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November 1, 2013

Delivering W.O.W. Service!

This month’s is all about delivering W.O.W. Service!  I might as well confess right here right now…I am an acronym addict!  I absolutely love them! W.O.W is an acronym for Weed Out the Weeds!  

Here is why!  I work with General Dentists as well as Specialty Practices (Oral Surgery, Periodontal, Orthodontic, Endodontic, Prosthodontic and Pain Clinics) to help them create an exceptional service culture.  What I have found is once we eliminated the weeds in their practice they were able to deliver WOW Service!  A weed is anything that can make a patient feel uncomfortable or unwelcome or could possibly destroy a relationship.

 Your patients will forget everything except how you made them feel! 

 
In order to create a W.O.W. Service Culture it is important to focus on the patient’s experience. This means one-sided practice focused rules and procedures have to be eliminated. It is necessary for the entire team to be trained on how to deliver W.O.W. Service.  It only takes one untrained person to create a weed experience and lose a patient.  I teach a 3 step process to help my clients Weed Out the Weeds and create a W.O.W. Service Culture.  A team meeting setting works awesome.

  • The first step is for the team to define their ideal service culture! 
  • The next step is to list all the obstacles that may get in the way! 
  • The final step is to discuss service strategies and implement SOPs to overcome the obstacles. 

It is important to remember the reality behind exceptional service.  Service is a triangle.  If you want to deliver exceptional service it usually requires additional time, money or people or all three!  If you are unwilling to invest in the 3 the level of service you deliver will be limited.  

Here are the TOP 10 Service Standards for Delivering W.O.W. Service!

1.  Smile – Seriously…this is the simplest, and the only standard that does not require extra time, money or people and gives the biggest ROI!  Yet I can’t tell you how many people struggle with smiling.  For some it’s like pulling teeth! 

 2.  Slow Down – Yes I know you are trying to be efficient and effective and raise the highest PPH (Production Per Hour) to pay overhead.   When it comes to service…if you don’t take time for your patients…they will go to an office where someone does!  This is one of the biggest complaints patients have regarding service.  How effective and efficient are you if you are losing patients.  Do you know what your monthly net patient count is?  Research shows it costs 6 to7 times more to attain a new patient than it does to retain an existing patient.

 3.  WIIFTP – Always ask yourself when you are interacting with a patient…what’s in it for the patient…how I can serve them best at this moment.

 4.  Own It – Four magic words in service…I CAN HELP YOU!  Even if that means that you reach out for assistance from someone else.  Don’t refer them to someone else.  Because it is YOUR JOB!  Your job is whatever legal, ethical and is within your licensure that will help to create a W.O.W. Patient Experience and help the practice thrive!

 5.  Help Each Other – In other words team work!  It means you ask for help when it could enhance the patient’s experience.  You say yes when someone asks you for help unless you are already with another patient…even if you don’t like that person!  Part of team work means we play well together and work for the greater good.  How ironic that playing well together was expected starting in first grade…even a part of the report card.  Now it often ceases to exist even in the most professional of environments!

 6.  Be Professional – Professional can mean many things to different people.  Leave nothing up to assumptions…Establish guidelines and standards for appearance, communication, attitude, and behavior.   I suggest a team meeting and have the team define the standards.  When the team establishes the guidelines and standards they are much more likely to embrace and own them!

 7.  Protect the Privacy of Patients, Employees and the Company – We are all familiar with HIPAA.  Privacy also means no gossip!  You can stop gossip in your practice if you don’t allow it!  NO…women do not have to gossip!!!  That’s a whole other newsletter! J 

8.  Maintain a Sparkling Clean Environment – You may have a janitorial service to assist at night.  During the day it is everyone’s responsibility to maintain the office.  If your patient sees dirty gauze on the floor they will assume that the office is not clean/sterile.  If they see a messy and coffee stained reception area they will assume the office is not clean/sterile.  If you see it, clean it or pick it up!

