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I ate lunch today with my wife at a local eatery.

It’s one of those coffee shop, breakfast, lunch, drop in style places that pop up everywhere, and has been around near our home for a few years.

We ate lunch there while we had one of our cars in for its annual registration inspection. It passed.

Our lunch was good, but there were a small number of minor things that went on that added up to make me ask the question in my mind:

Are you there for your business or are you there for yourself?

The reason I ask this is simple.

And it’s because that was the feeling I was getting in this restaurant.

Today, I was watching a news clip online about a young very talented rugby league player, and the comment about him that stuck in my head was that he was showing, by his onfield actions, that he wasn’t only there for himself, but was willing to put his body on the line for the team.

So back to the restaurant….

I guess if you’re going to play music or background music in a restaurant, it would really make good sense to make sure that the music was playing uninterrupted and not being played with periods of poor reception.

Or, well, that’s how it sounded to me.

It sounded as though I was hearing a radio broadcast drifting in and out of reception for some reason.

The music being played was good.

It’s just that it was broken up to be a consistently poor listening experience.

Secondly, one of the big *RULES* of dining and dining service is to never remove plates from a table until all diners at that table have finished eating.

It’s dining rule #101.

Suffice to say, although well intended, the removal of the plate of one diner ahead of the other diner’s only serves to highlight the lack of etiquette education being taught to the wait staff.

Finally, when it came time to settle the account for the meal, I needed to approach the counter to do so.

No big deal.

But if I’m going to be standing there in front of you as a team member in this restaurant, then it might be wise to ask me:

“How was your meal?”

At the least.

And when you process my payment via PayWave why wouldn’t you at least say to me:

“Thank you” or “Thank you for dining with us”

And

“See you next time…”

And

“Have a great afternoon.”

Rather than say:

“That’s all gone through.”

Because I can see that myself on the terminal….

A long time ago a friend of mine told me of a romantic event he had in the back of a car where his partner had been doodling in the mist on the back window….

Don’t be a doodler.

When you’re going to be there, then be there or go home.

In this dining experience today, the girl at the front on the register could have shown some form of interest in her customer.

The reason customers [and patients] do not return to a business is because they feel as if they are being taken for granted.

They don’t feel valued.

Fix your music. And fix your systems and protocols.

It is the little things that make a big difference.

And several little things ignored do add up cumulatively.

And sometimes exponentially.

Don’t let your attentions to details shoot you in the foot.

What could you be doing better in your [dental] business, in small increments at multiple touch points for your visitors that would make their visit more memorable for them?

I bet you could find plenty of little things to do better….

*****

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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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