“If you look just like your competitors, expect to perform just like your competitors.” – Jack Daly
So many dentists just do what all their fellow dentists do and then they wonder why they don’t have a point of difference.
Like with insurance, or health funds?
Dan Kennedy said it well:
If you go to a new town and want to know how to get ahead in business, see what everybody else in town is doing, and simply just do the opposite.
If you aren’t achieving the results you want with your business then maybe it is indeed time to start looking at doing things differently.
Trouble is, too many businesses look at their competitors and what they’re doing and start doing those same things, when really they should be looking at doing things differently.
It worked for me.
In the early nineties, when health fund dentistry came to my town, and two major insurers set up member clinics within three hundred metres of my Dental Office, all of my competitors were running around thinking that the sky was falling in.
What I did was I used this misuse of market power to turn my Dental Practice around and turn the most overused dental paradigm on its ear.
While my neighbours were worried about how they were going to compete against member only dental clinics I started looking at my Dental Office and asked myself if I was a dental patient what would I want?
And I did it.
I built a place where patients came and were made to feel like a person and not like a number.
I built a dental practice where patients could arrive as early as they want and stay as long as they wanted after treatment, where the visit to our office was like visiting the home of a friend rather than the traditional open wide and drill ‘em, fill ‘em and bill ‘em.
Walt Disney built Disneyland on the same principle.
He created “Your Happy Place”
And there’s no disputing that Disneyland and Walt Disney World are not the cheapest amusement parks about.
But they are the gold standard in Service.
Everywhere you look there are businesses that dared to be different by taking the road less travelled, or by taking a completely different road all together.
Look at Zappos shoes.
Look at Starbucks.
Look at Uber.
Henry Ford said that if he’d listened to what the people wanted he’d have tried to build a faster horse.
Instead he dared to be different and innovative and built the Model T Ford.
In 2004 while everybody else was building upstands on reception desks I took a chainsaw to mine and destroyed it, preferring private glass walled offices for my patients to be greeted and farewelled in.
Glass walled rooms that allowed total transparency and yet had total privacy, so patients could discuss their treatment and their finances in private, rather than in a room that resembled the barber shop in “Coming To America” with Eddie Murphy.
Omer Reed said that ninety five percent of Dentists reaching the age of sixty five are unable to afford to retire.
Ninety seven percent of the population do not write down and review their goals.
Be a contrarian.
Ninety five percent of people who play golf do not break one hundred.
Ninety nine percent of the population don’t have a coach.
Be a contrarian.
Taking advice, other than your own, might be in your best interest.
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My upcoming in depth two day workshops will be held in London in August.
You can reserve your places here: Click Link To Order
I will also be holding my celebrated one day workshop in Melbourne in June and in Auckland New Zealand in July.
You can reserve your seats for Melbourne here.
You can reserve your seats for Auckland New Zealand 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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