9.  Be On Time – I know that you can’t predict everything to be able to schedule every appointment appropriately.  Nor can you just stop working on the patient once their time is up.  Although there are times we may wish we could!  However, if you consistently run behind it is time to evaluate where you run behind and the time you are allowing for those appointments.  If your patient always has to wait it becomes a very big weed that could eventually destroy your relationship.  They will believe that you don’t respect them or their time.   I know of practices where their brand is just being on time and they are thriving because of it!

 10.  Practice – Your patients aren’t test sites, guinea pigs or experiments.    Please practice before you ever take anything out on the floor to try on your patients.  Practice verbal skills, role playing and even the physical walk through.  I can already feel the push back on role playing.  Ick we hate that!!!  If you can’t say it to each other how in the world can you say it to a patient?  You will avoid fields of weeds if you just practice!  In Real Estate the 3 magic words are location, location, location well in delivering W.O.W. Service its practice, practice, practice!

 I ask you to think about what steps you are willing to take to make a difference for your patients.  Implementing Service Standards will help you nurture a W.O.W. Patient Environment!  Bottom line is that no matter how great of a dentist you are…your patients will forget everything except how you made them feel!  The secret is delivering W.O.W. Service!

 Research shows that dentists who build their office environment around the patient’s experience own and dominate the market.

 If you would like help creating your ideal W.O.W. Service Culture please contact me to learn more about my 2 day onsite training “Delivering W.O.W. Service”! 

October 1, 2013

The Cost of Trust

One of the biggest signs of low trust is when the leadership team has difficulty getting the team on board and excited to follow their lead.

Imagine a culture of trust where:

•             Leadership was by example

•             Everyone could rely on each other to work together for the greater good

•             Co-worker’s didn’t question each other’s intent

•             Open communication was the standard

•             Gossip ceased to exist

•             Accountability was self-maintained

•             Honesty was the only policy

Trust is the foundation of a happy, healthy, and high producing culture.   There is a cost to low trust! 

How much more productive would your practice be if your team truly trusted each other?

The dictionary defines trust as instinctive unquestioning belief in and reliance upon something.  The culture of trust I am suggesting is not one of blind faith but instead one of confidence!  Confident trust is based on good reasons, definite evidence or past experience.

 Think about the people in your life that you trust the most.  Why do you trust them?  Confident trust does not just happen overnight.  It takes time to nurture and grow.  However, breaking one’s trust can happen in a heartbeat.  The great news is that building trust is a skill set that can be learned.  Once we can learn how to build trust we can prevent trust breakdowns!

I would start by having a team meeting to talk about the level of trust in your practice.  Discuss the benefits of having a culture of trust.  It is also important for the entire team to understand how much a low level of trust affects the practice and the bottom line.  Such as having to add steps to compensate, extra staff to cover for lack of accountability, and redundant systems and processes.

 Let me give you an example of low trust with patients.  You may have some patients that no show or cancel last minute.  Therefore, you decide to implement the following protocol:  All patients must sign a form that states they will owe $ if they don’t show or cancel last minute unless it is an illness (with a doctor note) or death in the family.   The cost is that now all patients are subjected to a protocol that shows you no longer trust them and makes them feel unwelcome…which could ultimately destroy the relationship resulting in them leaving the practice.  It is an insult to your patients who are responsible and accountable and the ones who are not will just ignore it!  The same holds true with your team.  When you add extra steps for everyone to compensate for the inadequacies of the team members you can’t trust…you may end up losing your good team members.

The next step is to ask the team to share what they feel they need from each other to build trust.  Use a large easel pad and write down all the answers being shared by the team.  Cross out any duplicates.  

Some examples might be:

•             If you have an issue with me talk to me first

•             Help me when you see I need help

•             Finish what you say you are going to do

•             Focus on the greater good instead of WIIFY

•             Tell me the truth but be compassionate

•             Don’t be late or absent for trivial reasons

 Put your list together and label it Trust Culture Guidelines.  Next print it, frame it and put on display for future reference.  It will be important to review whenever you hire someone new or…because old habit die hard; whenever someone’s behavior deems it necessary!

Ta-dah…your team has just established their guidelines on how to build the level of trust in the practice!  The awesome part is that when people create it they own it!

The bottom line is that trust is not just a social virtue it greatly affects your bottom line!

