An article came across my desk today that reminded me and reinforced to me the whole notion that a business’s success relies a great deal on the customer service skills of its employees.
In particular, it is the investment in training the employees that really drives home the returns of providing great customer service.
Sure, you can employ people who are inherently “nice”, but if you really want to hit home run after home run after home run then your business needs to be training and training and training your team members to do those right things at the right time each and every time without fail and without question.
Is this too difficult to ask?
Well apparently it is because if it was easy then every employee in every business would always be “following the script” and saying what needs to be said and doing what needs to be done in each and every interaction with the customers of those businesses.
But we know that this doesn’t happen each and every time.
In a report published in the USA in 2016, fast food giant Chick-Fil-A saw that the employees in their drive through facilities at their restaurants were the most likely to say “please” and “thank you” and to smile at their customers, compared to those at fourteen other chains.
Yes, really.
In fact, this occurred 95.2% of the time at Chick-Fil-A compared to 78.4% of the time at McDonald’s restaurants, putting the Golden Arches at position fourteen out of fifteen chains reviewed.
“It’s all about speed and accuracy, but we know our customers appreciate that we can be nice while being fast and accurate,” Mark Moraitakis, senior director of hospitality and service design at Chick-Fil-A, said. He added, “Eye contact and smiling go a long way in the drive-thru experience.”
Chick-Fil-A say they invest more into Customer Service training for its employees than other companies do.
And I should know… in 2016 I had the honour of being a guest at their headquarters in Atlanta and seeing their training facilities first hand.
And the results speak for themselves….in 2015 the average Chick-Fil-A restaurant generated nearly USD$4M per restaurant, working on a six-day week!! [Chick-Fil-A restaurants are closed on Sundays].
Meanwhile in 2015 the average KFC store sold USD$1M….
What does this mean for Dentistry?
Firstly, you need to ask yourself whether you are investing sufficient time and capital in training your team members to be World Class in the Customer Service they deliver to your patients.
Are you coaching your team on a regular basis to hone and perfect their Customer Service interactions?
Secondly, here’s what else I gleaned from the visit…. each Chick-fil-A franchisee is only allowed to open one Chick-fil-A restaurant location.
What this means is improved training and more hands-on supervision of staff and their Customer Service interactions.
This fact should be a game breaker for single operator privately owned Dental Offices.
It will be the major reason why your customers will choose your office as opposed to choosing one of the chains or one of the Corporates for their dentistry.
Remember that 20-25% of all consumers out there are happy to pay a fair price for a good or a service if they feel that their service is exceptional value.
And the value comes from the service you provide.
And it is the little things your team does that make the big differences.
It is the “pleases” and the “thank-yous” to start with.
And then it’s a few things more…
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My next public speaking presentation showing Dentists how to grow their Dental practices will be in London England on Saturday 4 August 2018 with Jayne Bandy.
For more information and to secure your seat click this link here.
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Have you read my book , How To Build The Dental Practice of Your Dreams [Without Killing Yourself!] In Less Than Sixty Days.
You can order your copy here: Click Link To Order
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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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