We continue to do business with them because of how they make us feel (trusted, respected, and cared for).   Same goes for our patients. They will decide whether they will continue to do business with us based on how we make them feel!  This message is dedicated to learning how to reach greater success by focusing on improving how you make others feel.

I recently presented a course titled, Delivering W.O.W. Service: People Will Forget Everything Except How You Make Them Feel, at the PNDC (Pacific Northwest Dental Conference) in Bellevue, Washington. Scott, the camera man who was taking photos of the event happened to be a patient of one of the dentists attending my session. Because my course was about service, brand and loyalty I teasingly asked Scott how he felt about his dentist. Scott’s response was, “He’s awesome!” He shared the following reasons when I asked him why he felt his dentist was awesome.

• My dentist takes time with me
• He asks me questions about me and my family
• He listens to me
• Everyone on his team is really nice
• I think he is a good dentist

Notice it wasn’t until the 5th reason that anything pertaining to skill or knowledge was mentioned. The prior four were all about the relationship he had with his dentist and how it made him feel.

Zig Ziglar was spot on when he said, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care!”

We focus too much of our time, energy and resources on defining who we are and what we can do…instead of focusing on what’s important to our patients and how we make them feel! For example, we create an impressive treatment presentation for our patient. First of all why is it a presentation and not a conversation? Why not a two way conversation where we can make a human connection and find out about what matters to them versus giving them a clinical presentation. It really doesn’t matter how good we are and how awesome we can make their teeth look and function if they don’t trust us and value our treatment suggestions.

Our level of success is a result of the relationships we have built with others whether it be with an employee, co-worker, patient, neighbor, friend or family! How we make them feel determines the strength of that relationship.  Here are a couple of my personal examples of how a strong relationship can trump everything else when it comes to building customer loyalty.

I have had been with the same cell phone company since I purchased my first cell phone in 1992. Yes that was back in the days when the phones were hardwired into the car and were the size of a shoebox. The company has changed names several times and is now T-Mobile. I stay with them because of how their people treat me as a longtime customer.

I have also continued to do business with Tricia Fairchild, my accountant and Mike McHugh my State Farm insurance agent since the early 90s. Why…because I value the relationships we have developed for the same reasons Scott the camera man shared. They take time with me, they ask me questions about me and my family, they listen to me, everyone on their team is nice and I think they are good at what they do. My long term loyalty has nothing to do with them being the absolute best, smartest or cheapest and everything to do with the relationship we have developed over the years. I feel like they know me and care about me as a person as well as my success.

I ask you to take a moment and think about who you have done business with for a period of time? How do they make you feel? Why do you choose to stay loyal to them?  Anytime you interact with others, if focus on how you make them feel you will build a much quicker and stronger relationship.  Our success in life is truly dependent on the relationships we build by how we make others feel when they are around us!

Choose to impact everyone you meet in a positive manner regardless of their behavior or situation. Choose to Smile & Shine and focus on how you make them feel AND you will live a happier and more successful life!

Smile & Shine bands are available on my website at https://www.practicesolutionsinc.net/products.html.