It’s funny.

You wouldn’t go and have just one piano lesson and expect to play the Brandenburg Concerto straight afterwards?

Perfectly?

Or even better. You wouldn’t just walk straight up to a Steinway and sit down and expect to play Beethoven’s Fifth without ever having a lesson at all?

Of course not.

And in sport it’s exactly the same.

Be it golf, tennis, swimming, or ten-pin bowling. When we see a group of people partaking in these sports it’s so easy to see those who’ve been professionally trained compared to those who are trying to teach themselves.

The funny thing is, that golf, tennis, swimming, ten-pin bowling and piano playing for the most part, for most of us, are hobbies.

They’re things we like to do in our spare time, but their not things we do for a living.

But some people do…

And others do them well because they’d rather do these pastimes well than poorly.

There’s something magical about watching a squad swimmer carve their way down a swim lane.

There’s something gracious to be seen when we watch a trained bowler deliver a perfect strike, or even better, when they capture that difficult spare with pin point accuracy.

And of course, at the driving range, the difference between the swing of a single figure golfer and the swing of a weekend hacker is palpable.

There’s just no comparison.

And it’s the same in business.

A business with well taught, well-learned systems compared to a business where nobody seems to be well trained and people keep making things up as they go along?

These two types of business are easy to distinguish.

But why is it so in business?

Why would you chop at a golf ball with a driver and hit it 170 yards when you could learn how to crush that Titleist 260 yards consistently with piercing pinpoint accuracy?

Isn’t golf so much more fun when it’s played from the fairway rather than out of the trees?

Yet I see businesses out there all the time where they’re obviously making it up themselves as they go along.

Last month I wrote about the pub in London that had the Trip Advisor rating way way above the experience that I received. During that meal, I happened to witness the manager discussing a procedure with a staff member who did not want to be told. On the job.

And the body language was indicative that the message, whether it was needed or not, was not very well received.

I know, as a Dentist, there are Dental Practices out there where the staff are not trained and taught on a regular consistent basis.

Now, you wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end as a patient from a Dentist who had not been well trained and properly trained and judged in the intricacies of a detailed cosmetic procedure?

Or would you?

And yet, there are Dentists, who seem happy to allow their staff to look after their most valuable assets, their clients, customers and patients, without being consistently trained, and reviewed, and improved.

When I mystery shop some Dental Offices I cringe at what I hear and see being passed off as “service” to these poor and deserving customers.

And it’s as obvious as the nose on your face, just like when you’re at the bowling alley, that those who are doing it poorly are simply untrained.

And they’re winging it.

The way they seem to feel they should be doing it.

And it’s ugly.

The thing about golf lessons, and piano lessons and the like, is that once you begin them, you know that regular lessons are the way to improvement.

Like I say, sure you can watch golf on TV, read golf books, go to see tournaments and get tips from Golf magazines.

And you may get some improvement?

But you won’t get the improvement that you really need.

And that you would get from having consistent regular lessons.

A Dental Coaching Colleague of mine was telling me about a comment from a team member at a Dental Office they work with.

When the Coach asked the team member how she’d been going since their previous call, the team member said that she felt like she’d been going backwards.

And I know this is because the team member, who I’m told is a dedicated employee, knows that she can be doing better.

And wants to do better.

And if better is possible, which in all cases, be it golf, piano, or Dentistry, why not invest in it?

The Australian Open Tennis is being played this week.

And what you will always see, when watching matches on TV, is you’ll see the camera pan to the coaches’ box.

And there’ll be coaches there.

And more than one.

A tennis professional knows that if he is to get better, or if he is to maintain his acquired level of competency, he needs to have the right coaching staff there to make sure he delivers.

Consistently.

Yet in Dentistry I see very little coaching.

I just see winging it.

And we’re not talking about a hobby here.

We’re talking about a business.

A livelihood.

Why would you allow your business to blunder on without proper regular training?

For a professional tennis player, coaching is an investment.

The trouble is most Dentists see coaching as an expense.

Not as an investment.

And the beauty of an investment?

Investments pay dividends…

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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