Are Broken Windows Killing Your Business?

Some people I know really well recently had the opportunity of staying away from home for a night at a luxury hotel.

The couple very much enjoyed their stay. The hotel was well located, with great rooms, a great restaurant and great facilities. It was well known for its intimacy for guests.

The hotel rooms were well appointed and the rooms all commanded spectacular views.

The hotel employees were all very friendly, and treated each other and guests professionally and were courteous and polite with their guests. All interactions were warm and personable.

The only “fault” that my friends discovered was what I would call a great example of a BROKEN WINDOW.

A broken window would be defined as a glaring oversight that would be seen by someone visiting that business that would have that person remark to themselves:

“I wonder why nobody here is attending to that?”

An example of a broken window in a dental practice would be:

  • Crooked pictures or degree certificates hanging on the walls
  • Glass doors and windows that need dirt and fingerprints cleaned off them
  • Magazines that are worn and dog-eared that need retiring from use.
  • Shelves that need dusting
  • Carpets and flooring that needs vacuuming or sweeping
  • Desks and surfaces that need decluttering and tidying
  • Scuff marks on floors and skirting boards that need cleaning
  • Lawns and gardens that need attending and manicuring.
  • Building entrances that need sweeping and tidying
  • Bathrooms that need cleaning and updating

The list goes on…

At this hotel, my friend noticed one of the most common BROKEN WINDOWS that is overlooked by all kinds of businesses.

When seen and noticed by the public, this broken window immediately has visitors who spot it wondering:

“I wonder what else they’re not cleaning here?”

And that broken window my friend noticed was an air conditioning return grill layered in thick dust.

Other times businesses have air conditioning outlets that need dark marks to be cleaned off their louvres and grills.

Anywhere where dust can be seen to be accumulating because of lack of cleaning, will have visitors and guests and patrons of that business wondering what other levels of hygiene and cleanliness are not being attended to by this business.

And if this business happens to be in the food preparation business, or the medical services business, or the cleaning business for instance, patrons who notice this lack of attention to cleanliness detail will also be wondering what else is this business failing to see properly.

In your dental practice, the lack of cleanliness in your client lounge, your entrance way, and on your air conditioning grills could be acting as GAME CHANGER when new patients, and existing patients, are failing to schedule ongoing appointments.

And the dental team, and the dentist believe that the patient was probably a price conscious shopper.

When in fact all they wanted was a clean dental office to be treated in.

And price was never a deciding variable.

Attention to detail was a deciding variable.

In our coaching of The Ultimate Patient Experience, we spend a lot of time during Building Blocks II and III helping dental practices realise that there is so much opportunity lost by the practice before the patient has ever even sat down in the dental chair, and that if a BROKEN WINDOW is missed in these two building blocks, well that patient will be gone for ever, never to return…. and they’ve made that decision before they’ve even met the dentist….

And the dental team, and the dentist believe that the patient that fails to rebook was probably a price conscious shopper?

Sadly, no….

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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