September 1, 2013

The Sunny Side of Life III

I teach my audiences and clients 5 Rays to help them rise above their circumstances and live life on the sunny side!

• Entitlement Expectations
• SPF
• Labeling
• Mindful Talk
• Celebration

Hopefully your July and August were a little happier after reading the past two news letters on Entitlement Expectations, SPF, Labeling and Mindful Talk!
This month we are going to wrap up the Sunny Side series with Celebration!

Ray 5 – Celebration

It’s time to celebrate life, even the little things in life…we take things so seriously…we get so busy…we don’t allow time to celebrate. If we don’t make time to celebrate we will lose our joy for life.

Being present is the first step in celebration! It is important to filter out all the noise from worry and fear and focus on what is actually happening in the present moment. It is only when we are present in the moment that we become aware of all the little things in life worth celebrating.

The next step is to lighten up and have a little fun! Seriously…it’s time we stop taking our self so serious and acting so important. We are but a spec on this planet. Yes I know we are all sooo sooo busy doing whatever it is we are doing that is sooo important for the rest of the world to continue to exist. I think the planet will survive if we take a moment now and again to act silly and have a little fun!

When we are stressed and don’t feel like celebrating; if we change our physiology (body patterns) we can change our psychology. Body patterns are the repeated actions our body reflects when we feel certain emotions. They are how our body speaks to us and therefore have a direct connection to our mood. Some examples of negative body patterns that make us feel stressed are rubbing temples, wringing our hands or a hunched over closed position. Whereas smiling, laughing, or a victory pose (Ta-dah) are positive body patterns that help us feel happier. So if we want to change our mood to be happier all we have to do is change our body pattern and we will feel like celebrating!

Harvard research supports that if we just get happy we will be more:
Successful
Intelligent
Creative
Productive
Healthier

Celebrate by saying a Ta-dah a day and be more successful, intelligent, creative, and productive while keeping the doctor away!

August 1, 2013

the Sunny Side of Life, Part II

I teach my audiences and clients 5 Rays to help them rise above their circumstances and live life on the sunny side!

  • Entitlement Expectations
  • SPF
  • Labeling
  • Mindful Talk
  • Celebration

Hopefully your July was happier after reading last month’s news letter on Entitlement Expectations and SPF!  This month we are going to continue on with Labeling and Mindful Talk!

Ray 3 – Labeling

Words that label have tremendous impact on our attitude and how we feel. We have to be careful about how we label the relationships, events and outcomes we have in life. If we label something as bad it becomes our belief and we manifest feelings and emotions that support the label of bad. I find using the word interesting instead of bad takes away the negative power.

Our beliefs of positive and negative are based on our past experiences. If we do something and we have what we believe to be a negative outcome we will label it as negative. Yet we may have an entirely different outcome if we attempted to do it again. For example, I went on a hot air balloon ride over Napa Valley for my 50th birthday (just a few short years ago). It was serene and wonderful. I am even afraid of heights and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I would label it as a very positive experience. However the following day the winds came up unexpectedly and the balloons had a difficult time landing. I may have labeled it as negative had I gone on that day…and most likely would never consider going again. The great news is we can change our belief from negative to positive when we add new experiences that our positive.

Truthfully, how can we label something as good or bad if we don’t know the end? None of us have a crystal ball. So how do we really know if something is good or bad? There have been many things in my life that at the time seemed interesting that actually turned out generating a very positive outcome. Haven’t we all thought or said this is going to be bad at one time or another and yet it turned out to be one the best things to happen to us. 


 

Ray 4 – Mindful Talk

It is imperative that we are mindful of our self talk if we want to live life on the sunny side!  The majority of self talk takes place so quickly and automatically that we don’t even notice we are doing it. Even if you don’t really listen to your chatter, your subconscious mind is listening.  The subconscious mind just accepts everything you tell it, and responds accordingly. 

 Some examples of negative self-talk are:

  • Worry – Fear of what if ???
  • Perfectionism – Not good enough or should haves!
  • Self-Criticism – Compares you to others, with you being the loser.
  • Self-Doubt – Lack of confidence that you can do or achieve your dreams.
  • Being a Victim – You have no control over your circumstances, and you and your life are bad luck!

