It’s difficult to understand why some people fail to follow instructions.
And why some people fail to keep accountable those people who fail to follow instructions.
It makes no sense.
Sure, if you’re happy to keep forking out money and continue to ignore the instructions, then more fool you.
But if you are the person who is meant to be making progress, you’d think there’d have to be an embarrassment to you in not being able to follow instructions.
Imagine having golf lessons, where a new grip is suggested to improve your golf swing accuracy and add distance to your golf shots.
It really wouldn’t make any sense to revert back to your old ineffective grip that produced poorer shots?
And keep doing that week after week, while investing in more lessons?
Yet I see the same with Dental Employees….
A Dentist will employ a coach or consultant who offers advice on things to do in the practice.
And yet the employees decide that they’ll do it differently.
I heard of one practice recently where the dental receptionist said that she wasn’t going to implement any of the phone answering suggestions until after the whole course of training was over.
How can that be logical?
Because just like a golf swing, the phone answering techniques taught build upon each other, one after the other, and make sense if assembled and learned in those sequences.
Primary to this way of learning is what is said with the initial phone call answering, each and every time that the phone rings.
Here is how *NOT* to answer the phone at the Dental Office:
“Thank you for calling Smile Dental you’re speaking with Jenny”
Here is the *CORRECT* way to answer each phone call:
“Thank you for calling ABC Dental. This is Janet. How may I help you?”
With this second way we thank them for calling our practice, we identify our practice, we identify who we are and we let them know we are here to help them.
This is COMPLETE.
Leaving off the last question, as in the first example, does several things.
- It fails to control the conversation by leading with a question.
- It fails to get onto the caller’s agenda, which is to try and solve their problem.
- It ends with a tone that really sounds like:
“You’re just so lucky to be speaking with Jenny”
because using the word “Jenny” as the final word spoken makes “Jenny” the most important thing said.
Rather than the offer of help, as in the second example.
And yet it’s one small phrase…
And so many times we see employees not even bothering to try to make a difference and change.
Change for the better.
When I see this failure to change, be it deliberate or not, I see difficulty in getting to my goal, as coach, which is the goal of improvement.
If the failure to change is a deliberate hijack, then finding this out so early is indeed a Godsend, as the hijacking can be addressed and dealt with.
If the failure to change is a result of misunderstanding, or from fear, then these are more easily addressed and can be easily remedied.
I find it difficult to fathom why some employees don’t want to see improvement in their Dental Practice.
A more successful practice will end up employing more team members, pay higher salaries, make more profit for its owner, and allow the owner to spend those profits in the community.
And be a happier place to work, providing secure long-term employment.
A coach who carries on teaching regardless of whether change has occurred or not is also one that needs to be questioned.
Check points along the way are very important.
A good coach will identify these blockages and remedy them.
A good student, a good employee, will want to improve.
Problem solved…
*****
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*****
The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple to build complete Customer Service system in itself that I developed that allowed me to create an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.
Email me at david@theupe.com
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