The awesome news is we can hard wire our brain to start thinking more positively!  When we have mindful talk and actively choose where to focus our thoughts and repeatedly apply it to a wholesome and constructive thought we eliminate the negative deceptive self talk!

July 1, 2013

The Sunny Side of Life

Have you ever thought, “I was in great mood until blank happened?”  When we allow blank (whatever blank is at the moment) to affect how we feel we are in essence relinquishing our power and allowing circumstances to control our emotions.  If we allow our circumstances to control our emotions we become a victim of our circumstances.  The truth is; circumstances don’t dictate how we feel we do!  It is always our choice!

Here are 5 Rays to help you rise above your circumstances and live life on the sunny side!

Entitlement Expectations
SPF
Labeling
Mindful Talk
Celebration

This month we will cover Entitlement Expectations and SPF!

Ray 1 – Entitlement Expectations
Here is where we often lose our positive…we judge our circumstances based on our expectations. I call this judgment “Entitlement Expectations”. What I mean by “Entitlement Expectations” is that we expect a certain relationship, event, thing, or outcome. When our expectations aren’t met we judge our life as less than and get frustrated, angry or disappointed. Haven’t we all felt; this should have happened, or I deserved this or I expected that. These are examples of “Entitlement Expectations”. To avoid “Entitlement Expectations” it is necessary to embrace the following concepts:

Life is uncertain!

Life is unexpected!

Everything is temporary!

No one owes us anything!

There is humor even in difficult situations!

Life can change in a moment!

When we embrace these concepts we learn to stop judging our circumstances as less than regardless of what they are!

Ray 2 – SPF
SPF is an acronym for “Super Positive Focus”! Yes I will confess I am an acronym addict! Regardless of what the circumstances are there is always positive somewhere even in the most negative of situations! You just need to look for it. Developing a “Super Positive Focus” means you look for and focus on the positive even in the darkest of situations. Think about all the tragedies from the storms. One huge positive was all the people helping each other to overcome and survive. You can develop your SPF by forming a habit of identifying what’s positive in every situation. Even if the only thing positive was the lesson you learned to never do it again! You grew from the experience and that is a positive!

Tune in next month to learn more ways to live a life on the sunny side!

May 1, 2013

Laughter Is The Best Medicine!

Add a regular dose of laughter to every day and you will not only be happier you will also be healthier! However, it is not always so easy to do. We get so busy we focus only on just getting the job done. We don’t slow down enough to take time to laugh! We need to add laughter to our list of priorities! Who doesn’t want to be happier and healthier? I am going to bombard you with the benefits of laughing! Here are the WIIFY (What’s in it for you) if you do!

Laughter triggers healthy physical changes in the body. A good, hearty laugh relieves physical tension and stress, leaving your muscles relaxed for up to 45 minutes after. Laughter boosts the immune system. Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, improving your resistance to disease. Laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being and can even temporarily relieve pain. Laughter protects the heart. Laughter improves the functon of blood vessels and increases blood flow, which can protect you against a heart attack and other cardiovascular problems. Now that I have your attention…it’s time to practice laughing! That’s right; it’s just like anything else. If you want to be good at it you have to practice. Think about it. When was the last time you had a hearty laugh? No I am not talking about a little chuckle. I am talking about a throw your head back, side holding, and tear streaming…almost pee in your pants laugh! You don’t need to have a sense of humor, be happy or have any reason to laugh. You can just laugh for the sake of laughing! Maybe you don’t feel like laughing. It is important to laugh whether you feel like it or not. Just review the WIIFY list again if you doubt me. Instead of having you read how to make yourself laugh let Dr. Madan Kataria an expert on the subject…show you!

So did you laugh? I hope so…I sure did! Now how do you feel? Just one a day will help you to get on your way to a happier and healthier life!

April 30, 2012

Fluff & Stuff of Appreciation

What’s the big deal?  After all how important could appreciation really be?  The truth is appreciation is not fluff but instead it is really the stuff that helps nurture our purpose and value!  Please watch the video below!

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